On Saturday I was dropping off some unwanted paperback books at a charity shop and on the way out I glanced at their books , now I've never found anything worth reading on their shelves - lots of copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' (so many that they have stopped taking them in , 'Fifty Shades Of Gray' is also popular for dumping, the lady behind the desk told me !) and Mills and Boon romances , but I noticed there were a few Osprey books so I gave them a looking at. Most of them were ones which I already had or was not interested in - but - there was a copy of the above rules , I was vaguely aware of them as my mate 'B' had a copy and had mentioned them - so for £ 3 I thought I would get them and have a look .
I was impressed by their simple mechanisms , very O.S. and simple , as there was a small scenario in the back of the book I thought I would give them a quick try using my 30mm Spencer Smith figures.
My Spencer Smith are individually mounted on pennies , but I found the MDF sabots I originally got for my Napoleonics so used these , three bases per unit , total of eighteen figures per battalion . Honours of War don't use figure removal so it doesn't really matter how many figures you use. Here we see the Austrian forces moving up to attack the bridge.
The Prussians prepare to hold the bridge . Sadly the bases rather jar colour wise ! , may have to do something about this if I go with this rules system.
The Prussian Artillery have a commanding hill top position . I have read that the artillery rules are a bit overpowered so I will have to keep an eye on them whilst playing the game .
The game starts , the Austrians advance and deploy as the Prussian artillery open fire ! . Too be continued ...........
A great find at a great price! We like HoW very much. A good, solid game.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to trying them out.
DeleteAhhh the eager first go at a new set of rules, the air rife with anticipation!
ReplyDeleteIn any case, whether the rules are to your taste or not, the armies are putting on a very enjoyable show.
Yes I do tend not to bother with new rulesets but we will see how they perform
DeleteYou never know what you will find in a Charity shop. I have found a few things over the years in my local Oxfam.
ReplyDeleteThis a first for me , if I recall was it you who found figures in a charity shop ?
DeleteI really like HoW as well. In fact I played this exact same skirmish two nights ago (under a different name). Great find!
ReplyDeleteThey seem simple enough (a must for me in a set of rules) and it will get figures on the table that haven't seen action for a while.
DeleteHOW were my rules of choice for the SYW when they first came out. Like you I enjoyed the simple mechanisms and how friction was introduced.What eventually took me away from them was the artillery and the need to constantly rally if one wanted to have some units left. It became obvious that the canister range was too long and the effectiveness of the guns made them a battle winner in their own right. I tried adjusting the range etc but because it still was easy to force a regiment to retire I then had to introduce another house rule about targets etc. Still they do have some nice mechanisms for a fun game.
ReplyDeleteYes I've heard about the artillery , will give them a run through to test them out .
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