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suggestions about Western Front 1914

Posted by Mark Johnson

09 Nov 2014

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

My next episode is planned to be about the WW1 western front in 1914. If I can get it out before New Year's then I squeak into the centenary for this momentous event. I've made a geeklist that serves as my outline for the show, and I welcome comments & suggestions.

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/180096/wargames-go-4-weste...

1 Comment

Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:35 am

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Wargames To Go/Boardgames To Go "meetup" at BGG.con (Friday lunch)

Posted by Mark Johnson

30 Oct 2014

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

Friday lunch! Anyone who wants to join should meet at the hotel restaurant at noon. See you there.

I also plan to go to the Wargamers' Meet and Greet on Wednesday night.

BGG.con is just around the corner, and I'm excited to be going back after a long hiatus. Is there interest in a low-key "meetup" for podcast listeners while we're there? I'm just talking about going out to lunch together on Friday, something really easy. Besides myself, some of my frequent guests on the podcast will also be around. So if you want to ask Greg Pettit about his Theme as Metaphor/Narrative ideas, or Dave Gullett about Harry's Grand Slam Baseball, those guys should be around. Of course, those guys have been on other episodes, too. My road trip buddy Dave Arnott will also be at BGG.con, but he's so busy running the Puzzle Hunt that I'm not sure if he can join us. I hope so!

Regardless of the lunch/meetup, if you spot me at the con you should say hi. I guess we all have badges with our familiar avatars on them, but a day or two I'll also be wearing my podcast shirt. I've got the one for BGTG, and expect to have the WGTG one by then, too.

(By the way, I don't always wear glasses. You can also see me in some of the Gamenight! videos with Lincoln, Nikki, Dave, and Aaron. Like this episode for Blueprints, a great game!)

-Mark

P.S. For as long as they last, I'll also have these buttons to give away.

2 Comments

Thu Oct 30, 2014 6:11 am

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WGTG 3 - English Civil War and more (with Charles Vasey)

Posted by Mark Johnson

27 Oct 2014

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

Mark Johnson's irregular podcast about small wargames
========================================================
Subscribe

Welcome to Wargames To Go, my new blog & podcast that shines a light on small wargames you can play on a weeknight, or take on a business trip.

If you need the feed address, it's http://feeds.feedburner.com/WargamesToGo

This is a long episode. If you want to skip ahead, here are some approximate timestamps within the recording you can jump to:

0:00 - My intro, poll results, BGG.con attendance, etc.
0:15 - Vasey interview pt 1 (background, his games)
0:51 - Vasey interview pt 1 (ECW)
1:51 - Cruel Necessity report
1:58 - Unhappy King Charles report
2:06 - Winceby report
2:13 - Langport & Naseby report (TCS series)
2:28 - Cromwell's Victory report
2:33 - Roberto Chiavini interview
2:49 - Other wargaming recaps (Monitor v Merrimack, Salvo, Caesar XL, Gettysburg [Wallace])
2:58 - Flowers of the Forest report
3:03 - Vasey interview pt 2 (Flowers of the Forest)

Ok, I bit off more than I can chew.

I've been doing my other podcast for nearly a decade, and those listeners know I've occasionally had a long hiatus between episodes while life intervened (work, kids, whatever). That's true about the gap between WGTG 2 and this new episode, but there's something else, too. I'd turned the episode into a giant project for myself. It felt like I was writing a term paper. That's because the subject of wargaming is so deep, so worthy of study & analysis. However, I also want to get the episodes out in a more timely manner (quarterly, let's say), so I need to set my sights a little lower. I'm learning.

