Waterloo60 - The Terrain

Before I get to the proper AAR I thought I'd do a quick post on the terrain. As previewed in several posts here we decided to use Halfords 2'x2' rubber floor tiles since they were light, cheap, sturdily interlocked and although prone to a bit of warping could be folded back flat (think I've bended one to 90 degrees without it snapping). The only downside is the zig-zag of the interlock but in reality once covered in terrain and troops you don't notice it too much.

18 x 20mm soldiers in battalion sabots on 10cm grid

I painted the tiles in ordinary wall paint ( a really nice green that's now discontinued :-( ), coated in neat PVA and the spread a mix of 2 parts static grass to 1 part Javis Dark Brown or Dark Earth. It took me almost the whole project to realise that I could apply the PVA with a paint roller! I found that thinned PVA just didn't stick enough flock.

I used the Belgian Ordnance Survey equivalent (IGN) to inspect the contours and settled on 110m and 125m as my contours, with 2 layers of the tiles. There was one 1/4 tile above 125m for a third layer. For the base (<110m) layer we thought about doing another tile layer, but at 10 tiles by 6 tiles (equivalent to 6km x 3.6km) that would be another 60 tiles, although not all needed painting/flocking. Given time (and storage) pressures we instead bought about 10m+ of a lovely rustic green felt, sprayed it with artists spray mount and then flocked it. The felt was NOT cheap, but we used less spray mount and flock than I thought. It doesn't shed too badly and rolls up fine.

I traced the IGN map extract (guess adjusted for post-Waterloo changes) onto the tiles, marking them out in the 10cm squares we'd use for the game. I started with smooth natural lines, but then decided to more closely follow the grid so that you didn't have too many units hanging off a mid-square slope. That also helped with trying to reach tile edges at a consistent point so as to make tile re-use for a different landscape easier, but I'm doubtful it will work that well. I managed to source some 4" Stanley knife blades from a campervan supplier which made cutting the angles sloped a lot easier. We also painted, flocked and cut the supplied edge pieces so the layout had a smooth rather than jagged edge.

The only road I did on the tiles was the main Charleroi to Brussels road. Cutting it in didn't work at all, so it was just painted on top. I used my own wooden road segments for the sunken lane, and brown felt with flocked edges for the other tracks. I added a yellow or brown flock fields to a good percentage of the tiles to break the green up, but the main flock mix gave some nice variation anyway.

As each tile was done I laid a tile sized template (actually made from the packaging!) on it, with holes to show the dot positions for the 10cm grid. That made that process fast and easy. Finally I wrote the tile location (in an XY co-ordinate system) on the back - the back refused to stick to any tape to give me a white/silver surface to write on, or take a permanent marker, so I had to use a white chinagraph. Post wargame I'm now using some household white paint to redo the co-ordinates, but even that doesn't stick well! (We briefly through about etching the co-ordinates with a hot-glue gun sans glue but the tile refused to melt - no fire risk there then!)

I reckon it took me an hour each to cut, then paint then flock each pack of 6 tiles, so at ~90 tiles that's 3x15 = 45 hours. The packs of 6 were £10 when I started last autumn, £12 when I finished this spring and are now £16! With everything done we did the lawn layout to check it all out as reported at http://newconverj.blogspot.com/2021/06/waterlo60-garden-laydown.html.

For the game itself I bought 60 odd table cloth clips, the type used at marquee banquets. I sprayed the tops green and we put those round the edge to hold the tiles onto the table and minimise any warping. We also used some huge 40mm dress making pins (really mini-nails!) to pin the top tier to the lower tier, and also to pin through to the felt below to further minimise warping and any gaps.

I had a few concerns about robustness of the paint/flock, particularly at the interlock, but post game the tiles look fine, and I'd already used most of them a few times on trial games and other wargames. Spray mount was ideal when I wanted to redo some of the early ones that had a poor initial flock covering, so I think with a bit of care and maintenance  they should last for years and multiple games - especially if I can get a re-use model sorted for the shaped pieces. The whole battlefield stacks into a 6'x2'x2' stack and can be carried as two lifts - so pretty storable and portable.

Overall I think we were all blown away by the total effect, and certainly I've got no reservations about the approach we took.

On the to AAR!

Waterloo60 - The Media

The dearth of posts here for the last couple of months has been the result of the somewhat frantic preparations for our Waterloo60 game to celebrate Nick and my 60th Birthdays. The game finally took place last weekend, 20-23 Aug 21. As it was the whole celebration got a little out of hand and so blogging it is going to take quite a few posts!

