This seems to be what I will be doing in my spare time for the next year and a half. Me, and my buddy who just finished a biography of William, Prince of Orange, later to be king. He's awesome with archives. He's awesome in writing. I was honoured to be asked by him to cooperate on a book.
The idea is that we don't just write the next account of Waterloo, although that hasn't been done in Dutch for quite some time. My buddy brings along a mastery of the political, cultural and social history of the period, both in the Netherlands and Europe. I bring my military and economic interests. Together we can make something special happen.
We have a publisher. We have a rough deadline. We have a rough planning and a rough outline..
For me this is and incredibly exciting idea. A once in a lifetime opportunity and somebody who will kick my butt and keep me on track.
This will require an unprecedented amount of self control and focus on my part. It will probably mean me taking unpaid leave for a few months.
So it also should mean I will be posting here less. And it should mean that when I post, I will not be all over the place, and more about Waterloo than before. Life could be worse for you.
In this rear guard action, there's an opportunity for a counter attack. And I'm taking it.
I feel I've been very fortunate this last couple of weeks since the holidays. Not only did I attract lots of hits (by my standards) but even more rewarding, lots of comments. And a few more followers. And I appreciate followers the more because as the first few, you are not merely threading the beaten path with the flock, no, you are followers of your own volition.
So, welcome:
#37 Gary Amos, from Happy Valley. Briton with eclectic taste in historical wargaming
#36 Rob Hingley from Captain's Blog. Canadian miniature wargamer who makes British eclectics look picky
#35 Mike from Mike's Wargame Blog. Miniature wargamer
with preference for Napoleonics and 15mm
#34 Clint, who doesn't admit to having a weblog. Good comments!
#33 Grigork from The Megalomaniac. Another eclectic Briton, even dabbles in SciFi and Fantasy
and thanks to the Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist blog for his generous words. If you don't like dead bishops (how can you not like them?) maybe you are still in time for his prize draw.
I haven't done this for my first 32 followers yet, but I will make up for that sometime soon.
In yesterday's post I made a reference to Gary Gygax, major Von Reiswitz and Phil Barker. I'll explain, as promised.
More about this below...
As I discovered megagaming in 1993 I also came into contact with Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group in London and became a loyal but not very active member. But at least I get my copy of the club magazine, Military Muddling with reports on design sessions and I occasionally go to meetings, like the annual picnic or games weekend.
At the games weekend there's two days of game design sessions, with the evenings available for after dinner games. One of the few times I was around (in 1996) it was a good session of Four Men in a Balloon, where all the passengers had to make their case not to be the one thrown out this round. In this case the passengers were Don Featherstone, Gary Gygax, major Von Reiswitz and Phil Barker arguing their value to the wargaming hobby. And I represented the latter.
Phil was the second to be released after the major, but in the end Gary Gygax survived rather than Don Featherstone. It was something to do with polearms, I believe. I think that is a good indication of the mindset at Chestnut Lodge, with a heavy emphasis on role playing even in a miniatures game.
The guys even autographed my copy!
But the best after dinner game was the bard competition we had afterwards. The idea was that we were given an episode of the life of Harald Hardrada and then turn this into Nordic poetry, so with lots of alliteration, reference to mythical animals etc. Jonathan Pickles put up a copy of Snorri Sturluson's King Harald's Saga for the winner and that proved to be me.
I never read the full story, but it is obvious that Harald was a bit of a poser. He traveled around much of the known world, but always seemed to get into trouble and be forced to move on rather in a hurry. In the end he lost the battle of Stamford Bridge against Harold Godwinson a few weeks before the latter was beaten by William of Normandy, later known as the Conqueror, at Hastings.
Harald's predicaments were of course part of the amusement, as the ´bards´ had to gloss over these inconveniences and portray them in a more positive light. In most cases I opted for outright lies rather than spinning the evidence. I suspect that my reward was more out of kindness to the foreigner who had come so far to join in the proceedings than on the basis of my superior poetic skills in a second language.
