Sunday, 17 November 2024

Back in the saddle

The lack of activity on the blog recently is due to a lack of activity at weekends generally.....

Aside from the VWC, I have been unable to summon the energy to tackle any of the many projects, partly due to endless grey skies and work, work, work.....

Hopefully, I can get myself into gear and do some cleaning up of figures.

In the meantime, various projects have suggested themselves, such as my long neglected SYW and FIW armies. While there is still unpainted lead, I have supplemented them with some eBay purchases....

Greenwood & Ball / Garrison French




Very nice in an "old school" way and about £1 per figure.

I also could not resist this Austrian Willie general and his Hinchliffe aide. 



Not cheap but an inspiration to paint my own Willie generals; fortunately the style is not too dissimilar to my few painted Austrians, supplemented by some painted units. I puts me in mind of Phil Robinson's (?) fantastic Hinchliffe SYW Austrian army, complete with Willie personalities that appeared in a very old MW.

A friend of mine, Pete Foggin, sent some pictures of masters he has done for his expanding Italian Wars 10mm ranges. In this case Stradiots.



To buy, see here:

https://www.foggofwarminiatures.com/

At present only Gensdarmes and Swiss/Lansknechts seem too be available with various ancients.

Finally, David of the Ragged Soldier blog (https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/) mentioned he had been to the NAM in Chelsea and seen the Siborne Waterloo diorama. There were in fact two a small and large, the small resides in the Armouries Leeds. I didn't post previously as the pictures are not of the best as it was very difficult to photograph. Online articles suggest the figures are 25mm but appear much smaller - scale creep even in the C19th?






Despite restoration and conservation (including making replacement figures) it looks a bit sad and worn. Anthony Clipsom indicated there's a viewer to see the figures in close up, but I missed that.

Sunday, 3 November 2024

Pavia inspiration and a trip to Fiasco

Last weekend saw a trip to the Fiasco wargames show and the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

Fiasco was disappointing; the games were mostly small with a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, the venue itself (across from the Armouries) a bit gloomy. Trade stands were OK and I came away with some paints and brushes. I noted a couple of tables where games had failed tom turn up (never a good look) but on the whole it had more of the feel of a club night.

While I have complained about large demonstration games, this was the opposite, small niche games or 5mm /15mm often on plain cloth. The biggest was a Battletech game with very nice scenery.

I think somewhere in between club type games and elaborate demonstration games is the answer with some of the others mixed in. At least a lot appeared to be participation.

The only temptation was Anschluss' 1:144 armour, but I resisted.

Naval landing skirmish





Cthulu Mountains of Madness




VBCW

Castles in the Sky Agean sky battle


What a Cowboy


Cold War turns Hot


Battletech Big Red Button



The Armouries was busy, and a bit dark for photos. A lot of reflected light.

Pavia














Sunday, 20 October 2024

Solo wargaming - some thoughts

A departure for me as normally my posts are concerned with what I've done, though occasionally I may explain a little of how and why I've got to where I am. This post will try to concentrate on a specific topic - solo wargaming.

A couple of things have prompted this; my chat with David of the Ragged Soldier blog (https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/) and a discussion on the Polemarch blog (https://ancientrules.blogspot.com/) about his recently published book:

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/David-Heading/a/5916

I'm not going to review the book or comment directly on it, as I think that's proper to his blog. Instead, I want to put down my thoughts on solo wargaming.

The above book is another in a list of titles looking at solo wargaming, from Donald Featherstone, Stuart Asquith and others. There is a society dedicated to this aspect (https://lonewarriorswa.com/). Most of these cover the topic in more detail than can be expected in a blog post, so I will concentrate on my thoughts.

During my chat with David, we touched on solo wargaming; David does a lot. I'm not currently gaming due to absence of anywhere to do it! The dining table is out of commission, the garage full of clutter and the best I'd manage is a card table for something like DBA. 

I briefly mentioned "mechanisms" and also explained that once I'd finished painting my SK armies, I wanted to start the campaign solo to get things ironed out before potentially inviting real people to participate .

I don't want to get involved in the "why" or debates on whether a real live opponent is preferable- most of this is personal choice - and wrapped up in issues around not what game you play but who you play it with. I'd argue under the right circumstances both can be equally pleasurable or conversely, disappointing.

Instead, it's the "how" you go about it I want to look at.

The most obvious drawback is that you control both armies, know what troops are available and can see both sides of the table. The first thing to decide is how much of the unknown you wish to introduce. It is perfectly possible to simply play both sides, planning deployment and plan of attack or defence; the problem is of course it's difficult to both be impartial and unbiased as well as able to forget what you have planned for the other side. It's also unlikely you will be surprised at any stage, something a real opponent will provide when they do the unexpected. Hidden units provide a real challenge.

Many gamers simply play both sides as fairly as they can; some rulesets lend themselves to this through the inbuilt friction. Commands and Colors for example relies on cards for movement and actions; you can either play as they are drawn or attempt to use the cards in the best way for both sides. Other types of rules introduce friction via phased movement or disruption such as BP's "blunder" rule. Some people hate such rules, others love them.

The alternative, is to either completely randomise both sides plans and deployment or to rely on some form of pre-programming, such as CS Grant's Programmed scenarios. Or, refight a historical battle drawing each side's deployment from the historical and then deciding whether either or both sides follow the historical aims and plan.

