Wargamers: WTF?

As much as I love the guys I game with, there are times I just want to line them up along the back wall of the bar and shoot them.  Two freaking disasters in three weeks due to a simple inability to step away from the hyper competiveness one finds in too many tournament players.

On Memorial Day I attempted to playtest an incomplete set of rules I was working on.  No artillery was to be used, straight up infantry fight in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.  Ahistorical, as the Americans had their hands tied, but I told everyone I wanted to see how the small arms rules looked.  So, despite being given more than adequate concealment and BEAUTIFUL fields of fire, the VC players insisted on hiding deep inside of terrain features where the Americans would have to dig them out.  Which of course would have never happened without preperatory fire.  So, I found out some of the assault rules worked, and it was a fiasco attacking unsuppressed troops.  As it should be.  As for the actual firefight aspect, I have no idea.  Less than a dozen die rolls for fire where made, mostly long range suppresive bursts by US M60s.

Lesson learned, I'm not bothering to do anything new and innovative with the group, as too many individuals can only think in terms of the immediate win.

Last night slightly different story.  We ran a Seven Years War game that featured a completely cavalry army vs a  mostly cavalry army.  The idea was to replicate that part of Kolin where the Austrians launched a cavalry attack to try to take the Prussians in the flank.  So, the Austrians had to move across the board on an angle, overwhelm two small Prussian infantry brigades and exit the field with most of their force intact, which was their instructions.  Prussian cavalry would emerge and try to disrupt the Austrian advance.  I specifically asked the Austrians not to simply block one gap so that we could have a flowing game.

Instead the two Prussian infantry brigades stopped the small force of Austrian cavalry sent against them and the bulk of the Austrians crammed into the one gap and a grinding battle against inferior Prussian cavalry ensued.  The Austrians destroyed the Prussian cavalry brigades, as was inevitable given the numbers but were SHOCKED that they lost the game.  (oddly enough in between these two games we played an ACW game where one of the Confederates complained, mildly, that the two sides were uneven.  Duh.  If you are attacking a force your size something went wrong)

I just wish more gamers would play the scenario/period rather than worry about tournament style wins.  It would make the hobby so much more enjoyable.  And perhaps I'm being a curmudgeon, but after 43 years of wargaming I'm just getting tired of dumb table top behavior.

Gearing up for the 200th

Years ago I started working on War of 1812 stuff in 25mm, mostly Wargames Foundry figures and eventually some Old Glory as they became available.  Rules were always the issue.  A couple of years ago I stumbled on Too Fat Lardies "Sharpe Practice" which seemed to reignite things.  Then, interest waned again, probably as I wanted to play slightly larger actions than SP catered for, although I do think its a brilliant set of rules for the War of 1812.

With the arrival of Black Powder in my life, I am back into the 1812 mode, even larger battles like Lundy's Lane are very managable and I love the game system.  I'm currently getting things together for refights of the opening actions. I'll keep you posted.

We survived!

Well, as a group the Atlantic Gaming Commission survived Little Wars.  In total members of our group ran eight games at the convention, and no one died.  Although there were some close calls.  We will probably run a repeat performance next year, but we are seriously thinking of running nothing but Black Powder just to see how it goes.  Should be fun, I think.

The Breastplate of La Pucelle!

Well, the mini-campaign planning is coming along quite nicely.  The kick off game will represent part of Operation Dortmund, and have Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais defending against German recon elements attempting to bully their way forward.  Some French recon troops may also show up...

Game two will be based on Germans attempting to cross the Meuse.  Agent "Dancing Bear" of the AGC is working on some terrain boards, and I've been painting up Old Glory German assault rafts.  It should be jolly fun and a bit frustrating for all involved.

The last game turned out to be the troublemaker planning wise.  At first I was planning on a refight of the Battle of Stonne.  Then the PEL for the convention came out, and in the same time slot were two other Stonne scenarios....what were the odds.  So, rather than Stonne I started to put together a Moncorret type battle.  We play-tested a bit of it last Monday, and the Germans got a rude surprise from the French S-35 tanks.  I'm sure at the convention the same blind faith in German tanks will cause equal distress.

Less than a month until the convention.  It should prove fun.

Little Wars 2012

Well, our club, the Atlantic Gaming Commision, so named for the bar we play at, will be running a total of five games at the con, including a potted campaign of three games on Saturday.  These will reflect the German blitzkrieg through Belgium and into France in May of 1940.  Given time, I will keep you posted as to how they develop.

Little Wars planning

Instead of a couple of us running games independently of each other, our group is thinking of cooperating for the upcoming local wargames collection and running a series of games over the course of the weekend.  We've got a couple of ideas percolating, and it will be interesting to see how it all ends up.  With a little luck we can pull this off, more on it as it comes together.

As for the rest of the day, well, its the end of the Oktoberfest season, a couple of the local small towns are having theirs and the beer won't drink itself, so thats all for now.

Sorry about even more light bogging

Ugh, what a fall, fair amount of health troubles throughout the family so not much time to blog.  However, our wargaming club did survive the closure of the local game shop, and we now play in the back room of the Atlantic Bar, thank you Charlie, Shamus and John for letting us set up house.

Its been somewhat amusing, as it is in many ways a typical neighborhood joint, the regulars have been wandering back to see what we are doing, and have been pretty cool about things, asking questions and actually showing real interest.  My guess is soon they will be placing side bets on the games....

More, eventually.