Morris' Wargaming Escapades

By well produced I mean having some of these elements: fixed or steadied cam, close-ups, dramatics cuts, VFX effects, overlays of rule mechanics, good banter, etc. Of those that I have seen, these are the ones I've enjoyed the most. I will highlight one video from each, If you have other favorites, please feel free to add them in the comments.  Compact Conflicts TV . Highlight: Their two hours  New England Wargame Campaign  is for me an archetype of a well-run campaign. It has land battles, naval battles, intrigue, diplomacy, scouting, role-playing, spies, uniform larping.  The Crusty Colonel's Wargames Show. Highlight: The Battle of Austerlitz  done in 2mm with a homebred variant of 2x2 Napoleonics called Sacre Blue  is a joy to behold and an ode to streamlining. Minis, My Way. Highlight:  Ottoman-Venetian naval battle using Galleys & Galleons. Hard to produce a more gorgeous naval report.  7th Son : Highlight: this   La Haye Saint...

This is the report of the first month of upheavals and the first decisive battle fought in the Peninsula. I'm using these rules: Campaign Rules: Domino Theory Campaign from No End in Sight (Ivan Sorensen). This campaign motor was intended for the Cold War, but it works perfectly for any conflict that has a strong ideological component like the Napoleonic Wars. It works on the basis of two tables. Each turn there are two random rolls, one in the Spread of Ideology table and another in the Spread of Order table . To these rolls a third is added depending on the outcome of that month's main battle. A very clever system by a designer notorious for rules such as Five Parsecs From Home. Tabletop rules: Simplicity in Practice by Neil Thomas (house rule: +2 for each melee factor, not +2 dice) Situation at the onset Simplified map of the Peninsula The numbers in each region represent Alignment. Positive numbers stand for Susceptibility to revolutionary ideals and the negative ones ...

I wanted to test a ruleset from the classic magazine The Courier called Showdown (n. 71, 1996). These Old West skirmish rules were designed by Samuel D. Campbell and, in short, they are amazing. More on how they work after the battlerep.   Father Morrison and Miss Brodie, the schoolmaster, flank one of the most 'advanced' pupils, Tress Hollister. They have rushed to the entrance arms in hand. The school is next to the ruins of and old hacienda This evening they sense something ominous out there Three ne'er-do-wells are near the grounds. 'Graybeard', 'Whitebeard' and 'The Deserter' Do they intend to drag the girls back to the darkness of Saloons? In this game I just control Tress Hollister. The other figures, friends and foes, are managed by the rules solo system Miss Brodie, though severely wounded, kills Graybeard. No one messes with her protegees.  Tress is behind cover, but she is rushed by The Deserter He fires point blank and wounds her Father ...

 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.

A contested river crossing is one of the hardest situations in warfare. I present scenario 5 from the book One-Hour Wargames , but resolved using another Neil Thomas' ruleset called Simplicity in Practice (SiP). For adaptation notes see my first battlerep with this combo HERE .   The objective of the scenario for BLUE is to consolidate a bridgehead north of the river The composition of the armies is: BLUE: 4 infantry, 1 skirmishers, 1 cavalry RED: 3 infantry, 1 skirmishers, 2 cavalry Blue will arrive along the road and Red piecemeal at three random points: west of the woods, on the road and east of the hill.   At the start BLUE has a single unit north of the river: shadowy voltigeurs  have taken the woods. The first RED units show up west of the woods Since cavalry cannot enter the woods, they take a tortuous route around them. Unseen, the lurking skirmishers take aim BLUE cavalry crosses the bridge benefiting from a road move of 30cm.  In a river crossing, Space i...