Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Recruiting Party

SEEKING GAME PLAYING LADS

For Campaign Command in an 1813 Leipzig based campaign - possibly others.

Solo game players with Napoleonic forces are also welcomed as there will exist plenty of potential for proxy battles (there is no way a single player or even a few table tops could game out all the battles that have the potential for play)

Top command structure and historically minded players needed for:  Tasr of Russia, Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia.

Senior command positions for Army of Silesia & Wing commander, Army of Bohemia & Wing Commander and Army of the North and wing Commander.

Tabletop commander with a significant Napoleonic collection willing to take on the vitally important task of French Command, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Experienced Napoleonic game players sought for the positions of the French Wing Commanders (at least 2)

The plan is to have a 'warm-up' session using some Cyberboard tools in November and December of 2012, then get into active campaign and put the troops into action by March of 2013.

Those wishing to partake may either leave an email contact here in the comments, or send email to: viperbbb@gmail.com

8 comments:

Archduke Piccolo said...

Just curious at this point: what sized collection would fill the criterion: 'significant'?

Altogether you tempt me strangely with these blandishments. I would wish to know more...
Cheers,
Ion

MurdocK said...

Ion,

Significant would matter on what scale of action that player wants to represent.

For the Napoleon player I am seeking I suppose the criteria would be along the lines of 3 Corps each of French, Russian and Austrians along with at least one Corps of Prussians, Bavarians, Polish, Swedish, and Confederation of the Rhine troops. All set for the rules system that they use for tabletop simulation. This would be at the 'top end' of the metal mass that I could envision coming into regular use.

Something close to this volume would be great for any solo table-top supporting players.

The idea here is to have the big battalions battles where Bonaparte is present, in command, being handled by that player with the collection best capable of doing the job.

I would love to have different combat 'scales' being handled ... with the strategic and operational scale done via email and online using cyberboard tools that are in development (part of the December 'play testing') while the Tactical and even Skirmish level actions are played out on game tables all over the world.

Archduke Piccolo said...

Yep: that's pretty significant, all right. I have reasonable numbers of French and Austrians, a bit incomplete on the Russian and Prussian front, and squat is re Bavarians, Poles etc.

I did think perhaps having the numbers of French and one other (Austrian) might qualify for battles involving only those forces. Oh well, question answered, never mind.

I'd still be interested in following the campaign's events, though.
Cheers,
Ion

MurdocK said...

Awesome Ion!

There could defiantly be room for such a game table!

The Austrians were the bulk of the Army of Bohemia and struck at Dresden (historically) for a titanic two day battle before retiring.

even the final battle of Leipzig could end up with the 'sections' or 'sectors' of the front broken up - as there may not be any one tabletop player or group with the resources to take it all on.

So your metal and table would be more than welcome to join in the proxy fun!

Jiminho said...

MurdocK,

Your project is highly ambitious (Leipzig, good grief! what a choice!) and really interesting in approach.

Perhaps I could help out with a complimentary, subordinate role. My time is shorter supply than interest and painted metal. I have, dating back to my club wargaming days (a long time and several moves ago), a fairly substantial 15mm napoleonic collection. It hasn't any use for years as I have gone on to other things, but I ought to justify its existence once in a while! All are based for Shako (that rule book's author frequented my club), ie: 12 man infantry btn.

After a quick quick look, the inventory includes around 30 btn infantry, 6 to 14 cav, 5 to 12 arty for the French, Austrians, Prussian (if one puts in Prussians in both early and late uniforms, and more like 35-30 inf for the French) and quite a bit more for the Russians (50 btn 15 cav?). Also, there are a dozen or so Saxon inf btn, 4 cav and 2 bty in old uniforms, a complete division of Bavarians and a handful of Wurttembergers.

As I type this I am astonished to see how deep I had fallen into the infamous Napoleonics trap! Anyway, these could be combined into double-sized units and still play a decent sized battle while looking good (12man btns really don't work for me anymore).

I doubt I can be a reliable central player in your project but could well have fun with a wing or specific scenarios within it. I'd have to do this solo (no mates here) and table size is a restriction for me at the moment.

Lets talk down the road:

jjim006 at sympatico.ca

Jim

MurdocK said...

Jim,

Awesome collection details!

I understand the time limitations, really I do.

Thus the reason for having the plan to spread out the workload as much as possible, with a co-ordination session coming over the end of the xmas season - a time when most have a more open schedule.

So far there has been some tepid interest in engaging on this ... I'd like to have at least three players - so that if I have to take on the antagonist - Bonaparte role I will, just to get it all moving! Better would be 6 or 8 players, with varying levels of action or engagement. The ultimate would be to fill all 13 'players' int eh campaign and have a few others that are just 'proxy' tabletop simulation players, with little or no personal 'stake' in any one outcome, just content to put on the good game simulation.

Your collection is all set for Shako, so as I have played many games, I am aware of the 'larger' scale battles simulation that Shako can do.

I have sent you an email separate to this note on the blog.

Jiminho said...

Hi Murdock,

Thanks, message received !

Shako has an advantage in being easy to run, even for large battles. I probably don't even need to re-read the rules. Obviously it would be best to have a good number of participants and in so do doing keep momentum while covering the problem of scale of actions. Mostly, I am curious about how you plan to make this work.

I said I would have to game out scenarios solo but skype offers some other possibilities and might even introduce interesting elements of fog of war. Open to ideas... I don't know anything useful about cyberboard but there is a solution to that.

I figure I could handle a good sized game every couple of weeks. I could play out a turn or two nightly if I can find a way to keep a table set up. My time is completely tied up several times a year as we hurtle through the academic calendar.

Best,

Jim

MurdocK said...

Jim

Your comments are stirring up all sorts of possibilities.

Most certainly I shall connect with you about some more of the tools that I am working on.