"Spring in Munich" An 1809 Kriegsspiel

Where I'll be spending many evenings for the next year and change

Table Battles Review

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, my review of Hollandspiel's new game Table Battles is available at Grogheads. The summary: A surprising game that plays quickly and presents a wealth of subtle play and interesting decisions. It doesn't look like a wargame, but this grog says it is.

GrogCast Season 5 Episode 9 – Lessons Learned in Gaming

Last week I participated in another Grogcast, this time along with Dr. James Sterrett and regular host Brant Guillory. We talked about how applying real-world military planning approaches can enhance wargaming, some of the history of Command Post Wargaming at Origins, and how lessons learned in wargaming can be applied to life and business. As has increasingly become my schtick, I speak some about all of the above and gaming 18th-19th century warfare.

Lock n' Load Tactical Series: Heroes of the Pacific

My review of Lock n' Load Heroes of the Pacific is up now at Grogheads. The skinny: a great WW2 tactical game that really captures the feel of the fighting in the Pacific. Read the article for details!

Not blogging, but still busy

I've fallen woefully behind in my blogging duties here, but haven't been completely absent from the wargaming interwebs:

Final positions at Vimeiro

Battle Lab - Mission Planning

A combined and (slightly) condensed version of my series of posts using Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm to illustrate OACOK style mission planning is up as part of the Battle Lab section at Grogheads.

Many thanks to Brant and crew for allowing me to write for them!

Hunting Bears - The Battle for Buchholz

This is a continuation of a series of posts using Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm to illustrate the use of the Military Decision Making Process in planning and conducting a battle in a wargame. At no time should anyone be under the illusion that I claim to have sufficient grasp of this that I could lead actual troops in so much as a barbecue. This is how I use these tools for gaming. The first post in this series is here. The second post is here.

In my first two post I examined terrain analysis via OCOKA and an abbreviated process for identifying enemy Courses of Action (COAs). This led to the development of a plan for the deployment of the forces I would have on hand at the beginning of the battle. As we saw in my second post, taking the time to do this planning upfront allow the elements of an US infantry battalion to render a Soviet Tank Regiment combat ineffective in about 30 minutes of fighting.

Remnants of a Soviet Tank Regiment at Holm-Seppensen

Hunting for Bears - The First Hour

This is a continuation of a series of posts using Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm to illustrate the use of the Military Decision Making Process in planning and conducting a battle in a wargame. At no time should anyone be under the illusion that I claim to have sufficient grasp of this that I could lead actual troops in so much as a barbecue. This is how I use these tools for gaming. The first post in this series is here.

At the end of my last post things were just about to kick off in the battle for Buccholz. Before we crank the track engines though, let's take a quick look at a couple more concepts useful for planning: Engagement Areas and Future Ops.

Planning map with Engagement Areas and future plans marked.

Planning for Hunting Bears

It's been a very busy few weeks this month! Today is the first day since returning from Origins that have had the time and energy to blog. When I can, I'll blog some about the fantastic time I had at Origins. Today, though, I want to apply some of what I learned at Origins, specifically from the wonderful Staff Wargaming sessions run by Dr. James Sterrett and Mark Graves (USA Retired).

Specifically, I'm going to apply the planning approach we used during these sessions to the first US campaign scenario from Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm. I'm partial to doing this with Flashpoint Campaigns because it's really perfect for this sort of planning. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Jim Snyder and Rob Crandall of On Target Simulations at Origins and discussing the game with them as well as using it during the Staff Wargaming sessions. I'm going to run through the process of terrain analysis using OCOKA, develop several potential enemy Courses of Action (COAs) and then plan my defense based on those COAs. To begin with, lets get an overview of the battlefield.

An overview of the battlefield in Google Earth. The Soviets will be advancing from east of Buchholz toward the western edge of the map on the route to Bremen. Note that the game map stops on an east-west line just south of Schierhorn-Tostedt.

Arrived: Ghost Panzer

Thanks to the efforts of the good folks over at Grogheads, I'm returning to my long abandoned board gaming roots! It's been over 20 years since I bought a board game, and I honestly thought I never would again. Playing Lock n Load: Heroes of Stalingrad and Conflict of Heroes computer versions reawakened an interest in shuffling cardboard chits around paper maps.

Carefully removing Circle of Fire counters from the sprue and clipping them

I dipped my toe in first with Circle of Fire, a magazine game from Against the Odds magazine focused on the siege of Cholm in 1942.