At the February auction in the Bear Room, many painted units were for bid, and during the sale of one it was mentioned that this unit had been involved in many tabletop actions. One wit asked if it was "pre-routed", which caused a hearty laugh.

This lead me to name Murphy's Law of Wargaming #1: a unit in its first game will either fail morale against all odds, run off the table at first bat, or be eliminated to the last figure. Oh come now, it has happened so often to all of us at one time or another that we can't help but make it a law!

To illustrate, let me give some examples. Kelly Jones, a man of high spirits and bizarre humor, modeled a Seven Years Was General (a Frenchman in Austrian service) named "Salle de Bain". For those who are not faced with turning the shampoo bottle to the other (Canadian) side, his name is French for bathroom. Called such, Kelly placed his General in a horse- drawn outhouse, complete with "Officers Only" in German on the side and the man himself on the potty using pieces of a Prussian flag as toilet paper. The base was completed with path, rock wall and aide-de-camp.

In his virgin action, the general was attached to a unit that was targeted by the first enemy cannon fire of the game. A hit was made and a test made on the 'leader hit' chart. Two consecutive sixes later, and accompanied by many good- humored jabs, Kelly put poor Salle de Bain back in the box. 18 hours of work had lasted two minutes on the table!

A further example of first time unit's bad luck is provided by a Confederate ACW unit freshly painted by Red Plume Painting Service (blatant self-advertisement sorry). I delivered the unit on the night of the game, which was the Battle of the Crater during the siege of Petersburg. Without knowing the positions of the Confederates, the Union player made his target selection of the mine blast in secret. The units were then placed.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but the fresh unit was fully and completely over the detonation site. As the blast was the first event of the game, the unit did not last second!

If you have a story of a unit which had a bad time in its first action, or continues to have bad luck, please submit it. I'm sure this could become a regular feature.