AAR Lee V Ian, Game 2

After I had played Lee at Maelstrom games it took me two weeks of fairly high pain levels to get over it, was it worth it? My brain says no not really but to hell with that!! So we were keen to try and get another game in as soon as possible to build on our experience with the rules. This was delayed a bit by Lee getting some metal fragments in his eye but this only slowed him down (he built the terrain boards whilst off work ready for the game!!!) So rather than brave the cold of Maelstrom we played in Lee's sauna. He knows I feel the cold more than you normal folk so had cranked up the heat in his man cave. I thought I would pass out it was so warm. We also had stools to perch on so it made for a far more pleasant experience.

A quick word on the boards, lee wanted something that would also be able to be used for 28mm as well as 15mm. Looking at the texture I thought originally he had over played the 28mm and that they would not be so good for 15mm. I was wrong, the bases stood fine on them and they worked well. Lee's games room is so big that this lay out took a rather small part of his total table space. It's a fantastic games room that I hope we will use plenty more in the future.

OK same drill as the time before. 800 points (ish) and Lee was fielding the Macedonian army again and I was using the Persian. Lee has painted up a few more units whilst I have not rebased anything in the last two months but had plenty of options. Both of us learnt lessons from the last game so our armies had changed. Lee had added Elephants (4 of them) and had cut back on the light foot but mostly reduced his cavalry commitment. I had binned a unit of Hoplites and upgraded two of my Cavalry to the best I had on offer. I also had one Paphalgonian Javelin/LightSpear LC unit but it was larger that the original. Another upgrade was the Commander, I went inspired. Again the main idea was to get to know the rules rather than play for kidneys so we both were to do things, just to see that would not happen in a normal game.

At start set up, the village in the foreground was used as much because Lee had just bought it recently and painted it for the game, though it was placed as per set up, unlike the river that was added for the same reason but out of the way as it was just added for eye candy. Now given that Lee 6 weeks ago had no terrain for 15mm at all, suddenly we had plenty, we still need vineyards and olive tree groves which I need to supply but we agreed that I would do these post March 20th as I am in a painting contest. Both Lee and myself dislike the terrain set up rules that with odd dice could have all the terrain in one area, it makes a mockery of winning initiative if then dice decide where a terrain piece starts, lets face it, you have as much chance that that hill you picked will be in your opponents area as your own, and very little chance of it being in your centre. So we simply changed it so that you can place the piece but the rolls for changing it's position were still kept. Having won initiative again I went first.

Again my plan was to get the lights as far forward as possible and slow down the pike. Causing casualties would be a bonus but add a few turns to making contact was the aim of the game. I wanted to win on both flanks but overloaded my left to I hoped guarantee a quick win there. On the right I thought just a Medium Infantry should shake out a couple of lights and backed them with Light Horse bow armed and Cavalry with bow and Sword. Clearly enough.

Lee had the pike in the centre with Elephants protecting the flanks. On his right he had two BG's of Cavalry Lance and two Light Horse, one Javelin the other Lance. His left was just a BG of Cretans and another of Javelin/Light Spear. I had high hops on the flanks, no hope in the centre.

I was to move the left hand Hoplite BG onto the forward hill, knowing this would speed up contact but keen to give Lee a taste of what they could do and hoping that by then his flanks would be shredded. My camp is that sheet of plastic!! well by the next game it will be populated, finished the figures yesterday, now I just need to paint and flock the base and arrange the figures then I can hold my head high.

Oh so brave, Lee was charging them every opportunity and they just melt away, unfortunately often by far to much (AGAIN!!!), fearsome view though. Elephants can really be vulnerable as losing just one base will remove the whole unit but the -2 for shooting and -1 for Elephants really made this a difficult prospect as I could not get enough shots in and when I did Lee would need to roll a 1 to loose out. Rather frustrating as they stood up well but it all added to the fun.

Oh the first of many charges on my right flank. I did get them right up to the board edge where the Cretans would have had to face me but at this point my guys had lost their puff and the disruption they had picked up stopped them charging in. If only I had taken the LC along as well I could have netted at least one unit on that flank and the baggage, in the end nothing more than keeping two LF BG's out of the battle was achieved. Lesson learnt.

