Not so one-sided: Uclés (1809)

The impending BBB Peninsular War scenario book will include a lot of battles where the Spanish army fought alone, without its British or Portuguese allies. One of these was the battle of Uclés in 1809.

Before I launch into my report of our game of Uclés, I just want to smuggle in an honourable mention of the Royal Engineers museum in Gillingham. I did a day trip there at the weekend. It is an absolutely splendid place, stuffed full of unique and fascinating artifacts, and with a very decent AFV collection outside. Highly recommended. Two hours wasn't nearly enough to take it all in so I will have to go again. Here's just one pic to remember my visit by.

Now back to Spain. Sir John Moore's incursion had distracted Napoleon's attention and many of his troops to the north, leaving Madrid exposed. The Spanish Army of the Centre advanced on Madrid with Venegas's corps in the lead. Victor concentrated his forces against Venegas, who made a stand at Uclés, where he was enveloped and overwhelmed. He lost half his force; French casualties were negligible.

On the face of it, this looks very one-sided and unpromising as a game. (Though see my Reflections essay on "Wargaming one-sided wars".) However, when Mark examined it, he saw that it had potential. Specifically, the fact that the impassable River Bidija divides the battlefield into two presents both sides with decisions about how many troops to commit to which half - in effect, making it two-sided. And, as so often, of course an inevitable defeat in real-world terms can be turned into a fair contest in game terms by judicious setting of victory conditions.

Here's how it went for us, this time with some lovingly crafted labelled pics as well as the usual annotated photos. Reflections follow at the end.

Bird's-eye view of the battlefield, which is roughly 10km x 7km. This is a small battle by BBB standards: each base represents 300 men; each side has fewer than 50 bases, as they had under 15,000 men a side.

The Bidija bisects the battlefield and can only be crossed at Uclés or the bridge at the righthand (south) edge. Uclés nestles in the gap where the Bidija cuts a steep ridge into two: the Sierra del Pavo and the Cerro de Uclés. The Spanish main line sits on these ridges. An advance guard holds the village of Tribaldos. Venegas himself has his HQ atop the monastery in Uclés. Most of the French army arrives from the SW corner (bottom right of pic). On turns 7 & 8 of this 9-turn game, Ruffin's division will arrive behind the Spanish right flank.

Victory is determined by seven Objectives (white counters): Tribaldos; two for Uclés (one each if it is contested); one for each of the two ridges (held by whoever has most units on it); and one each for the Spanish army's two possible escape routes, either to the NW (near where Ruffin appears) or across the bridge to Rozalen. The French need four of these to draw and five or more to win.

The Spanish centre around Uclés. Dave W commanded the Spanish left in Uclés and on the Sierra del Pavo. I took the right on Cerro de Uclés, including our cavalry, and the advance guard. All figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection. The pink cubes denoting 'Fragile' troops betray the quality difference between the two armies. Our Spanish army has a few good units but is a very mixed bag.

By contrast, most of the French are veteran, some of them Aggressive (green cubes), and some of their cavalry rated as Shock (purple counters), seen here enveloping Tribaldos on Turn 2. (Note the scratchbuilt church from the talented hand of Colin the Wargamer.)

I did contemplate abandoning Tribaldos immediately but we decided it was better to force the French to deploy and fight for it, which would cost us troops but them time. I was facing Will, while Crispin took the French right against Dave. The first French assault hit Tribaldos on Turn 2, Latour-Maubourg's heavy cavalry descending on my left flank while Pacthod's tirailleurs harried my white-coated defenders (two 3-base regiments). My lefthand regiment was forced out. The righthand one held on but suffered losses to musketry.

Meanwhile, some important action was going on in the top left corner of the above pic. On Turn 1, I had pushed our advance guard cavalry around Pacthod's right flank to pin or divert one of his regiments. When this turned against my cavalry, they evaded across the Bidija bridge. That obliged Puthod to fight his way across, instead of being able to race along the road in march column - more precious time expended.

Now we see the other side of the Bidija a turn later. The AG cavalry rallied and charged Puthod - a good call as they had a 50/50 chance of driving him back across the bridge to have to fight for it all over again - but it didn't come off. Puthod's lead regiment rallied in turn and here advances to drive the blown cavalry from the field (which will take another turn). This lets the rest of Puthod's brigade, led by some of Latour's dragoons, march rapidly to the eastern end of the Sierra del Pavo to avoid its steep slope. At left of pic, Dave's leftmost regiment is about to head down the ridge to confront them.

