What was the last rules set you played 2019

[paulr]

Thanks all

The table size is 8'x5' old money or 2.4m x 1.5m

The full battle at Easter will be on a 4.8m x 1.8m table

[Leman]

Wow  - top that!

[Leman]

Just before I went on my walking holiday I had a FPW Square Bashing game:

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Walter Schnaffs
2) What armies were confronted? - French Imperial v Prussian (1870)
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - very
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - this was my 6th or 7th game
5) How many players were in the game? - three - one French defender v two Prussian attackers
6) What went well? - the Prussians were in a good position to put in two flank attacks
7) What could have been improved? - the poor French lost about half their army to the reserves in the pre-battle build up.

The Prussian artillery, being superior, had more bombardment assets than the French. They were very lucky putting in an early bombardment with the 6pdr corps artillery asset (off table) taking out 50% of the French artillery before it had fired a shot. The French failed to put in a bombardment at all with their reserve artillery (once again it was in the wrong place awaiting the right moment). The Prussian commander built up two massive infantry attacks on each wing, the left reaching the area behind the French right flank, the right, supported by cavalry, pushing back, but not destroying the French left flank. Nevertheless the Prussians gained three of the four objectives, and it was clear that the French would be unable to reclaim them. At this point (2 hours of tabletop play) the French conceded and determined to withdraw under cover of darkness.

During this game we used the new cards, available for download on the Peter Pig forum, to determine the two forces andconduct the pre-game events. This sped the game up and made army building very easy. It also put the French in a position where they had to decide whether to spend leftover points on enhanced assets or mitrailleuses (the only way to get these primitive machine guns). The Prussian put his leftover points entirely into the bombardment asset.



The main French artillery line had been on that hill, behind defences but to no avail.



The Prussian build up on the French left flank which secured the isolated building objective (marked by the yellow counter)

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Ouch

[cardophillipo]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - BKC IV
2) What armies were confronted? - Germans v Americans
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - This version yes
5) How many players were in the game? - 4
6) What went well? - Rules flowed well, back to the feel of BKC II
7) What could have been improved? - Just need more table time with the rules

[paulr]

That sounds a promising start for BKC IV 

[T13A]

Hi Paulr

Just wanted to say how fantastic your Cheriton game looks. I was wondering though, if you make any changes to the rules regarding hills?
In the photos it looks as if you have a 'slope' going in one direction covering more than one box (or it maybe the way I am looking at the photo). Usually in FK&P (and TtS! for that matter) a hill (whether gentle or rough) is simply in one box or more if placed side by side. Grateful for any information.

Cheers Paul

[FierceKitty]

Muscovites and Poles again...Lee's just clobbered me again. Devious little oriental.

[paulr]

Hi Paulr

Just wanted to say how fantastic your Cheriton game looks. I was wondering though, if you make any changes to the rules regarding hills?
In the photos it looks as if you have a 'slope' going in one direction covering more than one box (or it maybe the way I am looking at the photo). Usually in FK&P (and TtS! for that matter) a hill (whether gentle or rough) is simply in one box or more if placed side by side. Grateful for any information.

Cheers Paul

Thanks

The battlefield is representing a real place and the contours are based on a modern topographical map. This means that they do not line up entirely with the grid. We say that if the majority of the grid square is hill then the entire square counts as up hill. We use a similar approach for other area features.

For streams they are deemed to be on the edge they are nearest to, this allows more natural looking streams

I recall there being a comment to this effect somewhere in the rules but couldn't locate it when I had a quick look.

[paulr]

I found it, carefully hidden in the second to last paragraph under the heading Terrain on page 10
"If this cloth, or the edge of a terrain feature such as a hill, should run slightly inside or outside of the edge of the box then so much the better, for this enhances the naturalistic appearance of the battlefield."
Our definition of 'slightly' is less than half

The beginning of that paragraph also applies, "Regarding terrain pieces, each should occupy either one or two boxes. Pieces of similar type, placed next to each other, can be combined to create larger features such as a long ridge which might extend across four or five boxes."
'Four or five boxes' is a sensible limit for sensible size tables but the Cheriton table is a bit bigger than most

[Nellkyn]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - A Mere Question of Pluck
2) What armies were confronted? - British and Boer at Talana Hill
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Aim of the game was to get back into playing the rules for Wor Lard. Glad I listened to the suggestion.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, but the last time was five years ago.
5) How many players were in the game? - Four including myself but I running the game. Two British and one Boer.
6) What went well? - The whole feel of the early 2nd Anglo-Boer war. British units not knowing exactly the Boer are and getting bogged down under Boer rifle fire. The Boers nervous as the mass of British ranks set against them.
7) What could have been improved? - General knowledge of the ruleset by all the players, including myself. I missed out large chunks.