But coming back to yesterday´s theme it is interesting that although my memory is hazy, these games I remember much better than many regular miniature games. Just like I remember the Peasant´s Crusade game that Graham Hockley put on that weekend, which was a string of grown men weaving around a playground à la Polonaise, with every break in the chain signifying losses to the expedition. You can imagine that once we´d crossed a few obstacles our chances of ever reaching Jerusalem, let alone ´liberating´ it, were null.
It's all very tempting to look back these days. There was 100 years of H.G. Wells' Little Wars, then Willem Schoppen, the ´Dutch Donald Featherstone´ was taken into hospital and then The Donald himself passed away. It feels like the end of an era.
Welsh Guards (Wargaming Miscellany: Bob Cordery)
Given the massive outpooring of reminiscences in the blogosphere, it feels like in a sense we are now paying our last respects to the last wargaming pioneers. Wells who made the transition from an officers' teaching tool to a civilian's game, Featherstone who popularised it in the Anglo-Saxon world, Schoppen who popularised it in the Netherlands.
Look at the sense of novelty and pioneering this old hand describes in his memories of wargaming in the 1950s and 60s. Or read Achtung Schweinhund by Harry Pearson for a more elaborate depiction of those years. There is a recent spate of books on wargaming, boardgaming and roleplaying history. But of course, the pioneering era ended some decades ago already. Don Featherstone has already been 'succeeded' by others.
Okay, no Featherstone, but I do have some gamer cred
I just found out I actually have no book by Featherstone at all! I always took him as an icon whose designs had been surpassed by new generations of writers like Bruce Quarry and Stuart Asquith, of whom I have several books each.
Starting wargaming with Hinchliffe miniatures, I was then totally overwhelmed by Foundry's Franco-Prussian range. Just like Magic: the Gathering was a watershed in terms of visual appeal and gaming tension. I remember coming back from a games show and teaching all my friends how to play the next week and then buying them all starter packs the week after that.
Willem Schoppen and his wife from a Dutch popular science magazine in the early 1980s
To me, Willem Schoppen and his Boutique La Grande Armée are natural points of reference, but they are meaningless to most Dutch gamers of my age and younger. Donald Featherstone means nothing to tens of thousands of kids in GW stores worldwide, and neither does Gary Gygax, Von Reiswitz or Phil Barker (I'll share that story with you tomorrow). And they don't have to. Just like you don't need to have heard the Beatles to appreciate One Direction or to have read Marx to appreciate Lenin's writing.
And now there's discussion of a Golden Age in wargaming and boardgaming and on the other hand one of 'the hobby's dying out'. Lots of new stuff is happening. In terms of boardgaming the mechanical revolution has passed from the German/euro style games to wargames and Ameritrash. In wargaming the revolution is now mostly in highly thematic skirmishing rules after a period of highly formated competition rules. And design and marketing have received a welcome energy by crowdfunding schemes in the middle of a general crisis for gaming companies.
But as ever, there is a process of creative destruction going on. The success of Too Fat Lardies, Bolt Action and Flames of War will mean the quiet disappearance of other rule sets, just as Avalon Hill was eaten up by Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, Peter Laing and Minifigs have become memories of the past. Hinchliffe was sold to Skytrex and now Skytrex itself has gone into administration. Those that see only growth, just don't notice all that we leave behind.
There are counter movements though, like the one sparked by the Little Wars anniversary. I see a dozen gamers with a sense of nostalgia buying up their 54mm toy soldiers and playing Old Skool on their brittle knees in the garden again. I guess there is an age between 13 and 50 where you feel too serious about this kind of thing, just like you feel to serious to play monsters battles with Play-Doh. Wrong!
Grown Men (Hail! Hail! Freedonia: Jim Wallman)
Maybe we all just got old
And maybe that is what people yearn for the most when they hanker back to the good old days of Wells and Featherstone. A period when they were young, when it seemed the whole world was still there to explore and map and everybody was enjoying it. It all became more complicated with time. Wargaming became work, with lots of accounting and legal prose. Maybe as the world was mapped and better understood, players lost the freshness and joy in arguments over rules, regimental lace and the intricate mechanisms of phalanx combat.
