Sunday, May 1, 2022

Beware The Jungle

It can be a Scary place! 

Steady on John, I'm sure you don't actually have a huge man eating spider on your back!

For a test game, I decided to go with a scenario that is becoming a bit of a standard for me. Using a scenario that has worked several times and never failed makes it easier to tell if the rules are causing problems. It probably wasn't a good thing for me to look back at so many games from the 15 to 20 years ago though. I felt so nostalgic for the old, 18 figure, 3 stand units (see header photo) that I decided to try something that had been tickling my mind. Years ago I had subdivided  each of my 6" squares into 4x3" squares so that I could use the big squares with the 54's and the smaller ones with the 40's, and an urge to try it again came over me. 

Turn 6: The flanking force of Foreign Volunteers has just marched on the table. 

So it was that the 6 scenario units became 12 small units. I also increased the hits per unit like I did for the War of 1812 games. At least I didn't physically subdivide the big squares because, oddly enough, the result was a game that involved a lot more tedious indecisive die rolling and small moves, just like most of those previous games. Sighhh, at least I don't have to wonder any more and no harm was done to the grid since I stifled the urge to physically mark the smaller squares on the board. 
Turn 15: By the skin of their teeth and the final die roll, the Foreign Volunteers have turned a Draw into a victory by seizing the bridge as well as the Ford.

So, the units have been reshuffled back into 12 man battalions like they were 2 days ago, each filling a 5" grid square. The rules have been re-streamlined to make for faster, more decisive games, like the original Square Brigadier games.  

All set to go. 6 units per side, each of 12 infantry, 4 cavalry or light infantry or a gun and crew, and 1 per square. This should allow me to play a One Hour Wargame in an hour!



18 comments:

  1. Interesting to read of your thoughts and how they impact on your gaming.
    Alan

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    1. Glad to hear it. (I also find it useful to be able to go 5 or 10 years to see what I was thinking and check if I'd already tried something!)

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  2. The new table looks good Ross - enjoy the game

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    1. The long roll is sounding and the bugles blowing, gotta go roll some dice!

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  3. Decisions, decisions... Wouldn't worry about unit size - different unit sizes for different scenarios works...

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    1. Well sometimes it matters. What I did was the equivalent of taking a DBA game then doubling the number of units then doubling the length and the width of the table, quadrupling the size of the battle field. Changes the speed at which the game progresses and the time it takes to reach a conclusion with a lot of not very exciting slugging in the middle.

      Not wrong but different and this scenario was supposed to be a minimum size game over in an hour.

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    2. One thing I've looked at - and, to a certain extent, done, is not count some troops from combat. For example, when doing Napoleonics I stick generals on round bases and just having them there for decoration. More importantly, for DBX I'm quite happy to still keep a phalanx in a 4 deep formation, but it fights as a 1 or 2 deep formation. Lose that 'fighting' component - still have the other figures there, they just can't do much except run away, block up the battlefield or surrender. Most formations in real life are pretty much finished if they have 20 - 50% casualities anyway, so good way of representing a unit that has been attrited to the point of being ineffective.

      In your case, larger units but keeping the same fighting value should result in a shorter game timewise that still looks as good.

      One of the advantages of being around for a long time and having larger armies is that we don't need to feel that every soldier has to do something other than look good - just building up armies you can't afford the luxury of having excess figures, once you do have them - seems reasonable to try and find a use for them!

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    3. It took a while but I started to get used to not counting noses when playing Volley & Bayonet in the 90's and then Morschauser variants.

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  4. Playing toy soldiers… sounds like a terrible way to learn from your mistakes 😁
    Was the spider still on the cavalryman by the end of the game?

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Lets just say he wasn't there for the battle....may be I should send a patrol to look for him....

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  5. Always enjoy witnessing your process. Can't say the same for seeing the spider!

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  6. I actually recall (vaguely) your experimentation with the sub-squares...or something like it. Definitely don't recall seeing that spider (yeesh!)

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