tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post4477292887069067108..comments2024-03-27T20:12:05.513-04:00Comments on SOUND OFFICERS CALL!: Playing Pickett's Charge: The Sunken Lane, Antietam, 1862Disgruntled Fusilierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-25474096669444905432019-03-17T11:27:09.557-04:002019-03-17T11:27:09.557-04:00Nice report!
It sounds like the mechanics dominat...Nice report!<br /><br />It sounds like the mechanics dominate the game, but that may just be what impacted you the most and ended up in the narrative. <br /><br />A few of the mechanics sound redundant - if I fire artillery and they roll low and "miss" doesn't that cover ammo-technical-skill-sighting-etc problems? Do I need yet another mechanic and chart?<br /><br />I get the impression that the designers are into clever mechanics for their own sake. Seems like it'd be easier to just say "to do anything with a unit, start by rolling a d6 for a 2+; on a '1' your unit is unavailable for whatever historical reason you'd like to make up.<br /><br />Just a few quick thoughts.ECW 40mm Projecthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16170190784599775214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-1650475810861112482019-03-09T19:50:40.996-05:002019-03-09T19:50:40.996-05:00Thank you sir! Gaming at Ken's house is alway...Thank you sir! Gaming at Ken's house is always fun (his terrain, and minis collection are outstanding). We're looking forward to trying GdA but need to get a few more games of Pickett's Charge under our belts, I think.Disgruntled Fusilierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-24802889092429060592019-03-06T22:49:53.483-05:002019-03-06T22:49:53.483-05:00A great looking game and a nice narrative and prel...A great looking game and a nice narrative and preliminary rules analysis. GdA is on my list to try, but I suspect I will find the mechanisms more complex than I like. I am pretty well set with Filed of Battle as my primary rules set for Napoleonics, but I want to try your Neil; Thomas derived rules and some others.Gonsalvohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16531623280789478092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-3386227965725043002019-03-04T19:45:59.013-05:002019-03-04T19:45:59.013-05:00Hi Ken. Since I have only played a couple of game...Hi Ken. Since I have only played a couple of games of PC, it is unfair (and premature) to assess the rules. I found my BatRep from the first game played about two years ago. See, <br /><br />https://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.com/2017/04/battle-of-second-winchester-1863.html<br /><br />What I recall as the Federal commander was that initiative switched abruptly to the Rebs and a few, small Confederate units shot the shit out of my large and numerous blue-coated regiments. An entire battle was lost due to a few well-timed and placed volleys from a numerically inferior foe deployed in the open. One low probability result wrecked an entire wing. C'la guerre. I recall the mechanism of deploying and using ADCs seemed gamey to me.<br /><br />Of course, I am ready to try again! Jonathan Freitaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07862373894196924886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-42738664719650298822019-03-04T17:52:16.067-05:002019-03-04T17:52:16.067-05:00Thank you Jonathan! The minis and table are Ken...Thank you Jonathan! The minis and table are Ken's and the game was visually attractive which i think adds so much to the experience.Disgruntled Fusilierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-76011586048301459932019-03-04T17:51:14.658-05:002019-03-04T17:51:14.658-05:00Play again this weekend?Play again this weekend?Disgruntled Fusilierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-21428529653263089182019-03-04T17:50:54.595-05:002019-03-04T17:50:54.595-05:00Thank you sir! We are playing General de Armee so...Thank you sir! We are playing General de Armee soon. Which i understand you are playing a little of yourself?Disgruntled Fusilierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-9860498657337037392019-03-04T13:10:13.605-05:002019-03-04T13:10:13.605-05:00I'd be interested to hear what you didn't ...I'd be interested to hear what you didn't like. <br /><br />I came away from the game feeling "meh." They seemed long to play and as Steve noted there were a lot of charts.<br /><br />But as I've thought about it more, I've realized that there are some subtle points that are clever.<br /><br />One is, as Steve observed, the possibility of getting a negative effect when shooting. In most wargames there is no reason not to take every shot possible. So what if you need a "12" on 2D6 to hit? It might happen. But in the real world I'm sure it's not that simple- there's ammunition, fatigue, gun fouling, etc. that might make a unit think twice before firing. <br /><br />Also, as a game mechanic, it gives players a decision to make. No decision to make if there's no downside to shooting.<br /><br />Finally, a side effect is that it make the game quicker to play. Fewer shots means fewer shots to adjudicate.<br /><br />I'm still not sure if I love it, but it has features like the one described that make it more than the average bear. Kenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16662292432344589974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-82479204624317580552019-03-04T12:22:40.057-05:002019-03-04T12:22:40.057-05:00Up to your usual high standards. I specially liked...Up to your usual high standards. I specially liked the vignettes, they add so much to the feel of the game.Service Ration Distribution (Hobby)https://www.blogger.com/profile/03608959257303511437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-59858412947586735332019-03-04T07:01:26.500-05:002019-03-04T07:01:26.500-05:00Having played Pickett’s Charge only a couple of ti...Having played Pickett’s Charge only a couple of times, the jury is still out on this one for me. There were things in the rules I liked and things I did not. Since one of my buddies really enjoys the rules and the whole stable of related rules, I will have ample chances for my perspective to evolve.<br /><br />While I do not care much for skirmish gaming, I do enjoy games having a small BMU count. Thomas’ 19th Century rules fill that niche nicely. I ought to roll those out more often.