Warwell's Wargames

As I mentioned last time, I brought my wargame travel pack with me to Disney, but did not get a chance to play. We returned mid-week but I am off work until Tuesday so I was able to get in some games. Here is the first.

A page of counters ready to print

I like the look. Now to print and mount a test run.

It's been a while since my last installment of the Lazy Gamer's Guide. I had been discussing the principle of "going small" by using smaller miniatures and the options available for miniature gamers. Then I suggested another alternative - block armies. Let's discuss this topic today.

"Play a game with blocks?!" some may say in horror. Let me explain why it is a perfectly valid option for Lazy Gamers. A while back there was a post on The Miniatures Page (TMP) about the use of unpainted miniatures. I ruminated about the debate in a blog post, concluding that most miniature gamers on TMP appear to be high on the modeling aspect of the hobby whereas I was principally a gamer.

How I rate on the Gamer / Modeler axes

I suspect that most Lazy Gamers are like me; they just want to game and are not as interested in the "spectacle." (If the "spectacle" is important to you, you may as well just click away now ;) ). Well I found that block armies allow the lazy gamer to get to the game quickly with minimal preparations.

What do I mean by block armies? Instead of using miniatures for the units in my armies, I use painted wooden blocks. My blocks are small - 20 x 10 mm, 20 x 5 mm, or 10 x 10 mm pieces of 3mm thick wood that I got from Litko. You could, of course, make your own using bits of wood. I tried and found it difficult getting precise cuts. Litko does it for me efficiently and for a reasonable price. I just slap some paint on them and am ready to roll.

Infantry are the larger blocks, painted a solid color. I have recently added little bits of wood to act as flags. Light infantry are narrower blocks. Artillery are the smaller square blocks, with a cannon painted on them. Generals are square blocks with a flag painted on them (I'm using simple crosses for my Francesian armies)

Line Infantry, Artillery, Light Infantry, General

I am still trying to work out how to display cavalry in an aesthetically pleasing way. I was inspired by the blocks in the second picture of this post from Wargaming Odyssey. I used 2 smaller blocks on top instead of 1 (to signify heavy cavalry; I intended to use 1 block for lights). The top blocks obscure the bottom too much so I experimented with painting instead, However, I could not do a straight line. I am still experimenting with cavalry.

Two attempts at cavalry.

Anyway, in my eyes, one of the keys to making block armies work is the terrain. I personally think blocks look a little odd when used on terrain designed for figures. However, the original Kriegsspiel featured block armies maneuvering on a map, a look that I rather like.

A Kriegspiel game (from Wikipedia)

I have taken inspiration from Kriegsspiel and use a 2 dimensional map for my block army games. I picked up a Pathfinder flip mat and some dry-erase markers. I now draw out the scenario's terrain.

An example of a 2D battlefield

I think this approach gives a Kriegsspiel feel to my games (even if the map is not as detailed as a Kriegsspiel map). The other benefit is that it is incredibly easy to do; I do not have to spend any time building and painting terrain to play a game. It's the ultimate lazy gamer's battlefield!

Thus, I highly recommend block armies for the lazy gamer. The armies are very simple to prepare (especially if you order pre-cut blocks) and the map is a snap. It'll have you actually playing games in no time.

NEXT
Another aspect of going small is to reduce your battlefield.

A couple of weeks ago, I stated that I had some ideas to improve the look of my block armies. I ran a brief game to test them out.

First, I added small bits of craft stick to each block and painted them different colors. The idea was that the sticks would represent unit flags. You can see my first trial on my blue units.

The "flags" allow me to identify the units by color. Above, 3 companies of Bluderian infantry (Red, White, and Blue Companies) are beset by native tribesmen in the Hottendri Desert.

Next I had an idea for casualty markers. I took some clear acrylic bases and painted brown marks on them. They are supposed to represent graves. Anyway, some have 1 mark and others have 2. In my latest rules, units break on the 3rd casualty.

As you can see above, Red Company has taken severe losses while White Company has taken minor losses.

Red and White Companies would be overrun. Severely battered, Blue Company would beat a hasty retreat.

I used black pipe cleaners to mark routed units (just because that was what I had available). I now need to come up with a routed marker.

With miniatures, that is.

I know that I once posted about why I like miniatures. Done well, they just look fantastic. Problem is, I cannot do them well. I am an indifferent painter, so my quality suffers and I take a long time. I tried compensating with smaller scale minis (2mm and 3mm) but in my opinion they don't photograph all that well. As a result, I have not been particularly satisfied with my miniature efforts.

Recently, I started experimenting with block armies and have found it surprisingly satisfying. As a result, I built up several block armies (red, blue, white, green, gray, black, brown, and purple). Playing games with these blocks gives me the same visceral feel as miniatures. I'm rolling dice and pushing troops across the board. Furthermore, I find it far more practical, I don't have to make a new army or new terrain if I want to try a different period.

