The purpose of this column is an unknown ramble–or maybe a counter editorial–I never know for sure. It’s a balmy fall as this is being written–the trees look nothing like the neat, multicolored seasonal trees I put on my color-coordinated, politically correct, tiny gaming table. Not that I’m complaining about my wife kicking me out of two other–and larger–rooms and into my present location.
As Bill D. Kat says, “Ack! Ack! Thyckpiittttt!” Now that applies to a lot. Recently, the EE&L crew has had several meetings with the goals of tightening up our rules, getting this magazine ready, and watching Jean’s wine cellar shrink and his 30+ year old table collapse into dust as we discuss things.
Our Bill (not D. Kat) shed his sheet to voice a number of questions about several rule systems. This brought out the idea that is one of the basic pillars of our rules and stands out as a real historical fact. “When troops are ordered to do something they will usually try to carry out their orders to the best of their ability.”
This is one of the hardest things for many gamers to grasp. If I can see it, a la “the Helicopter Effect,” why can’t I react to it? You can’t because you, the gamer, may be omnipotent but your army is not, nor are your officers gifted with your aerial view of the battlefield. And that’s that.
We had a person in our club who was a Vietnam Vet and he always tried to think of Napoleonic gaming as a big Platoon level engagement in the Delta. His idea was that all units should be able to react instantly to anything.
We know that this isn’t true–no matter what the war or when. One of the most basic tenets is that all the orders are written before the battle and often the battle is lost right at that point. Once units are ordered to do something it is very hard to recall them from their tasks until the damage is done or the mission is finished successfully. Jean (as the High Referee) likes to make me wear the hated Austrian sheet. They know I handle Austrians like cantaloupes and my favorite commands tend to involve Klumpen. Maybe my overly cautious nature surfaces here.
But the idea which has revolutionized play in the past few years is the Chain of Command, with orders passing up and down. This system really gives you the chance to “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
So what this all comes down to is the question of just how much a small localized commander should be allowed to do. Not much. I’m one of those people who have been in reenactments over the last thirty years, and my opinion is that all rule writers–no matter what their period, whether it be medieval or ACW or Napoleonic–should take part in (if possible) or at least watch an event. You really can’t see anything much more than the guy on the right or left and to the front: maybe 40 feet if the land dips and a mile beyond that. Meanwhile, the Sergeants are yelling, “Face front, number two.” And if a battle happens to be in the woods–well, I’ve had two-deep ranks of Union infantry rise up 25 feet away, totally unseen, and deliver a volley while we were trying to form a line in a fairly dense woods. It can be done–forming a line, that is–but the other guys faded away in the meantime. It took about ten minutes for a combination of super-trained soldiers and barely enlisted recruits to form up with casualties dropping along the way. This was about a 75-man company. The Sergeant yelled at anyone he could see. I only saw the Captain for two or three minutes in an open field and then the smoke rolled in.
The point is that once orders were given, they were carried out despite conditions because there was nothing else you could do. The private had to trust his officers because he didn’t know what was going on. The same went for the officers in regard to the higher ranks–it took both time and patience to change orders.
Game Review
I review all games. In terms of computers, I operate mainly on a Mac, but see IBM on occasion. Many computer games are fast being translated into formats for video game systems. As I also have a NES, a SuperNES, the Genesis, and Lynx systems, that about covers most of what's available (and I don't have to share them either-except when the overworked wife wants to play Zelda).
One of the biggest problems in electronic gaming is that any kind of tactical pre-World War II scenarios are scarce, unless they are of the S&T school of "SOAK 'EM OFF' in which all games, no matter what period they are supposed to cover, become a lot alike. There are a few exceptions which I will mention in future issues. One of the most surprising exceptions to this general rule is now available for the regular Nintendo. This is an out and out interactive combination political and tactical version of the Napoleonic Wars-highly recommended. In depth, I'd like to review Ramparts for the Super-NES and the Lynx.
The Lynx version is not as complicated as the SuperNES one, but it has good sound, graphics, and is nasty. It also has the plus of being playable by more than one person at a time.
The Super-NES version has two levels of single player action against the microchips and a two player option. The basic plot is that you have to defend your home castle against another player or the chips. The chips invade your shores with ships which land troops (they fire regular and hot shot against your walls). Each turn you get new guns and a chance to repair your walls and enclose other castles. When you can't enclose your castle you lose. That sounds simple, but there are tons of different strategies to try. I discovered, with some joy, the ability to use "propaganda balloons"-that really helped The graphics are very nice-from overhead views to a sideways glance from the position of a soaring seagull. The time period-despite the artwork on the cover-is about late 1600s to the 1780s. Highly recommended as a challenging, fun game. Oh, one of the things that appeals to me are games that can be played by people in their 40s--games at which they can even beat kids.
