And whilst a bit awkward at first and lighting not greatest, it worked fine overall and certainly more enjoyable than solo play.
I moved units and marked hits at Stephens behest and he rolled his own dice, I certainly got a decent workout walking to and fro around the table !
I selected scenario 4 'Making an Omelette' as it allowed me to set up in defence using my Russians and then Stephen commanding French to set up.
We played with Small forces (180 vs 250pts) which worked fine with 4 French attacking Brigades against 3 Russian defending Brigades.
The lists allow a very large amount of possible Artillery so we both reduced to 1 per 2 Brigades (or part thereof).
Lasalle 2 plays really smoothly and Stephen was able (like I was) to assimilate and play the rules quickly despite the limitations of my video skills. We were both using the QRS with very little reference to rules after a couple of turns. We stuck with Basic rules for first try out but think use of advanced rules would not be too onerous.
We played 5 full turns (stopping only because my iPad ran out of juice) out of the 8 scheduled and intend to complete game next week.
The Momentum system is really the heart of the game and works so very slickly and generates an enjoyable level of decision making each turn.
French (using the basic Skirmishing rules) were rolling 27 dice against my 12 so usually got extra 1-2 MO per turn.
Bombardments seemed quite powerful today especially the ability of artillery to select any available target. This saw French 'gang up' on a Russian Grenadier unit inflicting 4 Disruptions in short order and it was later destroyed by a French musket volley as I failed to Rally hits off.
Artillery is however quite brittle as destroyed after a mere 2 hits despite being harder to inflict hit upon. I lost both my batteries as deployed further forward than maybe they needed to be.
French have lost 2 units of Infantry one to a couple of devastating volleys from a unit in Line and the other a Square also volleyed to destruction.
Whilst we both felt the lists are very generic and the variety of troop grading is limited compared to other rules we did find it a fairly satisfying overall.
Whilst rules certainly do lack a level of 'chrome' they do feel somewhat Napoleonic in terms of Maneuvering (very fast and loose away from enemy) and the interactions of the traditional Column, Line and Square.
Their low complexity certainly aided use in this video-conferencing style game.
Russians deployed
Good to hear the rules are playing out well and the game looks very nice.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Yes nice set of rules. Firmly of playability over detail style. Like any set they have a couple things one thinks odd or dislikes (not a fan of skirmishing model) but they do generate a fast playing and fun game.
DeleteGlad you were able to get in a Zoom game. I must try to host another!
ReplyDeleteiPad on its own maybe not ideal but worked ok and I got a good workout moving around the table !
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