MIGSCON 2010 demo game report

[mellis1644]

This past weekend we ran a giant demo game of the English Civil war in Ontario, Canada a local convention called MIGSCON. It was Scots Covenanters (England 1644 list) vs. late Royalist at 1750 pts each side. The game last close to 9 hours but was played to completion during the event.

We had four 'main' participants who had and knew the rules, (at least a little) but we also were joined by 4 new generals who were new to the rules set. Some of these obviously did not stay for the whole game, but overall it was a successful venture and gathered lots of comments and questions as well.

For pictures and comments of the battle in slide show format have a look at this:

http://cid-45cd80402a78c9d7.photos.live ... 2010?ref=1

If that link does not work try here for browsing:

http://cid-45cd80402a78c9d7.photos.live ... CON%202010

[Derros]

very nice AAR, good pictures, and i really enjoyed the narrative

[deadtorius]

Note to self, next time recruit that Parliamentarian devil who can't roll less than a 4 and give them our cavalry commander who can't roll more than a 1 for either combats or death rolls

The cav battles tended to be fairly one sided disasters as the Parliamentarians did not tell us they had a secret weapon with loaded dice, and our poor cavalry commander repeatedly lost a base almost every turn due to poor death rolls.
Of course I did not think to form square when our last foot over there was about to be charged by 2 cavalry units, one from the front and one from the flank. Would have at least kept us from suffering a flank charge. Unfortunately our cannons could not save the day by constantly rolling misses on the Parliamentarian cavalry. which I had hope to at least frag to keep it away from those brave boys who almost saved that flank single handedly.

One thing I noticed is it almost seems you can do more damage from shooting than you can in melee, perhaps it was the die rolls......

[SirGarnet]

One thing I noticed is it almost seems you can do more damage from shooting than you can in melee, perhaps it was the die rolls......

Where each shooting base rolls a die at the same POA as a melee base, the expected number of hits is the same. With Pike and Shot the Pike don't shoot, thus reducing the number of expected hits from shooting to below the number in melee.

However,

- in melee one or both sides gets a +2 to the death roll, and hitting on 4-6 the expected hits from 6 bases are 3, so that reduces the chance of a base loss greatly

- shooting starts earlier and can involve more BGs and continue longer than melees.


- - -
P.S. Pike and shot has the edge facing off horse BG-on-BG and head on, with shooting first and then in combat if the horse charge. The usual purpose of the Swedish horse is to enable the foot to close - opposing lights can prevent second moves but get shot up or charged if they get in your way.

[Blathergut]

In melee, if you fight, you can take losses. In shooting, if you shoot, you might not be shot at back.