1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? Star Wars: Edge of Empire + Age of Rebellion

2) What armies were confronted? Imperial Droids vs Rebels (and the party fighting for survival and a quick profit)

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes, we're getting better (and quicker) at reading the dice auguries and moving the narrative on accordingly

4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No

5) How many players were in the game? 4 (one player's actions has separated him from the story arc)

Episode 6:

Scene 6.01
The crew finds their way back to the crew quarters and find some space to shower and rest. They see captain Sortuli wheeled away, headed for a bantha tank and clean-up crews start clearing the mess and assorted droid parts strewn across the ship but for our heroes it's time to sit back and chill.

Joval examines the strange chip Tray'essek found – "it's a non-standard chip, some kind of inhibitor similar to a restraining bolt but hardwired into the CPU and programmable. . ."

After several hours there is the inevitable, sickening, lurch as the Shadow Raptor drops out of hyperspace.

Soon after the unmistakable voice of Lieutenant Hastings comes on the ship-wide PA – "All hands, all hands. Full ship's compliment to assemble for funeral parade at 16:00 hours on the forward hangar deck. General Cracken will be delivery an address and presiding over the funeral of all departed souls. All hands, all hands. Full dress assembly, 14:00 forward hangar bay."

Outside can be seen dozens, no hundreds of ships – looks like the whole damn Rebel Fleet!


Scene 6.02
The crew attend the assembly – massed ranks of rebel soldiers and navy personnel on parade as a shuttle lands smartly on the apron. General Cracken and another steps down, there are several stifled gasps from the assembly – it is Bail Organa, republican senator, no-one knew he was aligned with the Rebellion!

General Cracken makes a decent speech, thanking the crew and all hands aboard for their efforts in preventing the loss of the Shadow Raptor. All the names of the dead are read out as their bodies are committed to the deep.

At the end and the body of Tay Coomsay is honoured, Captain Sortuli makes an appearance, supported on a hover chair and looking more dead than alive but she adds her words of respect and remorse and avers that his family will be supported and protected.

Lieutenant Hastings approaches the crew and quietly informs them that the senator wishes to speak with them after the ceremony in the Captains meeting room.


Scene 6.03
The crew assemble in the familiar confines of the Captain's meeting room with Lieutenant Hastings and Senator Organa.

Lieutenant Hastings, says "Firstly, we'd like to say very well l done to you all and offer a small reward . . ." Matwe immediately chips in "I want the tug and the 5k you owe me, no backing out, I earned it!". Hastings smiles, "certainly, we'll even throw in an astrogation droid unit for you, is that sufficient?" Matwe, settles back smugly.

"For the rest of you", continues Hastings "we'd like to offer you the Starlight class light freighter Le Guillotine under the command of the newly promoted Commander Joval Nial – it's equipped with Night Shadow coating just like the Shadow Raptor. You are free to leave but we would ask that you consider continuing our relationship. Senator. . ."

"indeed, thank you Lieutenant," says Organa "we can offer you the low down on a major Black Sun operation which I understand would be of personal interest to you and to be frank, anything that hurts the Black Sun works for us. In exchange, and not without connection, I'd like you to trace where exactly the 5 million credits we paid for these droids ended up. Interested?"

Joval, Tray'essek and CH-01 all agree – Matwe, wants no part of it.


Scene 6.04

It is quickly decided that to trace the 5 million the crew will need to find and question Captain Oglerk and her First Mate, Kog. That means a return to Port Tooga.

Arrangements are made with Lieutenant Hastings to relay communications via a secure deep space communication buoy and the crew settle into their new ship:
CH-01 takes piloting and gunnery
Joval takes command, navigation and engineering
Tray'essek is appointed morale officer and cargo manifest

With that, they launch from the hangar bay and set course for the Listehol system


A reminder that Port Tooga is an ancient space station dating back to the time before the clone wars. Built by an unknown ancient alien race it is full of strange machinery, covered in geometric markings that no-one has been able to decipher.

Port Tooga is governed by Shoola the Hutt's cartel, and is a spindle and disc station, 2km in diameter and can dock over a hundred ships. The main public area, set just inside the docking ring, is known as Shoola's Ring and is infamous as the place where anything and anyone can be traded.

The bright light of Listohol has no effect as the Night Shadow coating protects the ship and crew and in moments they have docked at Gate 27, back on Shoola's Ring


Scene 6.05
As the crew depart the airlock and Joval moves to pay the 200 credit docking fee, Ch-01 looks straight ahead and suddenly drops to the floor, deactivated. Tray'essek drags the droid back on board where in seconds Ch-01 reboots with no apparent problems.


