Game using Battle Command today at Stephens using his lovely 15mm ACW troops.
He had adapted an old Johnny Reb scenario involving early stages of Chickamauga and I commanded Rebs (under Bedford Forrest) against his Federal force (under Thomas).
Quite a large game with some 60 units on table so a good test for rules.
We waffled a good deal throughout about how best to model the large amounts of dismounted cavalry present, as rules count them as Skirmish units which we were unsure worked in a scenario with so many (fully half my foot units were dismounted types).
Leave them as pure skirmishers ? make them same as Line but with lesser firepower ? or as Line but with only 3UI ? in the end we just used them as standard line but armed with Carbines.
Mind you every foot unit in ACW period is allowed to use Skirmish by default (which again we debated).
Like FOB, Bat Cmd is easily tweaked to accommodate our interpretations of such period specific stuff, its just a matter of agreeing what we think is best and minimizing such tweaks (KISS principle definitely best).
The card Decks and Action Matrix got a really good outing today as we went through decks several times and had lots of choices/options/restrictions with new Initiative system.
We both like new system for two players as an improved version of FOB system but again felt it was less optimal for multi-player than FOB3.
So much debate and waffle we failed to finish game but Rebs were bleeding Morale pips at much higher rate than Union and were facing some Union counter advances.
Great stuff with another excellent iteration of Piquet system.
Looks great; 60 units a side is a heck of a lot!
ReplyDeleteHow many Command Groups did each side have?
61 units in total (31 Reb vs 30 Fed) in Brigades each :-)
ReplyDelete6 Brigades each that should read
ReplyDeleteExcellent stuff - I must get an outing with this. Tell me again why it wouldn't work for group - could the general not simply choose the option off the card that he and his commanders should abide to? ...or would that not work.
ReplyDeleteOh yes the CinC can ‘dictate’ but that could also lead to frustration for underlinings I fear, much easier with FOB and the ‘here is the same card we can all use’. In FOB there is usually a single ‘Move 1 Cmd Group’ card per deck that requires such a decision whilst in BatCmd there are often several such decisions to be made for single command use of an option or indeed selecting only a single option from 2-4 for use by whole army. Of course if one can always roll even then all options are available for each individual brigade/player. In essence I just think FOB is easier overall for group with less chance of individual players being inactive or feeling victimised :-)
ReplyDeleteIf you players that think they are victimised, then you have the wrong dynamics in the group, we had a very successful game this week with 55 units and 5 players on the first outing.
ReplyDeleteA different dynamic not necessarily ‘wrong’, I just prefer group games to involve players as much as possible without any feeling left out./underused. Bat Cmd will certainly work for groups just my opinion that FOB is better in this regard. Bat Cmd is I think the superior 2 player game.
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