Last week Ade and Quint joined Scrivs and I for another Punic game of To The Strongest! The Romans sadly reverted to their original brittle state and promptly lay down in front of the Carthaginians. Much as I am enjoying Simon's rules, it is becoming a bit of a theme that the Romans fight a desperate defence from the start and I mostly try to lose with grace rather than consider the prospect of victory. I'm not sure that means that anything needs changing, it's just as likely that I'm not using my troops properly!
Last night I had a very enjoyable introduction to "Field of Battle' Horse and Musket rules, guided by Steve and using his amazing collection (just a small part) of 'traditional' toy soldiers. Sadly I have never rolled so many 1's and 2's in one game before! Considering we were using a variety of dice, up to D20, I think I rolled an 8 once, otherwise pretty consistently below 5. A little frustrating for Steve, who was trying to demonstrate the rules and these rolls kept bringing up rather extreme results. Also seeing his newly painted Russian grenadiers leave the table on the first turn due to some pinpoint Prussian artillery fire didn't help!
Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to play with these beautiful 40mm home-cast figures. It felt like a game straight of one of the war-games 'classics' that I used to borrow from the library as a teenager. The rules seemed a lot less complicated than at first impression too, and have some nice mechanics.
Not great photos as I was using my phone, but you can see a lot more of these on Steve's site.
