General d'Armee - first thoughts

Recently, we played a couple of games of General d'Armee at our regular ODMS game meetings.  These have been run by Sean (read about his gaming stuff over at Mad Mac's Attic), although I suspect that they have struck a chord with the group, and that we'll be playing more.

The rules are available from Too Fat Lardies, who sell the Reisswitz Press rules (that is the imprint of David Brown's current batch of rules).  These (GdA) are on a step up from General d'Brigade (GdB), and one of the chief differences is that now battalions and regiments are treated as somewhat generic in size, only differentiating by gross categories (large, regular, small, etc).  This is very similar to Black Powder, etc. and different from the earlier rules (GdB) - which had you using specific numbers of miniatures for different units, based on historical OB.  There are a ton of useful resources at David Brown's blog.

The turn sequence runs (roughly) like this -

1. Both sides dice for the number of Aides de Camp (ADC) available.
2. The ADCs are applied to units.
3. Each brigade is rolled for to see if it is Hesitant or not during that turn.
4. Both sides then roll 2d6 for initiative, subtracting 1 for each Hesitant brigade.
5. Winner chooses to go first or second.
6. First player orders and resolves Charges.
7. Second player orders and resolves Charges.
8. First player resolves moves.
9. Second player resolves moves.
10. First player resolves firing.
11. Second player resolves firing.
12. Melees (resulting from charges, or carried over) are resolved.

In all this is a pretty good sequence.

Firing is done (by regular formations and artillery) by the toss of two dice, and then modifiers are introduced.  The final result is consulted on a chart to see what the impact is (casualties, discipline test, etc).

Firing by skirmishers is done by granting the skirming formation a number of Casualty dice - roll them, and they cause a hit on 4,5,6.

Charges are handled first as a test, to see what the charge results are.  This may, or may not result in a melee or a volley being fired, as well as charging home, retiring, etc.

Melee's are resolved by each side having a number of casualty dice (as with skirmish fire), these are rolled and hits counted.  Then the winner of the melee is determined by  comparing these scored hits.

In all this is a good set of rules, with a lot of thought going into how the different formations, etc interact with each other.  Looking forward to playing some more of these, I may run a game or two myself in the near future.  Sean has published a Player's Guide over at his blog.

Here are some pictures from our most recent game, which was the battle of Maida 1806.

15mm Napoleonic Game hosted at Williamsburg Muster

I ran two games at the Williamsburg Muster.  The first was a Napoleonic game in 15mm, using the Neil Thomas rules (the version from "Wargaming: An Introduction"), between a British army and a French army.

The two armies were the same size (typical for NT rules), but the British were definitely mainly on the defensive, as they set up in an extended infantry line (with artillery) defending a church.  The French were assaulting the line, bringing their infantry up in column, while probing for local weakness with their artillery and cavalry.

The tactical problem to solve here for the English is: There is nothing that can stand up to the French Heavy Cavalry.  The problem for the French is: How to succeed against the superior English firepower, while assaulting (and no numerical superiority)?

British in Line, defending the church of San Miguel

The rules from the introduction book and the rules from the specialized Napoleonic book differ  in a few areas - one of them is how musketry (with special national characteristics) is treated, the other is how artillery (same consideration - special national characteristics) is treaty.  Here I think we used generic values, but a slight nod to British infantry musketry, since they used the 2 rank system vs. the more typical 3 rank system used by the French and most other nations.

British Cavalry move out from behind the line.

There were some other differences, notably the superior quality of the French Heavy Cavalry (only one unit, but what a unit!!).

French Infantry respond to British Cavalry

The French on the move past the village of Duertez.

French Columns and French Cavalry, advancing.

In all, it was a great game, the four players really enjoyed themselves, and we got to talk a lot about the typical characteristics of the Napoleonic period and Napoleonic wargaming.

Local wargaming club - active and moving forward

The Old Dominion Military Society has reformed and has been gaming weekly with great success for several months. We recently held our summer convention (Guns of August) at the local military museum, the Virginia War Museum in Newport News, and it was a great success.

Check out the after action report on the club blog.

A move, a return, a restart, and a resumption

Recently, the staff and adjutants at Gaming with Chuck HQ have undergone a move.  This is a return, in a way, back home.

Five years ago, upon completing my PhD, I went off into the world as a new professor, and after teaching for a few years, and serving as a research professor for a few years, Providence has brought us full circle, and we are now returning back to Newport News.

I will be teaching at a local university, and my daughter will be attending my alma mater, Christopher Newport University.  And, I have fallen back into step with my old wargaming club.  There is also talk of regular game days at GwC HQ, and also (gasp) rumors of regular roleplaying.  Where will all the time come from?  Still it is good to be coming home.