With my block armies I'm set for large battles, but I still don't have a set up for my role playing games. I am thinking of creating some counters using some paper mini files I have picked up. For example, here are two that I use for my Four Against Darkness characters Khamen and Candorra.

It consists of:

• An 8" x 10" gridded battle mat (cut down from a Pathfinder battle mat)
• A pack of dry erase markers (to draw terrain on the mat)
• 2 dice
• 2 tins with the unit markers

Rectangles represent infantry, squares are cavalry, and the circle is the general. The square that is half-tan is artillery. My thought is that if the tan half faces the enemy then the artillery is limbered otherwise it is ready for action.

The dots are unit identifiers. Rather than numbers, I marked a dot on the left, center, or right of each base.

So far, I have painted 6 armies and plan a couple more (green and perhaps yellow).

For years, I've been wanting armies for each of the countries of my Francesia imagi-nations, but I never got around to completing the project. Now I have armies for Redgrave, Bluderia, the Empire, Grayrock, and various barbarian tribes that the Francesian powers shall discover on the continent of Rapala. I just need Greenglade and Drakendorf.

I'm still working on rules for this kit.

Grayrock
The last battle of the Grayrock Revolution was a little anti-climatic so I've been wanting to do a final pitched battle to decide the fate of the nation. Last weekend I had a little time on my hands waiting for my wife to wake up so I decided to play it out. However, I was at Disney and did not have any minis with me. Instead, I found a site that had a virtual Portable Wargame board so I used that. Here is a screenshot:


Due to the campaign situation, I decided to handicap the Bluderians with only 4 units. They do have a general on their side. The Grayrockians (represented by the red army) have 6 units, but 2 are militia.

Unfortunately, there was just something lacking about the game.so I did not do a write-up. Instead, I replayed it with my 2mm minis this morning. A battle report will be forthcoming this weekend.

Zamunda
My experiment with block armies is continuing. I have nearly completed enough units for the first battle of the Lumbago Expedition. Here are some pictures:

From left to right: 2 units of spears and 3 stands of skirmishers.

They are not the most artistic but to my eye they do the trick. From a distance they do look like blocks of troops.

Three
However, my progress has slowed on my block armies because I am waiting for more figures. I mentioned earlier that I was interested in Magister Militum's 3mm horse & musket range. Well, I placed an order and am anxiously awaiting their arrival.

My block armies are progressing. For Redgrave, I currently have 4 units of infantry, 1 of skirmishers, and 1 of artillery. I just need 1 more of skirmishers and artillery plus 2 units of cavalry. I have a method in mind. I just need to experiment with it. For Zamunda, I have 4 units of spearmen and 2 of skirmishers. I plan to add 2 more skirmishers (they won't have artillery of cavalry).

Yesterday I found some bass wood strips in the garage and so I decided to follow up on a post from earlier this week. I have started on two block armies - a colonial expedition from Redgrave and the defending native tribes of Zamunda.

Zamundan Spearmen

Many years ago I drafted up a map for a short Victorian colonial campaign. It is set on a fictitious continent called Rapala. A British trading post had been destroyed by a native uprising, and the British learn that the inland principality of Lumbago has incited the revolt. Thus, a British force has been sent to punish its rajah.


Each of the numbered squares on the map is a battle location. The British have to fight their way to Lumbago against a variety of different enemies in varying environments. Alas, I did not have the figures for it. I bought some Historifigs 10mm but never got them painted.

So why bring this up now? Well, I have been pondering taking my Francesian rivalries to colonial battlefields. I have also been considering making up some block armies (see this). It dawned on me that the Lumbago expedition could be an excellent opportunity to experiment with both these ideas.

Currently, my plan is to make a Redgravian block army using the One Hour Wargame list (I would need a maximum of 4 infantry, 2 cavalry, 2 artillery, and 2 skirmishers). My initial campaign would be against the Zamundans. Their army would be based on the Ancients list - comprising spear-armed infantry, archers, and skirmishers. I think I can complete both armies in short order. I just need to pop into Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

I am a really SLOW painter (primarily because I hate doing it for extended periods of time). As a result, my miniature projects tend to drag on interminably. Such is the case with the Horse & Musket Francesian armies. I started working on some 6mm troops but my Bluderian infantry have been sitting on my work table for a few  months already. Anyway, because of of my dawdling nature, I have periodically toyed with the idea of creating block armies.

I visited the Tradgarland blog today and encountered a post about a computer pike & shot era wargame. The good Duke provided a link to another blog that had some screen shots. As I perused the screen shots I thought that the units looked like blocks. Once again, my mind goes veering off into making block armies.

Once I start going down this path I get stuck trying to decide how to create them. David Crook has some nice block armies (for example) using standard military symbols. I would prefer something that looks more like a block of soldiers. I could use Junior General top downs (such as this). Or I could just paint them. Infantry seems easy enough; just do it like 2mm figures. I just don't know how I would make/paint cavalry. At this point, I usually throw up my hands in disgust and just say I might as well just use 2mm! But something about those screen shots really has my mind turning.