Face to face games at Little Gaddesden for 2022

Given that Covid remains rife, it has been decided to postpone our autumn 2022 Little Gaddesden games to 2023.  See a later thread for further details.

Martin J

Back in February we put together an autumn game schedule for games at Little Gaddesden.  

Thankfully Covid rates in the UK are now falling again, but are still fairly high in absolute terms.  We have to recognise that vaccine protection is waning, several regular attendees are getting-on, and that a few have partners who continue to be at very high risk.

Given that, we have decided to postpone the September ACW scenario, probably to 2023.  We will review the remainder of the autumn schedule over the next several weeks in the light of events.  Even if we cannot do face to face games, it may be possible to do something remotely, perhaps using Tabletop Simulator or some other app or game.

Hopefully we can finally get back to normal in 2023 .

Martin J

Are there no games organised at Little Gaddesden then this autumn?

Thanks for your interest Diggers.  Funnily enough, we had a meeting on this earlier this evening.

Given the current uncertainties with covid, we have decided to postpone the October and November Little Gaddesden games to 2023 (see below).

We plan to instead use this autumn to push ahead with developing our online games.  Our friends in the IKS have done great work recently using TableTop Simulator, and we are keen to run online map games ourselves.

Our games will probably be smaller in terms of player numbers, shorter, and feature a higher umpire ratio.   Several of the games will be set at the strategic or operational level.  Where we do fight battles, most players will typically command a corps.

Our thoughts for our future direction are still evolving but, looking ahead to 2023, we will probably move to a mix of face-to-face and online games.

Martin J

Martin, are there any planned games in place for Spring 2023?

I haven't seen you blokes face to face for years. Its time I came down for a game again.

Yes it would be good to see you again too.

We're certainly planning to restart games in the spring, but feel it's too early to settle on formats.   Covid rates are rising fast again, and we need to see how that plays out over the winter months.  On balance we still feel the schedule will probably be a mix of face-to-face and online.  

A small team is running some tests of the latter over the next few weeks.

That said, everyone in the group is keep to keep our games at Little Gaddesden going.  It's just such fun when we all get together, and LG is an idyllic spot.

Keep in touch.

Martin J

I really think its time to disregard COVID. What there is now is almost harmless and our local wargames club dropped its masking requirement in the spring and there's 20-30 people there every Monday evening and not a single outbreak of plague in 6 months so I think we can push on with meets at LG again. We are all old fogeys and will have had our C-19 and flu boosters so I think we are good.

Have discussed this again with the group who put on most of our games.  We very much hope you are right, but the general view is still that it's too early to restart face to face games. 

The whole covid question has to be a personal call, dependent on both one's own general attitude to risk, and personal circumstances (pre-existing conditions etc), and there may be lots of folks out there who agree with you.  This might include some LG attendees.

You are an experienced umpire, so here's a thought.  If you would like to run a game, why not post here on possible dates and subject, to test the level of interest?  You could put up a poll, which is our normal recruitment method.  Happy to help with that if you're not sure how.  Ditto with acting as a sounding-board.

You would need to consider costs, of which hiring the venue would be most significant.  In our experience, it is worth negotiating on that.  You could no doubt find somewhere local to you. 

Martin J

PS As previously mentioned, we haven't given up on the live games but can only concentrate on one thing at a time.  Given our view on the covid situation, it makes sense to focus on the online game atm.

I may have missed posts on here about the online game. Has it been mentioned - is there a thread for it? Thanks.

Only passing comments on this thread.  

I provided some indication of the direction of travel in the 4th post.  But the team are still in the initial stages of discussion, planning and testing, so even some of that might change. I wouldn't expect imminent developments.

Martin J