Soldier from the wars returning,

Spoiler of the taken town,

Here is ease that asks not earning;

Turn you in and sit you down.

Peace is come and wars are over,

Welcome you and welcome all,

While the charger crops the clover

And his bridle hangs in stall.

Now no more of winters biting,

Filth in trench from tall to spring,

Summers full of sweat and fighting

For the Kesar or the King.

Rest you, charger, rust you, bridle;

Kings and kesars, keep your pay;

Soldier, sit you down and idle

At the inn of night for aye.

      - A.E. Housman, 1922

I mentioned that I have fallen in with the old wargaming club, Old Dominion Military Society, which is now actively gaming again on a weekly basis.  Our summer convention (Guns of August) is being hosted at the Virginia War Museum.  We have plans underway for the new winter convention (Williamsburg Muster), returning to its regular February timeslot.  The local club is also talking about monthly game days (game nights?) where we rent out or acquire access to a large venue, for some big, serious, miniatures gaming.  Maybe at the Museum?  Maybe at a local community hall?  Still working the details.

Miniature gaming, so far, has been of the Thursday night variety.  Which means, typically, smallish games.  Some ODMS members have hosted great things - (The Rules with No Name, FrostGrave, Wings of Glory, DBA, etc etc), and this week we have some Ancients happening, and next week we have some Napoleonics happening.  All very good.

Boardgaming has been quite fun, and with our new game room (the den, or family room, in our new house is dedicated as a game room, with storage for all our board games, and a nice game table, some chairs, a couch, and a computer desk), we have been playing on a regular basis, as a family, and with some guests.   During the move, the inventory and packing/unpacking experience showed us that we have a lot of games that we really like, but haven't played in a while.  And some that we have never played.  To address those issues, we made a list of "games we have not played lately, but want to" and will be using that to schedule Wednesday night family game night. Several recent games of Fantastiqa have been quite fun, and looking forward to some Terra Mystica and maybe some Archon and/or Tempus.

Roleplaying has been discussed, especially with our return to the old stomping grounds, and so many of the players we love playing with from years ago.  There is talk of "getting the band back together" with some of the our old regulars, in an old fashioned roleplaying game (either fantasy, or maybe sci-fi).  Nothing yet, but details will appear in this fine publication.

Planned upcoming game activities -

Guns of August is going to be in a public place - so it will be a little bit different.  I am treating this as a recruiting and/or community outreach opportunity for both wargaming in general, and for the game club (ODMS).  I will be hosting four (introductory level) wargames, and am in the process of preparing handouts for each, to introduce some history, wargaming, and the rules being used.

1. Introduction to Medieval Wargames - very similar to the games I hosted at Guns of August 2016, with two games going on at once (maybe, Vikings/Saxons, and Crusaders/Saracens).  I'll be using the Neil Thomas introductory rules, and am working on a handout for this game.

2. Wargaming the Revolutionary War - I will probably use a smaller version of the scenario I ran at Thanksgiving 2015, which was a fictional Southern Campaign battle, set in South Carolina 1780.  I won't be using Black Powder for this, because I want it completely friendly to newcomers and kids.  Either some homebrew rules (Patriot's Blood) or Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules adapted for the purpose.

3. Introduction to Renaissance Wargaming - This one will be a lot like the first one, with two battles (four armies), and using the Neil Thomas rules.  One of the battles will most likely be French/Imperialist vs. Italians.  The other might be English Civil War.  Again, similar to the solo Renaissance game I did back in 2016.  The main feather here is the history of the period, and trying to get people interested, so I am working on a nice handout.

4. Introduction to Medieval Wargaming - This one is a conundrum for me.  I have a couple of ideas.  The first is to do the same thing I plan for number 1 above, but maybe with different armies.  The second is to do a 28mm scale game using Lion Rampant, to show what medieval games are like, at that weird mix between skirmish and full army battles (such as LR, but also Saga and some others).  The third idea is to use the Chainmail rules such as my recent games supporting the Lord of the Manor project, and use the handout session to show the connection between miniatures games and the later roleplaying game revolution.  Still deciding this one.

Lots more coming up, including finishing some of the projects here (dark ages wargaming, retro reviews, etc).  Watch this space.

Gaming at Fall In

So, although the weekend was very busy with me attending to online business with my Graduate Students, in the evening on Friday and Saturday I got to participate in some fine wargames.

First, on Friday, I got to play in Patrick Berkebile's most excellent game of Regimental Fire & Fury.  The scenario was the battle of the Wheatfield, during Gettysburg. 

I got to participate on the Union side, commanding the divisions of Zook and Cross.  It was great fun, and the battle looked fantastic.

