The Second Battle of the Tensaw Gap

 After a COVID19 delay, the NOLA campaign has resumed with turn 9.  Right before the "COVID-PAUSE" the US/British side was retreating form the closely fought Battle of the Tensaw Gap, which resulted in a narrow French Victory.  The French, sensing they had Ed on the ropes, allocated a lot of Operating Points to seize the initiative and managed to catch Eds retreating army - setting up the Second Battle of the Tensaw Gap.

One of the joys of running a campaign is that players often have different strategies than the GM anticipates so battles play out in wildly different patterns.  I knew this was the case with this battle as Ed's initial deployment was not what I had anticipated.  His initial forces consisted of 4 Infantry divisions (3 in column and 1 deployed at the top).  His pre battle instruction said he could win the battle if could retreat off the lower sides of the map in good order.  Ed had other plans.  The french would enter form the top of the map and their force consisted of 5 Infantry divisions and the deadly French artillery reserve.  We used the ESR rules for this game.

Initial contact!

 Ed left one divisions deployed in line to delay the French while assembling the other 3 in a defensive position along a crest.

Ed continues to hunker down on the hill while Soult's corps maneuvers around his left flank.

The final French infantry division shakes out of column and their artillery reserve is deployed - It's unlikely Ed can survive the combined onslaught....

But Wait - Ed springs his drop - coming up upon the rear of the French is the British Heavy Cavalry division - now it's 5 divisions for each side!

In yet another surprise, Ed elects to march off the board rather than attack and the US/British force exits to the east. 

What is this cunning strategist up to the French wonder?

I wonder what turn 10 of the 12 turn campaign will bring?

Picture Dump From the July 11th Liaoyang Game

 The last half of July has been crazy busy work wise so no time to post about gaming.  Thankfully, at least there was time to game!  Anyway here is a picture dump from the Liaoyong game I ran.  The commentary will be a bit sparse but will be amended over time.

Our Historicon replacement game day was featured in this video

Here's the initial set up from the Japanese left flank. 

A close up on the Japanese 6th and 3rd Divisions which make up the 2nd Army.  These formations would attack the hills directly in front of them for the entire battle.

You can also see the sabot bases I made for all the stands

The Japanese right flank.  Not pictured is the 12th Division, which started the game hidden from the Russians and already across the Taitzu River.

Opposing the Japanese are 14 Russian Divisions (12 Infantry and 2 Cavalry)

The Japanese force consisted of 8 Infantry Divisions, 3 Kobi (reserve) brigades and some independent artillery and cavalry regiments

The Japanese have a slight edge in quality and command but there are a lot of Russians!

Theres a lot going on this 8x4 table.  In hind sight, I should have played on a 8x6 table - I just didn't bring enough terrain squares to set it up that way.  The distance from the Russian front lines and Liaoyang was too small and should have been another 18 inches or so.  Live and Learn. 

We're using Greg's Altar of Freedom rules which I've modified for WW1 by introducing indirect artillery fire, machine guns and longer rifle fire ranges.  The command friction aspect of the rules (Priority Points) was unchanged as that's the heart of the system.  The artillery rules need to be modified but overall I was very happy with how the rules "mod" worked.

 The Japanese attack commences with their lone reserve division (the 4th) committed to attacking the extreme Russian right flank. 

Tony and Greg commanded the Russian forces while I commanded the Japanese.  About halfway through the game Josh was able to join and took command of the Japanese left half - finally getting some competent command to the Japanese forces.

The battle in the center was a see-saw affair with the Russians launching a counter attack that very nearly captured the 4th Army's HQ.  The red pins on the bases reflect fatigue points which is how the rules reflect battle damage.  The magnetic pins worked fantastically.  I'll be adapting a lot of game systems to use them.

The determined assault by the second army finally carries Hill 683, which is a VP location

We used the flashing smoke markers from the Trafalgar game to represent artillery that had fired indirectly during the turn.

The Japanese left flank continues to prepare for the attack.  In the upper right corner you can see parts of the 12th division which was revealed to the Russians - they are moving to cut the trans-siberian rail way (the grey road)

 Tony commanded the Russian right flank

 Finally Josh arrives and not a moment too soon!

 The Japanese Guard division carries the hill and allows the 2nd Infantry division to cross the river in support of the 12th

 2nd Army's attack stalls under the weight of Russian defenders but the 4th division continues to push back the Russians

 more commentary to come.....

Liaoyang Game at the Club: Initial Set Up

 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........