<br /><br />Your game looks super, by the way.Jonathan Freitaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07862373894196924886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-12125851481649239272019-03-03T13:10:26.573-05:002019-03-03T13:10:26.573-05:00I could not agree more with you. I am tending tow...I could not agree more with you. I am tending towards the simple end of the spectrum these days and i am enjoying games that give a good game with challenges, decision making and period flavor as opposed to lengthy games that take forever to play in the name of realism.<br />Games like the Neil Thomas family of rules, black powder and bolt action are fantastic. Tigers at Minsk or Crossfire also come to mind. Commands and Colors are great for my purposes and even Flames of War has a place on my table. Probably the most complex for me would be Battlegroup and theyre not even that complex!Disgruntled Fusilierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-90096082561644104972019-03-03T11:40:22.236-05:002019-03-03T11:40:22.236-05:00Thanks Steve, very interesting and a good way to p...Thanks Steve, very interesting and a good way to perhaps sift out some rule books that are somewhat redundant, though I am guessing that if I were to write a mission statement of needs, out of three elements, at least one would likey change within a week and every week thereafter! As an aside, since you mention them, I was going to run a Rank and File game a couple of weeks ago, just to see that system working. I should still do that, but of course that just adds to the thing of being all over the place on rules.<br /><br />As it happens, I added to a post on a figures forum this morning, on a subject that was skirting with the growing interest in skirmish gaming (as opposed to sitting down and painting 500+ figures!) I commented something along the lines that I had been reading the Neil Thomas Napoleonic wargame book and he has armies of just 8 units, so the French would be something like a few line infantry battalions, some cavalry and some artillery and of course .... The Old Guard! All rubbing shoulders on a 4’ x 4’ table and that the resulting scenarios would have a feel of the old ‘teaser’ about them and definitely a whiff of his recent excellent scenario style in his One Hour wargames. <br /><br />Anyway, the point I was making was that this reminded me of the kind of gaming that I started out with, all those years ago, unpretentious, simple, fun, easy rules with a dab of innocence thrown into that mix, so that if I was doing anything wrong, I probably wasn’t aware of it .... and of course there wasn’t anyone on the internet, or at a club to tell me it was wrong. It is a state of play that at the moment, I am feeling that I would like to get back to, especially as my boardgaming activities tend to be at the more complex / sim level, so perhaps I am feeling like I would like the figures side of things to be a bit pretty and a bit fun, a sort of equilibrium of activity, between boardgame and tabletop<br /><br />Pickett’s Charge looks like it should be the next best thing - but on my first cover-to-cover reading, I just became over-faced by all those important little bits of system tucked away in paragraphs and sentences . I could have eaten that sort of thing for breakfast some years ago, but these days have less of an inclination to do so and I end up yearning for what is probably viewed as less sophisticated, but more intuitively playable. Your recent low complex rules stuff seems to have delivered good gaming for your group. Normhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05031444717952755557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-1558241593461137032019-03-03T09:38:19.182-05:002019-03-03T09:38:19.182-05:00Norm this is for you - read this post and my thoug...Norm this is for you - read this post and my thoughts about Black Powder:<br /><br />https://soundofficerscall.blogspot.com/2016/11/steves-tenets-of-gaming-warfare.htmlDisgruntled Fusilierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-54041934174031030412019-03-03T09:36:56.780-05:002019-03-03T09:36:56.780-05:00Thanks for commenting, Norm. Yes sir, "great...Thanks for commenting, Norm. Yes sir, "great minds think alike" and I was wanting to try TF-ON with this scenario as soon as I read through it. One thing that stirred additional interest in this was the fact that Mr Brown is working on a similar WW2 set so that sparked conversation between Ken and I.<br /><br />It's amazing you came to the same conclusions we came to. Ken's take was even with more familiarity with the rules, this would still take quite awhile to play. And you'll need to play it quite a few times to gain the necessary familiarity with it.<br /><br />A few years ago, I set out to find "my" Horse and Musket rules set and I put a few rules through their paces and each time I came up with BP as my desired set, given what's out there commercially. I am going to post a link for you - here is your homework - read through the post I'm going to link to below. I think you'll find that discussion interesting.<br /><br />Ken is a very gentlemanly gamer and I would like to think I am, too. It's more about learning the rules and concepts than winning. <br /><br />If gaming was about winning for me, I'd probably not even be gaming anymore.Disgruntled Fusilierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995610821904415726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194255716971534690.post-91607817627127634402019-03-03T09:23:25.386-05:002019-03-03T09:23:25.386-05:00Do you know what! I was thinking exactly the same ...Do you know what! I was thinking exactly the same as I got to the point in which you had the problem of the 7 stand large unit facing smaller units as TF-ON has one reg per hex and then made me think of having a go.<br /><br />Wow .... what a great day for being a blog browser (Sunday afternoon), several posts are in my feed that are of great interest. I like the look of your game and thought you did rather well to get as far as you did in three hours with a new rule set. I have both the ACW and Napoleonics sets, but after a first read of Pickett’s Charge, I was left feeling that it is a set that you need to spend some time with and then use them as regular rules, rather than dipping a toe in while jumping between various sets.<br /><br />I suppose the fault-line here is where does one sit in terms of simulation v playability v available game time, as to whether one chooses these rules or Black Powder. I’m glad that you are a BP user as over some future posts, your thoughts on that very matter will greatly interest me.<br /><br />I liked the line in which Ken allowed you to re-take your charge .... that is exactly how we play and it makes for such a good gaming experience when exploring new stuff. Enjoyed yje post very much, thanks.Normhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05031444717952755557noreply@blogger.com