Trying out En Garde

Played our first couple of games with En Garde, the swashbuckling rules from Osprey. I'd had a copy for some time, but other things kept getting the way of trying them (Frostgrave, The Men Wh0 Would Be Kings, The Pikeman's lament etc)For the first try we kept it simple, 100 points each of Border Reivers with no attributes other than Commander. We also didn't bother with a scenario, just a simple "two gangs come into town and kill each other" set up. The purpose was to get the hang of the rules.

 The peaceful border village of Camkirk on Beckside

                                            The villagers go about their business

                                        Or relax over a pint outside the tavern

                                                           Watch out...Scots Reivers!

                            
                         Too busy at the tavern the Scots do not notice the English Reivers arrive

                                                Fighting in the village square

                                              Get yourselves oot the tavern!                                    

                                                  Trying to sneak up on the Scots

The forces were the same, a rank 4 leader with a sword, one rank 3 with sword and pistol, two rank 2 with sword and buckler and three rank 1, one with halberd, two with sword and matchlock.

We played two games, which both worked well. As with any rules, the first games a a steep learning curve. Most of the rules made sense, although we realised we had missed things in the first game (as usual!) The close combat was a bit clunky in the first game, but much smoother the second time around.

We may well produce our own QRS, as we felt there were various things missing, which we found we would have needed. For example the QRS tells you that a matchlock is Inaccurate but nothing on the QRS explains that effect. In fact there is nothing in the shooting section in the rulebook that explains Inaccurate, we eventually found it in the weapons section. Minor issues, and after a few games we won't need to look it up. But we really did enjoy the games, so much so that Henry is off to buy his own copy of the rules. I've also ordered a 3x3 gaming mat to improve the look!

Next time we will try attributes and scenarios.