Extra "Phwoar!"

Its that sort of day...

Yes, I have managed to celebrate Mother's Day a week early and spend most of the weekend working or doing homework. A difficult couple of days so this picture really cheered me up....

This was posted on the M44 forum and shows a close up of the D-Day map for Sword beach. The larger picture of all six maps that I posted doesn't show much detail and I was concerned about what we would actually get. This map reassures me big time that we have a real live workable scenario. My first questions is "does this look like my mental map of the battlefield?" and this does. The second question is "looking at the set up, do I have lots of historical options/problems to deal with?", the answer is again yes. I can see plenty of tension here between the drive on Caen and the reinforcement of the Orne bridgehead.

I'm really looking forward to this release. I have no hope of playing the full six maps, if I'm lucky I might get to play two or three maps, but will need to buy additional soldiers rather than additional base games. Maybe I also need some friends to play with!

Things that make you go "Phwoar!"

Invading Normandy again (but bigger) 

We have not had new M44 kit for some time, the Equipment Pack being the last big ticket item in 2012. We now have a very special release to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day itself and the 10th anniversary of M44.

We had the warning from DoW a couple of weeks ago with the familiar message that was originally broadcast on Radio Londres:

Les sanglots longs

Des violons

De l’automne

Blessent mon cœur

D’une langueur

Monotone.

This could only mean a D-Day release but what more could they actually do? The hints seemed to show maps covering the whole of the Normandy front with extra pictures of crowds of fat bald old people crammed into a games store playing a huge M44 game. Needless to say the forums were divided.....what did it mean? Was it to be more maps? More miniatures?

Well the answer came yesterday with the formal DoW announcement. Its six really big maps!

The base map for M44 is 13 hexes wide by 9 deep. You can play these in Overlord style with two maps side by side (26 by 9). A larger breakthrough map was was released giving 13 by 17 to enable battles in depth. Now what we have is a ginormous map set giving 78 wide by a generous 23 deep when set up together.

Forum intelligence estimates the size of the whole map at anywhere between 14 foot and three miles wide. Certainly, this qualifies for a Phwoar in anyone's money!

The great thing about this is that you can play single, double or triple etc etc map games. in M44 speak this map configuration must be at least a triple overthrough breaklord!

The scale looks good too as it appears to be regiment/brigade level. There's a whole fist full of gaming here for only what appears to be 30 of our English pounds. Great, can't wait til the release in June.

Mobilisation begins!

First draft counters for Tannenberg

This game is beginning to grow on me. I have been re-reading Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August and started sketching out some of the factors to be taken into account in the rules. Mmmh, that General Francois can't obey an order even if it was wrapped round a brick. That will fun!

In my own head I have a model for what I want to do but developing this and producing a decent and informative game may be tricky. But the momentum is growing and I'm really looking forward to getting this on the table.

I've started work on the counters....

A bit rough and ready at this stage but good enough for a play test.

These counters are generated in Excel with some added pictures, the flag and the Landser and dragoon. The flag is the German naval jack but I like to see iron crosses marching across the map! The Landser and dragoon are cut out of 1914 posters/prints and are a little blurry up close. My intention with the design is to be clear about the type and strength of the unit but to build in some real period feeling while avoiding any copy right issues. Not being a good drawer I'll have to rely on pinching other fellers work.

I'm pleased with the general format of the counters. I developed the Excel model when I wanted some colourful counters for the Minden Games' 1914 Opening Moves, a very nice little solitaire game. There's more about this on BGG. 

Hopefully some more progress tomorrow.

Real life evasion

Return to Tannenberg!

Last weekend's plans for research were stuffed by an inordinate workload. My only respite was the rugby so its a good job England won!

Looking forward in hope to this weekend, I have just competed another round of thinking on sources for the game. Having already got both Russian and British first hand accounts I have now turned up Max Hoffman's memoir of the Eastern front.

Max, left, and chums at Brest-Litovsk 1917

This is entitled "The War of Lost Opportunities" and is available on line. It is a very easy read and one gets a real impression of the man behind the glasses.


