First Game of 5.04

[petedalby]

Lance & I played our first game under 5.04 last night - Ottomans vs. Sudanese.

We were keen to try out massed MF Bow so Lance fielded 6 x 8 BGs of MF unprotected Avg Bow, plus 2 x 8 BGs of LF unprotected Avg Bow, supported by LH, Cav and more MF. Despite this mass of bowfire I only lost 3 elements to shooting - in large part due to Lance's poor dice. The best example of this was zero hits from 7 dice on 4's!

We were both a bit rusty and after 3 hours we'd managed 6 turns. I'd lost a Janissary handgun BG and a BG of 4 Timariots was fragmented - the Sudanese losses were in double figures.

We found that once the MF bow were in combat they usually didn't last long. We both agree that 1.5 ranks shooting is the right choice. 2 ranks would be too effective. But LF bow seem so much better than MF bow - for the same price. Given a choice between MF & LF bow I can't imagine why anyone would choose the MF? Is there a case for making Unprotected MF Bow 1 point cheaper?

The new rules for a Commander's location worked well IMO - a definite improvement.

We used the reduced number of Open Spaces and agree that this is a sensible way forward.

The game threw up a few more issues / queries which I'll post as separate items. We both now need to have a good read of 5.04 to ensure we're aware of all the changes.

Pete