A Wargamer's Blog

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

2011-12-23T05:52:00.000-08:00

As you can see, posting has been light (to put it mildly) of late. I hope to get some things written up in the New Year (I've got several projects "in the works"). Please bear with me :)

Have a safe and Happy Christmas and New Year !

Slow posting ATM

2011-11-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, as my interests (and health) has taken different turns as of late.

I hope to get some more miniature/card game stuff posted soon, so please stay tuned !

First Look: DSROHG Prarie Grove Army of the Trans-Mississippi (CSA)

2011-09-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

Here's the first run of the confederate unit cards for Prairie Grove:

(click to enlarge)

I'm not sure about the game itself, yet (there are some changes I might have to make for playability, such as increasing the strength of all infantry brigades by 1 to make the game scale correctly).

Stay tuned.....

First Look: DSROHG Prairie Grove Army of the Frontier

2011-09-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Posting has been light, as I've been busy with a few projects. Among them a DSROHG module for the battle of Prairie Grove (Dec 7th, 1862).

Here is a first pass of the Union army (Army of the Frontier) for the game:

(click to enlarge)

Stay tuned for the Confederate army.

Mechanicsville

2011-08-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

I've been toying with an idea with a Mechanicsville scenario. To that end, I've made a counter set of all of
Porter's V Corps (Army of the Potomac), AP Hill's Division and DH Hill's Division.

The rules are still in flux, and I can't seem to find pictures of 2 Regular Army brigade leaders (Lovell and Buchannon).

Here are the (double-sided) 1/2 inch counters:

(click to enlarge)

Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but figured it was kind of nice for OB purposes (and there are some mistakes in this one as well as additional forces that did not fight the historical battle).

One positive thing this project has done is that I've started compiling a database of civil war head pictures (of generals etc) for use in future projects.....

Army of Northern Virginia, Seven Days

2011-08-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

With the Army of the Potomac already made, I finished the Army of Northern Virginia for the same time period.

Here is the first look at the Army of Northern Virginia in card form (there are errors in it that have been corrected):

Click to enlarge

Army of the Potomac, Seven Days

2011-08-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

Since I'd already made the map (it took a day to realize from start to finish), I figured I might as well go "all in" and compose DSROHG unit cards for the two armies that fought the battles there.

A little research and some elbow grease later, voila !

Here is the first look of the Army of the Potomac in card form (some errors on these):

Click to enlarge

Upcoming: The Army of Northern Virginia

A (slight) diversion....

2011-07-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

While researching where to go with my DSROHG card system I contemplated the Seven Days battles (June 26th to July 1st 1862).

Since how all the battles fit togther is a bit confusing, I decided to create a wargame map of the area, at the scale of about 1/2 mile per hex. It clarifies things for me when reading about the battle (and gives me ideas of how/where to make wargame scenarios for it).

Here is the 1st look at it in 1/2 size (it uses 3/4" hexes and comes out to about 32" x 32" in full size). I haven't proofed the colors by printing it (yet).

Click to enlarge

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet (I've got some ideas bubbling up). Maybe I'll create a rule-set and counters for a game using it.

(Edit: Somehow the Deep Water layer failed to print. I've corrected it now :D)

Combat Example in DSROHG Bull Run

2011-07-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a combat example from my Bull Run supplement. As always,click on the image to get a larger image. I assume a passing knowledge of the rules for this example to make complete sense :D.

A Combat roll is with a 20 sided die.
A Hit placement roll is with an 8 sided die.
Morale Check and Depletion rolls are 2 six sided dice added together.

It is the Union player's turn and he draws a card, which is a supply card.

At Start

The Union plays the Hunter movement card and supply to initiate an attack on Henry Hill. At the moment, only Porter and Burnside are in this attack, as he only had a Hunter movement card. If he'd had a McDowell movement card both Divisions could have been included in the attack.

The Confederate player decides to block the move with Evans (he can choose to not block and give up the terrain). To Strengthen this defense, he plays by a supply card to move Jackson over from the stone bridge . Note that usually a brigade must either have a cavalry component or be in their division's Active zone (neither of which applies to Jackson) to make this move, but Jackson has this ability (as noted on his card).

Even though the Stone Bridge map is now unoccuppied, he knows the Union player does not have any other cards, he can't iniate an attack against it this turn (indeed, it will take at least 2 turns to have the cards to do so).

The Union player plays his last supply card to include one of Heintzelman's brigades (Wilcox) in the combat.If he'd have had a Heintzelman movement card (or 2 supply cards), he could've included both of his brigades.

The combat s initiated

Both sides take their 8 target chits and assign them to the available cards. The Confederate player decides that since Jackson is the stronger brigade, he will get more target chits put on him, hopefully ensuring he will take more of the hits than the weaker Evans. The Union player opts to spread the markers out more evenly.

1st blood is inflicted

The defender gets to roll 1st, so the Confederate rolls his D20 combat rolls:

Evans has a strength of 8 (adding the infantry + cavalry + artillery strengths). He rolls a 14, which is a miss.

Jackson has a strength of 9. He rolls an 8 which is 1 hit. Jackson rolls a D8 to determine where the hit is placed, and rolls an 8, which places the hit on Wilcox.

Since at least 1 attacking unit took a hit, every unit must take a Morale Check.

Wilcox rolls an 8, but adds 1 to this because of the hit he took. With the roll of 9 he fails (his morale is 8), so is considered to have cowered. He must make a depletion check for his artillery. He rolls a 9, which depletes the artillery (he no longer has use of that strength value).

Porter and Burnside roll 5 and 6 respectively, so continue the attack.

The Union response

Porter and Burnside get to make their combat rolls. Wilcox is out of the combat.

Porter has a strength of 9 (10 minus 1 for attacking a hill). He rolls an 8, which is a hit. He makes a hit placement roll of 8, which puts it on Jackson.

Burnside has a strength of 9 (10 minus 1 for attacking a hill). He rolls a 6, so he hits also. His hit placement roll is 3, so Jackson gains another hit.

The Confederate player must make Morale Checks, since at least 1 defender took a hit.

Evans rolls a 9, and since his morale is 9, he passes.

Jackson rolls 7 + 2 (for the 2 hits he took) = 9. His morale is 9, so he passes.

The End result

If Evans and Jackson had cowered (or routed due to taking too many hits to their resilience), the Union would've captured Henry Hill.

Each side totals up the damage points each inflicted on one another.

The Union player score is 2 (for the 2 hits).

The Confederate player score is 2 (1 for the hit, 1 for making a brigade cower).

Since the attacker has at least as many damage points as the defender, there is a chance to gain the advantage in that battle-zone. If the defender has more damage points than the attacker, and the attacker has the advantage in that zone, they have a chance to lose that advantage (e.g. it would go back to neutral).

Even though the a player does not capture the terrain map, if the game goes down to a Standard Victory Check, the advantage player would get the die roll modifier benefit of that terrain they had ocuppied it.

If a side gains 2 advantages in a battle-zone, he captures that terrain card (as if he had removed all enemy units from that Front zone) unless.:

1. It is on the enemy baseline
2. The terrain is obstacle terrain (note that Jackson, as noted on his card, counts as obstacle terrain as long as he is still in the battle-zone at the end of the combat).

Both sides roll 2d6 and add their damage points. The Confederate total is 8, while the Union player total is 9. The Union player gains the advantage in that zone. If he can gain another advantage in a future turn (and Jackson is not present), he captures that terrain card and is 1 step closer to the Confederate baseline.

The end result is a slight Union edge in that battle-zone at the cost of Wilcox taking damage and being able do nothing until he rallies, and will be without his artillery strength for the remainder of the game. Jackson has taken a lot of damage, (having only 3 resilience left), but he has held Henry Hill.

I hope this has been enlightening on how combat is performed in DSROHG. There are a lot of permutations that can occurr, depending on the action and unit cards available to each side. Each battle can be very different, which allows for great replayability and the "If I only had done THAT I'd have won the game" feeling to it.

First Look: Antietam Terrain Cards

2011-07-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've completed my 1st pass of the Antietam terrain cards for DSROHG.

I've settled on 4 battlezones of 4 maps each for the historical scenario. There is some overlap amongst the full maps (the cards are only about 1/3 of the map terrain for miniature purposes), so it took a little longer than I wanted to get them done.

I used the Cope Maps for my main source.

Click to enlarge

First Look: Antietam Army of Northern Virginia

2011-07-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the Army of Northern Virginia for my DSROHG card game:

Click to enlarge

It has to be somewhat disconcerting for the Confederate player that some of his regiments (and their brigades) are so weak...

I've got some special rules to handle the reserve artillery (the cards under Lee).

First Look: Antietam Army of the Potomac

2011-07-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here is the working Army of Potomac for my DSROHG card system:

Click to enlarge

I'm still settling on the battle-zones and board size.

Next up: The Army of Northern Virginia.

Shiloh and setup

2011-07-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

The Shiloh supplement has been posted to my yahoo group for download.
Here is the current DSROHG Shiloh setup (corrected over earlier image):

Click to enlarge

It takes a bit more space than Bull Run, despite only having 4 battle-zones.

For this supplement, I've removed most of the Union batteries from the cards to counter form (leaving the heavy guns for support only) to allow the player to allocate them as he desires. It allows him to "bunch" guns for support or spread them out amongst his brigades.

There are 22 battle maps in 4 battle-zones. Zones A (left) and D (right) are 5 maps each, while Zones B and C are 6 maps each. The terrain cards are small parts (about 1/3) of the terrain maps for miniatures, of course.

It has its own action cards, but still needs the markers, rules and turn chart from the original set.

Not shown are all the Union cards not on the table (Lew Wallace, Buell's Army of Ohio and of course, the gunboats !).

First Look: Union army at Shiloh

2011-06-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the 1st run of the cards for the Union Shiloh forces (Grant's Army of the Tennessee and Buell's Army of Ohio).

Army of Tennessee (Click to Enlarge)

Army of Ohio (Click to Enlarge)

I've got to come up with some graphics for the gunboats Tyler and Lextington, but in game terms they work like supporting artillery (in the appropriate battle-zones of course :D).

First Look: DSROHG Shiloh Confederate Unit Cards

2011-06-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've tentatively gotten the Confederate Shiloh cards completed.

Click To enlarge

There are some rules that will have to be tested (detachments such as the cavalry and artillery) like some special rules to handle the wierd Confederate command structure.

Next up: The Union cards.

Play example of DSROHG Bull Run

2011-06-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a play example for the historical scenario for my DSR On Hallowed Ground Bull Run (rules version 6-16-2011) :

I'll detail how one of the attacks is resolved as well in this example.

It uses the basic DSROHG rules with a few modifiers to them, mostly to account for the CSA command structure. In addition, all artillery and cavalry on both sides are attached to the brigades.

Click on the picture to get a bigger image.

Setup

Initial Union setup is with Hunter at Sudley Ford, Heintzleman in reserve and Tyler spread between Ball Ford and the Stone Bridge. All brigades except for Sherman are in their Division's Active zones. Sherman is in the Front zone of the adjacent battle-zone B (Spindle Farm for his side of the board).

Initial Confederate setup is with Evans at the Stone Bridge and Cocke at Ball's Ford. All Confederate units are individual brigades, nominally commanded by their army leader.

The big difference between the Union structure and the Confederate structures is the fact that the CSA has a harder time keeping brigades in a battle-zone. When they cower or panic, they will be moved behind their army leader which is in the Reserve, taking more effort to get them back to the battle-zones again.

Both players need to keep in mind that Zone D (Blackburn's Ford, along with reinforcements for both sides) will not show up until sometime at midday, which is the battle-turn (as opposed to player turns described below) after the current one. A battle-turn elapses when a deck of action cards has been run through.

Both sides draw 4 cards and discard unuseable ones (e.g. the CS move (1) cards held by the US).

Turn 1 (US)

Turn 1:
The US player draws a US Move(1) card. He decides to attack Mathew's Hill with Hunter's brigades by playing a Move and a Supply card (both are required to initiate an attack). The CS player decides to block the move by reacting with Evans (in the Stone Bridge area of zone B) to Mathew's Hill (in zone A) by playing a supply card.

The CSA can at most perform 1 adjacent blocking move per turn, and the unit performing that move must have at least a nominal cavalry contingent available to do so.

Evans slides over and battle is fought. Since the terrain is a Hill, the attacker is modified down and the defender modified up.

Evans takes a hit and cowers. He is moved behind his Army leader (Beauregard) to indicate that he cowered. If he had panicked, he would be tilted 90 degrees to indicate this (Panic is harder to come back from that Cowering).

In addition, since he cowered, he has to check to see if he lost his cavalry contingent (depletion) while falling back. He fails the depletion roll, so he can no longer perform a blocking move to an adjacent battle-zone and suffers another -1 to his combat strength (for a total of -2 taking into consideration the other hit he took).

Porter took a hit and cowers (so is placed behind his Division leader). Burnside doesn't take a hit, but fails his morale check so badly that he Panicks anyways ! In addition, he loses his artillery contigent, weakening him for the rest of the game.

If any unit card had routed for either side, their parent would have to take an Integrity Check, which could force that whole unit to rout. In addition, if a division has no units in its Front or Active zones and the enemy does, it has to take an integrity check (which may rout that division).

Since the US player did not leave any units in the Front zone of that battle-zone (they all cowered or panicked), control does not change even though the CS player has no one there. Both players dodge a bullet.

With the last movement card in his hand, the US player decides to move Heintzelman up from the Reserve to Spindle Farm, opposite the Stone Bridge.

Turn 2 (CS)

Turn 2:
The CS player draws a CSA Move card, which he needs badly so he can rush the troops currently in his reserve to the fronts of Zones A and B.

Bartow moves to the Stone Bridge and Bee moves to Mathew's Hill. They brace for the expected attacks soon to come. Although, since the US player has burned all his cards, he is a few turns from having the opportunity to do so.

Turn 3 (US)

Turn 3:
The US player draws a Supply card. He decides to rally all the Hunter's troops by playing a movement card (if he had played a supply card, he could only attempt to rally one unit card). Porter automatically moves to his division's Active zone, while Burnside must pass a rally check. Poor old Burnside fails, but at least does not rout, so he is now in the parent's Cower zone.

Turn 4 (CS)

Turn 4:
The CS player draws a supply card, so he decides to rally Evans, which is moved to his parent's Active zone. Since he is in the Reserve, it will take a movement card to get him back into a battle-zone.

Turn 5-6-7 (US-CS-US)

Turn 5:
The US player draws a US Move(1) card. He decides to hold it to build up for the next attack. No activity occurs.

Turn 6:
The CS player draws a US Move(1) card and must discard it.

