Auerstedt: 2006 Game Day :: looking back

 

on 14th October 2006 we ran the 200th
Anniversary Napoleonic battle of Auerstedt

Bluebear Jeff was the French Commander, representing Davout and Mike Pearce and David Dinney took on the combined Prussian commands of the Duke of Brunswick.  Jeff and Mike game with us in spirit only now.

a white curtain was hung across the table
literally 'fog of war' to allow
the players to deploy with zero information
about the other side
This was the French

this curtain would eventually be cut up into the
base coverings for the snow filled Eylau game in 2007
This was the Prussian

the whole tabletop at deployment

Then orders were written and game commenced.

startup of the game, in this case the clock was
being used to track actual time (on the left) since
the clock in the room was non-functional
the room behind is the Halbe Hall, which has
gone through changes since this game was staged
twenty years ago!

the cards were a big hit as I recall

there are few notes I could find about the battle actions
though essentially the French picked their
hilltop and defended it rigourously

the early games featured this grass paper mat
and the other terrain 'put on top'
while classic in appearance I was decided to change this

my sky cloth designs were still in the early stages

we even had a young lady doing some of her
own painting (one of David's daughters)
while the rest of us staged this battle

speaking of staging, we had many photos to 
assist players in understanding their army organizations

the busy battlefield

and busy painter

some flash photos worked

others needed a steady hand 
I got a little tripod for future games

certainly the visual spectacle was good

an occasional flash photo was okay - I really stopped
doing too many flash photos as the lighting is just off

framing the spectacle was part of the challenge

truly a massive effort

this was one of the better flash photos

near the battle's end
you can clearly see the old style
wooden sabot's that would be replaced in the coming year
also the last battle staged with my homemade 'geo hex'
hills on the top of the terrain surface
that grass paper would be cut up to make
the first version of my metal sheet steel
covers, for the magnetic base stands

the final clock time position, some seven hours after start

probably the best photo from the game that day

My tabletop narratives have become more polished and include much more detail than these early ones, though it was nice to look back and see that some of my 20+ year veteran minis are still in action to this day.

Hmm ... maybe time to put on a Napoleonic game soon?