PBI Playtesting

I travelled down to Weymouth on Friday for a day of playtesting PBI3. The journey was hampered by bank holiday traffic and it took me 6 hours instead of the usual 4, but it gave me plenty of time to listen to The Bleeding Land by Giles Kritian on Audible. 

As usual Martin put me up and after a delicious meal cooked by Julie we moved upto the Peter Pig workshop to play a game in the evening. The below picture shows Rob Roriston who played Panzer Grenadiers all mounted in half tracks up against my Russian infantry company supported by 3 T34's Rob made a big push against my objective to the left of the picture and eventually took it using a flamethrower to kill my bases in the bunker. Rob won in the end, but not by much.

Once the game was finished we cleared away and I was bedded down in the workshop. I reckoned I was in the company of around 50,000 Peter Pig figures. I was in Piggie heaven!

The remaining pictures are from the Saturday which saw about 12 of us playing with Martin floating around as rules official. Fred Cartwright was there too who has done sterling work on the armour side of the rules. The Weymouth Levellers club have been playtesting this new version of PBI for over 12 months and I think Martin is getting to the position where he is happy with how they are playing. I think he would like to get them out around October but sometime before Christmas may be more realistic.

The new PBI is a streamlined version of the previous incarnation. It still represents a company action with some support which might be a couple of tanks or guns. I didn't play PBI2 much to be honest as WW2 isn't a main interest of mine, but I am really enjoying this version and have made a few purchases to get my own armies upto strength. I have late war German and US companies plus a Russian force that will do for any period of the war. I wont go into any detail of how the rules have changed; that is for Martin to reveal when he is ready, but I can say that if the rules were released as they are tomorrow I would buy and play them.

Ade and hopefully Keith are coming over on Wednesday for a game of Men of Company B, Vietnam action in country close to the Cambodian border. A suitable soundtrack is being compiled. 

More soon...

Martin Goddard - You Tube star

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KrPOMNoXCM&feature=channel

Martin talks about Washingtons Army rules.

Weymouth Battle Day

Ralph Ashdown with his trophy. Well done Ralph!

Friday saw me travelling down to the south coast for the Peter Pig Battle Day in Weymouth. AK47 Reloaded was the order of the day. Martin at Peter Pig had kindly agreed to put me up for the night and take me down to the 'Levellers' club night for a warm up game.

On arrival Martin greeted me and we settled down to some wargames chat, before the arrival of Rob Roriston for some tea with the rest of the Goddard family, Julie, Rachel and Grace. Following this we took the short drive to the club where two games of Reloaded were played to blow away any cobwebs. Myself and Martin took on Paul and Lee. Having performed poorly in the pregame we found ourselves with very few on table forces, but managed to hold on to the objectives somehow and won the game despite Lee's attack helicopters causing havoc for Martins armour.

We left our stuff at the club ready for the following day where battle would commence in the Church next door. It was again back to Martins for more shooting the breeze over a cup of tea. I also got to look at a pre-release copy of Washingtons Army. Unlike recent RFCM rules they will be spiral bound which I think is a good idea for the longevity of the book. It was then bed with a 7.30 alarm call, breakfast and then back down the road to the Church.

The Peter Pig Battle Days are organised by Stewart Meecham in Weymouth or Miles Milton in Bournemouth. Both have a similar passion to me for friendly games where there is no emphasis on crushing your opponent , just a fun few hours rolling dice and pushing around toy soldiers.

Although only a handful of us were there, it didn't matter a jot. For me so long as I play a couple or three games, preferably against different opponents in the right spirit, it doesn't matter whether 6 or 60 turn up. In fact the more people that turn up, the more stress for the organiser!

Anyway some pretty pictures of the games.

A nice day had by all. I came 6th which is some kind of record for me. I think my first top ten finish in one of these things!

Ralph was a deserved winner even if he did shoot my militia in the back as they were running away! We had a great game in the true spirit of RFCM games. My game against Miles was much closer and could of gone either way. Miles will tell you he won 39 points to 35, but the book say it was a stalemate and I'm sticking with that! Again played in a spirit, just how it should be.

We had a lovely dinner too, fish and chips for me. I think with less chatting and more urgency we could have fitted three games in but, in hindsight, two was enough and allowed me to get on the road early enough to get home around 8pm. So well done to Ralph for winning and Stewart for organising and the Goddard family for putting me up. Certainly as long as these events are run I will support them.