Turn 7:
The US player draws a Supply card so decides to attack the Stone Bridge using Heintzleman. This costs a movement and supply card. If he had another supply card, he could have included Sherman in the attack, or if he'd had another movement card (or a Move(2) card instead of just a Move(1) card) he could've ordered Sherman and one other of Tyler's brigades into the attack (there is a limit to 1 move between adjacent battle-zones allowed per turn.) As it is, he can only include Hentzleman's brigades.

The CS player has no ability to react from Zone C (Zone A cannot react because that brigade has no cavalry contingent) because he has no cards to use.

The battle is fought. Since the terrain had been a ford, Ford, all attackers have to pass a task check (TC) to be able to fight fully. Those that fail can only use their artillery component. Franklin fails while Howard passes. Howard attacks at full strength (he is only infantry) while Franklin can only attack with his artillery.

Bartow defends 1st with all his components and rolls a twenty sided die. He needs to roll less than or equal to his combat strength (7) rolls a 7. This is enough to inflict one hit which is randomly distributed amongst all those attacking. Howard takes the hit.

Since the attackers took at least 1 hit, all must take Morale Checks. A Morale Check (MC) is a 2 six sided dice roll added together. A roll of less than or equal to its morale and it is OK. If the roll is greater than its morale, but less than its Panic number, it cowers. Otherwise it Panics. If "boxcars" is rolled, the unit routs.

Howard goes 1st with a +1 modifier due to the hit inflicted this turn. He rolls a 7, which is modified to an 8, so passes.

Franklin did not take a hit, but still must pass an MC. He rolls a 5 and passes easily.

Sherman does not have to check, since he did not participate in the attack. He would have to check, however, if any of the attackers panicked or routed.

The attackers now get to roll against the defender. Howard rolls a 10, failing miserably. Franklin rolls. If he had passed his TC, his combat strength would have been 8 (6 infantry plus 2 artillery as indicated on his card) but instead it is only a 2. He rolls a 2, inflicting one hit on Bartow.

Bartow has to take an MC, which he rolls an 8, modified to a 9 (because of the hit he took this turn). He cowers and is placed behind his parent commander (Johnston, in the reserve).

The US player has captured the Stone Bridge and appears to have a clean shot at Henry House hill ! He is only 3 battle-zones from winning the battle (the 1st side to get to their opponent's baseline automatically wins, or he can win by causing the enemy army leaders to rout by failing integrity rolls of their own).

The control marker is changed to indicate control of the Stone Bridge, and the Henry House hill terrain card (B5) is played on the Confederate side. However, there is no one there to defend it at the moment.

Turn 6 (CS)

Turn 6: The CS player draws Jackson as a reinforcement. Usually a reinforcement card must be placed in the Reserve (so it would take at least 2 turns to get into a battle-zone), but since he is Stonewall Jackson and this is the historical scenario, he can deploy directly into a battle-zone by special rule.

The CS player deploys Jackson into battle-zone B (Henry Hill).

Since both sides lack the cards, the next few turns will be a time to hopefully stock up for the next series of actions, depending on the cards drawn. Can the Union player muster and win enough attacks to beat the Confederates before the Confederate reserves (they start coming in starting with battle-turn 2) start making an impact ? Or does Jackson again stand like a stone wall ?

Miniature maps for DSROHG Bull Run

2011-06-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

Work progresses on my DSR OHG card game.

I've completed the 1st in a series of maps for the battle-zone cards for my DSR OHG Bull Run supplement.

The Terrain Map card for Centerville (A1)

The card shows the center (setup area) for the owner of that piece of terrain, while the whole map is shown below:

The full map (click to enlarge)

I intend to eventually create these large maps in 3" hexes (its a sheet about 40" x 60" in size) in the same style as my geomorphic squares

http://dsrgames.blogspot.com/2011/04/partially-geomorphic-squares-with.html

For Bull Run, I need 28 distinct maps to fight the battle. Now that I've got a system in place to make these maps (icons, style etc) I hope I can complete them all by the 150th Anniversary of the battle next month :D

I've posted the latest Rules and latest Bull Run Supplement to the Yahoo group.

I've got the OBs worked worked up for my Shiloh supplement as well.

Updated Cards for DSROHG

2011-05-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

Developement continues apace on my Civil War card game. A few changes in components were needed to allow for historical battles to be created, so here is the latest On Hallowed Ground unit and terrain card design:

Click to Enlarge

I've worked on a 1st Bull Run supplement for the system (16 Terrain cards, 35 Unit cards) and have the historical scenario roughed out. It uses all the rules from the Basic system with only a few changes to handle the battle (victory conditions and some issues handling the Confederate brigade structure (as opposed to the normal Corps/Division structure).

I'm still seeking playtesters to develop the basic system further. To participate, join my Yahoo Group (click link on the right side of the page), download the PDFs, and give it a try.

I'll try to post a few turns from a beta historical DSROHG Bull Run game in the near future. I hope to have the supplement uploaded soon for playtesting as well.

A call to arms and a quick few turns of DSR On Hallowed Ground game....

2011-05-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

I am currently looking for playtesters to help work on my Civil War card game On Hallowed Ground. For those interested, please join my yahoo group

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSROHG_ACW/

where the (basic) rules and other stuff needed to get started can be found .

Here is a few sample turns from a standard game. Not all rules are touched on, but most of the basics are covered. (Click on the pictures for a large version).

Setup

The intial setup is 3 battlezones (with at most 2 more coming into play during the 1st deck) with each side receiving a Corps of 2 Divisions each (CSA divisions have 5 Brigades per division, USA divisions have 4 brigades per division). In the deck, the US has 3 more divisions, while the CSA has 2 more divisions.

Both sides receive 4 cards each at a start, and the game begins on the Daybreak battle-turn (each run through the action card deck is a battle-turn) until sometime after the Eveningl turn (determined by am End of Game card added at that time). The objective is to rout the enemy Corps (by control of territory/routing subordinate Divisions).

Both sides roll 2d6 to determine who goes 1st.

Turn 1 (US)

Turn 1: The Union wins the roll, so draws a card. It turns out to be a supply card. He decides to move his two Divisions in his reserve into Missionary Ridge and Bryce's Crossroads, so expends a movement card for each and takes initial control of both battle-zones. Play passes to the Confederates.

Turn 2 (CS)

Turn 2: The Confederates draw a supply card, so limited in what he can do, decides to move Ewell's Division up to the Trostle Farm (the middle zone) to take intial possesion of it.

Turn 3 (US)

Turn 3: The Union player draws a movement card and decides to increase his control in the direction of Bryce's Crossroads, so advances his whole Division with a movement card and a supply card, which enables them to move as a unit and have the Divisional artillery for support.

The Confederate player decides to attempt to block him, but since movement between adjacent battle-zones is more limited than within the same zone, can only move one brigade to block. He chooses the unit with the strongest resilience (Rowe with 5) and plays a supply card to enable him to do so. To help them, he adds another supply card so he can support Rowe with his divisional artillery in defending the upcoming attack as well.

The Union player plays another supply card, allowing him to include his Corps artillery in the attack.

The attack is resolved, both sides taking a few hits (Brigades can only take so many hits before being destroyed, and units that take hits must check morale to stand). Rowe's brigade is forced to fall back (and is placed behind in his Division's Rally zone), allowing the blooded 1st Division to increase its control to Union +1. Rowe is not destroyed or routed, but must be rallied before it can do anything else.

The Union player ends his turn.

Turn 4 (CS)

Turn 4: The Confederate player draws a movement card and decides to get some defense for Bryce's crossroads, moving up Hill's Division. In addition, he spends a supply card to rally Rowe, who is returned back to Ewell's Division.

Turn 5 (US)

Turn 5: The Union player draws a Confederate movement card, so has to discard it. He decides to put up a defender from his 2nd Division into the Trostle Farm zone, for when the Confederates decide to advance their control there.

Turn 6-7: The Confederates draw a supply card and does nothing. The Union draws a supply card. No actions take place in either turn.

Turn 8 (CS)

Turn 8: The Confederate draws a movement card, so decides to press the issue at the Trostle Farm. The Union player decides to contest the advance with the Brigade there (this is optional- he can choose to not contest the advance) as well as playing a supply card to add another Brigade to the defense.

The Confederates add in their Corps artillery by playing their last supply card in their hand, and the battle is resolved. The result is that the defense holds, albeit at the withdrawing of a brigade from the defenders. The attackers suffer 2 withdrawals. The control marker stays at +0 (Confederate).

Turn 9 (US)

Turn 9: The Union player draws a terrain card, which he must play adjacent to either the left or right of the zones already in play. He chooses to lay it adjacent to Bryce's Crossroads, expanding the battlefield.

Both sides continue to pull cards and perform actions, until the Action Deck is empty. Then the battle-turn is advanced one (from daybreak to morning) and the deck re-shuffled.

I hope this whets your appetite for trying the real thing !

Things take a very different turn.....

2011-05-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

I could not keep my sanity in upkeep for the simple Civil War campaign, but the time put into it was not lost !

While overcoming a bad bout of flu, I came up with an idea in my fevered mind for a method to fight large battles with a limited amount of troops without having to scale the forces down beyond that which my miniature rules use. The idea is simple: to break down a major battle (say, Bull Run) into many smaller battles that could be fought on the table size with the amount of figures I had available.

I've developed a set of rules that uses cards to allow the maneuver of Corps (and their component Divisions) against an enemy Corps, generating battles with the components of the Divisions (e.g. Brigades) over a "rolling" map of the battlefield. It generates battles of various sizes between the two sides (usually like 4-15 regiments per side, ranging from 2-4 brigades each) over terrain the players choose to fight over.

Cards are either terrain cards, command cards, or unit cards. Command cards are needed to perform actions with units. Supply cards are useful for a number of things, from increasing support of an attack or defense, rallying routed brigades or shuffling individual brigades around. Unit cards are the forces the players work with. Terrain cards are the boards (which in total make up the whole battlefield) that can be laid down to expand the initial battlefield to the left and right of the current battlefield.

A side will never have enough commands to do everything they want to do, so they will have to prioritize their goals.

Its still a work in progress, but from the feedback I've recieved from my playtesters, it show promise as a game itself, not just as an relatively easy way for me to generate linked miniature battles (mini-campaign).

Here is a sample of the generic Unit Card design (using Union units).

Click to enlarge (ver 1.0)

A simple American Civil War Campaign, Part 1

2011-05-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

Using my new Geomorphic Squares, I've decided to do a refereed (with me being referee, of course) generic Civil War campaign.

The situation is set is circa 1862 or so (around the time of McClellan's Peninsular Campaign and the Seven Days Battles). The situation is somewhat similiar.

The Union is a little strung out and awaiting while "Little Mac" screams out to Washington that he needs more troops. The Confederates, sensing that they have a chance to bleed Union, seek to do so.

The map is an area Southeast below Centerville, in the wooded, somewhat rough area.

The Initial Map

The Union controls 4 of the six objectives, while Confederates control 2. The winner will be the side that controls the most objectives.

For the campaign rules, I am refereeing it by having the players move their forces on the map above, based on limited intelligence (some false, some true). I put the two plots together and calculate where and how the battles will be fought. They issue the orders and I determine how well they are carried out. This allows me (the referee) to spice things up a bit (like a stack of regiments without a named brigade leader taking the wrong turn on the road toward their objective).

For the battle rules, I am using a set I wrote that is regimental in scale (DSR ACW) and am playtesting. They emphasize the need to keep units supported and Brigade integrity.

Since I am limited with the forces I can put on the table (15 regiments or so a side), I scaled everything down to be small brigade size. The players are not fixed in their brigades, but have infantry regiments, artillery batteries and brigade leaders. They order the stacks around on the board above.

To help maintain my sanity, all regiments are 400 men at the start (it works out to 16 figures/ regiment) and all batteries are 4 gun types. Morale for the regiments and Brigade integrity are the same across the board for both sides. Any force on the field has an integral "Brigade Leader" for integrity purposes. A named Brigade leader is better than the unnamed, but each side only has a few of these at the start of the game (Confederates 4, Union 2). Both sides should receive reinforcements in the game.

Next up: Intial moves and Battles.

Partially Geomorphic Squares (with hexgrid)

2011-04-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

My 3" hexgrid terrain needed some work. In the past, I've used overlays for things like roads, streams, fields and hills in the past, but these can get fiddly, especially when you have roads AND fields AND hills AND streams on the same table. So I've created partial geomorphic squares for the basic underlying roads and streams.

The Squares (reduced to 5% so I can uploaded them for viewing)

Why squares ? Because they are easier for me to calculate and print on my plotter. They also allow for me to easily "add" tiles to any table edge (provided I have the space to do so, of course) if the battle goes beyond the edge (no more "Edge of the World" effect).
Why Partial geomorphs ? Because full geomorphs would require bigger tiles to give a good look to them. I'm limited with the available table size I can game on as well as my printing width. These squares at full size are about 22" by 22". These tiles can be placed either above or below or to either side, but cannot be turned 180 degrees.

You still have to match up the roads and streams, but overall they seem to look and work pretty well. A compromise, to be sure, but one I was willing to make for maximum utility versus printing ability.

Special tiles can be made that are 2x (or more) wide or high (as the 3 lower tiles demonstrate). These will allow the creation of more varied terrain that the smaller tiles will not.

The hexes each have a label ID, just as the board has an ID. So hidden stuff can be noted down (e.g. B1-0101 would be hex 0101 of tile B1).

Here is an example of the B1 tile at 25%. I've not trimmed the hexgrid "gutter" off for this example:

Click to Enlarge to 25% of full size

The basic set is 16 tiles. (A1-3, B1 through B13). That comes to about an 8 x 8' board of terrain or so. Since they are done in the same style as my overlays, I can still use overlays to enhance the basic tiles even more (such as railroads, hills and fields). Of course model trees, walls, and buildings are added after the basic terrain has been laid down.

Now I'm off to work on using these for a simple Civil War campaign. Stay tuned.....

Some help needed

2011-04-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Anyone out there know a publisher who would be interested in a wargame book ? I've gathered enough material together to write a book on miniature wargaming with hexgrids. I figure I'd title it "Miniature Wargaming with Hexgrids" (pretty original, huh ?).

If anyone can help (or knows anyone who can help), please email me at DSRGames

Rampage on the Rhine- Week 3

2011-04-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

Week 3 promises to be the decisive week of the campaign, as both sides have mustered all the forces at their disposal for a battle Royale (the Chuacii haven't been mobilized yet and even if they did, they probably would not factor in until near the end of the week at best).

Week IIIa

The Romans enter Chasuarii territory and march on the lone village with evil intent. The Germans won't stand for this...

Week IIIb

As expected, the Germans challenge the Romans with their combined force and a large battle occurs.

