Rally the Troops

So, the latest bright and shiny thing to catch my eye has been the website Rally The Troops (RTT), a great gift to the boardgaming community by Swedish game aficionado and software developer Tor Andersson.

On RTT, you can play any of the featured games, for free, without having to download any software or suffer through advertising. The games are all implemented completely; in other words, you move the pieces and play the cards just as you would at the table, and the software not only reflects your moves on the board, but it keeps track of all the administrative details (moves the turn marker, records your victory points) and enforces the rules of the game. 

Many other online gaming tools for board wargamers (like VASSAL or Cyberboard) act as a toolbox, so you have a map and pieces and you can move them around as you like, but they don't know the rules of the game and leave it up to you to observe them properly. Other game sites, like Boardgame Arena, do what RTT does, but they feature mostly euro games--fun, but not the history-themed, crunchy games that we wargamers like best. Other systems (like the Steam community) feature full-blown computer wargames, even including AI/bots to play against, but they are costly. 

Mr Andersson has gone out of his way to make sure the game implementations are correct down to the latest interpretation, contacting publishers and designers and even scouring sites like boardgamegeek to make sure he knows how every rule is supposed to work. He has also received permission to use the artwork of the games and to include the rules on his site for players to read, so the experience really is an all-access pass, as if you had bought the game in the shop and brought it home, except that this way you can play play it with your friends all over the world, either in real time or asynchronously (I make my move, the site records it; you log in the next time you can, see the new state of the board and make your move, etc.)

I own five of the ten games currently on the site, and I'm learning more of them thanks to RTT. I've also played one of them for the first time, thanks to RTT's ability to hot-seat or two-hand a game, meaning one person can sign up to play both sides in a game, switching back and forth. This is a great way to learn a game, especially with RTT enforcing the rules, but it's also just a fun way, in my opinion, to experience and play around with a game, trying out new tactics and strategies.

The game I'm trying out is Nevsky: Teutons and Rus in Collision 1240-1242, another game that has been lingering too long on my shelf. Another game from the hugely talented Volko Ruhnke (Wilderness War, Labyrinth, Andean Abyss, and from there father of the COIN series), this is the first in a series called Levy & Campaign (L&C), a systemic treatment of campaigning in the medieval era that has spawned two more published titles (Almoravid and Inferno) three more in production and development (Plantagenet, Henry, and Seljuk), and another half dozen to a dozen in design, development, or planning.

I spent last Saturday (my birthday) online from early morning to evening, attending a convention hosted by the San Diego Historical Games Convention group. They had participants from all over the US and Europe, and their offerings covered a wide range of gaming topics, including demos and walkthroughs of new games, conversations with designers about the industry, and presentations on historical and military topics. I took particular interest in the presentations on forthcoming L&C games and have since engaged with a number of presenters to offer whatever help I can in their moving forward with L&C games on the Hundred Years War, the Albigensian Crusade, and the Anarchy (the Anglo-Norman civil war between Stephen and Matilda).

Since then I've been trying to give myself a crash course on the L&C system. I've played two two-handed games of Nevsky, started two online Nevsky games with players in the UK, and read up a lot on Almoravid (the L&C game set in 11th century Spain) and begun reading up on Inferno (the most recent L&C title, set in 13th century Italy). I'm very excited for Plantagenet (L&C Wars of the Roses) and Henry (the Agincourt campaign, which I hope to get some of my local friends to playtest with me).

Levy & Campaign is a truly imaginative system, adding the crucial element of logistics to the glossy and idealized images of warfare in a time of knights and archers. It reminds players that armies march on their stomachs, no matter the era, and that when your army is built of feudal lords and their retinues, one contingent getting fed up (or underfed) and leaving can mean your whole force, and hence your whole campaign plan, can unravel because you didn't bring enough food (or enough money) or enough carts to carry it in. Nevsky adds the character of the Baltic's swampy terrain and unhelpful seasons, where what was a serviceable road can turn around and become a trackless marsh, while a river may freeze and become a handy highway for your sledges.

I'm enjoying the heck out of these games and looking forward to more!