Friday, July 24, 2020

Rumors of My Demise and a Developing Set of Rules

I am deeply humbled. I disappeared and did not consider that during the times of the pandemic that this might cause concern.

Just before the US plummeted into lock downs and rising COVID infections, I found myself being called to return to music (I mean my own music. I'm in a band but I don't do much writing for it). Music, like wargaming, can demand a ton of time, but unlike gaming, drains me of energy in all sorts of ways. The creative process, for me, is not an enjoyable stroll in the park but the tearing of some hideous thing from the purple-black tendrils of doubt and pretension, hurling the putrid sputtering mass into this reality, and wrestling it into something less horrible, through the power of blood and sweat and tears, presumably for sharing with the world. The latter opens up gaping dimensions of doubt unknown to those who have never walked that path.

But I digress. The point is, writing and recording sucks up free time and I am terrible about balancing my interests.

I returned to gaming in June however with a handful of G Company games, including revisiting D-Day with the US Army's 1st Infantry Division. Some thinking about what I wanted from my games led me back to company element games, and then some more reading led me to battalion element games with a goal of playing GrossDeutchsland's advance during Operation Citadel (more to come on that, including five scenarios with painfully simple maps made in Google Draw, suggested orders of battle, etc.).

It may be hubris speaking, but this reminds of me of the pictures in older war games books. Please note the card stock buildings are prototypes, and not finished. I wanted to make collapsible Russian style buildings. They work, I just need to make more and finish them.

As an apology for disappearing without so much as a word, allow me to present a draft of what I call Divison Squares (I was calling it Space Wars early on as a joke, because that implies outer space and perhaps even Star Wars, when it's not about that at all. Which tells you all you need to know about my sense of humor.) There is nothing new in there, just an amalgamation of mechanisms that work for me, written for me, but now cleaned up a bit in case anyone else finds use in them.

The Division Squares rules began as Battalion Squares where each unit is a company. I'll revisit those eventually. This picture is an early game using those - hence the mixed heavy weapons company for the Germans.
Although I have played them for at least two dozen games, there are still things missing and it's a living document (for instance air-to-ground rules are missing, as are mine fields. Both of which will be added eventually). These are intended for playing WWII on a grid with a regiment to a division+ per side in a smallish space.


A German divison (GrossDeutschland in the scenario, but could be a generic Panzer Division) advancing against a Soviet rifle regiment (199th but could be any) in trenches- one tank unit has already been destroyed (off camera bottom right). There are three scales of vehicles in this picture, for those following along at home.

They work for One Hour Wargames scenarios as well, at least in my limited tests (mostly I've been playing GD at Cherkasskoye - a table layout and scenario based on a historical battle.) However, expect most OHW scenarios with OHW sized forces to play in about 8-10 turns (not unlike OHW rules in my experience).

From a OHW scenario. I adjudicated the game, but little monkey (he's 8, so maybe not so little) controlled both sides.
 Please accept them in the spirit they are intended.

25 comments:

  1. Good to see you're back with lots of toys on the table.

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  2. I am interested to see what you come up with for Air to Ground. Good to see you back.

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    1. Thank you, Reese! For Air to Ground, it will likely be somewhere between PZ8's WW2 Divisional Wargame Rules and Bob Cordery's considerably more robust Air to Ground rules in Developing the Portable Wargame. That is, somewhat more complex than a die roll with just enough justification for purchasing some 1/72 or smaller aircraft (I'd say 1/32 or 1/48 but i have nowhere to store that) :D

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  3. Nice to see you're back blogging John!

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  4. Glad you are back, keep giving us inspiration with your games!

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  5. You're alive! Hurrah! :-)

    Regards, Chris.

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    1. I'm pretty excited about it, too :D

      Thank you, Chris!

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  6. Welcome back! Just the other day I was checking your blog for something new and finding nothing at that point i was wondering... glad to see you're back!

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  7. Good to see you have returned with your 1/32 scale games.

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  8. There is a season for all things. Good to see a blog post though.

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  9. Glad to see you're doing okay...and getting back to playing with toy soldiers and rules. I love your description of "the creative process." I often fight that with my own work, usually by trying to have some fun with it, though there’s always some lingering self-doubt. Keep soldiering on with the music and wargaming!

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  10. The games look amazing. Welcome back.

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  11. I read the rules with great interest, especially since I am thinking about this level of gaming too. I assume that your 2 man bases are representing a battalion. Am I right?

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    1. I'm using two 2-figure bases to represent a battalion (inspired by Not Quite Mechanized, where each base of 2 figures is half-battalion). Amusingly(?), this gives me a unit 4" wide which is a size suggested by One Hour Wargames and that rule set would probably makes more sense as a game set at this scale than at a platoon per stand!

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  12. Ah the slippery slope that is base sizes and unit representation. It is a dangerous and fruitless venture and can only lead to madness, wild staring eyes, and probably unwanted ear hair.

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    1. Indeed. It is a madness I feel particularly prone to.I think I have re-based three or four times since this blog started!

      I do know that my mind sees 2 figures on a base as a squad - seeing them as a platoon takes quite a stretch for me (maybe in time I will). 2 bases side by side though look so abstract to me that company or battalion is easy enough. The only real differences between my Battalion Squares and Division Squares rules are the ranges (and what is represented, obviously).

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    2. I nearly followed you into the abyss when I saw your experiment (since we have similar approaches to our games). I resisted the urge (OK it was too much bother and I was busy with teaching and the Covid distance learning thing). I did think about basing my models singly and use magnets/sticky stuff to allow flexibility...but ah back to the sanity thing! Do I want to base-rebase models or play games?

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    3. I almost went back down the single figure route recently! I had to remind myself that I went down this basing route for a reason and that my singly-based WW2 collection is intended for a different kind of game (squad or less per side).

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