As long promised, this is my episode focusing on battles of the English Civil War(s). I was motivated to jump into this topic for two main reasons:

1. I didn't really know anything about it, so stood to learn a great deal
2. The history podcast Revolutions, by Mike "History of Rome podcast" Duncan covered this subject in its first series

"Charles Vasey"

Roberto Chiavini

Although I initially thought I didn't own any games on this subject, I did have a couple on the shelf, acquired several more, and played another via VASSAL. That took some time, but is what I wanted to do in order to learn. I also did some reading, but that was primarily Wikipedia & skimming a library book. I watched the dramatic film Cromwell, and several documentaries available on YouTube (see Links, below). Best of all, I managed to score two interviews with game designers on these (& other) topics. This episode includes a written interview with Roberto Chiavini, and an extended audio interview with Charles Vasey. The latter is the wonderful centerpiece of this episode. Plus, I always want to include some brief comments about my earlier poll, the other (non-ECW) wargames I've played, and upcoming plans.

So, you see? I managed to stuff a WHOLE LOT into this episode. Too much, probably. But as I say, I'm getting the hang of what I want to do with WGTG. Episode 4 will be smaller in scope, and quicker to publication, a promise I'm making to you & me both!

The games I played were Unhappy King Charles!, Winceby, Fairfax's Revenge: the battle of Langport 1645, Naseby: The End of a Reign, Cromwell's Victory: The Battle of Marston Moor, and Cruel Necessity: The English Civil Wars 1640-1653. So you see that I have two strategic level games and three battle games (grand tactical level, I suppose). Along the way, that touches five game systems (CDGs, Markham's Royalists & Roundheads, Roberto Chiovani's TCS, SPI's 30YQ Quad, and States of Siege). Even at that, I'm obviously missing a major series of games on this topic, Ben Hull/GMT's Musket & Pike game, This Accursed Civil War.

Under the circumstances, I thought it best to get into the Vasey interview right away, since that's the centerpiece of this episode. Charles Vasey is someone I've observed with quite a bit of interest for a long while. His game design paradigm is notably different from most designers, and from most of the games I play, frankly. If you haven't read any of Charles' writings about chaos in (war)gaming, you absolutely should. Fascinating. Of course I wanted to interview Charles about his card-driven strategic level English Civil War game, Unhappy King Charles!. However, we also spoke about the history more generally, as well as Charles' other games such as The King's War: The First English Civil War 1642-1646, Chariot Lords, The 2010 Election, and Tsushima. Plus The Flowers of the Forest, one of his earlier games that was recently given a nice, new edition in Battles magazine.

Since it took me so long to get this episode out, a few other wargames NOT related to the ECW worked their way onto my table during this same time. There's Vasey's The Flowers of the Forest, but also Martin Wallace's euro-wargame hybrid Gettysburg (not much of a euro, as I'll discuss), Monitor vs Merrimack: Battle of Hampton Roads, 1862, Caesar XL,and Salvo!.

-Mark

Poll

How much order versus chaos do you prefer in your wargaming?

	Godlike knowledge, deterministic combat (e.g. Napoleon's Triumph)
	Known map/units/reinforcements, probabilistic combat (e.g. Afrika Korps)
	Uncertainty in activations, random events, or turn duration (e.g. Across 5 Aprils)
	Event table or cards, friendly unit activations (e.g. Card Driven Games (CDGs))
	Local commander independence (e.g. The Flowers of the Forest)

68 answers

Poll created by MarkEJohnson

My VASSAL game of UKC, while I still had a chance!

I made rookie mistakes during Unhappy King Charles, but still had a couple shots at salvaging the game by bring Charles to battle. Unfortunately, despite winning those battles, I couldn't capture the king. Eventually he beat me back to just London and some towns to the east. A losing game, but a very enjoyable one.

Cruel Necessity: The English Civil Wars 1640-1653, partially set up (or taking down, I don't recall)

As you know from episode 2 of this podcast, I enjoy several of the States of Siege series games. Combined with my new interest in the English Civil Wars, this new title should be a lock, right? Well, it wasn't for me. Not entirely. There's a LOT going on, which should please most people. After all, a "lot" in a States of Siege game is still very manageable compared to other big wargames. Also, it's really the only game I played that covers ALL of the English Civil Wars, as well as the political challenges & backdrop throughout. Sure, it's abstracted, but it still takes on more scope than other games here.

