Minimalist Gaming, or "If I Had Known Then What I Know Now..." part II

A while ago I wrote a 'letter to my younger self' on more Minimalist Gaming (i.e. more games for one's effort).

Now that was very much a letter to my past self that I thought that perhaps some other gamers would find a little helpful, or at least a little amusing. This post continues on from that, but it has more relevance to me and my gaming now.  I did some analysis of old wargames magazines - I have got plenty! (Incidentally, if anyone wants to sell me the old Minatures Wargames CDs covering issues 126-250, I would really really appreciate it...). I was looking at the following:

Which periods are most covered? and...

Which armies are most often featured? and...

Which scale of armies are most often featured? The latter is slightly harder to explain, but basically it would be the difference in WW2 terms between a Chain of Command army, a WRG/Flames of War army and a Spearhead/Rommel army. I know that these aren't perfect demarcations, but I hoped they would be serviceable enough and at least give a rough idea. For many gamers it wouldn't matter in terms of models, they would be using the same whatever, but a Spearhead army in 15mm I think would have proportionally loads more trucks than the same army for Chain of Command, whereas the figure count doesn't go up quite as much. For me, they are often different models, with 15mm or 28mm figures for the skirmishes, and 6mm for the bigger battles.

 

Why do this? I like playing written scenarios. Writing good ones can take a while, which I don't currently always have a lot of. Generic scenarios can be very good, but obviously can sometimes lack that bit of period flavour. On a higher level, playing other gamers' scenarios is part of a conversation I think, about how we as a hobby community conceptualize certain historical and tactical issues and events and convert them into game mechanics. Or more simply, how will the rules I prefer handle your specific period scenario?

The other element is that I like using painted armies of miniatures to play these games. I have some flexibility about proxying somewhat similar forces, as I realistically do not have the time, money or energy to create vast numbers of armies. On the other hand, I do have plenty of different armies and I still get some pleasure from collecting a new one, from time-to-time. This has some relatively hard limits however, and it is much harder now I am, to a degree, "painting for three": as a mainly solo player, I am committed to always having viable opponents for any army, and as a father of a young gamer and collector, I do most of the painting for him too. Defining the exact limits of my willingness to proxy any given force is pretty difficult, but the "I know it when I see it" heuristic mainly works.

By Conflict & Faction:

WW2: Germany by miles, then UK, USA, Soviet Union; Japan and Italy some way back.

Napoleonic: French by miles, followed by Britain & Allies, with Austria, Prussia, Russia and Spain a bit further back.

Ancients: Rome by a country mile of course, with Greeks, Carthage, Gauls/Britons/Germans, Macedonians and Persians next. A lot depends here on how/if you group things together of course.

Colonial: Britain, and then everyone else! Zulus, Afghans and Mahdists are the most common.

ACW next.

Medieval: English against the French and Scots, with some interest in Mongols, Seljuq Turks and Crusaders too.

Early Medieval: Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Normans

War of the Three Kingdoms: ECW Royalist and Parliamentarian being the most common by miles.

WW1: Britain and Germany.

Modern: Both sides of the Vietnam conflict.

AWI: Both sides

Revolutionary Wars: France and Austria. If you use Napoleonics to fight the Revolutionary Wars, then Austria definitely becomes the third most useful wargames' army

Jacobite Rebellions: Both sides

Seven Years' War: France against Britain, everything else is much smaller

Old West: various factions, but Native Americans, US Army and Gunfighters seem the most common

Wars of the Roses: Both sides

War of the Spanish Succession: French against the Allies

War of 1812: Both sides

Thirty Years' War: Sweden against the Imperialists is by far the most common

No real surprises there, except that it shows the obvious Anglophone bias to wargaming (at least in Anglophone countries). Old West subjects showed up more often than I would have instinctively thought even given that bias. Indirectly, I think this is also reasonably strong evidence that Zulu! is to date the single most influential cultural artefact amongst Anglophone wargamers, otherwise the unreasonable popularity of 1879 is somewhat hard to explain...