Nintendo's Napoleonic Wargame is L'Empereur. This is best described as a video board/wargame/diplomacy mutation combining features from all these types of games. The game contains four scenarios-from the rise of the First Consul to Waterloo. The player first has to manage on the Grand Scale with alliances, trade, embargoes, taxes, strategic supply build ups and the like to actual battles.
The battles have a "board game" look but feel realistic with such "miniatures" touches as artillery placement, troops able to entrench-and even build bridges. Weather happens, and there are even Cossacks (ack-ack!). More than 250 separate historical personalities appear at random according to what happens in the game, and the complexity builds as Napoleon's position in the chain of command rises (you should be so lucky) with the chance of small mistakes mushrooming out of control down the line.
Also be on the lookout for several Japanese strategy games that were not big sellers with the arcade set. You may find them on the cheapo "Toys 'R" Us" sale rack: "Nobunaga's Ambition" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." High level strategy games that are very complex.
A slight aside here, a friend of mine runs the Mac (and several other) networks on Compuserve. He also reviews and writes game columns for several electronic gaming magazines. We have massive play weekends every month or so, and at our last fest we rented over thirty games, more than half of which were Japanese games. Japanese games, (those purely produced for a Japanese audience) besides being prefaced in English as SUPER-WHATEVER, are often racist and sexist. Racism in this context means being anti-everyone who is not Japanese.
A good example was the game with a cute hologram of a Japanese woman on the cover-great animation and satire-with a Japanese figure giving extensive speeches and a huge American giving one-word commentaries. This game was basically professional wrestling/Thai boxing, starring about twenty Western babes (the only word that applies here) with American names. This is a game that won't even have to be censored since it will never make it in the U.S. in any version. What I discovered after sampling a cross section of these games is that the Japanese don't really make true wargames just shoot 'em ups. The main market will probably be computer translations.
This brings me to a dividend I reaped from Historicon. As I'm recovering from busted vertebrae, I was wandering (with the help of lots of pain killers) like a pinball bouncing from chair to chair. While going up and down certain stairs I always noticed a large array of tables with six or eight boards. These tables were continuously occupied by both adults and kids no matter what time of the day or night it was. I just had to see what this game was. I've become really tired of board games-they all seem the same and way too long-that's why miniatures were invented. But take it from a sucker who's been in art forever, this one really looks good graphically, and the use of pegs as a roster type system is quite nice. Besides the quality of the packaging and the attractive playing pieces, there is, of course, the game itself.
I'm talking about High Ground by Crown Tactics, Inc., (Walter Drury). This is a general simulation of classic SYW through Napoleonic warfare (with a little fiddling, you could extend this to the Mexican War and the Musket and Pike period. All the classic units are represented by stands (squares, rectangles, and triangles) of pegs representing soldiers and a flag (see, one more color and here come the pikemen). We even have supply units-and how many advanced garners never even worry about supplies? The board contains naturalistic terrain and features that have an effect on movement and combat--aha, now you see the reason for the name, as you attempt to take the High Ground. All units can perform with the feel of a miniatures' game and this tends to give each player a real sense of personality about his or her troops, which always was one of the main attractions of miniatures.
One of the main attractions of High Ground-and I feel this is an attraction of any good game-is you want to fiddle with it. This is the responsibility of the individual gamer. High Ground could have gotten out of hand, but Mr. Drury had the good sense to think "mass market" and he left it at the level of a simple set of rules. A series of six movement turns describes what could happen in a complete round. The rest of the rules are quite elegant and are easily understood. Advanced gamers can fiddle with the basic setup as much as they want, but even played as it is this is one game that stands out and will bear repeat playing. More notice should be taken of it, and I hope that it achieves mass market status. One of the best compliments I can pay is that everyone who played it thoroughly enjoyed themselves-no matter what their various ages or periods of interest.
FLASH AND POLISH
In reviewing figures, there a lot of things to consider-some of which are slightly screwy to say the least. One of the basic considerations seems to be size. What the size should be based on is the measurement to the top of the head of the average man--about 5'6"--not to the shako or using high heels. Many companies are guilty of "figure creep." Now this is a situation that occurs even within an established range. Figure creep is defined as figures that just keep getting bigger- 15mm that turn into 20mm, for example. Happens all the time.
Keeping this in mind, I also use the "MINIFIGS" scale, which is: "No matter what, everyone who games has seen a MiniFigs and knows what it looks like. I'm talking about the "classic" figures and the super-detailed ones. A classic posed figure tends to be on the chunky, well-fed side-figures that always could be counted on and were in the shape commanders wanted their troops to be in.
And here I must mention with sadness the death of Dave Allsop, the talented designer of much of the FreiKorps line, the person responsible for their overall style of sculpture, and the designer as well of the Old Glory ACW and Napoleonic lines. I do believe that Dave Allsop was one of the forces behind super-realistic figures with variants within one pose. He will be missed and, in my opinion, his death is a genuine loss to the art world in general.
