Ayton, Friday 29th April - Sunday 1st May 2022.

[tim.w]

Just spent the cash from the tat corner. I'll be meeting a group of 4 kids aged 3-8 tomorrow and getting them signed up for school so will be taking some of this.

[Peeler]

Well done. Remind me your address & who to make the cheque to.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Well done, Tim.

[Etranger]

Good work!

[Tim Hall]

Excellent bit of buying there Whiskey, and going to a great cause.

Thanks chaps for a smashing weekend that was over far too quickly, a third day would be good, but sadly so many of you are still wage slaves. I must congratulate Little Freddie for a thrilling day's play on Saturday, and apologise for my dice which were on fire. The much maligned Gateway cavalry redeemed their tarnished reputation and fought like lions, and their infantry were steady to a man, the men of Brittania were also on their mettle and the laurels were theirs. Sunday was a much harder battle and I was up against Dave, who played like a gentleman, a crafty and skillfull opponent indeed, the outcome was in the air for the whole day, and Dave was magnanimous in victory. A great pleasure to meet Pembs and John Rich, two fine chaps very much the right stuff for the Ayton Stalwarts, and wonderful to meet all my old friends again after our long, enforced absence. Special thanks to Gary P for my terrific troops, and to Iain and Dave for their superb organisation, and of course Peeler for being such a splendid host. Roll on 2023.

[Darklord]

Already begun painting some figures for the next time we do a big 18th century game. I figured if I start now I may be able to have a brigade ready for next time.

[Buff Redux]

Safely home so I can mention a couple of points that occurred to me during the week. I liked the overall feel, a lot of things felt right, especially the inadvisability of charging formed infantry.

Generals bonuses were a bit confusing, on some occasions it added an extra dice and on others it added an extra pip to the dice. I felt that it should be one thing or the other. Also, did the extra pip add on to both dice or just one.

The bit I didn't much like was the morale check from shooting. Unless you can leapfrog a new battalion in front of one that needs a morale check you're buggered. The sequence seemed to be, Take casualties, take morale check, pass, stand still and take more casualties, repeat until eliminated. Should there be an option for voluntarily failing and retreating?

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Should there be an option for voluntarily failing and retreating?

You mean "The Gateway Option"?

[Essex Boy]

Thanks for that, Buff.

A Leader (yes, I keep calling them Generals as well - can't help myself) adds a pip to the Morale roll, and the Rally roll (to the total roll), but in all other cases he adds a D6. You're not the only one who thinks this is unnecessarily confusing. I agree. I know the morale bonus needs a rethink, I just couldn't come up with a quick fix. I shall try harder. It must be simpler than at present.

It sounds like I may have given you the wrong impression of the morale rule.

Morale and shooting 'hits'.......

A unit tests morale if it takes two or more unsaved hits from the shooting of a single enemy Brigade. The test is taken the next time the unit's Brigade activates. If a unit passes the test, it carries on with no ill effect. If the unit fails the test, it is broken and immediately retreats (in other words, routs).

Morale tests are the very first thing you do when you activate a Brigade - before any orders are given. So, the unit's first opportunity to rally will be when it's given the compulsory 'Unit Rally Order' later in the same Brigade activation. It will have run away from the unit shooting at it so shouldn't be getting constantly pinned in place.

Ah ha. Having just written all that, I think I've stumbled on the problem. Were you applying the 'Unit Rally Order' each time a unit took two or more unsaved hits? That would indeed have the effect of 'pinning' a unit in place. In fact, you only need to 'Rally' a broken unit - units are only broken by a failed morale test or by losing a melee.

Morale and Rallying caused problems in the original draft of the rules. I completely separated them in the rewrite but I'll try to make it more intuitive in the post Ayton corrections.

Much obliged. Thank you.

Iain

[Essex Boy]

Should there be an option for voluntarily failing and retreating?

You mean "The Gateway Option"?

I think you mean the 'Brigade Recall' Order? I confess that I wrote the order with the Gateway cavalry in mind. Trouble is, you need a teeny weeny bit of warning that the Brigade is about to bug out for the order to work.