Wrap up...pics to follow

Here is my much delayed post on the Big Battalion Seven Years War game at MillenniumCon over the past weekend. I'm sorry, but familial health issues are reducing time for gaming-related activity.

First, I would like to thank Bill Protz for joining us in Austin. That's a long way from Wisconsin! He was a fun and interesting addition to our game, which of course used his BAR rules. It was a pleasure to finally meet in person.

We used-errr-took advantage-ummm-asked Bill to run a learning scenario on Friday night, with just 2 battalions, 2 squadrons, and one gun per side. The Imperials won that game quite handily.

Second, thanks to everyone who brought troops and terrain to the game! I tried to get more table space, but I wanted to stay in the foyer area for the maximum advertisement. I know many people stopped by to gawk and drool. There were at least 2,000 figures on the table at any one time, and nearly 3,000 cycled through. I must admit, though, that the Britannian infantry brigade's four battalions were sadly forgotten by Landgraf Bogey and spent the battle in reserve...under the table.

Finally, thank you to the players. There would not have been much point without them! Apologies to any names I forgot or misspelled:

Electoral
Paul
Jim (Col Campbell)
Chris
Clay
David
Two others...lost their names

Imperial
Bill Protz (link)
Paul (Herzog von Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn)
Brad
Gilles
Father & Caleb team...lost Dad's name!

The map was laid out on a 32 foot by 6 foot (or so) table using a ground cloth. Trees and shrubbery were added for visual effect, but were deemed too light to effect game mechanics. This was one of several simplifications used to speed play and simplify the rules.

Another simplification was troop quality. Since I had no idea how many players would show up or what their level of familiarity would be. I never intended to use historic national differences, but had considered using "earned" values as per the BAR rules. However, we used that everyone was "Veteran" to speed the game.

As mentioned elsewhere, we did not have enough players to manage the whole length of the table. Rather than slow the game by overloading players with too many units, I simply kept players with about 4 units each, and ignored one end of the map. The game was scheduled to run through two "periods" of the convention, so I used the second period to move the remaining players and two new ones down to the unexecuted end and ran through that. I think it worked well.

I spent most of my time answering questions (when Bill was otherwise occupied), drawing cards for movement and firing, answering questions to kibitzers, and toward the end of the game by beginning to pick up the figures. So, sadly, I have few pictures and even less of an idea how the game went.

Feldzeugmeister von Blei-Sammeln's pronouncement aside, I believe the Electoral forces were in the ascendant on the Electoral right flank.
However, when the afternoon session moved to the Electoral left, the Imperials won a resounding victory. This was due in no small part to young Brad's measured decimation of the Germanian infantry in and around the farm. He even kept a fresh regiment out of the line, throwing it in at the end to seize the objective. Pretty impressive!

Finally, rather than clutter up the blog with the pictures, I will put up a link to an album containing the ones I have collected.

Thanks again to everyone! It was a pleasure!

Ed
Secretary to His Excellency the Landgraf of Hesse-Fedora

Bags are packed...

...see y'all at Millennium!!

For those Blogging vicariously, I may or may not have time to post over the weekend, so look for pics Sunday or Monday.

If you are traveling to MCon and need to identify me, I will be wearing red or blue LSHM polo shirts, have a distinguished hairline somewhere near my ears, and the surviving hair is cut extremely close. Think Patrick Stewart from Star Trek: The Next Generation only more handsome and less of a voice!

Ed

Fourteen boxes of miniatures on the wall, fourteen boxes of minis...

Twenty-two brigades, 34 battalions, 43 squadrons, and 22 guns, plus a slew of generals and AdCs...whew! Almost ready for the day!

See Hesse-Fedora for some pics.

Ed

2,194 SYW figures later...

That's how many figures I have now completed the basing/rebasing for this game! Yikes. Just some flags and movement trays are left.

Quick question for the mess:

Does anyone care if their cavalry is combined with other players to make viable brigades?

Or do you want to command all of your own toys?

Ed