Again, German ardor, although remarkable, does not carry the day, and the Romans win a victory, although at a cost of 3 Cohorts and 1 Light Auxillia Infantry units. The Germans suffer losses of 16 warband, 3 Skirmisher, and 1 Heavy Cavalry unit.

Week IIIc

With the Germans a spent force, the Romans decide to tie up a few lose ends. After ending the Chasuarii by burning their village, they decide to head finally finish the Tencterii.

Week IIId

The Chaucii, feeling that discretion is the better part of valor, have decided not to join the German cause and have stayed neutral (they failed their activation roll). The desperate German army can only shadow the Romans and try to bring them to battle once again. The Romans slip away, onto the last Tencterii village. For all practical purposes, the campaign comes to a close 1 week early (week IV was upcoming).

Final Tally of VPs:
Romans: 7 + 2 = 9 (if played to Turn IVa, it would be 2 more for the Tencterii so actualy 11).
Germans: 5 + 3 = 8

The Romans win a marginal victory by points (they needed 4 or more to win a decisive victory). The Germans have been punished, but not thoroughly chastised enough to not rise again.

All in all, a fun campaign, with a decent amount of large-ish battles to keep things interesting (which I fought out with my own ancient army miniature rules). The campaign rules are simple enough to run without a referee (although hidden and false markers are needed).

On to pastures anew !

Rampage on the Rhine- Week 2

2011-04-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

Week II dawns with clear weather. Time for the Romans to march onward !

The Romans, despite taking some losses, have defeated 2 tribes (the Usipattii and the Bructerii) and reduced the remaining Germans (Tencterii). Time to push on !

Week IIa

The weak German army (A) manages to reaction move away from the approaching Romans, but instead of pursuing the weakened enemy, the Romans launch into the Ampisivarii territory to take them out !

Week IIb

The German army, too weak to dispute the Ampisivarii village, fall back to defend the river line in the Chausuarii territory, hoping for some tribal mobilization to bring them up to strength so they can oppose the invaders when they inevitably come to deal with the Chasuarii.

Week IIc

The Ampisivarii are suppressed before they can mobilize, and the Romans move on to deal with the Chasuarii and Tencterii (which still have a village unrazed).

Week IId

German outrage finally results in the mobilizing of the Angrivarii (appropriately named). The Germans scramble to form a united front against the Roman Legion if it tries to burn the lone Chasuarii village.
No major battles this week as the 2 sides maneuver into position for next week, where the major battle(s) that decide the campaign will probably take place.

Week 2 VP Totals:
Roman: 3 + 4 = 7 VPs
German: 5 + 0 = 5 VPs.

Rampage on the Rhine- Week 1

2011-03-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

Week 1 begins with good weather.

The 2 Roman Legions march towards the closest German villages.

Week Ia

The Usipatti stand and defend their village (they failed any reaction move roll, but would probably have stood their ground anyhow), and are defeated in a battle. Against a full legion, they had little chance. However, they did manage to inflict a 1 Cohort loss on that Legion.

Week Ib

The Germans manage to mobilize the Bructerii and consolidate their forces into more dangerous mobs. The newly arrived Bructerii accept the remanants of the Usipatti in defense of their village. The Tencterii stand by, waiting to either reinforce the Bructerii or attack an isolated Legion.

Week Ic

The Romans continue onward, burning the Usipatti village (gaining VP for the village and destruction of the tribe) and one of the Tencterii villages. The 2 Legions meet in the Bructerii village, and a large battle ensues.
The Germans fight hard, but still lose in the end (always a common theme in this scenario). However, they manage to destroy 2 Cohorts for 2 VP.

Week Id

The Germans regroup and mass all available forces to attack the Legions in the Bructerii village area before they can burn the village to the ground (razing villages occurs at the start of the Roman turn, and its the German turn). The Romans see that this is an opportunity to reduce the German presence in the area, so they stand to and let the Germans come to them (e.g. they chose to not try any reaction moves).

The battle is large (13 Cohorts, 6 Light Auxillia, 2 Heavy Cavalry versus 28 Warbands, 9 Skirmishers, and 5 Heavy Cavalry). The Germans (being the attackers) have no choice but to attack the Romans. The German Cavalry on the wings causes some consternation, but German valor and anger does not prevail over Roman Discipline and Training.

A disappointing battle from the German perspective, considering the massive casualties (16 warbands, 7 Skirmisher and 4 Heavy Cavalry losses versus 2 Cohorts and 2 Light Auxilia Infantry). The Bructerii are doomed next turn (which is Roman turn IIa).

Victory Totals for the week:
Romans: 3 (with 2 more coming next turn after the Bructerii village is burned)
Germans: 5

Rampage on the Rhine.

2011-03-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

I've re-started a Roman mini-campaign of Rampage on the Rhine. This uses my DSR Ancients rules (units sizes are 1 Cohort, 1 Warband, 1 Heavy Cav, etc) for field battles. Maneuver to battle occurs on the campaign map.

The Situation at Start

The Germans have become frisky and have started raiding into Roman territory again. To punish them, the Romans have assembled 2 Legions with auxillary support and have 1 month (8 bi-weekly turns) to destroy as many villages and enemy tribes as possible without losing too much themselves in the process.

There are seven tribes that have to be conquered. At start, the only 2 tribes mobilized are the Usipatti and Tencterii. Each turn the German player can attempt to mobilize 1 tribe. Its a race to mobilize enough forces to impede the Romans before they burn the villages (and therefore neutralize that tribe).

At Start:
Romans: 2 Legions, each consisting of 8 Cohorts each, 3 Auxillia Light units, and 1 Auxillia Heavy Cavalry unit.
Germans: The mobilized tribes of the Tencterii and the Usipatti (randomly determined, but roughly 8-10 Warbands, 3-5 Skirmish Infantry and 1-2 Heavy Cavalry per village).

The Germans will eventually have more troops, but it will take time to get them all together. The Roman has the advantage of concentration (and of course the fact they are Roman !). The German player has to play for time and inflict as many casualties on the Roman Cohorts/Heavy Cavalry as possible while preventing the destruction of their villages/tribes.

VPs are awarded as follows:
Romans:
+1 per village destroyed.
+1 per tribe destroyed (e.g. all their villages destroyed).

Germans:
+1 per Cohort/Heavy Cavalry unit destroyed.
+1 if they win a field battle.

At the end of the game, compare the VPs to each other.
The side that scores > 6 more than the other side is the decisive winner.
The side that scores > 3 more than the other side is the marginal winner.
Any other result is a draw (and the border wars will continue), but bragging rights go the the higher VP total.

In my experience, the Romans win almost all the field battles but have a hard time garnering enough points for a decisive win as they steadily lose more units to the seemingly inexhaustable Germans. Its good for generating several battles of decent size.

I'll keep you posted on the results from the campaign.

Thoughts on spicing up the pre-battle (setup) sequence for medieval/ancient games

2011-01-31T11:52:00.000-08:00

We've all done it many times before (especially in Ancients/Medievals)- both sides setup their army on their side of the board (usually the longest side) and have at it with one another over the course of the battle in a meeting engagement. But, other than specialist scenarios (like an ambush), this is the commonest way to setup a battlefield.

But what if there were pre-battle turns that could influence the setup process or modify some of the command rules (assuming you do use some sort of command and control rules) ? As an extra bonus, this could be a good way to vary campaign battles between 2 armies.

I've used a number of systems to create "friction" in command and control, so maybe it is time to for me to use a system whereby setup "friction" can be modeled after. All of the ideas here are not original, I'm sure, but sometimes the best ideas are almost univeral. So if I am just re-inventing the wheel (or seem to be plagarizing) I am sorry.

I've decided to call the system Pre-Battle Stress. Without getting into the specifics of how it influences my minaiture rules (a home-brew set called "DSR Mass Battle"), I'll try to keep the descriptions as general as possible so you can apply it to your own ruleset.

In general, each army has a pool of 6 Army Initiative Cards. They consist of various amounts of Observe(O), Advance (A), Defend (D), and Flank (F) cards. Each side also has a Re-Organize (R) card.

A Byzantine army, for example might consist of 2 Observe, 1 Advance, 1 Defend and 1 Flank Card. A Seljuk Turkish army might consist of 2 Observe, 1 Advance, 0 Defend and 3 Flank Cards.

At the start of the campaign turn (or turn where 2 armies are fighting for an area) they each secretly pick one card and reveal it. Based on what they have chosen, the result may be no battle, one side with a setup advantage, command advantage, terrain advantage or some combination of these three.

If after 3 "No Battle" results, the campaign turn ends as both sides have successfully growled at each other but never came to blows. This may allow a side that was awaiting reinforcement to be able to recieve them.

Once a card is played, it cannot be used again. A Reorganize(R) card returns all the cards to a player's hand after the current battle (if any) is fought. This can result in something VERY bad if the other side elects to do something other than Reorganize (R) or Observe (O).. Or, in other words the more cards that are played without an (R), the less flexibility a side has.

Here's the chart that applies to my rules and includes all the armies I have:

The Chart (click to enlarge)

The end result is create some interesting "at start" and setup conditions outside the normal. It also works well to vary up quick area campaign games (Armies fight over an area or zone, and if the winner gains that zone).

Of course, you will have to modify the results based on the ruleset you use. I'm thinking of expanding upon this more to include even more options.

As always, let me know what you think !

My new way of After Action Reporting

2011-01-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

I'm trying an experiment in AAR (After Action Reporting) for my Ancients. I've come up with a different way of doing it with a simple Visio template and some elbow grease.

The Scenario is a Byzantine vs Seljuk rading force that has been brought to bay, using my DSR Mass Battle rules.

The Byzantines:
1 x Cataphract Cavalry (12 cavalry)
2 x Kaveleroi (24 cavalry)
2 x Spear Infantry (32 infantry)
4 x Skirmish Javelin (32 infantry in 8 subunits)

Seljuk Turks:
3 x Cavalry (36 cavalry)
2 x Sword Infantry (24 infantry)
2 x Spear Infantry (24 infantry)
3 x Skirmish Cavalry (24 figs in 6 subunits)

The Seljuk loot is just off the board to the North (top) of the map and is the reason they just can't run away.

Of course, each side has an army leader that is attached to a unit of that side's choice for the battle (indicated on the map by the name followed by an asterix).

Initial Dispositions

The Byzantine plan is to base its infantry on woods H6 and try to use missile fire to discomfit the Seljuk infantry (they are weaker than the Byzantine in armor and in numbers per unit). The cavalry is to stay alert for opportunities to counter the Seljuk Cavalry. The leader is present with the Cataphracts.

The Seljuk plan is try to overwhelm the Byzantine Left by taking 2 cavalry units around woods H6. The Cataphracts are better cavalry, and the Kaveleroi are equivalent to the Seljuk cavalry. The leader is positioned with the 3rd cavalry unit able to intervene on either flank as needed.

Both sides sent forth their skirmishers to little effect as the Seljuks swung around woods H6 and positioned themselves to start raining arrows down upon the cataphracts (who would reply in kind). The Byzantines managed to anchor their line on the woods, and the Seljuk infantry slogged forward.

The first clash

By turn 3, both sides came together. The Cataphracts shrug off the arrow storm (as expected) but do little damage to the Seljuks. The skirmisher screens set to on each other, neither side gaining the upper hand.

The Byzantines bend

The Seljuks close with the Cataphracts and he is forced to bring over one of the Kaveleroi for support. The plan is now to defeat the Seljuk cavalry flank attack as quick as possible. The Byzantine right flank is moved back. Meanwhile, the infantry comes into contact with each other, with the lighter Seljuks coming off the worse, but passing their morale checks with flying colors.

The Seljuk flank attack defeated

By turn 6, the Seljuk cavalry flank attack has been repulsed (albeit at a higher cost to the Cataphracts and Kaverleroi than desired) and they have to clean up the last Seljuk cavalry unit there before swinging back to the sagging Byzantine right flank. The Byzantine Spears are holding their own, but taking losses nonetheless as they are forced slowly back. The cavalry on the right flank holds back as the skirmishers go to work on each other.

End game approaching

The Seljuk cavalry on the flank and the Kaveleroi manage to run each other off, leaving the reduced Cataphracts to hurry off to help the Byzantine flank. And just in time, as the Seljuk cavalry (with the leader) have pressed the Kaveleroi on that flank and routed them. At this moment, fate intervenes, and a stray arrow catches the Byantine leader (with the Cataphracts) through his facemask, killing him. The Cataphracts scatter, taking with them the hard-pressed Kaveleroi. With this, the Byzantines reach their Army break point and lose.

All in all, it was an interesting game that came down to near the end (the Seljuks rolled well on their morale checks while the Byzantines rolled average otherwise the Byzantines should have won). The skirmisher screens were a wash until the end, when the Seljuks got lucky killing the Byzantine leader.

If there was one thing the Seljuks should've done was to put their leader with the flanking movement (he increases melee and morale checks). Byzantine Cataphracts can be a beast to bring down. Getting into a shooting match with them should've been a losing propostion, but was neccesary to allow the infantry time to close with the Byzantines.

It took almost as long to create this post as it was to play the game (a little over an hour), as the upload time on blogger was very slow. I like reading AARs myself, and the clearer they are, the better.

Let me know what you think of the style !

Counters for the dead

2011-01-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

Back

Front

When I was a kid, when I'd wargame, I'd knock the (plastic) figures down to indicate it had become a casualty. Of course, knocking down 15mm painted metal figures (on bases no less) is not an option, and I always felt something was missing from my skirmish battles.

The thing that was missing was body markers.

I mount all my figures on individual metal bases, so I can group them on larger magnet movement trays as needed for whatever rule-set I want to use. This also allows me to remove figures as casualties. This system is flexible enough to fit all my needs.

I used 3/4" magnet strips (magnetized on only 1 side) cut to the size of 1 figure. On the magnet side is a color (for which side the figure belongs to) and unit ID (to seperate the unit). The side color is important because a lot of figures (especially 15mm) look alot alike when all massed up and fighting one another. On the backside is a depiction of a horse or man (dead of course).

With the small movement bases the figures stand up (the metal base is pretty small- I wanted as small a footprint as possible to allow maximum flexibility on my movement trays) easily, and the figure clings to the base. When the figure dies, I remove the figure and flip the base. Voila ! Instant casualty marker.

After the battle, you can see the course of the action by the trail of casualty markers. It kind of adds a conversational centerpiece when cleaning up for the next battle !

Geomorphic Hex Maps

2010-11-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

I've been working on hex-shaped geomorphic hex maps for some of my games (from PB/PL/AIW to a larger hex size for my ancient and ww2 stuff).

Here is a sample of a wooded hill (it will fit on a 8.5" x 11" full sheet label so I can mount it on cardboard). It appears dark printed as is so I lighten up all but the grid 20% before printing. .