I tried being sneaky but I know I missed a rule that would not have been in my favour (I failed to step forward)I charged his Lances with a unit that could only get one base into contact so the impact phase had less effect and allowed my Javelin armed LC to fire. I had charged his LH which had evaded hence the nice looking lines. The net result was the Companions picked up a Disruption, yes Persian Cavalry did something, these were one of the two better BG's, both of which matched the Companion regiment for Quality and Armour though the guys behind were Agima and as such better quality. Note the use of my casualty marker :-)

Midgame and Lee is closing in whilst I fail to put a single dent in the attacking troops. I think next time it will be Javelin Light foot.

The lights on the right, are in fact Prodromoi Lance armed and in trouble. These also disrupted but they managed to do the same to me and I lost a base as well! But they had just 4 bases in the combat whilst I had four and that's before reduction for being lights. I had a good chance of rolling these.

OOOOps! My Cavalry get to grips with the Pike, shame really then it was really the other way round. The pike charged my lights who scarpered and left the Cavalry to take the hit. They help up fairly well but went Disrupted and lost a base. Being Cavalry they at least could get out of it.

Crunch time. My hoplites take on the whole Phalanx and hold out well. Out numbered on the dice they took their lumps and whilst Lee was causing me to loose bases I was doing the same to him but I was also losing Cohesion. The hill was all that was keeping me in it.

Push comes to shove! Close up of the action in the centre. I know I can't win but they held for a few turns, a victory in itself.

Time for Lee to have a play. In a normal game he would have waited but wanting to see if he could make a dent in me he charged up hill into my second Hoplite unit. The nett result was a lucky casualty save after becoming disrupted. The tough girls just kept taking the lumps right to the end of the game. Lee was lucky here as he should have lost them but next time, oh yes next time.

On the other flank I had a chance to charge into the rear of the other Elephants with my lights. As this is a auto drop in Cohesion I was eager to get that done. I passed my Complex test and needed 3 or more to contact so of course rolled a 2 and fell short. A shame as along with a good set of shooting rolls I could have got rid of these guys.

The game ended here. On my left I had routed the Companions and they were destined to go off board without rallying, the Lance LC had been destroyed and the same fate was soon to happen to the Javelin armed LC whilst the Agema was facing off against two fully ordered Persian Cavalry at full strength. This would leave the pike without protection as the nellies were off forward. I doubt I would have stopped the destruction of my centre though. The right was a joke with neither of us doing more than chasing each others tail. We called it a draw though it would have been fun to leave set up to continue to the end.

Lessons learnt. Most important was that we really do like these rules. I hope the Impetus rules grab me as much as these as then I will be truly happy with my Ancients gaming choices. We got used to the rule book a little more, though I am still baffled why they hide RULES in the Glossary section????? They score low on layout and order but if you want fast play rules these seem to fit really well. I am now supposed to be re-basing my ECW for the Renaissance rules sometime in the none too distant as it has fueled Lee to advance that bit further (Help anyone?) As I headed out the door Lee commented on how he needed to finish off a Naps unit that night, whilst I was more concerned with a sit down and maybe a nap happy in the knowledge of a bloody fine day.

So this is what he finished. I'm rather green with envy. Nice one Lee. thanks for the hospitality and a great day. Lets get to the next game.

SNIPER!

This really is a cross post from my other ASL only blog. It can be great to have a project that melts two different parts of the same hobby into one, this is the case with my Sniper project. I must admit though, it's been a challenge to get exactly what I wanted but finally it's fallen into place. Selecting figures was not really too difficult, the original idea was to use sniper figures but I struggled to find figures that looked like I wanted them to. Basically I could buy a pack of 4 figures and use just one from the pack. This just did not float my boat. So I went after just riflemen, well in one of the packs it also came with a LMG so it will be interesting how that one goes down. Mostly I have gone with Artizan so far, but I also have a large number of Boltaction, though I prefer the former. What was far less easy was the picking out of bases and this is the area I have wasted the most money trying to get it right. Originally I was working with the plastic hexagonal base with the numbers painted on. The idea being that the number pointing towards you is the sniper number. This remained the cheap option right up to the end, but the main idea was using Heroclix bases. This had the advantage that they are readily available and can be picked up with a figure on them for around £1 + postage. The first ones I bought were 1st edition that was difficult to turn but would have worked though a little fiddly. Scratch a few quid. Then I ordered what looked like a base twist. I bought 16 of these but it turned out you had to hold onto the figure to turn them and what's more, they were very stiff. Figures would just come away from the base. Scratch £15!!! Only then did I find the Oreo style base, these I could still get at about the same price as long as I did not mind damaged figures (given I was cutting them off, I really did not mind!!) The problem is that the dial numbers did not have the number range I was needing (2-7) so I was going to have to replace the template. Not a major issue as I downloaded templates off the Internet but it's all time and effort. Then I discovered the Warbases casualty markers in Wargames Soldiers & Strategy issue 58. The plinth version of what I am using was being reviewed. Whilst not perfect it was close enough for me and looking on their website I saw the version I have used. The dial has a range of 1-12, plenty more than I need. The dial in fairness is slightly larger than I need but allows plenty of modeling space. the pictures below are of the bases almost finished, tufts need to be added but as I have ran out I need to nip out and get some more. I just have a few done at the bottom of the post.

