NHMGS just completed our 21st running of the Enfilade! historical miniature gaming convention this weekend. I wasn't around for Enfilade! I, but I've been to the last 20, although with diminished enthusiasm these last few years.
For a number of years, I hosted several games each convention, ran the painting competition, and for several years straight, I was the convention director. I think I'm just tired, but all my experience has taught me a few things about gaming that affect my outlook on conventions—which I'll return to below.
I managed to psych myself into hosting one game together with Kevin Smyth for Sunday morning. Otherwise, I wasn't sure if I would come at all on Friday and Saturday, or maybe just one of those days plus Sunday. As it turns out, I went all three but drove about 85 miles each way every day to do it.
Friday - reconnaissance
I took the week prior to Enfilade! off, as I have often done in the past in order to focus on all the last-minute tasks needed for running games, organizing things, etc. None of which I did this year. I just relaxed at home enjoying a staycation away from work for the first time in more than a year. So when Friday came around I was raring to go. It was great to see a lot of gamers from all around the Pacific Northwest whom I either rarely or never see during the rest of the year.
As each year passes we are older, fatter, balder, and-—sadly—fewer. Attendance has hovered at about 220 for several years now, but a lot of the grognards are scarcer every year. The reason for that varies from moved away, other family plans for Memorial Day weekend, loss of interest, or sickness and death (we're all getting older). There's also the legendary "lost tribes" of the Seattle area who eschew Enfilade! out of some principle or another.
Friday gave me a good chance to scope out who was there, who was doing what, and what neat new things I could buy.
Saturday - no pancakes for me!
I wanted to come on Saturday because Sven Luger was running a 28mm game using the new Pike & Shotte rules to game one the the battles (Lystra Mouth) from the excellent sci-fi novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. I had missed out on pre-registering for the game. The website to do that was not working... not working... not working... CLOSED! I blinked during the brief window when I could pre-register and was unsure if I'd make it into the game.
I got up as early as I normally do, i.e., as soon as the cats become too obstreperous to ignore. I thought I'd get on the road and stop for breakfast at Elmer's in Tacoma on the way down. We used to have an Elmer's here in Lynnwood. They had the BEST Swedish pancakes ever. I missed them for a long time and looked forward to having them again. However, when I got to the restaurant, I discovered to my great dismay that they no longer had the Swedish pancakes on the menu. Apparently, lingonberry is hard to come by. I made do with French toast and bacon—but the magic had been lost.
I arrived at the convention at about 8:15, just in time to miss signing up for the last available slot in the Lord Kalvan game. Ironically, if I hadn't stopped to not eat Swedish pancakes, I would have made it in. While disappointing, not getting into the game allowed me to maintain my perfect record of never managing to get into a game I wanted to play at Enfilade! that I wasn't running myself.
I stayed around for a while chatting and shopping, but decided to head home and putter around on various projects for the day instead. On the way home, I stopped by The Panzer Depot (the "lost tribe" HQ) in Kirkland only to find "lost tribesmen" Bill Stewart and Dick Larsen unloading boxes of English Civil War figures for an impromptu game of Pike & Shotte. All the usual suspects were there including Phil Bardsley who games once every blue moon.
Between them, Bill and Dick have a lot of ECW and our first taste of the rules wound up being a fairly big game. Bill, Phil, Mike Lombardy, and I were the Royalists. John Kennedy, Pat Clifford, Steve Puffenberger, and Dick were the Roundheads.
The game went well for a first play. It's enough like Black Powder to pick up the differences easily (plus we had a "these are the differences" cheat-sheet). Nevertheless, we still managed to fumble at several points and muddle through by recalling "rules" from other games or just making things up (until someone said, "No you can't do that; you're just making it up.")
Phil left early, but managed to win in absentia. His battalia of foote had been heavily engaged in a grand clusterf*** with Steve's battalia. Phil kept winning the melee, but Steve's troops refused to break. By this time the fight was on autopilot and shortly after Phil left, Steve's battalia broke and we called the game a Royalist win.
It was a nice kind of serendipity to go from missing out on the Lord Kalvan game (and Swedish pancakes) to gaming Pike & Shotte with the grumbliest of the grognards—which is what I had wanted to do anyway, I just didn't know they were playing until I showed up.
After that I went home to feed the ravenous cats and prepare for my game Sunday.
Sunday - pancakes and iron
After being roused out of bed by the cats, I got going Sunday morning by heading to Kinko's to print and laminate a few more ship charts for the Sail and Steam Navies game I was hosting that morning. That being done, I stopped off at the Family Pancake House in Shoreline for some Swedish pancakes. While quite good, they're not to scratch with the former Elmer's version, but I had to get my fix in any case.
I got to Enfilade! just after 9:00 AM and got everything set up. Naval games are easy that way. Kevin already had a big blue felt mat out. All I needed to do was position some shoals and set out the ships and ship cards.
The game pitted a Confederate force of three ironclad rams against a Union force of mostly wooden ships with a stiffening of a couple river monitors. The Confederate force included the CSS Tennessee, which is a nasty, brutal kind of ship. Good armor, good guns, and a deadly ram. However, like all Confederate ironclads, its motive power was weak and so the ship's best speed was much slower than the slowest Union ship.
I thought the Confederates would tear up the Union, but they succumbed to the dreaded stack hits, which left them dead in the water. I begin to think that it's a bit of a glitch in the rules. Hit locations are determined by a random D10 roll, so there is a 1:10 chance of hitting the stack. Stacks are unarmored, so even pop-guns can score big against them. When the really big guns come into play, they can blow away the stack in a single roll. I'd rather see the stack being a critical hit, rather than a main target location. That way there would be fewer stack hits in the game and ships wouldn't be immobilized so easily. The last S&SN game we played also saw the Confederates done in by getting their stacks shot away.