The fall of Tribaldos. Will commits Pacthod to support Latour's renewed assault. This is too much for my gallant defenders. The depleted regiment in the village is swept aside; the flood pours onto my veterans behind; they are driven back, then routed as well. Have they bought enough time, or will their sacrifice have been in vain?

About Turn 3, Dave and I made a major strategic decision. Tribaldos had held out as long as we'd hoped, but my cavalry's subsequent screening skirmishes along the stream behind it had not gone so well, nor had our other cavalry's delaying action at the Bidija bridge. Under pressure on both wings, we decided to abandon the west bank (the foreground) entirely and pull my right wing force into Uclés, freeing all of Dave's troops to fight for the Sierra del Pavo. This picture shows that plan being implemented. All my troops made it across the river except that two-base cavalry unit lower left, of which more later.

A close-up of my beautifully choreographed mass flamenco into Uclés. White-coated infantry, yellow-jacketed dragoons, sombre brown militia, light blue light infantry - it's a very pretty army.

View from behind the now rather abbreviated Spanish line with just a couple of turns to go. Dave's troops on our left are making valiant efforts to keep the French right wing at arm's length from Uclés, while our right in the town presents a formidable front against any French assault across the bridge there.

While all our left wing is disrupted by its exertions, the French right musters all its strength for one massed coordinated assault (good movement rolls compensating for an earlier turn when it was briefly paralysed). This proves irresistible and all three Spanish regiments are swept away.

Dave is left with just one regiment (lower left of pic) to cover the rear of my town defence. Will's best troops move up and form assault column. Their first attempt will be rebuffed but will cover the deployment of his guns in cannister range.

Once deployed, the guns delivered a devastating salvo that rendered my foremost regiment Spent. It did not survive the ensuing French assault on the final turn and is no longer visible in this picture. The other key to the French success was an infantry regiment joining in from the other side of town. It was able to bypass the defenders on the Sierra because they were busy fending off the rest of the French right wing.

Although we still had two Spanish regiments in Uclés, these were not enough to expel both the French units that had broken in. The town ended up contested, worth one Objective each. That gave the French a total of five, enough for victory. However ...

... remember that tiny fragile 2-base cavalry regiment I told you to pay attention to earlier? Here it is on Turn 7, backed up against the Bidija, about to be trapped between the force preparing to assault Uclés (top left) and Ruffin's arriving division (top right). The solution? My caballeros made a mad dash through the gap in front of them - and headed for Tribaldos.

Fortune favours the Fragile - they got the rolls they needed on Turns 7, 8 and 9, and Will's artillery was unable to stop them - they had just enough movement to leap into Tribaldos, on the French line of communications, retaking an Objective and salvaging a draw. Viva el rey! Viva españa!

Reflections

Battlefield geometry. It's a truism I've quoted before: the terrain shapes the battle. In this case, the distinctive terrain - the river bisecting the ridge and dividing the battlefield - definitely made it a distinctive and interesting game.

Last-turn drama. Mark was unsure whether the victory conditions were pitched right, but they turned out perfect. The luck of the dice seemed reasonably evenly distributed. It could hardly have produced a tighter or more dramatic finish, so let's call it good. Classic BBB.

Labelled photos are hard work (well, not so much hard, just time-consuming) so somebody had better say nice things about them if you want me to keep doing them in future reports.

Four playtests to go? Not of this scenario, but of the remaining ones to be polished before the Peninsular War collection is complete and ready for publication. (On which note, I should mention that BBB and its scenario books are now available in pdf as well as print.) Hoping to get the book out before mid-year ...

BBB now available in PDF!

Here is the official announcement of the good news from our publisher, SkirmishCampaigns:

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SkirmishCampaigns: Bloody Big Battles now in PDF!

BBB PDF Order Page

YES, the Bloody Big Battles! rules (BBB) and scenario books for a wide range of 19th-century and Napoleonic wars are now available in PDF

BBB Scenario Books

• Bloody Big European Battles!

• NAPOLEON'S Bloody Big Battles!

• Bloody Big Battles in INDIA!

• Bloody Big Balkan Battles! (1912-1913)

• Bloody Big HUNGARY '48 Battles!

