Bruce Meyer hosted a really cool Peninsular skirmish game, "Guerrillas in the Mist", using his own fast-play rules. I enjoyed the game and plan to use his rules for an upcoming game at a small game day next month. All of the figures (Front Rank) are Bruce's, as well as his beautiful Spanish-style buildings that he designed and sells through Brigade Games. Bruce's skirmish games are truly geared for player action and quick results -perfect for convention gaming, as well as just fun games.
The scenario today had a fairly substantial French force moving along cannon and caissons through enemy territory (basically the entire area of Spain). They were accompanied by two high-ranking Spanish officers.
Al Rivers and I controlled the Spanish Guerrillas who were placed inside some of the buildings in the small village the French had to pass through. Small detachments of British 95th Rifles came on in the second turn. All photos were taken by Adrian Nelson - the Truant's "official" photographer - he does take great photos. The photo below shows the French coming up on the village in column.
Due to some insanely lucky dice rolls by your humble correspondent, the French have been whittled down and are now cautiously moving past what they hope are empty buildings. I actually killed the senior French officer in the first turn. Bruce was confounded as he hadn't expected this to happen.
Ah, the brilliant 95th Rifles appeared and wrought even more havoc on the French with their superior marksmanship. They not only had the range advantage, but also accuracy. More lucky rolls took even more French and their officers out.
Here's my brave and somewhat suicidal Guerrilla leader about to take on some Frenchmen. He will shortly join his loyal band in the hereafter, but not before taking out more evil French. He had actually taken over one of the caissons and moved it to block the other one. The Rifles on the hilltop overlooking this action did not let his bravery go to waste. They rained more death down upon the French for their outrage.
Bruce called the game a close French victory soon after this. Normally, the French do much better with their numerical superiority, but due to great Spanish/British dice rolls, this game really had the French sweating it up to the very end. We started at about noon and were done before 2:30. Not bad at all. Heck I even have time to slap on some more paint on the Perry Hussars.
As I mentioned, I really like Bruce's philosophy for skirmish gaming - fast and simple rules. Players pick up the mechanics - if you even can call it that - after the first turn. His rules are on a 5 X 8" card, double-spaced in about 20 font! Oh, and his figures and terrain are first-rate, which should be evident in the photos. Thanks again to Bruce for hosting this game and Adrian for taking the great photos. Another great Truant's Friday game.
Awesome looking game!
ReplyDeleteThe buildings look great too - are they all scratch built?
The buildings were designed by Bruce Meyer; They're resin and are sold by Brigade Games. Very, very nice. Dean
ReplyDeleteWow - that looks like a fun game and the figures and scenery are top rate.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your victory was due more to your superior tactics than simply dice rolling. At least that's what I say after wining and rolling 6's 90% of the time!
Very cool.
I'll check out your friends buildings
Very cool looking game!
ReplyDeleteBruce's rules uses D10's; for musket hits 0 & 1's, minus 1 for cover & long range (36"); Rifles hit on 0-2, up to 44", minuses only for cover. If an officer is in the unit with hits, roll another D10 to see if the officer is hit on a 0. Somehow I kept rolling 0's & 1's for hits, followed by another 0 for the officer kills - even their general. Well, I usually do roll low, so I finally found a game that worked for this.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Bruce & Brent Dietrich run Company B.
What an inspiration for those of us toiling away at the edges of the empire (New Jersey, to be exact!) :-)
ReplyDeleteIf the author is willing, I'd love to see the rules you guys used - I have some new gamers I'd like to introduce to the period, and they sound like they'd fit the bill!
Always happy for some wonderful eye-candy! Thanks for the AA report!
GregS
Greg:
ReplyDeleteYes, these rules are perfect for not only beginners, but even experienced gamers who want to just have fast-play, simple rules (like at a convention). I should be able to get the rules & post them. I can recall most of it (it's that simple), but don't want to leave something out. Dean
Great game write up and layout Dean.
ReplyDeleteWould also be interested in seeing the Rules as have a Spanish Naps game to demo in Sept and like things simple and fast, and that's just the women in my life!
I'm playtesting game using the same rules next Saturday - I'll post the rules in detail by then. The game will be based loosely on the French doing a fighting retreat out of the Peninsular with Brits & allies in hot pursuit (& also ahead of their line of march - unbeknownst to the French, of course).
ReplyDeleteWow, increble work, just fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteNice AAR, not to mention beautiful figures and terrain!
ReplyDeleteTed