New Le Journal De Petite Battailes scenario : Rieti 1821

 The final scenario of the first batch of LJdPB battles is done. This covers the Battle of Rieti between Neapolitan Constitutionalists and Austrian Imperialists in 1821. The next four battles are decided, but I have to step away from the project for a time due to work.

A new project: Le Journal De Petite Battailes (powered with BBB)

 

A new project: Le Journal De Petite Battailes

Taking into consideration my move to games that can be played on a 36x36 inch table, and within an hour or hour and half, and my love for Bloody Big Battles  I am embarking on a new initiative that I have called “Le Journal De Petite Battailes” (to be pronounced with the worse imitation of a bad French accent you can muster) or LJdPB. The goal of LJdPB is to produce at least four scenarios powered by BBB per year that fit those parameters, i.e playable in a 36x36 table in an hour or an hour and a half.

BBB is a system that is targeted at the operational level of strategy, with the goal of permitting players to play large operational battles within a evening, and on a normal wargame table (with scenarios on average using a 6x4 foot table, but also having 8x4, 5x4, and 4x4 scenarios). A 3x3 table is truly pushing BBB outside of its normal target. But it is the reality for a lot of us, and it is doable. There are two ways to go about this 1) scenarios covering relatively small but still large battles that saw at least 5000 men per side. 2) “bathtubbing” larger battles. BBB has a variable troop scale that has run from as small as 250 troops per base to as many as 3000 troops per base. Since units represent the centers of gravity of larger formations, it is much easier for it to scale up and down, than say Great War Spearhead (with its company=base hard-wired ratio). While there are scenarios that use less then 500 or 400 men per base, I feel such battles are better talked by tactical level games or games that use the company as the basic maneuver element.

Thus I intend to use LJdPB to showcase either scenarios were the basic scale is one base=500-1000 men, or larger bathtubbed battles were one base =3000 men.  Breaking from the 6x4 mold gives me the liberty to explore some of the many battles that never ended up becoming BBB scenarios. This includes many 19^th century battles that are “too small” for the average BBB scale but still involved ten thousand or more troops involved, or for which we have little information to permit the kind of detail found at that average scale. And it permits to tackle some massive battles for which detailed information is scarce or hard to translate to workable wargame in BBB average scale sizes.

Looking at an older document I had uploaded to the BBB Yahoo groups there are many candidates for LJdPB

Curupayty, Avay in the War of the Triple Alliance (Lopez War)

Oriamendi and maybe others from the 1^st Carlist War

Rieti from the Congress Wars of 1816-1823

Chalchuapa 1885 from the Central American Wars

And many others.

I will also do my 1919-1922 Greece-Turkey Wars according to this logic. Scenarios will focus on key and iconic battles during larger operations (Gediz 1920, 1^st Inonu 1920/1921, Kanlisirt 1921, Yurmuchal-Nasuchel 1921, Mangal Dag 1921, Erkman Hills 1922) or “bathtubbing” the larger operations (2^nd Inonu, Sakarya/Sangarius)

There are many advantages to the LJdPB format: 1) more options for people who want to play BBB 2) more historical battles covered 3) games that can be used in an educational setting due to low requirements in space, time and collections.

I am also using a different format for scenario presentation than Chris usually does. Chris’s scenario format is perfect for getting all the useful information into a economically affordable printable area. But for LJdPB I am inspired more f0orm the Altar of Freedom presentation style, ergo the faux newspaper title, that can accommodate pictures of important actors, and bibliographies/references.  I have also decided to go with hand-drawn maps, and simplified terrain.

The first three scenarios are now done in draft form and ready for your playtesting pleasure. Two are re-implementations of existing scenarios, and one is a totally new one. The fourth one for 2023, will be the main theater of the Battle of 1^st Inonu.  You can get them either directly from these links, or from the relative section in the Material for Wargaming Page of the blog.

Battle of Oeversee 1864 (Second Schleswig-Holstein War)

2^ND Battle of Velestino 1897 (Greece-Ottoman Empire War of 1897)

Battle of Gribovo 1897 (Greece-Ottoman Empire War of 1897)

New Plans Budget

 After the initial post on potential plans, the trip to Turkey and taking stock of what I have, and the review of rules, it has now come to budgeting. Based on the table below I will need to budget about 1600 USD over the next 5 year period (2023-2024-2025-2026-2027-2028) for my hobby, or about 320 USD per year. Not sure I can do it all, but hopefully having a plan and budget will mean I will get to enjoy a good number of these projects. What is your view? Too ambitious? Or doable? Are the costs I assign realistic or not?

