Buck's Blog

A handful of HAWKs got together yesterday to game.  We ran a scenario with 1813 Prussians.  Actually I ran it twice, because the first run was a blowout after less than two hours, so we reset and started over.

In this play test, I wanted to try out three things:

• A new artillery rule
• Command and control for the Prussians
• A lot of cavalry in a battle.

Artillery rule:  Napoleonic rules design requires a careful balance between infantry, artillery, and cavalry as well as column, line, and square to get the proper “paper-scissors-rock” feel.  I was feeling that artillery was under powered and didn’t seem to have a large impact on the game.  I couldn’t figure out why the artillery seemed fine in the ACW version of Look, Sarge, No Charts, but that it felt wrong in the Napoleonic version.  In conversations with Sam Fuson and Dave Wood, I finally realized that it was about “formations.”  Neither the WWII version nor the ACW version have explicit representation of formations.  In the ACW version, a hit at long range merely accrues a morale check, not a hit.  I added a rule that says that long-range artillery (only!!) fire against columns or squares results in a hit as well as a morale check.  The math was okay, but I wanted to see how this worked on the tabletop.  I tried to test this two weeks ago at HAWKs night, but the way the scenario developed there was little long-range fire.  Yesterday we had a chance to really try it out.  The consensus was positive, so that’s how the rules will be written.

Those of you familiar with the Napoleonic Wars will know that the structure of the late-war Prussian army was three battalions to a regiment and three regiments to a brigade.  This gives a Prussian brigade nine battalions, closer to a French division.  This means that pitting a French division against a Prussian brigade involves about the same number of battalions, but the French have three order dice and the Prussians only one.  If the number on the Prussian order cube doesn’t come up on a card before the end of the turn, nothing in the whole brigade (division) acts.  That seemed okay, but on the other hand if the card is drawn, the whole brigade (division) acts at the same time.  This had two outcomes in the game: 1) in the attack, it was easier for the Prussians to manage their forces and 2) it took a Prussian player a long time to complete his activation.

In our second game yesterday, we added a regimental commander for the Prussians.  I was afraid this would give them too much tactical flexibility, but it didn’t seem to do so.  In fact, by having four dice for the brigade (division), one for each regiment and one for the brigade commander, it actually seemed to reduce the synchronization of the Prussian attack.   I’m pretty sure that’s how I’ll write the rules; however, while a Prussian brigade commander has a morale rating of 4 (typically), I think that I’ll make commanders of Prussian line and reserve regiments 4’s but landwehr regiments 5’s.

Finally, since I had finished a lot of Prussian cavalry recently, I wanted to put a lot of cavalry on the table and see how that worked.  I think the effect was about right.  When the French launched their brigade of six hussar and dragoon regiments at the French cavalry division of three chasseur regiments, there were a couple of turns of swirling melee before the Prussians broke through.  It seemed about right.  in the second running, the French cavalry was stymied by a line of Prussian squares.  A couple of French artillery batteries caused some damage, but there was no infantry to send forward to break the squares.  The effect was good, I think.

In summation, I’m pretty happy with the rules the way they are shaping up.  The play test games have been fun.  It is most gratifying to hear people who have sworn off Napoleonics games say they really like these rules.

I took a quick break from 10mm Prussians to try my hand at 10mm fantasy figures.  These are from the Games Workshop Battle of Five Armies starter set.  They are mounted for the under-development Look, Sarge, No Charts rules set for fantasy, ancients, and mediaeval warfare.  I always thought the old Ral Partha dragons were underscale compared to their 25mm figures.  I think the dragon looks about right compared to the infantry.

Because these figures are mounted on strips, they paint rather quickly.  GW recommends that you leave the strips on the sprues while painting them.  I have two BOFA sets that I bought second hand.  One set was till on the sprues, while the other was already removed.  I actually think they were easier to paint after being removed.

The standard base size for LSNC rules sets is 3″ wide and 1.5″ deep.  It takes four of the GW strips to fill a base at this size.  A BOFA set includes six strips of these figures (men with spears).  Two sets, then, have enough figures for three bases of spearmen.

Now back to Prussian landwehr cavalry!

I have been piddling with Prussian curassiers and Prussian artillery in 10mm for over a week.  The curassiers were the easiest, because they wore white tunics with gray pants.  They painted very easyily.  The artillerists were a little harder.  It’s much easier to paint the infantry figures on strips than the individual figures like artillerists and skirmishers.  To finish my Prussian 1st Corps for 1813, I just need to complete several regiments of landwehr cavalry.  I’ll being work on them this weekend.

Harford Community College (Harford County, MD) ran their annual gaming day today.  Attendance was a bit light and spread across cards, computer games, and role-playing.  The HAWKs decided to support the even by running five miniatures games.  Tank and Eric Schlegel ran naval games: Uncharted Seas, Fire as She Bears, and WWII Naval (not sure of the rules).