Royalist dragoons take aim at Cromwell's cavalry wing

Winceby had some good parts, notably the command system and real feeling of those dragoons, but the wristage in the combat system (and the command system, actually), combined with the uninspiring graphics (counters ok, map a big disappointment) means I won't be returning to this one. I wouldn't completely rule out other Royalists & Roundhead games, though.

Langport doesn't look like much, either, but the system played smoothly, and the single-sided, DIY/PNP counters worked well enough

I suppose the TCS games that I played could be called the "action movies" of the games I played, with simple rules and rapid fighting. But like better action movies, there was enough historical simulation that was recognizable from the research I'd done that it was good. Plus, some of the other games in the series look nicer.

Naseby uses similar rules & counters, but a much nicer map

Here you can see the whole setup. The chit-pull coffee cup for activations, simple charts, attractive map, and clear counters. This is the setup for the battle, with Parliament's forces in the foreground, on a low ridge. Infantry in the center, cavalry on the wings. That's Cromwell's group on the right, while on the other hill across the battlefield, Rupert's first-class cavalry waits on THEIR right wing.

My own replacement counters since I've misplaced the originals! They worked.

I read somewhere that Cromwell's Victory was from the SPI/TSR transition period for S&T, when a game designed & developed by the original wargame company was ultimately produced and released by the new owners.

Links

Reference material
• Revolutions podcast
• YouTube: English Civil War - Cromwell
• YouTube: English Civil War - Blood on Our Hands
• YouTube: Battlefield Britain - Naseby
• YouTube: Oliver Cromwell - King Killer
• English Civil Wars on Wikipedia
• In Our Time - The Trial of Charles I
• Cromwell (film)
• Vasey on Chaos in Gaming

English Civil War games discussed
• Unhappy King Charles
• Cruel Necessity
• Winceby (Royalists & Roundheads system)
• Fairfax's Revenge: the battle of Langport 1645
• Naseby: The End of a Reign
• Cromwell's Victory: The Battle of Marston Moor

Charles Vasey's games discussed
• Unhappy King Charles
• The King's War
• Deathride: Mars-la-Tour 1870
• Chariot Lords
• Tsushima
• The 2010 Election (and see Rick Heli's writeup)
• The Flowers of the Forest

Roberto Chiavini's games discussed
• I Obey: The Campaign of Bezzecca 1866
• Obbedisco!
• Innocence Lost: First Bull Run 1861
• TCS English Civil War series
• Edgehill: Dawning of the Revolution
• Naseby: The End of a Reign
• Montebello: First Step to Freedom
• Caricat!
• Acies Edizioni's games
• Wargame Downloads.com
• CSW 2014 Donation Drive, featuring Langport
• Legion Wargames' games
• High Flying Dice's games
• Sports Replays titles by Roberto
• TCS Thirty Years War series
• TCS Battles of the Middle Ages System
• Age of Dante (Postcards from Tuscany series)
• Gliders from the Sky: The Fall of Eben Emael
• Prussia Rising: The Franco-Prussian War
• Christmas in Hell: the battle of Ortona
• Maria Theresa
• Souls of the Brave: the Epic of the Alamo

Other games discussed
• Monitor vs Merrimack: Battle of Hampton Roads
• Salvo!
• Gettysburg (Martin Wallace)
• The Flowers of the Forest
• Caesar XL

=========================================================================
Mark Johnson's irregular podcast about small wargames

20 Comments

Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:03 am

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Still trudging along

Posted by Mark Johnson

07 May 2014

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

Still out here, still trying to wrap up my gaming about the ECW. I've now played Unhappy King Charles!, Winceby, Fairfax's Revenge: the battle of Langport 1645, and Naseby: The End of a Reign. I'm definitely still going to get Cruel Necessity: The English Civil Wars 1640-1653 to the table, and possibly Cromwell's Victory: The Battle of Marston Moor, too. The big omission will be Ben Hull's system, notably This Accursed Civil War, but I'm reaching my limit. Besides, Ben and his games were covered in a recent episode of Guns, Dice, Butter.