Being slightly frustrated by my current sources for the narrative I have returned to Amazon and with the help of a nice gift certificate have ordered today "Tannenberg: Clash of Empires 1914" by Denis Showalter. Denis is an American historian of whom I was unaware until I recently started looking at some books on the Red Army. He has a good rep and I'm looking forward to getting into the detail.

I have also taken the opportunity to look into my games boxes and have come up with both the 1978 SPI "Tannenberg" game and also "When Eagles Fight" from Command Magazine. Both bring back happy memories so I just have to resist them to get on with my design. 

If I'm too tired to do anything sensible tomorrow I'll get the crayons out and play with some counter designs.

Electronic maps...

the learning curve

Why do I need an electronic map when I have a trusty paper one?

Last week's draft map

Well, I will need one eventually so I can publish on this blog but my main motivation is to be able to storyboard the campaign as suggested by Phil Sabin. The scale of the map is around 15 miles per hex so two hexes will represent 3 days travel for foot mobile troops. The key dates are:

• 7 August: Russian First Army enters East Prussia
• 17 August: Battle of Stalloponen
• 20 August: Battle of Gumbinnen
• 23-30 August: Battle of Tannenburg
• 7-14 September: 1st Battle of the Masurian Lakes

This is around 38 days which at, say three days per turn, gives 12 or so turns. Anything longer than 12 turns is likely to be beyond me. This means I'll need at least 12 maps to get a grip on the storyboard and to test out movement rates and combat duration. Ideally. the story board will be on PowerPoint so I can effectively animate the action and use standard unit icons to move around the maps. I know I can do this in PowerPoint so that is the plan.

I have never made an electronic map before. Step 1 is to get some hexes. My hex grid is predetermined by my design parameters (13 by 9) so I generated an SVG file, using an on-line programme, which I then loaded into Paint. 

The rest is trial and error. Here is the map as of today. The only missing items are names and railroads. The terrain and features are pretty standard and you can probably guess most of them without difficulty.

I have to say that I'm quite pleased with this so far. Now I know a few things about Paint, I can make a better job of the final version.

The town icons are interesting and this is a really cool part of the story. I'm with Redmond Simonsen in terms of what information you put on the map. It should be designed for play and should be very simple. However, I'm increasingly interested in "visualization". The things that you play with, toys, counters, maps, model terrain, should be designed to form part of the narrative of the story. This I suppose is a set designer approach and like the theatre or the movies, we should look for style and, perhaps, some necessary exaggeration. I'm not a realism junky so don't look too closely at my toy soldiers, they're painted for effect.

In mucking about on the internet I came across this hand drawn map, obviously from prussianpoland.com!

I don't know the source of this map but it looks post-Tannenberg and may well be a child's artwork. What I really like about it is the characterisation of the different towns and cities and the very nice little drawing of Fort Boyen. I have tried to use some of these little drawings in my map as it helps put the player (i.e. me) back into the early 20th century.

If I'm lucky, story-boarding at the weekend which will lead onto OB compilation.

Today's list....

of interesting stuff!

Pressing on with the Tannenberg game idea is great but there but I have had to make a list of other stuff that I will return to at a later date (on the glorious day that victory is achieved at Tannenberg).

Websites:

A couple of new developments:

• Norm Smith has a new website constructed without the aid of a laptop with promises of interesting stuff to come.
• Worthington Games is now Worthington Publishing with not only a new website but new lines of games. My favourite is a new block game on the Great Patriotic War: Holdfast Russia 1941-42.

Section of map from rule book example

Games:

• Heroes of Normandie: Not yet published but, I believe, due March this year. By French firm Devil Pig, this looks very cartoonish but I think may be a winner with my kids. One for Father's Day!

• Pocket Battles Confederacy vs Union: Z-Man Games latest pocket battles game coming this spring. I have Celts vs Romans almost permanently out so very much looking forward to this ($14.99).
• Struggle for New France: By Bill Molyneaux. Now available from Wargame Downloads as a print n play for $6.50. Great little card assisted game. Something for Easter if I crack.

• 1812 Battle Pack: Two Buck Games have this on the way from Bill Molyneaux. 12 small games from the war of 1812. $5.00 print n play also from Wargames Downloads shortly.