[Steve J]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - BKCII.
2) What armies were confronted? - SCW Nationalists vs Republicans.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Very.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, been using them since publication.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two.
6) What went well? - Pretty much everything and anything the Nationalists did.
7) What could have been improved? - Pretty much everything and anything the Republicans did. I was the Republicans .

[Dave Fielder]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - BKCII.
2) What armies were confronted? - SCW Nationalists vs Republicans.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Very.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, been using them since publication.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two.
6) What went well? - Pretty much everything and anything the Nationalists did.
7) What could have been improved? - Pretty much everything and anything the Republicans did. I was the Nationalist commander  .

[Steve J]

Very drole Dave .

[Dave Fielder]

Plagiarism is the lowest form of drole ...

[steve_holmes_11]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Pikeman's Lament (Osprey)
2) What armies were confronted? - Covenantors Vs A contingent of New Model Army.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, checked the rulkes a couple of times - just to be sure.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Second outing between Westmarcher (of this forum) and I.
5) How many players were in the game? - 2
6) What went well? - The rules played smoothly with mimimal confusion - Westmarcher has been promoted to Lieutenant
7) What could have been improved? - My rolling for activation and in combat leaves much room for improvement. - Lodowicke Muggleton remains in enemy captivity.

[paulr]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - For King & Parliament
2) What armies were confronted? - Royalists v Parliament
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, although we all learnt a few more bits about them as we went along
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Most of the players had played quite a bit of TtS and some FK&P, 2-3 had not played either before
5) How many players were in the game? - about 10, I lost count We played 3 games with 7 or 8 players per day, some couldn't make all three days
6) What went well? - Everything
7) What could have been improved? - Pierre the Shy being able to make it, some of the chit drawing.
         I think the record was failing to activate the first unit of a brigade for 3 turns in a row

As most of you will know I staged the ECW Battle of Cheriton at the New Zealand National Wargames Convention over the first 3 days of Easter using For King & Parliament rules
I am very pleased to say that it seems to have gone very well with all players enjoying the game(s) and lots of positive comments from other players and the public
Personally I had an absolute ball

I have a number of people I need to thank

Firstly all the players
Everyone played the games in a great spirit, there was much banter, laughter and applause - some genuine, some ironic
An extra thank you to Mark who provide me with accommodation for 3 nights at short notice when my initial plan fell through
At the end of the first two games I asked "who is playing tomorrow", it was very gratifying to see 4-6 hands promptly shoot up

Secondly Simon and Andrew
For all the support and assistance they gave me in putting the scenario together
Most importantly for writing such a great set of rules, the period feel and different character of the different units made the games fascinating
The rules played incredibly smoothly with no disputes or bizarre results and were very easily picked up by the players with no experience
We only occasionally referred to the QRS I had put together and I can only think of 3-4 occasions when the rule book was required to check something
All the mechanisms work really well and generate a really tense exciting game,
   once a unit is badly disordered the draw of each chit can be the difference between a unit surviving or not
The victory points are a really clear way of keeping track of how each side was doing, this kept all the players focused on how the different parts of the battle were going
They also generated lots of banter about who was gaining the most victory points for their side   and also who was losing the most
Unlike many multiplayer games I've played in there was intense interest in the last few activations of the last player to finish their turn



Thirdly various members of this forum
Thanks for convincing me to go with sabot basing, the ability to represent Pike or Shot heavy units by the arrangement of the bases on the sabots was very useful in the heat of battle in the middle of the table
Also being able to field the 15 units of Commanded Shot at Cheriton as Pike and Shot units in future battles will be invaluable
Your continued interest in the project has also helped motivate me

I'll be putting together three battle reports once I have recovered a bit and processed the 100 photos I took

[mmcv]

Glad to hear it went so well after all your hard work!

[Techno]

Seconded !!

Cheers - Phil

[paulr]

There was a lot of work that went into it but then I enjoyed the work
Except for soaking hedges in PVA and there were only 300 of them
I actually only used about 280-290 hedges

The enjoyment I got from the three games was well worth the effort involved
I will definitely be playing the scenario again as it is a fascinating battle 

I've also had some suggestions from some of the players for other scenarios I should look at