Tuesday 14 June 2011

Beneath the Lily Banners 2 a short review


Earlier in the month I pre-ordered Beneath the Lily Banners second edition, by Barry Hilton from The League of Augsburg's shop it duly arrived the day after posting, and very impressive it is too!
Beneath the Lily Banners is a tabletop wargaming rule system designed to give players a real flavour for the tactics and troops used in Europe during the period 1660-1721. The game play is simple and quick to master. The mechanics are based on simultaneous movement regulated by easy to understand orders. The game can be played in 28mm or 15mm scale. 6-8 units per side will give two or three hours of fun. The rules will easily accommodate 100 units per side for grand battle scenarios. The 2nd edition has many refined mechanisms for orders, shooting, close combat and morale. The book has an updated events section with 52 "playing card" controlled events to add challenges and entertainment to the game play. The rules contain supplementary chapters for gaming the Great Northern Wars, Eastern Wars against the Ottoman Empire and King William's war in North America 1689-1690.
The book contain several uniform guides for the English, Dutch, Danes, French, Irish and Swedes. These guides as I'm sure some of you already know come in the form of painted figures by painters, Pat Conner, Clarence Harrison, Dave Imrie and Brian Philips. Also included are a short painting guide from these fine fellows.
Barry has included 5 army lists, the French Army 1688-1697, the French Army 1688-1697 Expansion, the Grand Alliance 1688-1697, Williamite Army of Scotland 1689 and Swedish 1709. I'm painting up a 15mm Grand Alliance army and now need to get my finger or paintbrush to be precise and get some more cavalry painted!
The book is full is photo's of extremely well painted figures, which is enough to make any gamers mouth water and personally make me feel quite inadequate with a brush.
Another great item in the book is the scenario, "Steinbeke, July 1692", which contains an order of battle and a reinforcement table, also a run through of how Dave and Barry's version of the game went.
I very much like the events card system which will add a little spice to the game, if you decide to use it, using a normal pack of cards, Hearts effect officers, Clubs effect the troops, Spades effect weather or terrain and Diamonds are Acts of God!! What ever you do don't throw the King of Diamonds???

All in all I'd advise any wargamer, whether the Grand Alliance is your thing or not to get a copy of these rules. Well done Barry and Clarence!!!

27 comments:

  1. Sounds good. The simultaneous movement mechanic sounds interesting, it that aspect comparable to any other games?

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  2. Right...I´m posting this as a test...see if yout hits go up about now. I´ve left a thread about what I´m doing (no I haven´t gone completely round the bend) at bennos and my blog.
    Cheers
    paul

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  3. Nice review. Now you have me wondering though: what utterly horrifying random event occurs when you draw the king of diamonds? :)

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  4. I was hoping to see a review of these soon and here one is, nice review and thanks.

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  5. Ray, thanks for posting this! I can't wait for it to reach the States.

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  6. Got my copy couple days ago but sadly no time beyond a brief skim thru, but very nice first impression :-)

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  7. I was hoping someone would do a review of these - I have a project in progress and was wondering whether to use these. Thanks.

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  8. not my favorite period (by far), but what you wrote sounds interesting.

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  9. that book seems very informative!

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  10. Thanks for the informative review. It's quite an ad.
    Cheers
    SG

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  11. Interested to hear that Barry has introduced an events card system. Was that in 1st Edition? (I never got round to buying it as I knew 2nd ed was coming out)

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  12. Thanks for posting a review of these rules Ray.

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  13. Perhaps I may one day get the rules, but at the moment I'm buried under rule sets! Thanks for the review!:-)

    Christopher

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  14. sounds interesting, might look into it.

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  15. Well if I ever get into this period these look like the rules I will start with. Thanks for the review...

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  16. I need to tell a friend who has a monstrous Turkish army about this.

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  17. What sort of "Acts of God" would a King of Diamonds produce? Would that be anything from a random tornado to an actual archangel being sent down for a good old fashioned smiting? I'd love to see you guys play a game of this.

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  18. 1st Edition seemed to have got a lot of flak, within the hobby, although can't say anything myself as its not a period I'm into and have not laid eyes on it.

    Sounds like this second Issue has improved.

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  19. Thanks for the review Ray.

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  20. Thanks for posting this. Looking forward to seeing this ruleset. Their 'Republic to Empire' napoleonic rules are excellent, though they suffer from being too wordy and convoluted at times. Hopefully they've reigned this in for BLB2.

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  21. The movie Rob Roy falls in this time frame.

    Going to check out the Wargames Illustrated staff again.

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  22. oh that's Miniature Wargames, I see.

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  23. Finally preordered them having ummed and ah'd about it for long enough as I've got the first edition. To be honest, you could make do with the old set, but this rule book is a very well put together affair and well worth the pennies. Fair review, I think, and, as the boss has found, they'll give you the burn to finish off any 'quiet' projects for this period or maybe begin one.

    I do have one issue. Being an old fuddy duddy I don't like the idea of bits of plastic filigree all over the place, so I'll bin that idea. Those plastic tokens just don't do it for me.

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