CH-01 undergoes several system wide upgrades and enhancements as ancient technology infuses his matrix – this takes milliseconds and goes unnoticed by the organic crew members.


Scene 6.06
Shoola's Ring is as crowded as ever. Clockwise there is a crowd gathered around a multimedia data stall - there seems to be some kind of event happening. It transpires the famous pod-racer Dud Bolt is here signing media, the place is crowded with youths wearing Dud Bolt T-shirts.

A wookie with one eye bursts out from the crowd, looking very excited and waving a signed media chip around. He sees Joval and grins and rushes towards him. He's the wookie that caused the brawl in the Barvy Harpy. He seems very apologetic about that, it appears he thought the crew were a different bunch that ripped him off and stole his ship.

Turns out he saw Captain Oglerk recently in the Barvy Harpy with a old friend of his called Amos – he leads the crew to the Barvy Harpy and points at a table, where a weejay sits with a mechanical arm. Joval approaches with a big cocktail and asks if he's seen captain Oglerk recently.

"Yeah I seen her, and Kog, what you want with her? She ain't no proper pirate, no sir not like me, no. if she were she'd be taking on crew but she don't – or won't. Nope she ain't no real pirate I'm telling you, real pirates always takes on crew when they come to port. 'Sides that ship's too posh and pretty for a pirate – she's running some scam I tell you. What lad? Oh yeah, she's birthed at Taegen now. Thanks for the drink laddie."
Joval searches the local net for references to Taegen, it appears to be an ex Trade federation planet, part of the Devan Trade Council. Principle cities are Gangan Spaceport and The Warrens, predominate species Devan, main industry droid manufacture, principle company the Taegen Tech Consortium (TTC).

The crew decide that they need to start earning some cash, so Joval sends Tray'essek off to find some passengers looking for a no-questions-asked trip to Taegen. Tray'essek finds two cloaked humans willing to pay 400 credits for the trip.

Everyone heads for Le Guillotine.


Scene 6.07

Taegen it transpires is dark, grey and very, very rainy.

The ship docks at Gangan Spaceport which is large but virtually empty. A battered protocol droid approaches and asks the crew's business. Joval asks "Has Captain Oglerk docked recently?" – The droid does not know the name. "How about The Crusader, has a ship called The Crusader docked?"

"Oh, yes sir the Crusader is docked at The Factory, sir". "What factory is that? Asks Joval. "Why The Factory, sir. The Taegen tech Consortium factory. I'm afraid it hasn't been in use for many years now"

There is one highway heading out towards The Factory, on inspection Tray'essek can identify recent speeder tracks heading into the rain towards the Factory.

The crew can't afford to hire speeders, so set out on foot into the dark and the rain towards the vast, abandoned factory complex.

Behind them the protocol droid waves, "Good luck sir, I'll be here if you need me."


 
Scene 6.08
At the gates of the factory compound, through the rain they can just make out the dark shapes of a warehouse, a garage or hangar and an office complex. All surrounded by a high security fence and an abundance of active security cameras. The gate itself is locked shut with a chain and padlock – new, shiny, expensive chain and padlock.

Tray'essek attempts to pick the lock but fails, Joval shoots it with his blaster. In the sudden silence everyone waits with baited breath but nothing happens, rain falls but no lights, no shouts. Some cameras swivel towards the gate though, red LEDs blinking.

They head across the empty forecourt towards the office complex, the door is locked and Joval fails to open it – there is a reluctance to shoot this time. Ch-01 and Tray'essek locate some crates and clamber up to look in a upper window. The interior is dark and abandoned, there doesn't appear to be anyone around – in the far corner is a feint dim light, like that of a computer terminal.

CH-01 climbs in and heads to the light – sure enough it's a terminal. In fact it's the security camera terminal. The rest of the team follow and Joval splices into the system gaining access to footage of the last few weeks. There are cameras in the warehouse, the office and garage but not the compound. The fence cameras must be on another system.

Reviewing the footage, there is a lot of Imperial activity. There is historical feed showing Oglerk and Kog in Imperial officer uniforms doing business with other Imperials, dated to a few days prior to the purchase of the droid pods. There is evidence of the same pods being delivered and packed with droids by stormtroopers.

