Battle Command - another solo test Malburian period this time

Set up and played another Bat Cmd solo play through, this time using my 10mm Malburian types with a replay of Ramillies scenario adapted from Lace Wars as these 'toys' have not seen table time in a while.

Units are Regiments/Brigades which works fine with FOB/Bat Cmd.

For ease I used generic unit stats and made all Commanders D10 with exception of CinCs who were D12 for Marlborough and D10 for Villeroi.

As many more rolls are determined by CinC quality this has potentially more effect in Bat Cmd (indeed feels more like FOB2 in this respect which had a bigger spread of deck quality types).

I really enjoyed this game as I am beginning to appreciate the greater depth of decisions with new Action Matrix vis the multi card decks of FOB.

Constantly one turns a card makes an Action roll and is faced with 'oh dear I have options but what is best overall ?'. 

As an example turning a Infantry Fire card is no longer simply applied to every command group on a side. On said card a player might indeed get only the Inf Fire option or he might also have available Leadership, Melee or occasionally Move. But possibly (on odd Action roll) only 1 option would apply to overall army or (on even Action roll) he can apply any one of his available options to each separate command.

In FOB I would have 3 Melee cards in a standard deck and thereby 3 set opportunities to Melee with units (barring re shuffles) per deck but in Bat Cmd there may be potentially more chances to choose a Melee option than just turning the single Melee card itself. 

But the caveat is that if I Melee on a Fire card I may be giving up that chance to Fire for one or more commands, whereas in FOB the Fire cards are always going to appear as distinct separate actions, a different dynamic indeed.

Game played slickly and of course being Piquet type it played to a firm conclusion over a couple of sessions. Game was very close with both sides going to zero Morale but Allies did gain a few morale chips from French and French turned an Army Morale (no Action rolls on these 'trigger' type cards) card first and failed to remain on the field. There being only 1 Army Morale in an 8 card deck as opposed to 3 in 27 is different and am unsure if this makes its presence more or less likely in game terms as many more re shuffles occur ?

In FOB I would usually include a 'Rolling Fire' optional card in deck to differentiate between Platoon and Rank firing for infantry in period. In Bat Cmd I included the Event card in Allied deck with its appearance allowing Platoon firers (Dutch and English foot) to re-load (rolling a D6 with odd meaning only 1 Cmd could re-load with evens allowing all Cmds to avail of option). Again not sure how this compared 1 in 9 to 1 in 28 but it seemed similar.

So again I am finding Bat Cmd is different to FOB but not necessarily better or worse but still do think FOB is marginally better suited to solo and multi player simply due to more straight forward card play.

Will be interesting to see how Stephen views new system

Armies at deployment (I used historical set up) with French on left

Dutch Foot Guards occupy town on Allied left, they later ignominiously routed off table 

The Earl of Orkneys tough elite English command on Allied right, hills represent very low fold in ground that English mounted utilised in actual battle to conceal movement.

French horse occupy the open ground on their right, they suffered early on from effective Allied artillery fire.

Bulk of French foot line the Gheete

French mounted with support from crack Swiss foot

More French foot massed around Ramillies and the Gheete including Garde Francais and Garde Suisse.

Late in proceedings with mounted having bashed each other and Allied foot advancing in centre

French horse now decimated but Allied horse mostly spent. A unit of Swiss and Irish have crossed Gheete from French left to annoy Allied foot (but they were later almost destroyed by Allied guns firing on flanks)

A stalemate on Allied left as neither side able to recover order or losses

Allied foot pressing forward to Ramillies (which they took) as French foot marched to plug gap

Swiss and Irish trying to flank Allies, they destroyed only a single unit before being battered