This is a 1.25" hex grid

The roads can be made to go at the halfway down the hex flat while streams will originate off the vertexes.

I'll post some more examples when do a few roads and streams......

[LATER POST]

Here's the same hex with a road added and the outline for the hilltop added in:

The overhanging road will be cut off after print

I'll see what I can do to add a stream to the hex....

Slow posting at the moment....

2010-11-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been a little behind on new posts of late, but I'm working on a geomorphic map system for the boardgame version of my miniature rules.....

I've also started a Roman/Barbarian "Rampage on the Rhine" campaign- we've fought through the 1st 2 battles. I'll try to post some pictures and descriptions this week.

As always Stay Tuned !

The War to End All Wars....

2010-10-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, a friend of mine came up with some fantastic 3" trench hexes and barbed wire for 15mm World War I games. I made some simple rules (2 pages of rules) and they appeared to be fun (from input from the players), as well as fast (games play usually in under an hour).

The current board and pre-set up. A typical "squad" is at the bottom of the picture.

The premise is simple- you and up to 2 other players are German night trench raiders. You are in a race to garner more points than the other players. The players are to take their squads (10 men and 2 leaders) to kill as many of the enemy (in this case it was French) and take bunkers before they reach less than 50% strength (after which they are considered to have withdrawn). In addition, each player has 6 grenades and 2 medical packs to help accomplish their task.

Why are the attackers German ? Simply because I have lots more painted French and British and only a few Germans painted up. It also let me call the rules "Stahlgewittern" (Storm of Steel)- named after the book by Ernst Jünger as it seemed appropriate.

The trench consists of MG positions (4 in front), regular trench line, and bunkers (from where large amounts of enemies may come). The lighter ? markers are potential spots where enemies can be activated (usually 1-3 riflemen). The red ? markers are bunkers (usually 9-12 figures) and MG nests (usually MG, but may be composed of 3 riflemen).

The attackers each take a set of 3 consecutive shell holes and setup in these on the other side of the wire. After setup, I roll to see if there are gaps in the wire, which can influence the paths the attackers have to take to get into the trench.

The defenders (the French) are controlled by die rolls and a simple logic tree. They are activated by being in range of the attackers or a grenade attack. Their actions range from firing at a target (it is nighttime, so the range is limited to visibility), charging down the trench, to throwing grenades.

There are events in the game that can happen. It consists of things like "starshell", which increases the visibility to the length of the board and "returning enemy patrol", which appears on a particular player's shellholes as they work themselves back to their lines.

As the game progresses, the player's troops take wounds that can be healed by medical packs. Of course, there is also the chance of instant death instead of wounding. Leaders help in getting players to charge enemies and to be able to fire at enemies charging at them as the defender will charge a lot when you are in his trench. This tends to create wild melee's that are always exciting to resolve.

As soon as a player reaches less than 50% active troops, he is out of the game. The other players keep going until they also reach 50%. After all player's have been eliminated, all points are totaled up (kills, bunkers uncovered, MGs destroyed). The highest scorer wins !

Its a fun, fast and furious game and has a small footprint to carry to a convention. Maybe someday I'll get more Germans painted up and be able to use the French or British for the raid....

Conclusion AAR to "Stalingrad Interlude"

2010-10-06T08:34:00.001-07:00

Where the Iron Crosses Grow

New AAR in Where the Iron Crosses Grow

2010-09-29T08:33:00.001-07:00

Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Some rubbled buildings....

2010-09-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

I've been re-reading Island of Fire from Leaping Horseman Books about the battle around the Red Barricades factory (they have some of the best books on the subject in the business), so I figured I needed to make some buildings (out of cardstock) so I can do some 15mm Stalingrad battles.

I've got about 1/2 of the number of buildings I need.

Not quite enough buildings yet....

I've got the templates down so that I can easily create inner-outer walls and the process down on how to print them on a single side and fold them over to create inner and outer walls easily. For mere pennies I can create rubbled buildings in any configuration I choose to (they have to fit my 3 inch hex grid).

Now I have to just make about 15-20 more......

Creating Hex Grids

2010-08-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

I've received a few emails asking how I generate my grids I use for my wargame maps, so I figured I'd show you. I use a small program I wrote in VBA (for Visio).

The parameters

I made a 1" hex shape in Visio and saved it as my base shape. It is this shape, along with the hexdot and label that is the basis for all the grids.

All I have to do is scale the hex based on what size I need (1 = 1 inch, 1.5 = 1.5 inch etc) and the math takes care of itself as it generates the grid.

I can input a page size and it will automatically calculate how many hexes will fit completely on that page at that page size.

The hexes themselves can be with or without label, hex dot, or hex outline as desired.

The grid itself can oriented normally or 90 degrees and I can make the odd (1st row) higher than the 2nd or vice versa. It also centers the whole grid on the page and automatically generates the proper layers for the shapes (layers help when adding things later, like terrain, etc and allows a quick change to all items on that layer).

All in all, it is a simple and decently fast program (although it will take awhile to make a grid of 1/2" hexes on a 40" x 40" sheet though) and allows me to create grids of any size I need, along with their labels.

New After Action Report is up

2010-08-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

I've completed the AAR for scenario 3 at Where the Iron Crosses Grow.

Enjoy !

Endgame posted in "WtICG"

2010-08-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

I've posted the endgame (anti-climatic as it was) in "Where the Iron Crosses Grow" here WtICG

Part II of Solo Scenario 2 at "Where the Iron Crosses Grow"

2010-08-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

Part 2 AAR is up.

New post in "Where the Iron Crosses Grow"

2010-08-15T08:44:00.001-07:00

I've put the 1st part the next solo scenario up in my AAR page.

Enjoy !

Computer Crash !

2010-08-11T09:11:00.001-07:00

Sorry for lack of posting (I've got another AAR for "Where the Iron Crosses Grow") but my laptop dumped on me.

I hope to get it back and running soon.....

Some Trenches...

2010-08-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

I figured that since I'm on a roll making terrain, I needed some trench parts. Presto ! Its amazing what you can get done when you put your head to it.....

Now I can make that 15mm "Bunker Busting" scenario.....

Some new terrain to use

2010-08-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

I made some railroad tracks so I can incorporate that kind of terrain into my ww2 game.

Maybe I can create an event where a train actually pulls up (as a reinforcement event :D).

I hope to get to use it soon....

A not so peaceful interlude....

2010-07-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

I've completed solo campaign scenario #2, but for a quick interlude I have jumped in the time machine to 1944 to test my rules with some later war armor. These are using my rules described in "Where Iron Cross Grow" narrative section.

I devised a simple scenario to see how some later war German and US armor plays out.

The situation is somewhere in France after the breakout from the beaches. An experienced platoon of 4 Shermans is heading down a road and is ambushed by a Tiger and a Pz IV. The Germans are suffering from scarce ammo, so there is a better than normal chance they may run out of AP rounds ! I won't detail the shot by shot basis but give the action in general.

The situation at the start.

The 1st two Shermans have just forded a shallow stream while the other 2 provide overwatch. The Germans have a hull down Pz IV on the hill and a Tiger in the woods to the top of the map.

German initial shots are good and manage to penetrate both Shermans on their side of the stream, but their penetration rolls are not so good. The Shermans are not destroyed, but immobilized and shocked (I forgot to apply the "brew up" rules to these guys and it might have made a difference- so much for being the rules writer !).

The cards favor the Americans, and they manage to recover enough to throw some Willie Pete (White Phosphorous) on the Tiger, causing him to button up and partially blinding it. They also manage to get their other Shermans across the river and heading south of the hill thanks to a generous Initiative Card pull.

The German reaction is sluggish (they didn't get much reaction time) and the US response has been top notch (The WP vs the Tiger is a great move and something with the American preponderance in that area should use a LOT). The Pz IV vacates the hill and retreats toward the Tiger, while the Tiger fails to do anything meaningful (they failed their MC to rally the shock) as it sorts itself out from the shock of being WPed with the turret open.

The Pz IV retreats while the Tiger tries to get its stuff together.

The Tiger finally gets a shot off and kills one of the immobile Shermans near the stream. The Pz IV and Shermans moving through the village trade a few shots with it as it retreats north through the town. The Pz IV (and German) luck runs out (bad initiative cards again) and its destroyed scuttling away.

Meanwhile the Tiger finally puts paid to the other Sherman immobilized near the stream, but the Shermans approaching from the now-vacated town (oh for some hidden infantry with Panzerfausts !) manage to immobilize it in return. The crew panics and abandons it. The US has won.

All in all, an enjoyable little fracas that played out in about 10 game time minutes.

I figure I'd show an example of AFV cards I use for this game (they are laminated so I can note things on them such as Armor Leader, ammo loss, armor degradation due to extra damage, etc).

As noted I forgot to apply the brew up rules for the Shermans, and it might have made a difference, but the Germans never seemed to get the cards. Unrealistic ? Maybe. Fun ? Definitely......

Finished with scenario 1

2010-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Scenario 1 of my 15mm ww2 campaign is done and written up in 3 parts over in my narratives over in the "Where the Iron Crosses Grow" blog.

Changes...

2010-07-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ive resurrected my after action report and added a (temporary) Products and Services page.

Some changes to my blog...

2010-07-25T14:02:00.001-07:00

As you can see, I've made a few changes to my blog. More are coming, so stay tuned !

Road and Stream templates

2010-07-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

I've created some more templates for my base map I posted yesterday.

First, the roads (this is a small portion at about 50% size because the bitmap is so large):

Second, I have the 1st stream templates (they follow the hex spine and spill into the adjacent hexes in my rules) at about 50% size.

Now I have to come up with some fields !

A new hex grid base map

2010-07-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

I use hexes a lot for my miniature games, as they speed the games up a lot- not having to measure things with a tapemeasure or yardstick is a definite speed increase !

As such, I've been experimenting on creating a new base map for my 3" hex games. This is a small part of the whole piece (I print it on 36" x 50" or so) that I can lay out with any other map of that type so I can get field size I want in any hex-grain direction.

I've also been working on some hills templates for these which I can cut out (I've cut this image down 25% so it wouldn't make as big a file) :

And while I was at it, I figured I'd try to see if I could make some decent tree templates as well:

I'm not sure about the tree template yet, but I will use some of the hills for my WW2 15mm ruleset. I hope to post some pictures soon, so stay tuned.

Hill 609 (Djebel Tahent) Tunisia, 1943

2010-06-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Rick Atkinson's excellent An Army At Dawn, an excellent book on Operation Torch and the campaign in Tunisia. In that vein, I figured I'd make a map for PB/PL/AIW or PG use.

I chose to use more of an AIW style for this map (as I will for any more Tunisian maps I will make) as it seemed to represent the terrain well.

Djebel Tahent (Hill 609) is bounded on the South and East sides by cliffs (hence the black lines). The streams were apparently dry or very low as I do not hear them mentioned much in the battle. They probably should be a small movement hinderance to non-foot units, but much more of a hinderance to half-tracked and wheeled vehicles.

The Germans (a composite regiment called Barenthin- composed of convalescent veterans and paratroopers- a tough unit) were set up on 609 and the surrounding hills north of the stream and northwest of Sidi Nsir.

The American 34th Division was entrusted with clearing the area. Needless to say, the battle was tough with many attacks and counter-attacks and lasted from may 27th to April 1, 1943.

This map could also be used for some generic WW2/AIW actions as well.

All in all, a fun map to make, allowing me to extend my mapping symbols to cover some new ground other than Russia.

Any suggestions and all comments as always appreciated.

Edit: North should be about 60 degrees to the west, not straight up (I've corrected this on the map but am not going to repost a new PNG).

Back from Nashcon

2010-06-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

And a good time was had by all.

As always, the Nashcon convention, although small, was well done.

Check it out http://hmgs-midsouth.org/

Next year I'll have to put on a game or two....

Off to Nashcon !

2010-05-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

Heading out on the road again to the miniature convention in Nashcon. I'll bring a set of my Stalingrad maps and my overview map along.

I hope to see you there !

Back from a break.....

2010-05-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

I've returned from a break with my family and am ready to get back to map making.....

On deck I have ability to creat a Brest-Litovsk (1941) map and environs....

Also for a Sicily 1943 (Gela area) map and some Tunisia 1942 maps...

Stay tuned.....

A Stalingrad Scenario- Spartakovka One

2010-05-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Now that I've got a Stalingrad map, I can make Panzerblitz scenarios for it.

Disclaimer: There is no balance built in to the scenario. I feel that if you are fighting a battle and its even, you are one step away from losing that battle. Also, this has not been playtested. Besides, so many folks use different versions of PB/PL/AIW that it would be pointless for me to focus on one. To that end, I will introduce the forces and let the players decide how to compose them from the units that come in PB as I would use them, and allow them to modify these so that it fits their counter set(s). Also, the Fortifications can vary depending on which rule set you use, so they can be adjusted as well.

The length of turns is an arbitrary 20 length. In actuality, the fight lasted over a period of weeks.

The dark area is out of play. Units must set up in the areas as designated in red on the map. The German 194th Artillery Regiment is off-map to the West. The Soviets have no massive off-board artillery, as they are currently being used in the life and death struggle for the factories to the South, but do have some help from the Volga flotilla.

Victory in is total if the Germans control all of town hexes. If they don't control them all, then the degree of victory will vary. Again, I leave this up to the players to decide.

Germans:

267th Infantry Regiment(3 Battalions): 24 Rifle, 75mm IG, 150IG, 37mm AT, 3x81mm Mtr, 3 Trucks

274th Infantry Regiment(2 Battalions): 12 Rifle, 75mm IG, 37mm AT, 2x81 Mtr, 2 Trucks

194th Pak Battalion: 76mm AT (Russian captured), 37mm AT, 2 Trucks

194th Pioneer Battalion: 6 Engineer

194th Artillery Regiment(offboard): 3x105mm Art, 1x150mm Art.

Elements of Kamfgruppe Krumpen(elements of 16th Panzer Division): 1xPzkw IIIJ, StuG IIIF, 2 Eng, 6 Grenediers 2 Halftracks

Elements 16th Panzer Artillery Regiment(offboard): 105mm Artillery.

Soviets:

1st /124th Infantry Brigade: 3 Rifle Co, SMG Co, 45mm AT, 82 Mtr

Elements 282nd NKVD: 3 NKVD Co, 120mm Mtr, Wagon

149th Rifle Brigade: 9 Rifle Co, 4 Smg Co, 45mm AT, 76mm IG, 120 Mtr, 76mm AT

Remnants 21st Tank Training Battalion (anywhere in 149th Brigade area): 2 T-34A (early version T-34 to represent untrained crew in latest T-34). One (players's choice is made at start and he does not have to reveal until he moves the non-immobilized one) is immobilized and dug in (MP value 0, defense +3).