Item	Budget in USD
40” Foldable Table	70
Miniature Cases and Storage	100
28mm Terrain	100
10mm-15mm   Terrain	30
General Terrain	50
Bases	100
Hobby Tools	37 (Bought)
Hobby Paints	80
Altar of Freedom Hard Copy	12 (Bought)
Two 10mm ACW Forces	80
Bloody Big Battles Hard Copy	25
Extra 1897 Greeks and Ottomans	20
Two 10mm Greek-Turkish 1919-1922 Forces	80
To the Strongest Hard Copy	30
15mm Sicilian Norman and Comnean Byzantine Forces	150
15mm Artesian Expeditionary and Thessid Invasion of Middle Kingdoms Forces	150
16 Figures 28mm for Western Aurian Warriors (WOTR)	20
6 Mounted Figures 28mm for Western Aurian Hearthguard (WOTR)	20
4 28MM Hearthguard for Manon Mole (100YW)	15
6 Mounted Figures 28mm for Manon Mole Hearthguard (100YW)	15
8 28mm Warriors for Manon Mole (100YW)	20
12 28mm Levies for Manon Mole (100 YW)	30
Hard Copy Liber Militum Tercios and Kingdoms Book	40
15mm New Model Army and Montrose Forces	100
10 Poxwlakers	30
Hard Copy Kill Team Rulebook	15
Total for five year period	1600

New Plans and Review of the Rule-sets I have

 After my unexpected trip to Istanbul/Constantinople I had the chance to take a fuller stock of my collection. I also was able to save some future money by bringing some stuff over to Elko. A green cloth for a gaming surface, dice, my printed Battlefinder cards (a nifty little Perfect Captain tool for generating campaign maps and random terrain), my Liber Militum Tercios Cards for my New Model Army. 

On the other hand I also made big decisions. I put up some stuff for sale (6mm French and Prussian Napoleonics, already sold, my Grand Tactical 1859-1866 rules) and left my 28mm New Model Army with Nacho for him to attempt to find a seller. Pretty much the only thing left from my old collection are my 10mm Greek and Ottomans for 1897, which once more I was not able to bring over (had to leave at my mother's in law) for a next trip.

But I did gain a new addition to my collection, which is a small Death Guard force for Kill Team/40k, a present from my good friend Onur. There is an active community here, and I will use participation in these games as a way to build social capital for running some historically or historically inspired games. And I hope to maybe get my hands to some painted Brettonians, I had left at my friend's Chris house. 

But in many ways I am at a tabula rasa point, and can start a new collection. Which leads me to make a serious and extensive review of the rules-systems I have in order to see which I am keen at making a collection for.  I used to think that you get the miniatures and you will find the rules, but I know find that have a set of rules that really makes you want to play provides more motivation for collecting miniatures. I guess the worm has turned. So here goes a big review. In a future post I will then lay out my plans for collecting for the next two to three years.

Game of Lassale 2 in Istanbul, Turkey

I had to make a unplanned trip back to Istanbul, in order to take care of some business that was left over from our move. Suffice to say it has cost me financially, and physically but I got the tasks done. Three things I learned from this trip: 1) I am done with large luggage's for the rest of my life. One backpack or laptop bag, one small carry-on, and one medium back for checking in. That is it from now on. 2) Amsterdam's Schiphol Aiport is very nice but has a large resident mice population 3)Overnight waits suck.

But it was not all work and frustration! I did get to meet up with my good friends Onur and Nacho and we played a game of Lassale II using Nacho's collection at his house. It pitted French against Ottomans, and after a excellent battle with twists and turns me and Onur snatched an Ottoman victory out of the jaws of defeat. 

Here are two videos showing the collections, and below photos from the game 

Onur gifted me about 400 points of painted Death-Guard so I can play 40k or Kill Team with the groups in Elko, and I also picked up 25mm circle bases from Nacho. I also brought my green gamin clothe. All these save me some money in my new wargaming start. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. 

The years ends with two projects.

A postcard boardgame called Kanlisirt 1921, done for the Postcards from the Front 2023 Jam organized by Hissy Cat Game Studio. You can download and play at this Itch link

De Re Militaria, a DBA 3.0 sourcebook for Mark Smylie's "Known World" setting. A first draft is in the hands of Mark.

