The first scenario went very well, I enjoyed creating the narrative that ran alongside it, and was especially pleased when the real James Boyle, wrote a letter to his mother about the battle, putting himself in the footsteps of his ancestor. I intend to include it in part two of the campaign. The second scenario is linked to the first one, in as much as the remaining brigade of each division, is engaged there, we already know the outcome of the fight between Brown's and Moulden's Brigades, but as yet do not know what happened just to the East.
I am not totally happy with the way I am marking casualties, it involves using lots of coloured, plastic discs. They do show the current state of each unit clearly to the viewer/reader, but do look rather unsightly.
There are a number of alternatives which I can experiment with. As there are only a maximum of six units per side in these rules. Each could be numbered in some way, and a simple tally chart, old school style, kept off the table and out of view, to record the current casualties. However, as this game is being played with the reader in mind, they would have no visual sign as to how each unit was performing.
A second option, and one that I shall implement in the next battle, is to use a single disc, with a micro dice on top. So a yellow disc with a micro dice would indicate its losses from 1 -5, then a blue disc 6 - 10, and finally a red disc 11 - 14. On 15, the unit is of course destroyed and removed from the table.
A third, and more radical idea, would be to reduce each units hit points down from 15 to 5, and each unit that fires, rolls two dice, 4, 5 and 6 counting as hits, adjusted for cover, elite etc. It would of course still need some sort of visual reminder placed with the unit.
The game itself was fast and furious, exactly as the author of the rules intended, I thoroughly enjoyed playing out the battle, but of course it took a good deal longer than an hour, due to me, stopping to photograph and write up the next part of the narrative. Simply playing out the scenario would have certainly taken a good deal less than 60 minutes.
Another couple of things I learnt from this was firstly, Minie ball as opposed to Mini ball, as I wrote it in the narrative. The ball was named after its inventor, who also designed a rifle too. Secondly, the hand towel I used as a cloth, although originally pale green in colour, has over time faded to look almost white in the photographs, a couple of readers thought I was simulating snow. So a darker towel will need to be found.
Onward to the next battle!
