Time for Every Other Purpose

There is nothing like deciding to do some particular hobby thing to make free time shrink. However, some progress has been made and tomorrow (knock knock)  looks like a day off for me.

Furbishing and refurbishing in progress.

Of course, finding time and light and quiet for painting is harder some days than time for thinking about rules etc. For example I can do the latter, but not the former, when having couch time with a couple of hounds.

This means I've had another read through the rules and have realized that I had missed a few things and need to rethink one or two things.

The first is that I was imagining more rules about the "riflemen" unit type than actually exist. For example, I was imagining a fire benefit beyond range, melee penalties beyond reduced SP and better ability to move and shoot in woods. So, in order for my musket armed light infantry to be of much use, I am going to have to treat them as Riflemen straight up. Luckily, officially there were no US rifle units present at Crysler's Farm so I don't need to represent their superior accuracy or their reduced melee ability for this game. I find it odd that my Mohawk warriors and Voltigeurs don't move through woods better than line infantry but I can live with it.

I'm not quite sure what to make about the rules for shooting in and out of woods except to be sure that I am misunderstanding something. As written, a unit must be on the edge of a wood to fire out which is fine. However, a unit not in the woods can fire at a unit which is not on the edge, a unit which cannot shoot back!  Well, maybe in woods elsewhere but not the kind of woods we have, you can't see 10 feet into the woods around here from a position outside of the woods. Visibility does open up a little once you get past the thick underbrush on the edges so the 2 square range inside woods is fine, especially since it means there is an option for  a firefight in woods.  I think I'm just going to add a house rule that says troops outside a wood may only fire at a unit on the edge. Tit for tat.

The artillery effectiveness seems a bit too severe for fighting in America, far too easy to get to a point of automatic hits for my taste. For now I'm going to play them as is but the British will have to consolidate their guns and all fire from the gunboats will treated as more than 2 squares.

Lastly there are the Commanders, the rules allow them to make a very significant contribution to shooting and melee and there are situations where this would be appropriate. At Crysler's Farm though, the British were very ably commanded by the Colonel of the 89th but he seems to have been too busy commanding to engage in any heroics. On the other side the US Brigadiers seem to have been fairly active but the acting commander also seems to have had his hands full just trying to get through the day. So, for this battle only, I am not going to represent the Brigade commanders and will prohibit the "army" commanders from joining any units.

Right! First priority for Saturday is get the table cleared and reset and finish getting the small armies table ready. I'm hoping to play in the afternoon but if not I'll at least get set up for a Sunday game.