Scale of Armies:

WW2 Germany (WRG i.e. Company-Battalion)

WW2 UK (WRG)

Napoleonic French (Polemos i.e. Division-Corps)

WW2 Germany (Spearhead i.e. Brigade+)

ACW Confederacy (roughly Brigade - reinforced Division)

ACW Union

ECW Royalist (everything bigger than say 500)

ECW Parliamentarian

*next in my list is UK (Sharpe Practice, but this is something of a coding thing useful mainly to me - think of it as British - Horse & Musket - skirmish)

Colonial UK (post 1700 British colonial, everything but very small skirmishes)

French (Sharpe Practice - comments as above, but more so)

ACW Union (HFG i.e. Army)

ACW Confederacy (HFG)

WW2 USA (WRG)

AWI Patriot (HFG - I think I was quite generous in coding this, I think this includes the Division-size actions, which are separate for Napoleonics)

WW2 UK (Spearhead)

Wars of the Roses English (DBA - pre-1700 it is just Army or skirmish force, DBA = Army)

AWI British (HFG)

WW2 Soviet Union (WRG)

WW2 Germany (Chain of Command i.e. reinforced platoon)

WW2 Soviet Union (Spearhead)

Norse Viking (DBA)

Old West Gunfighters

Polybian Roman (DBA)

Modern USA (Force on Force, so reinforced platoon; mainly Vietnam, but I just lumped all modern stuff in together)

Dark Age skirmish

Age of Sail UK

WW1 UK (Mud & Blood -  up to a reinforced company)

Napoleonic British (Polemos)

Early Imperial Roman (DBA)

100YW English (DBA)

Middle Anglo-Saxon (DBA)

WW1 Germany (Mud & Blood)

WW2 UK (CoC)

Marian Roman (DBA)

Viet Cong (FoF)

Anglo-Norman (DBA)

Napoleonic Austrian (Polemos)

Zulus (HFG)

Nothing wildly different to that expected from the earlier results. WW2 Germany (WRG) is by far the most common appearing army.

The so what? I think there is a 'so what' for me now and a 'so what' for me then, as a new wargamer. 

Assuming that playing lots of scenarios from wargaming magazines is a thing I want to do (it is!), the first question is always - how far are you willing to adapt and proxy? If you are willing to go far enough, then obviously none of this matters, just pick the army you find most visually appealing and go for it, and just convert scenarios until they work. After all, did Brigadier Young, in his seminal book on horse-&-musket wargaming Charge!, ignore the vast numbers of actual battles from 1600-1880 and converted a battle from the Burma campaign for his big set piece battle? However, if you wanted to do less conversion work - or more principedly, you wanted to experience the tactical richness inherent in modelling many different periods - then these lists might help a little. What might that look like?

An Army List of Army Lists:

 

WW2: Germany, plus an opponent.

Napoleonic & Revolutionary Wars: France, plus an opponent.

Ancients: A Roman Army, and as many opponents as you can be bothered to paint up. Carthaginians seem a decent choice, since you are kind of getting Gauls, Spaniards, Numidians etc, in for free.

Colonial: A British Army, and an opponent. I think the Mahdists are more flexible than Zulus and Afghans, but it doesn't really matter.

ACW: A Union and a Confederacy army.

Medieval: I think this is quite flexible, but an English Army and a French Army, with Scots and Welsh as needed, would cover a lot of it. 

Early Medieval: Anglo-Saxons, plus one or both of the Vikings and Normans.

War of the Three Kingdoms: A Royalist and a Parliamentary army.

WW1: Proxy with WW2.

Modern: The US. And on the other side I think either the NVA or the USSR, depending on the focus of one's interest (You might get away with proxying with WW2, depending upon how you feel about certain things)

AWI: Proxy with Napoleonics.

Jacobite Rebellions: Proxy with a mixture of Napoleonics or WotTK.

Seven Years' War: France against Britain, everything else is much smaller (Proxy with Napoleonics)

Old West: various factions, but Native Americans, US Army and Gunfighters seem the most common (Proxy the US Army with ACW)

Wars of the Roses: Both sides (Might get away with proxying with Medievals)

War of the Spanish Succession: French against the Allies (Proxy with Napoleonics or WotTK).

War of 1812: Both sides (Proxy with Napoleonics)

Thirty Years' War: Sweden against the Imperialists is by far the most common (Proxy with WotTK; but with more Cuirasiers!).

