A Kriegsspiel Blog Opens

I have started a blog about my solo-Kriegsspiel campaign. Everyone is welcome to visit, read, comment, etc to their heart's content! I'm excited, frankly, because this is the quickest I've ever managed to begin a wargaming campaign using a new set of rules. The blog posts explain what's going on, so I'll just leave the url: http://nycar.wordpress.com/ . Welcome to one and all.

Ike wrote:I have started a blog about my solo-Kriegsspiel campaign. Everyone is welcome to visit, read, comment, etc to their heart's content! I'm excited, frankly, because this is the quickest I've ever managed to begin a wargaming campaign using a new set of rules. The blog posts explain what's going on, so I'll just leave the url: http://nycar.wordpress.com/ . Welcome to one and all.

If you're flying solo this might be of some interest to you
http://www.mythic.wordpr.com/page14/page9/page9.html

There is a remarkable account of a fellow playing a solo Colonial campaign using figs and the Mythic GM Emulator thing in the files section over at the Yahoo Group for Mythic RPG. From reading his adventures in solo wargaming using the emulator thing it sounds like it might work for a solo KS as well.

Thanks, Lugnakh! I'd forgotten about Mythic's products, but the GM emulator especially will work well with K-S solo. Thought I had a copy downloaded free from their beta, but I guess I lost it in changing computers. Thanks for the link, too, as I've apparently erased it ... ... heh.

Ike wrote:Thanks, Lugnakh! I'd forgotten about Mythic's products, but the GM emulator especially will work well with K-S solo. Thought I had a copy downloaded free from their beta, but I guess I lost it in changing computers. Thanks for the link, too, as I've apparently erased it ... ... heh.

Sure thing! Hope it might be of some use.
You anywhere near Austin? You might be able to get some of the guys at Greathall Games into a KS game. I think they play a lot of historical miniatures there. That shop reminded me of the game stores of old. Not many like it these days.

Actually, I'm about 50 miles south of Austin. I've been to Greathall a couple of times over the years and they do play a lot of miniatures there. My problem is time, even though I'm retired it's still nearly an hour's drive each way - with the traffic. In addition, they seem to have their own group going on there and don't appear to be ... it isn't that their not friendly ... they seem too clique-ish to me. I'm just getting old and grouchy and solo gaming seems to work best for me. Years back, I used to play every weekend at Fort Hood, mostly 15 mm Napoleonic using "Empire" rules, and FRPG gaming and campaigning. But that was fully 35 years ago. Now, not so much. It's a good idea, but when I've tried it ... I lose interest too quickly when I listen to arguments about rules too often. Call it a character defect on my part. And you're right, there aren't many places like it these days.

Last update was in October - will we see more?

Yes, there will be more. Several things have happened, some in gaming and some in Real Life. In Real Life, my wife has been seriously ill since October and - for instance - was just released from the hospital after a three-night stay. Much of it all wasn't life-threatening, but some of it was and it has been time consuming and to be candid my concern has been focused upon her health. Now she's doing better and I'll have time and interest for my Solo Kriegsspiel campaign.

The gaming things have been buying and working with CC3 with a view to using it to create Kriegsspiel maps and integrating Mythic into my campaign. I was surprised the changes which were both required and suggested by the use of Mythic. So far so good as I have - had, prior to my wife's health issues - worked up and tested the Mythic rules working in the campaign as well as finding some appropriate maps to convert with CC3 for both Kriegsspiel and campaign level use. Things have advanced to the point where I can begin creating the many military and political characters, once the time becomes available, which it shall and fairly soon. I confess to have spent more time working on the campaign than on writing up what has been going on. My excuse and justification is that the blog is intended primarily as an on-line Campaign Journal in the way of Donald Featherstone's vision thereof. That said, it will still be May or June before much is posted on the blog again, mainly for reasons of campaign preparation rather than Real Life.

Thank you for your interest and your question as they help me to maintain enough enthusiasm to resume.

Ike wrote:Yes, there will be more. Several things have happened, some in gaming and some in Real Life. In Real Life, my wife has been seriously ill since October and - for instance - was just released from the hospital after a three-night stay. Much of it all wasn't life-threatening, but some of it was and it has been time consuming and to be candid my concern has been focused upon her health. Now she's doing better and I'll have time and interest for my Solo Kriegsspiel campaign.

Evidently we are all very sorry to learn of your domestic misfortunes. We all hope that the future for your wife will be brighter than it has been. When you have the time we will be interested to learn of the Kriegsspiel developments.

My thanks for your - all of you - best wishes for my wife. She is doing better and her doctor is confident in her full recovery. That is delayed by having been hospitalized several times - a seeming paradox, yes? - but being fed through an IV and medicated around the clock has the effect of setting-back her recovery from the chemo-therapy and surgeries. The forcast however is for a complete recovery.

That said, I have conducted enough play-tests of my mix of the KS rules and Mythic for Battles and decided that I prefer the KS combat resolution. Primarily because it gives a more period flavor and saves me the trouble of attempting to find just the right-sounding phrase to decribe the results. (Yes, I recall that it is a solo campaign!) The blog will be in a form of a Gazette - a Zeitung, if you will - giving battle reports in a quasi-19th Century newspaper voice, rather like Watson's reporting of Holmes' cases, with a platoon/company/troop level more personal report - say a letter to a fellow officer - prompted by a sharp and interesting action even if the overall battle was perhaps a brigade encounter. I will be writing a Campaign Journal as it goes along, to keep the events in the correct relationship, in terms of time and space, but I doubt that that will be published, as it will be a "behind the curtain" sort of thing. Also, I'll be using units which will be at 'full strength' for their Quality at Campaign Start, carried in a spreadsheet by regiment, batallion, squadron and battery, in actual numbers of men, guns, horses and carts/wagons. The logistics will be rather abstracted, so I may do without the carts and wagons part - and leave out the oxen as well, poor things! - in the final form. As I reach a 'milestone' in getting the campaign under weigh, I'll post on the blog and perhaps here if there is enough interest.

Thank you all again for your expressions of care for my spouse and your support for my efforts in gaming.

Sounds good Ike. But continue to make sure that real life comes first.

My best wishes for your wife's full recovery.

Martin