• Bloody Big Peninsular Battles! (1808-1814) (forthcoming)

• Bloody Big Battles in Africa! (1801-1901) (forthcoming)

• Bloody Big Civil War Battles! (1861-1865) (forthcoming)

BBB was published over 10 years ago in 2014. The fact that 1000s of players have joined the BBB io group and Facebook page tells you it's popular. The fact that it hasn't needed a second edition tells you the rules are solid. The universally positive reviews of the game are collected on the BBB Blog

BBB ticks the boxes for all kinds of wargamers. If you love history – it's all about the history. If you want a challenge and a contest – BBB's tightly designed, well balanced scenarios will give you that. If you just want a fast and furious game – BBB's slick and quick mechanisms make the game rock on so that the situation changes every turn, and they inject just enough unpredictability and fog of war to make it surprising and entertaining while staying historically plausible.

Now we are making it easier for more of you to enjoy BBB:

• The rulebook and four scenario books are all now available in PDF.

• We have added two brilliant small ‘training scenarios' to the rulebook.

• We have added new bonus scenarios to three of the scenario books.

• We expect to publish two more scenario books in 2026 (Peninsular War and Battles in Africa).

• Scenario books on the American Civil War are also nearly complete.

• Scenario books for other wars are also in preparation.

New BBB players will find they have joined an active, friendly and supportive community. Your fellow players in the BBB io group and on the BBB Facebook page will welcome and help you, as will the very responsive BBB team. The annual BBB ‘Bash Day' conventions are great occasions if you can get to them. We hope you will enjoy BBB and we look forward to meeting you!

For more information

Little Big Horn - in the Sudan!

I drove a six-hour round trip for a three hour game. It was 100% worth it. The occasion was the latest of Dr Mark Smith's legendary Christmas Specials, delayed to brighten up January, because that suited everyone's calendar better. (For previous Christmas Specials, use the label search here.)

I arrived to be confronted by a spectacular 12-foot table:

Mark informed us that this represented the Wadi Alqlilkabirbwq, a tributary of the Nile. The situation was an Anglo-Egyptian expedition in the Sudan during the Mahdist War of 1881-1899. The British were trying to capture the Khalifa after the battle of Omdurman. I was 'Al Marara', one of the four players on the Mahdist side, alongside Crispin, Phil and Will. Nick, Bruce, Dave W and Dave T were the infidel British.

Nick and Bruce were Captain Benjamin Young and a German guest, Major Count Betreffnein. Their substantial cavalry columns arrived near our right flank, where my camp was. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's (rapidly expanding) collection.

Dave T was Colonel Armstrong, the British C-in-C, leading another cavalry column dashing along the heights towards the other end of our extended encampment along the river.

All I had on-table initially, apart from my herds, was one contingent of dismounted cavalry, well-armed with modern breechloaders. A couple of moves later I had mustered four units.

Similar story for my neighbour on my left, Maynum Hirsar (Crispin). Our initial mission prioritised defending our camps and our cattle.

Phil and Will (Aswad Nasr and Quadeem Dub) were further along the river, out of immediate danger.

Nevertheless, Dave T made rapid progress along the heights, so Phil and Will had to react.

The central British column arrives, containing all the precious supplies, commanded by Captain Dougalson (Dave W).

As Nick's camelry approached, I moved two units of rifle-armed dismounted cavalry to lurk in the vegetation along the river.

Allahu akbar! Nick duly sprang my ambush. My warriors fired a volley and charged. We drove the infidels back with heavy losses. We mustered more cavalry and followed up.

Taking a long view ... seen from the quiet end of the table, but not for long. Will's force will shortly ascend the heights to take on Dave T.

Order, counter-order, disorder - 3 or 4 turns in, we were each given a new set of personal objectives to replace the ones we'd had at the start. Initially, our Mahdist objectives had focused on defending camps and cattle, while the British objectives were about discovering and capturing these. Now it was all change: having found how strong we were, the British orders had changed to holding the heights, while we needed to take them. This generated a lot of radical changes of manoeuvre! Here we see Nick's and Bruce's columns trying to break contact, cross the ford, and head for Hills 1 & 2 at top right of pic.

Dave W's supply column had made steady progress to mid-table, but Dave was now feeling very much left in the lurch as everyone else hightailed it for the hills, while he was being harassed by Phil and Crispin in front and had the prospect of more Mahdists appearing behind him.

Fortunately for Dave, I and Phil now largely ignored him in favour of dashing across the river to attack the hills. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the Mahdist of them all?"

Apart from Dave W's supply column in the river angle top left, all the Anglo-Egyptians are now atop the hills, while most of our Mahdists mill about trying to ford the river to get at them.

