"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." - Salvador Dali
I have been avoidably absent from blogging, but not from wargaming. We have concluded a first playtest of Lobositz, the Seven Years War scenario that James intends to put on at Derby in October. I've helped him with a few such games over the last couple of years and he is very thorough in his preparation. If it was me I'd simply lay out the superbly painted figures and wonderful terrain, which, let's face it, are what wins the best-in-show accolades. (Obviously I am painfully well aware that if it were me then the figures wouldn't actually be superbly painted and the terrain wouldn't be wonderful either.) In particular, when refighting a historical battle James is keen to make it both accurate and a good game. These objectives wouldn't generally sit well together in the first place, but things are made even worse by his tendency to choose battles which involved one side making attacks that don't make any sense in hindsight. Playtesting is therefore quite a lot about figuring out how to constrain the tabletop commanders into repeating at least some of their real life predecessors' mistakes while setting victory conditions that give both sides a chance. The process can be, and often is, fun; just don't mention Sidi Rezegh.
How well this works can be judged by the fact that when playing Marignano at Derby last year we had to abandon things after the first day and restart because it wasn't going anywhere. And then there was Sidi Rezegh - which obviously we won't mention - where, after being playtested to death and beyond, a guest commander was recruited for the convention itself and his decisions turned out to be somewhat sub-optimal. So, with no great expectations on my part, we have been trying to engineer a game where Frederick the Great faces superior numbers, charges his cavalry against artillery and entrenched infantry, attacks with his own infantry through entirely unsuitable terrain against specialist light infantry, runs away himself when things start to get tough and yet somehow retains a chance of victory.
Anyway, I rather enjoyed it, despite not actually winning as such. The attack through the vineyards on the slope of the volcano caught my imagination for some reason and the swings of luck (usually) inherent in Piquet made even the Prussian cavalry charge less of a disaster than it looked likely to be at one point. I think the scenario revisions to be implemented following the post game debrief plus the tactical lessons learned will make it play better next time. I doubt anyone else will notice, but it looks good so they'll all be happy anyway. Which is probably as it should be.
How well this works can be judged by the fact that when playing Marignano at Derby last year we had to abandon things after the first day and restart because it wasn't going anywhere. And then there was Sidi Rezegh - which obviously we won't mention - where, after being playtested to death and beyond, a guest commander was recruited for the convention itself and his decisions turned out to be somewhat sub-optimal. So, with no great expectations on my part, we have been trying to engineer a game where Frederick the Great faces superior numbers, charges his cavalry against artillery and entrenched infantry, attacks with his own infantry through entirely unsuitable terrain against specialist light infantry, runs away himself when things start to get tough and yet somehow retains a chance of victory.
Anyway, I rather enjoyed it, despite not actually winning as such. The attack through the vineyards on the slope of the volcano caught my imagination for some reason and the swings of luck (usually) inherent in Piquet made even the Prussian cavalry charge less of a disaster than it looked likely to be at one point. I think the scenario revisions to be implemented following the post game debrief plus the tactical lessons learned will make it play better next time. I doubt anyone else will notice, but it looks good so they'll all be happy anyway. Which is probably as it should be.
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