What was the last rule set you played in 2023

[paulr]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Big Battle DBA
2) What armies were confronted? -
     III/66 Fatimid Egyptian, III/74b Other Seljuq Turkish, IV/6a Syrian vs
     IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine, IV/2 Cilician Armenian, IV/7 Early Crusader
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? - Three
6) What went well? - Early pressure by the Egyptians supported by the Turkish and Syrian cavalry broke the Byzantines.  The Armenians and Crusaders with no cavalry opposing them demoralised the Turks and Syrians...
7) What could have been improved? - Not a lot, a very tight game with an interesting twist at the end

[pierre the shy]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - For King & Parliament
2) What armies were confronted? - Battle of Dungan's Hill 8 August 1647 - Anglo Irish vs Irish Confederates
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? - Three
6) What went well? - We used this game to test some house rules about using mass pike formations and also to make sure the scenario was balanced enough using the few scenario rules that I thought necessary to translate the unique aspects of the battle onto the table.

The Anglo-Irish were leading 12-4 when we called the game to a halt. Overall we were very happy with both the mass pike rules and the scenario balance. Both sides had their moments, though I must admit to having had a few lucky chit pulls, including a 10,10 combination by one of the Anglo-Irish artillery stands to take out the opposition's sole artillery stand.
 
7) What could have been improved? - Not a lot, but I will make a couple of changes to the deployments that were suggested after the game as the Redshanks were initally deployed a little optimistically.

[paulr]

Another very enjoyable For King & Parliament game and a challenging scenario       

[T13A]

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Test of Resolve (Wars of the Roses).
2) What armies were confronted? - The usual Yorkists v Lancastrians 
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - First trial game with these rules.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes
5) How many players were in the game? - Two plus an umpire
6) What went well? - 
7) What could have been improved? The way 'melee' units and 'missile' units had to depoly in different formations was verging on the fantasy IMHO. Not keen on the the card activation process e.g. only able to fire your missile troops (e.g. longbowmen) when you happened to pick a particular card.

Cheers Paul

[T13A]

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - To the Strongest! (Wars of the Roses).
2) What armies were confronted? - The usual Yorkists v Lancastrians
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, although we were trying out some house rules to try to better reflect our understanding of how battles in the WotR were actually fought. This involved changing some of the unit types rather than the rules themselves.
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? -  It did feel very much like our reading of how most WotR battles went, i.e. an exchange of missiles then just getting stuck in without much in the way of tactics. But...
7) What could have been improved? Not sure really, as already said above it did indeed feel like a WotR battle but therein was the dilemma, from a wargaming point of view - it all got fairly boring.

A couple of photos:




Cheers Paul

[paulr]

Good looking troops Paul    

Perhaps some terrain would add more complexity/add options and help reduce boredom

A narrower table or some more troops might encourage/enable having some reserves

[pierre the shy]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - If the Lord Spares Us
2) What armies were confronted? - ANZACs vs Ottomans
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, although it was the first time we have played them in about 3 years, so a bit rusty but by turn 3 we had everything under control.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - errr.....no
5) How many players were in the game? - 4
6) What went well? -  The scenario seems to work well so far. It postulates that the ANZACs landed in the flat plains of Sulva Bay rather than the steep ridges of ANZAC Cove and were logistically a bit better prepared to allow the use of horses by the ANZAC mounted rifle units to rapidly expand their bridgehead. The Royal Navy shore bombardment has been going pretty well for the ANZACs so far with two Ottoman infantry companies forced to abandon their entrenchments.
7) What could have been improved? We are playing this over a couple of sessions but so far one of the defending Ottoman battalions has been roughly handled by the Wellington and Otago battalions of the NZ Infantry Brigade. My lower morale Gendarmaire battalion is so far hunkered down behind its wired defences and has only been firing at extreme range.

Next week should be a bit more challenging for the ANZAC players with the arrival of the Turkish reserves and the scenario requirements to exit ANZAC units off the board if they are to be victorious.   

[paulr]

Turkish Mountain guns opening fire on the advancing Anzacs does seem a bit unsporting   
It's only going to get worse as we press forward  

[pierre the shy]

Turkish Mountain guns opening fire on the advancing Anzacs does seem a bit unsporting   
It's only going to get worse as we press forward  

I forgot to mention last night that the Yavuz Sultan Selim had recently sortied into the Sea of Marama.....    

[paulr]

Well that will give our pre-dreadnought battleships something to think about  

[Sean Clark]

1) Which ruleset did you us in your last game? - BKC4
2) What armies were confronted? - Late war British v Germans
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Eventually towards the end
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes
5) How many players were in the game? - 2 plus me as an umpire
6) What went well? -  The game felt 'right'.. it was only a small game, but plenty for both players to do and it flowed nicely.
7) What could have been improved? We could have read the rules better! We got vast swathes of the rules long...only discovered on a subsequent reread. Entirely our fault and were looking to playing again with more insight into how the rules work.

[bobm]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - MDCC.
2) What armies were confronted? - Grand Duchy of Battenberg vs Friestadt of Schwarzwald.  Imagi-nations.  Their first outing.  All Pendraken from their League of Augsburg and War of Spanish Succession ranges
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - I wrote them so had some insight into how they'd play!
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes.  First playtest version using armies only just big enough to play.
5) How many players were in the game? - 2, myself giving explanations to a friend profoundly deaf in one ear and the other ear suffering an infection made for interesting progress.
6) What went well? - The game was entertaining with lots of decision making.  Managed to include enough nuance to avoid being generic and bland, which can easily happen with so few troop types available.  Also important to not resemble my ACW rules, another conflict with few troop types, therefore wherever possible they used deliberately different mechanisms to that game system.
7) What could have been improved? - A few gaps in rules where situations occurred that we had to quickly think of rules to cover.  Bigger armies would have increased steadiness of the troops.  I lost the game quite convincingly, but it was nice to play (I often umpire where I've produced the rules).

[Gwydion]

MDCC?

[bobm]

MDCC?

1700 in Roman numerals

[T13A]

Hi

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - For King and Parliament.
2) What armies were confronted? - The usual Royalists and Parliamentarians
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, although first game for a while.
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? -  Just a very enjoyable time getting the figures on the table.
7) What could have been improved? Not a lot! Although a bit surprised how many times I had to refer to the rulebook - I am really getting old!

Cheers Paul