Elements of 2nd /124th and 3rd /124th Rifle Brigade: 3 Rifle Co, SMG Co, 120mm Mtr, Wagon.

Fortifications (anywhere in Russian setup area): 10 Blocks, 6 minefields (randomly pulled), 6 improvied positions.

Offboard support: He has 4 uses of the Volga River Flotilla (he can use at most 1 per turn) at 122mm Artillery equivalence.

Designer's Notes: Designing this scenario was fun. Basically, I took the OBA from the battle from various sources and turned them into PB units. The fortifications choice is a bit arbitrary. There actually is an assault with the rest of KG Krumpen to the North (where the Germans attacked with Stuka support as well), but my map does not extend that far..... Maybe for a future release (Spartakovka Two ?). In addition, the battles for the tractor factory are going on to the South at the same time.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know !

Edit: I mispelled Krumpen on the Map as "Kruppen". I had it right in the text here. Many apologies ! :D

And now... Ozereyka Bay !

2010-05-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Why Ozereryka Bay ? You may ask "where the hell is THAT anyway ?"

Its just west of Novorossiysk, and the Soviets attempted an amphibious landing there in 1943. Lend lease Stuart Tanks ! Soviet Marines ! Rumanian Defenders (and some Germans for good measure). What's not to like ?

Here's the 1st pass of the map:

I had to guess a bit on the woods (there is mention of clumps of woods where the Germans/Rumanians hid some gun batteries). Otherwise, I think its correct (or as correct as a map like this can be).

I'm still working on a good cliff representation, as well as a better beach style. The full size is about 24" x 30".

And now.... for Prokhorovka !

2010-04-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Here is my Prokhorovka map- its still missing some secondary roads and needs some edge cleanup, but is otherwise close to being done for a 1st pass...

My base Stalingrad map

2010-04-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

I figured I'd also post my base map (without hexes and no corrections for a hex grid or woods or roads) This is what I will print and hang on my wall and can refer to when reading stuff on Stalingrad as my handy reference.

Also from this I can make a scaled down map to any part of Stalingrad (say 1:100 yards or even lower if desired).

Stalingrad at last !

2010-04-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished my Stalingrad map at Panzerblitz scale (1 hex = 250 yards/meters). I can make it as one large map or 3 smaller maps (South, Center, and North).

All in all, it is over 120" long when put together. It does put the fighting for the city in perspective :D

Now all I have to do is find some good scale maps with decent detail of Prokhorovka.....

Some of my Microarmor counters...

2010-04-22T11:26:00.001-07:00

Here are some of my (double sided) counters I use for my platoon-sized Microarmor rules (scale is 100 yards a hex).

This is a 3 Battalion German Regiment, with mortars but minus the Regimental Guns (infantry and AT). Of course the left half is the front, the right half the back.

Double sided counters are really easy to make, just cutting them out can be a bit of a chore, as you have to be careful. If you have access to one of a good bread-board cutter, it helps a lot. Just make sure you mirror the backside when creating the sheet (pretend you are just folding it over and see if it matches up).

I've got the system for double-sided counters down pat. Maybe I should publish a HOWTO artcle with pictures if anyone is interested.....

Some Panzer Leader Type counters...

2010-04-13T11:29:00.001-07:00

In addition to working on my Stalingrad Map, I've also worked on some historical Panzer-Leader scenarios and counters using the maps. The counters here are all double sided (the lighter side is a step loss), and have a lot of extra info that my own "house" rules use, but work just as well with the original rules if you ignore all the extra stuff.

First up is a generic 3 Battalion Regiment, along with some 279th Division troops. Included on this sheet is one (of three) light artillery Battalion and the Division's medium artillery Battalion and some sundry divisional transport (mostly wagons, but a few trucks as well).

Stalingrad Center (250) map

2010-04-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here it is, barring any last minute changes:

There's still about 1/2 more of a map size to go for South Stalingrad (including the Grain Elevator).

When you look at as one combined map, you get a very good impression of just how large a battle went on there back in Late 1942 - Early 1943.

Stalingrad at 1 hex = 250 meters

2010-04-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the almost finished central section of my Stalingrad (Panzerblitz) map.

The (non-grid, non-yellow) portion is my previous Stalingrad North map, which this one mates with. I have the flexibility of printing it as 2 maps or one long one as I feel needed.

It still needs a bit of work, such as labeling and such as well as some cleanup to determine where city/town hexes exactly are etc, but the bulk of the work is done.

I'll post a final version (labels, etc) when I final proof the map (there are some corrections that will need to be made).

Stay Tuned....

From the fields of France to the Steppes of Mother Russia....

2010-03-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of miles and over 1000 years in time is an abrupt change of pace from my last post, but my mind tends to work in strange and mysterious ways......

This is a WW2 scenario I concocted to test some rules I came up with for small-scale AFV/Infantry actions. Strangely enough, the inspiration for the AFV rules came to me in a dream, which I shall not bore you with here and instead bore you with this after action report !

The scenario is Summer of 1941, Southern Ukraine. The German juggernaut in the South had a much harder time than the Northern and Central Armies because of the sheer number of Soviets they faced and the fact that they had a reduced number of Panzer Divisions to deal with this threat.

A Soviet small local counterattack has broken through the lines with 2 T-34s heading toward the rear to mess with the supply troops. A lone German early MK III which had been in the vehicle park under repair is the only thing stopping these rampaging Russians.

The Pz III manages to ambush then two tanks by hiding in a small wooded ravine (the wood template I have serves as a stand-in for wooded ravine) as they made their way toward the German rear. At Start:

The German successfully hits the lead T-34, with its 2nd shot, immobilizing it with track damage. A third (and final allowed shot this turn) manages to even penetrate the turret armor (barely) but is a dud. The Soviet crew bails out in a panic. Now the odds are 1:1 !

The German kicks his tank into gear, figuring that a moving target has a better chance to avoid the remaining T-34s gun. This is good choice- the Soviets don't hit as well as the Germans, and with the German commander exposed (CE) the German has a better shot back on the move than the Soviets, something these early model T-34s with their 2-man cannot do (the commander was also the gunner).

The Soviet wins the initiative roll, pivoting and coming to a stop in order to get a better shot (firing while moving is not very effecient.) He manages to pop a shot that misses by a mile. His MGs however (as he is close enough to the German tank) spray the German tank good, causing his commander to check whether he has to button up or not. He passes, but barely.

Pre-German Turn 2 (T-34 has moved and fired).

The German has almost no chance of penetrating the front armor (either turret or hull) of the T-34, but decides to fire anyway and hope for luck (it is usually better to fire early in a turn instead of later, as the further you move and use MPs, the harder it gets). Of the 3 shots, 1 hits the front glacis and bounces, a 2nd manages to hit a hatch on the front glacis (Non-penetrating, causes a shock check for the Soviet which is a good thing for the German).

As his tank is in motion, the German continues moving forward and around the flank in the hopes of getting a better shot. The Soviet, being close enough, gets a chance to snap shot at the German as he runs across his front. He fails, probably from not hearing the commander over the ringing in their ears from all the hitting-non-penetrating shot bouncing off the hull !

At the start of turn 3:

The German wins the iniative and manages to score 3 hits on the T-34. All non-penetrating but causing further shock checks. He continues to wheel around the flank and towards the T-34 rear.

The Soviet passes the shock check, and manages to re-start and spin in place and stop again(vehicles that are stopped must attempt to start and may fail based on reliability and training), taking a shot at the mobile Panzer. A clear miss. His next shot should be better as he will not be in motion and he will only suffer turret movement penalties if the Panzer moves out of its line of fire. The Dance of Death continues....

Turn 4

The Soviet gets the iniative and promptly misses its shot (its Rate of Fire is very low). It sprays turret MG fire in frustrated rage, but the German commander in the command cupola does not budge. To top it off, the T-34 fails to re-start, so it cannot pivot its front facing toward the German.

This is the chance the German was waiting for and he got it. He hit the side of the tank and the AP round (before firing you declare what type of round you are firing, usually AP, but HE vs soft targets and some have smoke as well). burrows into the innards of the tank, destroying it decisively. The Soviet penetration is halted !

The home-brew rules are pretty simple and I use AFV cards to hold a lot of the info for the game (They are also able to be written on in eraseable marker to note things that can change from game to game or to denote extra damage).

This is an example of an early T-34:

Where do I go next ? I am not sure. I guess it depends on who shows up to play in our next session and what they feel like playing (The Vikings and Carolingians are still out :D)

I had to turn on Comment Moderation..

2010-03-16T09:11:00.001-07:00

Due to some nefarious individuals attempting to hawk their wares on this site. I'm sorry to have to do this, but I don't have any choice.

Stay tuned. More Wargaming to follow.....

2010-03-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

Finally got some players together and had a scenario played. The results where very good (well, for the winner they were good, the loser, not so much :D).

A large Viking raider force had the bad luck of raiding near where a local Duke had been campaigning against a rival. The two rivals put aside their differences and combined to attack the raiders.

In addition, the raiders had not had time enough to gather enough horses to mount their force (something they were known to do before trouncing through a region) and so were not as mobile as they were wont to be. They also were a bit scattered as they were in the process of acquiring the mounts when the Ducal army came upon them.

The end result: they were run down by a slightly larger army and forced into battle.

Olaf Six-Tooth and his brother Sven the Cross-eyed gathered their troops as best they could, each taking a unit of their best troops to lead.

The Dukes of Framage and Merde disposed of a slightly larger force, superior in cavalry and archers, along with enough infantry to match up with the Viking foot.

The Vikings knew they had to attack and break the force in front of them to get away, as they had few other options, seeing as their enemy had archers and they did not, so they advanced to the attack (besides, what good Viking wouldn't want to attack ?).

Olaf (the elder) took the lead and led the main attack on the Ducal line. At the first sign of the Ducal archers letting fly their feathery shafts, he proudly stood up in the stirrups of his horse (he and his brother had some of the few they had acquired) and yelled encouragement to his men "Boys ! They canna shewt fer Sh.." His last words never heard as a feathery shaft found his eye-hole and buried itself into his brain.

It was all downhill for the raiders after that. The Vikings put up a valiant struggle, but Olaf's death seemed to take a lot of the fight out of them. Their attack petered out and the Ducal army pushed them back. Sven, upon seeing his brother go down, seemed to lose heart himself. Or maybe it was because the Ducal Cavalry came down upon him light thunder and wiped his unit out.

Valhalla was suitably filled after the battle, the Ducal army thoroughly trouncing the Vikings and suffering some casualties, but nowhere near as many. The Dukes praised God and each other for their great victory over the hated Northmen.

Of course, within hours came to blows again over who would take most of the credit for this victory over the heathens from the North. And so the continued tragedy of the Dark Ages.....

2010-02-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

Now that I am getting back into some miniature wargaming, I think I'll discuss a few things I typically use.

My figures are mounted on single metal bases I cut from scrap from a local metal shop. For aesthetic purposes, I flock these (usually green grass, but sometimes a sandy tan).

My movement trays are actually good strength strip magnets, stuck down to heavy cardboard stock and flocked a color depending on which side they are (black and tan). There are 3 sizes. I can then put as many figures as needed to create a unit on a base, and allow removal of figures when they are casualties. The good magnets allow the trays to be moved without knocking over individual figures.

Another good feature is that it allows me to mix and match forces as needed (e.g. allies) from the different nationalities I have, with minimal confusion as to which side those forces are on. I can even have deserters from one side set up on opposite sides. For an some pictures of the bases in action, look at the archive from back in January last year.

This flexibility allows me to mix and match bases as needed. For example my DSR Mass Battle ruleset (DSRMB), each unit actually takes up 2 hexes, so there are 2 bases placed side-by side per unit (although skirmishers can move seperately). I get the bases out, set the figures on the bases, and off the battle goes.

Most of my rules use hexes of various sizes, although the most common is a 3" grid. The grid makes the game go by fast (something I strive for in my rules), with no measuring needed.

I handle terrain in 2 levels- I have color acetate sheets with various hills, woods, and streams that I lay down. I can play the game that way or if I want a more 3D effect, take the time and lay out various tree clumps which are removeable if a unit wishes to move into that hex. For a good example, look back in the archive to June of last year for my terrain templates and my tree clusters.

Its a simple system that is very flexible. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know- I'm always open to new ideas.

Have a happy and safe New Year !

2009-12-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the enforced hiatus, but since a basement flood, I've not been doing much wargaming lately. That is something I want to get back into in the new year when I hope to get back to regular posting again.

Take care, and see you in the New Year !

A discussion about random terrain generation

2009-10-02T07:36:00.001-07:00

I've recieved a request to discuss some ideas about random terrain generation.

I'm in the process of collating the ideas etc for some posts on the subject (along with some pics for descriptive purposes).

Stay tuned....

A word about unit counters..

2009-09-22T09:32:00.001-07:00

I've had a few requests about the unit counters I am using, so here's a sample of them.

These are all double-sided counters.

The front is the full strength side, while the back is a partial strength. It has all the numbers needed to play the miniatures game on the counters.

To create a unit counter, I take a picture of the figure type, modify the picture to make it easier to print out (take out background, etc) and use that for the main picture of the counter.

I print them out on full sheet labels, then cut and put that on cardboard.

It is easy to make double-sided counters, you just have to be sure that the back-side is a mirror image of the front (so when you past the back sheet on, it matches the units on the front).

Here is an example of a 1/2" sheet, both front and back. I cut the two halves out and mount on appropriately thick cardboard and Voila ! Double sided counters.

Campaign Moves... an example

2009-09-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

So. I've got the army lists, the strategic tiles, the miniatures and the tactical rules all set. Here's an example of a "Roma Victo" campaign of Romans vs Gauls in a non-historical environment.

The Strategic tile is used to help add some flavor and maneuvering before getting to a miniature battle. I randomly determine a start point where the Romans are (denoted by the Red counter) and then determine where the Gauls are (denoted by the Green counter).

A key to the strategic moves is that the Romans (the attackers) must always move adjacent to the Gauls (the defenders). After each Roman move, the Gauls can attempt to react- that is move away and delay the inevitable battle or into better (e.g. non-clear or river) terrain.

The Romans have 6 Movement Points (MPs) to use per strategic turn. Turns here are bi-monthly, with weather effected by Month of the year (see weather system described before).

When 6 MPs are used up, the Gauls have successfully avoided combat for a complete turn (something that delays their conquest, which is a good thing). When a battle occurs, this also ends the turn after the battle if fought.

All weather was clear for this turn.

Move 1: The Romans move from A0506 to A0406 as indicated by the red arrow (1 MP). The Gauls make their reaction roll, and move to A0305, skulking behind a river.