The Tennessee did manage to sink one river monitor by ramming and disable a 90-day gunboat by blowing up its steam drum. However, it wasn't enough. CSS Baltic had surrendered, CSS Nashville had its stack and paddle wheels shot away, and when the Tennessee's stack went away it was all over but for swimming to shore.
After the game, a bit more chatting and shopping then off to home. The drive up and back each day was a bit much. 170-mile round trips three days in a row will take it out of you in a hurry. I'm happy to have one more day off to recover before I'm back to the grind.
Swag - the goal of every convention
I managed to pick up a lot of neat new things at the convention. There are a few sellers that I only see once a year, so I maximize my purchases, and there's always a few surprises elsewhere—especially at the bring and buy.
Books - I picked up several books from the bring and buy. One two-volume set was a memoir of a French officer who had served from 1672 to 1710, just the exact period for my Pike & Periwig project. I've read through a bit already and it's fascinating stuff. I also found a copy of GDW's out-of-print Combined Arms "modern" rules (i.e., circa 1980s). These are mostly valuable for the TO&Es that cover all the NATO and WARPAC forces. It's good to have as I plan to expand my "modern" micro armor collection to include more Soviets. I also got Kevin Smyth's copy of FGU's Blue Light Manual from the 70s. I'll probably never play them, but I had a copy way back in the day and you never know what insights you may glean from a rule set.
Terrain - Both Monday Knight Productions and Wizard Kraft were at Enfilade! again. MKP has a line of 6mm buildings that I thought about when we started our modern micro armor project last summer. I was determined to get enough for a several town blocks and did. I hope by our next game to have them all done. I'll opt for a quicker and dirtier paint job than usual, which I can get away with because it's 6mm scale. I figure If I can't see anything that small to pick out the flaws nobody else can.
MKP also had some 40mm scale stone walls at 50¢ for an 8" section or corner piece. End pieces were 25¢. I came away with $15.00 worth, but now think I should have gone the full Jackson's worth. Still it's plenty of stone protection for the ACW figures I'm working on.
I got several fields from Wizard Kraft. William is using a new style for his fields and he only had partially finished versions with him. I got these at $8.00 per square foot rather than $14.00 and all I need to do is finished off the rows of crops on them with some Tacky glue and Woodland Scenics flocking.
Ships 'n' stuff - MKP also had on hand a bunch of items from Bay Area Yards. I had tried getting some of these from the BAY website, but several of what I wanted were unavailable. I picked up several models of smaller river gunboats as well as the initial armored version of the USS Galena. Unable to help myself, I also bought their Fort St. Philip model (Kevin snagged the Fort Jackson). It's very nicely cast in resin with metal guns. I can use it as a generic fort. We don't do a lot of ship vs. shore actions because they're mostly just about shooting.
Thoughts on convention gaming
As promised, here are my few coherent thoughts on convention gaming, which generally run from negative to ambivalent:
A crowd's a crowd - I prefer gaming between friends because the camaraderie is always better and there is some communal commitment to the game we're playing. The atmosphere is also less hectic. Conventions draw a lot of gamers who want to participate in a lot of games. While the gamers truly appreciate the work that game hosts do to put on a game, as a game host, I find it frustrating to try to teach people a game they will likely never play again in a single gaming period so that they (or I) can find something enjoyable or meaningful in the experience. All the while the convention hall is teeming with humanity making a dull, yet sustained, hubbub that renders actual communication to an audience of more than one other gamer impossible.
It's the simplicity, stupid - I like games that provide more complexity and depth in the rules. Whenever someone gushes to me about the sheer genius of a two-page rules set, I have to smile politely and back away slowly. However, that's what a convention game really calls for. To me, the idea of developing a set of rules that can be learned in minutes and then working for months on a project to host a game for other people that I wouldn't want to play myself is crazy. The alternative is to host a game of what I'm currently playing and hope people pick it up; but having done that on more than one occasion, I'm no longer sanguine about the success of that endeavor. I've hosted too many games where I ran the charts for every combat action for every player. It's easy enough to do for small games, but games with more people are exhausting. Simple is better, but I just don't like simple.
Schlepp you much - Ever since I got my 350z, my ability to host an away game (and they're all away games) has been limited. My previous cars weren't big, but had much more storage room. The Z is an engine with two seats. The very limited storage space is rendered even more limited by the stabilizer bar that runs across it. I used to be able to load a lot of stuff into tote boxes, but I can't fit the tote boxes in the car. This means that until I get a new (practical) car, which I don't see happening soon, I'm limited to hosting one game that doesn't require too much in the way of terrain, figures, etc. The only alternative would be to rent an SUV for the weekend.
Doctors are the worst patients - Having hosted so many games at conventions, I find that I don't actually like playing them when I'm not hosting. Being one of the crowd of gamers I don't know being taught a set of rules I don't know by someone I don't know just doesn't make for the best experience. I either pick up a set of rules instantly or get dazed and confused immediately. An hour into a three-hour game and I want to be anywhere else. (Sometimes I feel that way when I'm hosting.)
All that aside, I will surely continue to host games at Enfilade! and may even rent the SUV to schlepp more stuff for multiple games.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Bits and pieces
I have longer blogs to write, but I'm too lazy, so just some dashed off tripe will have to do.
