I ran my BattLe of White Plains scenario at HAVOC on Saturday We had a full complement of 8 players, which was a big help.
Lots of looking at the summary sheet. Several months before the game, I had really distilled the rules into a much better summary sheet (there seem to be relatively few rules authors who have a clear idea what belongs on these!). Due to the flooding the weekend before, what I did NOT have time to do was to read through the rules again before the game, and list the characteristics of the various units on each players command list. With players varying from pretty experienced with he rules, to experienced with the Daniel Mersey "rampant" stable of rules, to no experience, that slowed down the start of the game and caused some confusion all around. I apologize for that, not what you want for a big convention game.
In the end, the players graciously took that in stride until we all caught on.
The attack of the British on Charleton Hill, soon to be supported by the Hessians.
The Patriots defensive line proved to be pretty tough to crack; I probably gave the rebellious scum too much artillery and rated them too generously. Never the less, Sir Steve's redoubtable battalion of British Grenadiers breaks through near the village of White Plains itself.
Patriots move to counter the assault upon Charleton Hill.
British Grenadiers break through and strike again! Ouch!
Overall, I was very happy with the look of the game, less so with the undesirable rules confusion. I think the (modified) R&P rules are workable. I liked the (still in evolution) Light Bobs rules that we played for Concord Bridge better, all things considered, but those rules might be challenging to use for a large game. Mark and I hope to play another game with R&P in the next few months to solidify our understanding of the mechanics. I plan to run the Battle of Brandywine Creek, 1777 at Historicon in July, but that will be with the Field of Battle 3rd edition rules.
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