Club day on Sunday

Initial game set up.

And I had booked in a game of "Donnybrook" . Having not played it before I was not sure how long a game would take. Yes That caught me out It was far quicker than I thought.
I set the board up thinking initially that we might get two games in. Yeah right! We ended up with 5 games. A big thanks to Matt and Tim for playing and helping me sort out the rules and a game. Tim took the British while Matt was the French.

GAME 1

First turn

The British were pounding the French Fort with artillery so the French had sent a sallying raiding force to drive of the gunners. (The Artillery in this game were only an objective and not a fighting force.)

We were all just finding our feet in the first turn and we learnt very quickly that close order infantry in cover are actually really good even for the infamous dice rolling of Tim!

Dice rolling aside, the rules we found were really bloody. Matt lost 1/2 a unit of infantry in the first round of shooting.  Which meant when they fired back they were only able to take out 1/4 of Tim's closest troops. Which left neither unit on morale checks.





2nd Turn. Where are all the French?

The Turn over card was flipped and lo and behold. Tim's Grenadiers shot again. The Rest on Matts Drilled line infantry were then killed to a man! Matts cavalry got a turn and they charged Tim's Indians. The cavalry do not move as fast as I would hope in a game like this so they only just made it. But only with the first few figures and not the whole line. Melee is fought but the results were inconclusive.












Third Turn and the French Infantry are all gone!

 On the last turn before the Indians and cavalry have the chance to conclude matters, Tim has both his grenadiers and his line infantry units fire which wipe out Matts elite line in a single turn. The turn over card is flipped and as matt is now below 50% of starting figures both units and characters. The game ends and the French fort can continue to be bombarded.








Game 2

The scenario was that the French (Matt) had to raid the town and as such I gave them an extra point in their force compared to Tim. Thus 4 French to 3 British. Matt decided to take a cannon this time to try out the cannon optional rules. (So he claimed)!

Initial set up

First few turns were all about getting into position.
The cannon fired managed to get 8 d8 hits
but only caused 1 casualty, but scared the bejezuss out of all the players.
But the Game ended pretty quickly with Matt's cavalry only getting one move the entire game.
 

 Game 3.

With 1 victory a piece Tim was now the attacker. His mission was to gather livestock. Matt took another cannon (he seems to like them) and a couple of line infantry squads. Tim had only grenadiers and line infantry. (No Indians or cavalry this time on either side)

Matt's cannon has trouble getting in arc of fire. but infantry from both sides open fire.
The random event cards did bring on a brief downpour and musketry was halted for the
next turn!
 

Tim rolls better dice and our first morale check of the day.
Matt's infantry are forced to pull back. Well the Two of them still alive
in that unit!

The British finally are in position to bring fire on the cannon.
The cannon does get to fire back,
but realistically too little and far to late.

Another British victory.

 Game 4.

Matt refereed and I got a game against Tim's British. A straight forward encounter battle. Tim took cavalry for the first time as well as Indians. As it was my first try I kept it simple with just 1 cavalry and the rest line infantry.

Initial sett-up

Tim looses his cavalry to my line infantry on the right. He then sets about
picking off my centre. Only fair as I wipe out his Indians as well.

My cavalry don't get a chance to move so I detach the character. And then my centre infantry
are totally destroyed now leaving my officer exposed!

But with Tim's flanks both gone (the Indians and Cavalry)

I am able to bring my infantry to bear on his centre.

He soon looses sufficient troops to fall below 50% starting figures and therefore looses the game.

 

The Last game (game 5) I forgot to take any pictures as I was up against it from the start. Tim took charge and I lost horribly to Matt. (You rotter Matt!). The game consisted of Matt firing his cannon and wiping out my Grenadiers in two turns before they got in range to shoot back. Drat. So that was my right wing dangling in the wind. An event card stole my left flank unit as it was needed elsewhere. So I only had my centre left and was aware that a single casualty would put me over 50% casualties so I tried t get some cover. It kind of worked as another event banished Matts cavalry from the field of play and I was lucky enough to bring fire unanswered on Matt's centre. But eventually matt killed one of my figures and I was forced to concede.

 

Overall a very good day. 5 games 3 French victories, 2 British victories and on a personal level I won 1 and lost 1 so not too bad. Could be a lot worse.

 

The best part though is it looks like Tim will get a small force as well. Given that it was two army forces it's a little hard to draw definitive conclusions on the rules. Yes we got a few things wrong but when don't we? But I will continue to build these forces up some more and maybe start a town militia or outlaw band.

 

Thanks for reading today maybe another quick post tomorrow as well. All the best Cheers Clint