Research, research, research
Writing the rules Pike & Periwig for my 1672 project is enjoyable torment. One of the nicer torments is all the books I've bought recently to research the warfare of the period. Among the nicer finds are the photo reproductions of 17th c. drill manuals. I was very surprised not only to find them available, but cheap.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) is a scholarly service that gives suitably credentialed types access to a digital wonderland of old books. Being suitably credentialed is the rub. You have to be associated with a member academic institution. Individuals cannot become subscribers. However, EEBO Editions are a number of printed copies of the digital material. I haven't found a complete list of what EEBO Editions offers, but one-by-one I've come across the volumes I was looking for and feared I would never find. Among the treasures I've acquired so far are:
Sir James Turner. Pallas Armata, Military Essayes of the Ancient Grecian, Roman, and Modern art of War, Written in the Years 1670 and 1671. (1683)
John Cruso. The Arte of Warre, or Militarie Discourses of Levying, Marching, Encamping, and Embattling an Armie. (1639)
John Cruso. Militarie Instructions for the Cavalrie, Or, Rules and Directions for the Service of Horse Collected Out of Divers Forrein Authours, Ancient and Modern, and Rectified and Supplied According to the Present Practice of the Low Countrey Warres. (1644)
William Bariffe. Military Discipline: Or, The Young Artillery Man Wherein is Discoursed and Showne the Postures Both of Musket and Pike: The Exactest Way. Together with the Motions which are to be Used. (1635)
These are a bit much to plod through at times, but perseverance has its rewards and the books provide answers to the crucial questions about what, exactly, a unit could do. For writing rules about facings, formations changes, wheeling, etc. these are invaluable. Even though most of them date to the Thirty Years War period, they are based on the tactical reforms of Maurice of Nassau, which remained dominant into the 1690s.
Another great find was the two volumes of William Guthrie's Battles of the Thirty Years War: From White Mountain to Nordlingen 1618-1635 and The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia. These are a terrific resource for the period and are the only source for detailed information about these battles. For each battle, Guthrie includes full orders of battle with unit strengths and clear maps of the deployments. There is nothing else like this in English. Guthrie also includes a lot of explanation of the tactics used. As with the drill manuals, it's a little anachronistic, but not much. From Maurice's reforms in the late 16th c. to the 1690s, the change was gradual. The biggest changes affected the way that Imperial armies fought. The giant tercios of Tilly and Wallenstein gave way to the smaller battalions of Maurice and the and tactical finesse introduced by Gustavus Adolphus. English military drill, which is reflected in the manuals, was based on the Dutch and Swedish models throughout the 17th c. Maurice had his battalions in eight ranks; Gustavus reduced infantry battalions to six ranks, which were widely adopted before the end of the Thirty Years War and remained the standard depth until the end of the century.
I have a few more books on the way about tactical aspects of the Dutch Wars (1568 to 1648) and am contemplating yet another I saw on Amazon. It's not cheap. These books never are.
Rules writing
I had a great brainstorm this weekend and got a lot of work done on the close combat rules for Pike & Periwig. I'm just polishing them now and creating the illustrations for them in Adobe Illustrator. I hope to get them in complete draft form soon so I can get some feedback (ridicule, scorn, contumely) from reviewers.
I have no intention of going commercial with these, so I feel free to indulge my own instincts rather than try to make a popular set—as if rules for the period 1660 to 1680 were going to set the wargaming hobby on fire anyway.
I'm hearing about some local interest in the rules, so I hope that getting them in a draft form will inspire a few people to paint units for the period. If I have to paint everything, I'll be 70 before I'm ready to play my first game.
Painting
I've got the horseflesh painted for my first cavalry unit in the 1672 project. I'm working on the horse furniture and uniforms of the riders now.
I've also got several guns painted or nearly so. Old Glory makes a nice falconet model. I recently got two of The Assault Group falconets which are a different style. I've painted the Old Glory falconets with red carriages for the French. I'll paint The Assault Group falconets for the Austrians, although I'm not sure what color their carriages were in this period. Yellow ochre,—or did that come later? I know that English carriages were light gray since the New Model Army and remained so. It's not unlikely that Austria would stick with one color from the start.
Even though the guns are ready, the gunners are yet to appear from North Star. I've heard since January that the gunners for the North Star 1672 range are just about ready, I fear I have longer to wait than I hoped. North Star did recently release two packs of flintlock musketeers for the range. I'm intrigued, of course, but the matchlock was still near-universal in my period.
Dullcote
There must be a conspiracy in the Pacific Northwest to deprive us of dullcote. It can't be found! Hobby stores that would sell it are getting rarer. Galaxy Hobby near me carries a lot of model paint. I've been able to get the Testor's Dullcote I crave from them before, but they've been out the last several times I've checked. I've also gone to craft stores that have a small model kit section with a smattering of Testor's paint. They would have some, but they've been out, too. I finally just ordered three cans direct from Testor's. I can't believe that I couldn't just find it to buy off the shelf. It gave me cold shudders to think that this may be a portent of a dying world of hobby stores.