Liaoyang Game: The Russian and Japanese Armies

Both the Russian and Japanese armies are ready to be packed up for the up coming Liaoyang game Saturday.  I still need to add a few flags but not much more is needed to be done.  All of the units are based in #D printed sabot bases which have a thin metal strip across the base label.  This will allow player to track unit status with tiny magnetic map pins.

Here's a picture showing the pins in use - the Divisional artillery unit has 3 rounds of ammunition (3 green pins) and the 4th Regiment from the 3rd Division has taken 2 fatigue points.  In past games I used round disks or paper to track status and it became confusing - hopefully this method works better and keeps the table less cluttered.

 The Russian army at Liaoyang consisted of 12 Infantry and 2 Cavalry divisions organized into 6 Corps.  It is a formidable force that was lead by shall we say not the most talented of officers.

The Japanese forces at Liaoyang consisted of 8 Infantry Divisions, 3 Kobi Brigades and a number of independent formations.  The only are where the Japanese had a material numbers advantage is machine guns plus they were employed in a much more flexible way.  I think I've come up with a simple rules construct to represent this advantage.  I guess we'll find out on Saturday!

Liaoyang Terrain

 The city of Liaoyang and three outlying village markers are complete.  These will all be used as objectives for Saturday's Liaoyang game at the club.

I still need to finish up some hills that will run south of the city.  These are pretty good approximations of the actual hills.  I suspect the Japanese players will not like them very much

Game Night at the Club: Coral Sea

Last night we play-tested a new naval game from a local game designer.  We re-fought the coral sea campaign with Chal and I commanding the Japanese and pitted against Ed and Dave commanding the allies.  While there were a few rough parts in combat resolution, the game was very fun - it  did a great job of simulating carrier operations and the searching mechanism's were easy yet fun.

As we haven't communicated the clubs thoughts about the game to the author, so I'm going to hold off any specific comments.  I think this will be a very fun game and I enjoyed helping to playtest it.

Earlier in the day the Nola campaign resumed and there will be a rather large battle in the next few weeks.

We did socially distant and wear masks while playing our games last night because it's the right thing to do.  Some club members also helpfully pointed out that my wearing of a mask actually improves my appearance so masks also have that going for them.

TMP Wars and Changing Media Consumption Patterns

My Alternative Logo for TMP

Over the past week I noticed that an old post of mine from May of 2017 was getting a lot of traffic.  The post is titled "I've Been Banned From TMP and I Feel Fine" and you can guess the topic from the title.

I've got no issues with being banned.  TMP is a privately run site and can choose who can have access to the "service" and who can't.  I was a free user and really don't have any rights to access.  The degree to which these decisions are good business practice is another matter but the proprietor both makes those decisions and deals with the ramifications.

Against my better judgement, I hopped onto the site to see what was driving the new traffic and was was not surprised to see there is yet another flame war.  This one was a bit different as it wasn't with a competing forum or subgroup of TMP users but with an Advertiser in the form of Richard Clarke owner of the TooFatLardies rules publishing company.  TMP's revenue model is add driven and getting into a public snit with an advertiser seems to be really, really silly.  I suspect Mr Clarke has also learned the lesson about wrestling with a pig in his pen.  You just get muddy and the pig kind of likes it.

For fun, I looked up TMP's traffic stats - I use a number of paid tools for investment purposes but even TMP's self reported stats tell a pretty damning.  Lets just look at those self-reported stats:

                Hits.                  Avg Daily Visitors

2Q'17:    24.7MM.           4Q'17     8.9k/day
2Q'20:    15.0MM.           Current.  6.6k/day

Wow - that's a 40% decline over three years.  To honest the decline is even worse once traffic for 'bots are separated out but an ominous trend when overall online traffic metrics are skyrocketing.  Theres a similar trend in terms of average daily visitors which has declined for just over 8.9k/day in 2017 to a current level of 6.6k/day.

While it is tempting to just continue to beat up TMP and they sure make it easy to do so, similar sites like the Lead Adventures Forum are also seeing traffic declines - not nearly as large but still steadily down.

The tabletop industry as a whole has never been better - so why are these general purpose sites seeing a decline in both traffic and business relevance?

In my opinion, there are several factors at play from both a consumer and business perspective.  Now just because I say it doesn't mean its accurate and your milage may vary.