Americans in greatcoats. Was a bit worried how these would come out, but rather pleased with the end result. You van see the tad for the dial sticking out at 11 O'clock. Simple system but works very well. I will do a full review of it at a later point.

Two 'Yanks' in normal battledress. These show off the decals I was talking about in the above post.The pic does not do them justice but I was in a hurry.

Much better shot. The decals (yes there are two on that arm) are between small and tiny. Company B also do 20mm decals, I don't even want to think about those!! I have painted up the 8 Yanks with a mix of uniform types and colours as they will never be used together.

A couple of Russians in winter padded clothing. I always thought of Russians in the pale brown but it seems the winter gear tended to be green. Must have stood out in the snow real nice. Again the basing needs work as you can see the figure base on the guy kneeling down.

The offensive LMG sniper, but at least he is back in the brown. With an extra mag in it's pouch hanging from his belt and a grenade stuffed in his boot I guess this guy means business.

All 21 painted and ready. Well 20 are ready, number 21 has to wait for a base (on order) and the tufts had not been added to any figures at that point. Below shows the figures from above to show off the numbers. You can also see the tufts which are by Army Painter.

Company B decals

Despite already being over budget both on my wargames neutral and actual project I could not resist trying out some of these Decals. Whilst it seems OK to miss out insignia on most of the WWII combatants, the Yanks seem plastered in the stuff. Recently I gave away a bunch of shield transfers as I was determined to paint all my shields by hand. In the case of these guys the detail is so small I gave in. As a test I have bought just one Divisions decals, this being the US 1st Infantry Division. If I can make a go of them I will buy a larger range (assuming I sell the figures in the first place LOL)
I got the decals from a distributor in the UK, this being The Wargames Command Post. Their web site is easy to navigate, has lots of colour pics to help with your choices. The decal range is stunning in it's breadth, not just WWII and they have a nice range of 28mm figures and seem to specialise in American suppliers. Whats more the $ to £ is not the good old bang it on so the price will not make you cough.

Back to the decals, one pack is £4 and the postage was a very reasonable 40p. I ordered these on Thursday, paying via Paypall, got a e-mail yesterday telling me they were in the post and today I received them, just after putting the finishing touches to the figures last night. Really you can't better service than that, so I am hoping I can work the decals well (water slide) and these will add that bit extra to the finished models.

So what did I get for £4?
45 stars and stripes patch,
72 Big Red 1 emblem (not all troops wore the stripes patch)
48 Private stripes,
12 Sargent stripes
16 Higher ranks stripes

so rather a lot for the money, these would stretch much further than I will require but I can see guys wanting other Divisions, so it's a good job a wide range is available.

Once the decals are in place and the figures based (waiting for delivery of these from Lee) I will send off to Curt for the painting contest and then present then here with the Russians. In the meantime I have a Viking to paint up.

HaT's off to the Little fellows?

As I mentioned about a month ago I had bought a couple of boxes of plastics just to try them out in preparation to starting a army to face off against Barry's slowly expanding armies. Having not even decided an army it was always a bit of a punt. More important was the experience of painting the figures as the last time I painted plastics was around the age of 16 and really and in Enamels, so not really comparable. My first mistake was really just buying them, the price on the box was £4.99 whilst Harfields sell the same boxes for a little over £3 but it was only a couple of boxes so no harm done. Sure when I know exactly what I want it will be through these guys that I go.

So I have started work on the one Roman Auxiliaries pack number 8065 so what are my first observations?

Detail Quality. The detail is not as crisp as metal but it's there. Some area's such as the bottom of the chainmail vests is thin but other like the necktie is really crisp. Overall not bad at all, better than some metal castings not as good as most.

The flash is mostly reserved for the mould lines and it took me awhile to get used to how easy it is to cut away and get the touch right so all I would take away is the flash. As in some metals some of the figures have flash running through the faces, this is a real pain but what can you do.