Research, research, research
Writing the rules Pike & Periwig for my 1672 project is enjoyable torment. One of the nicer torments is all the books I've bought recently to research the warfare of the period. Among the nicer finds are the photo reproductions of 17th c. drill manuals. I was very surprised not only to find them available, but cheap.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) is a scholarly service that gives suitably credentialed types access to a digital wonderland of old books. Being suitably credentialed is the rub. You have to be associated with a member academic institution. Individuals cannot become subscribers. However, EEBO Editions are a number of printed copies of the digital material. I haven't found a complete list of what EEBO Editions offers, but one-by-one I've come across the volumes I was looking for and feared I would never find. Among the treasures I've acquired so far are:
Sir James Turner. Pallas Armata, Military Essayes of the Ancient Grecian, Roman, and Modern art of War, Written in the Years 1670 and 1671. (1683)
John Cruso. The Arte of Warre, or Militarie Discourses of Levying, Marching, Encamping, and Embattling an Armie. (1639)
John Cruso. Militarie Instructions for the Cavalrie, Or, Rules and Directions for the Service of Horse Collected Out of Divers Forrein Authours, Ancient and Modern, and Rectified and Supplied According to the Present Practice of the Low Countrey Warres. (1644)
William Bariffe. Military Discipline: Or, The Young Artillery Man Wherein is Discoursed and Showne the Postures Both of Musket and Pike: The Exactest Way. Together with the Motions which are to be Used. (1635)
These are a bit much to plod through at times, but perseverance has its rewards and the books provide answers to the crucial questions about what, exactly, a unit could do. For writing rules about facings, formations changes, wheeling, etc. these are invaluable. Even though most of them date to the Thirty Years War period, they are based on the tactical reforms of Maurice of Nassau, which remained dominant into the 1690s.
Another great find was the two volumes of William Guthrie's Battles of the Thirty Years War: From White Mountain to Nordlingen 1618-1635 and The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia. These are a terrific resource for the period and are the only source for detailed information about these battles. For each battle, Guthrie includes full orders of battle with unit strengths and clear maps of the deployments. There is nothing else like this in English. Guthrie also includes a lot of explanation of the tactics used. As with the drill manuals, it's a little anachronistic, but not much. From Maurice's reforms in the late 16th c. to the 1690s, the change was gradual. The biggest changes affected the way that Imperial armies fought. The giant tercios of Tilly and Wallenstein gave way to the smaller battalions of Maurice and the and tactical finesse introduced by Gustavus Adolphus. English military drill, which is reflected in the manuals, was based on the Dutch and Swedish models throughout the 17th c. Maurice had his battalions in eight ranks; Gustavus reduced infantry battalions to six ranks, which were widely adopted before the end of the Thirty Years War and remained the standard depth until the end of the century.
I have a few more books on the way about tactical aspects of the Dutch Wars (1568 to 1648) and am contemplating yet another I saw on Amazon. It's not cheap. These books never are.
Rules writing
I had a great brainstorm this weekend and got a lot of work done on the close combat rules for Pike & Periwig. I'm just polishing them now and creating the illustrations for them in Adobe Illustrator. I hope to get them in complete draft form soon so I can get some feedback (ridicule, scorn, contumely) from reviewers.
I have no intention of going commercial with these, so I feel free to indulge my own instincts rather than try to make a popular set—as if rules for the period 1660 to 1680 were going to set the wargaming hobby on fire anyway.
I'm hearing about some local interest in the rules, so I hope that getting them in a draft form will inspire a few people to paint units for the period. If I have to paint everything, I'll be 70 before I'm ready to play my first game.
Painting
I've got the horseflesh painted for my first cavalry unit in the 1672 project. I'm working on the horse furniture and uniforms of the riders now.
I've also got several guns painted or nearly so. Old Glory makes a nice falconet model. I recently got two of The Assault Group falconets which are a different style. I've painted the Old Glory falconets with red carriages for the French. I'll paint The Assault Group falconets for the Austrians, although I'm not sure what color their carriages were in this period. Yellow ochre,—or did that come later? I know that English carriages were light gray since the New Model Army and remained so. It's not unlikely that Austria would stick with one color from the start.
Even though the guns are ready, the gunners are yet to appear from North Star. I've heard since January that the gunners for the North Star 1672 range are just about ready, I fear I have longer to wait than I hoped. North Star did recently release two packs of flintlock musketeers for the range. I'm intrigued, of course, but the matchlock was still near-universal in my period.
Dullcote
There must be a conspiracy in the Pacific Northwest to deprive us of dullcote. It can't be found! Hobby stores that would sell it are getting rarer. Galaxy Hobby near me carries a lot of model paint. I've been able to get the Testor's Dullcote I crave from them before, but they've been out the last several times I've checked. I've also gone to craft stores that have a small model kit section with a smattering of Testor's paint. They would have some, but they've been out, too. I finally just ordered three cans direct from Testor's. I can't believe that I couldn't just find it to buy off the shelf. It gave me cold shudders to think that this may be a portent of a dying world of hobby stores.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Pikes and periwigs
I finally completed my first battalion for my 1672 project. As I posted earlier, it's regiment Vivarais (with azure coats because that's what my Susane print shows). Also, at this time it was Regiment D'Albret. You never realize how much bloody detail is on these figures until you paint them. I finished and based the pike stands about two days before I completed the musketeers. Those bandoliers are tedious.
This is a good start to the project—along with the rules Pike & Periwig that are progressing along. What's nice about having the unit painted is that I get a better feel for how my ideas actually translate to figures and bases.
The possible formations for an infantry regiment are spelled out on page 11 of my rules:
My inspiration for the page was Bill Protz' set of English Civil War rules (Wargamers Guide to the English Civil War) where he used similar diagrams:
It's funny how those diagrams (and the letters PEP DOS) have stayed in my head for more than 30 years...
These diagrams also nicely represent the look of 17th c. drill manuals:
Which is the feel I'm going for with the rules. The formations, now that I can actually try them out, are Line:
Close Order:
And March Order:
Next up is a squadron of cavalry and some guns. I will also clean and prime another unit of foot. I may get ambitious and get two ready. I think I'll go with two battalions of the Regiment Picardie (in actual gray coats). I have the flags coming from GMB Designs.