I will let the cat out of the bag to say that I've got a recorded interview with Charles Vasey to include. At this point I'm thinking I'll stop worrying about it being a long episode, and go ahead and include some discussion about other, non-ECW games played: The Flowers of the Forest, Gettysburg, and Monitor vs Merrimack: Battle of Hampton Roads, 1862. Why not? It seems ok with a podcast that's going to be as infrequent as mine.

When I set out to have a focus for my upcoming episode, I didn't realize how that would slow me up. But that's ok--I've really enjoyed the concentration. It also helps me gauge the time better for the episode after this one, which needs to cover the games I'm playing to prep for my summer trip to Normandy and the Marne.

-Mark

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Thu May 8, 2014 12:19 am

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Studying up on the English Civil Wars, wargame-style

Posted by Mark Johnson

15 Feb 2014

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

As planned, my next episode is going to be about wargaming the English Civil Wars. I've already played Winceby (in the Series: Royalists & Roundheads System (3W)), am about to start two games of Unhappy King Charles! over Vassal, and I've punched the States of Siege game Cruel Necessity: The English Civil Wars 1640-1653. Whew! I'm ready to go.

That's not quite all, though. Like a lot of you, I received an Print and Play game covering the ECW battle of Langport in the thank you package from Consimworld's annual fundraising drive. That game is part of a system of tactical battles of the ECW (or perhaps musket & pike, generally). I decided to buy one more from that system, on the more famous battle of Naseby.

I'm not an experienced PnP gamer, but have been curious about them for a while. These are single-sided square counters, about as easy as it gets, so I decided to give it a try. I'll get to talk about that experience in the next podcast, too.

In addition to the wargames, I'm doing the usual Wikipedia level of research, and checking out a book from the library (to skim, not read through). I've already mentioned how much I'm getting from the Revolutions podcast--in fact I'm re-listening to the ~15 episodes that cover the ECW. That broad sweep has also encouraged me to re-listen to some episodes of BBC Radio 4's In Our Time program, such as ones on the Putney Debates and Trial of King Charles. These cover the political situation more than the military, of course. There are even a few good full-length programs I've found on YouTube.

Very exciting to learn this much about something I had nearly zero knowledge about earlier. The political aspect, in particular, has strong relevancy to later actions (e.g. the American Revolution) and even events today.

Update: Now I've had a chance to get started in my first game of Unhappy King Charles, which I'm playing over Vassal. Two turns in and my Parliament forces are on their heels (as expected).

6 Comments

Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:42 pm

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WGTG episode subject poll

Posted by Mark Johnson

04 Feb 2014

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

Here's that list of potential WGTG episodes/topics that I rambled through in episode 2. What actually happens depends more on my interest, timing, and availability more than anything else. But it's still interesting to me to see what you all think. Vote for as many as you like.

Poll

Please indicate which potential WGTG episodes sound good (or bad!) Remember that all of the choices will skew towards the lighter/shorter wargames of that type, or about that conflict.

Please write in other ideas in the comments, too.

	Great!	Why not	No thanks
English Civil Wars	Great!	Why not	No thanks
"Vehicular" solos (B-17, Patton's Best)	Great!	Why not	No thanks
D-Day	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Battle of the Bulge	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Roman Empire	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Operational Air	Great!	Why not	No thanks
North Africa (WW2)	Great!	Why not	No thanks
WW1 Western Front	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Waterloo	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Sid Sackson "wargames"	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Vietnam	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Print and Play	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Panzerschreck Zine games	Great!	Why not	No thanks
American Revolution	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Computer wargaming	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Eastern Front (WW2)	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Academy Games (1812, 1775)	Great!	Why not	No thanks
Euro/wargame hybrids	Great!	Why not	No thanks

55 answers

Poll created by MarkEJohnson

2 Comments

Wed Feb 5, 2014 2:33 am

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WGTG 2 - States of Siege

Posted by Mark Johnson

31 Jan 2014

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

Mark Johnson's irregular podcast about small wargames
========================================================
Subscribe

Welcome to Wargames To Go, my new blog & podcast that shines a light on small wargames you can play on a weeknight, or take on a business trip.