One reason for it ending up as more than the sum of its parts was Nick's bright idea to let the local news media know. It took a few emails but he ended up making contact with a journalist from GetSurrey/SurreyLive. She interviewed Nick and I over the phone and sent a photographer to his house on the Thursday, where we were joined by my brother Adrian, who'd painted almost half the troops, for a photoshoot and they ran an article on-line early Friday.

Nick, myself, and Adrian with some of Nick's Hussars

That was nice, but then they said they wanted to livestream the game! So another journalist turned up lunchtime on Friday. Set up was taking longer than thought (5 hours in the end!) so she had to help put the troops on the table before we could start! She interviewed the three of us, I then gave a guided tour of the tabletop battlefield and then we gave a running commentary as we went through the first few activations of the game. In the end she livestreamed for about 45 minutes and you can see the result at https://www.facebook.com/surreylivenews/videos/591607458915299.

The same photographer from Thursday night had also come down to get some "action" shots. And they all got posted up along with some more text and a 1 minute video in another article - https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/gallery/pictures-former-dorking-school-friends-21378573

What was really nice was that the first reporter then called us back up on Monday when it was all over to find out how the game went.

And finally on Thursday (yesterday) the print edition of the local paper came out, and they'd put us not only on the cover but on an inside page spread too!

Not to be outdone by all this professional video making we'd also put a camera up at the end of the room as soon as we arrived on Thursday, taking a photo a minute - so you can now see the whole 4 day event in 90 seconds - and make sure you turn the sound on!

That's enough media stuff for now, over the weekend I'll try and blog the actual game!

2 Sep Update

Seems like we were in the Daily Mirror (print edition!) last Thursday too! Unfortunately they confused Alan (who died in 2018) with my brother (still very much alive) in the story and caption.

Battle of La Rothière - 1 Feb 1814

 

Last weekend Francis hosted a "team-building" weekend in his suitably airy barn. I was allocated to the "Allied" team and Nick to the "French" team. Our teams goals were to convince the residents of La Rothiere, Petit Mesnil, Chausmesnil and Morvilliers that the "Monarchy" brand of ruler was superior to the "Emporer" brand. In addition we needed to send a spearhead sales team beyond these towns to be ready to continue our marketing campaign in the city of Brienne.

The terrain as ever looked fantastic, with a suitably snow covering to the table. The stand-out pieces though were Francis' buildings, where he'd cunningly draped them in the sort of semi-transparent glittery "snow-scene" cloth you buy at Christmas so that every buildings was instantly (and relatively cheaply) converted from a run-of-the-mill house or barn to something straight out of a Christmas card.

Nick and I found that we were not only on opposing teams, but had commands facing each other on the far (Allied) right flank, fighting for control of Morvilliers. Nick started in occupation and I had a meagre Division ( Hardegg's) of about 6 battalions of Austrians  to oust him.

One of the features of the battle itself was that the French had lots of cavalry, but little infantry, whereas the Allies had lots of infantry but little cavalry. This makes for an interesting and challenging wargame.

Battle was soon joined on the Allied Left and Centre, and quite honestly all I saw of that was lots of Allied infantry going bravely into the fight and steadily pushing the French back. To my left the Crown Prince of Bavaria spent much of the first day fighting his way out of a stoppered defile, but once free of it he had  clear run to get off-table and out-flank the French.

Closer to home to my immediate left Frimont fought bravely to take La Giberie and the ridge line just S of Morvillier.

Meanwhile I spent the first day trying to get into Morvillier itself. My brigade advanced on the first building, taking fire from a French gun, assaulted the building, pushed the French out, and then failed their follow-up roll, so stood outside whilst the French moved back in. Subsequent assaults failed (and Nick made a point of rolling on 7s and 8s on a D8 all day), and by the end of Day 1 I was one brigade down and no closer to getting in.