Switching to the live feed, they can see that there are stormtroopers in the warehouse right now! In the garage or hangar an Imperial officer is preparing a Nubian transport – its captain Oglerk, there are five protocol droids with her and 10 loaders stacking cargo.
In the warehouse are another 10 loaders moving crates to a rear loading dock. In the centre are five stormtroopers and NCO plus an officer and a Devan civilian who appear to be arguing. Off to one side near the loading deck is another imperial officer – Kog, with a blaster in his hand, pointing vaguely at the others.

Hurriedly Joval begins to download the footage, both historic and current.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? - FoGR
2) What armies were confronted? - Pete's Mapuche vs my LOA Anglo-Dutch
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - very
4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? - no
5) How many players were in the game? - 2

Big win for me! Danes suffered badly, but I got a break in the middle of his army that caused issue for Pete, and then it went down hill for him from there! He lost his army.
I lost two units.

1. FOG

2. Indian v Bactrian

3. Still getting my head round these

4. Not the first time = still managed to inflict a flanking attack on the Bactrian left whilst the Indian chariots, war wagons and cavalry stalled the centre and right. To rub salt into the wound the Indian flank march never turned up but still defeated the Bactrians.

5. Three players.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? Star Wars: Edge of Empire + Age of Rebellion

2) What armies were confronted? Imperial Droids vs Rebels (and the party fighting for survival and a quick profit)

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes, it's not perfect but it does generate good narrative and fast actions

4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No

5) How many players were in the game? 4 (one player's actions has separated him from the story arc)

Episode 7:

Scene 7.01
Still on the upper floor of the office Joval completes the download of data and attempts to upload it direct to the Rebel Coms Buoy.

CH-01 and Tray'essek continue to watch the current playback, it looks like the Imperial Officers are arguing with the Devan about the speed of the loading – there are 10 large crates still in the warehouse. Whilst playing with the system to sharpen the feed, CH01 spots what looks like a PA coms system, intended to broadcast.

Joval curses as his upload link fails but comes and looks at the PA system and after a couple of minutes has successfully reconfigured it so that there is a very low quality sound pick up:
"The droid reports that there are people on the way", the Imperial Officer is saying to the Devan, "hurry up". "We're working as fast as possible" comes the reply, articulated through some mechanical artificial translation device.

There is consternation among the team – "is someone else coming?" asks Tray'essek "or do they mean us". CH-01 says there is no evidence of anyone else being interested; they've failed to communicate with the Alliance so how could anyone else be coming. "Still," says Joval "they seem in a rush, anything we can do to slow or delay them will probably be a good thing". CH-01 volunteers to look outside to see if there's a power unit or mains board they can cut.

Tray'essek and Joval examine the hangar roof from the office windows – there appears to be a roof hatch for ships but no obvious way of disabling or blocking it. Joval, clicks the short range com-link "CH, any sign of a power hook-up, there's a roof hatch that would be good to disable?"

On the monitor, Captain Oglerk can be seen walking through the connecting door, past the loader droids into the warehouse. She walks up to Kog and says something to him, too quietly for the patched intercom to pick up.

Scene 7.02
Outside in the rain and gloom, the skeletal figure of CH-01 works around the warehouse and hangar looking for power lines. There are no windows to the buildings which are adjacent to each other and only two ordinary door entrances. Against the wall of the hangar, next to the door is a battered land speeder.

CH-01 replies, to Joval "No, no power lines, no exits. I can't see anything that can disrupt them . . . hang-on I have an idea" CH-01 approaches the land speeder and starts fiddling wth the control panel in the cockpit. After a few moments, he turns and starts running for the door to the office, clicking the com link, he says "I suggest you get your heads down, now!"

As CH-01 dives into the office door, there's a huge BOOM and the speeder explodes, creating more smoke, noise and glare than actual damage.

Scene 7.03
In the office, Joval and Tray'essek see the explosion and turning to view the monitor, they can see a certain amount of panic among the protocol droids. Then, they and the loaders stop mid-action. Oglerk and Kog are shouting and waving at the Stormtroopers.

Kog heads to the ship, followed by the Stormtroopers and the other officer. Oglerk and the Stormtrooper NCO shout at the Devan, who looks scared, turns and runs out of the door. Oglerk raises her blaster but doesn't shoot.

Tray'essek and CH-01 race back out into the rain.


Scene 7.04 – Split Screen
Tray'essek and CH-01 are standing at the door to the hangar.