Gettysburg: Into the Wheatfield (painting by Bradley Schmehl)

A portion of Zook's division, encountering some Confederates, coming through the rough between the fields

Patrick has been painting up the forces himself (in usual excellent manner) in 6mm.  The battlefield was done as a battle mat (that Patrick made, painting the features on canvas, and then adding flocking and details), over a contour layer of styrofoam for hills and rises.  Finally, all was pinned down for stability, and the trees were also pinned through the canvas into the styrofoam hills and foam layer under the map.

Bigelow's Artillery - also under my command

Gil Bates - Confederate Commander

Ralph Krebs, Confederate Commander (and far left, Mac, my ally)

Zook's infantry, out of command and disordered

Fighting in the wheatfields, and in the rough in between

Assault up the hill!

Other players included Gil Bates and Ralph Krebs on the Confederate side, and others.  Patrick knew the rules (and the scenario) very well (a must if you are going to run a convention game), and it was a completely enjoyable experience, that Patrick kept moving along very nicely.

Then, on Saturday, the ODMS lads played a great old game of The Sword and the Flame!  It was a Sudan scenario, with 14 units (and a gun) on the Dervish side, and 6 units (and a nordenfeldt) on the Anglo-Egyptian side.  There is a great write up (with lots of pictures) over at the Old Dominion Military Society blog.

ODMS Lads engaging in fine shenanigans!

Lots of cool games, and I did make some minor purchases (I got Rebellion! - the American Revolutionary War supplement for Black Powder, as well as some terrain building items).  A great convention - some extra pictures below.

Naval Wargaming article - over at ODMS blog

In anticipation of the upcoming Williamsburg Muster, which as War at Sea: Wargaming Naval History as it's theme, there is an article about Naval Wargaming (with lots of links to rules, some free, and some otherwise) over at the ODMS blog.

Some additional Naval Wargaming resources -

Naval Wargames Society (lots of free rules)

Interesting History of Naval Wargaming

History of Naval Wargames mostly as used by the USN

Wargaming at the US Navy Staff College

Archived Victory at Sea resource page.

A scan of the (long out of print, since 1975) rules, Don't Give Up The Ship

1975 Sailing Ship rules from Gygax, Arneson & Carr

Steam - An excellent session at Williamsburg Muster

Williamsburg Muster (our next convention will be Guns of August, Aug 12-14) was last weekend, in Williamsburg, Virginia.  It was an excellent time!  We had over 200 gamers come to the convention, in addition to the 70 staff and vendor bodies that were there (but hey - we all get to play at the Muster)!

One of the things I got to do (more later some of the other stuff I was part of) was play a great game of Steam on Friday night with some old friends and some new friends.  Steam is a relatively new re-implementation of Age of Steam, from the genius of Martin Wallace.  Great game, with turns (in the basic game) consisting of (1) choosing roles (which grant special privileges through the turn; (2) building tracks and city improvements; (3) moving cargoes; and (4) adjusting income.  In the advance game, rather than choose roles, they are auctioned off.  It adds a good deal more strategy, but with the addition of an auction and also a money sink.

Around the table were Jeremy C (Black), Bob W (Natural), Byron C (White), Jake DT (Green) and myself (Orange).  We played (since I only had the base set, and we had 5 players) the Germany map.

{Not actually our game}

The game was great.  The thing I love about Steam (other than role selection, building, and TRAINS!!!) is that there are several paths to victory.  We played the basic version, which allows for money borrowing at any time, and also allows for role selection in order (vs. bidding for it each turn, which makes the game economy harder by creating a resource sink, but I digress into game theory).

{Actually our game}

Anyway, at the end of the game, the four of us other than Jake were pretty closely grouped together.  Jake, on the other hand, had over 10 points more than any of us.  Fun, but disgruntling.  I definitely want to play more!

When I got Steam, I was definitely interested in a tile based train game.  The other options open to me would be to find a used copy of Railroad Tycoon, a copy of Age of Steam, Railways of the World or some other tile based railroad game (less popular than those).  Age of Steam has a zillion supplements available for it, many of which seem to be compatible with Steam.  But between those two Steam wins, because it is (1) more casual gamer friendly, and (2) has more attractive components.  Railroad Tycoon is based on one of my favorite computer game franchises, is ALSO a Martin Wallace design (albeit with development by Glenn Drover of Eagle Games), and has AWESOME plastic bits for the towns.  However . . . the board is HUGE (3 feet by almost 4 feet), and won't fit on most tables.  It has been replaced by Railways of the World - which was the serious contender against Steam.  In the end, I think I chose Steam because of all the Age of Steam variants that could be accessed.  However, there are already several nice new boards, etc out for Railways of the world. From talking with some TAGS guys (Jake, who played, and David) it appears as if there are enough differences to possibly warrant also getting Railways of the World, one day when I'm rich and famous.

