Malvern Hill?

I had a fun evening yesterday. I was invited to play a Civil War battle using Piquet - Field of Battle II! First of all, the invitation was awesome because these are good guys and good gamers - second of all, I have never played FoB and was excited to do so.

I like original Piquet - yeah, I can think abstractly and non-linear, I am a software engineer after all. Unlike many, I had no issues with the impetus system. Yeah, it can lead to inactivity for some players if the game is too big. But for me that just made it a less effective "club game". It was more about an evening at home with a good friend a good scotch.

Last night, Field of Battle did a great job in the balance between restricting my control and letting me play the game...and...involving all of the players. Plus, I really like the opposed die rolls stuff that FoB (and that family of games) uses.

Brent has an innovative manner of "deploying" for the tabletop battle that is included in the rules. In this battle we had some additional deployment options (allowing for a terrific flank attack) and we had a tardy brigade and a couple of other neat things. Basically, we simply decided what forces would be involved and let this process help us set up the circumstances of the battle. It was cool.

Onto the battle. John and I played the Confederates and Brent and Greg played the Union. Given the ability to deploy some troops in a very forward position, John and I decided to mass troops in this are and try to slam into the flank of the Yankees on the hill. We'd of course place a holding force along the center to demonstrate but not really to attack with.

Due to the conditions and deployment process, the Yankees were able to deploy a brigade to delay our attack and sap its strength. Indeed this brigade would be successful in this endeavor.

In the end, the Rebels would fail in their attempt. So, the war continues on, another retreat and another battle. Onto the pictures. Brent, thanks for the hospitality and thank you and Greg and John for the terrific gamesmanhip!