Early conclusions from the play test seem to be:
Mining was too effective and given too long a reach - only shorter (1 hex) tunnels should be allowed.
The rules for mortars and howitzers made these weapons almost completely ineffectual in the siege.
Either we should have gone with field batteries instead or Tony needs to tweak these rules.
(given the ineffectiveness of much of the besiegers' artillery and the destruction of most of their battering train, the excessive power of their mining operations proved their only opportunity of making a breach).
Consideration needs to be given to starting fires in a town.
The setting of a digging standard for each day had little effect and it was unclear how this did (or should) relate to mining options.
In general the basic mechanisms of the rules worked well enough to make it now worth adding extras such as a general morale barometer for the inhabitants of the town, consider chance cards etc, as well as revising mortar and howitzer fire, and mining rules, as above.
I also should metion the 15mm Vauban fortifications shown are from the Terrain Warehouse.
6 comments:
Can I ask where you got the glacis? is it from the same range as the fortifications or made by youself? thanks.
This is fascinating stuff and very interesting. Will the rules be available when you're finished and what sort of hex matt are you using?
Hi Conrad
The rules are Tony's not mine, so I don't know if he will make them more widely available. I have now fought two large and two small battles with the full set of battle rules and enjoyed them very much. Tony's set up has four boards with hexes hand painted on. He has hex hills, wood, village and road hexes printed on to card, uses various 15mm buildings (which works very successfully) and old merit trees. Perhaps Tony will comment himself.
Regards
Clive
Dave - the glacis is also from Terrain Warehouse, the link at the end of the post should take you there. I thought they were excellent.
Clive
Hi Clive, and everyone who is reading this series of posts & comments
I have to go out shortly, so this is strictly a holding reply - I'll try to get back with something a bit more considered in the next day or so.
Firstly, thanks again to Clive for helping out with the siege playtest. Anyone with experience of playtesting will realise the uselessness of the game originator trying to do it himself, since he always knows what it was he had in mind, and will unconsciously give himself the benefit of any doubt throughout!
My main battle game is, essentially, the manifestation of what I like wargames to be - a personal and very subjective thing. It is, like all rule sets, pretty much derivative, but I think it is unusual in a number of ways. It is an old-style of game, suitable for biggish battles, yet it uses a hex board and it is managed on a computer. If this seems paradoxical, I can only say that once you have experience of playing wargames which are sequenced and managed by a computer, it is almost unbearably hard to go back to dice and sheets of paper. Whatever, this game is working well now.
The siege game is a cousin of this battle game, with a whole suite of new bits (borrowed from Chris Duffy for the most part). The intention is that eventually it, too, will be automated. I had never considered making these games available for wider use, though there is no reason why not, as long as no-one wants me to provide online support or get into arguments about them!
I must go now - more later - regards
Tony
Hi again
With thanks to Clive for his kind comments about my wargames, I am mindful that this is obviously not the place for any detailed discussion of this subject. Clive's summing-up of the observed flaws in the siege rules is pretty much exactly correct, and I will be working on some corrections this week.
If anyone wishes to contact me directly to discuss these rules, or the main battle rules set, or the use of computers in miniatures gaming, or just rules in general(!), please contact me - richard_a_howard ...at... btinternet.com (apologies for robot-proofing of email address).
Regards
Tony
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