Neerwinden Playtest 2 - 2023-01-08

 Started the second play test this week - Mike was French, with new player Richard, whilst Ned and I defended as Austrians.  Mike explained to Richard that my usual rubbish dice throwing was already established in the Leeds club so he should be OK.

Much to everyone's surprise I managed to roll high quite a lot, so Richard did not get the easy battle he expected.  At the end of the first week Ned and Mike were trading insults and blows at their end, whilst I had stopped Richard, with my heavy cavalry rushing here and there to fill gaps and stop the French in their tracks.  I did manage to get my Grenadiers mangled and other units got whittled down on week 1.

In the second week my dice rolling returned to it's normal "sub-optimal" standard, Richard started winning more and, in the end, managed to get and hold an objective.  Week 2 saw more Mike/Ned banter followed by Ned pushing Ned back beyond the start line.

We tried a suggested "battalion guns" rule, but all the participants agreed that it was too complex, so we will use a much simpler rule from now on.

It was interesting that at the end of the first week, Richard had been quite discouraged by his troops stopping as they got disrupted, whereas I could see my line fraying and being held together by the mass use of most of the heavy cavalry.

It's a tough game for the French, whose troops are all fragile and predominantly raw, but with better French rolls (or worse Austrian ones!) the game can produce a draw or maybe even a win.

I have really enjoyed play-testing my first scenario and getting my FRW troops on table and in combat.  It has inspired me to start looking at more FRW battles to play in BBB!

Photos from week one:

Austrian Heavy Cavalry face off the French mob....

which leaves a gap on the Austrian right....

Further down the line, the French push into the Austrians

Ned, on the left, pushes back Mike's advance - much banter over this....

A little later, the French push through the porous Austrian right.

Photos from week two:

Richard gets to the main Austrian route and sits there.....   one vp (victory point) gained.

Final thoughts, lessons learned:

1. Firstly a big THANK YOU to Mike, Ned and Richard for fighting this twice, and for the feedback!

2. It was interesting to write rules to constrain the players to historical tactics.

3. It was hard for the French to get victory points, but then the real battle ended up in a complete rout, so still being there at the end of the battle is an achievement for the French!

4. KISS.  My play testers struggled with the battalion guns rule - so I am going to massively simplify it.

5. Asymmetrical battles can be fun and interesting!

6. Keep the number of special rules low - the players did best when they were using tactics they already knew from the other BBB games we have played.