Two Too Many Games in an Afternoon

There is much truth to the saying of too much of a good thing. Trying to fit a WAB Dark Ages Campaign game and a Black Powder game within the space of an afternoon was a bit of a fiasco. I started with the WAB game and my Thematic army performed miserably. I even lost my army general and along with him my previously awarded perk of having 10 percent more troops than the rest of the campaigners. I have to admit James' Early Byzantine army is tough and he is a really good player too, but I rushed through the game in anticipation of the Black Powder game following it. Okay, no more excuses - here is the last intact unit I had on the table when we called the game. I only had four units of Elites to begin with anyway; two cavalry and two infantry. James had about twice as many units as I did; but again not excuses!

Next, James and I quickly set up a small Black Powder game with two brigades per side. He fielded a fraction of his Prussians against some of my French. I co-hosted this game to allow Bruce M. to get the feel of the game - he had only played a couple of times before in the distant past. As anyone who knows Bruce, he is the ultimate playtester. He will not hold back on questions, comments and smart remarks. If you can take what he says as constructive criticism, and it's hard sometimes, you can come away with some great insight you may not have otherwise gained. For instance, I will definitely only provide the bare minimum information to gamers in writing. Too much information will only slow down the game with questions, or worse, challenges to the GM.  Anyway, here are a couple of shots of the French brigades; Bruce commanded the on the on the right flank - and did pretty good considering.

Here's the one I ran on the left flank.

I managed to get my artillery and cavalry broken off the table due to poor tactics. Wow, that's two games in a row James' defeated me in one afternoon- and in two eras and two rulesets!

More than ever, I plan to simplify the Black Powder game for Enfilade! in a few weeks. For instance I will not have infantry in mixed order. Another thing I keep forgetting, and hopefully will remember it when GMing, is to add +1 to command ratings to units in Attack Column. I always remember to check if units are over 12" from commanders though - more of an obvious thing I suppose. I'm pretty sure I forget to give +1 save to infantry in Attack Column too. I will strive to remember these.