Last Stand!

I didn't get to go to wargaming this week - I had my work Christmas party instead. But Dave put on a playtest of the fantasy mass-battle rules he's been working on, 'The Last Stand'. He posted some pictures, and sent a short report which I have edited here (as the original contains some technical bits of interest only to those who have read the rules). I've only skimmed through the rules, as I knew I wouldn't get to play, but they seem very comprehensive and detailed, and include (gasp) diagrams. Beyond that I can't really describe them to you.

Over to Dave:

Many thanks to Caesar and John for commanding.

The game was set up with six divisions, three per side randomly chosen, Caesar and John's army became, heroic Greeks, Abdul the Sorcerer and his mutant horde and Sliggoth of the Swamp with his fishmen.

These were opposed by my force; Cossacks, Vikings & fire giants, the black rider and treemen.

The forces included a large variety of troop types to see how they might interact.

Caesar and John were having their first game with the rules so we skipped much of the game set-up stuff such as weather, dirty tricks, terrain generation to get into the core command and combat rules (and some move rules I glossed to keep the action going).

On my right the black rider attempted to ride down the fishman artillery that was looking isolated, only to get himself killed.  His division of treemen were bashing up the opposing fishmen landshark riders but were probably going to break before they did if the battle continued.

On the left flank the Minotaur friend of the Greeks burst into the flank of the Cossacks, but the Cossack musketeers and guns were holding off the hoplites as a back-and-forth action developed in the area of the city and hill.

In the centre Abdul's collection of monsters were getting the better of the Vikings and with more time could expect to defeat them.

We played 18 bounds each in 3.5 hours and interestingly in their first game John and Caesar were memorising parts of the combat chart - scores needed and results from success.

Meanwhile, in a Wollongong restaurant ...