David hosted a game of
Might and Reason on Thursday. I'd never played the system before and it is an interesting system. Set at the "Grand tactical" level, the primary manoeuvre elements are brigades of infantry and cavalry, with batteries of artillery. For the game David chose Chotusitz from the scenarios on Sam Mustafa's (the author) website-
https://sammustafa.com/downloads#block- ... 7405_12596. David gave me the choice of armies and, being too lazy to move up to the other end of the table, I took the Austrians.
- Pulse 1, turn 1
- T_M and R_1 crop.jpg (293 KiB) Viewed 779 times
David's sold off his 18mm SYW figures and is replacing them with 28mm. He's also just rebased the lot to four bases per unit, from his DBSYW basing. The Austrians were represented by several armies- some French, Reichsarmee and teddy bears- but he's been working on his Prussians and they took the table
en masse, including his newly painted Erbprinz von Hessen-Cassel Fusiliers (IR 48), who steadfastly refused to rout, stand fast or any of the other things a newly painted unit is supposed to do.
- The assault begins
- T_M and R_2 crop.jpg (214.41 KiB) Viewed 779 times
The game system is unusual. Each turn can have up to four pulses, during which the units do all the usual movement, combat and dying actions. But the command and control system is unique (to me, at least). The C-in-C of each army is rated for quality and rolls to secure "Command Dice", which can be used to re-roll the activation and combat dice. Subordinate commanders have to roll 2D6 to be activated and accordingly are "unactivated" on a 2 to 6 (ie sit around playing cards, dressing the lines and discussing last night in the mess), activated on 7 to 10 (doing all the things they are supposed to do) or have a rush of blood and attack on 11 or 12. The commanders' skill ratings (-3 to +3)can modify the dice.
The skill, personality and other attributes of commanders and troops are listed in comprehensive appendices at the back of the rules.
- A mad rush of blood
- T_M and R_3 crop.jpg (220.76 KiB) Viewed 781 times
- The dice show how many strength points a unit has left.
- T_M and R_5 crop.jpg (182.98 KiB) Viewed 779 times
To cut a long story short, after a small success in destroying two Prussian units with my right flank cavalry (who had charged forward when their idiot commander had thrown an 11 for activation on pulse 1, turn 1), David's skill with tactics and the dice saw the battle won for him in short order. The teddy bears' pop guns singularly failed to stop the assault, and the other units' muskets were little better. The artillery fought well, but I didn't count on how vulnerable they were to an attack by foot. My cavalry did reasonably well on both flanks, but my infantry were out-gunned and out-diced by the Prussian infantry machine.
- The Prussian assault in progress
- T_M and R_4 crop.jpg (226.74 KiB) Viewed 779 times
It's an interesting system (interesting enough that I forgot to take photos after the couple of pulses). I'll play again, if David offers. Initial impressions of the rules mechanics may be faulty, so I won't give any pro's or cons after this initial game.