The first layer of hills is edged by an escarpment, scaleable only at the breaks marked by small brown patches. You can see two of these right of pic, in front of Hills 1 & 2 (the crests with white labels). This presented me and Phil with a ticklish tactical challenge: how to get up these breaks, which were in rifle range of the hilltop defenders, and then mount a coordinated assault.

A glimpse of the action at the other end of the pitch. Dave T's camel corps was fending off Will's Mahdists OK. However, Crispin changed axis, ignoring Dave W's supplies, to turn up behind Dave T. Not only that, but a random event gave some of Crispin's men the latest repeating rifles! It went badly for the Anglo-Egyptians here after that. 

A small victory for Will, too, as he overruns a stray baggage column ...

... capturing some splendid victuals. (It was supposed to be a Christmas game, after all.)

Phil and I had managed to negotiate the breaks in the cliffs and get our forces onto the scarp. With time running out, we mounted a massed charge on Hill 1. Note the British commander (the German, Betreffnein) who has fallen over. Random events dictated that he hit the schnapps flask hard and spent most of the battle drunk and incapable.

Our charge succeeded and swept the infidels from Hill 1!

Mark then totted up the scores. The most successful individual players were Crispin for the Mahdists (thanks to his murderous repeating rifles) and Dave W for the Brits (who kept his precious supply column largely intact). Adding up all the individual scores on each side, they came to 9 points each - a draw!

Arguably, Dave W deserved another victory point, because he was the first to tumble to the fact that this was a disguised scenario. I think he spotted it when the objectives changed and the Brits had to bail out and head for the hills. Mark had taken the situation from the Battle of the Little Big Horn and transposed it to the Sudan. If only my Arabic had been better, I'd have realised all the Mahdists' names were translations: Maynum Hirsar = Crazy Horse, Aswad Nasr = Black Eagle, Alqlilkabirbwq = Little Big Horn, etc. There were clues in all the Brits' names as well: Benjamin Young = Ben-teen, Dougalson = MacDougal, and of course Armstrong was Custer's middle name.

Reflections

Disguised Scenarios. I'm well aware of the concept but I've rarely played one. This worked really well, for me at least: I wasn't familiar enough with either the Sudan or LBH to spot the disguise, but I know enough about them to appreciate the conceit. Had we all known it was LBH from the start, of course the Brit/US players would have acted much more cautiously and been better coordinated. As it was, the disguised set-up plus the divergent personal objectives created the right historical situation. Genius.

Changing Situations Mid-Game. The abrupt change of orders/objectives partway through was not only important to create the right situation, it also helped to throw spanners into works and force major new decisions on players. This is a great ingredient in a game and something I've discussed before in one of my "Reflections on Wargaming" essays, "Changing Situations Mid-Game".

A Unique Tactical Challenge. The endgame threw up this unique tactical problem for me and Phil of how to get up the scarp under fire and then assault the heights. This exemplifies how historical scenarios can produce the most uniquely interesting challenges, at least as good as anything I might be able to invent. This is one reason why we love fighting historical battles.

Camels Galore! Exotic troops always enhance a wargames table and camelry are definitely exotic. I don't think I've ever seen so many camels in a game. It was a treat.

Roleplaying in Wargames. Even in regular BBB games, people are generally happy to metaphorically don the right headgear, slip into role and talk like their historical counterparts. In Mark's Christmas games where we all have our individual objectives, it gets really personal and the banter flows. There were plenty of remarks about the infidels' malignity and confusion, aspersions cast on fellow officers, and the like. It all adds to the occasion and the experience.

Roll on next Christmas!

PDF editions of the BBB rules and scenario books are about to be published. As PDF is not subject to the same page limitations as printed books, Mark and I are discussing the idea of publishing his Christmas Special scenarios (which are each very long because of the many individual briefs) as a collected volume. Watch this space! 

Hard pounding at Ligny

Ligny is one of those famous battles that I knew "of "but not "about" - i.e., I knew the broad outlines of situation and outcome, but not really any details of the course of the battle itself. That was rectified by Mark's game this week.

Many readers will know Ligny well, but for the rest of us, here's the situation. It's one of the pair of battles that are the prelude to Waterloo, the other being Quatre Bras. Napoleon is trying to beat the Prussian army thoroughly and drive it back to Namur, away from Wellington's Anglo-Allied army, before turning on Wellington. His plan relies on frontal assaults pinning the Prussians in their defensive line along the Ligne stream until Ney can descend on them from behind their right flank. As Ney is unavoidably detained at QB, it doesn't quite work out like that. Most famously, d'Erlon's corps yo-yos between the two battlefields as both Napoleon and Ney send increasingly urgent messages demanding his help. In the end, although Napoleon earns a tactical victory in that the Prussians are pushed back, they are still in the game and able to rebound at Waterloo.