Day 2 saw a somewhat unwelcome resupply of ammunition to the artillery (favouring the French somewhat), but with only 10 turns left it was time to get stuck in. Nick decided to finally push his cavalry forward (my one gun battery had been doing its best to hold them off, but being the only unit left in its Brigade was forever wondering about going home). My cavalry charged before they got mauled by his horse artillery, and miracle of miracles I started throwing 8s and Nick started throwing 1s and 2s, and whilst one of my regiments was pushed back the second held Nicks to a draw. With the cavalry kept busy my second Brigade (of only two battalions) could now renew the assault on Morvillier, and took the first building with ease. Too weak to take the rest of the town Frimont was racing to my support, but got delayed when Nick's Dragoons occupied the Giberie ridge and threatened any infantry move N into Morvillier. Vital turns were lost whilst Frimont cavalry extracted itself from tussles further South, but the Crown Prince, supported by some Cossacks, was also getting behind the ridge and Nick's troops, and the Dragoon's position was beginning to look vulnerable.

By turn 16 we had all our objectives except Morvilliers.  I still had a chance though. I worked out that in the 4 moves left I could just reach the stronghold building in Morvilliers with one of Frimont's infantry brigades and would have one turn to try and take it. Nick's dice luck was also breaking and I was beginning to roll some more 8s.

So in the interests of time it was decided to stop all the other fighting and just focus on Nick and I. My two infantry battalions already in Morvilliers took the 2nd building, our cavalry held off Nicks, the infantry moved forward, but with 2 turns to go I rechecked the distance and they were going to be 2cm short! But Nick's Brigade was very fragile, and he had to make Brigade Command Tests for turns 19 and 20 anyway, so we just stopped all movement and rolled those. He rolled 8 on Turn 19 and passed but then a 2 on Turn 20 and had to retire out of the Stronghold and my battalion (only one by then) already in Morvilliers could claim the Allied victory!

A great game as ever, enjoyed by all despite the COVID limitations. Many thanks to Francis for organising and hosting, and to the Umpires for ensuring fair play throughout.

Waterlo60 - Garden Laydown

 

One of the reasons for the dearth of posts on here recently (apart from a general increasing in socialising post-vaccine) is that the Waterloo60 project is now only 2 months from completion. A major milestone was reached this weekend when Nick and I laid out all the terrain tiles for the first time. At 20' x 12' we needed the garden (and a fine day) to do it in.

The laydown fulfilled its purpose, showing that we needed 5 more level 1 tiles, but luckily I had those spare. It also showed what edges we needed (plenty spare) and we could play around with how to lay out the tables to make the whole thing reachable. After Liphook we'd toyed with the idea of have 3 tables running N-S, so that the fight for the ridge didn't end up over a table as edge it did at Liphook. Luckily though our tile arrangement placed the E-W break just behind the Grand Battery ridge, so the simple 2 tables running EW should be fine. 

We also laid out the villages and fields to get a better sense of the look of the thing - but drew the line at 100+ trees.

We also tried a couple of options for the "Tier 0" level, looking at plain cloth, flocked cloth, plain felt, flocked felt, and a whole new lot of tiles. Flocked felt and tiles looked best, but tiles would double the storage/transport need, and take ages. Flocked felt was a bit more expensive but will be more practical in time and space - cue an order for 8m of felt!

It did seem smaller in some ways than I expected. I think its probably 4' narrower than Liphook (mainly on the Braine l'Alleud side, and Liphook had a whole rear table down by Caillou which was never touched, so I think ours will be fine. 

It's classic 1mm = 1m scale, marked in 10cm squares on 60cm tile - and we spotted which tiles are missing their dots. We also laid out each Division as a sheet of A4, in reality it will cover twice that, but it gave us confidence that we had the space.

I had roughed up some rules based on Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame in case we got a chance to use the A4 sheets as giant counters but other tasks were more pressing - perhaps play that another time - the garden party game approach to Napoleonic wargaming!

The hall is all booked (courtesy of my Mum!), Adrian is busy saboting, and Nick is busy basing and saboting. I've got to confirm the laydown to Bn level and smarten up some of the terrain, but otherwise we're almost ready for the big game on 20-23 August!

Here's the complete lawn laydown, S table first, W to E, then N table, W to E.

Start of N row....

Stargrave

 

Having heard quite a lot about Frostgrave, but having minimal interest in Fantasy, when Stargrave came out I thought I ought to give it a go. I pulled together one team from a collection of Warhammer 40K (?) figures and another from my Albedo figures. I rolled up the Captains and First Mates for each and bought some crew. I had Pebble Park laid out ready for an ACP164 game, so distributed the loot around that, the two sides rolled to arrive on adjacent edges, and battle was joined.

