Morris' Wargaming Escapades

 * Get my Napoleon in Egypt Campaign going. I've got the campaign map hanged on the wall (see below) plus enough Wofun miniatures for the French, British, Mamelukes and the two Ottoman factions. What am I waiting for? The Directory is not happy with this delay in launching the expedition. Stop studying the map at the Topographical Bureau and get to sea!! * Paint enough  Black Powder Epic Battles  strips to have at least 9 units for the French and 9 for the British. * Consolidate all my house-rules for Simplicity in Practice in a document (I love this ruleset! Pure alchemy achieved by distillation by Neil Thomas). * Maybe? get into naval wargaming in the Napoleonic Era. I have been looking at old rulesets that appeared in MWAN such as As per Margin  by Aelred Glidden (MWAN 109), and the simple rules in Donald Featherstone's Naval War Games by the likes of Tony Bath. Also very tempted by the idea of converting the SPI boardgame Fighting Sail (1981) to t...

 My Christmas game used Simplicity in practice by Neil Thomas on a 2'x2' mat. Rules mostly as written and two Wofun bases per unit (6 cm wide). A new houserule I used is that if a unit is firing uphill, the target gets to save as if in cover. I got this modifier from an old ACW ruleset called Whipping Bobby Lee (1990), and I think it makes sense given the ballistics of musket and cannon fire. It also encourages taking positions on heights. Nevertheless, it is uncommon to find this modifier in rulesets.

Today I played a game of 1814: Empire's End , a 2p wargame designed by Eric Walters. During his career in the army,  the designer applied conflict simulation as a teaching tool in the Marine Corps and the Joint Advanced Warfighting Division within the Institute for Defense Analyses. You can read an interview about this approach HERE . This accumulated experience tells in the game. The rules are very simple (it takes 15 mins. to learn them), but conceptually and without unnecessary die-rolls they show a deep understanding of the important factors in Napoleonic warfare: supply lines. stragglers, forced marches, bypassing fortresses when time is a factor, etc.. In short, with just 16 counters and a letter size map, it is one of the most elegant designs about the period one can play. As a bonus, admirers of Napoleon's strategical brilliance playing the french side get to unleash his characteristic one-two punch-and-move maneuvers.             ...

In my opinion, these are the best Horse & Musket rules (of those that I've read!) that appeared originally as magazine articles. I rate them mainly for the originality of the ideas presented and playability.  If you have any another favorite, please tell me in the comments. Simplicity in practice by Neil Thomas (Generic Horse and Musket) — Battlegames #23 Rules for the mid-eigtheenth century by Stephen Simpson (Jacobite Rebellion, French and Indian war, 7YW) — Wargames Illustrated #75, with scenarios in #134 The rules with no name by Brian Ansell (Skirmish ACW, Old West) — Wargames Illustrated #105, with optional rules in #106, #114. Also published in MWAN #82 Aelred Glidden's Napoleonic Rules (Napoleonic) — MWAN #87 with clarifications in MWAN #106 Victoria Cross by Gerard W. Quinn (Colonial) — MWAN #105 Our Brutal Rules by Chris Brown and the Thule Gamers (ACW) — ACW Gamer #5 On to Richmond by Paul Koch (ACW) — The_Courier Vol.3 No.5 with clarifications on...

 1. Command Radius . Ok, it may work if there is only one general (like in DBA), but this business of each commander having his own radius as if it is a shouting contest... Wally Simon debunked it long ago better than I could: "There was only one way Kris could maintain control of his entire division, keeping them all within his magical 3 inch radius, and that was to continually scrunch all six units together in one solid mass, cavalry, infantry and artillery [...] There are many gaming ploys that deal with command response functions, systems that supposedly reproduce the difficulties of commanders keeping their forces under their control, and, in my considered opinion, the 'mysterious aura' ploy is probably the worst of them all"  (PW Review May 1999) Guilty party example: Grande Armée. 2. Rerolls . The kind of rerolls that bother me are not those tied to some mechanic but what I call the insert-coin reroll. You start the battle with X rerolls and you may use them wh...

 Reading one of the wargaming pioneers always gets one thinking. This time the book was Terence Wise's  American Civil War Wargaming  (Airfix, 1977). In the rules in this book smoke is simulated and has effects on line of sight and charges. Wise has quite a convoluted system that links smoke movement to a unit's rate of fire (in a way, smoke has a proprietary unit!). What I found really thought provoking is his "Charging through smoke" section that forces a unit to use this fabulous  charge deviation template: Therefore, the unit can get completely lost, charge the wrong unit, expose a flank, etc. How cool! Is simulating smoke worth the time and hassle? Wouldn't it force the players to establish wind direction, strength and changes like in a naval wargame? However, by not doing it, are we not ignoring an important factor that was often decisive? These are the questions that crowded my head. To see if something (relatively) simple could be done, I drafted this quic...

Today being August 15, the birthday of Napoleon, I decided to replay the first position in the battle of Roliça. The gamebook is Mike Lambo's Battles of Napoleonic Europe , but played in the recent spruced up French version. This time Delaborde outdid history and managed to hold the hill, but he died while directing personally an artillery battery. Wonderful solo game with 20 customs AIs tailored to each scenario.