First Test & Development Games of Pulse of Battle: Ancient & Medieval

 We had a smaller group yesterday for our first playtests of the new "Pulse of Battle: Ancient & Medieval" rules that I've started working on.   They'll be an expanded and modified version of Pulse of Battle, covering the ancient period up through the Swiss Burgundian war in the late 1400s.

The games we played were both Republican Romans vs. a Gaul army.   There's not a lot of nuance in playing a Gaul army, and not much tactical flexibility.   The Roman army is the complete opposite.   I didn't expect the Gauls to win (I used the same troop count for both sides in the first game) as I was primarily doing rule testing.   The Gauls didn't disappoint.   They were CRUSHED in the first game.  The Romans blew a wide hole in the middle of the Gaul army, decimating the Gaul's Army Morale Point total, and the Gauls happily failed their first Army Morale test.

The second game had the Gauls with about a 40% advantage in army size......and they still lost.   The Romans concentrated on the Gaul right flank, and the Gaul left flank couldn't get enough movement to ever get into the game.   The Gaul cavalry on the right had an opportunity to sweep around the Roman left/rear, but couldn't seem to get going.   

Photos follow below.

First Game!

 We were finally able to get back to gaming this past Saturday.   The start of the game was delayed a bit because everyone was so glad to see each other, and the stories were flying!

We played two SYW games, with the first armies that I finished during the pandemic - Austrians and Prussians.  This was their first time in battle.   Both games were close - the Austrians won the first game by a slim margin.   The commanders switched sides, and the Prussians won the second game by the tiniest margin.

During the second game, both sides were at 0 AMPs.  The Prussians decided to take a couple of low percentage artillery shots just to see if they could get an AMP paid to them by the Austrians for a UI loss, which would put them at least out of the danger zone with 0 AMPs.   Rolling a D4 vs. a D6, Greg R. rolled a 4 vs. a 1!   1 UI lost to the Austrians, and the morale point went to the Prussians.   Now a second fire, at a D4 vs. a D6, and Greg R. once again rolled a 4 vs. a 1!!  That's a 1 in 576 chance of occurring!!!   The next Prussian card was turned.....and it was the Army Morale card!   Without the drama of the artillery fire successes, the Prussians would have been forced to check morale to see if they remained in the battle.   Whew.    

Two more times both sides were at 0 AMPs, but eventually the Prussians crept up a couple of AMPs and finally the Austrians turned an Army Morale card when they had 0 AMPs.....and they failed.    What a game!

This was the first time using a couple of my new Cigar Box Battle mats.   They are awesome!   I just used them over my terrain squares terrain, and I loved the smooth hill shapes.

I'll finish this post with a random assortment of some game photos.