Seven Years

Today Neil and Sandy were doing me a favour and helping me play-testing my new Seven Years War rules. I choose them as they are the die-hard Seven years fanatics in our club, not a month is going by without them re-addressing the European balance of Fredericks time. They play 15 mm, which is good as I can test right away more brigades in one go. Sandy came with his French while Neil brought his Prussians. The game has just two phases, command and one insanely big melee and fire phase, hey it IS a battle after all, confusion is inevitable. The command system one can push the pressure on certain parts of the battle line, or counter them or rally troops. After the first action of a unit there is the possibility of an counter action (if circumstance applies) which keeps the player engaged even in the other players turn. The whole is just two matrix engine, with a fire and a melee chart.

So Sandy was moaning as the French suffered from a less flexible command system than the efficient Prussians, but even so The French kept the pressure on to the point that the Prussian were just immobile and rallying eventual upcoming losses. The adhoc scenario rules for the river in-between might have been a bit too distractive, but in the end I think the two veterans of linear warfare were quite pleased. The overall system works, no major hick-ups, it needs little more brutality in the fire chart ... well OK... which is good as I toned it down a bit in my solo test token games in the first place. Also the rallying shall be a bit more difficult, a step I might follow just a little bit ... its good to have a battle a club night and not within one hour ...

I'm looking fwd for the next test game ...

Neil Prussians can‘t get over the little river without disorder 

The French line fire and get disordered as well ...

Finally the French are able to form a counter attack on that flank ...

After two insanely weak Prussian attacks low dice rolls against double sixes, Neil has to retreat again ...

the cover

an example for a communication line

A map of some  of the battles ...