Pose. Nice mix of standing and action. If you use the whole box you will have some great mixed posed troops in the process of engaging the enemy but also a unit or two that look like they don't want any part of the battle. The figures are cheap enough just to bin the less warlike poses I guess but are too wooden to make good casualties, though I might try a little heat experiment to double them up etc.

Problems. My box of these were missing two sprue, I did not count at the time but I should have had 45 figures but received 35, so down by 10. It seems this is a bit of a problem as Barry recently bought a box of HaT that had a Prussian Naps sprue in the box instead of the correct one. Given this was just test painting it was no big deal but a concern given the small test pool all having issues. Next problem was all down to a lack of prior knowledge. The figures come with separate spears and shields that need gluing in place. First I bought Plastic weld which had no effect on the parts what so ever. Next was normal plastic cement that held a little before pinging off. In the end I bought a glue gun and after about 20 minutes of trial had enough control to not make a total mess of it. Really not ideal so I really need to work something out for later. I plan to try harder plastic figures which should stick better and are easier to paint.

Overall the painting of them whilst not as pleasurable than metal was fine. I could have got them done quicker if I had got the gluing down in one go but I can paint them fairly fast so getting an army together should not be an issue aside from picking it, and getting it into the schedule as all other painting is off whilst I get the WWII stuff sorted (well maybe get my camp done for FoG).

Overall I was pleased with the result. I really like the mix of poses and as I have not stuck to rigid lines they have the look of about to make contact. Whilst I copied the box art for these two units (I did not research at all for this!!) the shields are missing two little half moons next to the boss, this is because I did not trust myself not to make a mess of them and I really liked the results I had achieved on the shields as it was. Shown are two units based for Impetus.

Conclusion.

Not 100% happy with HaT, the shields did not fit the plugs on the figures hands but I did like the idea of having two so you could vary the pose. Also the difficulty of gluing was a pain but looking at the price and range HaT are still a good buy. But even so I will try my hand at a few other ranges and see what I come up with. Right now I plan to just get what I have worked through some and then go after my 20mm army. In the meantime I will happily continue to play with Barry's figures.

Bloody Good Stuff!!!

Just back from the Hospital and just feel the need to shout about it. Often this of course means you have had some bad experience, well I am glad to say that's not the case. My treatment for my condition requires blood removal. This is to the tune of a pint every two weeks (though I have to go back next week for another session so that will be two pints in two weeks). This is the only way to get the iron levels down. Well the good news is that due to a mix of Blood Reductions, not eating (or drinking) from my banned list and lifestyle (none serious exercise-which at the moment means almost none!!!) my Ferritin is dropping at well over the average and whilst I am still more than twice the fatal level it's much better than the 4 times I was at the start of treatment. Not only that but my red blood cells are holding out so I can continue with the punishing level of treatment. The only fly in the ointment is the lack of recovery from fatigue, whilst I continue the reductions at the pace they are at the moment I will of course have a fairly high level of fatigue but the bone crunching levels should have started to drop off. As this varies on a case by case level it's not too much concern as yet and the level of pushing I did before the collapse of my body may well be a major factor. Lesson for you all, whilst you may lay it all on the line for your company they can cut you so quick when your no use to them.

Overall it's a good day, so I am rather upbeat, so much that I sneaked into the local game store and bought the two missing paints for my Yanks I am about to start. Just don't tell the wife LOL.

Crete The Battle and the Resistance Book Review

New to this blog, but old to my other blog is the book review. I decided to swap the reviews to this blog for a couple of reasons. First of all in the polls I ran the Book Reviews were fairly low on popularity as they were not directly attached to ASL. Secondly, given that I try to keep everything on Wall Advantage WWII based it limited the reviews to just WWII and the surrounding periods. Moving it here allows other historical periods and even dare I say it fiction.

Antony Beevor is greatly respected as a WWII Popular Historian. His work on Stalingrad and Berlin are seen as some of the best mainstream books on the subject. His writing style and skill supplies a good mix of information and a feel for the battle that more dry number based accounts fail to achieve. So when I mentioned elsewhere that I was going to/was reading the book I was taken back by the amount of negative comments. Well maybe not negative, more, not his best work to his worst book kind of comments. Well I pressed on and I can see where they are coming from, but that as always is half a story.

