What Ruleset Did You Use In Your Last Game 2016

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Blücher again.
2) What armies were confronted? - 1815 Anglo-Dutch vs French
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - more so
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - fourth game.
5) How many players were in the game? - two, Gennorm (French) and I (Brits)

Another cracking game, the French came on piecemeL due to some shockingly low dice rolls, but I attacked them too early, and threw the game away. Lesson learnt, sit back and shoot, then when he's weakened, attack. I also committed the British Heavy cavalry too early.
Interesting that most assaults from either side failed and bounced. It was the shooting what did it guv!

A well deserved win for Gennorm.
Not much happening here yet...


Oh heck, there's a lot of them! My units deploy left.




Dutch cavalry tries to Flank the French, unsuccessfully! Already lost a brigade of Guard cavalry...
The pink cup of doom resulted in Nick having an average of 4.5 for movement dice!


The British right collapses

[fred.]

Not sure about the first photo! But develops into a good looking game. 

[Leman]

It's because troops are not automatically shown at the start of a game.

[toxicpixie]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Osprey's "BlackOps"
2) What armies were confronted? - Special Forces & Armed Police versus two sets of separatist conscripts
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much at start, very by the end
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - Second game fir me, but first with live opponents. First for all the rest!
5) How many players were in the game? - Four

We knocked through a starter game of Osprey's recent-ish "special forces and secret agents" skirmish set on Wednesday at the club, and it was good fun. We didn't use the "stealth 'em up" rules but had a head to head encounter fight, set in a small east African nation-lette where many factions collide, around a village-truck stop nestled in a dell under some towering buttes.

Our side was heroic Western Special Forces (me) who'd helidropped onto a suspected tribal separatist arms dump ahead of my ally the Royal Armed Presidential Police Special Service Para-Marine Commando Brigade. Spec Forces are ludicrously good but by crikey you don't get many (I had four warm bodies on table, an Ace (leader) with Assault Rifle and under barrel grenade launcher, a King (heavy weapons) with dedicated marksman rifle and two troopers with Minimi's). The Police are "Professionals" but a bit nobbled by weapon selection (an Ace with PDW (posh SMG), two veteran "brute squad" with ballistic shield and pistol, four "volunteers" with PDW's and bad stats (training? we don't need training when we're loyal to the President!) and another Heavy with a DMR as well).

Against us were two sets of conscripts, mostly poor quality but with proper military weapons - assault rifles, GPMGs. Judging by the figures one was from the Gendarmerie/Royalist armed police, whilst the other were ex-colonial militia from the politically charged, western influenced coastal industrial city (more armed police, and some chaps who I suspect have seen more action in Spain in '36 than Africa ).

I surprised the ex-colonialists who had not appreciated that in modern firepower heavy games COVER IS KING and gave them a good going over as they moved up into the central area, whilst my allies moved on and faced off the other armed police. Our snipers were on the money but the enemy Police GPMG just kept shrugging off the hits and laid down enough suppressive auto to hold up our own Police "armoured conga line" for most of the game. There was a lot of back and forth and rushes covered by auto fire between the two, the ex-colonists never really recovered from their initial "three men down in the first burst" ambush but I did get cocky and lose the Special Forces leader to "some kid with a ten dollar AK" as he moved in to finish them off, whilst their Gimpy eventually found the range for my sniper, pinning him with suppressive fire which I then walked into thinking "faint heart, fair bride" and popped up anyway to get some shots in instead of cowering. Note - even a 2+ save on a d6 will inevitably fail at the vital moment

Played well, nice and quick even with the usual "new game faff", and we got through four full turns with the outcome never certain till half way thru the final one. Aces passing actions worked really nicely, it had the feel of modern fire and manoeuvre squad sized warfare (felt a bit like the unpleasant bits of Bluestone 42 or BlackHawk Down etc...), with different factions feeling actually being different, weapons being different but not overly complex, and requiring a bit of tactical thought to get through.

We played in 20mm, on an about four by three table, using inches as written and it looked and felt good - I can imagine in 28mm it'd be the usual complaint of figures looking odd to the ground scale, but I do think it'd look even better a couple of scales down to 10 or 15mm...

[nikharwood]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Osprey's "BlackOps"
2) What armies were confronted? - Special Forces & Armed Police versus two sets of separatist conscripts
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much at start, very by the end
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - Second game fir me, but first with live opponents. First for all the rest!
5) How many players were in the game? - Four

We knocked through a starter game of Osprey's recent-ish "special forces and secret agents" skirmish set...

