Big Game planning

Campaign of Nations Map positions for 12 Sept 1813 (fictional)

The Campaign of Nations game that I have been moderating since 2012 has reached a potential HUGE BATTLE point.

In examining the base stands needed (from a Fast Play Grand Armee point of view), I would need 105 3"x3" stands and 50 of the 1.5"x3" artillery stands.  I could do the guns (yes I have at least 50 artillery pieces now - I think), what I cannot support with my current game set are the 100+ brigade stands!

This was the same problem in trying to tackle Leipzig as a single battle situation in Garden Wars.  So likewise this time I am faced with either scaling down to a single segment of the greater action or modifying the rules to cover a larger area -or- making up a new set of rules to cover the situation so as to make maximum use of the troops and tools that I have.

At the moment I am in discussions with the other campaign players and one of the tabletop team to see what we can come up with.

Have you ever 'scaled UP' your game table actions?

Games on the road

I have always praised the card games, even Magic, for their portability.

This past weekend was one of a few this coming winter and spring where I will be on the road for much of the time.

Eagles, now 20 years old!  Artwork by Eric Hotz

It was nice to have Eagles, by Columbia Games, along so that my son and I could connect over a few games while marking time on the ferries that we must take to come and go off Vancouver Island.

to get a sense of scale, that is an 11 year old standing past the white Queen

While in Seattle center, my middle son made sure to challenge me to a chess game with the mega-board that they have there.

What travel games do you engage in?

Battleground with Edward Woodward

An amazing series of tabletop games put on video in the 1970's

Napoleon in Europe - 1805 return

Every once in a while I get a wonderful request from one of my sons to play a favored game of mine.

the 1805 scenario features France and Spain vs. the 3rd Coalition of England, Russia and Austria

Napoleon In Europe, by Eagle Games.

the board is TRULY massive - more than covering the entire dining room table

It is a mammoth board, with 20mm scale miniatures of the troops, that I have added the ships to in order to bring the whole surface of the map to life.

by October 1805, the north coast of Spain had been invaded and French shipping was trapped in port

early on the French side had convinced the Ottomans to join in their cause and the Russians came to aid the Austrians on the Hungarian plains

While we only played a few hours and a number of distracting work phone calls pulled me away at times I was still pleased with the interaction and connection I was able to have with my son.

the Russians were going to be busy with the Turks ...

It is always great to spend quality time with my sons.

Happy New Snyear

Vincent Price as Witchfinder General

The English Civil Warre shall loom largge in the yeaar to coome for mee.

May your games year be filled with successful die rolls and good table talk shared with good folk.

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries, but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other off and remain at peace. The leaders were conservatives with little use for republicanism or revolution. France lost all its recent conquests, while Prussia, Austria and Russia made major territorial gains. Prussia added smaller German states in the west and 40% of the Kingdom of Saxony; Austria gained Venice and much of northern Italy. Russia gained parts of Poland. The new kingdom of the Netherlands had been created just months before, and included formerly Austrian territory that in 1830 became Belgium.

Bourbon restoration ... less than ideal

Edward Fox as the Colonel from The Duellists 1977

A second section of the community was equally disgruntled -- the ex-soldiers.  The victorious powers had insisted that the French forces be reduced to a shadow of their former size, and large-scale demobilization was in any case economically imperative.  Pitchforked into civil life, the French rank and file grumbled - as always - but this time with real grievances.  One hundred and fifty-five years earlier Cromwell's New Model Army had similarly been abruptly disbanded by another restored monarchy, and contemporary observers had been greatly impressed by the orderly way in which the original redcoats had re-assimilated themselves into civil life.  The France of 1815 was not, however, blessed with so easy a transition.  No doubt many of the conscripts were only too gladto revert to their former ways of life, but there remained a hard core of veteran soldiers who proved incapable of finding a place in the inflationary economy and shaken society of defeated France.  Many starved; all felt disgruntled.  The focal points of the old comrades discontent were the cafes where the 12,000 or so officers on half pay would congregate to read the Paris news sheets, sip a pernod, and lament the "good old days" of teh Empire.  The passage of time rapidly glossed over the realities of Napoleonic campaigning - the fear, the fatigue, the mud, the hunger and pain - and left only the evocative memories of la gloire and treasured remembrances of some passing word from Le Tondu.  In this way, the Bourbon policy of military retrenchment ensured that the Napoleonic mystique survived.  Somewhat paradoxically, this was nowhere more evident than within the ranks of teh units incorporated into the new Royal army.  No amount of ordinances and disciplinary awards could check, for instance, the established practice of sentries presenting arms to veterans wearing the white enameled cross of the Legion d'Honneur.  In the end this was allowed.

~ The Campaigns of Napoleon, D. Chandler, p. 1010

The annual Gingerbread House ... 2014 instalment

the 2014 gingerbread house

Happy Season's Greetings to you and your family for all readers of MurdocK's MarauderS.

The LOBSTERS - ECW Cuirassiers

A unit of Pike and Shotte Cuirassiers has been gifted to me.

Though only the Hesilrigge's Lobsters force actually existed during the ECW, I may go with a different flag

Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein fame presented me with this most wondrous gift so as to complete the Parliamentary forces.

The final three regiments of Pike and Shotte are going to get paint over the next few days and a trip to Bearstein is on the calendar to move forward the Royalist horse.  This way our two forces will have a chance to engage before this winter is out, on the tabletop.  Our working plan is to do Edgehill using the Canadian Wargames Group rules "For God King and Country".