Great AAR of some great rules. The author did an excellent summary review of the rules.
I do have one comment on one aspect of the rules review. The author said, "Troops begin ployed (in marching column) on the table's edges, commanders are left to develop the battle on their own. As opposed to many games, which plan for combat on turn 1 or 2, around a third of the game time was devoted to moving troops to the appointed positions on the battlefield."
I would like to point out that there is no requirement that the troops begin the battle in march column and spend a third of the game moving troops to the positions on the battlefield. That is entirely determined by the scenario you choose to set up.
I have run probably four or five games of ESR and in only one did we start the battle that way. My games are usually with 4-6 players each commanding a corps. Most of the guys are not too familiar with the rules. So to speed things up our scenarios usually do start with combat in the first or second turn.
Having said that, the one game I did run with units starting as they marched on the field was really fun. These rules have simple, but very realistic, rules for having a division deploy for battle. It does not just happen all at once as is so common in wargames.
After decades of Napoleonic wargaming and trying so many rulesets, ESR is it for me.
Tom
paints the Dogman from the Flintloque starter set.
