This may sound over optimistic but after the last half decade of poking, prodding, experimenting and exploring, I think I may have just finally agreed with me and myself about what we want from the Square Brigadier.

 Well, until I get a brand new idea perhaps.

The rules are available here (click) .

The armies march on and deploy. The game was a meeting engagement over random terrain with victory conditions being determined after laying it out.  (Capture a road exit on the enemy’s baseline while stopping him from grabbing one on your baseline.) Each side had 4 “Brigades” totalling 14 units. Some dicing resulted in Blue having 4 cavalry, 8 infantry and 2 guns while Red had 2 cavalry 10 infantry and 2 guns.

Anyway all of the old ideas have been tried in various combinations as well as every alternative or new idea that has come to me over the last 6 years and most had some merits and some faults but when push came to shove, every attempt to make the rules more detailed or flavourful, or gamey (sic) eventually failed when tested and I’m left pretty near where I started  and originally got so excited because despite past preferences, I had discovered that I now liked the feel of this quick simple set of rules where the tactical details were below the grain forcing me to focus on over all battle plans and when and where to pull back or push ahead and when and where to throw in what reserves I had managed to hold on to. 

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

The lines engage.

On the far side of the table, Blue’s guns struggle to silence the Red gun while Red’s infantry start pushing around Blue’s right causing heavy losses to the Bluecoat Brigade. The center is a stand off.

As Blue’s losses grow and the sun sinks (along with the remaining stack of turn cards), Red sends his whole line forward with orders to “Attack!”.

The Grey Coat Brigade managed to hold back twice their numbers backed by artillery but on the far flank, Red’s artillery and infantry forced back Blue’s cavalry and artillery. In the end Red’s cavalry swept forward routing the Blue cavalry and overrunning their artillery.

Time to get back to some converting and painting.