Some valuable lessons were learned during the playtesting, so the rules will have a further version, after which we may publish them here.
For the delight of the easily amused and the edification of the readily distracted here is a report of our first skirmish game, one that will possibly prove both partisan and highly innacurate.
The game was set in central Europe at the height of the Napoleonic wars, perhaps around 1809 or 1810.
Because young Mr S was a late inclusion we broke up the figures to make four teams (the game usually requires each player to field a "team" of five figures).
The game, very ably designed by Cpl A was a treasure hunt. Each team entered the table in search of a chest of gold rumoured to be hidden somewhere on a sprawling country estate. Every kind of chancer was present, including four redoubtable and honourable Tyrolean freedom fights (Dr S), four villainous French voltiguers (Cpl A), four treachorous Russian musketeers and jagers (Mr T) and three bottom-feeding deserters drawn from all the nations (young Mr S).
The scenario was full of uncertainty. Each player was given an envelope prepared by the delightful Mrs A containing a secret search location, after which we each nominated a preferred starting position on a table edge. It was only after we made our nominations that we were told to pass the nomination slip to the player on our left. Curse you Cpl A! As a result we pretty much all entered in random and unhelpful places.
The object was for each team to try to reach its search location. Once reached, characters (figures) could use their activations to make search rolls. A successful roll (any even number on a die) would earn the player a new envelope that could either contain a new search location (they have found a clue) or the gold. Once a player found the chest of gold he needed a net Strength of 3 to lift and carry it. (Individual characters have a number of abilities each randomly rated 1-4, so one or more characters might be needed to lift the chest). The winner is ultimately whomever can carry the chest off the table.
The table depicted a large manor farm including the actual house complex with a stable and barn enclosing a walled courtyard, a water mill, ploughed and hedged fields, a vineyard, some smaller buildings (perhaps cottages) and other features. However in the event the game was played out largely in a corridor directly leading to the manor house.
And here is the manor from a slightly different angle showing the plantation and the water mill. These features were all to be crucial in the fighting to come.
At the start of play the three deserters entered from behind the ploughed field, coming from the north. Everyone else entered from the south, and almost on top of each other. The French and Russians both entered adjacent to the plantation, while the Tyroleans entered next to the water mill, and on the wrong side of the stream (over which there was no bridge or ford). The rules would require the Tyroleans to jump across. Given their low Agility scores and this player's terrible luck with dice, things did not bode well.
The Tyroleans started by running as quickly as possible to shelter behind the water wheel. The deserters began to rush from cover to cover, carefully sneaking up to the manor house. The French and Russians found themselves horribly exposed and ran as fast as possible for the dubious shelter of the plantation. As a result they became separated into smaller groups. (The rules use a random activation system based on the turn of cards, so players trying to rush will be obliged to move some characters more quickly and more often others).
The men in the plantation began to exchange shots. One of the Frenchmen, who had strayed too close to the Russians, was shot in the leg and fell badly wounded. His friends abandoned their attempt to push directly towards the mill (which it turned out was their initial search target) and turned for the safety of the manor barn.
[Above] The situation during the opening moves. A Frenchman is down badly wounded, while the others pull back towards the barn at the top of picture. Three Russians are grouped together near the lower edge of the plantation while a late comer is approaching from the right. Note the red marker, indicating that this character has been shot at and forced to dodge, losing his next activation.
The deserters were drawing close to the manor house. The Tyrolean deserter took up a prone firing position on a slight slope between the house and a large clump of bushes, to provide cover as his companions made for the door.
The Tyroleans leapt over the water race with surprising ease. Two men ran along the side of the mill and dived through a narrow window into the mill basement. The team leader (Herr Barsch) and his sidekick (the redoubtable Frau Helena) made for cover behind an upturned rowboat.
The game then took a sanguine turn. The Russian latecomer paused in his advance to bayonet to death the wounded Frenchman in the plantation. Then Frau Helena, a crackshot with a rifle, shot and killed one of the other Russians (whose retreat away from French fire had taken them dangerously close to the Tyroleans).
While the various national forces were engaged in this unpleasantness the deserters reached the manor house. Their first search location was the top floor of the house. While the Tyrolean sniper maintained his overwatch position the other two rushed into the house and up the stairs. They should have walked. One of the men tripped and fell, suffering a wound and concussion! (Even basic operations such as turning a corner at a run have a degree of difficulty requiring a skill test.)
The Russians were caught between a rock and a hard place. The Tyroleans had taken up firing positions behind the rowboat and in the windows of the watermill while the French were becoming established in the upper floor of the barn. The Russians sought cover in the trees, but the crossfire made it hard to find a safe place. Wounds were beginning to accumulate. The only saving grace was that the Tyroleans were dividing their fire, trying to dislodge the French from what was the Tyroleans' search area. In fact all three forces were in each other's way and unable to find a resolution to the impasse.
