Wargame Warrior

Been thinking about the SOA game this year and how to stage it. My current thought is  that we do Beat the Drum lists for all 6 "armies" present including tailored Diplomacy spades cards. This would allow us to have some uncertainty built in about reliability of allies (which seemed to affect both sides.) Also allows a simple, abstract element of pre-battle events to have a possible effect on the action. I will rough out an example and post it here.

First draft of Hun army click  and new draft of Roman army click

I am assuming that we are attending next Saturday (Nick excepting) so despite the lack of feedback from Les, I have done a ToW map for the campaign part of the refight. Although Jims volunteering to help with army lists is appreciated and does keep some of the uncertainty present, it would adversely affect successfully coordinating the game, particularly as we have left ourselves no time to try out anything new.

I need to measure some prospective table cloth replacements that I have to see if we can avoid Nick having to make a trip to get the one he has into the action. What table size do we realistically need?

Good game chaps. I was very impressed that we managed to pull off a Theatre of War mini-campaign as well as a tabletop battle (all those months of planning!) It was particularly amusing to see the confused looks on people's  faces at the site of no figures on the table through the morning. And then we got out the china and glasses for a civilised lunch (thanks Les!) 

Jims bizarre preference not to have his best troops (the Huns) present was borne out as his Goths and Gepids (NO ONE can tell the difference) rode down everything in their path. Except for some deadly darts throwers... Highlights for me included the lone Hun regiment, surrounded and riding around in ever decreasing circles until they voluntarily died!   Also the "oops that should have been a dice higher" morale test followed by the inevitable throw of a 1. And the Frenchman complaining that we had a river missing on our totally random campaign map! 

Adam at April 15, 2013 at 3:39 PM

Good game chaps. I was very impressed that we managed to pull off a Theatre of War mini-campaign as well as a tabletop battle (all those months of planning!) It was particularly amusing to see the confused looks on people's  faces at the site of no figures on the table through the morning. And then we got out the china and glasses for a civilised lunch (thanks Les!) 

Jims bizarre preference not to have his best troops (the Huns) present was borne out as his Goths and Gepids (NO ONE can tell the difference) rode down everything in their path. Except for some deadly darts throwers... Highlights for me included the lone Hun regiment, surrounded and riding around in ever decreasing circles until they voluntarily died!   Also the "oops that should have been a dice higher" morale test followed by the inevitable throw of a 1. And the Frenchman complaining that we had a river missing on our totally random campaign map! 

Finally got logged in at work !

It was a good game, if a bit against the idea of the day.

Thought the ToW worked pretty well, as you say, months of planning  and the battle itself, apart from the toys out of pram moment (even if the right figures had been used , Nick wouldn't have been able to tell !), wasn't bad.  Had a look at the OOB, better on the phone than the Laptop (?) and it looks like it would be a good game, loads of Cavalry roaming about.  Might have to give it a go, probably got enough figures (LOL). Still think a ToW (or any other) campaign based on a Patrician revolt would be great.

What are the thoughts for next year, Richard looks like he wants Hydaspes, any others, a Diadochi one - Ipsus (Mega) - one of the Gallic ones - Thermopylae ?

Game photo from Phil Steele's blog:

We get a mention in Wargames Illustrated! (and a nice pic of our Theatre of War map.)

(click on the picture for a larger version.)