Move 2: The Romans, not wishing to attack across a River, will attempt to outflank it to the North by moving to A0306 (1 MP). The Gauls fail to react. if they had succeded,they could have reacted to A0206 or even into the Roman hex, initiating combat, albeit without a River bonus.

Move 3: The Romans attempt to outflank the River position held by the Gauls by moving to A0206 (2 MP). Note that it cost 2 MP to move across the River , and weather can increase this cost of 1 for clear terrain, 1 for crossing the River.

Roman luck appears to be holding (weather wound up being clear for this Strategic Turn). The Gauls are caught still in camp, and fail to react again, allowing the Romans to steal a march and outflanking what would have been a good defensive River position.

Move 4: The Romans, with 2 MP left, move into the Gauls in A0305 (1 MP), and Roman luck finally runs out, as the Gauls finally pass a reaction roll and duck into the woods at A0304. Wascally Wabbit !

Move 5: The Romans do not have the MP to enter the woods (2mp) , but don't want to end the turn. So they have the ability to force march (which can hurt them in the tactical battle). They succeed with their roll, albeit a few of their cohorts are exhausted in doing so.

The Romans move into the woods, and the Gauls decide this is as good a place as any to offer battle to a tired foe. The terrain is wooded with a level 2 hill concentration (2 hexesides in A0304 have hills on them).

The battle is fought, and the Romans win a hard-won victory in a wooded, hilly environment with their exhausted cohorts (they lost 3 cohorts and an auxillary Light unit, while the Gauls lost several Warbands.) However, enough Gauls survived the battle to withdraw, which the Gauls do to A0404.

More importantly, the conquest track is advanced 1 box (this mythical "country" has 3 conquest boxes- so three successful battles need to be fought to conquer it).

This is the start of another strategic turn. Reinforcements/events occur now, and weather is determined again. A much diminished Gaulish force will be running for its life this turn, delaying and hoping to gain more reinforcements for the next turn.

All in all, its an easy system to generate tactical battles and give some "flavor" to a generic campaign game.

First Step- The Army lists

2009-08-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

Some more ideas on DSR RV ("Roma Victo") campaign ruleset for my Ancients/Medieval rules.

I composed Army lists for all the figures types I had, varying their army stats as I felt appropriate.

For example, this is the Imperial Roman army stats:

OR: 5
This is the operational rating (usually 1-6). It is used to determine how far you move on the conquest track. You compare opposing army's ORs, roll dice and the difference is moved on the track, upward if you won, downward if you lost. The higher OR, the better strategic or long term planning for a campaign that army has. Horse Barbarians would have a very low OR, as they usually were not out for conquest but mostly plunder.

LR: B
This is the Logistical rating (A-F). A is best, F is worst. An army that had a logistical setup, as opposed to "living off the land" has some advantages for a long conquest campaign. This influences attrition and reinforcement rolls.

Init: 6
This is the Army's initiative. This influences movement on the Maneuver Board (more of that in a later post). It also influences tactical battle setup. (Yeah, I said mapless campaign but I should've said NEARLY mapless campaign ! :D)

BP:D Mor 7 H6 L3
These stats are used for the tactical battle, These are Army Breakpoint, Morale, Heavy Divisions and Light Divisions. These can be effected by conditions that occur on the campaign board.

And of course I have the stats for individual units that compose the army (Cohorts, Auxilia etc.) I use with my Ancients rules.

A few ideas.....

2009-08-15T06:41:00.001-07:00

I just had a few good ideas for a solo/semi-solo map-less campaign system for my ancients rules. As I firm these up I'll post them in more detail.

I'm also mulling over a few requests by some folks to post a detailed battle using my ancients rules, and as it would be easier to understand some of the things I'm doing with my campaign systems, I might just oblige.

Stay tuned !

Back From Historicon and parts unknown....

2009-07-29T05:41:00.001-07:00

I'm back from Historicon and hope to have a post or two up soon. Stay tuned....

Off to Historicon !

2009-07-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

I'm heading off to Historicon ! I hope to see you there !

A simple weather system

2009-06-29T00:57:00.001-07:00

For any campaign, I've always felt that a weather system to gives it a real lived-in feel as well as adding a little bit of chrome for a game for very little effort. For my Rampage on the Rhine and Destruction on the Danube Roman/Barbarian campaigns, I devised a useful system I will describe below.
　
First of all, the turns are bi-weekly. This allows me to break up the months into an even amount of turns (more or less). It also works for the movement rates on the campaign map.
　
Of course, I have the months along the top (with their Roman equivalent names for a little added chrome) with the 8 turns per month below that track box.
　
Below those are the two areas I keep track of the weather on a turn by turn basis. The blue months use the Winter track box, while the white boxes use the Summer track box. March and November on their 1st turn have a chance to be either winter or summer, based on a D6 roll.
　
Weather ranges from Clear, Cloudy, Rainy/Snowy, Storm/Blizzard in effect of intensity. Cloudy is really clear but with more of a chance for bad weather in the future. This allows you in the campaign to get a feel for what the next turn's weather might be (if its clear, the next turn will at worst be cloudy, which is as good as clear). Weather of course effects movement rates (including forced marches), reaction moves, and of course the battlefield weather if any battles are to be fought.
　
To get a feel of how it works, we'll assume its the 1st turn of the campaign and its June, so we'll use the Summer Weather chart. The weather on turn 1 starts as clear.
　
At the start of each turn, a 2d6 roll is made to determine the status of the weather. Following the arrows in the appropriate box, lets assume I roll an 8. For turn one, the weather is cloudy. On turn 2, I roll a 9. The weather for turn two is Rain. On turn 3, I roll a 7. No change. Another rainy turn. On turn 4, I roll a 3, so the weather reverts to cloudy. And so on and so forth.
　
Also, note that in Arpil and November boxes there is a +1 to the 2d6 die roll to account for the chance of more inclement weather.
　
All in all, the system works fine and is easy to modify to meet any needs. Now if only I can finally get another full Rampage on the Rhine or Destuction on the Danube campaign going !

A base map for my ancients rules

2009-06-16T11:04:00.001-07:00

This is a map of 3" hexes, measuring about 42x72 inches, used for my for my DSRAA (DSR Advanced Ancients) rules. These rules were designed for campaign battles.

There are setup zones for each side, broken down into Flank/Center/Flank areas (Light infantry, Skirmishers, Light cav can set up in Any zone, Heavies only in center zone).

There are also terrain points on the map for potential hill and woods terrain templates that can be laid down (These are clear acetate printed templates) before the battle begins. It leads to some very non-repetitive maps.

Terrain can be generated either randomly (based upon what type of terrain in the fighting is in) or placed tactically during the setup process by the two players (also based upoin what type of terrain the fighting is in).

The rules take into account the side with less scouting points deploying more often and allowing the side with more to have an advantage during setup. They also take into account possible flanking actions, as well as pursuit once the battle is over.

This map rolls up easily, as do the templates for the terrain. The biggest/heaviest items to be transported to a convention are the figures themselves.

WW2 After Action.... and the screwup...

2009-06-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to not have pictures down on the after-action for the previous scenario- I managed to delete them by accident (don't ask me how). I'll give the scenario a try sometime later, meanwhile, on to pastures anew....

I've been using clear forest templates for my woods- they are easy to transport and use. But they do lack that 3D effect that makes miniatures so nice. So I did something about it.

My solution ? Tree clusters. But I also wanted them to be easy to transport, so I made some plaster (actually dental plaster- its much more solid and less crumbly) bases that fit the trees I had available. I made a mold so I could mass produce them (2 types- one with 2 trees, one with 3). The holes in the finished casted product were 4/16" and were drilled in with a Dremel.

After I flocked them (base coat of green, flocked, then followed by a dullcoat) they came out as the pictures show. I think they look nice and are very functional. And the trees fit snug, allowing me to remove some if neccesary for transport or to make room for figures vehicles.

All in all, not a very hard project and very rewarding besides. Now if I could just figure out how to do real hills like that template in the 1st photo.......

WW2 AFV Action- the setup

2009-05-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

Eastern Front, July 1941, North of Staraia Russa:

Soviet Brief:

The Facists who are attempting to take Leningrad must be stopped ! To that end, all front armored reserves have been mobilized and ordered to counterattack behind the salient formed by the 4th Panzer Army whose reckless thrust has put them in a position of danger. You are to take your tanks and breakthrough into into the rear areas, relentlessly bypassing infantry concentrations but engaging and destroying all tank and/or AT defenses encountered. You will be followed up by infantry formations who will complete the destruction of the Facist invaders. For Mother Russia !

German Brief:

The thrust toward Leningrad continues to gather momentum that must not be stopped. As a result, the southern flank lengthens in the face of considerable enemy forces who have been bypassed. Enemy counter-attacks are inetivable. To that end, small mobile "containment forces" have been mobilized to contain any breakthroughs. It behooves the front line forces to hold their ground, regardless of cost, and keep the breakthroughs to a minimum. It is imperative that you cut off any penetration so that it can be dealt with by the containment forces in isolation. Remember, you are not alone ! The will and faith of the German People is behind you ! For the Fatherland !

The scenario is about a Soviet armored column (6 early model T-34s) that have broken through to a containment force (maybe a 37mm "doorknocker" and/or a PzKw38(t) tank). A definite mismatch for the Germans. Or is it really ?

The Germans are set up hidden and waiting to spring an ambush and get the first shot. The Russians, sans infantry support, are confidently hurtling down the road looking to cause havoc amongst unprepared rear-area personel.

The early model T-34, although a great peice of military hardware for 1941 and in almost all ways better than any German equivalent at the time, had some major defects. Russian tank gunnery (both sights and training) were inferior to the German practice and principle. Also the tank leader was also the gunner. This slowed the rate of fire considerably. It would be worse if he exposed himself out the turret to get a better line of sight on any valuable targets. So the Soviet tanks will operate as buttoned up, which will hurt their already poor targeting.

The Germans will operate with their commanders exposed in the hatches, a little more dangerous, but increasing the chance to acquire and hit the target that is being shot and as a result also be able to better react to Soviet moves and hit targets while they themselves are on the move.

So the German advantages will be in firing more often (and on the move) and having their commanders exposed (increasing to hit and reaction fire chances). Their disadvantage is their weak 37mm armament and their weak armor. The Russians will fire slower, hit hit less, react less, but be very tough to knock out due to their armor vs the weak 37mm weaponry of their foes.

Here is the scenario as set up. The column is about to be fired on by a PzKw38(t) in the northern woods. To prevent spoilers to any of my players who may be reading this, I've kept the German forces vague so as to increase the fun and unexpectedness of the scenario. I'll post the results when we finally get to play it.

I've played it several times solo (a good way to quickly test rules to see if they 'feel right' etc. I am using a homebrew set (DSR World War Two Fire Team or DSRWW2FT) and the Germans, with a little finesse, should "win" about 1/2 the time. A little luck never hurts either (some critical hits and/or special damage to tracks/guns is nice as well).

Two Six-Sided dice.

2009-04-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

Those of us who have been wargaming for a long time remember when Six Sided Dice (or simply "D6") where all we had to work with. Then the fantasy gamers (yes wargamers do have a debt of gratitude for that) brought us a bunch of different types (D4, D8, D10, D12,D20). Of course, if you have been wargaming a long time, you probably also built up quite a collection of 6 sided dice :D

Now I've always been a fan of changing up the Dice number and types (for purposes of variety if nothing else), but I always seem to come back to the good 'ole D6 time after time for certain things. Currently, I tend to use a mixture of dice types in my games, as it makes it easier to remember, say '2d6 for Morale' and '1d10' for combat, etc.

In my 15mm World War 2 ruleset, I use the 2d6 to determine ordinance To Hit results. If a hit occurs, I use 2d6 also for penetration, but also a D30 (yes a wierd die but useful on occasion) to determine if any extra damage is incurred (say hitting a gun, or hatch, or whatever based on the target facing).

The 2d6 I use for the To Hit process is actually one colored (red) die and one white die. Not only does it determine if a hit is made, it determines where on the vehicle it his (if the colored die > white die, it is a turret hit otherwise it is a hull hit). This "two for one" deal speeds things up (as if you get too many die rolls you wind up with old Avalon Hill's almost unplayable Tobruk). If the to hit roll is snake-eyes, it is a critical hit. If it is Box-cars, it is a miss and may break the gun. This same roll can also cause a loss of a particular sort of ammo (AP/HE/APCR./HEAT etc) if stowage is limited with that particular piece of ordinance.

I also use 2d6 for determining Morale checks. You roll 2d6 + modifiers <= that unit's morale to be ok. This tends to work out well, since the average roll is 7, so the average morale is 7 also. It works out well and allows things such as Heroism (rolling snake eyes) or Cowardice (rolling Boxcars).

Now a lot of this I owe to AH's old Squad Leader of which I was (and still am) a big fan. Still, a good idea never dies, they just keep coming back again and again.......

South Stalingrad map

2009-04-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Having my interest re-kindled in Stalingrad from Jason Mark's Angriff, I decided to do some more Stalingrad map work. Some of the recon photos are terrific for map makers !

This is the 1st of a one hex = 100 meters Stalingrad map (the scale I use for my microarmor rules). I started with South Stalingrad this time and will work my way North. This area covers from the Leather Factory to most of Minina south of Stalingrad.

As with any map that has to conform to a hex-grid and a rule set, some design considerations had to be taken into account:

1. I rotated the hex grid 90 degrees, so that the hex grain is left/right instead of up/down.

2. I tried to capture the feel of the terrain, using the images I had available, but obviously at 1 hex = 100 meters, it is not possible to include every road and building. All images are stylized- a factory hex is actually composed of many such buildings, etc.

3. For the Factories (which in my game are victory locations), I tried to make them stand out a little more. Obviously a wall (such as around the Leather Factory) that long is silly, but it adds to the look and feel of the map for game purposes.

As a side note, I found out that the scale I was using for my Stalingrad 250 (1 hex = 250 meters) is about 5% too small- not much of a difference, really, at that scale, but frustrating nonetheless. I'll keep that same scale and map size for the other parts of that map series (Central and South Stalingrad), but they are currently on hold at the moment.

Doing some reading....

2009-03-27T10:41:00.001-07:00

I've come back, after a hiatus, to World War 2 Eastern front. I think I'll be working some more on my Stalingrad maps

http://dsrgames.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=23

(About half-way down.)

In the mail: Angriff: The German Attack on Stalingrad in Photos from Leaping Horsemen Books http://www.leapinghorseman.com/index2.php.

These folks do some of the BEST Stalingrad material around (translated personal accounts, photos, etc). Pricey, but worth every penny for any Stalingrad officianado.

Slow posting

2009-03-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of postings as of late. I hope to get some in some good, reportable gaming in the next week or two.

