AAR - Shako II, April 17 - at the Hangar

Here are some observations on the game from Steve McCabe - a game run by Scott Kidd!

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I wanted to say great game and thanks for putting it on Saturday night. Two weeks in a row of Shako... getting spoiled! The French under Crouch, John, and Carl pretty much crushed the Russian / Prussian alliance. Not that we didn't do our fair share of damage, but I think the final point spread was 2 points for the alliance and almost 5 for the French.

I figured I could go over some observations here for a pick-up game:

1) They are big!

2) Not a lot of Cavalry. 4 or 5 regiments out of 31-40 line units.

3) Objectives: I think the objectives need to be more spread out. A town with two VPs, created both a bottleneck and a very strong position with woodline to both sides of it. My suggestions are:
a)two VPs spread out seperated by at least 24" so that there are not the bottle necks.
OR
b)Use no strategic VPs and instead base it on the destruction of the enemy army, the typical 1 point per division destroyed.

4) Movement to Contact. I think an interesting idea to play is that there is no "attacker and defender", instead there are two objectives more or less in the middle of the board. That way, there is no 20% additional, and both sides would have to think of a plan to not only take the objectives, but how to hold them.

5) Reserves: March to the sound of the guns. Instead of the 1 division in reserve like we did this time. The commander gets to decide maybe one or two divisions that will be the vanguard. Arrange the divisions in their "marching order" And roll to see which turn the actually come in on. The Prussian/Russian alliance had 5 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry division. These were no midget divisions, but big ones. Phasing might make the board a little more manageable, let combat take place, and also make the positions much more tenable. The Russian Reserve division came in at the end of turn 3. Never used. The French reserve division came in at the end of turn 4. It was finally used during turn 9+ and only as the capacity to add depth to the front line troops. Wonder if the French couldn't form a complete line. Think how worried they would be about getting those reserves in.

6: Bonus Selection. If we play with notes 4 & 5 above, we could in fact also make room for possibly one bonus selection, especially if you see Note 2, not a lot of cavalry!

Just some observations.

Anyway, great game Scott and thanks for being brave enough to run the first pick-up game. I like historical scenarios better throwing in the odd mix of pick-up games I think that is a great way to spice things up.