A Game! A Real Game! With A Live Opponent!

Yesterday I made the hour+ drive across to the Atlantic coast for a game with a longtime wargaming friend, also an ex-Montreal Wargamer.

A pregame overview.

Not only was it good to catch up, but it was good to once again fight with masses of little guys (15mm) on a table (roughly) twice the size of my current one.  Good old 'Reinforcements on Table' from  CS Grant's 'Scenarios For All Ages' was set up and waiting for me. A favourite chestnut which we've played many times over the years, in various periods and scales under multiple rules.

15mm Napoleonic was one of the era's/scales where Ron had one side and......... well, I don't have any 15mm armies anymore and no one else was coming, so, he had improvised an Hungarian revolution scenario. Having a bit of 'equality of man', anti-establishment, etc, etc, blood in me, I called dibs on the Hungarians.   

We started off trying the Portable Napoleonic Wargame but it just wasn't our style so we fumbled a bit and then improvised a variation on Battlecry, quick and easy. Instead of the ACW card deck, we just rolled a die DBA fashion to see how many formations we could move that turn and used the Battlecry dice for combat resolution. Worked like a charm. 

The bold Hungarian artillerymen open up and score hits with their first salvo.

Ron managed to take most of the hill with his first attack but in his hurry to take ir before my reinforcements arrived, combined with low activation dice, his 2nd line lagged behind, giving my reserves time to march up, deploy and recapture the bit of ground that he had taken. Ron's 2nd assault was "this" close to retaking the ridge and breaking my army but the dice liked me that day and I held most of what I held by the skin of my teeth, and then my last reserve blasted his centre away and retook the crest. VICTORY!

Not many better ways for a fellow of my age to spend an afternoon.