Miniatures rules:

• So far I have resisted Bolt Action but may now give into Chain of Command, especially now there is a campaign system to support the rules. £6.00, nice.

Paper figures:

• I'm a sucker for paper figures from Junior General. These 18th century numbers by Daniel Harper (The Boyne) and C J Fiorito (Marlborough) are just great.

C J's Bavarians, just brilliant

Fortresses and Zeppelins

History or Dystopian Wars?

I have had a chance today to pursue some further research into the Tannenberg project. What I hadn't appreciated fully before is the extensive use of fortifications by the Germans in the wide open spaces of the east. I was aware of Konigsburg and Danzig but was not conscious of the plethora of fortifications, armed camps and forts that existed in August 1914.

Fortress Boyen

My understanding is that German fortifications were grouped into districts under a District Commander. The relevant districts in the east are:

• Konigsburg District: Including Konigsburg itself (a first class fortress/fortified camp), Pillau (a star fort, part of the Konigsburg defences on the Vistula Lagoon), Memel (coastal fort), Lotzen (Fort Boyen, a brigade sized armed camp in the Masurian Lakes).

• Thorn District: Thorn (a major fortified camp), Marienburg (minor fort), Graudenz (minor fort), Dirschau (minor fort); all of these being on the Vistula south of Danzig, except Marienburg on the R. Nogat. These forts represented the final line of defence for Prussia from any incursion from the east.

• Danzig: A major coastal fortification at the mouth of the Vistula.

• Posen District:  Posen (fortified camp), Glatz (minor fort), Neisse (fortified camp), Glogau (railroad obstruction fort). 

These were not static defences. While having thick walls, heavy guns and supplies to outlast a siege, each fort had a main infantry and artillery reserve. The purpose of these reserves was to prevent the fort itself becoming invested. In wartime, fortresses in the war zone would come under the control of the appropriate Army commander. The fortresses would give up their main reserves to support that army.

For example, Thorn was a major fortified camp providing a home for the equivalent of a whole Division (35th Reserve Infantry Division). There are some 15 individual forts encircling Thorn and covering both sides of the Vistula. The garrison included:

• 35 Reserve Division (two Landwehr Brigades plus artillery and cavalry)

• The equivalent of 14+ heavy artillery batteries (estimated), mainly Landsturm and Reserve;

• A Landwehr Infantry Regiment plus six Ersatz Battalions;

• More than one Fortress Machine Gun Battalion;

• Two armoured trains.

Further details of the garrison can be found in this summary. The 35th Reserve Division was deployed with the field army on the outbreak of hostilities.

What has really spiked my interest is the presence of aviation detachments (aircraft) and Zeppelins as part of these garrisons. Posen, for example, had:

• 16th Feld Fleiger (Field Aviation) Battalion

• 4th (Posen) Fortress Aviation Battalion

• Z-5 (Zeppelin) in Posen (Army Airship: Haupt. Gruener)

A further Zeppelin, Z-4 (Army Airship: Haupt. von Quast), was operated from Konigsburg.

Nice German with aerial toys

Right from the off German air units, including airships, mounted reconnaissance operations as well as bombing enemy targets with improvised weapons. The two Zeppelins conducted the following raids into enemy territory.

10 August: Mlawa Z-4
11 August: Lodz Z-5
22 August: Lager by Gumbinnen Z-4
22 August: Modlin (Novo-Georgievsk) Z-5
25 August: Sierpe-Rypin Z-5
26 August: Lager by Nordenburg Z-4
27 August: Mlawa Z-5
28 August: Lager by Muldszen Z-4
9 September: Lager by Insterburg Z-4
24 September: Bailystok & Lomsha Z-4
25 September: Warsaw Z-4

Note that Z-5 ended its career when it was forced down by the Russians during its last attack on Mlawa.

Another thing that has got me interested is the Baltic Fortress Route. Effectively a tourist trail around the Baltic forts. Great stuff, not sure the wife will let me book it as a holiday!

Pillau, very pretty

Why Dystopian Wars? Well, Germans in pointy hats, airships, aircraft, armoured trains, cossacks? You can't get much more steam punk than that, even without dreadnought type ships and armoured river gunboats. Sometimes real life is richer than even the best created worlds.