The 36 inch x 36 inch gaming table decision

Updated for a more realistic plan 

Those of you that followed by old blog, already know that I was thinking on downsizing to collections that could be played on a 36x36 playing area. Now that I came to the US I considered a bit whether to relax this. Considering my finances, space, the need for collections to travel, and lack of available time, I have decided to stick to it. Pretty much if your game cannot accommodate a 36x36 playing area, and a one to one-half hour gaming time, then it is not for me. That does not mean your game is bad. It probably is brilliant, but it is not for me (pretty please consider us poor smucks when designing games)

This has led to some more decisions on collecting miniatures inspired by Stillman's Rules (of Warhammer fame)

1) If you are not buying rules and miniatures as part of a group activity, do not buy rules if you already do not have a miniature collection for them. 

2) If you are starting a collection for your own amusement, always get a matched pair. You may eschew this rule only if you are guaranteed other players for at least one game a year.

3) You must have a collection for each rules-system you have paid money for. If you are not willing to do so, retire the rule-system.

3) 28mm miniatures will only be used with skirmish games or small scale tactical games

4) Said skirmish games must give a good game in one hour to one half-hour, on a 36x36 inch gaming area

5) Mass Battle games must give a good game in one hour to one half-hour  on a 36x36 inch gaming area

6) You many not go above 15mm for mass battle collections. 

7) You will make the effort to have good and aesthetically pleasing terrain options for that 36x36 inch gaming area

8) For historical mass battle gaming, you will build matched pairs for specific historical scenarios that can be accommodated on a 36x36. Make the appropriate terrain. 

9) Design scenarios for 36x36 table size. If you design a scenario for a bigger table size, be frank and clear to people that you will not playtest it. 

10) Any board war-game you buy must fit in a 36x36 playing area, and have a average playing time of one hour to one and half hour. This must be the central offering of the game and not just a auxiliary scenario.

Considering these rules, and taking a look at the various systems I paid money for, a plan for future purchases can be made. I summarize my thinking in this table 

Rules-Set	Collection	Matched Pair	Modifications for 36x36 Table	Budget
Altar of Freedom	6mm for Battle of Fort Donelson scenario?	Yes	None, stick to the scenario and make it nice.	50 USD
BBB	Greek-Ottoman 1897, 10mm Pendraken	Yes	2/3 Measurements or make scenario specific set-up for Velestino. Translate scenarios to 3x3 and only make 3x3 scenarios in the future (may make larger for other people)	Done
19th Century Wargaming			None
Tercios-Liber Militum	New Model Army 28mm, Warlord Miniatures (needs an opponent)	Yes	None, play Companies Lists or 500 points games	150 USD
BBB 1912-1922	6mm Greeks and Turks 1919-1922?	Yes	2/3 Measurements, or make only 3x3 Scenarios for own use (may make larger for other people)	100 USD for figures
Great War Spearhead			Stick to Divisional Level Actions
Basic Impetus	Known World Factions 15mm? 12th-13th Century Generic Feudal/ Harnic-Lythian Inspired 15mm?	Yes for Known World, no need for 12th-13th Century	Use 60mm Base Width	200 USD
DBA
To the Strongest
Mayhem
Rally Around the King
Knychte, Pyke and Sworde	Known World Factions 28mm, Perry Miniatures	Yes	Works fine at 36x36	100 USD
Saga: Age of Magic
Kiss me Hardy	1/4800 Scale Ships?	Yes		150 USD
Kill Team/ Warhammer 40k	Death Guard, 28mm Games Workshop	Not needed	Works Fine for Kill Team and Combat Patrol	100 USD
Labels: Italics: Planning phase Bold Italics: Some Progress Bold: Done Project Commercial rules I own that I know I will not play : 1859,1866, I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, Fleet Action Imminent , Might and Reason, Maurice, Lassalle 2, Perfidious Albion, Shako and Drum, Smoothed and Rifled.   Free Rules are not included here.

This adds up to about 850 USD (I rather over-price than under price, though I have a feeling many of the collections will be cheaper than I think) for miniatures, and say 500 USD for terrain, paints etc. If I budget 200 USD per year on the hobby (15 USD a month), then I can complete all these projects in the next seven year period. That should be the aim.

Of course as Old man Moltke said, no plan survives first contact, but still a plan, and especially a budget can help a lot. 

This plan has a couple of pros: it includes 28mm collections that can act as a gateway to get people to try the other games on their. It includes naval gaming options that I have found are always popular. And the collections should be mobile enough, that I can always take something with me when visiting war-gaming friends in Greece or Turkey.