 

The list of individual forces mainly follows the logic of this, although naval forces for the Age of Sail get a specific bump here. Until you get to the bottom of the list, there is a reasonable emphasis on small forces too, although perhaps somewhat less for Ancients, ACW & War of the Three Kingdoms nearer the top of the list. Whether this is an issue at all depends somewhat on which models you use and how you base them i.e. whether you have separate 'battle' and 'skirmish' forces, or if it is all the same thing to you.

I think as a advice to myself for back then, it might serve as a menu for which order to tackle building armies: start with WW2 (Germany versus opponent), then Napoleonics (French versus opponent), then Ancients (Romans versus opponent), Colonials (British versus opponent)...and so on. 

 

Please remember this isn't advice to anyone else really, nor to someone who has a penchant for a particular period. If Samurai or the Taiping Rebellion or the Maori musket wars were just 'my thing', then of course I would go for it. A lot of this is predicated on my being interested in nearly everything!

A Very Qualified Defence of the Army List

In practice, I think that much of the stick that army lists have received over they years is somewhat justified: "their only proper use is in propping up a wonky table leg" (S. Asquith) has stuck with me over the years! They have often encouraged meta-gaming as a way of seeking decisive advantage in the actual game, have been somewhat abused by certain commercial interests at points, and perhaps worst of all, encouraged the use of deliberately ahistorical armies. I don't mean the Burgundian Ordonnance vs Han Chinese issue, but rather, that the Burgundian Ordonnance army itself might be wildly unhistorical. And I think this is where good army lists can help: by assisting gamers in working out what the minimum viable miniature army is (what covers most of the troop requirements, most of the time) and what the maximum possible army is (what you need to cover ~every scenario you might play at a certain level). These are requirements specific to gamers, since historians and historical enthusiasts just need to know what was there on a given day, they aren't collecting the army. But we gamers are. So an army list can be a really useful guide to what a wargamer could collect to maximize versatility in play, entirely rooted in history. Which feels like a good and useful aim.

14 Nov 24 - Hobby Update

The last couple of months have been an almost complete gaming drought. Only a couple of games of Space Hulk & Mansions of Madness, and a few RPG sessions (WFRP, Shadowrun, Twilight 2000) have happened, plus there have been a couple of 'failed games' - games that I set up but then didn't play for whatever reason. 

Mansions of Madness really is great fun!

As usual, this kind of thing happens when work and home life become busy and/or frustrating past a certain point. I haven't done much painting or anything it feels like either, but I have at least done relatively more of those things! But painting has been limited from some space issues in the house (I am now working at the same table I use for actual work) and also visibility - I need to sort out some better lighting to allow early morning and late evening painting.

The main focus was actually on building the plastic sets from the lead mountain and putting a basecoat on them ready for painting proper; this was to get all of my painting 'tasks' into the same state, ready for the application of the colour coats.

 First up - and please forgive the shadows - some repaired and lightly touched up fantasy and 40K stuff.

Then, a big increase to the WSS artillery, including some more light guns and some siege guns.

And some Hussars: a mixture of French and Imperial Hussars, plus the 'Scotch Hussars' for the '45.

Some WSS Bavarian and  Imperial cuirassiers, amongst some other bits'n'bobs

A not great closer up! Feel the mass, not the detail...sorry.

Okay, a better shot of some more artillery and dragoons, being finished off; plus some Space Marines and some Heroquest ogres.

A close-up of some big guns - with a few British grenadiers off to the left

Some Dragoons, mounted and on foot

More guns

The finished Space Marines - I gave these to my son, no doubt he will use them more than I will!

And a batch of Bacus WW2 stuff. Germans at the front, with Panthers, Tiger Is, Panzer IVs, Whirlwinds and Demags.

Then the British: Sherman Fireflys, 25pdrs, 6pdrs and tows and crew.

And finally, the Soviets: T34/85s, artillery and anti-tank guns.

Hope of course, springs eternal about getting more painting and more gaming in! Priorities for the former are some more 6mm WW2 and a few more Napoleonics, then a bunch of 28mm ancients for the little one. As for playing, I should really just get something to the table and not overthink it too much!!!! I guess one of the issues is that what I really feel like doing is starting another involved campaign, but that might be difficult to pull off currently - but not sure if I am in the mood for lighter, more generic one-offs which are the easiest to set-up.

