Our crew here in Tucson played our first scenario from the Donnybrook rules booklet the other night; it was the “Rearguard” scenario. Using the formula for composing the forces of 2:1, I upped the recommend number of units from 4:2 to 8:4. The forces were the Tangiers Moors and the English….the English were the outnumbered force. The forces consisted of:
English:
1X12 Musketeers
1X8 Pikemen
1X3 Grenadiers
1X6 Cavalry
Special Characters were the Hero, Sergeant, 2x Officers and Drummer.
Moors:
1X12 Local town folk/mob
1X8 Foot Crossbowmen
1X8 Foot Spearmen (Algerian)
1X8 Arab Infantry
1x6 Cavalry (Hasham Guard)
1X6 Mounted Crossbowmen
1X6 Mounted Spearmen
1X3 Cavalry (Black Riders)
Special Characters were the Hero, Great Warrior, 2 mounted Musicians, 1 mounted Standard Bearer, 1 Musician, 2 foot Standard Bearers and Shaman.
The English set-up first, and their Hero (player), first time playing Donnybrook, was a little nervous about the massive Tangiers force off table. The English set-up was a bit surprising, but played out well for winning the game. He placed all his troops on the far side of the river bank closet to the arrival point of the Tangier force. The luck of the “Turn-over” card helped a bit to run through the turns fairly quickly. The Tangiers force had some difficulty getting their entire force on the table. It wasn't until turn 5 that all units were finally on the table. There were two turns where the turn-over card came up last or near last. The game last for 7 turns; the Tangiers force busted their army moral check. They had lost a combination of 9 units/characters. Plus mathematically, with the amount of turns left, the Tangiers force could not have made it to the other side if they would have passed their morale check.
Two notable observations were the use of the Sergeant assigned to the Grenadiers and their use of the grenades. They were thrown in a pack of Moorish cavalry and that was the beginning of the end…all three hit.
The only question I have is the use of the grenades by the grenadiers. I was part of the play testing group and know how to use them, but I could not find it in the Donnybrook rules booklet, just the mention of the “optional rule for grenades” on page 25. Please let me know if I’m missed it in the reading.
Here are a few game pics:
