On Saturday night at COW I was lucky enough to get a chance to play the new rule set being demonstrated by Martin Goddard and Rob Roriston. I had played one game previously at my local club and I am familiar with Blood Barons which provides some of the rule mechanisms. This rule set and Martin’s figures have fired up my childhood memories of playing with my Airfix figures, so I was keen to play again. Indeed I am learning the art of painting 15mm lead so I can field both sides for club games, Martin’s car was slightly lighter on his way back home.

I joined the game slightly late after staying at the dinner table listening to Steven Bowns trying to persuade Jonathan Crowe that DBMM is the best thing since sliced bread. I knowing very little about the rule set stayed longer than I should to try and discover more. That is the beauty of COW you hear some wonderful debates and it widens your view of the hobby.

Anyway back to CWB the rule set has a wonderful Pre Battle set up phase that creates an element of surprise and change in your battle plans. This is down to luck but there are enough dice being thrown that it does IMO even out and gives both sides benefit and pain. For example in this game I took

The right flank force, and lost several stands of figures and a battery of guns that failed to make the fight. A unit of green troops were slated as late arrivals and might not make it onto the map. This was mitigated somewhat by a road in my sector which would aide their arrival.

The Confederate Command was lead by General Will Whyler who took the central position flanked on his left by Gary Martin who was opposed by Noel ONeil. I was faced by Brian Locke and I must apologise profusely as I failed to note the name of the chap who opposed Will.

The start of the game can be seen in this picture.

The defenders had a great position to defend and the game really revolved around the attack on the Graveyard and Church. If that could be taken the Union force would have their rearmost objective and this would give them maximum benefit. The next best would be taking the hill in Will’s sector. Brian just had to keep his nerve and hold the road objective which the Union got by default.

This is where the game mechanics helped the Confederate force. While we lost several units and some stands of men we won through in the Cavalry pre game section. With one success we were able to place a cavalry unit in any scenery template on the map. This was a key counter to the success the attackers had in moving the scenery templates to help aid their attack. Gary choose very wisely to place this small unit of troopers in the front woods on the left flank. This force would act as a delaying ploy to hep reduce the chance that the Union force would push through to the Graveyard and Church.

The picture above shows the last stand of the Confederate Cavalry force before they fled the field.

While this battle was taking place the Union Cavalry sought to use their speed to flank the Confederate forces and gain the Graveyard before the Confederate reserve could arrive.

They made it to the woods just as the Confederate reserves arrived to secure the Graveyard.

A swift battle ensued where the Union Cavalry where soon defeated.

The final turns of the clock for the left flank saw the Union Infantry descend on the second line of Confederate troops lining the edge of the wood.

Meanwhile in the centre the Confederate ploy was again to delay and draw the Union forces away from the objective. Will moved a unit of infantry into the Farmstead.

This force did an admirable job of distracting the Union player and melted away under a hail of cannon fire.

This allowed Will the chance to redeploy his Artillery onto the rear hill to provide covering fire for his remaining infantry. The following picture shows the consolidated Confederate Artillery combined to provide some serious stopping power. In the distance the lone Union gun can be seen after his partner battery was taken apart by superior Confederate gunnery.

The Right flank was of little importance to the main game other than tying down the Union forces and preventing any flanking manoeuvres. The reduced Confederate force had one battery that did a sterling job in preventing the Union forces from making any headway. Brian checked the dice being used several times to ensure that there was no foul play. (In good humour).

Brain removes another Artillery casualty from his Veteran infantry. The position of the flag gives the unit type. So on the Right it is a Veteran. In the Middle a Regular, and on the left a Green unit. This clever device is one of many contained in these great rules.

The game ended very quickly as Will was doing a sterling job with the clock which is controlled by a D6 at the end of every turn. This nice ploy means that you can never be sure how long you have to press home your attack. For the defenders it ensured that the Union attack did not have enough time to win through.

The picture above shows the final positions with the Union forces short of their objectives and the defenders with a slight advantage. To determine the final victory you assess various factors and roll dice for each advantage won.

Personally I am not keen on this but in this case it seems to work from the two games I have seen so far. Again it works on the principal of throwing a reasonable amount of dice, so it all evens out in the end.

The result of the dice gave the defenders an Acknowledged win which seemed fair and I hope I can say for all players concerned a fun battle to play in a couple of hours. Martin and Rob did an admirable job of explaining the rules and keeping things moving and this allowed the six player game to move at a cracking pace without becoming bogged in detail and rules mechanics.

While I have little experience of other rule sets these have captivated me and got me back on the table to fight more battles.