The Other Partizan - 13th October 2024

On Sunday, my 8 year old son and I attended the Other Partizan show in Newark - it is quite local to me. I had to go and pick up my other son at 1pm, so I was very much on a deadline.

 

It was a very, very busy show, even for Partizan. There were still fairly long queues past 10:30, which used to be quite a rarity. Everywhere was thronged inside the hall. It made shopping really quite difficult for me, especially with a younger child accompanying, and although he was feeling a bit shy to stop and play any of the participation games, I might have felt it was a bit loud and busy for good gameplaying myself. I didn't have a chance to speak to some gamers and traders I usually do, just purely because of the busy-ness. In the end, he bought himself some (more!) Romans from Warlord, and I picked up a pre-order from Baccus.I might treat myself to some window shopping this weekend.

 

General impressions were that the standard of games was very higher, but bigger definitely didn't necessarily equal better: I think that the hobby has gone past that point where more figures = more cool. For instance, it was the eye-catching way that they evoked the imagery of The Hobbit and not the 'masses of goblins' which made that game stand out. I think that vignettes and eye-catching bits of set-piece terrain have become ever more common. I wonder if they are entirely a 'show' thing, or if people include these things more-and-more in home and club gaming. 

There were a wide range of periods covered. The bigger 28mm Vietnam games felt somewhat noticeable: not that Vietnam has ever been ignored, but often the games have been smaller.

 

First game was a Roman-Britons battle in 10mm by the Forest Outlaws' club. All Kallistra 10mm stuff. It was apparently the culminating battle of their big club campaign, which is a great idea for a show! Nice to have a chat with one of the Outlaws I know, too.

 

James Morris and friends put on a Battle of the Five Armies Midgard game. Love the backing art of the mountain, very similar to some of the drawings in the books

I love that Ravenhill (right) had a little model raven on top!

Next up was Lutzen 1632. A big game, I didn't get a single shot which did it any justice! But very nice.

The following game looked like it was an early C20 game. I couldn't quite figure out what was happening just by looking, but it did look great fun.

 

A traditional Partizan staple next: a beautiful 28mm AWI game put on by Steve Jones. It was quite busy so I didn't get to say hello to him unfortunately, but it looked fantastic. I think this was a what-if landing scenario. It featured some very nice fortifications, including a small star fort.

The man himself, concentrating!

Rubicon put on a new Vietnam set-up, featuring a downed helicopter.

A more toy soldier-ish set up next, a Mexican-American war game I think. Looked pretty in a different way, like a shot from The Wargame for the next generation or something.

 

 

 

More Vietnam action. This one featured helicopters on top of clear plastic tubs filled with foliage for a flying over the jungle effect. Do they take out the foliage or swap to a clear tub if flying over the open, I wonder? Anyway, very nice indeed. I wonder if the recent Rubicon releases have re-invigorated 28mm Vietnam wargaming somewhat.

Some WW2 action next. Looked liked 20mm, Normandy, maybe Goodwood to me.

A Great Italian Wars game next: Imperialists try to stop the French escaping with some booty. One of the team was a bit concerned that they were outshone by the Yarkshire Gamer who was doing Italian Wars too. Not so!

A small but very lovely-looking Ancient Greek myth game. Low figure count, but still a visual feast, with lots of characterful terrain:

A D-Day game next, following (I think) 6th Green Howards attacking after the beaches and into Normandy's interior through the next line of strongpoints.

Another small but pretty game - some kind of  naval action with card ships and sailors, from a new 'Paperboys' set

There was another Paperboys game, SYW I think.

I can't quite remember the details of this one...maybe SYW in America, perhaps? Looked great anwyay.

Next up, a 'Garden' of 'Market Garden' game. The Arnhem campaign continues to fascinate many gamers!

 

A VBCW game next, featuring all the characteristic elements - slightly toy-ish but very eye-catching and characterful features.

 

There was a huge Japanese game - loads of things going on visually. Was this by The Bunker people?

I think this was the Yarkshire Gamer's Great Italian Wars game. More prettiness and 'big game impact'.

 This next game was set in the SYW, based on the aftermath of Kunersdorf (I think!)

A large ACW encounter next:

A Chariot Wars game, with another spectacular fort at the table edge.

The next game featured a topic I have never seen covered before at a show: the 1941 fighting between Greece and Italy around the Albanian-Greek border. It had quite a distinct look and feel this game: somewhat 'toy soldiery' but somehow without the slightly whimsical cross between Little Wars and Camberwick Green that might often mean (e.g. compared to say the VBCW offering). Not criticizing the latter of course - it is popular for a reason! - but trying to edge towards defining the differences.

 

As is traditional, Boondock Saintes did something slightly exotic and very spectacular: this time, WW1 in East Africa:

Keeping with the African theme, the Perrys (I think!) did a British landing in Egypt at the end of the Revolutionary Wars:

Apologies, I forget the details of this one. I think it was maybe another Paperboys' game or similar, but this time in the ACW. I may have got this entirely wrong...

I must have been distracted at this point, because my memory is playing me up a little now. I think this game is a Back of Beyond, Bolsheviks somewhere in Russia/Central Asia in the 1920s game. I could be wrong (It was actually the assault by the Whites on Ulan Bator).

Okay, this one is a bit more clear: the chaps behind For King and Parliament were trying out the extension of that game system into the WSS - Frenchmen set to with Dutchmen - or at least, Germans and Swiss being paid by Dutchmen - somewhere in Flanders.

Some kind of Medieval raid scenario next:

Another WSS game: Malplaquet perhaps, IIRC? Very big, with lots of figures on the table.

A small but very good-looking 10mm WW2 game next (from Anschluss). REALLY liked the look of this one:

Then, a really huge game of Poltava. It was too big for me to get a good single shot:

 

Next, an Oathmark fantasy game. It somehow reminded me a little of an old WFB report in White Dwarf, although with the colouring set to a different shade?? Hopefully that makes even a little bit of sense!!

A very nice piece of something slightly whimsical next: a 'Prelude to Madasahatta' game, which features some characters related to that famous campaign, but set a few decades earlier. A bunch of jolly yet hard jack tars go to beat up some Zanzibari slave traders.

A slightly more serious take on Colonial action next: A British landing in the Opium Wars (I think)

Another Vietnam game, with more Vietnam helicopters. Very green and dense terrain. Eye-catching stuff!

 

A 6mm ancients' battle (I think Romans against Successors, but could very much be wrong about that!!!)

The Too Fat Lardies' put on Chain of Command: British against Germans in damp and cold 1945.

Crooked Dice's 7TV set up:

Apologies, can't quite remember what this one was. It was one of the first games in the participation area, I think maybe put on by Gripping Beast. Looked great, anyway.

A really big, very Warhammery-looking fantasy game next:

There was a small but effective and very informative Edgecote game on. It had these great little cards by the side, explaining certain incidents and information surrounding the battle. I found it much easier to deal with than a handout or wall-of-text in the circumstances of a busy show.

A WW1 Trench game.

A medieval knights' game

A really huge Omaha game. I'd seen this at JoS, but still looks just as impressive now.

A variation on the 'ferry across the river' game I think I have seen once or twice before at Newark.

A Western game, put on by the Veteran Wargames Assoc.

Some kind of big SF game, which defied my visual understanding. Looked great though, lots of little details to enjoy.

A really big Pegasus Bridge game:

A really unusual set-up this, I wish I had had time to ask more about it!

Another small but pretty participation game; some type of 'adventure' game I think.

The now traditional Partizan Kriegspiel

Another game of Undaunted: think I have seen this one a few times now:

Another Revolutionary Wars battle: the Brits battle the French in Belgium in 1794 (I think!)

Some kind of WW2 Big Battle game. Apologies, can't recall the details of this one (a kind person in the comments said this is Not Quite Meechanized). It is Eastern Front, 1943 perhaps.

Nice models, but this one escapes me, apologies.

A really big Gettysburg game:

Apologies, another one I don't recall. Bijou, but nice.

Wings of War in the Meditteranean (corrected by a nice person in the comments):

The Operational Maneouvre Group guys flying the flag for straightforward simulation:

I think this was a 'Not Quite Mechanized" game, which rules have just been published officially for the first time IIRC.

Another medieval-type raiding game, I think:

And a an Early Medieval/Dark Age battle - quite local apparently (edge of the Humber Estuary)