Is anybody playing or played Beyond the River Don?

[madman]

I do not know where might be a better place to get a discussion about these campaign rules going so just asking as my read I found very interesting but made me unsure about a few items and definitions of terms.

Although I am interested in the Russian Civil War I am looking to use the system for an imagination interwar game, probably in the 1930s. I have a lot of 6mm things for the scenarios, mostly Spanish Civil War and WWII for troops and equipment.

[Wagstaff]

Hi Madman

Sorry no replies to this yet. I’ll kick it off: Yes and no!

I like the creativity of the system and the map “squares”. I use the map and plus the “campaign stage” to produce potential battles on the mini maps. The battles / skirmishes however are resolved with a variant of The Men Who Would be Kings.

Your idea sounds fascinating- are you planning to document progress anywhere?

[madman]

Thank you Wagstaff

I was thinking no one had any experience but with all the views I think/assume others have looked at it and like what they see but haven't attacked it yet. So you have used it as a scenario generator thus far?

As for documenting results and posting I am good at thinking ideas up and usually follow through but then get nerves when it comes to putting it forward. Since it is probably going to be a few months before I start if interested we could converse by PM or wait and hope. I am leaning towards 5 Core Company Command for the period I mentioned.

[Wagstaff]

Hi Madman

Exactly so, a generator, and for adjudicated planned orders, resulting in chaos on the map! We then allow units (represented on map with single figure) up to 3 spaces away a chance to arrive at the site of the clash: roll each turn and arrive on a 6 (if 3 spaces away), 5-6 (if 2 spaces away) and 4-6 (if space away).





I think the http://www.orkneywargames.com/wargames-periods/Orkney Wargames Club used to play it? *Correction*  on checking, they have played it once.

By all means let me know your thinking.

Best of luck!
Wagstaff

[trev]

I've not tried the rules but thought they looked very useful when I read them.  Please do post your games here or let us know where to look.

Nice looking game Wagstaff.

[Mark of the West]

Hello All,

I want to confirm that I have the Beyond the River Don campaign rules (BTRD), have it printed out, and we used it for a short campaign.  Very simple and useful set of rules and we would use it again. 

We planned to do that just that, but then were sidetracked by three other ways to create campaign for the period:

1. Mark Plant ran two Kriegspiel campaigns with us for a White/Red conflict and then Polish and Horse Army in southeast Poland. Hard to beat that experience but there is so only so much Mark Plant to go around and few others able to do a job like Mark can.

2. We played the Guards to Poltava linked campaign (on Pygmy Wars website), developed (I think) by the Too Fat Lardies crew, with many adaptations. It was very satisfying and I would like to create more historically based campaigns like this (knowing it requires research).

3. I am adapting the Academy Games, Strike of the Eagle, board game to help with campaigns. This is a beautiful, clever and challenging board game (one of the best at Fog of War I have every played). I am introducing a few elements of BTRD for command orders. We have a grid that cross references how orders of either side creates different kinds of battles (e.g., encounter, skirmish, breakthrough), with different features. When coupled with Terrain cards (which we use from BTRD and Piquet Wargame supplies), it creates all we need to set up table top battles.

I am tempted to adapt 2-3 additional boardgames i have for that period: 1920 Battle of Nieman (Wargame (Poland), Red Star-White Eagle (Compass Games), and Triumph of Chaos 2.0 (Clash of Arms Games). However, the challenge is that the games are so elaborate and demanding that we use up more time/energy/calories managing the boardgame version, with little left for table top action.

In our limited experience, if you want a fun, campaign style game, one that you can create narratives around to make more interesting, BTRD is a very good option. After that, there are alot of options with more bells and whistles.

Eager to hear what others have to say about this topic, whether it be campaign rulesets/games or a review of boardgames of the period (Mark Plant has some on his website).

Cheers

Mark