Monthly Archives: March 2017
Commands & Colors: Napoleonics – EPIC!
Jim descends further into his Napoleonic madness with massive-scale gaming ~
Jim Owczarski, 18 March 2017
I have been waiting for this one for a long time.
It’s almost unreal to me that Battle Cry, the first of Richard Borg’s “Commands and Colors” series, was released in 2000. I like the American Civil War well enough, but, from the beginning, I hoped that the simple, elegant system evident in the game could be elaborated into the best of all periods, Napoleonics.
In the years since, I’ve bought and happily played Memoir ’44 (2004), Commands and Colors: Ancients (2006), Battlelore (also 2006), not to mention the remarkable array of expansions, special editions, and the like for all these systems. I gave Zvezda’s Samurai Battles a miss if only because it’s the only era covered that doesn’t appeal to me.
True Napoleonic wargamers are obsessed with scope, spectacle, and sweep.
And then it came out. In 2010, GMT Games gave the waiting world Commands and Colors: Napoleonics. Sure, it was wooden blocks not lovely figures. Yes, it was the British, Spanish, and Portuguese versus the French. And, yes, for reasons known only to the grim gods of game production, the Prussians were excluded from the included Waterloo scenario. But it was Napoleonics and that, at first, was enough.
This was no longer the simplified rule set found in Battle Cry. There was the forming of square; different grades of horse, foot, and guns; and even elegant rules to differentiate leaders and national troop characteristics. In the latter case, French troops, and their famous columns, fight better in melee, while the British lines do real damage with ranged fire, &c.
After much fun was had, though, it was ultimately not enough. True Napoleonic wargamers are obsessed with scope, spectacle, and sweep. It is this that leads us to do really, really dumb things like this: Historicon 2010 Part V Wagram (Shako II) and Outro
For the record this is my shaky-cam — I’ve become better — but this game had run 14 hours before I had to leave with it far from finished.
Gaming Nostalgia – Nebelwerfer
#TBT at GrogHeads!
Here comes your own fog of war!
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Order of Battle Pacific: US Marines – AAR, Scenario 10 Part 2
The final battle of the Marines’ campaign, Iwo Jima ~
Avery Abernethy, 11 March 2017
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The first phase of the battle was the tough part. Getting my troops in good organization and supply was hard. Capturing the first airfield and Mt. Suribachi was a tough fight. Part two is different.
Iwo Turn 11
Order of Battle Pacific: US Marines – AAR, Scenario 10 Part 1
The final battle of the Marines’ campaign, Iwo Jima ~
Avery Abernethy, 11 March 2017
Click images to enlarge
Iwo Jima Start
I’m using two landing zones but they are close together.
Iwo Jima D-Day
Gaming Nostalgia – Endless Quest Books
#TBT at GrogHeads!
D&D-meets-choose-your-own-adventure!
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