Our Christmas Game: Some After Action Musings. . .

My gun opens fire during Turn Four.  And misses!  A 1/56th (or 1/60th, or 30mm) harbinger of how most of the rest of the game went for General von Drosselmeyer and his hapless Stollenians.

 

Thinking about our Christmas Week game just concluded and talking it over with The Young Master, there are a few additional thoughts to share.  In no particular order, these include: 

 

The Forces

• The Army of the Electorate of Zichenau (General Phillipe de Latte -- Young Master Paul)
• Flickenhoffer Fusiliers
• Ernestine Sachsen Regiment
• Kurmainz Grenadiers
• Zichenauer Garde
• Croats 
• Von Trumbach Dragoons
• Electoral Artillery 

 

Losses

Casualties = 33

 

The Stollenian Army (General von Drosselmeyer -- aka Bad Dad)

• Zeller-Schwartzekatze Militia Battalion
• O'Malley's Irish Grenzers
• Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers
• 1st Garrison Battalion
• Hanseatic Regiment
• Bosniak Squadron
• Corps of Jaegers
• Captain Merczerski's Half Battery
  

 

Losses

Casualties = 58

Prisoners Taken by Enemy = 2

Equipment Captured by Enemy = 1 gun 

 

In sum, The Young Master handed me my posterior on a plate.  Merry Christmas! 

Figures

While most of the figures in our game were Minden and RSM95, there were also some Holger Eriksson and Revell 1/72 plastics.  The latter work well next to their larger brethren when base dimensions are consistent throughout the collection.  Some of you might recall when I rationalized my basing about three years or so ago.

 

 

Rules

The working set of rules we use are now entitled Tabletop Trifles: Comfortable Rules for Captivating Games of Glossy 30mm Toy Soldiers.  These owe much in their approach and methods to hobby greats of the past like Featherstone, Asquith, Young and Lawford and Charles Grant Sr. as well as current doyens of the hobby like C.S. Grant, Olley, Purky, and Protz, plus Whitehorse and Foley.  In developing and synthesizing our rules, I have made a conscious effort to move away from the simulation obsession of my younger years, which led to ponderous games and contributed in no small part to the eventual demise of my 15mm corps-level Waterloo project.  Handfuls of dice, runs of good luck, and sudden surprises when the dice suddenly don't go your way are, by comparison, decidedly more fun than calculating to the nth degree just how long it took an infantry unit to cross a patch of rough ground and redress its ranks on the other side before firing off a volley.  In short, I am now very comfortable with somewhat stylized, generic maneuvering and fighting where certain minutia must be left to the imagination.  One possible benefit (?) of being on the wrong side of 50 at this point.

Quick Tips for Wargaming Successfully with Children

1) Simple Rules.  No steep learning curves!  Be ready with plenty of reminders and supporting explanation until they get the hang of things like turn order, morale rolls, etc.  If rules can be committed to memory pretty quickly, so much the better.  This too will be helpful to those of us on the wrong side of 50!

 

2) Keep them interested.  Keep things moving.  Don't let things bog down.  In a former life, I taught introductory Norwegian language and Scandinavian Literature to undergraduates at two large public universities in the American Upper Midwest.  One of the things we learned as graduate teaching assistants in our semester-long pedagogy seminars is that undergraduates need plenty of things to do and plenty of practice to keep them engaged, acquire new knowledge, and practice new skills.  A slow class period that consists solely of lecturing by the talking head at the front of the room puts people to sleep.  It's similar with introducing kids to the wargaming hobby and holding their interest.  So get 'em involved, and give 'em plenty to do.  Saving throws for any hits scored are ideal.  So too are writing orders, frequent morale checks, engaging the children with questions about what they might do next and why.  There are bound to be other ways to keep them "doing" and engaged each turn through to the end of the game. . .  And then you discover that you have been trounced in the meantime by your junior general while you were busy holding forth about muskets, firing lines, casualties, and saves.

 

3) Think on your feet.  Situations will inevitably arise that you have not planned for, and the rules do not necessarily cover.  So, don't be afraid to make things up on the fly as it were, but be sure to include any children playing with you in the discussion before final decisions and adjudications are made.  A degree of mental agility is called for here.

 

4) On that note, resolve unexpected anomalies with brief suggestions, discussions, explanations, and roll of a simple D6.  For instance, the question of capturing a few left over Croats in a surrounded copse came up at one point in our game.  We decided that The Young Master should roll a die to see if he could capture my two figures in question.  A six was decided on as the magic number.  Well, of course he next proceeded to roll a six, didn't he?  Laughter and glee ensued at my expense.  The same thing happened to the mounted officer in command of my lone gun in the center of my front line.  Captain Merczerski was promptly taken prisoner and led behind enemy lines for later exchange.  And then there was the matter of Merczerski's lone gun, which was also captured by my ruthless young opponent just as soon as the five crew ran away.

