The End Of The Crossroad

Well, this wasn't what I had in my mind when I sent drummers around the 19thC shelves to beat the assembly in preparation for a game, but its over now and about 4 sets of rules have been tried for a couple of turns each. I now have some evidence and recent experience for the committee (yes, yes, the usual: Me, Myself and I).  

The Queen's troops got to the town first but the Republic's troops deployed quickly and launched a two prong attack. (Random turn and road of entry.)

The grid is off though. It has its merits, but my 40mm Horse & Musket are too big to work properly with the grid that is painted onto the table and I am NOT going to repaint it AGAIN!  Anyway, I like my table the way it is, and the way the troops are based. So, the grid is off, but it would be anyway for these armies.  

A passing balloon caught this bird's eye photo as the battle progressed.

Over the last year, I've been investigating different approaches to the rules for these lads. All of the versions had something to say in their favour and some problems. In some cases I've found acceptable compromises and in other cases I have still to decide on different approaches (eg sequence of play, variable length moves vs activation, ranges, how resilient should the units be, etc, etc...)  Some of those options have been decided,  but there are still some decisions for me to make.  

The fighting got fierce and victory hung in the balance.

In any case, I'm ready to let it ride for the moment and turn my head to another collection/period.

As the day wound to an end and a bugler blew "Last Turn", the Boys in Blue (and Grey) launched a forlorn assault on the town but the Lads in Red held firmly onto the tavern, and the bulk of the houses.

The question now is: "What should I play next?"  It'll have to be one of my 8 active collections, but requests by comment or email will be considered.