Let's launch straight into the photos of the game, then offer some Reflections at the end. Only five pics of the battle as it was such an intense fight.

So intense, in fact, that I awarded myself a stiff one of these afterwards! (I'd spent the day running a WWII game, Izbushenskiy, so you'll appreciate the battle fatigue was setting in by the time I fought Ligny the same evening.)

I commanded the main body of the French, facing Crispin (Mark just handling the French right wing against Dave W). Here's what I was up against: a Prussian force about 50% stronger, with some of its guns set up waiting for my advance, and ensconced in some tough defensive positions. The village on the left is St Amand; on the right, the eponymous Ligny. Normally in BBB villages are worth 1 level of cover, but in this scenario they rate 2. Likewise the steep-banked Ligne stream with its thick vegetation is double the usual stream obstacle for both movement and combat. (hence the hedges).

Figures are Baccus 6mm, all from Mark's collection, as is the terrain.

Plan view of the battle. Apart from the Prussian garrisons in St Amand and Ligny, all the troops in the foreground, south of La Ligne, are French. More will arrive but not until Turns 5+. Meanwhile, I had the tough task of trying to take some of those white Objective counters and fight across the stream. I was not optimistic, and when a few dice went wrong on the first turn or two I suggested we swap sides and start again ... but it was more a wry aside than a morale failure and we soldiered on.

Neither the time nor the space for subtlety, so in go two big assaults on the main villages. We boot the Prussians out of the southern half of each. Over the next two or three turns, with dogged determination and a bit of luck (plus superior troop quality) we get all of St Amand, but the Prussians hang on exchanging volleys with us in Ligny for most of the game.

What you can't see is some serious action left of pic. Committing so much against St Amand left my artillery somewhat exposed. Crispin took advantage by flinging a couple of cavalry brigades and a strong infantry brigade across the Ligne. He battered my one small infantry unit there and overran some guns. My reserve artillery was lucky to bring him to a halt.

Out of shot right of pic we, weren't having much luck either, as Grouchy's cavalry fought themselves to exhaustion (and then evaporation) pinning the Prussian left.

The arrival of our reserves changed things. In this pic, the Prussians still hold Wagnelé (left edge) and St Amand la Haye (next village to its right on the Ligne) but have fallen back elsewhere (that line of troops at top of pic). Those Prussians top left, heading leftward, are reacting to the arrival of a single French division (Durutte) from the Grand Old Count of Erlon's corps, which had crossed the Ligne. Durutte then unilaterally fell back again (rolled snake eyes while Passive) but he had done a useful job.

More importantly, the Imperial Guard joined in. The Old Guard (bottom right) didn't fire a shot but didn't need to. Their presence was enough to keep some of the Prussians at a safe distance and embolden my lads who'd crossed the Ligne to try and storm St Amand La Haye. It didn't work - Prussian artillery saw us off - but never mind, we could win elsewhere.

Note the Young Guard, the unit centre foreground in the Hameau de St Amand. Note also the cuirassiers, bottom left, eyeing the shaken Landwehr in Wagnelé.

The last act. As dusk falls, I mount a massed assault on Wagnelé. The Young Guard go in. They get some useful fire support from the infantry in the foreground. Crucially, although the cuirassiers failed to charge, the Horse Grenadiers of the Guard - who were out to the left of the previous pic - get the full move they need to avoid those Prussian dragoons (top left) and fall on the Landwehr's flank. That was enough to outweigh the tough defensive position and force the Landwehr out, giving the French the sixth Objective we needed for victory. Vive l'empereur!

Reflections

Quality Tells. The early turns were mutual attrition and not much progress. However, the French veterans could absorb casualties better than the trained or raw Prussians. The blue cubes in the pics above betray the growing number of Spent Prussian units. Thus, the tide turned, the Prussians getting significantly weaker while the French were reinforced.

Learning by Doing. As I said at the start, Ligny is a battle I knew of rather than about. Mark's game has now given me a good appreciation, not only of the shape and course of the historical battle, but also actually of the sheer intensity of the combat. That's quite a tribute to his scenario design.

