Sleepwalking through MeG & ALDG

This is just a very quick post, more of a 'diary entry', on a weekend spent trying out new rules, namely Mortem et Gloriam (MeG[1]) and Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  I also intended to try out another homebrew set but more on that later.

After a largely sleepless night on Thursday, it was down to Martin's in Brighton for a Friday evening in the pub together with Steve who'd also driven over for a gaming weekend.  A different pub this time, but still Harvey' s Best Sussex and beautifully kept into the bargain - went down a treat.

Probably not the best start, as I never sleep well after a beer session or in a strange bed.  The result, another largely sleepless night.

So, the Saturday dawned and Martin's friend John arrived with his delightful Italian Wars collection and his experience playing MeG to help us through a bath-tubbed refight of the Battle of Pavia, 1525.

Mortem et Gloriam

I took the Imperialist left wing with some Jinetes and Landsknechts (two pike blocks with attached light guns and two units of skirmishers).

Facing off against me was Martin with some Swiss (eek!), Genitors and cannon.

While outnumbered, Martin had the possibility of another Swiss pike block arriving later in the game - spoiler alert, they didn't.

My men took one look at the opposition ...

... and promptly stepped out towards them to try and finish them off before any more arrived.  Meanwhile, our respective cavalry units crashed commenced what was to be a long-drawn out mêlée.  Martin's cavalry, with their spears had an edge to start with but things evened up after the initial impact - luckily, they were not as fearsome as the Ottoman Dellis who were standing in for them.

A few turns later the first of my Landsknechts finally got stuck in, the other was lagging behind, delayed by the Swiss cannon fire.

The cavalry mêlée rumbled on, but only Genitors were taking losses ...

... as my second Landsknecht unit came up and ...

... joined in the Swiss-bashing session.

And then suddenly it was all over; first my Jinetes, still at full strength, routed what was left of their opponents ...

... then, as they came up alongside my Landsknechts the Swiss were gone[2] ...

...and all that was left was for Martin to ride over and sue for ransom.

While all this had been going there had been plenty of frenetic cavalry action taking place to my right.

But I had taken little of this on so just a couple of photos will have to suffice.  Firstly, the swirling cavalry fight which went to the French ...

... and finally, the arrival of the Spanish infantry whose firepower finally decided the combat.

Art de la Guerre

I was already starting to fade as John packed his Italian Wars armies and departed while Martin readied his 15mm armies on table for a game based on the Battle of Kleidion, 1014, between the Byzantine Basil II the 'Bulgar Slayer' and the Bulgarian Tsar Samuel.  We went for a fairly basic set up as time was short and as ADLG 'newbies'[3] we wanted to keep it simple.

This was played as a 'chit game'[4] so we had each picked a personal identity from among the commanders in the field and during the game took it in turns to pull out a name of a commander to play during each game turn.

I only took a few photos during this game as:

1. I wasn't enjoying it, this is not an indictment of ADLG, as I often dislike rule sets on my encounter with them; and,

2. I just couldn't stay awake and had to sack it early.

So, just a couple of choice pictures of Martin's nicely painted troops.

The Cancelled Game

The following day I was to run a game with my home-brewed rules for 6mm Napoleonics, albeit heavily based on a set of Napoleonic Rules for Large Scale Wargaming.

Unfortunately, worrying over those were really for a play-test kept me awake most of the night.  Now seriously sleep-deprived I had to apologise to my friends, take some Nurofen and go and lie down in a dark room.  

While I 'wimped out', Steve and Martin, like true gamers, broke out a Thirty years War game using Liber Militum Tercios[5] with the French taking on the Spanish.  As I didn't play in this game, I won't attempt to describe how it played out and will just post a few photos I took later in the day when after I was feeling better.

The French infantry dares to take on the Spanish Tercios, and wins!

The Musketeers ran away!

And finally, Martin's desperate attempt to get two '6's on just three dice to stop the Cardinal's Guard from breaking and fleeing the field.  He only threw three '6's on just three dice!  A 1-in-216 chance!!!

Post Mortem?

So, what did I learn from the weekend?  First and foremost a need to manage my sleep better.  But with regard to the rules, both MeG and ADLG are similar to the DBx series of games but have tried to steer them in different ways: MeG with multiple elements/bases as units and more sophistication to the unit activation actions and costs; and, ADLG with the slow attrition of units in place of just recoiling and kills.  From my limited sampling of these, I don't feel either adds much to game yet both, for me, seemed to increase complexity.  

In particular I felt that the way MeG breaks down the fighting to base against base defeated the value of multi-element unts and the rigidity of the battlelines in ADLG, due to units not moving in combat while they grind each other down, was (for me) too mechanical.  That said I enjoyed the MeG game and will have to try ADLG again as my first impressions are often short-lived.

Notes:

[1.]  To be honest I had tried a small game of MeG before, as you might've spotted in a previous post (link), really hadn't got much of a feel for it - but I was a complete virgin when it came to ADLG.

[2.]  Actually, there are still a couple of Swiss in the top right of the frame.  These are marking where their reinforcements were due to arrive, only fate determined otherwise.

[3.]  Martin had played a small club game of ADLG once before and had a copy of the rules, Steve and I had never even read them, let alone played them.

[4.]  A previous post (link) describes the 'chit game' concept developed as a way to cope with uneven numbers of players and players arriving late or leaving early. 

[5.]  We're all familiar with these rules having played them often e.g. (link).