What was the last rule set you played in 2023

[Steve J]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Black Powder II with a few tweaks.
2) What armies were confronted? - Red vs Blue mid-19thC Europe
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much, but a bit rusty after the Xmas break.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo.
6) What went well? - The Red cavalry making some game saving charges, all rather cinematic.
7) What could have been improved? - A few schoolboy errors on my part relating to the rules.

[Elliesdad]

6) What went well? - The Red cavalry making some game saving charges, all rather cinematic.

If that's the case Steve then perhaps you should be playing some Russian Civil War games 😉

Cheers,

Geoff

[Steve J]

Very good Geoff !

[T13A]

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Age of Honor (SYW)
2) What armies were confronted? - Prussians v Russians, Austrians and Saxons
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much, although it has been a while.
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? - Rules wise, they moved along pretty smoothly and give a good feel for the period (at brigade level) . My Prussian Grenadier brigade will be getting a few barrels of what they fancy with their rations!
7) What could have been improved? - Just finding details of an 'additional' rule that I knew about but couldn't find the anywhere.

Cheers Paul 

[T13A]

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - To the Strongest!.
2) What armies were confronted? - Assyrians v Egyptians
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, only had to check a couple of things.
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? - Just a very enjoyable game, first outing for both armies.
7) What could have been improved? - Dice throwing on both sides! The Egyptians losing two out of three of their generals.

Cheers Paul

[paulr]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Black Powder II with Glory Hallelujah
2) What armies were confronted? - North & South - ACW
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much, but a bit rusty after the Xmas break.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No
5) How many players were in the game? - 3 first night then 4 the second
6) What went well? - Game flowed smoothly and good to be playing again after Xmas
7) What could have been improved? - The South's right flank collapsed abruptly about halfway through the second night leading to the South conceeding the field and us with time on our hands

[steve_holmes_11]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Irregular Wars.
2) What armies were confronted? - Portuguese (Goa) against Bijapur Sultanate (Mughal list)
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, through it was alsmot 2 months since the last game.
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? - Rules behaved well, and my newly drafted scenarion brought some "mission" focus to the game.
7) What could have been improved? - A little confusion here and there.


Bigger story:

Westmarcher and I have played several Irregular Wars games in an Indian Ocean setting.
We both felt the default "Set up and fight" led to some slow games where terrain was dense and victory conditions were absent.
I offered to create a booklet of scenarios, which I completed just before Christmas.
This was our first outing using a scenario.

The scenarios introduce:
 * A map, saving time during game setup.
 * Clear victory conditions.
 * Army strengths and breakpoints that vary depending on the mission.

This scenario saw the Portuguese occupying a part complete fort across the river from Goa island.
The Bijapur Sultanate (owners of the Island until rudely interrupted) sent a force to capture the fort.
A relief force was sent from Goa.
The two clashed in the vicinity of the fort.

The scenario asked a few questions that stretched the traditional strengths of each force.

Bijapur's quality troops are mostly mounted archers (some armoured with lances, others light), these are unlikely to storm a fortress alone.
This means selecting some of the lowly foot, and maintaining a balance between close assault troops and missiles.

Portugal's major choice was whether to pack the fort with shooters, or close fighters.
The former to defend by shooting, the latter to resist a close assault.

In the end the Portuguese selected a close fighting garrison and a mainly firearm equipped relief force.

Bijapur's selection wasn't favoured by the dice, but included elephant artillery, a company of matchlockmen, two of mercenary spearmen and several more village levies.
The shooters combined with static horse archery to pin the garrison, and the levies performed above expectation against the Portuguese shooters.
The relief force was repelled and the fortress captured.

Victory to Sultan Westmarcher.

[fred.]

Bigger story:

Westmarcher and I have played several Irregular Wars games in an Indian Ocean setting.
We both felt the default "Set up and fight" led to some slow games where terrain was dense and victory conditions were absent.
I offered to create a booklet of scenarios, which I completed just before Christmas.
This was our first outing using a scenario.

The scenarios introduce:
* A map, saving time during game setup.
* Clear victory conditions.
* Army strengths and breakpoints that vary depending on the mission.

This scenario saw the Portuguese occupying a part complete fort across the river from Goa island.
The Bijapur Sultanate (owners of the Island until rudely interrupted) sent a force to capture the fort.
A relief force was sent from Goa.
The two clashed in the vicinity of the fort.

The scenario asked a few questions that stretched the traditional strengths of each force.

Bijapur's quality troops are mostly mounted archers (some armoured with lances, others light), these are unlikely to storm a fortress alone.
This means selecting some of the lowly foot, and maintaining a balance between close assault troops and missiles.

Portugal's major choice was whether to pack the fort with shooters, or close fighters.
The former to defend by shooting, the latter to resist a close assault.

In the end the Portuguese selected a close fighting garrison and a mainly firearm equipped relief force.