Ligny will be added as a bonus scenario to Mark's "Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles!" BBB scenario book pdf edition, about to become available from SkirmishCampaigns ~February 2026.

Italians in Russia, 1942

Fancied a change from the 19th century so I dug out my WWII collection and revisited a scenario we last played a decade ago: "l'ultima carica", the last cavalry charge, carried out by the Italians in Russia in 1942. The charge was by a regiment, but the game covers the larger action by roughly one Italian composite division vs three smaller Soviet rifle divisions and a tank brigade. I'll get straight into the action with photos: a few scene-setters, then two or three each for the first and second phases, and a climactic one.

The mighty Italian armour! On this sector the Italians had a battalion of Semovente 47/32 and a few L6/40 light tanks, backed up by Bersaglieri motorcyclists. Tanks are Heroics & Ros from my collection. Bersaglieri by Dave W.

It's a big battlefield, 36km x 24km, and the game covers several days of action. It's pretty flat country. The hills are gentle rises. The green patches are balkas: steep-sided ravines with woods and villages in them. Soviets have crossed the Don at north table edge and are exploiting south. Italians are a mix of remnants from the river defence, plus reinforcements rushed up, and are trying to counterattack and shore up the line. White counters indicate Objectives: the line of hills across the centre of the table, and the two main villages in the balkas in the foreground.

Soviets have three rifle divisions: 197th top left, 203rd top centre, 14th Guards top right backed up by 652nd Tank Brigade. Against these four formations, the Italians have three: "Yagodniy Group" around the lefthand village, "Chebotarevskiy Group" around the right, and a Bersaglieri battlegroup moving up to plug the gap in the centre.

View from the Italian left, where the Semoventes are approaching to support Yagodniy. The 197th (top centre) is ignoring the solid Italian line on the hill in front of Yagodniy and has shifted across to help the 203rd (top right) contest the central hills against the Bersaglieri.

Lots of bloody and confused action in the central sector, including an overrun attack by the fearsome L6/40s. 100mm howitzers add beef.

Chebotarevskiy sector was quiet initially while the Soviets focused on tidying up the remnants of the CCNN "Tagliamento" Legion on the hill top left. These were dug in so they resisted the Soviet armour for a surprisingly long time.

The valiant CCNN blackshirts being assailed by mixed battalions of T34s, T26s, and Lend-Lease American tanks. 14th Guards divisional artillery trotting up in the background.

Mid-game: Soviets have finally cleared the blackshirts off their hill. The tanks and the Guards Rifles can now combine to attack the tough Italian position around Chebotarevskiy.

In the central sector, 197th and 203rd Rifle Divs have driven back the Bersaglieri with loss.

My Soviet infantry are from Irregular Miniatures. (I think this range is currently out of production but hopefully back soon.) I do like my command stands keeping the red flag flying.

The Italian Yagodniy group HQ musters its reserves to head off and try to help the Bersaglieri. The unit in the foreground is XV Guastatori assault engineers. Their flamethrowers and the Semoventes will wreck the 197th, which has already taken losses against the Bersaglieri.

The climactic assault: tanks and SMG shock troops converge on the Savoia dragoons in Chebotarevskiy. If the Soviets can take this, they will have enough Objectives for victory.

The weight of Soviet numbers and fire would have been too much for the Italian cavalry, except that Mark had a wild card up his sleeve (each side got dealt an event card each turn, to use as and when they wished). This let him re-roll their saving roll, needing 3 or less on D10, and they squeaked it.

Reflections.

Brain Pain. The luxury of playing BBB roughly every other week for 15 years is that we all know the rules backwards and can concentrate on strategy and tactics. We forget how hard it can be to wrestle with unfamiliar rules. My brain hurts!

Rediscovering WWII. But the brain pain was worth it. WWII is up there with the late 19th Century as my two favourite wargaming periods. In both, the trinity of infantry-cavalry/armour-artillery is in reasonable balance and the battles can offer a lot of maneuver, which is what generates decisions and makes games interesting. We all enjoyed the game enough to persevere with the rules. I expect I'll knock up a better QR sheet, refurbish some old scenarios and work up some new ones, and get more WWII on the table occasionally from now on.

Tatty Old Troops. In this and a couple of other recent games, I've had to improvise by putting figures on my old card sabots. If this WWII ruleset sticks (and it looks like it will), at some point I ought to get round to actually basing the tanks and troops properly for it. Likewise the ACW collection I inherited from a friend. Decent bases make a difference both aesthetically and functionally.