Beevor does not start in Crete but Greece, which is required to both set the scene and help explain what follows. This was welcome as whilst I did know formations that were beaten up were sent to Crete I did not know about others that were not, nor about the units that were left in Crete such as Cretan Regiments that would have fought well on home soil. It covers the usual foul ups and missed chances that always seems to go with Commonwealth Operations but also has a very interesting view of what I will call the ULTRA excuse. I read this book whilst I was playing a campaign on Crete and it was great to be using a historical map and seeing places mentioned in the book whilst I was fighting over them.

Moving onto the battle itself I was only confused about one thing, the lackluster praise I had heard from my fellow gamers. This was just as interesting as Stalingrad and in my mind better than Berlin (both of which I want to re-visit due to this reading). In parts tragic, funny and valiant. Both sides have their moment of glory, well three sides really as The native Cretans did more than their part. But also shame and folly. All in all this section of the book is very strong and I did not want it to end as quickly as it did. This seems a good point to break the book down into it's three parts. Part one Greece 56 pages. Part Two The Battle 176 pages. Part Three 84 pages.

This is the rub. The last 84 pages will seem after all the action to be rather bland. Most of the events seem trivial, and worse repeats of previous actions. Your enjoyment of this section of the book I believe will rest on the amount of interest you have in Guerrilla Wars and Resistance fighters. I suspect the comments I had heard from others shows they had little interest themselves. Again though even if you have an interest the value of the accounts are somewhat reduced through repartition. Personally I found this section interesting at first and whilst I never became bored of it, I was glad to finish it. The exact opposite of Part 2. I think it's a case of too little stretched to far. 40 odd pages and you get the flavour without the gristle but it's the chewing not the flavour that seems o stick in the mind.

Overall I think it's a good book, I am glad I read Part Three but when I read it again I may well skip the last part. If you have an interest in Crete then I can recommend the book fully, as I could if you have interest in Paratroop drops or just a good old war story.

I have somehow managed to get two copies of the book so I am offering one up as a giveaway (the unread one LOL). So between now and the end of February any follower leaving a comment on this blog will be entered in the draw (once) and the lucky winner will be announced as soon as I get round to forcing the kids to pick a name out. Again to join in you need to be a follower so anyone accusing me of trying to pad out my followers is 100% correct!

Good Luck and all that.

6th and 7th Hussars enter the rolls.

These guys have been painted for so long one of them was snuck onto my most recent Naps game! I finished them a couple of weeks ago but it was getting round to getting Cath to take the pictures. In the end it was a case of clearing some space on the painting table so the pics are not the best but do the job. These will join the Irregular Hussars I have already painted. I still have plenty to go at though. The figures by Baccus which is the second lot of cavalry I have painted of there's and have yet to paint any of there foot. Post March 20th I will be looking at doing a string of them.

This is the 7th Hussars, with a basic uniform of Green. I managed to screw up and paint the horse of the Trumpeter brown. I know they should be white or grey but I had a brain fart and as I did the 6th at the same time I messed him up as well.

The detail on the figures is really good. I still have to paint them in daylight though but the next lot I am going to undercoat in white and wash in black to see if that helps. As I paint the whole figure rather than paint highlights I gain little from undercoating in black.

I don't think zooming into 6mm tall figures really does them any favours but I wanted to show off the lace on the Pellese. The game I mentioned above was not their finest hour, I am hoping for better next time I fight them.

I mentioned detail above, but can you see the pigtails? After some debate I changed the colour of the roll on the rear of the saddle, it should be the same as the uniform not the facing but it just looked like a continuation of the jacket so I reversed the colours. I am happy with the decision even if it's not correct.

Now all we need to do is sort out rules that we are happy with and it's onward. I now have to upscale as I am back to 28mm WWII and have to get my 20mm Roman Axilia snapped.

AAR A Field of Glory Clash!

For my second outing with the rules the plan was to have a warm body on the opposite side of the table. Instead I had to settle for a shivering mass of humanity that goes by the name of Lee. Whilst I really can't fault Maelstrom games for their excellent facilities which includes free use of 60+ tables!!! we just happened to pick a cold day to play. Two other guys were there playing Flames of War and one of them was trying to move his figures with padded gloves on!!! Not only do they provide the tables but also they allow free use of a large mix of terrain, though most of this in fact is more suited to 28mm and a lot of it would be warhammer 40K but still plenty enough to make use (though I had taken my hills and got good use out of them).

