Thanks, Dave. That's what I thought.

The + for artillery shooting always counts against a tercio, irrespective of whether any file is 3 ranks deep: it's "Battle troops which...are a tercio", as a separate bullet from the 3 ranks bit.

Does a Later Tercio always remain a tercio for all purposes (greater vulnerability to artillery, self-supporting etc) even if reduced by losses to a 2+4 pike and shot unit? I assume so, as an Early Tercio in certain circumstances becomes a Later Tercio "for the remainder of the game", but ...

Labour won an outright majority of seats in England in 1997, 2001 and 2005. Scots seats have only altered the result for a majority in 2 ( or maybe 3 or 4, depending on which sources you check :roll: pro Yes say 2, pro No say 4) elections since the war, It's nearly always the case that a Labour maj...

Thanks, Tim. Great stuff as always - and congratulations on the excellent result.

And a jolly good essay too. All very convincing, and I think these changes would effect some highly desirable rebalancing.

I agree with all Nik's proposals. Implement those and sort out the artillery issues (preferably with Alasdair's suggestion of simply removing captured artillery, and using blank bases for passing through friendly artillery), and I think we're there.

Fine. Just say how much determined horse, cavaliers and gendarmes ought to cost, then! Competition organisers can apply your recommendation - problem solved. Doing just that worked with DBM.

I don't like the idea of changing break points - it would skew the whole game and make points changes even more necessary. Just change the points for determined horse and cavaliers instead of fiddling around with the rules.

Why is it impossible to reduce the points costs? That really does seem the obvious answer, and a single amendment sheet for each army list book would surely not be a problem. Points cost adjustments have done wonders for balance in DBM.

Hurrah - my first appearance. There will be more...

Another thing: who makes casualty figures suitable for Ottomans? My 25mm casualties are all ECW which don't look right. After much searching, I've found some 25mm Janissary casualties, from The Assault Group. They look just right. http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/store/product.php?productid=96&...

But OK nobody said the world is a fair but I will always wonder : how many times did an early 30 years war swedish army win a tournament or did they have so many outright victories as to make them the supper army some people would like you to believe ! I saw Early TYW Swedes win at Arquebusier in D...

Here is an idea. JGL used to run a competion where there was a tight theme, with a list of available armies. But only one army of each were allowed. You could do it on ranking to selection first, or first come etc... or some bidding mechanism (lets say lowest points wins the army bid). I'm sure we ...

The New Model Army are all Warlord plastics, painted during the past year or so. The Royalists are a mixed bunch; mostly old Minifigs with a few Hinchcliffe and Foundry, plus some recently-added Warlord figures. The Minifigs foot don't look too ridiculous beside the much larger new figures, which ar...

I'm introducing my son Ralph to FoGR and we had our second game yesterday. This time we used 25mm figures, at 700 points, and the spectacle was great. Ralph commanded the New Model Army against my Later Royalists; noting that the Royalists would have at least four Cavalier units, he maximised the te...

Sorry, no - I haven't seen that one. More pictures in their catalogue would be helpful!

I think you've won the "Who is the real Dave Allen" contest, though, Dave.

Ah - must have been the Marston Moor army, half Scots and half Parliamentarians. I'd forgotten that option.

Sounds like Scots Covenanters (light artillery, lots of crummy horse), except for the mention of "commanded shot" which I think no Scots army gets. They must have been "commanded out shot" which needn't have deterred your cavalry.

An excellent game, anyway!

I haven't any Yeomen of the Guard so they might be a clincher.