Seven Years War action with 18th Century Principles Of War

Game at Stephens with him picking 18th Century Principles Of War as rules to use.

So he fielded Austrians against my Prussians.

We have used these rules once before but managed to somehow cock them up big style.

This time we realised that the concept of Command Markers is new from original POW and once we saw how they worked in conjunction with Orders and PiPs we were impressed as the system seems to generate a game that certainly 'feels' very SYW-ish.

Frederick's lot have some decent but not overwhelming advantages such as double moves when on Blinds and more chance of setting up as attackers which combined with better overall Command and Troop quality (Freddie is only Professional Officer available to any Army) makes them potent.

This is offset of course but being outnumbered by the Austrians for whom initial Deployment and Orders can be crucial.
Austrian cannons (out number Prussians 3:1) also are good balancing assets.

We did not finish the game but played enough to really enjoy the game system.
I see us playing this one again.

Seven Years War bash using 18th Century Principles Of War rules

Game at Stephens today using 18thC POW rules.

I fielded a tough but tiny Prussian force against Stephens Austrians.

A good game with me trying to attack on my right only (very Freddie like) but getting into a traffic jam when a wooded area turned out to be impassable.

In POW you dice for terrain density when about to enter (or starts in your deployment zone) with my rolling the requisite 1 to make it a no go area !!

We were a bit unsure how rules handled what they term Trotter Firepower cavalry (not sure if they had to shoot compulsorily or could charge) but went with them being just slightly underpowered mounted type.

Bigger faux pas was forgetting that Prussian movement bases go double speed and even more glaring error was mucking up Melee outcomes (we forget about winner vs loser outcomes somehow !!??)

Still a good set of rules although like Black 

Powder movement is very free and easy which whilst simple to play does sort of seen bit odd for SYW troops.

Phone pics so bit fuzzy

Frederickian traffic jam

Austrian horse await

Damnable nuisance Grenzer defend cultivated area

Austrian foot defend Rough Hill

Catching up

Been a busy few days so behind on postings

Did manage to finish the Die Fighting II game with Prussians coming out on top mainly due to their Left Wing mounted Command annihilating Russians horse and then turning on the flank of adjacent Russian Infantry Brigade.
Quite a satisfying game as initial try with DFII, lots of decision points in the game especially with Command Dice Allocation and in particular that of the CinC.
Once things go against an army its status can degenerate very quickly in DF.

I then used exactly same forces and table (no time to re-arrange) for try out of 18th Century Principles Of War rules.
Really like sequence of play (reminiscent of old WRG 1645-1815 set) and the fact that hard for mounted to charge home against steady Infantry.
Rather more bookkeeping involved, as units use Strength Points, but use of small dice alleviated this.
Tactical movement system rather generous maybe for 18th Century troops but otherwise a fine and very playable set of rules.

Also played a game of Field Of Glory Renaissance at Stephens (he is big fan of these) with my Early Imperialists against a Later Swedish force.
This proved to be a very interesting game with a lot of bloodshed on both sides.