SYW at WB3D!

Last night I managed to arrange a game at the recently formed Whitley Bay 3D Gamers club in, unsurprisingly, Whitley Bay! The club has been running for a good few months now but being on a Tuesday night it’s hard for me to rearrange picking up of kids etc. But last night worked out so I managed to arrange to take part in a 15mm SYW. Figures and terrain supplied by Ian. Rules supplied by Neil. The rules, Battle Factor, are in development and last night was one of several recent playtests. We had 6 players, 3 a side, Austrians v. Prussians. I took the mixed cavalry and infantry division on the Austrian left, Ken (CinC) took the infantry center, and Ian the right flank. As usual, I’m crap with names but the Prussian opposition was Lawrence (facing me),  Karl(?) facing Ian and I think Darrel as Prussian CinC.

Command and control works from Army, then to Division, then Brigade commanders. As orders are issued, units can carry out several actions but the enemy can respond to each one (within restrictions) so you can get quite a lot of activity in a short space of time.

The table at start with my two cavalry brigades either side of the woods just before the Prussians deployed. Deployment can be as close as 30cm so action can start pretty quickly!

My left hand brigade went forward, charged and was counter charged. And just defeated… Falling back through the rear regiment, these in turn charged. Breaking the already worn down enemy.

My two central cuirassier regiments then moved forward. Successfully engaging the first regiment, driving them off and following through to do the same to the second. Now blown (their Battle Factor was negative) they retired to allow the second regiment to advance.

However, the threat from Prussian infantry produced a stand off.My carabiniers returned to the fray after my dragoons had done serious damage on the left again.Having finally driven off both regiments they fell back to re-group along with the dragoons.Although the result was a stand off with my cuirassiers, with time I planned to bring back the regiments and then roll up the flank.

Meanwhile, on the rest of the table, stuff happened! 🙂 I have to admit to being rather lucky with the dice.As casualties (reduced battle factors) were based on dice rolls divided by 6 rolls like this served me well! There was some discussion during the game about how the command rolls worked. All the action on my flank happened in two turns. Lots of orders and reactions. The idea of the flexible time scale and the to and fro is a nice idea. I look forward to trying them again.

It was good to get a game in, good to see Ian, Ken and Lawrence (and NDL later!) and good to try new rules. I should make it down the club again in August!