How It Played

The Warhammer guys had the closest loot, and their Mystic leader took two of her team off to secure the two closest. The Albedo captain and his squad got into a firefight with the Warhammer 2ic which lasted most of the game - both seniors being killed. The second Albedo group legged it after the Mystic, took one of her team out as she got to the 2nd loot, and then a firefight (and spell fight) erupted around the 2nd loot and Albedo won. Their remaining team members doubled back to help the OC's party, with grenades being lobbed over the fencing being particularly effective. In the end the last human bought it, and the critters (well the two left) were victorious.

There must be loot near here somewhere...

Rules Impressions

The game really did dissolve into a series of to-the-death firefights. None of the fluidity and individual action I typically get in an ACP164 game. The basic to-hit mechanism is an opposed die roll added to broadly equal skill stats, so lots of exchanges gave no hits, and then with body armour lots of those gave no damage, and then damage could be soaked up quite a lot - so it did end up as a bit of a boring dice fest. The spells added a bit of colour but without overdoing it - so little chance of recreating Red Star's Warkaster type effects.

From what I'd heard of Frostgrave I'd hoped to find more in terms of the collaborative play, scenario design and campaign side, but every game just seems to be a fight for loot boxes.

Oh well, back up onto the shelf.

 

Travellogue - Journal Software for Traveller, 2D6 SFRPG and more - WIP

 

This is an itch I've been meaning to scratch for years and have finally got around to doing something about. I've always liked the idea of (near) real-time-Traveller, playing Traveller so that one real day or hour represents one game day or hour. So Traveller almost becomes like an ARG, something that just exists alongside your own daily life. Now I'm not too fussed about the "real-time" bit, it's more the idea that if I have an idle moment I can quickly move an adventure (that is probably a part of a longer campaign) forward. How else could I hope to reproduce the DGP trip from the Spinward Marches to Core and Terra?

Over the years I've tried to do this in various ways - in a paper notebook, in Word, on blogging software or in a mobile phone notepad app, but none have done what I wanted - which was to be instantly available anytime, anywhere, quick and easy to use, and give me rapid situational awareness - where I was, what I was trying to do, and where I was trying to go.

So finally I've written a web app for it. I've also taken the opportunity to learn some Node.JS and Redis Key-Value store tech and I think it's a stack I can really work with.

The main screen on the app (see above and below) has four main sections:

• At the top is your current status, what sector/subsector/system/world you are in, what day it is, how much cash you have, who's in the team, what ship you're on and what you are trying to do. Instantly you know what's going on. Key fields are also hyperlinked to Traveller Map and Traveller Wiki.
• In the centre is the big text box to write your journal entry. This could be one line or a whole adventure write up. There are also buttons to increment the date, and if you want to keep track of time do that in the text.
• At the bottom are all the previous journal entries, newest at the top, so you can see what you did the last few times - and all the way back to the start
• At the right is the only thing that really makes it Traveller (or even SF) specific with not only quick links to the Traveller Map and Traveller Wiki, but also links to specific and collections of web based Traveller apps (e.g. NPC gen, mission gen, word gen), and a few embedded Javascript apps for the most common functions (space encounter, system generation, surface encounter etc). There's also a die-roller (including Fate and Flux dice)

I've been using it for a week or so, trying to cross the Spinward Marches from Regina to the Zhodani Consulate at Chronor, and apart form a few bugs it all working out really well and actually giving me some sense of journeying through Traveller space.

Although I'm writing it primarily as solo tool there is no reason why a GM shouldn't use it to help run and record an adventure, and no real reason why you shouldn't use it in non-Traveller space settings, or even beyond SF (just pretend Sector/Subsector means something else and ignore UWP!) I'm thinking about doing a Twilight 2000 Adventure next (and of course you can have multiple adventures running at the same time). A key thing, which I don't intend to change, is that there are no mandated mechanics in the system, ultimately it's just you writing things and updating fields.

So it's a work in progress, and probably a few months from Alpha yet, but hopefully I can get it opened up to Alpha and then Beta users as the year progresses. 

Whereas my much delayed Port2Jump app took a very simulation based approach and got very bogged down as a result, this is very much a narrative tool, and has been a lot easier to pull together as a result - all the really clever stuff is in your head.

Any thoughts as to the sense of the idea and interest in the app welcome, as well as wish lists of features!

Here are a couple more screenshots to whet your appetite.