We need to find back, bring back and/or keep alive that sheer fun of the game. I used to get up early to get to the club in time to play four games of Napoleonics for a club competition. I played 24 hour RPGs marathons. It was the best thing I could think of doing then and even though life now gets in the way much of the time, it still is one of the few ways of spending my time now totally engrossed, immersed, occupied and happy.
If you want to honour your heroes, if you want to keep this hobby alive but you worry about the fact that we can't get the youngsters in anymore, or if you just want an opponent for your dust covered Royalists, do it by playing. With anyone, anywhere, in any way possible, because mechanisms and realism and correct painting schemes don't matter. Just play that game with the same intent and joy as you played when you were playing with the Don.
I'm going to go through all the blogs I follow on Feedly and cast out as many as I can (a quarter would be nice).
The first on my list is Seth Godin's blog. Not because it's crap, it isn't. On the contrary, it has been an inspiration over the past few years as I was wondering about what I wanted to do with my life. One of his most important lessons (which I haven't fully internalised yet) is to get going. To start and set off without fear of failure. Now I realise that I must throw of some of the weight of stuff I look at so as to spend more time creating. I'm sure Seth will understand and support my decision.
I will throw out a few other things work related, where watching should turn to doing as well. The problem is that these days I have this list of blog posts I feel I need to take some time for to read at ease. And this just adds up because I never find the time, the list becomes endless and I just feel guilty.
My best salute to the blogs I'm throwing out is to mention them here so you can check them out. They are all valuable in their own right, but I need to create room and I'm not radical enough to just ignore all blogs, deactivate facebook and twitter. Besides, I still want to communicate with people. More than ever.
Front Towards Enemy (aka Miah´s Tannhauser blog). Previously dedicated to FFG's Tannhauser, but now includes reviews of new Dust (Tactics), Heroes of Normandie and Zombicide products. But it is best for its high quality self-designed stuff, like customised Zombicide survivors and map tiles.
2D6. A boardgaming blog with the focus on euro games, but with wargames and some Ameritrash as well.
Lonely Gamers. These guys have such beautifully painted minis: ACW, Napoleonics, Samurai, and the most wonderful colonial.
Opinionated Gamers. The old Boardgaming News site, without the news (which was acquired by Boardgamegeek.com). These guys, with the exception of Matt Carlson, all prefer euros over my beloved Ameritrash.
Military Obituaries. A tradition in the Daily Telegraph. Well written, often interesting people or interesting views on small actions in war.
Senchus. Author Tim Clarkson's blog on Dark Age Scotland.
Plastic Zombie. About zombies, obviously. Just much more creative about it than most other zombie lovers.
Civil War Horror. I'm a fan of Sean McLachlan's military history writing, like his Osprey books on western gunfights and the Battle of Adowa (1896 - Italians vs Ethiopians). He´s also a travel and fiction writer.
Korosho. This is self protection. This guy is a great designer of fantasy/scifi/nearfuture miniatures, with occassionally brilliant posts about the quality differences in 3d printing. So far I've managed to resist the temptation. I don't know how much longer I can hold out.
The Arabist. Some of the most original reporting on and from the Middle East. Puts most western pundits to shame.
Mark Mardell. I've followed Mark Mardell since he was BBC correspondent in Brussels, clearly disecting the behind the scenes issues in the EU. Now in the US.
Bruce Schneier. He's done great stuff on internet security, the surveillance state and how our society deals with non-conformist behaviour, often with a link military issues. That link is to a review of his great book Liars & Outliers.
Steve Buttry. An evangelist on using digital means in journalism. He's obviously ahead of most of the pack that still clings to paper. Good for suggestions on software and digital approach, as well as journalism in general.
