Wargames, scale 1 mile = 1 mile
Wow.
If I ever wanted to know if I was ever going to be a true "wargamer", the answer after seeing these pictures is clearly no.
Not that I thought Memoir '44 or Combat Commander was where the bar was set, but I didn't know that people played on this scale. This is fascinating in a I'll-never-do-that kind of way.
(From this BGG thread with pictures from this site.)
posted by Anonymous @ 10:44 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I second the fascnating -- but in a thank goodness there are other people to do that and not me sort of way. Kinda like organic chem.
Back in a summer during the 80's, when I was home on 3 week break from the academy, I played out an entire siege from the very beginning (the rush to get supplies into the castle while the besiegers lock down the area) to the 40th day when the last assault started well and then fell just short with the last defenders in the keep. The game was a combination of Cry Havoc and Siege, which I lost long ago and have often thought of looking for on e-Bay.
It took several days of on and off play to finish it all. I guess in a lot of ways it was similar to
Descent, in that you could play meaningful parts of the 40 days (assaults, bombardment, sorties) based on the time you had.
But it was nowhere near as intimidating as that picture. And it was medieval, which meant I'd go to much greater lengths.
There are wargamers, and then there are monster wargamers. Still, I would like to own a pair of suction tweezers for intricate counter movement.
I could see doing a monster miniatures game just for the sheer spectacle. I think I have enough Heroscape stuff to make it a reality (four master sets, two castle sets, 3-4 bridges, 8 waves of minis, lava, tundra, city, etc.), but definitely not the time or dedicated game space.
For a second there I thought those were pics for a Carlos and Mark session report.
I'm with Tiffany - that's fascinating, but you won't catch me doing it.
Steve - how did monster wargamers find opponents in the dark days before the internet?
I have an admiration of such complex simulations, but the practicality issue has always kept me away. But the use of a computer to handle the background book keeping and physical space issue could get to to try such a monster.
I played a few games (three?) of Advanced Third Reich and each time I was turned off by the logistics of the game (space, charts and tables, chits, ...).
There's an old Alan Moon article in the General about "It", the wargame that requires a warehouse with scaffolding a few feet off the ground (so that you don't step on the map or counters).
I got that feeling when a group of grognards tried to teach my the Europa series at Origins. The game lasted 4 days, with players rotating in and out. Over the four days, the fronts did move several hexes back and forth ...
While this is something beyond the scope of what I could ever practically play, I do think it's neat that the people posting these pictures and session reports enjoy this and are willing to let people like me peek in on their gaming. Always good to see gamers of all types enjoying themselves.
I would be more than willing to pull out Totaler Krieg! again; which is about as close to a monster game as I will get. Jose taught Mark and I to play last year and I would love to drag it out again. This would take an entire Saturday at the very least.
Of course EE is always an option - or perhaps Eastfront?
For the foreseeable future, I won't be playing any games like this.
Call me crazy, but I might try something like this when I retire.
Carlos, we're infamous ;)
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