How many battles/games have you played, and won? How do you rate yourself as a miniature general? I know that we all have fun playing and that's really what it's all about, right? But how many of you have actually won a hard-fought battle against an opponent that you have been playing against for quite awhile. Or someone that takes this winning business to an extreme? It seems that I'm always on the losing side and when I do win, it feels GREAT! Sometimes we can blame it on bad dice, or my card didn't come up first - there always seems to be a perfect excuse. But what about our tactics? Sure, we can paint up a fantastic looking unit, but the poor thing gets chewed up in the first turn! Seems that we read a lot about uniforms, building terrain, making forts and redoubts, etc., but how many good generals do we have in our ranks? I've read some pretty good battle reports but not too much on actually commanding the miniatures army. I need input! My boys need a win pretty quick or I'm going to have one heck of a mutiny! I guess it has alot to do with what rules you are using at the time and how many others are participating in the game. Let's take for instance, two opponents facing off across a 4X8 table and say the period is ACW. The forces are identical: - 14 (6 stand) units of infantry; 1 (8 stand) unit of cavalry and 3 guns (1 gun per stand) terrain, to keep it simple, features no hills, but we do have a wall or structure (church or farm house) directly in the middle of our field, or center of our table. -our orders are to take and hold that position at all costs. Not oddly at all, this is the same order issued to the other side. OK, so here we are, now what? What I'm interested in is the actual gist of the thing. Leaving out the rules sets (after all rules just tell us how far we can fire, move, etc), where do we go from here? Coming up the road in column with the cavalry out front (if this is even correct), how do we deploy? Should we go for the objective pell-mell or do we form up in a battle line and maybe give the other guy the chance of getting there first. If we form a battle line, who goes where? All the artillery in the center, or one in the center and one on each flank? Should all the infantry be spread out in a single line, a double line, or should we concentrate some in the center for our assault? How many units should be held in reserve, and in what formation? Do we send out a screen of infantry or cavalry? What do to with the cavalry now that the enemy is located, should they be in line (ready to charge) or in column so they can be rushed where they may be needed? I have a lot of questions. I'd like to hear from the REAL generals out there! For instance, Gen. H. Thinglum, Gen. R. Black, Gen. W. Simon, Gen. O.J. Banasik and all the others that make up our miniature West Point! LEAD ME INTO BATTLE SIR! (Editor's Note: Good idea, Joe, let's see what kind of response we get). Back to MWAN # 41 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1989 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com