Joval is watching the monitor back in the office (Oglerk and the NCO are aiming at the warehouse door from behind crates. Kog and the Stormtroopers board the Nubian and the roof hatch starts to open, the protocols and loaders appear powered-down). Joval clicks the intercom "They're leaving, now! If you're going to do something, do it now!"

Tray'essek looks at CH-01, who nods and they burst through the door into the hangar, just in time to see the Nubian rise through the roof hatch. They scan the droids but they are all inactive, CH-01 checks a couple of them suspiciously but they are all powered down.

Heading for the connecting door, CH-01 takes a stance and Tray'essek pushes the door open.

They can see the NCO and Oglerk side-on – CH-01 shoots the NCO, snapping his head back and leaving a huge scorch mark across his helmet. In return the NCO flings a grenade through the door – BOOM! And both Tray'essek and CH-01 take damage, Oglerk opens up with her blaster but the shots slam into the doorframe.

Tray'essek charges the NCO with knife and claw, slamming him to the ground.

Over the PA, Joval's voice can be heard shouting "This is the Rebel Alliance. Surrender now or be killed"

Joval gets his knife under the seam of the NCO's breastplate and eviscerates him in one long cut, then stalks towards Oglerk, blood dripping from the blade as he licks it clean, red eyes glaring.
CH-01 advances heavy blaster rifle levelled at her head – "Surrender. Surrender now!" he intones.

Captain Oglerk drops her blaster, stands up and surrenders.

Epilogue
CH-01 returns to the spaceport and flies Le Guillotine back to the factory site (there is no sign of the 'helpful' droid).

Joval inspects what's left of the cargo – 5 crates, each containing 500 secured protective boxes, each containing one of the special TTC chips. They openly wonder what price these will fetch on the black market – or what the Alliance might pay for them.

Tray'essek strips the NCO and Oglerk of equipment (a vibro-knife, grenade, heavy blaster rifle, holdout blaster, binder cuffs, and sundry personal items). He immediately uses the binders on Oglerk.

Joval and Tray'essek, carefully power up a couple of loaders (checking for TTC chips) and get them to load the crates onto Le Guillotine.

Between them they question Oglerk (although they all know the real interrogation will be by the Alliance) but she pretty much refuses to answer any of their questions, sneering at their attempts. Joval runs her prints through his datapad and gets a return - Lieutenant Colonel Hura Koghla, Imperial Intelligence. Daughter of the famous Imperial Intelligence officer General Koghla (in a flash of insight, he realises that that must be who "First Mate Kog" really is).

As they bundle Oglerk/Koghla onto their ship she snarls at them "You're all dead men walking, you have no idea what my father's capable of. He'll never stop until I am rescued or avenged, rebel scum!"

Le Guillotine, rises through the roof, turns and accelerates into the dark rainy skies of Taegan

Roll Credits


And that's it - no more long winded reports for a while 

I have no idea what may or may not have happened to Matwe in the meantime, that's between The GM and his player. No doubt fans of the series will be arguing on forums about whether the character has been written out, did the actor demand too much money, was he fired, sleep with the producers daughter, will he be back, will there be a new character, etc.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens in Season Two. . .

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? Sharpe Practice 2

2) What armies were confronted? British 1756 v French Raiding Party - French Indian Wars

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes

4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No

5) How many players were in the game? 2

The French (me) were escorting a baggage train from one end of the battlefield to the other. My opponent was initially shocked when my initial deployment and starting moves put me mid table really narrowing down his deployment options.

And that was about as good as it got for the French

My raiding party was well and truly mauled by some well positioned Rangers and rampaging Indians before conceding defeat pretty much where we had started the game

Bloody good game though.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? Bloody Big Battles

2) What armies were confronted? 1877 Russo-Turkish War. Battle of Katseljevo-Ablava Russians (me defending against Ottomans (Konstantinos and Doruk who left early). We thougth I won but while writing up AAR I find out that it was a draw!

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes

4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No,

5) How many players were in the game? 2+1

1. Ironclad Armada

2. Late 1860s French v British - part of the unfolding image-nations campaign. 5 French ships of various sizes and designs took on three Royal Navy ships. The game included two successful rammings, a successful boarding by the Royal Marines, and the use of torpedoes. Two French ships sunk and one captured to one RN ship sunk and one badly damaged. French lost most points and scattered back to Brest. the blockade of Antwerp was broken and the Batavian Republic kept it's firm grip on the coffee trade. 1/2400 ships by Tumbling Dice.