Whichever approach you take there are certain aspects you will need to consider and possibly devise mechanisms for. My view is they sit under the following headings:

Deployment

Touched on above; do you randomise or deploy sensibly? Cavalry facing a marsh is going to be a problem - do you then allow some reorganisation? Or have standard deployments decided by a dice. Do you have characteristics for you generals? Would an incompetent general deploy cavalry behind a marsh - stranger things have happened in history. How do you handle hidden troops or the problems of the 2000 foot general? The latter of course is not confined to solo gaming - the issue is reacting to things you would know nothing about - is it simply a question of honesty? Perhaps easier when playing solo.

Movement

Not just how far you move, but when or if at all. Most rules are either predictable or have a degree of randomisation. At one end of that spectrum, you know each move how far that unit can move and if you choose to move it, it will unless there are other factors such ad command radii and or morale. The other extreme is where what acts (and when or if) is determined by cards or dice, the ultimate being also the actual distance moved being also randomised. Many critics point out that you are simply reacting to circumstances from move to move, rather than following a plan and that skill is replaced by luck. For the solo player, it does allow some detachment, assuming you play each side equally. The less randomisation, the more cerebral the game, but that predictability will make for few surprises.

Command decisions

The most difficult issue in many ways. Unless as above, you as the player are simply reacting to events, it is very difficult if not impossible to split yourself in two and act fairly for both sides. Unconscious or conscious bias will play a part. Do you characterise your generals? How far do you go and how far down the chain of command do you go? Again the question revolves around how much randomisation are you introducing? Is the aim to remove control from your hands entirely and place it under that of the general's character? Is it "rash", "bold" and "cautious" or to the level of " timid, dithering dypsomaniac"? Some of this can be taken out of your hands by cards which determine which wing or unit can act, as above. Or do you attempt to put yourself in the persona of th general and role play to some extent? Or simply throw dice for different choices options? - 1 or 2 withdraw, 3+ counterattack?

End point

Unless you have rules that determine the end of a game (objectives, victory tokens) or a scenario that gives a result, then the decision on whether to continue playing come down to the player themselves. Some players become so demoralised or dislike the rules, they will quit even when there's a chance to win. Others will fight to the last man, unless prevented from doing so by victory conditions or similar. It's more difficult for the solo player as he is the general for both sides; it's simply not possible to psychologically influence yourself! Campaigns are interesting in that they add a different dimension to when to end a battle. Do you save the army or fight bitterly for that city? What losses can you sustain?

So where do I sit within all this? Well my Soldier King armies have generals with random characteristics down to brigade / column level. I've tried to translate the major characteristics into a set of values from 2 to 8 which give some sort of score against which to role. I have not cracked random deployment or how to have each side deploy independently as well as take account of terrain, let alone hidden units and deployment. I'd love to introduce random movement, somehow influenced by character or the army 's training, but fear it would slow things down excessively.

What it boils down to are mechanisms you can bolt onto existing rules or exploit the mechanisms in existing rules that remove control from the player. So far, the books I've seen give some hints or suggestions, but often little by way of actual mechanics that can be adapted.

Sunday, 13 October 2024

T'Other Partizan

Flying visit to Partizan today. Only spent about 2 1/4 hours there, so it was a bit of a rush to go around trade stands , photograph games and anything else.

I confess I spent most of my time there having a very enjoyable chat with David Barnes of The Ragged Soldier" blog:

https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/

It was nice to finally meet David in person, especially after the last time when I accosted his body double who reacted in  no uncertain fashion! We had a good old chat waiting for David's friends to arrive.

I will post a selection of photos; when I arrived it was extremely busy - I cannot say I have ever seen it that crowded before - hence it was quite difficult to get photos and several were not very well signed so it was difficult to identify them - the lack of a hard copy floor plan doesn't help. Some listed games I never saw and many I saw did not appear to be listed on the floorplan! Once upon a time they used to give you such things.....no bands this time so how they policed it I cannot say.

All Hell Let Loose 6mm Omaha D-Day


Not Quite Mechanised Tunisia - hoped to have a chat with Chris but was fully engaged in chatting each time I passed.


Old Pikey's Hell's Highway with intriguing paper buildings



Forest Outlaws French & Indian War March on Montreal 1760



The very busy and at times noisy Morris & Chums Battle of 5 Armies from the Hobbit




League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers Lutzen TYW 1632 with burning town



Simon Miller To the Strongest Wars Louis XIV




Yarkshire Gamer Italian Wars relief of Forli





Bramley Barn Wargames Club RCW



Vietnam

Like a Stonewall Poltava Redoubts Great Norther War



Chesterfield Old Boys Oudenarde (?) Marlburian



I have tried to credit where I could work out who had put on the game and what it was, there were others I took photos of which I simply cannot attribute to period or players.

Apart from the crowds and lack of adequate signs or paper floorplan, there was a startling absence of castles this year.....some city walls was it.....perhaps they got the memo or decided everyone will do a castle so let's be different....
A lot of C20th and Horse and Musket, some fantasy but only one ancients game. I'm sure there were many others I simply missed in my rush.

Purchases were minimal - casualty bases and some 20mm French for Syria 1941

Back in the saddle

The lack of activity on the blog recently is due to a lack of activity at weekends generally..... Aside from the VWC, I have been unable to ...