Meantime our conundrum allowed the dastardly deserters to steal a march. A cry went up and was heard all over the farm. The one deserter who had reached the top floor unscathed had conducted a search and found the gold! The whole dynamic of the game shifted immediately.
The deserter had to wait for his friend to recover and join him so they could carry the gold away. Meantime everyone else wanted to intercept them andsteal "liberate" it.
Herr Barsch and Frau Helena displaced from the rowboat and ran along the front of the mill under covering fire from the men in the windows above, heading for a small wood on a low rise overlooking the manor house. The Russians took this opportunity to make good their escape from the woods, heading towards the stream and the upturned boat.
Barsch and Helena made the shelter of the woods. They took up the overwatch so that the other Tyroleans could exit the mill and move to join them.
The wounded deserter recovered his senses and joined his companion on the top floor. They commenced the slow process of dragging the gold down two flights of stairs as the wolves closed in.
The French were continuing to snipe at the Russians, but were also slowly displacing, moving in ones and twos from the barn to the stables that adjoined the main house.
The Russians continued to sustain wounds. One unfortunate man was hit and wounded, and, when he tried to recover his feet and flee was shot in the back by a cowardly Frog and killed. The two Russian survivors made the shelter of the boat and prepared to ambush the gold should anyone succeed in removing it from the house.
Frau Helena continued to do fine work with her rifle. She took aim at the perfidious Tyrolean turncoat, whose head only was visible in his sniping position, and scored a crucial hit, inflicting a serious wound and robbing the deserters of the covering fire they were hoping to use to get away with the chest.
The other deserters paused on the middle floor and took aim at Frau Helena, scoring a hit with their muskets. Helena fell, badly wounded in the ankle. Meantime the wounded deserter crawled into the bushes, hoping from there to be able to recover enough to continue his covering fire.
Insensed by the wounding of Helena, the Tyrolean leader, Herr Barsch, decided to finish off the deserter himself. However Barsch had only a sword and pistol, and so would have to do this at close quarters. So began the epic Walk of Barsch the Tyrolean man mountain. He walked along the side and around the back of the bushes, keeping them between him and the deserters. Using this inadequate cover he kept stalking his prey at a walk, refusing to dodge as musket balls fell around him. (This performance led to many amusing jokes made in Austrian accents, including the coining of the immortal catch phrase "I'll be Barsch".)
This distraction allowed the other two Tyroleans to make a dash across open ground for a door in the western side of the manor house. French and Russian troops observed this movement but were so intent on shooting at each other that the Tyroleans made it into the manor house unscathed. The deserters were on the first floor sniping at Barsch so the other Tyroleans decided to dash up the stairs and take them in the rear.
This of course was a terrible mistake. The first man made it to the top of the stairs, but came on so precipitously that he was unaware of the chest of gold blocking the landing. He was brought up short, giving the French deserter a chance to finish loading his musket. The Frenchman turned and fired at the last possible moment. (There is some tension in the game because it takes time, and several activation cards, to fully load a weapon.) Our doughty patriot was hit square in the chest. He recoiled slightly and toppled into the stairwell, breaking his neck as he fell. The second man barely managed to leap across his comrade's lifeless form, but tripped over the chest as he tried to attack the Frenchman before he could reload. The French desterter struck out at the fallen man with the butt of his musket. The combat was unequal and brutal. The fallen Tyrolean rolled back and forth, lashing out wildly, but was soon knocked unconscious and left bleeding from numerous wounds. In a moment the Frenchman would be able to despatch him.
Meantime Barsch had reached the stricken Tyrolean deserter and stabbed him in the head with his sword. He may have waited to deliver a second killing blow, but became aware of the terrible plight of his countrymen in the house. He turned and again walked, ignoring shots from the window, into the house and slowly up the stairs.
Barsch's moment of vengeance had arrived. He calmly entered the upstairs room, addressed the two deserters who awaited him, and swung his mighty sword.
Only to miss completely, after which the two deserters both drew activation cards, swarming Barsch and clubbing him to death!
Frau Helena had recovered slightly and regained her feet, but when she realised all her comrades were dead or dying she withdrew from the field. Recognising that the deserters were well entrenched in the house, and with losses and wounds mounting from their own firefight the other factions also withdrew.
And so the deserters, under the able command of young Mr S won the day by acclaim, having outmanouevred and outfight superior numbers.
A very fun game all together will lots of tension and drama, and more than a few laughs.
The Tyroleans leapt over the water race with surprising ease. Two men ran along the side of the mill and dived through a narrow window into the mill basement. The team leader (Herr Barsch) and his sidekick (the redoubtable Frau Helena) made for cover behind an upturned rowboat.
The game then took a sanguine turn. The Russian latecomer paused in his advance to bayonet to death the wounded Frenchman in the plantation. Then Frau Helena, a crackshot with a rifle, shot and killed one of the other Russians (whose retreat away from French fire had taken them dangerously close to the Tyroleans).
