MUSKETS & TOMAHAWKS 2 - ANYONE PLAYED IT YET?

[Pan Marek]

If so, what do you think of it?  Especially compared to the first edition?

I played M&T2 for the first time a couple weeks ago.  The use of D10 over D6 does not seem to effect game play much, rather it appears to be used to give room for more weapon types as they move into the 19th century.   The big change is getting a "hand" of 3 cards to play, rather than the previous 1 card pulled from the deck dictating who/what has an action.  Also, the cards can be
from either side.  Thus giving the holding player a chance to force actions on one's opponent.  When you use an opponent's card out of a hand, the player gets a command point to use for actions without a card.

Here's my take:  It appears to play smoothly.   But I also think the rules have taken a step towards being more "gamey".  It makes for more decision making, but more to deal with interruptions rather than to deal with your opponents actions on the table.  The deck also has "clock cards" to reshuffle the deck.   We played without this, as its a little complex.   If used, it would mean the deck gets reshuffled when a clock card is drawn.  Thus, the deck never ends and there are no "turns" per se.

I see the reshuffling as making it difficult to have a scenario where certain troops appear later in the game.  How does one do that if the deck never runs out?

I'll need to play the new version multiple times before I have a final opinion.  The authors did not "break" the game, but they may have over-complicated it for no good reason.

[SteveBurt]

We thought the rules an improvement; the d10 is good, they fixed the melee rules, and there are more decisions to make. The clock cards only end the turn if a particular one comes up first - and you can use them to mark 'turns' as required. So for instance you might say that every time clock card 2 comes up, one turn has passed.
It's less random than v1 as you have more control because of the command points.

[Juan]

I like a lot version 2. The clock cards are useful for finishing the turn and for finishing the game, in some of the scenarios, so they are an important part of the deck. About the cards you are waiting for and they don´t appear, you can use Command Points to activate units, or the "Forward Boys" card, so I think there is a good level of balance in the rule mechanisms.

[FlyXwire]

I think your impressions are similar to mine PM - (but I'll be more blunt - v.2 was Larded).

My group eventually settled on the 3-card hand when playing v.1, but with two separate decks divided up for each side to draw their own cards from, and this balances the random draw vagaries against the desire for some in-hand planning to occur....and without pips, points, or gimmicks).

If you want to play above the skirmish level with M&T, then the randomness of unit activations versus a desire to encourage players to employ tactics and under an idea of having a battle plan (which should be expected at the Brigade level of command), just becomes more glaring.   

[Captain Blood]

Sorry, no cross-posting of the same topic on multiple boards on this forum. Otherwise you end up with multiple conversations on the same topic!

The other one is here...
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=128167.0;topicseen

Locking this one.