As mentioned in the editorial, the Saga crew has been busy expanding its line of wargames rules. Historicon 2003 was used to demonstrate the published version of VW (1854-1901) with three sessions of “Prelude to The Battle for Sedan 1870” presented by Terry Gore, Perry Gray and Paul Schneider. Terry was the overall game master for the first two games (we switched places for the third and final game) with Paul and I being the Prussian and French commanders respectively. Our job was to guide the players through the sequence of play and provide some advice on strategy and tactics. The French won two of three scenarios by holding the fortified urban area located near the Prussians’ arrival point on the table. In each case the Prussians, despite numbers, better artillery and time, were unable to dislodge the garrison before the arrival of French reinforcements.

The one game won by the Prussians saw the sacrifice of the Prussian cavalry in a series of suicidal charges to slow the advance of the French relief column. This was a well-balanced scenario thanks to the play testing of Terry and Paul, who managed to develop a balance of forces and objectives. In keeping with Terry’s gaming philosophy, all three games were played within a three-hour period to an obvious conclusion. You can read more about the scenario in Issue 2 (March/May 2003).

The one new project given some play testing was “Verdun Warfare” by Mitch Abrams. This was another single scenario scheduled several times during the convention (three times officially).

This is the basic background: “The Western Front 1916: With the seizure of Fort Douaumont, the corridor to Verdun is wide open. German troops have been repelled from breaking through but at huge costs. Now is the time to reclaim the offence with the few remaining fresh French troops. The German defenders are tired and ready to surrender. They only need one more push. The Iron Division (5th) has been chosen. Can you as the French seize the fort and open a breach and finally end this war that has decimated your country or can you as the German hold onto captured land so that oncoming reinforcements can breakthrough and you can finally go home to your family and friends.”

Mitch built terrain specifically for the scenario with the French trying to advance through a series of trenches and barbed-wire obstacles to engage the Germans in the fort. He wanted to get lots of gamers to try the fledgling rules to help him further develop the rules for future publication.

Mitch and I talked about expanding the Saga rules into the modern era, first with his set of WW One rules and then follow these with two more to cover WW Two and modern warfare tentatively entitled Mechanised Warfare (1920-1950) and Amoured Warfare (1950-2000). Certainly there are many existing rulebooks covering these timeframes, although that does not deter us as we wish to cover all periods of wargaming in the Saga range. These projects will have to wait as Mitch and I have other projects pending.

Finally, there was an NW scenario, “St Pierre” (1814) presented by Jeff Ball and Bruce Taylor and it was played twice. NW was also officially released at the convention. The background was: “Marshal Soult was narrowly repulsed in the days prior to St Pierre in battles south of Bayonne. He will use his interior lines to redeploy east of the city and strike General Hill’s exposed forces east of the suburb of St Pierre. Can he get his 7 divisions into action before Wellington can rebuild the pontoon bridge linking him to Hill’s 2 divisions and send reinforcements? A desperately fought battle historically featuring brilliant exploits and cowardly behaviour alike.”

The battle is part of the Peninsular War (1808-1814) during which Spain was first conquered by the French and then liberated by allied forces of Spain, Portugal and Britain.

The final actions took place in southwestern France. But then most of you knew that already. Bruce and I talked about our next project that of Lace Warfare (1680-1783), which will bridge the gap between RW and NW. This will be a challenge, as we shall include both the final 17th Century conflicts that are similar to those covered in RW and all the major conflicts of the 18th Century. The latter era saw European style warfare being fought on just about all inhabited continents less Australia. In North America (and India), there were extensive conflicts by English and French forces as extensions of their European wars. In conjunction to LW, there will be a skirmish level set of rules written in the style of Saga’s fast play rules.

There were other Saga Publication events during the convention, although they are covered in the next Saga (the newsletter for AW, MW and RW). So you have to check out what Terry includes in his bi-monthly report.

In addition to expanding the large-scale battle rulebooks, Saga is working on a series of supplementary skirmish-level rules. The first two will supplement MW and LW with others to follow. Hey, we have yet to run out of ideas for games, supplements and other historical topics.

A postcard that I bought at the museum dedicated to the Battle of Worth 1870. This is part of a painting by Edouard Detaille of the charge of the 9 th Cuirassier regiment into the hamlet of Morsbronn in a vain effort to retard the advance of the Prussians on 6 August.