I also have two partially-painted Savoyard battalions that I started a long time back when Bill Stewart, Rich Knapton, Doug Hamm, and I were conspiring on an earlier version of this project. So far, only one stand of pikes is completed and based:
This is on a single 60mm x 60mm base, so I'll rebase them on two 60mm x 30mm bases. I also need to replace my home-brewed flag with one of the ones that I found recently.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Smooth & Rifled playtest
Earlier this week, my friend Phil emailed me about the Smooth & Rifled skirmish rules from Dadi & Piombo (that name always makes me think of Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King). He's been painting 40mm figures for years and finally had a hankering to game with them. He's currently working away at some Front Rank 40mm British light infantry from the AWI. But he's had several Sash & Saber 40mm ACW figures hanging around for years: 16 Union dismounted cavalry and about 20 Confederate infantry.
I went to theTimon and Pumbaa Dadi & Piombo site and bought the rules on Wednesday, then downloaded the free supplements for specific periods. We arranged to meet at The Panzer Depot in Kirkland and play a trial game.
We thought we might suck Bill "the forgotten man" Stewart into the game, but he was making up for lost time with his first free weekend since the Nixon administration (or so it seems). We did, however, get Wes Rodgers and Chris Craft involved.
The game was pretty slap-dash. We just lined figures up on a table that had originally been a FOW game. We carefully removed the burnt-out tank models, but otherwise had 15mm terrain for 40mm figures. In those days, giants stalked the land...
Chris and I were the Confederates organized in three groups; Phil and Wes were the Union organized in two groups. The game was probably set in 1862 at a time when the Union cavalrymen couldn't stay on their horses without being tied on, which is why there were on foot. The Rebels, of course, were Old Jack's foot cavalry already.
The Confederates outnumbered and outranged the Union, but the Union had Spencers, which fired faster. We were curious to see if the higher rate of fire could win the day.
The rules are pretty simple, but make for a nice game. While not being a competition system, there are points to use in building forces, which we ignored, but they come in handy for those wanting to do things right. We kept it simple with just one "unit" per side.
Initiative rolls give you a set number of action points for the unit to spend. The actions can be things like moving a set number of centimeters, firing, reloading, fighting a melee, etc. The combat resolution is pretty straight forward, although that didn't keep us from missing a lot of things that we didn't notice until re-reading the rules after the game.
The Johnnies looked to be getting the best of it at the start because their longer-range rifles were picking off the Union horse infantry from beyond where the Union could effectively reply. Phil ran his men into some woods and I, being the overly-aggressive gamer type, decided to close the range (thereby giving up my advantage).
Once Phil's remaining troopers got their Spencers working, there were fewer and fewer Seccessionists on the table. Wes had worked his way through some woods and starting knocking Chris' men off their feet. We got a significant number of hits against them, but their saving rolls were low (meaning the figures hit just became shaken) while our saving rolls were high (meaning our figures became dead).
Once a unit reaches 30% of its original points value, it has to test morale. We needed to roll low, but by force of habit, rolled high instead. Game over.
It was a pleasure pushing around Phil's beautiful 40mm figures. They look great and the size gives them a nice heft, which is a good feeling for a skirmish game. I think I see some Sash and Saber in my future, but I don't want to dilute myself; I have my 1672 project and rules to focus on for now (more on that project to follow).
I went to the
We thought we might suck Bill "the forgotten man" Stewart into the game, but he was making up for lost time with his first free weekend since the Nixon administration (or so it seems). We did, however, get Wes Rodgers and Chris Craft involved.
The game was pretty slap-dash. We just lined figures up on a table that had originally been a FOW game. We carefully removed the burnt-out tank models, but otherwise had 15mm terrain for 40mm figures. In those days, giants stalked the land...
Chris and I were the Confederates organized in three groups; Phil and Wes were the Union organized in two groups. The game was probably set in 1862 at a time when the Union cavalrymen couldn't stay on their horses without being tied on, which is why there were on foot. The Rebels, of course, were Old Jack's foot cavalry already.
The Confederates outnumbered and outranged the Union, but the Union had Spencers, which fired faster. We were curious to see if the higher rate of fire could win the day.
The rules are pretty simple, but make for a nice game. While not being a competition system, there are points to use in building forces, which we ignored, but they come in handy for those wanting to do things right. We kept it simple with just one "unit" per side.
Initiative rolls give you a set number of action points for the unit to spend. The actions can be things like moving a set number of centimeters, firing, reloading, fighting a melee, etc. The combat resolution is pretty straight forward, although that didn't keep us from missing a lot of things that we didn't notice until re-reading the rules after the game.
The Johnnies looked to be getting the best of it at the start because their longer-range rifles were picking off the Union horse infantry from beyond where the Union could effectively reply. Phil ran his men into some woods and I, being the overly-aggressive gamer type, decided to close the range (thereby giving up my advantage).
Once Phil's remaining troopers got their Spencers working, there were fewer and fewer Seccessionists on the table. Wes had worked his way through some woods and starting knocking Chris' men off their feet. We got a significant number of hits against them, but their saving rolls were low (meaning the figures hit just became shaken) while our saving rolls were high (meaning our figures became dead).
Once a unit reaches 30% of its original points value, it has to test morale. We needed to roll low, but by force of habit, rolled high instead. Game over.
It was a pleasure pushing around Phil's beautiful 40mm figures. They look great and the size gives them a nice heft, which is a good feeling for a skirmish game. I think I see some Sash and Saber in my future, but I don't want to dilute myself; I have my 1672 project and rules to focus on for now (more on that project to follow).
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Serendipities and felicitations
O frabjous day! I quite unexpectedly came across a treasure trove of Piedmontese-Savoyard regimental flags that I thought I would never find. I was minding my own business when I started following a link to a defunct web site that had a cache of archived pages. In French. Spelunking down into the sub-pages, I found a listing of these flags. This is meaningful to me because back when we started our aborted pseudo-historical ate 17th c. project, we modeled our armies on historical ones. Feeling an Italianate urge, I picked Piedmont-Savoy. The one fly in the ointment was that I had no source for flags. I made up my own (very fanciful) using Adobe Illustrator.
