Firstly, good looking miniatures and terrain.      Secondly, I didn't clock that the buildings were a smaller scale than the figures until you mentioned it, Paul, which backs up what I was recently saying to a friend about using smaller scale buildings - it works best at tricking the eye if you only drop one scale down and don't go overboard.

I also see you were using dice instead of cards (presumably D10s?) What are the practicalities of this? (for a start, I can see that dice take up less space than cards).  For example, as I recall, you normally place drawn cards beside the unit - so I presume you place the die that has just be thrown beside the unit instead and then throw another die (which suggests you might need loads of dice?).   

Hi Westmarcher

Thanks for the comments! In fact the game took place at my friend Lee's house (he has a dedicated wargames room, the lucky so and so...) and all the terrain and the Cropheads, sorry Parliamentarian's are his, the (losing) Royalist's mine.

I'm a big fan of the For King and Parliament and To the Strongest! rules but not of using playing cards. To be brutally blunt I think using cards instead of dice is a bit of a gimmick to make the rules stand out from other sets (purely my own opinion of course)!

When my group started to use To the Strongest! some years ago we tried all the methods (several times) for 'activations', scoring 'hits' etc. that is playing cards, taking numbered chits out of a bag and using D10's.  What we finally settled on was using D10's for all activations, hit and save throws and simply using the numbered chits to put next to a unit/commander to remind us of the latest activation score and replacing (actually putting on top of the previous chit and turning the whole lot over, blank side up when a command/brigades activations are finished) it if the unit activated again. We keep the numbered chits in a small box with compartments for the different numbers for ease:



Some (many) people argue that using cards is a lot quicker, but in our experience, when you take into account the number of times packs of cards were dropped, two cards were taken from the pack instead of one, the time taken to shuffle the packs etc. they certainly were not. And that of course doesn't touch on the issues of 'skewing' the odds as soon as one card is taken from the pack or the aesthetics of playing cards all over the battlefield.
And to be honest, personally (and I'm not a competition player) I have never understood the seeming obsession that some gamers have with the speed of a game. I like to contemplate the battle and admire my brilliant tactical moves and when scoring a 'hit' on an enemy unit like to exclaim 'take that you rebellious rogues', the later happens all to rarely admittedly! 

Cheers Paul

Quote from: T13A on 27 May 2021, 07:46:31 AM
Thanks. The buildings are 10mm Battlescale (with 15mm figures), not mine unfortunately, they are my good friend Lee's who painted them as well. They look great on the table and as of today (I have just finished putting in an order) they have a 20% sale on (with code FB20).

OK thought they were 10mm figures with 6mm buildings, but recognised the manufacturers sculps, thanks for the sale heads up  

I think the "one scale down" approach for buildings etc is good, certainly works well with all the 10mm games that we play here in NZ.

FWIW for FK&P games we use small chits that Paul R made up using the same number ranges as the playing card decks, they work brilliantly and visually are much less intrusive than even mini-sized playing cards.


     

Thanks very much, guys!  These are great ideas which I'll consider using in my next game of FK&P.   

Great looking game.

As to the scoring of hits, for some reason I found myself imagining a foppish, Cavalier, Michael Palin ..... "I am Pwince Wupert, take that you webellious wogues!"

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Ten more sons!
2) What armies were confronted? - Yorkist and Lancastrian.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, I've been playing them since I binned my copy of DBR.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - Clarence decided to sit it out, with all the Yorkist cavalry.
7) What could have been improved? - Dismal movement rolls when things were favourable; the snowstorm in the rebels' faces which didn't last long enough for me to close and shoot them up. A draw, which is becoming rather too frequent a result.

) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Andy Callan's Renaissance rules for the Italian Wars
2) What armies were confronted? - French v Imperial
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo
6) What went well? - The card activation system worked well as did my small dice holders for casualties.
7) What could have been improved? - I used the very basic rules as it was my first go. Not particularly taxing, but there are add ons for terrain, different troop types, pursuit etc. In an all infantry or all cavalry melee the conflict can go over move to move and I prefer melees to be resolved there and then to avoid forgetting things or missing the effects on other troops.

The figures used were WoFUN plexiglas 2D flats, with the fronts and backs illustrated by Peter Dennis. The figures slot into precoloured mdf bases. A good way to get a couple of fully coloured armies up and playing almost immediately on arrival. A few niggles:
a) the figures can sometimes take quite some pressure to get their tab into the base slot;
b) this can lead to excess pressure being put on some figures, which resulted in a small number of snapped pikes - a little filing of the tab can solve this problem;
c) a very small number of lance armed cavalry were difficult to press out of their plexiglas sheet, but dextrous use of a modelling scalpel and cutting mat resolved this problem without any lances snapping;
d) the artillery are precoloured mdf and were quite fiddly to put together.

Overall I like these figures (I bought the 18mm ones) mainly owing to the Peter Dennis artwork. Unfortunately not all the ranges use Peter Dennis, and some of those look a little odd. However the Peter Dennis ranges are expanding.

