trailape, your enthusiasm for these rules shines, and your AARs and campaign reports certainly communicate that passion. I have yet to read a negative or even lukewarm review of LONGSTREET rules, but you get to the two main things I want out of a rules set:
Do they convey a sense of the unique period or setting?
Are they FUN?
A fail on either of these things is a deal killer for me, and your presentation certainly persuades me that the answer to both of those questions is a resounding 'yes'.
Since you actively solicit reactions at the end of your third AAR, I will venture some observations and a couple constructive (I hope!) criticisms.
First my observations. Your presentation is easy to read, conceptually clear, well presented, and visually engaging. A very important aspect is that you offer a good explanation of intentions of the players, the influence and effects of the rules, and resulting outcomes, including the after battle promotions, unit statuses and reinforcements. I come away from the report interested in the outcome, and looking forward to the next report. I am ALWAYS impressed with weaving some roleplay perspective in the AAR. Math style chess reports are just dandy for chess, but thin gruel for a miniatures wargame, IMO.
Some critique on the comic book style. I like it, it is engaging. It is a plus. However, it might benefit from some tweaking. When I went to read the third AAR, I was confused at times as to what was happening on the tabletop as conveyed by the cartoons. It is a good mood setter, and conveyed the subjective sense of elation, urgency and tension, but the objective sort of got lost up until your written summary of the game afterwards. My suggestion is to keep the comic book style, but almost as punctuation or interludes to the prose – which may or may not be 'in character' in a roleplay sense. Basically, intersperse shorter punches of the comic book style as a support for the written report. I'd love to see that all in character, with an out of character summary of the game at the end, along with the unit and status updates.
The last point is quibbling, but there are a lot of typos in the third report that are not in the first two. I think you are that excited about the subject, and that is a good thing!
Please continue these reports. They are exciting reads, and I hope you understand the critiques are per your request, and trifling in comparison to the superb job of presentation on your blog.
experiments with Finger Drills.