Day of gaming - Christmas week

[trevorallen]

Is this on Thursday 29th?

[stevem]

Christmas Gaming

TUESDAY 27th

On 27th there will, be gaming all day - I will be putting on an 18th century game with the big toys. We will use a version of Sam Mustafa's Maurice rules, modified for multi player. They are pretty simple, there is a light version free here.

www.sammustafa.com/honour/downloads/

We will not be using the cards for movement, as they are not very good for multi player.

Please make an effort to attend.

THURSDAY 29th

Again the club is open all day, this time with a slant to boardgames - have a chat with Quinton who is running the show.

Hope to see you there.

Steve

[greg]

Sorry. Can't make the Tuesday. Can get on the Thursday but not until normalise club night time of about 6.30, so will see speak to Q tomorrow.

[trevorallen]

So what are we playing on Thursday?

Mighty Empires
Diplomacy
Battle of Britain

What others will people take down?

[shinjoq]

I am starting with a Space Crusade at 10am.

I will be taking Shogun ticket to ride and 1775 but 9 or so folks along from Burton too so will be plenty to play

[mog]

Tuesday looking less likely for me but will try to pop in at least. Thursday more do-able. Does BB count as a board game? ;-)

[shinjoq]

Yes Mog BB counts and I will have a game of BB with you what time you planning to be there Thursday you can join in our Space Crusade then we can do a BB game at say 1 ish ?

[stevem]

On Tuesday 27th we played the battle of Mollwitz, April 1741 using my 40mm semi-flats.

The battle was part of the War of Austrian Succession and was between, Frederick the Great's Prussians and the Austrians. The actual battle was rather unbalanced, the Prussians being more powerful overall, and having a massive superiority in both the quantity and quality of their infantry (iron rather than wooden ramrods allowing better rate of fire), whereas the Austrian cavalry was more numerous and higher quality. In the actual battle the Austrian cavalry swept away the Prussian right wing, at which stage Frederick (in his first battle - and not so 'Great' at this stage), left the field. The experienced Schwerin then led the disciplined Prussian infantry at the Austrians and (although harried by the Austrian cavalry), their disciplined fire pushed them back in disorder - darkness fell before either side collapsed.

We played the battle twice, using the 'Might and Reason' rules, and got surprisingly historical outcomes.

In the first game Paul & Pete took the Prussians and Quinton the Austrians - I umpired as nobody else knew the rules. The more powerful Austrian cavalry swept away their opponents on both flanks, the Prussian infantry then formed a massive square on their starting half of the board, and the game fizzled out due to lack of interest - a 'winning draw'  for the Austrians. (So this is perhaps what would have happened if Frederick had stayed in charge).

In the second game Pete took the Prussians and Ian the Austrians (with me as an Austrian biased umpire). Again the Austrian cavalry swept away both wings, however realising what had to be done Pete formed the Prussians into a massive square and headed for the Austrian infantry, with the Austrian cavalry trying to break in as it progressed. When the Prussian square reached the Austrian line it started to blast the Austrian infantry away. This happened at the same time as the Austrian cavalry broke into the square in a number of places, making it difficult for the Prussian infantry to finish off their opponents.  At that stage I called it nightfall with both armies struggling away to lick their wounds. (Pete, having learnt the rules, and played the earlier game understood the potential of the infantry).

Thanks to those of you who took part - next time I will let you see the rules first - perhaps.