Presentation Zen. A blog that looks at presenting from a bit more distance. I go there for inspiration when I have to make a presentation, and from this guy I took the useful rule: NO BULLET POINTS. There's always an image that conveys that point better. I've also learned to make presentations shorter (if you can bring your message in 15 minutes, you can do it in 5).
Die Eisfestung by Gabriele Hoffmann is a nice
piece of history writing in accessible German. It fits in well with the other very
readable history books that German publisher Piper provides to a broad audience. As far as I can see with few concessions to
the thoroughness of the research involved. Sadly the only illustrations in the
book are two very informative maps.
Hoffmann first
sketches the revolt in Hamburg
and the French recapture in Spring 1813, followed the French work on the fortifications
and the tribute imposed on the inhabitants during the Summer and Autumn. This
part of the book also sets the scene by introducing the main characters like
Davout and several more and less important inhabitants of the city.
The book paints a reasonably positive picture of Davout. His devotion to his wife and
children is only matched by that to Napoleon. The marshal puts his talents and
iron will at the service of the Emperor and everything in its path, including
his family, is shoved aside. “Die
Geschichte seiner grossen Militärkarriere is auch die Geschichte ihrer Geburten”,
Hoffmann writes pointedly.
Similarly,
any obstacle to the execution of his orders is overcome. In 1813 Davout is more determined than ever, trying to regain the favour of Napoleon after his fall from grace in the wake of the Russian debâcle. The only reason the marshal sees for leniency in dealing with the rebellious Hamburgers is that it will
induce some of them to return to the city and increase their contribution to
the overall goal. But as the allied troops under Benningsen close the ring
around Hamburg,
Davout does not hesitate to burn the outlying garden houses of the inhabitants to clear the field of fire for the defenders. He also throws the young men and the poor out of the city as he does
not trust them or wish to feed them.
For the
inhabitants the last year under French rule is tough. The embargo with England has
destroyed much of the trade and the only employment is on the French
constructions. With the French unforgiving in their effort to control the city, it loses much of its vibrancy. As
the siege is laid in late December, the only reason to stay is to protect property against the
French and looters. Only 55,000 of the over 100,000 inhabitants remain in the city, next to some 40,000 French, Italian, Dutch and German soldiers.
Many
Hamburgers therefore experience the siege from outside the walls of their
hometown. Soldiers from the Hanseatic League and
rebel leaders that have retreated with the Russians in Spring 1813, wives and
children of rich Hamburgers that were sent out of town during the Autumn. They
all depend on networks of kinship and trade relations for housing and
nourishment in Danish Holstein, liberated Mecklenburg or far off London. It is their
correspondence with relations in the city that provides Hoffmann with much of
her understanding of what the siege meant for civilians.
Map of the defenses of Hamburg in 1813/14
The siege
itself is not particularly exciting. The freezing cold poses problems for the
defenders as the main defense work, water, loses its function as an obstacle. Nevertheless,
Davout´s engineers come up with creative solutions, using horse dung and ice to
create new defences. Although Benningsen executes a number of attacks, he seems
content to keep Europe's most talented tactician inside Hamburg
with equal numbers.
This is
apparently also how Napoleon saw the situation. A letter that never reached
Davout the Emperor lambasts him for his inactivity against a weaker enemy. Together
with similar complaints of several senior officers of Davout´s corps during the
Autumn campaign, this paints an interesting contrast to the marshal´s martial
prowess in the previous years. Although nobody could question his continued devotion
to duty and skill as an organiser of troops, it is remarkable that after
returning from Russia,
he never again fought a major battle. Hoffmann slyly suggests that this may
have to do with traumatic experiences in 1812.
Despite the ever worsening news from France - first invasion, then defeat and abdication - Davout is determined to hold out for his master. The loyal commander will not depend on the rumours spread by his enemies for his decisions and awaits official instructions, which don't arrive until late April. It then also becomes apparent that the Bourbons and the allies have come to a peaceful agreement and the French can leave Hamburg undefeated.