3. Second game, but very easy to get to grips with. We made some modifications to the way in which armour degrades and how boarding takes place, a) to simplify bookkeeping and b) to make boarding actions more tense and interesting.

4.

5. Two players.

Sounds a lot of fun.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? Blue Max / Canvas Eagles

2) What armies were confronted? Central Powers versus the Allies, WW1 air combat

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes

4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No, ish. I played it in the original format twenty odd years ago, this is the rereleased version on a nice 4fy square hand drawn hex map

5) How many players were in the game? Two-three

I remembered the game a sbeing really fiddly, but that might have been a hangover of playing it PBM or on a small hex grid with counters instead of wipe clean record sheets. It was pretty good - each turn you plot the manoeuvre you're making from the diagrammed list on your plane sheet and then all move simultaneously on the hex grid.

Enjoyable, but nothing Wings of War etc doesn't do a bit better and quicker; we got two games in over three hours, I'd have expected four or five with WoW in that time with just as much tactical thought involved (for those who'll moan that WoW ripped it off, well, it certainly owes it a big thematic debt. But like "The Magnificent Seven" and "Seven Samurai", it just does everything better!). Would play again, but would rather do WoW these days

And tonight, it's BBB on shiny new map with shiny new figures - must remember to get some photo's!

1. To the Strongest

2. Wars of the Roses Yorkist (Edward IV) v Lancastrian (Duke of Somerset)

3. Extremely comfortable.

4. This was my first game and it was so much fun. It took my opponent and me about 30 minutes to get comfortably to grips with the basic mechanisms and we had a fast-paced, exciting game with plenty of anticipation and tension. Two small (8 units per side) were used. For variety the Yorkists fielded spearmen and hand gunners, whilst the Lancastrians had hobilars and an artillery piece. To see what would happen I sent my hobilars round the flank of the Yorkists, with their one-shot wonder weapon lance. Unfortunately the Yorkists had managed to face the flank with a unit of retinue bill, and the cavalry wasted their lances, pulling a 3 and a 5 from the pot. After a good deal of hacking they were predictably destroyed, but not to worry as the Yorkist veteran bill were lumbering forward. Then they pulled a 1, general with so they pulled.........another 1      . Command turn was finished. Again the Lancastrians were handed a lifeline when the Yorkist veteran bill hammered into Lancastrian veteran bow, and were destroyed by said bow after a furious ding dong. Nevertheless, the Yorkist pressure proved too great and eventually the Lancastrians lost all 6 of their victory medals to the Yorkist two.

5. Two players.

1) What ruleset do you use in your last game? BBB, the Balaclava training scenario from the group files

2) What armies were confronted? Russian versus French/British/Turks

3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? Yes, except it's always harder when you're teaching it, I keep second guessing stuff or going blank! I'm comfortable enough, two of the three players picked up fine, one kept trying to overcomplicate things somewhat. I think BBB's simplicity confuses people used to much more fiddly sets of rules*

4) and... was the first time do you use the ruleset? No, for me. Played a few times now. First time "teaching" though, and first time for the three players.

5) How many players were in the game? Three, two on the Russian side, one Allied and technically me as umpire.

*E.g. "How do I move backward?" "Move whatever direction you want, remaining facing the same way you started till the end of the move, and pay 3" as it's outside you 45@ front arc" "But but but what about backwards?!" "Exacatly the same. If it's not in the front 45% arc, you pay a 3" cost" "butbutbut! Backwards?!"

Anyway, the two Russians picked things up nicely, possibly aided by a very atrocious first set of rolls for movement which got them stuck in to how things worked early, followed by a heroic charge from the British cavalry got the combat mechanisms up and run through very quickly. The British player then balked at his tiny amount of (very very good) troops, and went into minute faff splitting them up all over the shop, whilst the Russians maintened aim, memorised the movement (8+ on two dice full move, 6+ half, less nothing) and got stuck in.

They took a terrible thumping when they got in closer as the British MLR's combined with skirmish and Russian's being Tactically Inept gave big column shifts well before their smoothbores were effective, and with plentiful artillery at point blank range the result was hideously effective. But numbers and focus told, and they overran the Causeway, both elements of the 93rd, several batteries and redoubts, and their massed artillery shot out a base from each of the exposed and vulnerable cavalry Brigades, dispersing both - a feat neither the infantry nor cavalry had managed!

