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Author Topic: AAR - second test game Le Soldat  (Read 1148 times)

Offline JW Boots

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AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« on: December 28, 2024, 09:15:00 PM »
Its the X-mas vacation and we took the opportunity to have a test game for Le Soldat. I had a special look at the skirmisher mechanics and cavalry combat with squadrons as the tactical units that the game uses. More at my blog: https://tabletopmatrixwargames689972109.wordpress.com/


Offline fred

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2024, 10:22:36 PM »
It would be really useful if in the blog post, you could explain what is happening from a games mechanics point at each phase - the narrative is interesting. But I have no idea what mechanics are being used at each point, what is down to dice rolls, vs what is down to arguments.

It all sound good - but I am still no closer to having any idea how you are actually playing this. Eg why did the Russians not make the village when the French did. How did the village change hands several times, etc etc??

Offline JW Boots

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2024, 08:08:55 AM »
It would be really useful if in the blog post, you could explain what is happening from a games mechanics point at each phase - the narrative is interesting. But I have no idea what mechanics are being used at each point, what is down to dice rolls, vs what is down to arguments.

It all sound good - but I am still no closer to having any idea how you are actually playing this. Eg why did the Russians not make the village when the French did. How did the village change hands several times, etc etc??

Thanks for the feedback. You raise a good point. Reading the blog again I see how it indeed can be more informative. On the other hand, I am still tweaking and fine tuning and am hesitant to add details I might need to come back on later… Still, I will keep the feedback in mind for next time…

Offline fred

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2024, 10:55:53 AM »
I get that you are still developing the rules - and there may be certain parts that are very much in a fluid design stage, so documenting them isn’t too helpful.

But adding some more detail to some of the established, even basic, steps would be helpful. To you I suspect they are second nature, but to me, I’m really struggling to work out how Der Solder is played.

Offline Redshank

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2024, 04:42:29 PM »
I get that you are still developing the rules - and there may be certain parts that are very much in a fluid design stage, so documenting them isn’t too helpful.

But adding some more detail to some of the established, even basic, steps would be helpful. To you I suspect they are second nature, but to me, I’m really struggling to work out how Der Solder is played.

+1 from me. I am really interested in this approach, but I would like to know more about how it works in practice.

Offline LazyStudent

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2025, 03:28:57 PM »
Ditto! Perhaps a couple of quotes of the arguments used to cause a certain outcome etc. Would be great to help the understanding
"History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte

Offline Redshank

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2025, 10:53:29 AM »
I picked up "Arguing When Money Talks", and I think I am starting to see how this approach is supposed to work.

Maybe a bit off topic, but in AWMT, I just want to check my understanding of ground scale to figure scale. 1cm to 10 paces equals 1 cm to 50 feet (if it's Roman paces?). I haven't played any pike and shot, but I would assume a man takes up a frontage of about 3 feet, similar to later periods; so let's say 16 men to a cm. Let's also say I am basing figures on a 1cm base.

My wargames unit is probably going to be 2 ranks of figures, whereas pike and shot formations were a lot deeper, maybe 5 or 10 ranks - let's say 6 for sake of argument.

So are we saying frontage 16 men times depth (6/2=3) means a figure-to-man scale of about 1 to 50, in round numbers?

Be all that as it may, still looking forward to following progress on Le Soldat!
« Last Edit: January 25, 2025, 10:55:19 AM by Redshank »

Offline JW Boots

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2025, 11:41:24 AM »
Maybe a bit off topic, but in AWMT, I just want to check my understanding of ground scale to figure scale. 1cm to 10 paces equals 1 cm to 50 feet (if it's Roman paces?). I haven't played any pike and shot, but I would assume a man takes up a frontage of about 3 feet, similar to later periods; so let's say 16 men to a cm. Let's also say I am basing figures on a 1cm base.

I indeed work with ±3ft per man. Next to that I use 1 pace = 0.762 meters.

However, having said that, I note also with my games that, for example, putting a large pike block on its correct frontage is challenging… When you do the math… these things were narrow!!!

I mostly use 15mm and my old DBR collection, so with 4cm wide bases and then play with a ground scale of 20 paces to the centimetre.

Offline JW Boots

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2025, 11:43:26 AM »
Be all that as it may, still looking forward to following progress on Le Soldat!

I’ve got one tough chapter left for the first draft. That’s the one on Drill and Doctrine…

In the meantime I have started working on a first draft QRS to help test games. Tomorrow is the next…

Offline Redshank

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2025, 11:15:07 AM »
I indeed work with ±3ft per man. Next to that I use 1 pace = 0.762 meters.

However, having said that, I note also with my games that, for example, putting a large pike block on its correct frontage is challenging… When you do the math… these things were narrow!!!

I mostly use 15mm and my old DBR collection, so with 4cm wide bases and then play with a ground scale of 20 paces to the centimetre.

What figure:man scale did you have in mind when you wrote the rules (which are 1cm to 10 paces for 15mm)? 1:50 or something else?

Especially as the scenarios quote real unit sizes, it would be really useful to know.

Offline JW Boots

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Re: AAR - second test game Le Soldat
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2025, 08:38:32 AM »
What figure:man scale did you have in mind when you wrote the rules (which are 1cm to 10 paces for 15mm)? 1:50 or something else?

Especially as the scenarios quote real unit sizes, it would be really useful to know.

My idea was to design a scale agnostic set. In practise I mostly use 15mm at 20 paces to the centimetre on a “classic” 120x180cm table for Der Söldner and The Warrior, but 10 paces to the centimetre for testing Le Soldat. That’s what best fits my living room and works for me. At the BOD, however, we also have a lot of 28mm and we quickly noted that even 10 paces to the centimetre didn’t feel good. At some point I made a down-scaled scenario. The corresponding blogpost can be found here: https://tabletopmatrixwargames689972109.wordpress.com/2024/04/13/downscaling-the-fictional-combat-of-muhldorf-1633ish/

 

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