The payoff is the battle.....

2009-01-20T03:01:00.001-08:00

I modified the scenario a little to take into account the hexes (making the woods a little more close-in) and modifying the initial setup (the Slavs are a little closer to the road).

Essentially, a column of Teutonic Knights on a road is ambushed coming into a clearing in the woods that lines the road. The knights themselves have hurried onward, leaving their infantry supports behind (never a good thing for cavalry to do in close-in country)

The first inclination that there would be a battle was a shower of arrows which managed a few casualties amongst the unprepared Knights.

But though lacking in road discipline, they managed to come on line and charge the main line of Slavs in the clearing next to the road. A fierce melee ensued, with the Knights. The infantry supports came hurrying up to lend their hand, but were hampered by the arrows of the ambushers on the wooded side of the road.

The Heavier Knights managed to break the Slav lines after a brisk but fierce melee. The Slav noble cavalry, unlike in previous times, stayed on the field and made a desperate charge against their old foe.

Unfortunately, the infantry had managed to come up, so although the Knights were fatigued and the cavalry melee was a push, the fresh infantry ensured that the Slav cavalry were surrounded and killed. They fought well and died well. Though battered, the Teutonic Knights are victorious again !

The Teutons took the most casualties it had ever taken, mostly from among the irreplaceable heavy cavalry. Now it seems apparent why the Slav noble cavalry fled from the field each time before- they were slaughtered almost to a man.

All in all, the battle went well and rather quickly- the hexes really sped up the whole process a lot. The transparencies made set up and board generation easy, and would be very easy to pack up and take along with the game mat.

A Brainstorm... of sorts....

2009-01-09T08:50:00.001-08:00

After using the new game mat for a few scenarios, I realized that I missed my hexes (it makes the game move so much faster). How to do that on a gaming mat with no grid printed on it ?

So I decided to print 2 hex grids on clear acetate (33" wide by 48" long)and overlay that on the terrain mat. This is the result.

In addition, I created some woods and hill templates to lay over those.

I figure I will run the same scenario (it may be modified a little) with the hex system that I ran with the non-hex system. It Should be interesting. Stay tuned.....

After a lengthy hiatus.... WARGAMING AGAIN !

2009-01-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

After observing a lengthy hiatus, I returned from Christmas and New Years festivities with renewed vigour, powered by a package I had waiting for me.

I had ordered a flocked game mat from http://www.terrainmat.com/, and it is a beauty. I set it up with a quick scenario straight from taking it out of the box (Crusaders vs an Slavic ambush). The folds (such as they were) are almost gone now, and when I roll it up for storage should be minimal if still at all. The material is very lightweight and seemingly durable. Time will tell as I use it more how durable the flocking is, but so far shedding has been minimal.

Along with the mat I had ordered some woods,roads and streams (unfortunately, you can only see part of the stream in the top left of one of the pictures). The roads are a very lightweight material, not quite a cloth but very flexible, while the woods and streams are on a light platic stock, flocked and very nice as well. I didn't have any trees immediately available, so the dark brown patches are what are the woods in the pictures. Everything is textured appropriately, and looks very nice.

As for the scenario, it was a Slavic ambush on a group of Teutonic Knights. The Slavs had much more bowmen and the cover of the woods as, while the Knights had the advantage of 3 units of heavy horse. Forces were as follows:

Teutonic Knights:

3 Heavy Horse

2 Heavy Spearmen

1 Skirmish Crossbow unit (set up as 2 skirmish units)

Slavs:

3 Spearmen

2 Axe/Swordmen

2 Bowmen (set up as 8 skirmish units)

1 Noble Cavalry

On coming down the road, the Slavs sprung their ambush- the bowmen were in the woods on both sides of the road, while the main ambush was on the side where there was some maneuver room (to the top of the 1st picture).

The Teutons, quickly ordered themselves from the hail of arrows that clanged off their heavy armor. One of the skirmish crossbow skirmishers was routed from the field, but no signifigant losses were suffered elsewhere.

With a rumble, the Teutonic cavalry thundered down on the waiting Slav spear infantry (which were set up in front just for that with the Axe/Swordmen back in support for when/if the spearmen stopped the charge).

This the spearmen did, and a fierce melee ensued. The narrowness of the gap worked in the Slav's favor, and the supporting Axe/Swordmen came up and lent their weight to the fray. The Teuton infantry came up in support, but were taking casualties from the skirmishers. The knights were taking hits from the skirmishers as well and, despite almost rolling through the Slav line, were on the point of breaking.

The Slav noble cavalry, held back as a reserve could not contribute to the main fight due to the press to their front. The whole gap between the two woods was clogged, creating one giant melee.

Then, the inevitable happened. The Slavs, being lighter armored, finally began to break, even though they managed to rout one of the Teutonic Cavalry units. Now was the time for the proud Noble Cavalry to show its worth !

It came proudly into the fight, charging one of the heavily engaged Teutonic Cavalry units through the gap vacated by the routing unit. Despite a signifigant advantage in numbers and momentum, the Nobles quickly turned tail and ran from the field after only 1 round of combat where they suffered a few casualties. The Slav force crumbled.

All in all, it was a fun scenario, one which I had to modify my hex-based rules to a more standard move/wheel miniature system (as well as convert distances from hexes to inches with the appropriate scaling). There are still some "bugs" in the system (I think I was a little to liberal with how much spacing is needed) but it was fun and fast.

And with a very nice terrain mat, it looked even better !

Cavalry, Cavalry Everywhere !

2008-11-11T09:11:00.001-08:00

Now that I have the amount of cavalry I need to simulate 2 cavalry armies opposing one another, I finally fought a battle with them (2 generic Asiatic Horde cavalry armies). I had to hone a few my rules (and markers) to handle the sheer amount of charges/counter charges so that it could make sense to the players.

Needless to say, Cavalry/Cavalry battles are much more fluid (and fast-paced) than the usual infantry-heavy army battles. What usually is a 10-12 turn game turns into a 4-6 turn game. It also is hard to recover when a mistake is made (and it is easy to counter-charge the wrong unit, fail a counter-charge roll, a morale roll, or whatever.)

Side A (which I used Mongol cavalry) had less light and skirmish cavalry than side B (which I used Huns and the other miscellaneous horse barbarians I had- Alans, Pechenegs etc), but had more heavy cavalry.

Both sides closed in and used a little archery to try to create an opening that could be exploited. However, the sheer numbers on the field (approx 8000-9000 cavalry a side) made little dent in either side, despite the flurry of feather shafts.

The Mongols finally had enough, and started charging through the thick Hunnish cavalry screen and managed to maul them pretty severely before being checked by the much less numerous Hunnish heavy cavalry. The surviving Hunnish Light Cavalry started scoring hits with its archery, and the less numerous Mongol Light Cavalry was innefectual.

The battle hung in the balance, until the Huns started failing morale checks. With their heavy cavalry starting to flee the scene, the Mongol heavy cavarly got the upper hand. From what was a stalemate just 2 turns before, the battle had turned into a Hunnish rout quickly.

Final result- the Mongols actually took more losses (approx 2400) compared to the Huns (approx 1200), but the Mongols held the field at the end. Since I stopped the battle at the moment of the rout, the Huns would've suffered even heavier losses in the pursuit if I had gone that far. But as much as that would have been a more realistic end-result, it would not be much fun for the players.

All in all, the rules held up well with the massive charging/counter-charging that occurred. It was a fun battle, that when both sides came to grips, was over pretty fast. A little more skirmishing for the Huns would've been better as it favored their light cavalry advantage, but the Mongols should try to close as soon as possible to take advantage of their heavy cavalry advantage.

A great painting service

2008-10-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

I'd like to add a few comments on a painting service that is one of the BEST I've ever used. Now, some folks seem to think that you are some kind of wargame "wuss" if you don't paint your own figures. Shame on those elitists, because they are missing out on an excellent source for getting your figures painted ! And it sure beats the paint job I could do.

Fernando Enterprises (http://www.miniaturelovers.com/) is one of the best around in my honest opinion.

They are run out of Sri-Lanka, which seems a bit off-setting to many folks, but it really is easy. They send you all the directions you need to get your package to them (which makes it a piece of cake) , and they ensure that the returned figures are well-packed and safe.

They will paint to your specification (e.g. you know exactly what you want) or if you have no clue (e.g. I had some Pechenegs. What the heck does a Pecheneg look like anyway ?) you can refer them to a source (I use Osprey stuff- you can't go wrong). They keep in contact with email over the whole course of the order. I recieved pre-production and post- production pics for my approval. I'm sure that Anusha (the Coordinator) is sick to death of emailing me pics to approve of !

Why the subject of a painting service ? Well, today I recieved my latest order, and the figures are beauties !

Here are a few pics of the ones I chose to get into my game next (mostly Germans and some Alanic allies):

Time scale in wargaming

2008-10-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

I come from the 70's-early 80's miniature wargaming culture- Rules based on some of the ideas from Donald Featherstone's books (like Miniature Wargames and Advanced Wargames) and rules like Chainmail. Time scale was considered kind of as an aside, and it created fast, fun rules that I still sometimes yearn for.

I think one of the most eye-opening things I've ever read on time scale and wargaming with it is in the designer notes to Frank Chadwick's Command Decision rules. (Paraphrasing)

"A lot can happen in the time-space of 1 turn. But a lot also does not."

Just because a person can move 20 paces in 10 seconds does not mean that he will move that fast. Conditions due to enemy action, the state of a man's morale and possibly training as well as just random things happening (e.g. tripping and falling down,stopping to catch one's breath, stopping to scan the terrain around for threats etc) can prevent that person from moving the stated 20 paces in 10 sec. The best rules sublimate this stuff elegantly.

Some rules use a roll a certain amount of dice totaled for movement (e.g. The Sword and the Flame). This works, after a fashion, but I feel is a bit clunky and artificial. But is is fun though....

Why the concern about time scale ? I overheard some folks at Historicon this year (in more than one game) discussing time scale and both loudly proclaiming the rules were "unrealistic" because the fixed time scale allowed "a unit of could do all that during a game turn." I laughed whenever I heard that (and it was quite a few times). Wargamers like to kibbitz a bit, and wargaming is a social thing after all, but I thought it was highly amusing.

Personally, I think that best time scale is somewhat variable in wargaming. I prefer "effect" based instead of "calculated" based time. If after a battle, you can run the events over in your mind that happened, and they make sense considering the scenario being played and the forces involved, the time scale really has no bearing. You fought a battle and certain things happened. Does it really matter that after 20 turns, the much vaunted "time scale" calculates out to say 1 hour ? Maybe the battle took 3-4 hours to play (real time) in miniature. You can really say that the battle occurred in 3-4 hours.

As a matter of fact, a group a couple of years ago at Historicon did exactly that- it was a 10mm wargame that was run in "real" time. It had a lot of players and as can be expected, there was a lot of "down time" getting orders in, moving the troops, rolling combat etc. From what I can recall, it worked out well, the battle taking a couple of hours as it would have in real life. As in real life, alot can happen in an hour but alot might NOT happen.

In the end, a part of a day was taken up (both in game time and real time setting up and playing the miniature game) and things happened. And after all, what more can we ask of our hobby than to happily engage us for the time required to actually do it.

Speaking of time, this is a few minutes of your life you will never get back after reading this stream of consciousness post...... :D

A Random Map Generator

2008-09-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

I've recently received a few requests about my random map generator I created and some of its capabilities. Actually There are 2 map generators- one written in Visio VBA and another (more powerful but lacking the graphical templates at the moment) one written in VBNET.

I attempted to make them as versatile as I could. The map shapes can be scaled to a particular hex size (This one is 1.25" hexes) and any paper size (this is 36" x 24") as well as labeling the hexes and including a hex center dot if desired. As a bonus, after it is randomly generated, I can edit the various layers in Visio, adding labels and special touches to the maps.

These are example maps I generated using my VBA application. I used a different technique to create the VBNET mapgen templates, and I haven't updated them yet. In addition, the generation routines themselves I haven't ported over yet to the VBNet program.

With the VBA program, there are various parameters that can be input, such as woods density, rivers, streams, roads, houses, fields, walls, etc etc. I am only limited in the graphical templates I currently have made (These are early building icons- without the shading for example).

A random generator is a good way to lay out a basic map, which you can then edit and make better to fit whatever particular scenario you desire. It makes your life as a wargamer so much easier when you have to generate a battle for 900th time in that huge campaign game.

Magnet Ready Material

2008-09-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

I was at a kind of impasse for my campaign game because of space restraints. I needed to be able to hang it up on a wall out of the way of the miniatures table battles it produces. After awhile of poking around and trial and error (aka SWAG) I think I've found an easy way.

I found a material that is easily cut-able that is called "magnet-ready". If looks exactly like a sheet magnet and cuts with scissors easily. This allows me to create my Vini Vidi Vici hex pieces so that I can stick them on a metal board, and allow me to also deploy magnetic counters on top of them. This allows me to hang the campaign map on the wall.

Here are the layers of what how to make this happen:

1. A 3' x 4' piece of sheet metal (or magnetic dry erase board), with a 1" hex grid in blue mounted to it (this is the encircling ocean that the templates above are placed over and spaced out with).

2. Nine templates (like those above), each printed out on my color printer. From the back of the template to the front, here are the layers of materials:

a) Magnetic sheet magnet cut to a close approximation of the hex template.

b) Magnetic ready sheet cut to fit the template (including the edges- this gives the template a heft and allows for the edges to be butted together when deployed on the sea map.)

c) The color print out of the template itself.

The templates stick to the metal sheet nice and tightly. I can now use 1/2" magnets for unit counters/markers on top of the templates. I will use 1/2" magentic strip with a color printout of the counter attached to it for this purpose.

Now I am working on the counters. I'll try to get a picture of a whole setup when I get it all together.

Weather in Wargaming

2008-08-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

Weather can add something different to a wargame. A sudden storm can slow a winning side down enough for the defense to recover and re-form. The only problem is that simplifying the conditions so that they are playable and not a nuisance to track is tricky.

I've settled on a system that is composed of two elements: Weather and Environmental Conditions. Weather is either Clear, Cloudy. Raining, or Storming. This can effect the environmental conditions. This also effects line of sight and missile fire. Environmental conditions are Fine, Wet, and Mud. These mostly effect movement.

The Weather can change up and down (from clear to cloudy, cloudy to raining, raining to storming and back in the other direction) at the start of a new turn. If the weather is raining or storming at the start of a turn, there is a chance that the environmental conditions will change from Fine to Wet or from Wet to Mud. As soon as it is storming, the weather changes to the next worse type immediately.

Unlike weather which can gravitate from stormy to clear, once Environmental Conditions change for the worse, they remain that way for the remainder of the scenario.

