Whew! Pardon any overlap with some of my questions or observations - I am new to the boards and have been trying to digest many weeks worth of messages in under an hour!
We meet every Friday and play mostly DBM, with the odd game of Warrior/WRG 7th, WAB, Piquet and other sundry rules. We all "like" DBM, but over the years have been getting burnt out by sniggly rules issues and abstractions. DBMM did NOTHING for us. Warrior/7th is nifty, but a tad too complex. WAB just doesn't seem to do it (after 6-10 games, you have pretty much played what WAB has to offer). Piquet is neat, but seems lend itself more to scenarios.
We played our first two FoG games;
GAME ONE - 25mm, 750 points (on 8' by 5' table) Indians versus Macedonians;
- This was a real learning period, with basic applications of CMTs and Impacts... and of course plenty of opportunities to screw up the POAs! The game mostly consisted of jostling for position with some shooting (mostly inaffective at extreme range). The only combats within the alloted time were skirmishers vs skirmishers, elephants versus pike (an interesting degrading stand-off), and elephants versus hypaspists (Superior, led by general, which meanT BROKEN & FLEEEING elephants).
The Good - NICE system. REAL nice. Good troop differentiation, nice army "feel".
The Bad - The armies were a bit large (I had NO idea of what point standard to use), but on a 8' by 5' table, things worked out. Using a one inch MU was a little lacklustre - it is fine to keep movement to reasonable levels at 25mm, but it just killed the distance/shooting aesthetic (the figures were REAL close when they started shooting).
The Ugly - a few minor issues concerning Death Throws and Cohesion which were entirely MY errors based on a few simple passes of the rules. Otherwise, nothing ugly!
One question arose when one person wondered why not simply have each unit make a CMT - if they failed, then they would be limited to a simple move. This was in response to a player who routinely takes FOREVER to decide moves - when/if they failed to make a CMT, then they would have to take ADDITIONAL time to decide on an alternate Simple move. It was a question of speeding game play.
With a fresh reading of the rules and Friday's experience, it was on to game two on Sunday!
GAME TWO - 15mm, 650 points, 6' by 4' table, Later Carthaginians versus Parthians.
- Ooooh, neat game! The Carthaginians had the solid foot (Spanish spear, Gauls, and whatnot) in the center with the cavalry, elephants, and Numidians on the flanks. The Parthians had their schlub troops (hillmen, Greek militia, and crap) in the center, with clouds of skirmishing horse on the flanks, with a unit of superior cataphracts on each flank.
LOTS of nice maneuvering, showing off the strengths of the CMT system. Shooting was nice - just effective enough to thraten some cohesion, but little else. The Gauls and Spanish cut through the Parthian centre and were within spitting range of the camp. One flank was dominated by Parthian horse (simple numbers game... 3 LH BG versus 1 LH BG + 1 crap Cav BG= LOTS of trouble for the Carthaginains), and the other invloved dancing LH with elephants. The cataphracts were interesting - they slogged it out with a unit of spear on one side, and destroyed a unit of cavalry on the other.
The Good - LESS rules screw-ups due to my more studious reading of the rules...
Combat felt good and solid. After a few passes and experience, POA calc and combat move pretty quickly.The Bad - I still have a few questions here and there, but I think that the rules have the answers SOMEWHERE. The lack of diagrams *really* hurt, but the text is straightforwards enough. Some repetition in the rules would be nice, rather than having to flip back and forth between sections.
The Ugly - Nothing! Woot!
We were not sure about wheeling and Impact - we tended to simply charge straight then echelon into contact. After Impact combat, then we would conform forntage/flanks during the maneuver phase.
All in all, a VERY good time. It is nice to get excited over a rules set again. It seems to have the best elements of 7th/DBx, with some new spins. Sweet!
Our next game line up is a 25mm Pecheneg versus Byzantine bash, followed by a 15mm Medieval German versus Turk battle.
Cheers,
Ken
