A Great Game!

I just come back from the local Wargames club, where I've just a had a fantastic game of Bonnie Blue Flag. After all these years of following it with a great passion, I can finally say I have learnt how to play them.

Above can be seen the dreaded roll that took a veteran unit off the board.

They really do give a very good, atmospheric game to which you could easily write a narrative around. For the odd swings and roundabouts seem to make sense from a historical story point of view.

In this larger 'Port Republic' game, I got to see loads of really interesting developments and twists in the game play. The 10% rule reared it's ugly head, but even this made sense as a unit was cut down by a withering fire at close range.

I won the game with the Southern forces and the star of the game was the Confederate artillery by a mile. Their accurate fire destroyed the opposing Federal battery very early on, allowing my troops to advance unmolested by shot or shell.

In this game I also got to try out melee for the first time. It was pretty brutal with my veterans charging through a regiment of raw troops. The green blue bellys promptly surrendered and throw down their arms.

Just before leaving for the club, I had the quick idea of making some simple tents to mark out the Union camp. These were just pieces of folded card with grey felt tip marker on. I also gave them a quick wash of brown paint. As it was really hot, this had dried by the time I walked to the club.

I will have a go at covering these with dry wet wipes and painting them up with PVA glue. I should be able to mold the creases into the fabric as it dries. Then spray and dry brush them so it brings out the texture. Using bigger pieces of wet wipes should allow me to create the closed ends of the tents too.

The counting stick was great and seemed made for the job.

 What a great night, I'm still on a bit of a high from it.

 Unlike before, there were just two of us playing tonight, so it really allowed me to get into the actual game play. Great stuff!