These flags are not ready to roll, I have to fiddle with them in Photoshop and Illustrator to make them useful. Also, the flags are stated to be for the War of the Spanish Succession (WSS) and later. I can deal with that degree of anachronism (if, indeed, there is one. French flags devised circa 1630s remained unchanged in many cases until the end of l'Ancien Régime). I have to do some surgery to my completed ensign figures to remove the old flags and add the new, but it's nice to know that I'll have something arguably more accurate than my home-brewed flags.
I found Nec Pluribus Impar!
I assumed that the WSS rules I started writing 22 years ago (Nec Plubius Impar) were lost or buried too deeply in the clutter to be found in this lifetime. I was wrong. After burrowing through some boxes in the garage and not finding them (although I did find other buried treasures), I looked in my closet and there they were: a thick ream of papers wrapped in a folding file holder.
After browsing through the pages, I was pretty pleased to see how much my thinking then is similar to my thinking now as I develop my Pike & Periwig rules. I wrote NPI for 15mm and I had some unique ideas for modeling firing systems, battalion organizations, morale, and combat. I regret that I left off developing them. I started them when I lived in Chicago and continued writing after I moved to Seattle. My first development tool was a 1988-vintage Mac Plus using MS Word for Mac and Super Paint. It was a dot matrix world back then and the earliest printed sheets I have are crude glyphs and images on the old-style computer paper.
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| Cutting edge pixel art circa 1990 |
In addition to this happy find, I discovered a copy of my friend Rick's Seven Years' War rules Battlefire. These were one of the inspirations for NPI and I was recently asking Rick if he still had a copy, which he didn't. It turns out that now I'm supply a copy to him.
I also found some initial notes on a system that I was writing for the American Revolution in the early '90s. I was experimenting with the idea of a "cadence" for turns where the number of "beats" required to perform a certain action, such as moving X inches, shooting/reloading, changing formation, varied between troops of different qualities. I like the idea (again), but I have another command/control idea for P&P.
Sources
I've been acquiring sources for my P&P rules—re-acquiring in several cases. I have a bad habit of clearing my library from time to time. In the last 20 years, I've probably cycled through several hundred volumes that came and went. Shelf space is limited chez Dave, so to avoid boxing up books for storage (storage space is even more limited) or stacking up books on the floor (I've done it, it's not pretty), I take them to Half Price Books and sell them for pennies on the dollar. Many books I don't miss, several I miss only slightly (the faint nostalgia of saying, "I had that book once..."), others I find myself wanting again and I ask myself, "What were you thinking when you got rid of that?" Among the latter are:
- Brent Nosworthy, The Anatomy of Victory: Battle Tactics 1689-1763
- B. P. Hughes, Firepower: Weapons Effectiveness On The Battlefield, 1630- 1850
- B.P. Hughes, Open Fire: Artillery Tactics from Marlborough to Wellington
These were all invaluable sources when I wrote NPI, but I sold them after that project languished and died. I have re-acquired them all (or will have as soon as the postman brings them to me). I have also acquired a copy of James Turner's Pallas armata, Military essayes of the ancient Grecian, Roman, and modern art of war written in the years 1670 and 1671 and Carl Ekberg's The Failure of Louis Xiv's Dutch War, which is really background analysis of the political aspect of the era, there is little of actual military history in it (this, too, is a re-acquisition).
Progress
I make a bit of progress every day on both my rules Pike & Periwig and my first unit, Régiment Vivarais. I have learned that I was too trusting of Susane's uniform plates. The uniform is clearly a shade of blue in my source, but probably a mid-gray since that or brown were the common colors for French uniforms in this period. I'm unfazed. I like the blue (Vallejo 902 Azure, actually) and as one of my friends used to say when someone pointed out a uniform inconsistency, "Well, today they wore that."
I see that North Star Figures has released flintlock musketeers for the North Star 1672 range. They don't really fit in my period, being integrated more in the 1680s through 1700 or so. However, the French Régiment des Fusiliers du Roi was the first European unit equipped entirely with flintlocks in 1671. I see some fusiliers in my near future.
I have primed up two sakers from The Assault Group to use as my first guns for l'Armée Français. These are very nice models and I've ordered some of their falconets as well to use as battalion guns. North Star has artillerymen in the works, but I don't know when we'll see them. Hopefully soon, lest my guns remain unmanned.
Meanwhile, I have a French cavalry squadron ready to paint. The recently-added figures were the command group, which are among the new figures for the range done by Steve Saleh. They are beautifully done and I'm a little intimidated in painting them. I'll start slapping on paint soon.
Vivarais has only details (weapons, buttons, etc.) to go until they're finished, but I find that details are the slowest going.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Works in Progress
The recent post about my rule-writing adventure wouldn't be complete without more information about the miniatures that go along with the project. As I mentioned, the project started a few years back and petered out. At the time, we were painting armies for fictional countries, which were based on real ones. I chose Piedmont-Savoy because it was different (and because France, The Netherlands, and England had already been claimed). My uniform information was spotty and I relied on the information found in Charles Grant's From Pike to Shot: 1685 to 1720, which is for uniforms circa 1700, not 25 years earlier.
I've always been a bit of a Francophile when it comes to des choses militaries. I also have a certain appreciation for Le Roi Soleil. He was a nasty bastard, of course, but he did it with such Gallic pomp and pomposity that you just have to admire his style. So, when I resumed the project, I bought a batch of French infantry and some cavalry as my first units.