Love it - thanks for the detail; this ruleset is fast becoming a staple of our club, simply because of its adaptability

[pierre the shy]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - If the Lord Spares Us
2) What armies were confronted? ANZAC's vs Ottomans Suvla Bay April 1915
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, but hadn't played for some months
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - No
5) How many players were in the game? - Four

We were originally going to play this game around ANZAC Day but it been delayed a few times for various reasons but finally started last night. I came up with a bit of an alternative scenario that sees the ANZAC's going ashore at the flat plains near Suvla Bay rather than the vertical terrain at ANZAC cove. The game is ongoing with the ANZAC's about to engage the main Ottoman trench line having fairly easily rolled up the outlying defence works.

One of the advantages of our usual gaming venue (Roy's Place) is that he has a huge table (17ft x 5ft) and we can leave games set up without them being disturbed, unless Roy's cat feels adventurous. Though being winter here she prefers hybernating next to the logburner than anything too strenuous  Wink  

We were definitely a bit rusty on the rules but seem to have got back into the flow. The Kiwis are making good progress despite some shorts from the Royal Navy and the scenario is definitely interesting

We continued this game last night - another good session for the Kiwi's, apart from the Wellington Battalion who lost half a company to more shorts from the RN  

My Ottoman Gendarmarie battalion was thrown back and torn up, mainly by the Auckland Battalion (aka the JAFA's) who used some rather good tactics to take the left hand side of the main Ottoman trench line. My usual rubbish dice rolling didn't help. Rumour has it that they were told that there was a house with good location and sea views for less than $1m at the top of the hill I was defending so the rush was on. Sorry, bit of a Kiwi joke as housing affordability in Auckland is a real issue currently.

The other Ottoman battalion is still diligently hanging on in half its section of the trench line with its remaining two companies.

We will conclude the game next week as it still has some way to go. I get the Ottoman reserves to play with and they have only just started to arrive, including some decent artillery - I love the unit card activation system in ITLSU as you can never predict exactly what is going to happen first.

Will post a report and some pics after the final session next week.

And yes the cat was in front of the fire last night - but I did see her move  

[paulr]

But that was only because Roy's wife picked her up

[toxicpixie]

On BlackOps -

Love it - thanks for the detail; this ruleset is fast becoming a staple of our club, simply because of its adaptability

Yeah, they're simple enough but broad enough you can cover a lot, and it looks like the stealth & blind rules are simple enough to actually use in anger to add a bit more depth.

Everyone wants more Gimpys now, though. I'll have to get some more figures... Anyone know who makes Armed Response Police/SWAT types in 20mm with GPMGs?!

[FierceKitty]

Alamein to Zem Zem, Germans and Imperialists, 2 experienced players. Easy enough, but I was frustrated that my South Africans, who should obviously have been the best of the best, kept recoiling from smaller German forces. Fortunately, a suicidal-looking tank attack paid off, literally ramming and crushing a pesky 88.

[Leman]

Perhaps not wanting to be too tough on their erstwhile supporters.

[FierceKitty]

Germany missed a big chance not trying harder to support the Boers.

[Hwiccee]

I actually managed 2 games over the weekend! Well kind of.....

First up.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Twilight of the Sun King updated version.
2) What armies were confronted? - Russian & allies vs. Ottomans & allies, 1711
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - I set up the game and then left the players to play. 2 were experienced with rules but never used these troops and 2 new players
5) How many players were in the game? - Four


The battle was a trial run of a semi historic 1711 battle scenario for a scenario booklet - a field battle with the equivalent of roughly 90,000 a side. The Russians probably deployed too extended and would probably have been better with a shorter line with greater depth. The Ottomans (and their Tatar, Swedish, Polish and Cossack allies) sent forces all along the Russian (and Moldavian/Wallachian) line to do pinning attacks. Then they used their 'good stuff' to punch some holes in the Russian lines, they were in 2 lines, but the Russians didn't really have a reserve to plug these gaps. So the Ottomans were soon swarming through the gaps and it was not pleasant for the Russians.

I was popping over to watch the above game while actually playing ......


1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Black Powder with SYW modifications
2) What armies were confronted? - Prussians vs Austrian
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Understood them - yes, like them NO
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - No - played about 10 games of this or the other versions of the rules
5) How many players were in the game? - Two


OK so I had a nice game with a great opponent with lots of laughs, unfortunately often at how stupid the rules are. I am sorry I just don't get why people like these rules! I have tried but not for me.

[Leman]

Give Honours of War a try. I switched to them entirely from Black Powder - best SYW I've used (about fifth rule set I've tried for this period) and don't think I'll need to try any others now.

[Hwiccee]

I have already tried Honours of War and didn't like them either. We actually have a SYW set we like we have just been trying Black Powder (and family) because they seem so popular.

[Leman]

Well that certainly  proves different strokes.......