While the various national forces were engaged in this unpleasantness the deserters reached the manor house. Their first search location was the top floor of the house. While the Tyrolean sniper maintained his overwatch position the other two rushed into the house and up the stairs. They should have walked. One of the men tripped and fell, suffering a wound and concussion! (Even basic operations such as turning a corner at a run have a degree of difficulty requiring a skill test.)
The Russians were caught between a rock and a hard place. The Tyroleans had taken up firing positions behind the rowboat and in the windows of the watermill while the French were becoming established in the upper floor of the barn. The Russians sought cover in the trees, but the crossfire made it hard to find a safe place. Wounds were beginning to accumulate. The only saving grace was that the Tyroleans were dividing their fire, trying to dislodge the French from what was the Tyroleans' search area. In fact all three forces were in each other's way and unable to find a resolution to the impasse.
Meantime our conundrum allowed the dastardly deserters to steal a march. A cry went up and was heard all over the farm. The one deserter who had reached the top floor unscathed had conducted a search and found the gold! The whole dynamic of the game shifted immediately.
The deserter had to wait for his friend to recover and join him so they could carry the gold away. Meantime everyone else wanted to intercept them and
Herr Barsch and Frau Helena displaced from the rowboat and ran along the front of the mill under covering fire from the men in the windows above, heading for a small wood on a low rise overlooking the manor house. The Russians took this opportunity to make good their escape from the woods, heading towards the stream and the upturned boat.
Barsch and Helena made the shelter of the woods. They took up the overwatch so that the other Tyroleans could exit the mill and move to join them.
The wounded deserter recovered his senses and joined his companion on the top floor. They commenced the slow process of dragging the gold down two flights of stairs as the wolves closed in.
The French were continuing to snipe at the Russians, but were also slowly displacing, moving in ones and twos from the barn to the stables that adjoined the main house.
The Russians continued to sustain wounds. One unfortunate man was hit and wounded, and, when he tried to recover his feet and flee was shot in the back by a cowardly Frog and killed. The two Russian survivors made the shelter of the boat and prepared to ambush the gold should anyone succeed in removing it from the house.
Frau Helena continued to do fine work with her rifle. She took aim at the perfidious Tyrolean turncoat, whose head only was visible in his sniping position, and scored a crucial hit, inflicting a serious wound and robbing the deserters of the covering fire they were hoping to use to get away with the chest.
The other deserters paused on the middle floor and took aim at Frau Helena, scoring a hit with their muskets. Helena fell, badly wounded in the ankle. Meantime the wounded deserter crawled into the bushes, hoping from there to be able to recover enough to continue his covering fire.
Insensed by the wounding of Helena, the Tyrolean leader, Herr Barsch, decided to finish off the deserter himself. However Barsch had only a sword and pistol, and so would have to do this at close quarters. So began the epic Walk of Barsch the Tyrolean man mountain. He walked along the side and around the back of the bushes, keeping them between him and the deserters. Using this inadequate cover he kept stalking his prey at a walk, refusing to dodge as musket balls fell around him. (This performance led to many amusing jokes made in Austrian accents, including the coining of the immortal catch phrase "I'll be Barsch".)
This distraction allowed the other two Tyroleans to make a dash across open ground for a door in the western side of the manor house. French and Russian troops observed this movement but were so intent on shooting at each other that the Tyroleans made it into the manor house unscathed. The deserters were on the first floor sniping at Barsch so the other Tyroleans decided to dash up the stairs and take them in the rear.
This of course was a terrible mistake. The first man made it to the top of the stairs, but came on so precipitously that he was unaware of the chest of gold blocking the landing. He was brought up short, giving the French deserter a chance to finish loading his musket. The Frenchman turned and fired at the last possible moment. (There is some tension in the game because it takes time, and several activation cards, to fully load a weapon.) Our doughty patriot was hit square in the chest. He recoiled slightly and toppled into the stairwell, breaking his neck as he fell. The second man barely managed to leap across his comrade's lifeless form, but tripped over the chest as he tried to attack the Frenchman before he could reload. The French desterter struck out at the fallen man with the butt of his musket. The combat was unequal and brutal. The fallen Tyrolean rolled back and forth, lashing out wildly, but was soon knocked unconscious and left bleeding from numerous wounds. In a moment the Frenchman would be able to despatch him.
Frau Helena had recovered slightly and regained her feet, but when she realised all her comrades were dead or dying she withdrew from the field. Recognising that the deserters were well entrenched in the house, and with losses and wounds mounting from their own firefight the other factions also withdrew.
And so the deserters, under the able command of young Mr S won the day by acclaim, having outmanouevred and outfight superior numbers.
A very fun game all together will lots of tension and drama, and more than a few laughs.
