von Moltke

Greetings everyone

My name is Matthias, I am 20 years old, from Germany (originating from the Ruhr Valley, studying in Munich).
I am an Ensign in the Bundeswehr, so I am in love with Kriegsspiele, and I was completely hyped when a friend of mine told me about this mod and community.
I have been interested in military history since very early days (war was a family business back in the day).

I have so many questions about this whole community and I am looking forward to playing with you.
My username is probably a massive overstatement, as I will have to learn a lot before becoming worthy of this name.

In my freetime I love to read and I have a passion for martial arts (Muay Thai, MMA, Boxing and Taekwondo), so feel free to chat about it.

I am looking forward to many great battles!

Yours,

von Moltke

Welcome to the forum Matthias.
What games are you interested in? And what is your favourite history period? (or should we just conclude from your nickname? )

I have recently bought SoW Waterloo and DLC, and was immediately hooked by all the possibilities
Got your mod today, looks brilliant as well!

Yes, I am indeed very interested in the Victorian era/ Napoleonic era. Also interested in the World Wars. It's quite a list, it really comes in phases

A few fellow soldiers and I have recently dabbled with the idea to perform real Kriegsspiele, but we have not really got an idea where to start. Reisswitz is not really used in the Bundeswehr anymore

Oh btw, I also own Seven Years War and I am befriended with the developer of Grand Tactician (Who also developed SYW) so if anyone likes this little pearl as much as I do just hit me up

Hi and welcome to the KS Group.

"...Reisswitz is not really used in the Bundeswehr anymore..."

I think that is an excellent reason to stage a full on double blind Kreigspiel game with your fellow officers. All you need to do a basic game are three large scale maps of the area you plan to fight over, and people willing to play 2 sides plus an umpire team. Kreigspiels can be as varied as a length of string. In our face-to-face games which we hold six times a year in south-central England about 50m NW of London, we have done things as varied as tactical games based on traditional Reisswitz with detachments of troops meeting on a piece of fictional German terrain with units represented down to cavalry squadron, infantry battalion and artillery battery scale, right up to the highest level of operational game such as a game set in 1942 and representing the German U-Boat campaign in the North Atlantic. I do not recall a game set in the pre-gunpowder era that I have played (such as ancient Rome, etc) but my earliest games played have been set in the 1640s in the English Civil War and the most modern was one set in central Africa with rebel militias, UN peacekeeping troops, government forces and other factions fighting over a disintegrating middle-African regime set in the 1990s. We have done Napoleonic, American Civil War, Seven Years War, 1866/1870, Vietnam, World War One Naval (Dreadnoughts), WW2 Eastern Front, the possibilities are endless.

One of the most memorable games I played in was set in the attack on Hue in Vietnam in 1968 with player teams representing US forces, ARVN, VC and NVA regulars. Complete chaos and lots of fun.

We tend to play more operational level games set across hundreds of miles of map (or ocean) but we also have some kind of battle resolution mechanism as well.

I recommend you post in the traditional Reisswitz games forum and get some ideas from others. We have links to different collections of online maps and you do not need unit markers or counters to begin with - it can all be done with pencil and paper, or water based marker pens if you laminate the maps. Or you can print counters from some of the online military symbols sets or use card counters from old boardgames. The only limits are your imagination.

For players you sound very lucky. If you can grab a group of Bundeswehr officers and run a game over a weekend you should have a great time. I'd try something small at first with about 4 players and 4 or 5 umpires at a low tactical level and see if it sparks interest. And pick a subject your players may be interested in such as a Prussian campaign of 1870 or from Frederick the Great's or Napoleon's time.

For Sow we meet at 19:00 BST (British Summer Time) on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for a game lasting at least 3 hours and often longer if you include planning and debrief sessions. Many of our games are stand-alone scenarios with a background and objective for one or both sides and we also play games that are set within one of the many campaigns we have run. We are currently using a piece of software from Matrix Games called "Campaigns on the Danube 1805-1809" to use as a setting for some Napoleonic games. This uses an operation level of map command (the smallest manouver units are divisions and most often the corps) but it has the option of using any set of miniatures or computer rules to resolve the battles so when an encounter occurs on the operational map, we create a SoW scenario, fight the battle as an MP game then plug the results back into the operatonal software and carry on.

Thank you very much for the detailed advise! I am looking forward too seeing it through and discussing it with them

As to the SoW-scenarios,I will gladly join in as soon as possible

I'd also be up for travelling to England for a long weekend or so to participate in your Kriegsspiel and maybe take some inspirations home

Hi von Moltke,

I am a few years ahead of you: I left UniBw München in 2015. What are you studying?

von Moltke wrote:"...Reisswitz is not really used in the Bundeswehr anymore..."

"Back in my days" we staged a Normandy '44 wargame in one of the old air raid shelters below the engineer's library. Free Kriegsspiel for the participants, the umpire used a board game for combat resolution.

I am also working on rules for a Cold-War Era (1980s) Wargame on Btl/Rgt/Brig scale. I attempted to run a few online based Kriegsspiele to gather experience and adjust on the go, but the interest was not quite there. Link to my Free Kriegsspiel

If you and your group is interested in such a game, we might be able to set something up.

And of course, Wargaming is still used in the German Armed Forces, just not in the same way as the Reisswitz rules suggest. From my experience the navy does not put so much emphasis on tactical education in your early years.

I can also recommend to have a look at this page of a German group that is running Kriegsspiele annually.
To gather further inspiration, please have a look at the book that you wrote about 150 years ago

Those tactical problems are also suited for playing in a short session. I also have one or two books with short tactical problems available from the 50s/60s.

Also remember, that you can always get in touch with our "Tactical Centre" and request current "Kurzlagen" that are in the spirit of Moltke's Tactical problems.

If you can come by them, you also have small wargames in old magazines, especially "Wehrausbildung in Wort und Bild". The military library at the Generalstaff College and the one in Dresden (Army Academy) have most of them. I also have most of them scanned at some point including solutions. So if you need them, let me know. That's mostly 80s material.

If you have a CO/GrpLtr that is properly interested in troop leading procedures (i.e. not Navy or AF) then I would encourage you to make this official, and sell it as "historical" edcucational course that you came up with yourself. If you go into the political/strategic level, I bet you could convince some of the political science faculty to jump in for support. K. Tsetsos is a wargamer himself, he is working for Prof. Masala.

Cheers,

A

As to the SoW-scenarios,I will gladly join in as soon as possible Smile

That's great - just join us on teamspeak pre-battle and we'll make sure you have it all set up for MP...

I do study Wirtschafts- und Organisationswissenschaften (WOW). (He'll know what I am talking about)

I have thought of forming an IG but I am not sure whether it'd create enough interest. I will do so once the pressure of exams goes down a little.

Thank you very much for all the tips. I will look through all of your sources and so forth and will hopefully be able to report successes!

Hello von Moltke,

that sounds very interesting. Do you know more German players?

Regards

Harald