I
have previously reviewed Donnybrook by Clarence Harrison & Barry Hilton
(Wordtwister Publishing 2013), based mainly on solo play. I therefore decided
to trial a game at Devizes Wargames Club using my 1745 Jacobite and Government
forces. The first game I played against Ian who used the Jacobite force.
Initially The Government forces started strongly. My ‘regular’ Royal Marines
deployed forward (using the attached ‘Scout’ character) and unleashed a volley
which devastated a highland unit (and knocked out their ‘Bard’ character). My militia
unit shot a couple of highlanders who were deployed forward on a rough hill.
These highlanders were then charged by my regular horse and wiped out! (so, cavalry
can be useful). Two Jacobite units KO’d for little lost to myself, this was a
good as it got for me. The Jacobite leader and a bunch of highlanders then charged
around a wood into my horse and routed them (they had a morale dice roll of 1).
This is the stage of the game photographed below. The leader’s highland unit
then continued to charge my militia, who were beaten and routed (another morale
throw of 1). Next another highlander unit charged my Royal Marines and forced
them back. I did manage to wound the Scots bagpiper, which I classed as a moral
victory for the government cause. At this point my army was below 50%, so
further morale checks needed to be done, and guess what, my Royal Marines
routed (another throw of 1!). Finally the Jacobite leader charged my leader and
the two spent the rest of the game duelling with each other. At this point I
conceded the game because I had only a single unit still functioning. Game, set
and match to Ian’s Jacobites.
Figure 1: First game. The government militia about to
die!
The game only lasted 90 minutes, so a second club member, John,
who had watched the first game offered to replay using the Jacobites. I again
deployed my Royal Marines forward to enable them to unleash some deadly volleys
into the Jacobites. Their activation card never came up and they were
overwhelmed by a screaming highlander horde. On the other flank a group of
highlanders crashed into my horse, who had moved to intercept them, killing my
noble cavalry to a man. The victorious highlanders continued their charge into
a regular infantry unit, who failed to fire! The ensuing melee was a convincing
win for the highlanders, only my drummer managed to take out an opponent. Three
government units down and my lone militia unit almost surrounded. It was time
to give up and go home!
Figure 2. Second game. Before things went wrong.
So what was the verdict on the rules? Both games were fast
paced and fun. The use of different dice to represent differing quality of troops
worked well. There was a strong feeling that luck, particularly in the card
activation sequence, dominated the games and that victory or defeat was not due
to a player’s skill or decisions. I certainly found that throwing only 1’s when
testing morale was disastrous, and I yet again found the ‘drummer’ character
was very useful to the government forces. Both Ian and John very quickly picked
up the rules, they did not even need to refer to the QRS to play the game, and
quickly took on the aggressive highland characteristic of their army. I think
John would have preferred to play without the ‘end of turn’ card, which would
allow all units to move in a turn (a mechanism also suggested in the rules
themselves), but he understood the rational for including it. As new players,
both Ian and John, spent some time flicking through the Donnybrook rulebook and
they commented that it was very pretty but contained rather too much ‘fluff’.
Also, they found the inclusion of the ‘Cultist’ faction strange. I don’t think
that either will be inspired to fork out £27 to get their own copy of the
rules, but I think they would be very happy to play in future games that I
might arrange.
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