PBI Campaign Day

Set in the closing phase of WWII the day saw 16 PBI 400 pt armies turn up for the day. The rules were the Peter Pig Company level rules PBI 2 (Poor bloody infantry) that rely on a no measuring grid system (which cuts down hassles tremendously. They also cut out the bane of 20century rules - spotting your target - which is always a bone of contention. Anything in your line of sight can be shot at, high saving throws for anything but being moving in open ground replaces any spotting rules. The rules while needing a few small tweaks are very fun to play, simple to learn, have few if any dirty tricks you can do with the rules and only need a 4×4 foot area - perfect for days like this.

Peter Pig who makes the figures and writes to rules was in attendance and playing himself. Basically, we had an allied group versus late war Germans. The only rules changed for the day were the reinforcement rules, this was to make the games fit into the time constraints of the day.

3 games were played by each player with the pre game rules determining the initial point total and set up for the armies with the reinforcements streaming on afterwards. Most of the games were hard fought affairs as the rules tend to even players out more than any other rules I have ever played. Everyone enjoyed themselves tremendously, even when being trounced into the game board, which has to reflect on the players and the way the day was set up by Shaun.

In fact the day was a great success, PP sold lots of figures, newbies and veterans alike (and considering there were 2 or 3 guys there that either wrote or play-tested the rules) had a great time. There were only a couple of designer armies floating around and the day provided instant rule clarifications for people which was great. As to the end results then the top eight players were all using German armies. Various hypotheses for why this was have been suggested. The most likely in my opinion was that the reinforcement rules got all the troops on quicker than a normal game. As the Germans tend to cost more and be better per figure then obviously the quicker you have them on the board the better for you. My opponents were faced with my whole army (my VET panzergrenadiers were always reinforcements and were arriving on a 3+ throw each for the 3 half tracks) being on the board after the first reinforcement turn, instead of having a breathing space for a few goes. But this didn't seem to ruin the day as we only really noticed afterwards. At the time we just supposed all the American and English players were crap.

After the third game it transpired that I had scored maximum victory points in all three games, being the only person that left me on the top of the table so to speak. Second and third place was a close run thing between Simon and Fred (who basically wrote the armour rules) who both won all 3 games also with how well they thrashed their opponents being the deciding factor.

Again I thank Shaun for the tremendous day and look forward to upholding PEWC's honour at the next bash.

Richard