Midst Battles Din

Ok we tried the Skirmish rules,  "Midst Battles Din" tonight playtest fashion. (http://www.wargamevault.com/product/137450/Midst-Battles-Din?manufacturers_id=6623). This means very simple scenery and small number of figures just to get the feel of the mechanisms. I had read through the rules, my opponent had not.

We set up on a small table about 3ft square , a narrow defile in the hills, with some pine copses and scrub offering cover. Two forces, 8 Texian infantry lead by Hugh Samston and Capt Gonzales 6 Mexican Regulars and 4 praesidial cavalry, faced off each other at opposite ends of the defile.

 The Mexicans move rounds the flanks

 

Gonzales began first and together with 3 men ran to the high ground whilst the remaining 3 sought cover behind a stand of pines. The cavalry trotted forward.

Samston sent a lone skirmisher ahead to fire from behind a large bush while splitting the remaining force into two groups, on to the hills to the left, the other, led by himself to the right. So far so good. No problems with activation and movement.

The next turn brought us into range and the firing rules worked fine. The mechanism of using the difference between the two dice thrown to hit to determine if a wound is caused is a neat one and saves throwing another die. The differences between cover and shooting ability also worked out fine.

Samston and Gonzales men traded fire for a while until the first panic markers were taken.

Gonzales fires on the Texians

Here it began to unravel.  We couldn't get our heads round the table for morale and activating a unit or fig with panic markers. The Texian behind the scrub was hit but not wounded twice - thus gaining two panics. I tried to activate him and due to my die throw he charged. Odd we thought, but being behind cover he never actually made it out due to rolling a 2 for his move.

The Mexicans came on and the Texians fired back picking them off slowly.

Taking cover, the Texians return fire and then advance

We played a few more turns . The cavalry charged but didn't have legs to contact so the Texians survived another round this time and got stuck in the following turn. Result - melee simple and straight forwards. Two praesidials killed.

What works - the difference die mechanism for firing mean you only throw one dice for hitting and wounding.

What doesn't work - the panic/morale test seems odd.

With such a similarity between LotOW and the stats for these rules, I'm not sure what extra they bring to the table except a neat mechanism for only rolling once to hit and wound. Still, trying them out was good fun and my figs got to see the light of day for the first time in years. So not all bad!!