Hamburg quickly returns to its former self as inhabitants come home and merchant ships arrive from all over the world. Some refugees have even
found
their new partner in exile. For many, this also signals the end of their correspondence or private notes as they turn to rebuilding their lives.
Despite his successful defense, Davout returns to France in disgrace, amid recriminations over his treatment of the population and the requisition of all bullion in the Hamburg bank. Although he now at last has time to devote to his family it is too late to see his son Jules, who was born and died during the siege. A year later the marshal will take centre stage for one final act in his tragic relationship with the man he has devoted his life to.
I have started with Pete Ruth's excellent report on GenCon and will add games from Eric Martin's preview list later. I'm also adding opinions and reviews from some people who've played the games in the run up to Essen, so you might want to check back once in a while. Your suggestions are also more than welcome!
I will be tweeting from the show as @jurdj on the Thursday and Friday and post a few pics if time allows. And Saturday on the way home we will play a few of the games we bought. In the run up and afterwards I will also post here at Rear Guard Action.
Summer is done, time to think about Essen. But I'm not psyched yet. I have not picked up any buzz around an Essen release. It seems some good stuff was shown at GenCon. See the extensive but great report from Superfly Circus.
Phil Ecklund explaining the rules to Pax Porfiriana at Essen 2012
I'm interested in the Mice & Mystics expansion. The Wreck Age minis look good, but I'm at least going to wait till it's affordable. The Pathfinder coop RPG sounds great. And then there's the Firefly game (although I never saw the show), the Blackwater Gulch western shoot out miniatures and Bioshock: Infinite, yes a boardgame of the videogame.
Democracy, one of the few kickstarters present at Essen 2012 made its funding goal and seems to get published soon
What I fear is that this year Essen will have more kickstarter/indiegogo stands, and fewer games in real development. That would change the atmosphere of the show. Anyway, not having a huge to-do list might actually make me more relaxed, even more so in the week after the show.
Of course, I'm on my honour to play every game I bought last year at least once and although I've managed Slavika and Kolejka once, and King of Tokyo and Gauntlet of Fools half a dozen times, Camp Roskilde has not been played since Essen. It leaves me with two games to play in the next two months:
The trouble in both cases is that I need to invest in reading the rules.
Last year I went full on with this list of interests at boardgamegeek. I followed up that list with a bunch of blog posts before and after the show.
Oh no... not another game!
Given that I am short of time I am thinking of not spending so much time this year on Essen reporting and of not committing myself to an Essen 2013 project (either by not buying games, or not forcing myself to actually play them. In which case: why bother buying them?). This all depends on big plans for writing books.
Yesterday´s post was about some favourite miniature rule sets, but later that night I also had a discussion about rule sets at the birthday of Michel with Hans and Ed.
Hans is working on a fantasy rule set (For Reign or Ruin, see him testing it here) and very interested in what happens before the battle and how that affects the battle. Delays in the arrival of troops or in their deployment would offer their enemies opportunities for pre-emptive attacks or send an battle plan into disarray. Pre-battle speeches could lift the hearts of the troops.
Ed is thinking not so much of a rule set, but more a scenario generator because he feels that in many rule sets there is no context to the battle and organising and above all keeping campaigns going is hard work.
Maurice, by Sam Mustafa
This made me think of Maurice, the 18th century European battles rule set by Sam Mustafa. It works with a card deck for special personalities, national characteristics and special events before and during the battle. Obviously, Maurice is in the direction of what Ed looks for, but not the final answer.
Another example of a new direction in wargaming is Dux Britanniarum, another Too Fat Lardies set about the struggle between Arthurian British and Anglo-Saxon invaders. The rules focus on the main characters in the war band as it raids or defends the frontier over several years. With rudimentary character generation like in an RPG and with opportunities to rise through the hierarchy and expand your force, the simple campaign rules offer a structure to each battle.
Dux Britanniarum by Too Fat Lardies
What I have noticed is, that as with other great games (like boardgames War of the Ring and Battlestar Galactica), immersion is so strong that the game generates and unprecedented literary effort as players write their battle reports as first-person stories in a long saga or even medieval ballads. I think that speak volumes of the appeal of this rule set.
