Responsible Social Wargaming In Practice

On Saturday I virtually visited Delaware for a game of A Gentleman's War with Rob Dean . We've been playing miniature games using video chats (click) since 2012  and they have been vital for planning and practicing our co-hosted convention games as well as for the enjoyment of time spent gaming with a friend.

My view before deployment
(which he zoomed in a bit and I blew up to full screen during the game).

This time Rob was hosting and the technical improvement in clarity and dependability vs 8 years ago would be amazing if we weren't accustomed to that sort of continual change and improvement in technology.

Rob has covered the game in two blog posts on his Sharp End of the Brush blog.

This one is an illustrated account of the battle (click).



This one is a commentary on the how and reflections from  players' perspective (click).

The game was a good one and he kept me in  a constant state of tension, aware of how quickly my line could collapse and of how little I had to counterattack with once I had committed my reserves. Fortunately for me I have played the scenario dozens of times in the last 40 years and it was his first go at it as a player and I have a little bit more experience with the rules as well.

My experience with the scenario is that despite the need for haste, it pays the attacker to deploy a good part of the army before attacking. The instinct of course is to throw units in as they come up but that has yet to work well for me though the last time I tried it, the game ended in an 11th hour Pyhrric victory for the attacker, so it can work.

I must say though, that in this game, Rob had some of the most consistently bad saving roles that I've ever witnessed!  I did help average out those odds though by hitting and saving with slightly above average success on my dice.


The next game will probably be a 16thC one. I really need to improve my setup before I host another game though, better lighting in my room at the very least, (which I hope to achieve by summer) but a better webcam would also be really good. <Update: actually, a quick tests suggests my LG smart phone might be up to it after all>

Now, I have a new glossy toy soldier Rebel limber that needs its baptism of fire so I need to think about a scenario.