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Star Wars: Legion
2) What armies were confronted? - Imperials vs Rebels
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Sort of by the end, but it took us a long time to get going.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - yes.
5) How many players were in the game? - two, me and my 16 yo daughter
6) What went well? - Mechanics are simple enough once you get your head round them. Vadar cuts up opponent's pretty well!
7) What could have been improved? - Could not kill any squads, could not kill Luke, could not dodge incoming fire, could not believe Imi's saves!

Yes, I lost, big time! But we both enjoyed the game!

Fight photos here!
https://madlemmey.blogspot.com/2021/05/our-first-game-of-star-wars-legion.html

Very cool 

Unfortunately the Force was not with you in that game 

Great write up of what looks to have been a fun game .... for Imi

Well done Imi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Ten more sons!
2) What armies were confronted? - Yorkist and Lancastrian. Twice; Lee demanded a rematch that same afternoon.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, I've been playing them since I binned my copy of DBR.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - The dice loved me in the middle section of the first game. In the second, they were neutral, but I was on form.
7) What could have been improved? -  One of the flag-holders in the new castle has broken off and needs attention PDQ.

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - For King and Parliament
2) What armies were confronted? - Royalist's v Parliamentarian's.
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? - Two
6) What went well? - Gaining revenge for the King's defeat the week before . Sir Ralph Hopton won a very close battle with only 3 medals in it at the end. The Royalist foot under the command of Sir Bevil Grenville smashed the parliamentarian centre capturing all their artillery. Lee's new gridded (which you can hardly see in the photos) mat looked great.
7) What could have been improved? - The Royalist horse, while just about holding their own on one flank were again defeated on the other flank.







Cheers Paul

 

Quote from: T13A on 03 June 2021, 06:31:08 PM
... Lee's new gridded (which you can hardly see in the photos) mat looked great...

Exactly what you want 

Greetings

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Honours of War
2) What armies were confronted? - Prussian v Austrian SYW.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, but very rusty, first face to face game for ages and first non solo game with rules
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No but not used for ages and then solo
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - Managing to play a good looking game with the figures we had (mainly mine) for a full scenario (Lobositz from the rule book).  Canister fire is brutal. Being attached in flank by cuirassiers can ruin a cavalry brigade in moments. We were using one of my Geek Villain mats for the first time and it was really good.
7) What could have been improved? - We were proxying French for most of the Austrians and Hessians for most of the Prussians. I had a couple of part painted Chaaseurs de Fischer (pretending to be Grenzer that need painting. I'm not sure we fully understood light troops as the aforementioned 'grenzers' severely beat up a three battalion Prussian brigade in the vineyards etc of the Lobosch.  All figures were 10mm Pendraken.

Edward

Greetings

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Wings of Glory
2) What armies were confronted? - British  v German WWI.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, but a bit rusty
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No but not used for a while and last used solo
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - Entertaining and quick with three planes per side. I shot down all three Germans, losing one wingman.
7) What could have been improved? - Figuring out the add on AI rules better - we were flying the leaders and the other two per side using AI.

Edward

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - A couple of 'trial' games using Black Powder and the Last Argument of Kings supplement for SYW.
2) What armies were confronted? - Prussian v Austrian and Allies v French
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Completely new to the rules.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - See above
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - They seemed to play and 'flow' much better than they read.
7) What could have been improved? - Quite a lot of ambiguity from simply reading the rules and rather too much, " if you don't want to do this, don't, or you can ignore this rule if you want", for my taste. That said both were enjoyable games. Main sticking point for me was the ranges for smoothbore muskets relative to  artillery e.g. Musket range is 18" (we substituted cms for inches using 10mm figures), yet canister range is only 6" and again maximum musket range is 50% of the maximum range of horse artillery (18" v 36") which I found slightly bizarre. Any enlightenment for this from BP players would be most welcome.

Cheers Paul

1) Rapid fire
2) Russian and German 1945
3) No - I've never liked it not enough detail
4) First for a long time, it's not improved.
5) 2.5 - the Russian player rapidly lost interest - I wuz German
6) Not our shooting
7) Interest by the Russian player. I suspect that it would have worked better with Battlegroup, but the scenario was rather unbalanced.

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Big Battle De Bellis Antiquitatis (BBDBA)
2) What armies were confronted? - 2x IV/64c Medieval French, IV/76 Early Burgundian v 2x IV/62c 100 Years War English, IV/57c Low Countries (Ghent)
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? - Four
6) What went well? - Another interesting game with these new troops with interesting interactions between the various troop type
7) What could have been improved? - the initial deployment by some of the players

It was the first time our regular playing group got to use these armies and it lead to some interesting deployments

The Burgundian and one of the French armies mixed their bow and blade along their line - this meant that they were out shot by the greater number of English long bowmen and their lines were too fragmented to effectively close

The guildsmen from Ghent would have been better to mass their pike and used their crossbows to support their artillery...

The other French army used their mounted knights and bow to threaten the guildsmen's flank while getting stuck in with their dismounted men-at-arms demoralising the guildsmen

The English in the centre broke the Burgundians but took some casualties doing so

The French men-at-arms who had beaten the guildsmen were able to get in amongst isolated units of long bow and demoralise the central English breaking the combined army