I helped Chris run a Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII game.  One of the HAWKs, Greg Priebe, teaches distance learning history courses at HCC.  He offered extra credit to his students who played in one of the historical games and wrote a short paper about it.  Two of them joined the game.  One of them seemed to have a really good time and may show up at a future HAWKs night.  Two other long-time gamers played in the WWII game as well.

I ran a reprise of my “Tripod Down” game from Cold Wars.  At Cold Wars it was a convincing Earthling victory.  Today, it was a convincing Martian victory.

The scenario focuses on a Martian rescue mission to retrieve the crew of a destroyed Martian tripod.

I had planned to stay a little longer, but I wasn’t feeling well.  I had double hernia surgery last Monday and still wasn’t feeling 100%.  I couldn’t wait to get home and stretch out on the couch for the rest of the evening.

In the end we may have acquired four new HAWKs as a result of supporting the event.  Even if that is not true, I think those of us who supported the even had a good time.

I’m continuing the long slog toward Origins and Historicon.  The last big tranche of figures is this batch of Prussian Landwehr — 600 of them.

It’s a few more battalions than I need.  About one in three battalions should be Landwehr.  I painted about 700 line and reserve infantry, so I really only needed about 350 Landwehr.  The way the figures are bagged, the math worked out to make 20 battalions.

To finish up my Prussian Corps (plus) I just have a few regiments of cavalry and the artillery to go.  Now that the big batches are done, I think doing a couple regiments of cavalry at a time will feel less like work.

In what has become an annual event, Chris Palmer and I supported Sam Fuson and Ed Duffy in running a wargame for the 114th Signal Battalion Officer Professional Development (OPD).  This time Eric Schlegel joined us.

In the past, Sam, Ed, Chris, and I ran WWII games using Look, Sarge, No Charts: World War II.  We’ve found that a bunch of folks unfamiliar with wargaming can easily pick up the rules.

This year’s event  was the battle of Chancellorsville, involving 45 players and 5 game masters.  Each of the senior leaders in the battalion assumed the role of one of the historical division commanders.  The overall commanders could determine their own battle plans and did not have to stick with the historical plan.   The Confederate commander played a cautious, delaying game, rather than the audacious plan  of the actual battle.

We used A Union So Tested: Look, Sarge, No Charts: American Civil War.  Sam did a tremendous amount of work preparing for the event.  He mounted over 4000 plastic 1/72-scale figures onto stands and made all the labels for the bases.  This took him over 400 hours of work in preparation.

We arrived at 0730 and were busy setting up the tables, terrain, and troops until 1000.  It takes a long time to get that many figures laid out.  This was a big game!  The pictures don’t really do justice to the size of the game.

In order to partially compensate for the numerical superiority of the Union, the Confederate forces were located off the table.  For the first three turns, the Union had to spot the Confederates.  This caused the Union players to be more cautious.  It also diverted a corps of Union troops to be diverted hunting for Rebs on their flanks.

Sam didn’t have time to paint all the figures, so most were unpainted.  Painted figures were organized into the elite regiments and brigades.  Purists might object, but even with unpainted figures the board was impressive.

Chris and I were happy to see that LSNC: American Civil War rules hold up in a game with 45 players.  The officers, senior NCO’s, and civilian leadership of the battalion seemed to get a lot out of the event again this year.  The event will be followed by a staff ride of the battlefield in which the officers, senior NCOs, and civilians will compare their actions in the game with those of the actual commanders.

I was recently interviewed for an on-line magazine, Bring Your A-Game. Here is the interview: http://bringyouragamemagazine.blogspot.com/2012/03/game-designer-buck-surdu-discusses-his.html

I continue to prepare for my Dr. Who game at Origins and Historicon.  I recently finished building drop ships for the Sontarans from some plastic, craft store ornaments and ketchup cups from a fast food restaurant.

The don’t look exactly like the ones from the TV show, but they are close.

I’m pretty happy with the result.

Chris and I ran a twenty-player pirate game at Cold Wars 2012 using the GASLIGHT rules.  We ran the game on Saturday night.  We were give an award by the convention awards committee.

The game featured bands of pirates roaming around the table seeking treasure.  There were two towns to sack, the governor’s palace to loot, a jungle temple, and a fort.  The pirates could choose to work together, separately, or change their minds!  Several groups of soldiers and townspeople tried to keep control of the riches.

We used straight GASLIGHT for this game, with each player controlling two units.

The townspeople in this town had a great plan.  They rounded up the riches from the palace and retreated into the church to defend themselves.  The final battle took place with several units of pirates attempting to capture the church.

The defenders of the fort held off the first wave of pirates.  Before the second wave could build up, the defenders loaded their treasure into a rowboat and set off for the town on the other side of the bay.   They didn’t realize that that town had already been sacked.