Bijapur's selection wasn't favoured by the dice, but included elephant artillery, a company of matchlockmen, two of mercenary spearmen and several more village levies.
The shooters combined with static horse archery to pin the garrison, and the levies performed above expectation against the Portuguese shooters.
The relief force was repelled and the fortress captured.

Victory to Sultan Westmarcher.

Sounds a great game. I'm a big fan of Irregular Wars - but we do tend to end up just playing the basic 'fight' scenario. So good work to create some more scenarios, especially ones that force the players to mix things up a bit

[T13A]

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - To the Strongest!.
2) What armies were confronted? - Classical Indians v Macedonians (Under some fella called Alex.. something or other).
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? - Great game, both fun and interesting. My Indian longbows taking out the enemy skirmishers (good dice throwing on my part) and then managing to disorder some of the Macedonian pike blocks, even my elephants managed to be useful this time.
7) What could have been improved? - Really can't think of anything.



Cheers Paul

[T13A]

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Live Free or Die (AWI)
2) What armies were confronted? - Brits v Rebels, Battle of Harlem Heights, from the scenario booklet (2nd time but this time against an opponent).
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much, although it has been a while. Still some ambiguities in the main rules v the scenarios but nothing major.
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? - Game moved along at a pace.
7) What could have been improved? - Not the rules as such it's just if you stick to the scenario is is virtually impossible for forces that arrive later in the game to get into action given the time limits.

Cheers Paul

[steve_holmes_11]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Rebels and Patriots (Osprey)
2) What armies were confronted? - Loyal British Vs Rebellious colonists in the American War of Independence.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, I had prepared thoroughly with three passes through the text and four YouTube videos (two good, two appalling).
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, but we had a very long interval.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - Decisive outcomes, and we developed our tactics as the game progressed.
7) What could have been improved? - There was a distinct risk of the game ending in two turns, through the dice prevented that form happening.

Off to Westmarcher's for a game or Rebels and Patriots.

He prepared an interesting table, with patches of cover and open spaces, a road and river crossed at a ford.
He commanded a sizeable, through partly green force of Colonials seeking to scout the area.
The British deployed three line and two light platoons (?) in a W formation to resist this incursion.
All figures were Pendraken, so we were confident they would fight well

The colonial skirmishing rifle fire routed two British platoons almost before they could load their muskets, and sent a patrol of light cavalry down a flank to threaten the rear.
The confusion seized their troops, several units filing to activate, providing the British time to pull back a damaged  unit buttress a flank and shift the reserve to resist the cavalry.

A close range British volley, with the first fire bonus, tore the American commander's unit asunder; killing the officer and causing an immediate rout.
Loss of the officer required all his remaining units to test morale, and three of five suffered a failure of some kind.
Indiscipline among the green militia proved a liability.
This caused a lull in the battle, withdrawl of the flanking cavalry and time for the British to re-shuffle their line.

The Americans had scouted one objective of four, and the British were prepared to sacrifice another, falling back to a rearward defensive position.
But luck took a hand.
The river delayed the Americans seizing a second objective and fire form a previously worsted unit deterred any advance on their right flank.
The leading unit advanced form the left, but blundered into the beaten zone of two almost intact British units.

Desultory fire form either side saw some American Skirmishers driven off, which caused an overall morale collapse.
A low scoring win for the British with a heavy butcher's bill for either side.


The rules work well, but it is best to not grow too attached to a favourite unit.
They are quite brittle in the face of enemy shooting.

[paulr]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Wing scale Volley & Bayonet
2) What armies were confronted? - Loyal British & Hessians vs Rebellious colonists in the American War of Independence
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, but a little rusty
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? - British and Hessian plan and dice rolls
7) What could have been improved? - American dice rolls

The scenario was a bath tubbed version of Chadds Ford which called for some interesting decisions from the players. After some success in their first round of firing the Americans couldn't buy decent dice. The Hessians and British on the other hand were rolling well above expectations. Except for the 17^th Light Dragoons who were roughly handled by some American Militia 

[Steve J]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Honours of War
2) What armies were confronted? - Red vs Blue (austrian stats for both)
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? - Solo
6) What went well? - The rules gave a great game as always and the result went right down to the wire.
7) What could have been improved? - Nothing really.

[Steve J]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - WRG Infantry & Armour 1925 - 1950.
2) What armies were confronted? - Germans vs Polish 1939.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, even though first time of using them (see below).
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two.
6) What went well? - For a first game using these slightly tweaked rules, the game played well and felt right. Still early days though.
7) What could have been improved? - As these are a draft set, some tweaks were made as we played. The scenario and movement rates really hampered the German attackers, but we are still learning.

[Last Hussar]

All figures were Pendraken, so we were confident they would fight well

I think I have spotted a tiny flaw in an otherwise cunning plan...