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Monday, 26 May 2014

Donnybrook

I picked up a set of the League of Augsburg's latest rules, 'Donnybrook' at Carronade. These are skirmish rules for the period 1660-1760.



I am not a big fan of their rules so far - I just couldn't get into Lily Banners and so they have gathered dust. I don't think the same will happen with these.

The rules system is very simple with shades of Saga and can certainly deliver a fast paced game in an hour or so. The layout of the rules is straightforward and the QRF was good enough to play straight from it after just one read through the main rulebook. The rulebook is a very nice piece of work, plenty of eye candy, army lists and scenarios.

The three main unit types have ability levels of 6, 8 or 10 and they fire and engage in close combat based on D6, D8 or D10 - needing a six or higher to hit. Modifiers are kept to the minimum with as many special rules for weapons as you want. Each force is led by a character, supplemented by junior officer characters. There are some cracking special features for these in the army lists.

It's a card driven activation system, with a card for each unit and character, plus a reload and reshuffle card. I tend to find these a bit too random (as in Sharp Practice) and I am obviously not alone as the rules leave these as optional.

My test game was Hauptmann Eugen's Austrian regulars on a raid against an Ottoman block house defended by Bosnian militia led by Ahmed Aga. Some skirmishing in the woods on either side followed by a somewhat reckless charge from our hero Eugen and the dragoons. They were sent packing and that was game over for the Austrian's.

Good game and these rules are certainly worth a go if you like this period.




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