So to test run the rules and get Lee's just arrived army out we went for a Late Achaemenid Persian V Alexandrian Macedonian for about 800 points. In fact both of us pipped the points by about 20 so as evenly matched as it would get.

Above is the set up, can anyone see the pike? Now Lee had bought his army off E-bay as he could not wait to get something on the table to play. Yes he owns all the figures for this army in unpainted lead but it did not stop him going for it! As it was advertised as being 800 points and I already knew what came with it I tried a little force matching. The army came with 4 elephants so I fully expected to see these on the table. This was the first thing I got wrong as Lee had been painting up units before weakness struck and swapped out the elephants for some of these units. We both had a three reconnaissance score so it was down to the dice. We tied the rolls until finally after 4 re-rolls I got the draw on him.

Set up was a pain, neither of us like the idea of picking terrain only for the dice to throw them all over the board. In fact your opponent seems to have more say where they go than you do. Am I missing something? Certainly an area of the rules we need to re-read in depth. This was really the biggest sticking point of the game. Lee ha only so far read the rules, no trial for him and when we came to the first combat he confessed to being somewhat confused about the POA but when I explained how it worked to my understanding he was quickly up to speed. Both of us agree the rules are about as badly set out as you could manage.

I had two advantages over Lee. First I had played the rules through once but more importantly I had read a beginners battle report on one of the blogs and knew that getting a missile block of 8 bases is much better than having a block of 6. But even better was my getting 8 slingers against his 4 Cretan Archers, I was happy to trade shots and then go for the melee. Sure enough I was quick to disorder him and soon these were fragmented and caught in an evade for the first rout of the game. I must say these went down fairly quickly but as Lee was in one thin line and no reserves I could just keep going after them. Really these should have been in front of the Pike. This breaking allowed me to go after his baggage as I planned to try and break his army before the Pike got into the battle.

My Next success was driving off his left Flank, in fact it could be said I had one Cavalry BG too many on this flank but time was to show this was not the case. Lee could not hold me on this side but I could not contact him. Here the dice just hated me. Every variable distance roll from this point on on this flank yielded me a 1 or -2 to my charge. Lee always rolled enough to get out of my way. In the meantime his bow fire got a lucky disorder which I never had the opportunity to shake off.

Meanwhile he had drive off my Parthyaian LC which took awhile to get back into position. On the other flank I also suffered a disorder to Javelin Armed LC, rather unlucky but I was rolling pants on Cohesion test after test. Lee then charges the two other Cavalry bases with his Lance armed Companions whilst fragmenting my disordered Cavalry with those horrid Javelin LC.

Next turn and it all went wrong. Whilst one BG of Cavalry remained solid I lost one of the LC BG's to those bloody Javelin LC, my Fragmented Cavalry turn and flee even though they have the General with them, and then one of the other two Persian Cavalry breaks. All of a sudden I have no flank!

Remember my first victory? well they finally make contact with the enemies fortified camp (two charges rolling a 1 for VMD added one extra turn to contact! Obviously this task was to much for them as they kept rolling far to low to take it. Very frustrating. Whilst we could have played on it was fairly obvious who was going to win and by now the room was filling up as the evening groups (Tuesday and Thursday are late nights till 11PM) arrived. Simply put I was worn out, cold and was struggling to pay attention.

Findings.

Both of us liked the rules overall. Yep a few bits left us either confused or thinking that's not right. We are both keen to play again and think we will stick with the rules, not 100% happy but it feels a better and faster game than 6th edition and the lack of bookkeeping is fantastic.

Not enough missile troops but despite the poor range of Javelin you can get them in there, and with anything other than my dice you should whack the beggars as they try to run!

Mistakes were there, but no howlers. CMT's were missed by me, as I get more used to the rules I will be able to pay sufficient attention to whats going on.

Tactically I think I was sound but being unsure of the rules did not make enough use of what I had, I also used terrain to hinder Lee but in fact it was me who suffered so will think on that.

Both of us are looking at the results, what we fielded and tweaking the armies for next time. A rather good sign I think.

Once we got going a lot of the tests and mechanics became routine and we knew the results without having to look to much up. Should play fast and fun.

Oh yes one last point. If you go to the trouble of painting casualty markers, why not take them with you? I was not pleased with myself!!!

Are you being heard?

Both of my blogs have recently seen less comments and having found it impossible to leave comments on another blog until after I told them about the problem I have tried to sort out a problem I don't know that I have. Get me? Well no matter. If you have not been able to leave comments before, please try again and if you can I would love to hear about it.