In-built UWP description pop-up

In-built Cepheus based ship encounter pop-up

 

The Prussians Attack - A Waterloo 60 Test Game

As part of our continuing preparations for Waterlo60 Nick and I played out the Prussian arrival on the E flank over the last week and a bit. I picked up a Prussian Corps from Adrian and I had enough French. The game was all done remotely with Nick/Blucher's view limited to a blurry webcam and an iPhone on Jitsi, but we managed to get through it. I think we did four evenings in the end, each of 1.5-2 hours.

SETUP

I just managed to fit the whole of the SE quarter of the battlefield in my gaming room, so 5 x 3 two-foot square tiles, a quarter of the full 10x6 tile layout (all of which are now done hurrah!). T

The view looking E over Plancenoit

Flip view, look W along the Lasne from the Bois de Paris

The battlefield started completely empty apart from Squadrons of 10th Hussars on picket duty. One of the big issues with Waterloo games is how you handle the Prussian arrival, the Liphook game had the unedifying sight of the Young Guard lined up on the table edge to stop the Prussians getting on! I there forbid the French to move forces E until the Prussians were “sighted” just off table, and then they could only move up to Lobau’s historic position just short of Fischermont. 

The Prussian Juggernaut (Junkernaut?) comes onto the table

One Prussians actually arrived on table they had free movement. For the Prussians their order of arrival was set by the march order of the Lasne bridge (been there, great cafe nearby), but arrival times depended on dice rolls, and there were also randomisation as to whether they arrived on the S, middle or N arrival points. The net result is that Blucher doesn't know exactly what he's getting when, and where. All worked really well for IV Corps, most unit actually arriving very close to historic timings, but II and I Corps both failed to show by 8pm, so may adjust a bit. Since we didn't have the NE quarter of the battlefield Blucher also had less space to deploy in, poor avenues of exploitation, and less chance to threaten Lobau’s N flank, so a bit more challenging than in real life.

Lobau's men ready to receive the Prussians

HOW IT PLAYED

A bit of a log jam initially (and throughout?) as the majority of Prussians came on at the S entry point, where they are hemmed in by woods, and the French had copied Lobau by putting a stopper and the end of the defile. It wasn’t any easier in the N where the board edge meant that units coming in at the central point either had a 100m gap to squeeze through or flog through the woods.

A French Battery being threatened by Prussians on its flank

Most of the early battle was taken up with cavalry duels, but since everyone only had light cavalry these usually results in both sides being bounced back and then recovering for a few turns. The Prussian cavalry, lots of Landwehr had some very weak units who could hardly be committed. Twice a Prussian Horse battery got into position only to be run down by French lancers.

All the cavalry actions though couldn't stop the slow juggernaut of the big Prussian infantry regiments moving forward. They were big enough that they could take the French guns on without totally losing it, and even sustain some meleeing with the French light cavalry (one regiment even charging some disordered chasseurs who hadn’t had the chance to pull back after a melee).

Gradually the first French line faded, and Lobau had a second line ready behind them. But now the Prussian infantry was there in full force, and the second line went in just a couple of turns. Only two of Lobau’s original battalions were left.

Landwehr cavalry moving on the French flank

By then the Young Guard had deployed, a brigade in Plancenoit and a Brigade on the ridge line N of it, but the Prussian 12pdrs had also arrived, and with some Prussian cavalry still to menace them it looked like Blucher could afford to stand off and try and blast the French into submission.

Having spent 4 nights on this already we decided to call it a day there. I’m sure that in the full game the Prussians would rather mask Plancenoit anyway (Hougoumont ditto), and pile on into the main battle.

The game lasted 22 turns, although the Prussians weren't on table til turn 5 (which was actually a bit ahead of schedule).

Prussians pushing forward through the smoke

THOUGHTS

All worked pretty well. Just a few occasions of light cavalry vs less than well formed infantry that could have been more decisive, but otherwise all worked as expected and we were rattling through even the 3 stage advance to contact rules pretty well. 

I tried out the tile spacers as damage markers, but found them in white not just visible enough - will try again in red, and anyway I like our smoke puffs. Unit labels had just the right amount of info, and were legible, but certainly need the MDF strip base so they can be taken off the sabots, and ideally moved between them.

Plancenoit in sight!

Lobau's final stand

CONCLUSION

We’ve now tested all the main parts of the battle and everything looks good. All the tiles are done, I just need to sort the cloths for the “level 0” bits in the valleys. All the figures are done, with just some basing and sabots to be sorted out. We’ve now given my mum the vital task of tracking down somewhere big enough for us to hire so we can actually play the whole battle some time in the second half of August.

The Prussian's break through!