I did a simple playtest last night of the first draft of the Pond Wars rules, with 16 frogs armed with various weapons took on 10 musket-armed turtles. The resulting fight was quick and brutal with 2 turtles remaining at the end of the second turn. There’s not a lot of point in explaining the mechanics of the game, since the designer will no doubt completely change things several times in the next few days. However, the rules meet all of the parameters of the design brief:

• Unit based
• Movement and combat based on formations
• Simple to learn
• Mixed units (muskets, pikes, spears, sword)
• Little or no record keeping

Now all I need are some frog and turtle models instead of proxying with Uruk Hai and British Zulu Wars soldiers.