Medieval Battle-Bear Yourselves Valiantly

On the 27th of February the group got together at Guardian Games and we had another test run of the rules Bear Yourselves Valiantly.  If my count is correct this is the third time with this rule set.  We generally like them but are still making mistakes with some of the mechanics which is causing frustration for us. Over all we enjoy the rule set.  Also this game was a test run for Alyssa to GM the rules, who will be running a Roman vs. Celtic battle at Enfilade in May.  

This particular battle was just a line them up and beat on each other type of game.  We had 6 total players with Alyssa being the GM and me as her assistant. 

Four of players had a winger commander and two battle groups except the two players Ken and Kevin who were the respective Kings for their sides. They had the King, a wing commander and a battle group.  The wing commanders in this game each had 1 to 2 units to control as well.  My thought behind this was to give the forces a chance to exploit advantages or plug holes where needed.  Even the Kings had their own units.   I forgot to get a picture of the units on their starting lines.

This is was after the first set of moves with Kevin's army (the right side of the picture) pushing forward.  You can see how full the table is with miniatures. Outside of a dozen stands or so these is the total of all of my 10mm medievals on the table at once.  Looks AWESOME!

Dave was holding down Kevin's left flank and continued to push forward on Jesse who had one battle group Retreat after 1 turn.

On Kevin's Right Flank Jack pushed forward to only be met in the middle by Jeff's forces defending Ken's Left Flank.  The battle there would seesaw all night.

Dave's forces are moving in after Jesse's battle group retreated.

The middle of the battle field between the two Kings was a bloody mess.  Both sides hammered away at each other turn after turn.

A close up of the action between the two kings.

Jesse's battle group never recovered from their retreat but he was able to throw one stand from his other battle group in between the retreating force and Dave's steamroller.

More of Dave's forces engaging Jesse's.

The battle between Jack and Jeff was a bloody affair with Jack's Battle Group finally retreating. 

One last overview of the battle before we called it.

The battle ended up in a tie with the opposite flanks, Jesse and Jack's forces retreating.  Next time we run a game of this I will create some sort of victory conditions as I feel we have gotten over the hump, somewhat, of learning the rules enough to a go at a proper scenario.  The Yahoo Group for this rule set "Look Sarge! No Charts" are great at answering questions when we have issues and that has helped immensely. 

Overall we had a great time as usual. We have a great group that taunts each other and likes to have fun. We argue sometimes over rules but this a great bunch of people to be associated with and I'm glad they let me play.