We got through to turn 4, as we'd been very slow - both to start and to get through the turns, but despite overwhelming Russian success that far they were screwed in combat power - only the Reserve Division was still really effective as it hadn't properly engaged so as not to trigger it being committed or triggering the French Corps D'Observation into action. The British reinforcements were just arriving, and competently handled I suspect they'd have relieved any chance of an attack on the Turks guarding Balaclava proper whilst being able to move back along the Causeway Heights and retake some VP locations...

I'd hoped to rerun next week but one of us got very excited about getting the old DBA figures out whilst there's a new D&D game starting for others, so I'm thwarted for a week or two!

If the piccies attach correctly you may notice the battle map - I'd been speaking with Chris P about getting a copy of the map without the big deployment markers so I could get it printed as a big PBC banner - and he kindly sorted a background colour for it as well, which was nice Got it printed last week, arrived Monday and on table yesterday - and I reckon it worked excellently, gave the feel of a sort of senior officer map type thing, and was dead easy to play on, set up and pack away! Worked very well with the 2mm figures, but would likely be good with 10mm or anything else.

And an extra photo as well!

Blimey, that map works well. I plan to do something similar, possibly adding in some woods and bUA to add a bit of height.

You could easily drop in some terrain to 3d-ise it, which I might do for later games It makes all those awkward hills and contours really, really easy.

I'll upload the "print sized" image to the Yahoo! Group files, it's not huge as it's a pretty low res JPG - has come out very nicely, considering, but a much higher res version would work better, I think, but that takes a proper graphic designer instead of me fumbling with the GIMP.

Also, cheers Steve!

Looked terrific with the 2mm troops, Toxic. I have also come across players who are thrown by the straightforwardness of the rules, but they appear to have spent years mastering the nuances of over-complicated training exercises (I can't grace them with the term games) in order to win, and then, in my unfortunate experience, get sulky because they just don't get it.

Yeah, exactly that Leman - the Russian players just on with it after a turn, despite having four times as much to do each move, the British player stalled and had to go back and forth and confirm everything.

Mind, it didn't help that I'd left most of my playsheets at home so was having to refer back and forth to the rule book!

Cheers on the troops I like the look in 2mm and can play effectively as I know what the bases are and what unit is what in games terms, but it was probably a bit fiddly for new players tbh, 6mm 0r 10mm would have been better for engaging them.

I guess it's because I put on Langensalza in 2mm, which went down very well in the Liverpool club. I'm currently working on 3mm Peter Pig figures for BBB Shiloh. When done I'll take photos and post. It was very cheering to read on the BBB Yahoo page that more ACW scenarios should be appearing. Currently I have half a dozen and I believe Stones River and Nashville will be appearing quite soon.

Well, the Russians at least seemed to get to grips ok despite figure scale, possibly helped that they're all pretty much identical in the scenario - Trained, smooth bore musket, Tactically Inept, done. And the cavalry is all bad.

I liked your 3mm PP stuff - looks very good. That little extra size really pays off for painting, the Irregular blocks are very stylised/representational but the PP or OO stuff is actually like a "proper" but tiny figure...

I'm actually thinking I might have been better starting with the Alma, putting the more confidant new players onto the Allies side so they have to make the running and do the interesting bits, whilst I ran the Russians with the less confident player, and then everyone gets a decent amount of troops to push, something to do and doesn't feel they've been given too shitty a hand to play...

What a cool approach to a game. Can you share a bit more about how you got it printed, and what size the mat was?

Sure!

Chris sent me a word doc with the image of the map attached (sans unit set up locations, and the town/feature names shifted so they didn't go off the side). I then took a crop of the image using the Windows snipping tool - because I'm a bit rubbish with graphics stuff I took a slightly larger clip than the actual image so itd have a white border round it instead of me snipping off the sides!

Saved that as an image file (jpg),  then opened it in GIMP and used the scale image tool to knock it to 1250mm by 1250mm (I like gimp for that as it lets you do it with real world measurements and not try to work out height/width in pixels...), saved it again and then uploaded it to Pixart.

Pixart are a printing company on the web - you buy the product (in this case a banner in 500gr PVC, no eyelets, folds or crops), and then upload an image file on that order, they print it and post it out. Price depends mostly on size and speed of shipping - if you want next working day it's about twice the price of waiting a week! A 1250mm sq on a weeks deliver was about £13, a 900mm sq was about a tenner. A five foot ish by five or six by four  was about £20-25.

I'd post some links and more in depth step by step but I'm posting from the phone ATM