Visits: 47
Do not tell me this Post is childish because it isn’t… wonderful Fortification or Castle (what you prefer), nice Toy Soldiers… and a PURPOSE!
Yes, the British are attacking the Russians!… it smacks of the Crimean war (War was War back then.. you know!)
How can you play (unashamedly) with Toy Sodiers…
Enjoy!
Visits: 55
As promised… a division of Hooker’s Corps goes forward, a Brigade simply refused to move so instead of 4 brigades only 3 make the attack… Confederates have their problems too. All that because one thing is “to move around in the countryside” and other to move against an enemy. (Dice involved simulated field of vision and local orography… but also excuses -read officer’s characteristics-to do not move…).
So I used red and blue dices to show the relative strength in numbers of Brigades. Those are added to a six sided dice result and there must be a real difference in pips to have a decisive result (one or two pips difference are ignored)… More in following attacks. Brigades have a tendency to stand or even recoil quite easily… more difficult to press attacks… There was even a case of enfilade fire that did not succeed!… I had fun (not guaranteed)!
As I have said before 4 turns is the maximum “time” (time is flexible again) a Brigade can stand on the frontline fighting… afterwards must retire tired even if victorious… some exceptions will be worked on further on. This is shown with the use of white and black mini dice. So in fact I micromanage the fights that seems “hours” to participants… while the rest of the Corps (both sides) await results.
Quite if not completely satisfied with the first experimental solo rules… ties where resolved with the turn of a card for each side… if that also (it did not happen) was a tie I have gone to the deck of ultra rare or unpredictable tides of war situations that happened in real life.
My kind of “game” is quite impartial and develops like a film or scene… I am an spectator of it… but I expect Armies to behave like the Historical one’s. So far so good.
More next days.
Enjoy!
Visits: 53
Guess this afternoon I will proceed to reenact the first clash between Hooker and Jackson… it is slow sometimes I agree… but I am still experimenting with command&control and combat mechanisms. It must be tiresome to follow… but at least you have plenty of pics (curiously enough my mobile phone does it better than my old camera)…
My table is flat (got criticized by that in facebook) which does not mean the real terrain was flat at all that is taken care of by visibility options but also the fact that once firing starts smoke and noise will prevent God’s Own View… I mean it is probably God’s Own Scale… but the troops engaged where “lost” in the chaos of the firefight.
One of my phobias concerning Toy Soldiers is stands “balancing” in imposible positions over railroad scenery modeling terrain… sorry chaps… but this is what it is… neither troops fighting on top of woods a la LITTLE WARS TV way (which has very good points and creativity -aka Trafalgar- but not that particular one!)
Hope you follow me.
Enjoy!
Visits: 48
Maybe for me (not a single pic is of my Toy Soldiers at all… not even the Castle… but close enough).
Wood building blocks… in my cas they were cork… Britain’s in red tunics!… there you got it! (BUT lots of other not so nice soldiers buuut… deligthful in their way too… they were not even lead).
To have Britain’s in the Nineteen Fifties in Barcelona (Spain) was a rare luxury… and I had them thanks to a trip to London of my Pa&Ma (How they translate THAT BIG BOX in THAT TIME eludes me… maybe a Hamley’s purchase?… on a plane (Do you remembre the commercial planes of the fifties?)…
Whatever… have not stopped collecting the stuff since then.
Enjoy!
BTW Nice framed posters on the walls…
Visits: 47
It says wargame in the title… but this is an exaggeration… call it Umpire’s delight (Impartial), Chaos&Casualties, History on the Tabletop, Epic Brawl, Attrition for hours!… a lot of names come to my mind with no real effort…
Funnily enough bickering/arguments between wargamers do not concern me at all… by example I started the battle setting the table and the troops (Armies in 6mm please) without a hitch, I even switch brigades from one Corps to another if wrongly deployed… anything goes… I am reading for the umpteenth time rulesets and books about the ACW and ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG in particular… and so far have gotten to a lot of conclusions…
FIRST: NO need to write down all the possibilities of movement and distances the troops can manouever… if not in contact with the enemy it is pretty straightforward… and that’s that!… easy enough to my satisfaction (SOLO).
