FIASCO! Edit: Link to Fiacso video added at bottom of post.

Fiasco 2019 will take place this coming Sunday, 27th October, at Clarence Dock (across the square from the Royal Armouries Museum) in Leeds, doors open at 10 a.m. A war games show and a free military museum in the same local, what more could you want on a cold Sunday.

This is our nearest, and dearest, war games show, and we've been supporting it with demo games for who knows how long. We started presenting games when Fiasco was held in Armley - so, how long ago is that?

This year, The Ilkley Lads (Peter J. Graham H. and myself) will be putting on a Peninsular War demonstration game. You will have no idea how much it pleases me to say that. Getting the armies up to the 'just enough to take out on the road' stage has been quite a struggle. Even now, all this time after the project started, there are only 38 units done - 18 British and 20 French.

Among the new units, this one will fight for the very first time. The British 27th Regiment of Foot, The Inniskillings. This is one of those contrary regiments which goes against the rule of buff facings, buff belts - it has buff facings and (as per pictures and reenactors) white belts.

 

The game is going to look very much like the recent fair you have seen here, so please don't expect something different. What we will do, for the first time at a show, is go through the set up (less a boring string of unit quality rolls, which I've already done to save a little time) and deployment procedure; so the game you will see will be a 'proper' game, as opposed to a more usual scenario style demo-game set up. If you get to the show early, this might be the most interesting bit of the game! But, hopefully, not.

We'll be using our home grown Classic Piquet / Field of Battle hybrid rules, and we'll be using 'Domino Theory' for deciding initiative: This might prove interesting to seasoned Classic Piquet players - in our opinion, whilst producing asymmetric initiative runs, it beats the pants off d20 rolls, especially when combined with our version of the Field of Battle Lull card. 

If you've been watching what we have been doing with this Peninsular War project, and you are interested, and you can make it to the show, don't be shy - we'll be glad to chat and answer any questions you may have. 

Also, as there are only three of us to do the game, there will be a couple of table spaces open for Olicanalad's Games blog reading convention attendees (spaces available on a first come first served basis - see below) to join in, shuffle some cards, move some lead about and throw some dice for some of the day: Let us know if you want to play. 

However, and treading as carefully as I can, please be aware, this game has not been set up as a participation game, nor is it officially advertised as such - it is categorised as a Demonstration Game. Consequently, and to avoid disappointment, because the table is 6' wide and the rules are quite complicated, playing spaces will not be generally available to younger players - they are very welcome to watch and ask questions but, not play. 

See you all on Sunday! And remember, the clocks go back an hour on Saturday night.

EDIT: I forgot to take a single photo of the game - fortunately, Storm of Steel has done a You Tube video which features the game: Link here