If you need the feed address, it's http://feeds.feedburner.com/WargamesToGo

Well, shoot, that was a longer interval than I'd planned. But here, finally, is the second episode of my wargame podcast. As before, the episode features me talking about broader topics in the first half, then transitioning to discussion about individual titles in the second. In between I've got an interview with wargame designer Darin Leviloff, too.

The focus of the episode are the States of Siege family of solitaire games published by Victory Point Games. In all of these the player is assaulted from multiple sides, and can't really maneuver. Instead, you fight off the attackers as long as possible. The system has been used for subjects ranging from Imperial Japan in WW2 to a zombie horde to the French Revolution. Though they are simple and abstract (some would argue whether they're wargames at all--I say they are), the card-driven play presents a narrative that is fantastic for learning about the subject. I'm eagerly looking forward to another in this series about the English Civil War.

Speaking of the ECW, that will probably be the focus of my next episode. I'm very interested in the topic right now, having my imagination fired by Mike Duncan's excellent podcast Revolutions. Along those lines, I also describe other subjects I'm considering for upcoming podcasts. I welcome your feedback.

And speaking of feedback, I received some good emails that I share on this episode. That's something I've done from time to time on my other podcast, Boardgames To Go. I think of it as the "letters" column you'd often find in a wargame magazine or newsletter. Since some of the feedback asks a question, you can hear my answer and suggest something else to the person who wrote in.

-Mark

P.S. Want to see my crazy/incomplete top ten list of small wargames? Here it is.

1. Gettysburg (125th Anniversary Edition)
2. Up Front
3. Ogre/GEV
4. Waterloo 20
5. Napoleon
6. A Few Acres of Snow
7. Battle of the Bulge
8. tbd Air Combat game
9. tbd Midway game?
10. tbd East Front game (perhaps No Retreat! The Russian Front)

P.P.S. Now I've posted a poll where you can "vote" on some of those potential podcast topics I rattled off in the first half of this episode.

Links

Revolutions podcast
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast
WGTG folder on Consimworld

=========================================================================
Mark Johnson's irregular podcast about small wargames

9 Comments

Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:41 pm

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Drive for Moscow, CC:E, States of Siege

Posted by Mark Johnson

26 Nov 2013

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

I think I mentioned on the podcast that I'm a big fan of Shenandoah Studios' Battle of the Bulge. I've played it since day one, and just participated in their tournament. I thought I was doing ok, but apparently not when I saw the final standings. I was always able to reach the Meuse as the Axis, never able to prevent that as the Allies. I guess the guys that did well in the tournament were able to mount a better defense.

Now Shenandoah has released its second iOS wargame, Drive on Moscow. (Not in the BGG/VGG database?!) It was an immediate, automatic purchase for me, though I've all done so far is play the tutorial, lose to the AI, and challenge one guy to an online match. If anyone else wants to play a game with me, my Game Center ID is BoardgamesToGo. I don't know much about the eastern front (subject of a future podcast), so am going to learn a lot while I play this game.

Just to show I'm not limited to iOS and solo wargaming, my buddy Greg came over this week so that we could play a wargame in person. Greg's less of a wargamer than I am, but wants to explore them more. I gave him several options I thought we could manage on a weeknight, and he picked Combat Commander: Europe. We've both owned it for a while, but never played. As it was, we played Scenario #2 (Hedgerows), and got a number of rules wrong. It was slow-going at first, the rapidly accelerated. I won as the Americans by destroying his units to the surrender limit...but we did make those mistakes. So it's taken with a grain of salt. Both of us have played Up Front before, and the comparisons are striking. (I own the original but am also one of the infamous Kickstarter campaign backers--a whole nother story.)