The Good Fellows playing at Williamsburg Muster

Autumn Gaming is Approaching

After a very successful "end of summer" wargaming event - the ODMS convention, Guns of August, the staff from Gaming with Chuck is looking forward to some Autumn Wargaming.

Autumn is coming at us hard and fast, like a Monkey riding a Goat, and if the schedule isn't filled up soon with some gaming activities, then all of the normal stuff that takes place this time of year will ensure that there ain't no gaming! So to keep that from happening, we hear at staff HQ are going to try to do some weekly boardgaming, as well as an occasional Thursday night wargame with the ODMS guys.

Upcoming possible wargaming projects include:
DBA campaign revolving around Phillip II's conquests (being organized by Cliff)
Victorian Colonials (TSATF) (by me)
Cold War Commander (Wayne and Scott)
My Galley Sally (Dave D)
C&C:Ancients (Wayne)

Boardgaming at HQ will likely include:
Zombie Dice
Pandemic
Agricola
Albion
Steam
Wizard Kings (maybe...)
And the usual (see the Boardgames tag for more on what usually goes on around here for boardgaming)

Tags: wargames, boardgames

The Mighty Hoffhandel River

My recent Shako game at the Hangar on June 19 was a great time.

On the Italian/French side we had Generalissimo Callahan leading four divisions of Italians, with Marshal Dietrich coming on later with two divisions of French.

On the Prussian/British side we had Fieldmarshal Von Kidd commanding four divisions of Prussians, with Major-General Terry arriving with two divisions of British troops.

The game was interesting, with the two main forces taking different tactical approaches. The Italians were more hesitant than the Prussians, choosing mainly to hold onto the villages on their side of the river, while their divisions on the Italian left took up a defensive position to await the arrival of the British.

On the Prussian side, there was a very aggressive advance, on the Prussian left leading with two advance battalions of Guard Infantry, and in the center with charging columns of troops assaulting across the central bridge, led by Fusiliers but followed up by Regular Infantry and Reservist Battalions.

The British divisions arrived, and proceeded to take the upper hand (pretty quickly) against the Italians. At one point, an Italian battalion trying to withdraw to a defensible position between a forest and the river's edge, was ridden down by a unit of Royal Scots Greys.

Other action saw a battalion of French Grenadiers assaulting the village of Turnip, which was held at the time by some Prussian Reservist infantry. After a nasty firefight, the Grenadiers proceeded to oust the Prussian infantry, and the French held the town.

In the end it was a slight victory to the Italian/French side (13 VP to 10 VP), but might very well have changed if additional turns were played. The scenario was quite enjoyable, and deserves to be played again.

Some pictures are online at my Flickr site.

Tags: wargaming, miniatures, napoleonics, Shako

Crossing the Hoffhandel - ODMS game June 19

This is a fictional Napoleonic scenario, set in 1813. An Italian Corps encounters a Prussian Corps, during the fight to relieve Germany. The two forces meet, north to south, in a river valley, fighting over the network of roads and towns surrounding a few bridges of military value (sturdy, stone bridges). The game will be played June 19, at the Hangar.

Both sides have allies, not in the immediate area at the start of the battle, but 2 divisions of French are arriving from the East, and 2 divisions of British are arriving from the West.

The decisions of the French and British commanders at the start of the game determine their starting positions and turn of arrival, but these data are not known by the other players at the start of the game.

Here is the terrain at start of game:

And here is the initial deployment:

Tags: wargames, napoleonics

Great Game last night

At the weekly ODMS meeting, the chief of staff for Gaming with Chuck played a great game of Shako II last night with Wayne, vs. Kai and John Callahan.

The rules went a whole lot slower than in other recent games, but it was fun nevertheless.

The forces were:

Wayne & Chuck - three Allied Divisions (Prussians and Russians)
Kai & John - three French and Italian divisions

A meeting engagement in an open field (somewhat boring, but a good way to learn the basic rules).



Tags: napoleonics, wargaming, miniatures

Prepare for Basing

A batch of 1813 Prussians (enough, in fact, to do the Shako II 1813-1814 Prussian Standard Army referenced here) are assembled for Basing by the staff of Gaming with Chuck.

Bases to be used will be from Gale Force Nine. See the white chinese food container.

This is in preparation for the Shako II game being hosted at the Hangar (ODMS) in June. The game will be held on June 19, at 10:00am, and the scenario is called "Crossing the Hoffhandel". It is based on a mixed alliance on both sides (Prussian/British vs. Italian/French).

Tags: wargaming, miniatures, napoleonics, prussia