David Jackson was kind enough to send me a ton of Napoleonic figures. He is the Canadian representative of Chariot Miniatures. They mainly handle Ancients but they have a huge line of great Naps. These figures fall somewhere between MiniFigs and FreiKorps. That is, they are realistically animated when necessary and also come in classic poses (marching, etc.). They have a slight tendency to stretch up to about 16-17 mm. The cavalry are much more like FreiKorps in stature but with much cleaner detail. In fact, the horses don't have the characteristic "big butt" that has graced a few lines recently. One of the nice things that should be pointed out about Chariot is that all the figures are very clean and the attention to detail means that the rifles look like proper guns, not like telephone poles. All the edged weapons look like proper weapons. I'm amazed. The metal is soft enough to bend and is very break-resistant. The cavalry comes both as one and two piece castings. The horses and proper saddle cloths are quite nice.
Periods covered are Revolution French and Austrians and 1812 French, English, Prussians, and Russians, with more to come. You'll be delighted to find many variations of poses with some having as many as ten poses under one listing. Prices are average-say $3.15 for 8 infantry (15mm). One point that should be made is that even if you think you have all the French and British you want, the specials (like light infantry buglers) are "so good you just hafta have 'em."
They also carry a 10mm line of ACW figures that is really good, with some of the finest detail I've ever seen, and they promise more expansion soon. Also carried is a tremendous line of Ancients in 15mm, as well as some fantasy in 25m.
The catalog is $1 U.S. from Pharaoh's Arms, David A. Jackson, PO Box 32, Munster Hamlet, Ontario, Canada KOA 3PO, (613) 838-4818. David also runs a book-finding service. All these figures are definitely among the top lines.
Rats, I only have 2 samples from Two Dragons Productions/Moly-Cro Miniatures, PO Box 1370, Picton, Ontario KOK 2TO, attn: Ron Molyneaux. These are really high quality and are closer to a true 15 n . They happen to specialize in Samurai era figures, some Vikings, and early Revolutionary and later British, with a real clutch on India in the late 1790s. I'll keep you posted as to any more information I can get on these figures. But they look good, with nice animation and detail.
Modelers Mart, Al Younghous, 1183 Cedar St., Safety Harbor, FL 34695, (813) 725-5168. This is one of the larger services and they carry a ton of things-brushes, books, Geo-Hex, and all the other stuff. They are also a good place to get 25mi MiniFigs. However, thanks should go to Al for taking over the production of the excellent Frontier 15 and 25 lines. For those not familiar with the line, Frontier figures have a feel and look of MiniFigs. They're nice figures that cover a tremendous amount of ranges. They complement Minifigs quite well and are a bit cheaper.
Modelers Mart also has resurrected the old line of "sorta" 20mm Hinton-Hunt British Napoleonic figures. These are one of the oldest lines of real wargaming figures around. I might add that when wargaming picked up speed over 20 years ago, these guys were the first figures to be pirated and sold on a mass scale. Also, the sculpting and historical accuracy was impressive. Long before any other company, they had French Elite Light in busbies and assorted buglers. They had correct limbers and outriders for all countries. They even featured a wide range of personalities that looked like historical paintings. Even today these figures still stand up.
Here's something that leads into my new subject. One of the main features of a battlefield was an area-usually under guard-where a regiment discarded their packs, etc., before they went into attack mode. These would make a dandy casting and allow for looting rules. I just read in Austerlitz by Christopher Duffy, accounts of the French halting to go through the discarded Russian packs, looking for booty.
Now one thing that the gentle readers are going to pick up on quickly is that I am a terrain freak. I love the stuff. I can toss trees and foam into the air and let it hit me on the head. I can burrow through Geo-Hexs like a gopher. I can swim and dive through foam like a porpoise. I...oops, I seem to be getting away from myself here. Well, at the recent Historicon I got to see lots of nice stuff. I saw Flex-Terrain!
Flex-Terrain was designed by Jim Brokaw, 3611 Quail Ridge Lane, Matthews, NC 28105, for use with Geo-Hex (but for everything really). Flex-Terrain is a system of roads, streams and rivers, earthworks, and walls. This stuff is made out of pliable plastic/rubber goo. It is painted where necessary (the streams look like diorama water) and where ground is necessary it is finished off a la Geo-Hex. It's tough and will probably outlast us all. Flex-Terrain comes in complete sets, or you can buy it by the chunk like liverwurst. The roads are rutted and everything is labeled as 15 or 25mm, which means wide or narrow. The streams have banks, which really look good but they also make good edges for sunken roads in 15mm.
All of this isn't cheap but it is affordable and when you consider the quality and the fact that it's ready to use and lasts forever... Hey, I have discovered-along with many of you, I'm sure-that I don't have the time to do all this stuff myself anymore. Flex-Terrain averages about $4 to $6 for 24" and the BIG sets are $80 to $146-lots of duplication and a price break. The day of the unsightly printed road to nowhere is gone and the pond makes a great coaster.
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