"Solo AAR Land of the Free" Topic

Here's a short solo AAR of a French and Indian War encounter using the "Land of the Free" ruleset. Check it out here: scalpdance.blogspot.com

This rules set has the esteemed honor of being one of the few sets that I tossed in the garbage before I could even finish reading it.

Unspecified ground scale, time scale, and unit sizes, right? I did the same thing. I actually rebought the rules. Crazy!

I might re-buy them if I can get them for $5 USD somewhere.

What a great looking game! I love the mat you were using! I was also struck by your obvious great first impressions of the rules. When they first appeared, I heard reviews much like coopman's, so they remain the only Osprey set of rules I haven't bought yet, (Which is odd, as 90% of my games that I play are historical, and yet I have all their fantasy and SF rules but not all their historical).

But just a few weeks ago, I heard someone else actually rather liking the rules too. And, like yourself, that person has actually played them. (I'm not making snide comments about coopman either; I've done the same thing he's done many times).

I'm thinking I might just have to pick them up after all! I tend to like rules that reward good leadership and thinking.

Thanks for posting the review/AAR on your blog.

Thanks, Tony! You can usually get a pretty cheap used copy at Amazon. I got mine for $17 USD (actually, $0 USD because I had an Amazon credit!) in mint condition. Looks like it had never been opened.

If you play, bring your thinking cap. Leaders are THE key to victory and you can use them in many ways -- also make sure you always keep at least a Combat Action on hand for opportunity fire. I saw someone somewhere complaining about the other side blazing away at you without response. In this game, that's pretty much YOUR fault. The game's not going to bail you out.

It's not perfect, but there are subtleties that are not immediately obvious.

Oh, and the mat is from Cigar Box. link

I had a series of postings on "Land of the Free" back in 2014 on Palouse Wargaming Journal. Included were two BatReps, a review, and impressions.

For more details, please visit:
link

Very cool table, JonFreitag! Enjoyed the AAR. Your "Planning the Battle" post, I think, highlights LOTF's main weakness: ambiguous unit sizes, where a "large" unit is defined as anything from 300-1000 men. Coupled with no given ground scale, the game makes it hard on the player who wants to design his own battles. From the weapons ranges, I think you can assume the ground scale is roughly 1"=10yds. So you can start there, but then you need to know something about historical unit frontages to make use of that info. I think the game is best at generic points games. Then you don't have to worry about all that stuff.