Listen, we are going to get right to it. I know you are wondering what a Fluff Screamer is. This regional hamburger, native to Girardville PA, sounds like the food of nightmares but in reality it is quite delcious. This burger is topped with a spicy chili sauce made with hotdogs (yes, really) chopped onions, a tomato, and marshmallow fluff. Yes, marshmallow fluff. The fluff balances out the spicy chili sauce and helps glue the whole thing together. My buddy has made this for our group once before, but I was the only one who had it way back then at this nights meet up. This burger was made famous in a science fiction book the group was reading back then, but this group of historical gamers didn’t even have the idea in their head or the interest in trying to prepare them. After working their courage up they demolished the food and everyone agreed this burger shouldn’t work, but it does!
With that out of the way lets take a look at the game! In this game the Russians and the French were trying to take a series of villages, towns, and cities. Whoever controlled the most at the end of the game won. Since I had to arrive late I played the French cavalry reserves under Marshal Poniatowski.
I spent the whole game slowly pushing my troops on to the board. By the time they got close to position to do anything the game was called. Both sides controlled an equal amount of town centers, but the Russians had a healthy corp and had the game continued they were likely to have captured an extra city so it was called a minor Russian victory. As I always say these large games are often determined in the “what would have happened” phase of the game! As a French player who didn’t really get to play I’m insisting it was a tie, after all my forces were unable to engage due to the game rules, it’s not our fault the Russians sat around too long!
One of the downfalls for me in this game was the way the rules work. I showed up just after orders were given so I was unable to do anything that turn. The next turn I was able to be given orders but in ESR you don’t roll to see if you follow your orders until the next turn. Normally this is all done at the beginning of the game so nothing is going on and things move pretty quickly but as the game was in progress I sat around for about 45 minutes before I could do anything. Then I was so far away I never got into contact so I spent most of the time sitting around being bored. I think as a scenario rule when reinforcements are coming in once the battle is in progress it would be good to have the orders and objective already set and if a planned for turn has already passed allow the reinforcements to come on the board in the first available movement phase. Had that been in play I would have been able to get two feet further on the board and have actually rolled some dice. Oh well, live and learn! At least I got to have a Fluff Screamer!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 