I'm starting with Regiment Vivarais, for which I have a nice uniform source, although it's dated 1689, which is a bit later than my period:
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| I'm painting the uniform on the right |
I have a nice GMB Designs flag to use for it. The nice thing about French infantry colors is that they remained the same from the Thirty Years War until the French Revolution. I'm not sure what I'll do when I branch into painting units for other armies. So far, a lot of the available flags I've seen are for later periods.
My next infantry unit, I think, will be a generic Swiss regiment (another GMB flag), but first I'll finish the cavalry I have primed for painting. I just got the command pack for them today, so once they're primed, I'll start the lot. After that, I think one of les Vieux Corps, like Regiment Normandie.
The North Star 1672 range is beautiful. Painting them gives me even more appreciation of how well they're sculpted. The first batch was done by Mark Copplestone before he went barbarian. (Mark, btw, also sculpted the now 30-year old Grand Alliance range from Dixon.) The rest of the line is being sculpted by Steve Saleh. From what I've seen of the one pack that's been released of Saleh's work, the styles match very well. The most notable exception is in the fineness of Saleh's work versus the exaggeration that Copplestone uses. For example, Copplestone's buttons are about the size of golf-balls in scale, but it works to bring out the detail better.
I'm plugging away at Pike & Periwig a little bit every night as I am watched (or haunted) by my faithful cat Grendel who likes to sit on my printer next to me to glower and kibitz.
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| Heavy-pawed editor and strict grammarian |
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Regularm virumque cano
Of rules and the man I sing (with apologies to Virgil and that great Irishman George Bernard Shaw, just in case).
It seems that any time a fellow war gamer embarks on a new project, he is inevitably asked, "What rules are you using?" When I'm asked that question, I usually have a ready answer, the rejoinder to which is often, "Well, good luck with that." I'm something of an outcast with my predilection for the more classical rules systems (such as WRG rules or similar from the 70s or 80s). I cut my wargaming teeth on them and have fond memories of the games I played. Others of my generation have less than fond memories of playing these rules, usually because they bred acrimony, discord, and decades-long grudges. I tend to view acrimony and discord as human failings and blame the players, not the rules, but mine is a minority opinion.
Preferences for war-games rules are nearly the most idiosyncratic thing about a war gamer—ranking just below his preferences for pizza toppings. There is probably a pseudoscience, such as phrenology and physiognomy, in the study of the rules a war gamer prefers and how that preference may speak volumes about his moral and intellectual character—or even his emotional state. I am fairly certain, myself, that devotees of certain rules systems are inherently untrustworthy, given to drooling, and often wet their beds.
Yet somehow two or more people frequently come together and play war games. Any agreement between players on the rules used is due to considerable compromise by all participants (even among solo gamers). Once adopted, the rules become subject to numerous house rules, each of which is itself an item of contention. He who hosts the game is usually the arbiter of which rules variants, corruptions, and heresies will be used to the delight, dismay, or indifference of the other players.
Enter now the prospect of abandoning the task of revising someone else's rules and writing your own. There was a time when "home-brewed" rules were very common. Even many of the slick, full-color, glossy, eye-candy, hard-bound variety of rules that are available for a considerable portion of your paycheck were once someone's scribblings on the back of a beer mat at a convention. (Often they play just like it, too.)
Some few years back, some of us decided to get together and start a joint project using Copplestone Castings new Glory of the Sun range of figures. Among four gamers there were a dozen ideas for how to base figures and organize them in units, which lead in turn to the question of rules. For various reasons the project fizzled—not least of which was the uncertain future of the Glory of the Sun range. Mark Copplestone has poured all his talent and enthusiasm of late into his 15mm barbarian fantasy range (How are the mighty fallen...) and left off continuing the Glory of the Sun range indefinitely. Thanks to Nick Eyre at North Star Figures and Steve Saleh, the line has a new lease on life and a future as the North Star 1672 range. I recently ordered figures for several units and have begun painting Les Français. I corresponded briefly with Nick and the range definitely has plans for expansion.
This brought me back to the question of rules. Warlord Games is supposed to be releasing its Pike & Shotte variant of the Black Powder rules, but this has been anticipated for several years now without satisfaction. Also, while I enjoy the Black Powder rules very much, I'm not sure that I want to use an adaptation of them for this period. I'm a bit of a pike and shot geek, so I want something that really captures the sense of the period. I finally decided to go rogue and write my own.
My past rules writing experience has been adapting board games to miniatures and fussing with variants (or fixes) to existing rules. I've also attempted to create full rules sets on two past occasions. Back in the late 80s I started developing a set of rules for 15mm Marlburian that I called Nec Pluribus Impar. The idea came to me from reading David Chandler's excellent The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough. After reading Chandler's analysis of how armies of that era fought, I was struck by how generic the commercially available rules for the period were. This genericness was due to lumping the War of the Spanish Succession into the "horse and musket" period that covered all of 18th century warfare with little to differentiate the start of the period from its end or between how various nations practiced the art of war. I wanted something that contrasted the various military systems in use circa 1700 to 1720 and I came up with, in my humble opinion, some pretty good ideas. Sadly, I never pursued them to the end and I fear I have lost all my notes.
Over the last week, I've started writing out a new system to use with the North Star 1672 range, which I call Pike & Periwig. I have a lot of inspirations, since no one really writes new rules any more. I have stolen, plundered, and bastardized some of the best ideas I've come across in 30+ years of war gaming. I have also tried to add as much color as I can. It's a very baroque period that saw a huge amount of transition from the 30 Years War to the linear warfare of the 18th century and I want to capture that.