Consumers:
Like or hate Facebook, general purpose platform like it are winning the consumer eyeball wars because they work and provide a single user interface to use.  Special purpose forums like TMP have their own unique infrastructure and interface (I never really figured how to post pictures on TMP) and that creates a form of user "friction" and a tech backlog as they just dont have the resources to keep pace with the competition.  Both facebook and Youtube have a simple interface that once you learn it it works for every site / group / topic your interested in.  One of my main uses for TMP was reference material on uniforms and other historical minutia - now there are innumerable Facebook groups on the same topics with integrated images and a simple user interface.  Other than watching the spectacle of people squabbling over how HMGS should run a convention, I really have no effective use for TMP.

Business:
The internet has made it even easier for a business to interact directly with its customers on a global basis.  A small manufacture of historical figures used to have to market through physical game conventions (the vendor booth) or sites like TMP or magazines to announce and sell products.  Now they can reach out directly or use very sophisticated marketing tools to target their audience.  Throw on top of that the evolution of platforms like "KickStarter" which effectively perform a combination market test and trade finance platform and the need for an intermediary site really needs to be questioned.

In real life, I'm a very active tech investor and have observed these trends impacting a number of industries.  I am intrigued by the impact and implications these forces will have on the historical gaming industry and will be doing some more research on the topic.  The downside of that for you is there will be a few more really boring "business trend" posts on the blog.

Back to TMP - I fear the site and, others like it, are condemned to a continual downward slide in relevance and economic viability., with the only variation being the slope of the decline.  Like large format department stores, their value in the delivery chain has been supplanted by superior technology.  I suspect the questionable decisions of TMP's owner will hasten it's demise but that's just speeding up the inevitable. 

Battle of Liaoyang: Terrain Prep

 With the club now re-opened (in a socially distant way), it's time for me to run a big game.  Given my current infatuation with the Russo Japanese War, the game in question will be the Battle of Liaoyang.  One of the defining battlefield terrain features is the city of Liaoyang itself as it had 30 foot tall walls. I've decided to 3D print a representation for both the city and 3 villages that will serve as objective markers.  These are not architectural models (I made up the layout) but size wise and shape its how the city is represented in period maps.  I found some 3D model files for Chinese buildings and fortified walls on the Wargaming 3D site and downloaded them.  I experimented with printing sizes and settled on using a print scale of 15%.

 With all the components printed out, I cut some bases from thick cardboard and glued the pieces down.  I found PVA glue worked best as I am printing with PLA.  These were then primed (all i have on hand is tan) and left out to dry.

The battle itself was a rather long affair running from August 25th to Sep 5th, 1904.  We'll be refighting the climatic part of the Battle during August 30 to Sep 1.  The opposing armies were fairly evenly matched.  The Japanese had 8 infantry divisions and roughly 125K men pitted against a Russian force of "approximately" 135K in 12 Infantry and 2 Cavalry divisions.  The historical reference materials have fairly large variances in reported Russian troop strength - from 128K all the way up to 245K!  Some of the Russian troop counts are suspect as their sources are various Russian commanders who either supported the Russian CIC (Kuropatkin) (lower counts) or despised him (higher counts).  "Alternative Facts" seems to have existed far before the Trump administration.  I'm going with a troop count that matches the formations present.

Another terrain feature of the battlefield was a low ring of hills to the south of the city and along the eastern edge of the map.  I've got a number of hills that are large but decided the game needed some smaller ones that fit better with 6mm figures.  The terrain on the Western side of the side was pretty open but did have lots of fields of Sorghum, which was just about ready to be harvested and approached 9 feet in height (think cornfields from the ACW)

Speaking of ACW, the rules I'm planning to use are based on Greg's wonderful ACW ruleset "Alter of Freedom". I really like the command mechanics in AoF and think they are a great way to simulate the command issues the Russians faced without making then "no-fun" to play.  This will be my second outing with my modified ruleset and I'm hopeful they work out well.  The first outing was another R-J War battle Tashinchiao - which was fought in July of 1904 with about half the forces we'll be using for Liaoyang.

For those of you who are familiar with Alter of Freedom, the scale of Liaoyang is a little bigger than Gettysburg.  If you are not familiar with Alter of Freedom well you're living a life of unnecessary deprivation - below are some links to some videos from the club about a game staged with AofF and a rules review.  Its a great set of rules that you should go out and buy.  Go ahead, treat yourself - you deserve it.

Battle of Antietam

AofF Rules Review

Normally this time of year (late June / early July) is filled with frantic preparations to put on my game at Historicon.  With this years convention cancelled, it's actually very calming to have to have something to frantically prepare for - it's a reminder that things will get better eventually.

Be safe everyone - and don't be an ass, wear a God-Damn mask in public.