 

5) Follow their lead.  When playing wargames with children there will invariably be lots of questions, musings, requests for comfort breaks, lunch breaks, TV in the evening, you name it.  And you should resist the temptation to force things.  If your daughter, son, nephew, small cousin etc. tells you that they have time for only two turns today, roll (ahem) with it and then plan to do some painting or reading when he or she has stopped for the time being.  Again, keeping things short, sweet, and deciding beforehand on playing for a set number of turns will be very helpful here in keeping everyone one involved, on task, and, most important, happy.  We want tabletop wargaming to be a positive experience for our young opponents.  The main idea, after all, is to interest them in the hobby so that they might one day take it up themselves.

 

6) Take frequent breaks if the child requests them, or other planned activities intervene.  It will come as no surprise that The God of Comfort Breaks frequently hovers over any activities or long car trips that include children.  So, be patient should Junior or Juniorette say mid-turn "I'll be right back, Dad. . ."  There ought to be a law, and in fact the law states that just as soon as things become really exciting, wargaming children and preteens will need to make a pit stop along with a side trip of two along the way to see what the rest of the household is up to at that particular moment.  Again, it helps to have a side activity nearby to occupy you until the junior general's eventual return.

 

7) Keep the mood light.  It's easy to get so caught up in our reading and growing knowledge of history that we might tend to treat our hobby as a serious pursuit, in much the same way that we might have, at one time, viewed balancing our checkbooks and keeping track of the household budget in those far off pre-spreadsheet days.  But we want playing with our toy soldiers to be more fun than that!  Especially for any children who might show an interest in joining us at the table to push some lead around for a few hours.  So, yes, our figures, scenery, and scenarios may have a basis in reality, but let's remember that we are playing a game for fun.  We don't want to turn into one of those overly competitive parents or caregivers, who sets out to win at all costs.  Acting like that will not have the desired effect, which is to keep our children interested in and having a good time with our toys.  Right?  Remember, it's just a game, so don't forget to laugh!

 

8) A running side conversation can be very entertaining and/or instructional.  If you can present new information in the form a short story, that tends to hold kids' attention.  College students too.  During the three days that our Christmas Week game stretched across, The Young Master and I discussed all manner of topics related to mid-18th century military history and practice, painting toy soldiers, and playing with them.  Guided by his many questions, I answered them as best I could, or told him where we might look to find more definite answers.  Which brings us nicely to my next point.

 

9) When they have lengthy or multipart questions, direct children toward interesting related books on the shelf or websites for more information to look up and read themselves.  The Young Master is famous among his teachers for asking questions about basically everything.  So, of course he also asks loads of questions that I cannot answer about generals, uniforms, weapons, battlefield tactics, and the like.  But, he is old enough and reads well enough by this time that I can suggest we visit the 'ol bookshelf together to peruse and pull of a few relevant titles that might satisfy his curiosity.  As but one example, Young General de Latte, if we revert to his tabletop persona for just a moment, has been enjoying Firepower by B.P. Hughes during the last three weeks or so as well as a special commemorative magazine on the history of the musket and rifle published by National Geographic.  He has also borrowed in recent weeks a couple of my oversized books full of text, maps, and uniform plates on the Waterloo campaign.  You can't keep a good man down!

 

10) Look for ways to streamline and speed up future games.  What rules might you combine or jettison?

11) Don't get too hung up on details if you miss a finer point or two in the rules.

12) Keep 'em on task, but suggest stopping for the day if attention wanes, or it becomes clear the child is growing tired.  There is a lot going on when it comes to playing games of toy soldiers.  Lots of eye candy to take in, and lots of rules and procedure to recall during the course of a few hours.  IF they're up early, by late afternoon, or early evening, children will probably be tired and winding down.  As anyone who has spent time in close proximity to young children will realize at once, fatigued, fretful children will not have fun.  Nor do they make for charming company.

 

 

There are probably addition points to consider, but these dozen come most readily to mind.  I hope to flesh them out later this week at some point.  When I am not taking an hour here or there to continue on my final nine Austrian horse grenadiers and regimental staff for that monster cavalry regiment that has occupied so much of the sparse hobby time time during 2020.

 

But next up, Young Master Paul and I will be slapping a white gesso basecoat onto 35 or so Minden Prussian musketeers during the afternoon of New Year's Eve to ready them for painting.  We'll tag team them in a sense, hopefully getting a finished unit based and to the table in fairly short order.  Let's see how that goes.  

 

For relative painting ease, I've suggested one of Prussia's garrison regiments since so much of those uniforms was dark blue.  Taking a page from the approach to painting and preparing those old Airfix ACW Union infantry figures, which still figure so prominently in the minds of many wargamers around the world.  In other words, what is the minimum amount of painting we can get by with before actually playing with the figures in question?

 

-- Stokes