Uh oh!

I went to TNGG (Thursday Night Gaming Group) at the Game Parlor in Chantilly Va last night. We played Starship Troopers (Pictorial to follow) and as is the custom with a Thursday night game, hung out and bs'd in the parking lot for a long while after the store closed. I got to talking about the Russo Polish War project, and after the jeers about my commonplace, boring choice of time periods were over, I was asked what rules I would be using. When I replied that I was contemplating RED ACTIONS! by "the Perfect Captain", the response was mixed. One of the fellows in the parking lot had played Red Actions! at a HMGS convention previously, and his reaction was very negative. The specific complaints were that the combat resolution was bloodless, which led to a very boring game. The only way to kill off a stand is to either rout it away or roll a ten when you fire with artillery.

My cursory reading of the rules seems to support this. There's panic a-plenty in RED ACTIONS! but not a lot of blood shed. That doesn't seem to match up with my perceptions of the period. I tend to agree with the parkling lot critic..

My choices are to work on revising the CRT (possibly), to increase the lethality, or find a new ruleset. In any event I'm going to playtest RA! as-is before I make any further decisions on the matter.

I wonder if it's not too late to find some OTHER company sized low-complexity wargame out there somewhere? Anybody have any ideas? I'm kind of bummed, as the sheer elegance and graphical beauty of RED ACTIONS! is a powerful incentive to give it a try.