SECOND: I will pass of generals characteristics as in Altar of Freedom for example (a good set of rules for multiplayer games).
THIRD: ALL movements count as simultaneous as the fire from guns and muskets… I will do my own table about that…
FOUR: ONLY three status for Brigades, say FRESH/ORGANIZED (1); HAVE BEEN ENGAGED/TIRED/DISORGANIZED (2 ) (synonymus in my book); SPENT/RETREAT TO A SAFER PLACE/NO USEFUL AGAIN EXCEPT IF ATTACKED (3)… more about that third category later on but it means basically you can not use them anymore in that battle… NO running out of the table… just a safe distance. Brigades of (1) and (2) categories can recoil, retreat, and do “things” until they go (3)… meaning they can be rallied and pushed forward again… NO BRIGADE CAN STAND MORE THAN 4 CHAOS FIGHT (all fighting is chaotic…and there is or will be a lot of compulsory movements… that would be the more complicated thing to translate in writing I guess) NO plans resist contact with the enemy.
FIVE: There would not be Victory points neither a “clear result”… once the slaughter stops Armies will stop fighting and as in real life you (ME) will count casualties (more or less) and for once would like to see a result similar to the one in real life… Armies would have done what they intended to do but once a third of the brigades of either Army (or both) are in the (3rd) status call it SPENT… Battle stops… and I do not give a damn which Army retreats first for ressuplying/reorganizing etc. CONSIDERE THAT SIMULTANEOUS after truce to get the wounded etc.
Quite strange?… simply my way of seeing things… I do not particularly relish in ACW medical services (William Holden or not), amputations, and the rest… a hellish place to see a battlefield after an engagement… let’s consider my way an eagle eye (or fly on the wall) approach to those epic brawls.
Chaotic Fight will please you or not but I intend to explain in detail (more or less), the same way Division Generals are not considered in detail in some rules I use them when Corps Commanders are Killed or Wounded… have to write my blank cards using BELLO LUDI as a model to resolve ties… “Colonel gets the jivers and runs to the rear as in real life happened”, “Out of Ammunition”, “Sudden Panic”… the lot what!
Hope you enjoy a bit!
Visits: 40
In a way, a suite of pics that shows that it is easy to roleplay (in fact it was not even called roleplaying at all back then) with 54mm vintage Toy Soldiers… and “damn the torpedoes”…
Eclectic? Yes
Old Fashioned? Yes
Childish? Yes
Fun? Yes
So…
Enjoy!
Visits: 33
Remember I am still experimenting devices and mechanisms (NO AI thanks GOD!). It is interesting (maybe) the things I have cumulated over the years thinking they would be useful for a wargame. Some had not even 6mm in mind at the time!
I still have no definite (read exact or concrete) idea on how to use the playing cards… but usually “chance” and “resolve ties” are already on my mind! And NO I do not know if they are still produced Google on FOURNIER PLAYING CARDS and investigate yourselves (Any set of cards would do really… but it satisfies my aesthetics senses). Dice you know are basic in any wargame…
I first calculated the average men per Brigade at Antietam using OSPREYS, ALTAR OF FREEDOM and SEARS books… Confederate Brigades are smaller but the stands are of equal measure as Union one’s (bigger Brigades, smaller divisions, smaller Corps)… so the value proportion is around 6/4 (or evidently enough 3/2).
I still doubt if I will generalize to ALL Brigades or give some a + and others a – … keeping the whole balance jus to add variety… still working on that! (looks like Altar of Freedom but it is not).
Been a solo player I decided a lot of automatisms would help the flow of the game… no fancy micromanagement of brigades… they search and fight each other matter of fact!… More on that in the future. Attrition and Struggle foremost in my mind… also the notion (IMPORTANT) that Tired and Spent Brigades are very important concepts!
