The cabin and painting desk have been deserted lately as I went to my friend Martin's place for a couple of day's gaming. Well, perhaps 'mainly gaming' is a better description, as on the Tuesday evening we just went down the pub for a few pints of Harvey's Sussex Best. Much like most of the later games I was too absorbed to take photos so this stock photo from the Interweb will have to suffice.
The following morning, when we got our act together, we had a game of 'Mortem et Gloriam', aka MeG, not something I had played before but I was keen to try it and Martin had played it several times as it's a popular rule-set at his local club and he wanted to get some more practise.
The game pitched my Normans as Sicilian Normans, with additional 'Sicilian' types being provided by Martin ...
... against his Nikephorian Byzantines.
With a newbie (me), guided by an inexperienced player, unfamiliarity with rules saw this game run through to the early afternoon when, as the inevitability of a Norman win became apparent, we called the game. The rules worked well in terms of outcomes and command structure, with commanders forced to prioritise their actions, but I didn't feel they offered anything new compared to existing rule-sets. In particular I felt the focus on the files within units felt like a half-way house that was neither unit nor element focused and the separate charge and mêlée phases seemed to slow the game down. However, these are just first impressions and I need to try them again sometime as I've often disliked rule-sets on first encountering them only to appreciate their virtues with more games.
The next game was a Thirty Years War clash using the 'Liber Militum Tercios' Rules, our favourite for this particular conflict.
These rules use order cards that are placed face down next to each unit with players alternately activating units to perform the order given them.
Looking to play something a little different we opted for an entirely mounted French force seeking to destroy a Spanish infantry force (plus one unit of horse); all troops being provided by Martin.
This proved a really interesting tactical conundrum with the more agile French horse looking for an opening that wouldn't involve frontally charging pike and the Spanish trying to deny them that opportunity. In the end the French managed to charge a couple of the Spanish tercios in the flank (sorry, this is the only photo I have) ...
... but in both cases the Spanish, while taking many hits just survived being broken and with some French units refusing to charge managed to rally. The French losses from these combats and Spanish musketry and cannon fire eventually saw several units break and the French conceded the field. While a fun game with rules we've often played, we still made a number of mistakes that probably drove the outcome. We also discovered we had always interpreted one rule incorrectly, luckily that error had no real impact on the game.
So, onto a third game in the evening using Maurice; no picture of the rules so another image grabbed from the ubiquitous web-thingy.
No rule cock-ups this time, but I still haven't quite got the balance right between the two armies, and the Highlanders rolled over the Hanoverians without loss!
The following morning, we set up a DBM fight between the Rus (me) and the Bulgars (Martin), albeit the armies had to take some liberties with the Army Lists as we didn't have everything needed.
This game, like the earlier Tercios game, saw the Rus desperately trying to stop the Bulgar cavalry getting round their flanks, as they were fairly impervious to cavalry charging them frontally. The Rus axemen ('Blades' in DBM-speak) were the least effective against cavalry so were held back as a reserve to plug any gaps that appeared as in the photo below - and contributed to the Rus' success in defeating the Bulgars.
The figures in this game were all Martin's beautifully painted 15mm Minifigs, so nice in fact that for once I took some decent photos, this time of his Byzantine Varangians being used to represent Rus Axemen.
Again we made a mistake! This time over the PIP cost of moving irregulars but luckily corrected in Turn 2, so it had minimal impact on the game. When this game ended it was lunchtime, after which I wended my way back home.
So, four games in a day and half, lots of fun but lots of mistakes. I'm not sure what the lesson here is, but I suspect I need to play more games with fewer rule-sets as it seems that, like so much in life, practise makes perfect, or at least less imperfect.