A Vital Bridge: The Prequel

If memory serves, I have only played this scenario once before. (See Scenario 10 from 'Playing through Scenarios for All Ages' on the 'Links to Old Stuff" column of the main blog page.  ) 

Having been attracted to the Prince Valiant strips, and the Elastolin figures since my early days, (strips only seen by the young me when visiting my Uncle's farm, and figures only seen in store displays.) I decided to get them out and get a brief break from 'horse and musket' games. 

When this century rolled around, I finally started picking up a few Elastolin figures here and there, mostly from HMGS fleamarket tables, and from Ebay. Some were old factory painted figures, not all broken, and even better yet, unpainted, non-assembled, Elastolin figures and one 'lot' of 100 gold coloured vikings for $20!  All in the same pose, running with an empty hand upraised, just right for conversions to all sorts! 

Eventually, I started to played small, skirmish games, initially using Medieval Mayhem (See Battlegames Issue 6). A few years went by and I happened to get some good deals here and there, and now the barracks are holding close to 200 figures ready to do battle which are a bit many for a solo skirmish game. (To be honest, 1:1 individual figure skirmish games aren't really my 'thing".)

So, to be honest, while adding characters and vague narratives, I just want to play conventional wargame 'battle' scenarios with "units".  Luckily, the figures fit nicely on 4 figure homemade bases that a friend of mine passed to me a few years ago.

After some contemplation, I have decided to continue to use them for conventional wargame scenarios, some small battles, some small actions. Today's battle is done and if all goes well, a Battle report post to follow Saturday evening (Atl time).

Yes, Yes....NO!

 But there's always another way.

So, after wasting spending time trying this and that, and restarting the game.....(twice more)  I decided to stay with my existing units but tweaked the rules.....and reread the scenario for the nth time, thus being reminded that the rivers could be forded near the table edges. Ahhhh! Right...that's better than just one bridge......

If all is well, the game will be played to a finish tomorrow (Wednesday) and a battle report posted.

Reset!

This was meant to be a small, quick game, an encounter between small parts of the main armies. 

Proposed 6 and 3 figure units.

Instead, it ended up with almost every painted Romano/British and Saxon/Pict  with a weapon, including some of the crudely painted ones I've picked up here and there and haven't touched up yet. The table was also getting crammed as the four contingents converged. 

Sooooo, after some thought. I decided to reorganize the units into smaller ones. It's only a 25% reduction but it allows a bit more manoeuvre room and a future reserve of bodies if I should ever get an unlikely urge to want to play a bigger, edge to edge, pitched battle.

Another option though, is to keep the 4 and 8 figure units, and reduce the number of scenario units. For example, instead of 6x6 figure infantry units (36 figures) use 4x8 units (32 figures).  

Best to sleep on it and make a decision in the morning.