En Garde!

 The Osprey Blue Book ruleset 'En Garde!' by Craig Woodfield is a nice skirmish set, and perfect after having sat down to watch 'D'Artagnan' and 'Milady' over Christmas on the big screen.

A nice little system, it can handle anything from the 1600s right into the 1700s, where figures can buckle their swashes, men are men with outrageous French accents, and women are Eva Green ;)

Do you mean me dahling?

• This one was done with younger players who picked it all up very quickly.
• A priority phase allows one party to choose order of attacks (this is quite useful) - a 'tactician' trait automatically gives priority (the musketeers in our scenario for instance).
• Movement - with terrain simply reducing from run to normal - to short , depending on nature of terrain etc. You can move fairly quickly, when not faced with cold steel, and shooting can occur - shooting with pistols is pretty deadly at close range.

• The combat phase is the real meat of the game, and is heavily dependant on counters which are chosen at the start of combat - these number the same as the character's 'fight' score, do D'Artagnan with a '5' could pull 3x 'attack' and  2x 'defence' counters.
• There are combat 'ploys' which can be enabled by the counters - riposte, parry, feint, mighty blow etc., which all give a real flavour to the duel.
• Oh - and duelling  - which if agreed, precludes others from joining the fight, makes it even more tense.

• Mechanics tend to be 2d6 vs 1 or 2d6 with modifiers based on stats, and traits like 'lucky', 'duellist' (where a second weapon such as a dagger can add to fight score), and 'beguiling' (a trait of Milady, which allows her to charm your pants off, while she shoots you in the face!) all add to the period mayhem and give great flavour.
• This is the only game, where outrageous French accents are 'de rigueur' during the course of the entire proceedings...

...There's ALWAYS room for a Python reference...

To the game!

The scenario had Rochefort and 4x red Guards, striving to bring Milady back to Paris from an isolated farm - after she had sided with D'Artagnan, Athos and Aramis (statted up in the rules which really helps).

It may have been a little unfair, as the Musketeers are predictably brilliant, and the young 'uns beat the hell out of Pete and I. ...I mean, we're not bitter!

The musketeers were spread across the farm...this would actually help, as they are for the most part, killing machines

the Red Guards tried to stay together, but when Rochefort accepted a challenge from Athos, it all went south...

D'Artagnan spent his time sneaking about ambushing Red Guards near the farmhouse...

'En Garde Monsieur!'

At one stage, Rochefort had managed to almost kill Athos...though then he took a stray pistol shot from Milady (she's a good shot it seems) which killed him on the bridge (I mean, it was a damned good shot )

...whilst Aramis admires her shooting skills, he awaits the Red Guards that are rushing their position, as she frantically reloads.

I mean, it all seemed like a fine plan...

Of course, the Red Guards ran out of luck after Rochefort got killed...it was all about the numbers by that stage. Milady runs behind Aramis for cover (because she is still reloading   )

A wounded Athos runs to protect Aramis, but the musketeer wasn't mucking about

A very nice little game for a Sunday afternoon. Now, it caters for large numbers of figures and characters, so will definitely look more into this one.

Figures were all cheap 1/72 plastic, painted literally the day before with contrast paints and impatience...and lots of coffee  ;)

...honest...

 Again - these movies are thoroughly recommended...