The ideas come pretty fast and I find myself jotting down notes as they pop into my head (before they pop out again) and every night I spend some time at the computer typing away. As an affectation, I wanted to style them after the 17th century military manuals I read on microfiche in the seminary library 25 years ago. I found a nice Open Type font and in Adobe InDesign I'm writing and designing at the same time. The font, 1589 Humane Bordeaux, has the antique style of printed characters from that period and includes all the historical styles and ligatures that were commonplace for the 17th century. I also have a couple reams of parchment paper to print it on.
I can save the work in progress as a PDF and upload it to my iPad, so I can review it and jot notes for revisions and new ideas while sitting in a coffee shop or on the bus. I hope to get the rules in a first draft and get it to some people for review and feedback this month. Of course, having just started painting the figures, it may be some time before I can play the rules. However, it's a nice feeling to be immersed in the project this way.
It seems that any time a fellow war gamer embarks on a new project, he is inevitably asked, "What rules are you using?" When I'm asked that question, I usually have a ready answer, the rejoinder to which is often, "Well, good luck with that." I'm something of an outcast with my predilection for the more classical rules systems (such as WRG rules or similar from the 70s or 80s). I cut my wargaming teeth on them and have fond memories of the games I played. Others of my generation have less than fond memories of playing these rules, usually because they bred acrimony, discord, and decades-long grudges. I tend to view acrimony and discord as human failings and blame the players, not the rules, but mine is a minority opinion.
Preferences for war-games rules are nearly the most idiosyncratic thing about a war gamer—ranking just below his preferences for pizza toppings. There is probably a pseudoscience, such as phrenology and physiognomy, in the study of the rules a war gamer prefers and how that preference may speak volumes about his moral and intellectual character—or even his emotional state. I am fairly certain, myself, that devotees of certain rules systems are inherently untrustworthy, given to drooling, and often wet their beds.
Yet somehow two or more people frequently come together and play war games. Any agreement between players on the rules used is due to considerable compromise by all participants (even among solo gamers). Once adopted, the rules become subject to numerous house rules, each of which is itself an item of contention. He who hosts the game is usually the arbiter of which rules variants, corruptions, and heresies will be used to the delight, dismay, or indifference of the other players.
Enter now the prospect of abandoning the task of revising someone else's rules and writing your own. There was a time when "home-brewed" rules were very common. Even many of the slick, full-color, glossy, eye-candy, hard-bound variety of rules that are available for a considerable portion of your paycheck were once someone's scribblings on the back of a beer mat at a convention. (Often they play just like it, too.)
Some few years back, some of us decided to get together and start a joint project using Copplestone Castings new Glory of the Sun range of figures. Among four gamers there were a dozen ideas for how to base figures and organize them in units, which lead in turn to the question of rules. For various reasons the project fizzled—not least of which was the uncertain future of the Glory of the Sun range. Mark Copplestone has poured all his talent and enthusiasm of late into his 15mm barbarian fantasy range (How are the mighty fallen...) and left off continuing the Glory of the Sun range indefinitely. Thanks to Nick Eyre at North Star Figures and Steve Saleh, the line has a new lease on life and a future as the North Star 1672 range. I recently ordered figures for several units and have begun painting Les Français. I corresponded briefly with Nick and the range definitely has plans for expansion.
This brought me back to the question of rules. Warlord Games is supposed to be releasing its Pike & Shotte variant of the Black Powder rules, but this has been anticipated for several years now without satisfaction. Also, while I enjoy the Black Powder rules very much, I'm not sure that I want to use an adaptation of them for this period. I'm a bit of a pike and shot geek, so I want something that really captures the sense of the period. I finally decided to go rogue and write my own.
My past rules writing experience has been adapting board games to miniatures and fussing with variants (or fixes) to existing rules. I've also attempted to create full rules sets on two past occasions. Back in the late 80s I started developing a set of rules for 15mm Marlburian that I called Nec Pluribus Impar. The idea came to me from reading David Chandler's excellent The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough. After reading Chandler's analysis of how armies of that era fought, I was struck by how generic the commercially available rules for the period were. This genericness was due to lumping the War of the Spanish Succession into the "horse and musket" period that covered all of 18th century warfare with little to differentiate the start of the period from its end or between how various nations practiced the art of war. I wanted something that contrasted the various military systems in use circa 1700 to 1720 and I came up with, in my humble opinion, some pretty good ideas. Sadly, I never pursued them to the end and I fear I have lost all my notes.
Over the last week, I've started writing out a new system to use with the North Star 1672 range, which I call Pike & Periwig. I have a lot of inspirations, since no one really writes new rules any more. I have stolen, plundered, and bastardized some of the best ideas I've come across in 30+ years of war gaming. I have also tried to add as much color as I can. It's a very baroque period that saw a huge amount of transition from the 30 Years War to the linear warfare of the 18th century and I want to capture that.
The ideas come pretty fast and I find myself jotting down notes as they pop into my head (before they pop out again) and every night I spend some time at the computer typing away. As an affectation, I wanted to style them after the 17th century military manuals I read on microfiche in the seminary library 25 years ago. I found a nice Open Type font and in Adobe InDesign I'm writing and designing at the same time. The font, 1589 Humane Bordeaux, has the antique style of printed characters from that period and includes all the historical styles and ligatures that were commonplace for the 17th century. I also have a couple reams of parchment paper to print it on.
I can save the work in progress as a PDF and upload it to my iPad, so I can review it and jot notes for revisions and new ideas while sitting in a coffee shop or on the bus. I hope to get the rules in a first draft and get it to some people for review and feedback this month. Of course, having just started painting the figures, it may be some time before I can play the rules. However, it's a nice feeling to be immersed in the project this way.
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