What was the last ruleset you played 2018?

[paulr]

A good summary of our FK&P game from Pierre the Shy above

I would say in Motrose's defence that his pike-less Highlanders had seen off the Covenanters' horse and he did spend part of the battle stunned by a stray musket ball.
Having half his command one hit away from destruction and repeatedly failing to rally also induced some degree of caution
No prizes for guessing which commander I was

I have four observations on the game:

• everyone enjoyed the game
• as noted above the three new players quickly understood the mechanics of the game and were running combats by themselves
• "we will have to play a few more games before we fully get the hang of this"
• "That was exciting"

My thanks to d_Guy for a really intriguing scenario that has played very differently each time

My thanks also to Mollinary and Simon for a great set of rules that are:

• easy to learn
• challenging to master
• produce exciting, fun games full of period character

[pierre the shy]

I would say in Motrose's defence that his pike-less Highlanders had seen off the Covenanters' horse and he did spend part of the battle stunned by a stray musket ball.
Having half his command one hit away from destruction and repeatedly failing to rally also induced some degree of caution
No prizes for guessing which commander I was

I only meant that didn't help that you pulled out a 1 chit for about 4 turns in a row when trying to activate so they couldn't do much     

[Wulf]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - What a Tanker!
2) What armies were confronted? - 10mm German vs. British, 1940-ish North Afrika.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, happy with them now
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - no, played half a dozen games now
5) How many players were in the game? - two each in two games
6) What went well? - introduced a new player never played a proper miniature wargame before, and he really liked it. Also, the general 'boy's own adventure comics' feel of the game worked excellently.
7) What could have been improved? I need to create some better portable terrain to take to the boardgame club, and a better variety of tanks for this game. Most of mine are very early war...

This game has definitely caught my imagination, I'll be working on terrain & tanks for it, Russian front next. We've proved that one player can easily control 3-4 tanks, and that a 3' square play area is sufficient in 10mm (converting 1"=2cm). The roleplaying element of working out WHY the gunner can't acquire a target that's only 10 yards in front of the tank is half the fun (as opposed to just saying "I didn't roll any 2's."..)

[paulr]

I only meant that didn't help that you pulled out a 1 chit for about 4 turns in a row when trying to activate so they couldn't do much     

I'm sure no aspersions were being caste and no offense was taken

It did give me the opportunity to give a glimpse of some of the challenges that FK&P offers

[d_Guy]

Paul and Pierre, thanks for the the battle reports and the shout out. Royalists now 4 of 5 world-wide in this scenario.   
Glad your group is now moving ahead with ECW project. Of the many, many narrative opportunity's provided by FK&P, having an officer addled by a blow to the head (bullet, blade, rock, etc) is among my favorites and it seems to happen quite a lot!

[d_Guy]

Maybe they were motivated by revenge following the death of McColla from a lucky shot....

News has come that has dimmed my eyes, Alasdair has departed from us. (with apologies to Ian Dom). 

[FierceKitty]

Ball and Bayonette yesterday, SYW Prussians and Austrians, two players; familiar rules. I had some trouble with combat rolls when things favoured me quite attractively on paper. but my opponent (who's good at earlier eras) is struggling to learn how to coordinate the three big arms, that hussars seldom brush cuirassiers aside, and that columns suffer under gunfire. Prussian victory was clear before half-time.

[FierceKitty]

,

[Last Hussar]

What size armies are needed for FK&P? How many bases?

[fred.]

I was just working through the example scenario in FK&P, it has the following units per side

3-4 Generals
5-6 units of cavalry
2-3 Forlorn Hope
3-5 Foot Battallia

Size of the units is up to you. For 10mm I'm thinking 120mm frontage, so using 3no 40x40mm bases for foot, and just 2no 40x40mm bases for the Swedish Cavalry (basically 1no 40x40mm base representing 1 hit in FK&P

I'm trying to get some troops together for a test battle - and I thought I would be short of pike and shot, but I think it will be cavalry that is the problem!

[Leman]

1. Walter Schnaffs

2. Prussian v. French Imperial

3. Very comfortable

4. Umpteenth time

5. 2 players

6. This was a trial for the short game being put on at Phalanx, which went well, although again the French lost a substantial number of troops, including all artillery (again!) to the reserves. The game flowed smoothly and quickly - all over in less than 2hours, so should be able to get a couple of participation games going.

7. the Prussian player could have attained a crushing defeat if he had pushed for the enemy baseline. As a consequence a Prussian minor victory.

[paulr]

What size armies are needed for FK&P? How many bases?

I was just working through the example scenario in FK&P, it has the following units per side

3-4 Generals
5-6 units of cavalry
2-3 Forlorn Hope
3-5 Foot Battallia

Size of the units is up to you. For 10mm I'm thinking 120mm frontage, so using 3no 40x40mm bases for foot, and just 2no 40x40mm bases for the Swedish Cavalry (basically 1no 40x40mm base representing 1 hit in FK&P

I'm trying to get some troops together for a test battle - and I thought I would be short of pike and shot, but I think it will be cavalry that is the problem!

The example scenario is a good sized game

3x 40mm bases for foot and a 150mm grid is what all the 10mm players I've seen are planning on using
Except for an occasional outburst of megalomania from Mollinary

[Last Hussar]

Mine are on 30mm bases, does this just mean a smaller grid if I use 90mm frontages?

[paulr]

Yep, I'd probably go for a 100mm grid with 90mm frontages

[Hwiccee]

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - Twilight of the Sun King (2nd edition)
2) What armies were confronted? - refight of the battle of Klissow 1702 - Swedes vs Saxons and Poles
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No
5) How many players were in the game? - 2
6) What went well? - One player was new to the system but an expereinced gamer who quickly picked it up and everything went well.
7) What could have been improved? Need serious work on terrain - this is my main aim for 2018.


The battle features a heavily outnumbered Swedish army taking on a good Saxon army with a Polish contingent that is not eager to fight. The Poles are 'Wavering' in the rules and so very fragile. The Swedes have to spread themselves thinly to cover the frontage but are confident. So the are 'Small' and 'Determined' under the rules - this means they have high morale but are vulnerable.

The Swedes moved forward from their starting position to attempt to block their enemies in place with the terrain. In response Poles, on the Swedish left and with a relatively free approach, moved into the attack. The Saxons occupied the rest of the table but had difficult terrain to cross. So they pushed forward but it would take time, the Allied player correctly identified the Swedish Right as the most vulnerable section so pushed there.

The opening stages saw the Poles on the left collapsing fairly quickly as on the right the Saxons struggled to establish themselves & defeat the outclassed Swedish right. This they managed after some swings either way and not long after the Poles withdrew from the battle. By this time the Swedes had engaged the Saxon cavalry on their left, while both sides centre eyed each other with neither side wanting to risk an attack. It became a race for the Swedes to defeat the Saxon left or the victorious Saxon right to slam into the centre. It was a very close run thing but with both sides needing to rout 1 more opposing unit the Swedes launched a final all out attack. The Saxons were dispersed by their movements and so the Swedes were able to hit them in a more or less compact group & secure victory.

It was an excellent, tense game.