It looks utterly amazing, doesn't it? Yeah, it does, and even better in person.
We had two games, Spanish Militia (since I wanted to try out the Milicianos Indios) against French Militia. First game, the spanish started a bit bunched up on one flank.
The French are more spread out, guarding objectives and waiting.
First objective, guarded by a unit of French Caribbean Militia, on the farthest corner of the village square
The second objective, guarded by another unit of French Militia, in the fort guarding the harbour.
The Spanish charged forward, but due to my bad luck with the dice (and a few spectacular defensive fires by my opponent), the Lanceros were wiped out as they tried to charge the fort, followed by the Milicianos gutted and shaken trying to charge the Boucaniers in the forest. And then the Spanish bravely ran away. In all, a good game, though my bad rolls (and a few good rolls at the crucial time from my opponent) spoiled it somewhat for me.
Another attempt, with things changed around a bit. Now, the objective is roughly in between the forces, which have been moved closer to simulate "starting at turn 2" (since this is roughly how we'll demo the game at Gothcon in a month's time). Spanish down below, French up above (same forces as last time), with some sneaky Spanish Indianos up near the river on one flank (hopefully distracting Boucaniers, near the upper leftmost buildin, from gunning down Milicianos).
Two units of French Militia, hanging back for now (soon to rush forward for the objectives)
We played the river as rough terrain (obviously, but Natives don't care about that), that also provided cover for units in it. Might have to add something about not providing cover for gunpowder-armed units, but once again, (these) Natives don't care. Prevents that side of the table from being too open.
Boucaniers fails to kill natives fast enough, slowly falling to a hail of arrows (and a final charge once they'd taken some casualties and fatigue).
The Milicianos, meanwhile, manage to get up into some cover (helped by being Elusive), meeting the first unit of French Militia and soundly trouncing them. After that, with both the Boucaniers, one unit of Militia, and the commander being dead, the French is defeated. Decent enough game, but very fast and not quite balanced between the Spanish and the French. More thought will have to go into it, but we're getting there. And we will have an utterly awesome table to get there on.
And I'm still happy that I finally got the Milicianos to work. Don't be fooled by the long guns they carry. These are mostly for defense when they get charged. March up there, present the guns at the enemy only when less than 4" away, fire and the immediately charge the survivors in melee. Of course, in a normal game, you'll take more casualties going in than here.
/Fool Out.
