I've got the week off. Not planning to spend much time in front of the computer - I've got exciting things to do! Like painting the house, filling in my tax return, camping in Wales etc.....

But I should tell you about the Napoleonic Wars session we had on Monday. Dave (typecast as the aggressive Corsican), Simon as Russia (supposed to be a quiet sector while he learned the ropes), Nick (the patriot) as Britain, and me holding the line as Austria. The first game finished after one turn with a French victory. We had lunch then set it up again. This time it went for nearly three turns before we had to break up for the evening. There were a couple of highlights - the epic march of Austria's John who took Marseilles, torching the French fleet, then spent impulse after impulse evading a ring of vengeful French armies, crossing the Alps no less than 3 times before his fate caught up with him. And the surpise march of the Turks across the Apennines to Naples - whose garrison was so startled that it immediately took flight, even though it outnumbered its attackers! As Nick had left Simon spent the last part of the game handling the Russians, Austrians, Prussians and Turks (so much for a quiet sector) and was in a commanding position by the time we quit.

What a great game this is! Full of incident and twists of fortune. Not a simple game to master, but well worth the effort.