Now that I have a restricted gaming space, it seemed like a good time to take a closer look at this title from Perry Miniatures. This might be the "Ultimate" Kitchen Table Game. The entire Hook to this game is that it is a full-sized wargame that can be played in a confined space. In this case, the authors claim the game was to be played on a train ride, written in the 90's! It was a homebrew mini board and miniature armies. They have a picture of the original proto-type in the back of the rules pamphlet.
The box is about the size of a laptop case, and comes with the terrain board in two plates, a red vs blue army of identical 8mm minis, bases, and a few pieces of terrain to help finalize forests and built -up areas. There is a short rules pamphlet, just a few pages really. There are four dice; two red and two blue d6s. Finally, the box comes with foam as you are expected to use this box to carry the game around to travel with. It even has a helpful little plastic handle!
I watched a video on this one and that is what encouraged me to pick it up. I would give you the link, but it has been lost to my terrible memory. I recall seeing this game when it first came out, but it slipped out of my mind until now. I was not interested in something like this at that time, but eventually the right time came.
So gather your Brigades, heft your big furry hat, and mount up on your horse because it is time to march forth into the smoke and get into this box.....
Things That I Liked
The rules are literally 6 small-pages long. However, they still manage to put a lot of variety into the unit types! There is an artillery unit, Heavy Cavalry, Light Cavalry, Infantry, Guards Infantry, and Commanders. There is small but significant differences in these unit types.
Each army is made up of a matching force. However, how you organize it is up to you. Each player has 3 Brigade Commanders. Each of them controls a Brigade, but the composition of that Brigade is mostly up to you! You can make them small or large, you can mix your units how you wish. There are some examples in the rules. This allows the players some Strategic choices prior to the battle that will impact the tactical elements of the game.
The boards are rather clever too. There are two plates of equal size with pre-formed terrain on them. In addition, they are divided into grids. As part of deployment, each player takes out one of the two plates. They then roll a d6 to determine which side of the plate faces them. The plates are designed to fit together no matter which sides touch. This gives a surprising amount of variation and replayability.
Artillery is the only unit that can fire. It has a range of 6 grid spaces, however the number of Grid spaces away is what you need to hit the target. You can also fire over intervening units if it is placed on a higher hill. Nice.
All fighting is done between units that are in adjacent grid spaces, even diagonally. There is also organic support methods in the rules as well. However, in a fight each player rolls one or two attack dice and the defender rolls a dice. There are also other special rules that may impact this. However, it is pretty simple. If the results are the same, draw. If one wins by 1 the other unit is pushed back 1 and turned around. If the winner is by 2, the unit is pushed back to the back of the table and turned around, it is routing. If the winner is by 3 the unit is simply removed as destroyed. Turned around units can not move or fight until they are turned back in the appropriate phase of the game.
Things I Do Not Like
The pamphlet has a few lines about how to paint up the terrain and forces. Nothing elaborate. However, I wish I had read them earlier! Apparently, they claim you do not need to undercoat them before painting! D'oh.... too late. I undercoated them with Grey Seer spray.
Deployment alternates by brigade. The game is IGOUGO. You roll Initiative and the winner gets to move all his units, fire with his cannon, fight, and rally any units. Then the second player does the same. I would have preferred some alternating Brigade activations by phase.... but this game is so quick that it may work fine with IGOUGO.
Like most Horse and Musket games, there are a lot of If This Than That rules. This is normal, because such fighting was very paper-rock-scissor focused. Therefore, these rules are what allow for Tactical Gameplay. Things like infantry in Square get an additional dice when fighting cavalry, but suffer +1 to damage rolls if hit by artillery. If you play a lot of this period it makes sense. However, if you don't you will want to keep the rules pamphlet handy, thankfully it is only 6 pages with a how-to assembly guide and painting guide included!
Meh and Other Uncertainties
This is a Horse and Musket game, so follows some of the Tropes associate with those types of games. Cavalry move fast, infantry is slow and steady, cannons shoot far. Of note, only the artillery has any ranged attacks, with the rest only fighting when they come into contact. The winner of the game is the one that can eliminate two out of the three brigades you start with. If you have played Horse and Musket before, such rules are par for the course.
Units can move forward, backward, straight, sideways, or even diagonally. Roads give bonuses if you start and end your move on them. All units in a Brigade have to be touching grids in order to move. Only one unit per grid space, except infantry that can double up, which has advantages and disadvantages. Infantry can even form square by placing them horizontally.
Deployment is by Brigade. Each unit is 1 grid square, and the Brigade must all be touching another Brigade member, and each Brigade must touch their commander somehow. Commanders can not fight, and units that are not connected to their Brigade can not move. Brigades are placed up to two gird spaces onto the board, automatically this creates a layered attack and reserves for a game. If you deploy poorly, you will not be able to reinforce your attacks and defenses.
Final Thoughts
I love a nice, simple ruleset. Much of the "crunch" of the rules has to be abstracted but this covers the 4Ms easily. Even better it also captures the feel of the period the game is trying to capture. The rules are pretty simple but have some depth to them for tactical gameplay. I see them as the bare minimum needed to play a game of this type in this period. I see no reason why someone could not play this game "scaled up" to 28mm minis on a full-sized table if they wanted to.
The real innovation here is the terrain plates and the grids and how these are used to create replayability. When you combine the identical armies with build-your-own Brigades it adds even further options. I look forward to playing this "on-the-road" with my wife. She is not familiar with the tropes or styles of this type of game, so I am wondering how quickly she will pick it up.
Lastly, I have undercoated all the pieces and hope to have it painted up and assembled very soon.
Until next time!
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