Originally I had planned to be at Historicon this weekend, as had most of my fellow club members. Unfortunately, a certain virus had other ideas and that convention (along with many others) was rightfully cancelled. With the easing of some restrictions the club decided to have a very limited game day on Saturday - albeit with all the new norms of face masks, hand sanitizers and social distancing. While some of those measures can be awkward, they are needed to protect other people and with the right attitude really don't intrude on having a good time. As you might guess, I ran my Liaoyang game and thought it went well. There will be an episode of LWTV about the day so no details on the battle for now.
The battle was fought on a 8x4 table using 6mm figures. All units were at the regimental level, which during the Russo Japanese War a regiment had anywhere for 1,000 - 2,500 men. It would be the equivalent of a brigade in ACW terms.
All of the unit stands fit into a 3D printed sabot base that has a label along the back for unit ID tags. They also have a thin strip of ferrous paper along the labels so they tags can accept magnetic pins....
Here's a close up of the units in their sabot bases. The ID tag is 10mm wide which has enough room for a printed label (attached with double sided tape and room for magnetic pins).
Artillery units had limited ammo which I tracked with green and blue pins. Shoot indirect artillery, remove a pin. Fatigue (damage) is tracked with red pins.
Overall, the basing method worked great and really streamlined play plus I think looks pretty sharp. I will be adapting this method for just about all the games I play that require some form of unit status tracking.
The rules we used are were an adaption of Greg's ACW ruleset "Alter of Freedom" that have the working title "Alter of Empires". I'm hoping to use them for both the Russo-Japanese War through WW1.
Overall, they worked well. Indirect artillery fire needs some tweaking but these did seem to simulate the R-J war really well.
I will likely run this game gain - maybe even for a formal episode of LWTV or at a war game convention when they eventually return (I'm betting no sooner than summer of '21, by the way). In addition to tweaking the rules, I would play the game on a 8x6 ft table - I had to squeeze the battle down a bit given space limitations and poor planning by me. Still it was a really fun game and I really enjoyed seeing my R-J project make it to the club for an outing.
I do think it's time to move onto another project. Maybe terrain for an upcoming episode........
8 comments:
You are the canary in the coal mine with your resumption of In situ gaming. 😄
I really like your basing idea with the pins and the magnetic strips.
We very well might be that canary - I always did look good in yellow. We did take all the precautions we know of - masks, distance, no handshaking and as much distance as possible but there is now way to both game in person and completely eliminate risk. A few club members chose to skip the event which is perfectly fine.
I suspect beyond the idiocy of what's going on in Texas and Florida, all states will see the rules on social distancing ebb and flow - we just don't know enough about this damn virus to be exact. As a club, we'll likely stay on the conservative side of whatever the local guidances are.
the only thing I can be sure of is that the guidance will change in multiple ways over the coming months and we'll need to adapt as required.
I really do miss my monthly business trips to London and suspect those will be a long time delayed
:(
Wondeful looking game Miles. Your printed bases and magnetic pin system is brilliant. I'd like to figure out a way to adapt that for my movement trays for my 28mm figures.
Top looking bash, Miles!
Great looking table, perfect for the sweeping moves required.
Lovely "mass" gaming.
Cheers
Stu
Beautiful looking game Miles. I'd certainly like to see this as an episode of LWTV.
Looks great Miles.
Like the look of the pin system a great way to keep track of a big battle like this
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