Another week, another drubbing.

Its over twelve years since John and I had our last wargame with Steve Taylor, but when we met him last year it was great to see him. It was a shock to see him moving slowly on two sticks but he was in great spirits although clearly in pain. Anyway when he contacted me out of the blue about trying out a set of ACW rules based around Fire and Fury and DBA, how could I say no.

Steve brought his lovely collection across to my home but insisted on acting as umpire between me and John.Its been years since I had played either set of rules but I managed to pick things up pretty quickly.Selecting the rebels, naturally. I thought I would surprise John with a holding attack in the centre whilst I turned his right flank with my best veteran troops.

Well guess what, my plan unraveled in double quick time as John had craftily massed his troops on one side of the creek, and left my best brigade in splendid isolation doing nothing.

Needing pips to move is okay if you throw high, well needless to say that didnt happen too often to the Rebs. Meanwhile John trundled inexorably forward against my green brigade which was duly peppered with Union artillery.They retreated in disorder, probably wondering where their best troops were.

I was surprised it took so long for the Union to shatter two of my brigades but they eventually did.

As a try out the amalgamation of two rule sets worked very well and will only need a couple of tweaks to make them very playable.It was great to see Steve again, and even better to see him moving better than last year.