I do not like record keeping, I do not like dice on the table, (I will throw dice and turn cards on another auxiliary table)… but experiments are getting closer… will probably use too my own version of the BELLO LUDI Cards…
Well, enough for today…
Enjoy the pics!
Visits: 34
A word of advice… I am doing my own thing so do not expect to enjoy this (the pics maybe)…
A bit of an explanation (not excuses)… I have a lot of ACW Rules, even 6mm specific one’s but SOLO wargaming is not on the designer’s minds at all… I understand and not complaining at all… I can not BID against myself (see POLEMOS) the best presented are ALTAR OF FREEDOM (one cheer for the USA chaps of Little Wars) but I have to make adjustments to play them solo…
NOT that I will use them as my basis at all, but I mostly agree with several concepts… let’s mention an example… BRIGADES of UNION and CONFEDERACY had NOT the same number of men at all… one bigger one medium one small whatever… if McClelland had 82000 men present at ANTIETAM and Lee (around 44000) and the number of brigades is lets say 45/37 something has to be done to “adjust” the numbers. The numbers in each brigade of the Confederacy has to be “reduced” to get the desired balance of forces (I will try to do this with small coloured dices in the rear of each Brigade). YOU have been advised! I am still experimenting.
To avoid an absolute GOD attitude in which I will represent each Commander in Chief (both sides), each Corps Commander, and even Divisions and Brigade decisions… some way to introduce “chance” “fog of war” and “several impromptus” must be decided by the turn of a friendly (or NOT) card… more in next chapters or Posts… got plenty of those cards (as you will see).
BUT
It is a big BUT … my main approach to enjoy myself is acknowledging the fact that everyone of those little toy soldiers KNOWS perfectly why he is there… to fight the enemy… everyone of them is holding to his musket and saying his prayers… but he is determined to fight it out! (So no need to encourage them at all to do their business… they know)… When those Armies met it is for deciding an outcome (Lee’s first Invasion… say no more… read History… no place here for History lessons)… (McClellan worried to lose the engagement and permit the fall of Washington!… always too worried by the numbers of the enemy!).
If you follow this posts you will see my trial and error… I do not care to make mistakes… I am learning myself!
So there you are… enjoy the eye candy!
Visits: 34
At last! I could do it…
Finally I must say the choice (difficult) I did to sell my 25mm Collection and go 6mm has payed off! (I know not everyone’s taste 6mil) what you lose in uniform detail you gain in playable surface for the scale… same table… but lots of room to manoeuvre if you know what I mean…
A couple of thousands of minis but it does not look crowded at all. Mainly Baccus and Rapier minis (mainly painted by Robert Jackson (90%) and Turbil Miniatures), Leven and Baccus buildings (REVEILLE by Daniel Hodgson), Trees are Baccus as Bridges and “fields”.
I will use this FIRST Wargame to develop my Own House Rules (SOLO or MULTIPLAYER) mainly adapting and reforming mecanisms of POLEMOS (BACCUS) ALTAR OF FREEDOM (Little Wars TV) Fire&Fury… and what not!
Making the river is quite cheap. And the woods are not “compact” I can move the stands of tress to make them passable. The Cornfield has no corn because I do not like troop stands floating over scenery… MY taste!.
Interested in the concepts movement, attrition, spent forces, General’s limitations, and mainly Historical Reenactment, Fictionnal Wargames with more freedom will come later.
Absolutely satisfied (if such thing exists) with the layout and minis… at last Armies look like Armies and terrain is wholesome…
I will probably do a movement a day not decided with 1/2 hour or whole hour’s span of time of a wargame period… will remain experimental for a while until satisfied. Trial and error etc.
Enjoy! (I do)
Visits: 109
Nothing is so spectacular as the Franco-Prussian War for wargaming the Old Style… still gaudy uniforms… you are in command (instead of those incompetent French Marshalls)… and not the gore of the XXth Century.
The other alternative is Dorking of course… but that was really improbable… BUT… fantastic alternative for gaudy redcoats!… the book is not really compulsory reading (I have it and did… but not indispensable to wargame the period… The Riddle of the Sands come true etc.)
Enjoy!
