Wargaming Thoughts for 2021

Welcome 2021! Same as 2020?

Back in May of last year, I speculated about a variety of wargaming projects that I might engage in during the coming year. I listed seven possibilities for new things I might explore along with seven new things I was going to do my best to resist and about twenty neglected projects that I hoped to do something about. 

To the surprise of no one who (a) knows me or (b) has observed how COVID lockdowns have affected various people, I got nowhere with any of these seven possibilities, did avoid spending money on the seven others (though I thought a lot about them), and didn't really address any of the neglected projects. After all, why work on hobbies when you can lie about drinking tea and watching old British police procedurals on the telly? I read a good deal of history and historical fiction and daydreamed a good deal about gaming all of the conflicts I was reading about. But that's mostly as far as it got.

So, although I don't have a good track record with or even much expectation of "resolutions" (New Years or any other sort), I've been trying to focus at least a little on 2021 and what I might do.

Wrapping Up Kleiner Feldzug 1757

What I did, in fact, spend a lot of time on in 2020 was running a game of Sam Mustafa's Kleiner Feldzug, his quick-and-dirty map game that comes with Might & Reason, his Seven Years War miniatures rules. It's been entertaining (sometimes) and frustrating (for some players), and I have a feeling that it may be drawing to a close. It has four more turns to run, and we may play out all of those turns, but I don't think that the map game or the miniatures rules have been a big hit. M&R is easier to run via Zoom than some other games I can think of, but it has some shortcomings and is, like a lot of the author's games, a broad brush where many players would like to be able to make somewhat finwer strokes.

Whither Frederick?

The end of this campaign won't end my interest in the Seven Years War, but I need to do a good deal more reading before I launch into something specific. I have a set of rules that I think may hold promise for big battles, and I have Carnage & Glory and Black Powder for small to medium-sized battles, depending on whether I want a more detailed or a more fast-play game.

Carl Rochling: The Battle of Zorndorf

Et Sans Resultat and Other Napoleonics

I have been a fan of this big-battle Napoleonic rules set for some time now, including running it (with my buddy The Attorney) at conventions and at our club. I have a load of 6mm figures I bought to paint up as 1815 armies, and I need to get working on that. I think 6mm is the way I plan to go with ESR.

I have a substantial number of 15mm Napoleonics. I rebased a large number of Austrians in 2019 to play ESR, but a suitable ground scale to play ESR in 15mm requires a LOT of tabletop. I'm debating whether to leave them as they are or rebase them (again) for Carnage & Glory and Black Powder.

On top of which, I know that some of my friends who are dipping their toe into Napoleonic wargaming are looking to build some 28mm armies. I have a number of 28mm figures that I bought thinking I might use them for a super-tactical game, if I could find one I liked. I never have, and I don't currently have the bandwidth to write a set, so I'm thinking of building up some 28mm forces to play Black Powder, which are among the most popular "fast and fun" rules around and which I find the least objectionable.

Antoine-Jean Gros: Bataille d'Aboukir, 25 Juillet 1799

Egypt, Big Time

I've been in love with almost all of the Perry Brothers' 28mm miniatures lines for ages, and last year in a fit of madness I splurged on a huge boxful of their Napoleonic French in Egypt line. 

After the French invaded in 1798, there were battles between their army and the rather splendidly costumed Mameluke rulers of Egypt, but I’m skipping those. Partly because the Mameluke armies were huge and mostly cavalry and I can’t face painting that many horses. 

But mostly because, no offense intended to the Mamelukes, they are really boring and pointless battles. 

Warfare, especially in the 18th and early 19th century, is like playing rock-scissors-paper repeatedly. Infantry, cavalry, artillery: each has its strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the other. At first one arm gets an advantage, then your opponent uses a different arm and gets the advantage. Tactics is knowing which troops to use, and when, and how. The person who does that best, with some added factors, wins.

And with their almost-all-cavalry army, the Mamelukes essentially played rock-scissors-paper by repeatedly playing paper, paper, paper, paper. The French formed their infantry into big boxes, with all the men facing outwards, places for the artillery at the corners, and their cavalry inside the box, ready to charge out, fresh and undamaged, once the enemy got tired. The Mamelukes couldn’t fight their way into the squares, but they didn’t stop trying as long as they had fresh units. To mix metaphors, when all you have is a hammer, they say, everything looks like a nail. But if the “nail” is really a patch of sand, at some point you just get tired of hammering it and achieving nothing.

That and painting all those bloody horses...

Phillip James de Loutherbourg: The Landing of British Troops at Aboukir, 8 March 1801

So instead of Mamelukes, Project Egypt is going to be recreating the battles between the French and the British. Who, per usual, took until the better part of three years to assemble a force to try and drive the French out of the Middle East. The preliminary French forces I’m building are to represent Friant’s attempt to defeat the British as they landed at Abu Qir Bay. And the British represent the amphibious assault forces of Lt Gen Sir Ralph Abercromby. I’ll start with the landing and, if I actually accomplish that much, will move on to the later battles. Of course, before the lobsterbacks can get ashore, someone needs to secure the landing grounds. There will be sailors and marines and lovely, lovely boats to bring the soldiers ashore from the transports. Then five battalions of infantry with an uncharacteristically (for Brits) varied selection of headgear.