The podcast I'll be recording next is about several States of Siege games. In my first episode all of the games shared a subject, the Battle of Gettysburg. Now I'm focusing on a system of games from a single publisher. I doubt that all of my episodes will have so focused a theme to them, but it is the way I've been planning them (e.g. Bulge, WW1, tactical scale, Vietnam games, and so on). The prominent feature of the SOS games is that they're strictly solo games. Of course you can play any solo game as a team with your buddy, but it's still a solo wargame. Oddly enough (or not?), even though much of my wargaming is solo, I don't normally limit myself to games designed for one player. In fact, I often find playing both sides of a "regular" wargame more satisfying.

In the first podcast you heard me say I got my wargaming start with microgames such as Ogre/G.E.V. and Starfire. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for these little, sometimes minimalist productions. They fit my budget as a kid, and often they were small enough in scope to play in a reasonable time. They never took up much space. When I got on the Internet in the mid-90s, one of the first things I did was create a website intended as a database for microgames, trying to copy what web-grognards did for the larger hobby. All that is a long way of saying that I like what States of Siege publisher Victory Point Games is doing. I've picked up quite a few of their games by now, and look forward to playing & discussing them on future podcasts.

4 Comments

Tue Nov 26, 2013 9:44 pm

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WGTG 1 - Intro & Gettysburg

Posted by Mark Johnson

02 Oct 2013

Mark Johnson

(MarkEJohnson)

United States
Santa Clarita
California

That's a Palm Pilot on the left, and a pink iPod mini on the right. Yes, I've been doing BGTG that long!

http://www.WargamesToGo.com

Mark Johnson's irregular podcast about small wargames
========================================================
Subscribe

Welcome to Wargames To Go, my new blog & podcast that shines a light on small wargames you can play on a weeknight, or take on a business trip.

If you need the feed address, it's http://feeds.feedburner.com/WargamesToGo

After eight years and 138 episodes of my Boardgames To Go podcast (about euros), I've decided to add a companion podcast that focuses on wargaming. Very unimaginatively, I'm calling it Wargames To Go. Longtime listeners of BGTG know that my interest in wargames would occasionally leak into that podcast. I started in this hobby with wargaming back in 1979, with little science fiction microgames like Ogre/GEV and Starfire, but also some historic titles from Avalon Hill (Richtofen's War, Air Force). What can I say? I was in junior high school at the time, and my interests were Star Wars and fighter planes. In fact, the same little hobby store where I'd gone for years to get Revell and Monogram plastic kits was where I found a small pile of wargames. I looked at the flimsy SPI flat packs there (Winter War caught my eye), but I never bought anyway. For one, they were out of my budget. For another, it it didn't fly it wasn't history that interested me. Later, a larger toy store came to town, and it had shelves & shelves of beautiful Avalon Hill bookcase games. Many times I pulled Napoleon or Panzer Leader off the shelf, but it would take years before I matured into a greater appreciation for history.

Although the next fifteen years were filled with RPGs and CCGs, followed by twenty years of German-style eurogames, I never lost my interest in wargames. I played them from time to time, and bought more when I found bargains (especially on old Strategy & Tactics or Command magazines). Most important, my interest in history expanded greatly during this time. The Internet brought consim-l, ebay, web-grognards, Wikipedia, history podcasts, and countless other sources to rekindle my interest in military history and wargaming.

The thing is...I've never been one for the BIG wargames. Definitely not the monsters. I hear stories about games with maps covering multiple tables that are played over an entire weekend. Or else they stay out in someone's basement and a group of friends plays every week for months. I'm sure the depth of experience those wargames offer is something special, but it's just not for me. I guess I still like those old microgames, only on more historic topics. I can throw Waterloo 20 in my bag when traveling and play it one night in my hotel room. Or I can invite a friend over and we'll play Afrika Korps in an afternoon, still with time to have dinner with our families.

