Another game of BB39 play testing.

[Leslie BT]

Out of interest what are the armies that the other play testers are using?

Another game of BB39 today.
We took the smallest army with cavalry and the largest army but with out the gun and cavalry, waste of hard-earned points.
So the defender had 3 household foot, 7 retinue foot, 1 retinue cavalry, 2 household cavalry, 13 units.
The attacker had 1 household foot, 11 retinue foot, 7 levy.
Game took 2 hours and lasted for 6 turns.  Result defender 56 points, attacker 8 points.
Attacker generals' CinC target, sub general 1 target, unreliable, morale, sub general 2 unreliable.
Defender generals CinC assault.
The defender lost 12 half bases and 3 units off table.
Scenery.
Attacker.
Gentle hill, empty, empty, meadow.
Empty, empty, empty, empty.
Wood, empty, marsh (removed in scenario setup), empty.
Rough hill, wood, empty, buildings.
Defender edge, nothing was moved in the setup.
Conclusions.
Generals worked well, a couple died.
We had a general advance by both sides, the cavalry charged a zone with two units in it, the unit fell back as it was about to be charged by a strong ward the cavalry had past through.
Both sides assaulted, with usually the defender winning as there were more bases in his army and new strong levy could be brought up to relieve units suffering casualties. So the attacker was beaten back and some units pushed off table.  We felt that the levy are to strong in fights etc.  there are no downs for the levy and not many ups for the household.  So there is little difference between the best and the worst troops in the army.  Both side hit the 14 dice cap several times and only once did we get to the minimum of 4 dice cap.
Cavalry, guns, hand gunners, and other incidents could just become assets and then create some differences between the various armies that fought in this era.  This could be linked to army lists that would create armies of the different factions, royalist, barons, or just the loyal forces of the landed gentry.

[martin goddard]

Once again Les an excellent  play test report. Thank you.
Will get next BB out in a day or two.

1. We will experiment increase defender "losses". Trouble is, that defender gets no advantage  for digging in etc. Thus attacker will have more troops on table (assuming the armies are of similar size, there being no reason either player would compulsorily have less) if defender has lost some bases and units late. Therefore attacker should win every fight because he has more? How will defender compensate for having less of an army?
2. If a ward falls back from a cavalry charge, the cavalry still get the chance to roll D6 per unit.  5,6=unit destroyed.
3. The 14 D6 dice cap seems most unpopular with all play testers (except martin!). I may drop this to see how it goes.
4. Assuming both players have similar armies; how can the defender win with less troops and probably 1 hill? Victory point adjustment?
5. i will do something about levy.  We can do some led Zeppelin  on them


Once again thanks for play testing.
There are 3 groups play-testing.  France, Weymouth and Bournemouth. This  means we need to play about 30 games per group in total before the rules are well formed. Not a problem.

[Nick]

Out of interest what are the armies that the other play testers are using?

Not used any cavalry yet. All games so far have been with identical armies. 4 units of levy, 2 household, all the rest retinue infantry, plus 2 light guns each.

Nick

[martin goddard]

I have used various ones.
Thursday was 12 retinue. 1 household.   Then 3 cavalry units.No guns.  This was 65 points.
Matt had 4 guns (2 light/2 heavy)  1 household 4 retinue 10 levy   I think??

My cavalry  never turned up. Oh well ; i did hear hooves but that was a local coconut sales person.

My retinue army defended and got well beaten. I pushed forward on my right at the game and and took a hill. I lost my whole left flank and half of the centre, thus two table columns lost.
Matt's guns were devastating but that was the ides of Mach arriving late. Killed 7 half bases in one turn of shooting. Ouch.
3 generals in total died.


My favourite army would be along the lines of 3 cavalry, 2 household and about 10 levy.

[Nick]

Re: defender losses.
It's a tricky balance to get right. Losing units to become reinforcements is okay, but nobody likes having whole units removed from the game before the start without some chance of them coming back again later.

[Leslie BT]

BB41 arrived today so try out the changes.