Wednesday 23 August 2017

Battle is given

Following on from my last post and thank you gentlemen for your comments a most excellent weekend was had by all.
As you're aware these actions usually find their way into one of Charles' publications so far be it for me to give a detailed account of the game.
However I will make some comments and observations - as you will know the battle started in the early hours of the morning in the dark with both armies reacting to what was around them as dawn broke.
Prior to the game Charles had sent us both briefing sheets and a very small map with a request that we wrote our orders and submitted them prior to the day.
Short of putting a curtain down the middle of the room then this process worked extremely well, we used reduced move and firing distances to reflect moving at night and were obliged to follow our orders until the enemy were spotted or troops arrived at their designated positions.
What quickly became apparent is that both John and I had completely misjudged the distances between key points on the board but had also completely got it wrong on our assumptions of where the enemy would be and what there plans were.
To add even more frustrations other than our CinC's we also only had one ADC with which to change orders, its fair to say that by the end of the day my General and his Aide had been run ragged.
Charles' amendments worked well to reflect the mayhem and chaos that often follows a night time engagement.
A close fought bloody  battle.
Just a few pics of the game which I don't think give anything away.









10 comments:

StuartInsch said...

Looks like a great game and a tricky one at that!

Carlo said...

Brilliant Graham and more than just a hint of the classic "Tabletop Teaser" of Charles and his fathers. Great looking photos mate.

marinergrim said...

we've used the sheet method and had some great games as a result. Getting players to follow orders- now there's a novelty!

Graham C said...

Carlo,
It was indeed a classic table top teaser a great game with absolutely 'bucket' loads of refight opportunity

Graham C said...

Stuart,
Absolutely right on both counts

Graham C said...

Paul,
Still something to be said about using a sheet 😀
Great thing when John and I visit Charles is it's about the game/battle. Of course we'd like a victory but it's great just watching how things develop and the restrictions using written orders place upon us. Didn't help with my forces having a consistently bad day throwing poor morale - but what the heck makes for a great story

Der Alte Fritz said...

Of course, Charles has already written the story of Klostercamp in one of his books in recent years. Was this scenario the same or did Charles tweak it a bit?

Next time you go to the lair of the Grants, could you take some pictures of his game room so that we can see what it looks like?

Jim

Graham C said...

Jim,
I think this is a rework :)
I will ask re the room

Independentwargamesgroup said...

You lucky so and so. It looked a great game to fight in.

Graham C said...

Robbie,
Win or lose every game has been great fun.