With that in mind, this blog & podcast is going to focus on these smaller wargames. There are already other great podcasts that focus on the monsters. Also, the podcast is more of an "audio blog" than a "show," meaning I don't have news or interviews. Instead, I have my own experiences & observations with these games.

==============================

To kick off my first show, I talk about three Battle of Gettysburg games. That's the best place to start for two reasons. First, this summer was the 150th anniversary of this landmark battle, the largest ever fought in the western hemisphere. I'm not the only wargamer who appreciates the extra significance of playing a simulation on such an anniversary. Some of it is as simple as understanding the weather, the heat or cold, the light or dark, that would've happened during the actual event. In the case of Gettysburg, fought during the sweltering temperatures & humidity of a Pennsylvania summer, it's amazing to think of the extreme fatigue (and heat stroke?) those soldiers must have experienced.

Second, Gettysburg represents a turning point for me, personally. As a California kid, I didn't grow up with battlefields to visit, and all of those historic wars seemed far away and old fashioned. Then the summer before my sophomore year in high school--a couple years after I'd discovered science fiction wargames--my family & I took a trip to the east coast. We saw New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC in the traditional, whirlwind tour. In between the last two we swung over to the Gettysburg battlefield. I'm certain I wasn't very interested in anything about the American Civil War, but it was still vacation in a new place. When we got there, it was about the same time of year as the battle...and it was pouring buckets of rain. Hot, summer rains were another foreign concept to a west coast kid! When the rain ended we took a car tour of the battle, with an audio cassette we rented from the visitor center. That was a transformative experience, and I suddenly "got" what was so fascinating about history. Besides the battlefield itself (and audio narrative), the other thing that made the history come alive for me was the old, Electric Map at the visitor center! This amazing piece of 1930s electric (not electronic) technology--though I guess I saw the "new" one built in the 1960s--was a wargame come to life. It really showed how the events and drama of Gettysburg could be understood by this commanding view that included troop movements, key terrain, and the clashes of battle. Wow!

So that's why Gettysburg. For the podcast, I recently played three Gettysburg games. All of them are 2-player games, but only one did I play that way--the others I just solo'd by playing both sides. I'm ok with that. All three are hex & counter wargames, but they are at different scales. The first covers the entire battlefield, the second just the famous action in the south, and the last is strategic or operational scale that covers the troop movements of the entire campaign that may not even "end up" at Gettysburg.

First is Gettysburg '88, the light wargame from Avalon Hill's American Heritage/Smithsonian series that was published in 1988 for the 125th anniversary of the battle. Though often considered too light, or at too high of a scale (divisions) for serious wargamers, it hits the sweet spot for me. Particularly when using the optional rules from The General magazine. There are many what-ifs about famous battles, and for Gettysburg a common one is to wonder if the Union hadn't held its ground on day one while reinforcements streamed in through the road network. Well, in this game I play so badly, we find out. Hint: it's quick. Photos at right could be captioned, "From bad...to worse."

Next was Harvest of Death, a Strategy & Tactics game from that mag's 3W era. I didn't even know anything about this one, but read it being recommended by experienced grognards in the discussions surrounding the anniversary. I dug through my closet and found it, and was very happy I did! This actually has some solo rules, and it plays really well. In a small package (time & space) you get to see Little Round Top, Devils Den, the Peach Orchard, the infamous wheat field and the angle. There in one of the counters is Chamberlain and his 20th Maine. Really something.

Last was another magazine wargame, this time from Command. Across the Potomac is primarily a double-blind game covering the CSA's invasion of the north, with operational troop movements from Virginia to New Jersey. If you're thinking that makes it a rather poor choice for solo play, I guess you'd be right. But again, it came highly recommended from recent discussions here on BGG, and I was drawn to the scale. Some day I'll have to play against a live opponent so we can use cavalry in an accurate way, scouting for the enemy and foraging/raiding.

-Mark

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Mark Johnson's irregular podcast about small wargames