What I like about the rules is that they are aimed on a small period of time (you know, just a century or two) and move away from the generic setting so common in ancient and medieval wargaming (why is there no rule set just for the Pelopponesian War?). The other side of the coin is that it offers only a relatively small sales volume at reasonably low costs for the designer.
I think there are opportunities for new products by combining card decks a la Maurice with limited ancients/medieval settings like Dux Britanniarum. The card sets build a mini campaign or act as a scenario builder, compatible with whatever rules people use to fight their battles. You could link it to new miniatures ranges, but I think there are also advantages in offering players new ways to use armies that they already have.
The upside is that creating a deck is not expensive. You can sell the decks themselves or offer them via print on demand services. It requires some research to include the kind of events and characters and the dynamics of a particular conflict or campaign. There are a lot of ancient and medieval wars and campaigns so this adds up.
A possible solution to that challenge is to provide a much larger set of cards that players can use to build decks for particular campaigns or wars themselves. It is a good way to engage players with the product. If you allow them to publish their decks on a forum it will build a community or when they publish in magazines they advertise for you.
What do you think? Is this something you are looking for? Do you think it is viable?
A couple of weeks ago I met Jasper and Jan-Willem and we discussed our favourite and not-so favourite miniature rule sets. This set me thinking.
G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. by Buck Surdu and De Bellis Multitudinis by Wargames Research Group
Jan-Willems favourite ruleset is G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. It is straightforward and fast. The game allows for storytelling and is easily adaptable for different settings, something Jan-Willem has done for several participation games.
But he really dislikes De Bellis Multitudinis, often known as DBM. It was a totally regressive development of the ancients ruleset De Bellis Antiquitatis, which was quite innovative. It introduced the now widely accepted PIPs and defined only a dozen troop types based on their role on the battlefield, assuming that weaponry and armour were less important. DBM however, recomplicated the game and reintroduced differences in armour etc, thus negating much that was good about DBA. It also did so in an excruciatingly bad writing style but most of all it was a bad ruleset and no fun.
Note; also check out the excellent fantasy rules Hordes of the Things, which keeps the spirit of DBA and in my humble opinion, makes it even better!
Black Powder by Warlord Games
The newish Black Powder ruleset is Jasper´s favourite. It fast and simple. Rather than focussed on tournament battles it aims at scenarios. Jasper likes that it works well as a toolbox for more specific supplements, thus reflecting the character of the period.
Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign by Real Time Wargames
My favourite is Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The rules for battles are really simple but try to reflect the main elements of American Civil War combat. But the brilliance of this set is the campaign system in which all players are Union commanders fighting againt the brilliant Jackson. In fact their main objective is not to win battles but to gain the most political capital out of the campaign which can be done by sending off troops to other armies, politicking in Washington and and avoiding being attacked by Jackson. Just reading the rules brings a smile to your face.
Bag the Hun and Algernon Pulls it Off by Too Fat Lardies
Another favourite ruleset of mine is Bag the Hun / Algernon Pulls It Off, Too Fat Lardies' WW2 and WW1 Staffel level air combat rules. Lots of focus on experience of pilots, maneouvres and formations, not so much on the technical aspects of the planes. As you play with named pilots, seeing them shot down doesn't feel well. Too bad they added more rules in later editions.
Muskets & Tomahawks by Studio Tomahawk
Jasper and I are also impressed with Muskets & Tomahawks. These are 18th century skirmish rules for North America with the emphasis on scenarios and storytelling. The rules are fast and simple (yes, you're spotting a pattern here).
We all agreed that we liked rule sets which paid more attention to the game and historical feel than historical detail and complexity. Easy to pick up and hard to master, but more importantly: fun and with room for story. There are of course people with other preferences, like tournament players and historical buffs who would probably come up with other favourites.
So what are your favourites? And why? Did we miss something? Or do you think these rules actually suck?