I'll fight a battle using this as a template and post some pics and commentary sometime soon and the chart I'm using to track the effects for the game.

Magenets are your friend.....

2008-08-15T10:49:00.001-07:00

One of the many advantages of using metal bases on my figures and magnets on my movement trays is the ability to create markers that "stick" to the unit. Not only can I remove individual figures for casualties, I can easily mark the unit with a marker that sticks with that unit when I move it.

For example, in my rules, I need to be able to mark units as belonging to divisions on the board. I created different colored division counters and mounted them on 1/2" strip magnets. Units of the same division have the same color. Units not in their division suffer penalties. Since it behooves the player to keep his divisions together, the colored markers make it easy to keep track of this.

Here is a picture of this- I put the unit raised in the air to show how "sticky" the markers are. Now I need to make some other markers to lay alongside these, probably unit counters that give all the stats so that you don't always have to look it up on a reference card.

Excel is your friend.....

2008-08-07T06:20:00.001-07:00

Warning ! Computer Geek Boring Post Below !

One of the most useful tools in my computer toolbox is the Microsoft Excel. The ability to make legible tables and lists is a boon to any wargamer who writes like a doctor. Of course, the Word/Powerpoint package of MSOffice work well together with it as well (Note- I'm using an earlier version of MS Office, so the newer versions look a bit different). Here are some of the uses:

1. Prototyping rules- Sometimes all I have for a rule idea is a table or two and an outline of the turn sequence. I just type them into Excel, print them out and playtest them. I take notes on the back of the page (such as changes, what works and what does not) and make the changes in Excel and repeat (playtesting for me is a process of running the game again and again ad nauseum- until I go on to another set of rules for a while for a break :D ).

2. Creating nice tables for my quick reference cards and rules- You can create nice looking tables and cut and paste them into Powerpoint (for quick reference cards) or Word (for my rules).

A word of advice though- be organized when saving the files for a ruleset. If I have a ruleset called "Micro WW2" I'll abbreviate it "DSRMW2" (Don's Stupid Rules for Micro WW2). That way the 3 files for the whole ruleset are DSRMW2.XLS (the excel tables), DSRMW2.DOC (the rules) and DSRMW2.PPT (the powerpoint quick reference charts).

3. Creating consistent points values for army lists- Some rules I create require a point basis to help determine forces. This requires a calculation of various attributes (like armor, attack, range, morale, strength, etc). For my ancient 15mm ancients Rules (DSRV), there are a lot of attributes and a lot of armies to calculate for. Instead of calculating this by hand, I created a spreadsheet that holds all the stats of the units, and used formulas to calculate the points value of that unit automatically.

First, I had to figure out how to rate units for points basis. This required multipliers that I had to play with in order to weight things well. I created a sheet that holds all the weights (for all those who don't know you can name a cell so that you don't have to reference it the formula by its long name). I colored the background yellow where the values are changeable.

Second, I created a sheet with all the army lists and all the values. Black text will be displayed, red text will be hidden (its used for calculation) and gray text is a calculation that also will be hidden. I input values in the red and black columns and the points are automatically calculated.

To create a reference sheet for the armies, I hide all the black and gray text, then cut and paste it into powerpoint.

Voila ! Now I can change the values easily and print out the final result. I can also easily add troop types and armies as needed.

Excel (and the MS Office Suite) are excellent tools for the wargamer.

Back from Historicon !

2008-07-28T11:44:00.001-07:00

It was a great trip. I met some terrific folks (some of whom I only knew by name until now) and had a boatload of fun. Now, exhausted, I take stock of what I came home with, and wrestle with the problem of justifying "just a few more" lead figures !

For now, here is a picture of Miniature Wargamer Nirvana (a.k.a. the dealer room)

Off to Historicon !

2008-07-20T10:26:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm off to Historicon with stopovers in Manassas and Gettysburg. I'm putting on a ancient naval game (I think its at Friday at 3:00 PM) called "Sea Sick Sailors". I hope to see some of you folks there !

And now for something completely different (sort of)...

2008-07-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

Getting a little burned out with my ancient stuff, I decided to do some mapping for my WW II skirmish game, called illustriously A__Load of Heroes. You can guess what the ___ is for- it rhymes with "Pass" :)

Why that name ? In an earlier incarnation, the game seemed to generate a lot of heroes in-game, until I tweaked the rules a bit. "Boatload of Heroes" wouldn't make sense so I went with what was said in-game by the players :D

Anyway, I created this countryside map to be geomorphic with any more that I cared to do. It is approximately 36" x 40" with a 1.25" hexes, which fits 15mm pretty well, allowing up to 3 infantry (not a good idea in-game though :D) and vehicles covering 2 hexes. The ground scale came out to about 10-12 feet per hex. The map represents about 70 yards by 90 yards or so- good for some close in skirmish fighting !

For the scenario, I had a squad of Germans (2 SMG, 6 Rifle, LMG) facing a very weak platoon of 19 Russians (4 SMG, DP LMG, 14 Rifles) over control of the farm complex in the center of the map.

The Germans were set up as follows:

The Russians were set up as follows:

Here is the map at the start of the game. North is to the left.

While I'm at it, I'll throw in a quick word about the rules I'm using- they require very small six sided dice (D6s in wargame parlance) to be thrown for all the figures and placed in their hexes- this marks how much initiaitive they have. A turn is composed of 6 impulses. Both sides alternate one hex at a time, activating units that have the same initiative dice as the impulse (e.g. only units with "1" can activate in impulse one). This seems to leave a bit of "fog of war" in the game, as you never really know just what order things are going to happen (as will be seen in the game-replay that follows).

I actually based the units on magnets that I trimmed to their base size- this allows them to stand up (the weight of the magnet seems to help a lot) and it lets me mark the units by placing washers under them. The Germans in the above picture, for example, are marked green and are moving (which effects their firing attempts, how far they can move next time, and their target class if fired on).

I use markers to indicate a unit is currently moving (green), firing (red), pinned (white) or doing nothing (no marker at all). This effects the targeting of the enemy and also helps negate the helecopter effect a little bit. When firing, one has to take the closest enemy target in that class (Moving, Firing, or Doing nothing) as its main focal point for the attack (automatic weapons do have a hex spread though- so they can actually hit more than one hex).

But enough with the esoteric stuff. On to the game !

Turn 1- The Russians sent most of their SMG guys to the trees on their right flank, in order to interdict the road leading to the farmhouse complex the Germans were on. The DP set up at the base of the road to provide fire support, and the remainder made for the farm buildings on by taking the left side of the road. The Germans split their forces so as to get to the farm buildings nearest them first.

Turn 2- The Russians began to enter the woods on their right flank, while the rest made as quickly as possible to the closest farm building. The Germans, rolling badly for the initiative, were forced to set up their LMG in the field, so as to get shots at the advancing Russian horde. A lone SMG guy ran up the road to sieze the farmhouse that was furthest to the north. Half of the rest fanned out across the field, while 2 troopers went in to sieze the barn (building "C" - the biggest building).

Turn 3- The Germans rolled badly on the initiative dice, and as a result, the LMG in the field was cut down by long range Russian DP LMG fire. A bad loss of firepower, but on the plus side they managed to capture the barn and get into firing positions behind the trees.

Turn 4 & 5- The Germans, now in good firing positions, begin taking their toll of the advancing Russians (hence they are marked with red "fired" markers). The Russian DP LMG becomes a casualty, weakening their firepower. The Russian attempts to suppress this fire fails miserably. The Russians running pell-mell to the farmhouse arrive and begin to enter it, as well as lay fire on the Germans in the barn.

Turn 6 & 7- After an ineffectual grenade attack (they all bounced off the windows and fell into the yard harmlessly) the Russians rush the barn, and are met with a hail of gunfire, driving the initial attackers back and killing a few. The German SMG guy in the small farmouse at the top of the picture picked off some attackers creeping up on the far side of the barn. On the flank, the Russian SMGs begin taking their toll and supressing the outnumbered Germans by the field. Despite this, the Germans are holding their own, but barely.

And then... it happens ! The German SMG guy just south of the barn heroizes and begins taking out the Russian SMG guys in the woods with some great shots. With their flank secure, now they can concentrate all their attention on the groups rushing the Barn. "That ought to earn me an Iron Cross, ay ?" is overheard. Unfortunately the picture came out a little blurry, so I think he would be denied. Of course, he would have to survive the game :D

Turn 8 & 9- The Russians get a lucky kill on the SMG guy in the house and enter the barn. The few Germans coming from the field to the south for support are too late to save the day and are caught between the field and the barn. When the last German SMG guy goes down, the game is over. The Russians have won !

The game took 1.5 hours to play, and simulated about 5 1/2 minutes of real time. It had enough drama in it to want me to write an after action report. I didn't use wounds (I treated all hits as fatal), which would've lengthened the game a little bit, but it would've added even more drama.

Time to start getting things ready for Historicon, coming up in about a week.....

Making Unit Counters

2008-07-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Since I have all these nicely painted figures, it would be a good thing to be able to make unit counters (for the campaign map and even as reference for the tactical game) instead of generic counters. I'm making 1/2" counters here for use in the Vidi Vini Vici campaign game. Click on the picure for a better view of the draft print.

For graphics, I took some good high-res pictures of the figures that were going to be used.

I had to doctor the figure pictures so that there colors are more contrasting (when you shrink them down to fit on 1/2 inch counters, they lose a bit of resolution, so this helps compensate for that) and remove the background white, creating a transparent mask (so I can make counters of different countries different colors- see picture at the bottom).

These *.PNGs I import into my drawing program (Visio). I add the counter info, counter outlines then paste the PNGs into them. I use layers to organize and help me with editing, as it can get pretty messy when you have to say, change the color of 1 stat so that it appears better on the counter when you have a page full of counters.

I wanted these as double-side counters with a weaker strength and ID on the back, so I divided the page in half, where the 1st half (the color PNGs in the picture) is mirrored by the second half (the gray PNGs in the picture). This way when I cut the page in 2 halves and mount the 1st half on cardboard, I can turn the cardboard around and mount the 2nd half and it will line up reasonably well. Note that I use 1/2" boxes around the counters on the 1st half of the page, but make them transparent on the 2nd half. You use the boxed side of the counter sheet to cut them out. That way, if your alignment is not perfect, you still get reasonable looking counters.

A word of advice, be sure that second half of the page is a mirror of the 1st or your counter backsides will be wrong ! In this case it did not matter, as each horizontal row was composed of the same counters. It becomes important if you have say an ID on the front you want to match with the one on the back.

I printed this sheet out on an 8 1/2" x 11" full label sheet (Avery Laserjet Labels).All I had to do was cut the page in two halves, peel and stick the halves on some thick-ish cardboard (being careful to line them up as well as possible). In no time I had some decent counters. With a few clicks, I could create army counters in various colors, such as the Red army counter below

I can't wait to get more of my troops re-based (especially the cavalry)- I'll be able to expand my troop types and army possibilities.

The Map and Terrain Generation

2008-07-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

I do have 3" hexes and other terrain I can use, but they are too heavy to haul around. So I generated and printed a 3" grass hex map that is the battlefield for my campaign game battles. It wound up to be a 40" x 48" map when I printed it. Click on the picture to get a better view of the hex grain.

For my terrain, I printed 20 woods and 20 hill templates on clear acetate that can be randomly generated by the players for the terrain setup of the battlefield. I also created two template card decks for the woods and hills templates so that they can be selected when that terrain appears on the map.

To standardize the setup of terrain and forces, I segmented the map into zones for the attacker and defender, as well as marked where the possible terrain points on the map are. In the picture, the setup zones are denoted by the yellow blocks. The green blocks are where woods can appear, and the gray blocks where hills can appear.

For randomizing the terrain, there are two terrain pools of markers- woods and hills. The composition of those terrain pools is a mixture of blanks and non-blanks that depends on the terrain in the strategic map battle hex. There are 8 woods points on the board and 8 hill points on board. Each side chooses 4 woods markers and 4 hill markers randomly from the appropriate pools.

They get to look at their markers and decide where to place them, alternating one at a time at the points on the board. If the marker is not a blank the player randomly picks a template card, then places the template on the card in on that map point in any way they desire, as long as the template ID printed on the template covers the terrain point on the board. A plus with using clear acetate is that the template can be turned over on its back and used, creating even more variety than otherwise possible.

Here is a picture of a randomly generated map using the above system. I've denoted the start areas for clarity (the defender is at bottom of the picture). It takes about 5 min to setup and create.

Here is a setup for this particular battle and how it looks with the templates and flocked figures. The white tower in the bottom left is a space holder for the defender's camp- I don't have any yet, but

I'm working on it !

Here is what the map looks like if I want to add my trees and 3D terrain hexes into the mix.

All in all, I am pleased with the results. I can easily and quickly generate terrain boards to handle the many, many battles Vini Vidi Vici will generate.

A word on logistics

2008-07-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

"Armchair generals talk tactics. Real generals talk logistics"

The logistics I'm talking about here are the storage and transport miniature armies. It does no good to have a large collection of figures, rules, and terrain if I can't get it to the players who want to play the game ! What I've found out (from others as well as trial and error- emphasis on the "error") is described below.

I finished rebasing the Romans and most of the Carthaginians on individual metal flocked bases. Here is a picture of 3 of the 5 trays I had done. Needless to say, it is a lot of troops (over 700 at last count) and I still have many, many more to go.

After all that work, there is a problem that crops up- where do I put all these figures for storage and transport ?

Ideally, I need a storage medium that is flexible to handle the various size of armies I have, be pretty tough and stackable for transport and storage, and keep the figures from getting banged up.

I use those cheap plastic tackle boxes (these figure fit into 5 of them) with strong 1" magnetic strips glued onto the bottom. I had magnetic strips that had an adhesive on the backside, but some of the boxes I had did not have flat enough trays for the thick strips to take hold (so I had to glue them as well). In the future I will look for trays that have the flatest bottom possible !

Since my figures are on small metal bases they adhere to the magnets quite well. A word of caution- be sure that the base of the figure is lying flat on the magnet. When I fill a box, I shake it gently and see if any figure moves around- that one is not seated properly ! That one figure that is loose can cause damage to others and have a terrible pinball effect on the others in that row. An ugly sight with bent spears, swords, unbased figures all tumbled together......

It turns out that I can fit about 60 per row, or about 200 per box (less if cavalry- they take up about 2.5 times as much space). This means my 1st Roman army takes up 2 boxes, the Carthaginians 3 boxes. They are stackable and not too hard to transport.

All in all I'm pleased with the results. Now I have to repeat this process of basing-> flocking -> storage with my other armies (2nd Roman army, Germanic Barbarians, Asiatic Horde Cavarly and that is not even starting on the medievals). A lot of work still left to do