Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Those who cannot remember the past (Updated)

"Are condemned to repeat it"  (Attributed to George Santayana)

Unless of course they keep a blog and by clicking the ACW label they can check back over old versions and proposed versions of the rules, read accounts of wargames played including post game analysis, and contemplate old plans and conclusions and compare them with where I'm at now.

Is it just me or does the Butternut and Grey Minnow overlooking the Yankee cavalry remind anyone else of the ghost of Jeb Stuart and the Haunted Tank?


I've saved my self some trouble there over the last two days. In fact the nostalgia factor had me on the point of going back to where I was 5 or so years ago until I read why I changed my approach slightly. It wasn't because the rules weren't working ot that I didn't like them. It was because, although smaller than what I am planning, the games were too incremental and process focussed (as in too much die rolling and too few command decisions), took too long to reach a  conclusion, and without two handy back tables, "dead" stands were scattered around the room, (especially when I was absorbed in the action) so that cleaning up afterwards usually took longer than the game.

So, having remembered that my trials of rules where dice and hits are allocated and tracked by unit rather than by stand, I have done up a new 2 page version and am set to play......soon. The current basic draft of the  Plastic Army of the Potomac may be found here.

(but be warned, it is a work in progress )

OK 25 July version now being tested is this one: Alt Plastic Army

and for comparison: the original 2003 version of Morschauser Meets MacDuff





8 comments:

  1. I must give the Plastic Army of the Potomac a try!

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  2. "Clean" play is not to be underestimated. The more you can focus on what you want to do, and the less you have to focus on what you have to do to book-keep the game, the better.

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  3. But what morale class are cats? A? B? Or C?

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    Replies
    1. I have been informed that the QUeen of Siam is above classification.

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  4. What is it with cats and wargaming tables !? , I have two that are obsessed with it ! .

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    1. I think its a mix of the rolling dice and the fun of watching the human react to a casual bat of a paw.

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