Building Blocks and Big Battles

The classic block wargame of Kriegspiel being used for a rather well known battle....

The great block extravaganza continues and so I spent some time this weekend experimenting with various methods of incorporating flag bases. I will post the details in due course but the early ideas were very encouraging. I think I have found a method that works so the non-grid block armies will be in use hopefully sooner rather than later.

I am rather excited about using the blocks on a normal playing surface and so I have been thinking about rules. This may seem a little odd but given that all my gaming with the block armies thus far has been grid based you can see why this needs some thought. With the grid games I enjoy – mostly Command and Colours or Portable Wargame inspired – I am tempted in the short term to simply convert these into inches and see how they work out. It is rather embarrassing to admit that I have been so grid facing in respect of my wargames of late that I have gotten out of the habit of using a ruler!

In respect of rules my plan is something startlingly original and, if I am honest, is what I had always intended to do with the block armies when I first decided to make them. I am going to design a generic set of horse and musket rules for games using them.  I have opted for two half blocks per unit for infantry and cavalry mainly because my collection is organised this way so that different formations can be easily represented – the typical column (march and attack), line and square – and the facing of the unit can be shown by the physical location of the yet-to-be-seen unit flag block. Artillery and command will use a half block in the normal way. This means that a typical infantry or cavalry unit deployed in line will cover around 75mm by 20mm. The figure equivalents would probably be 6/10/12mm and so the scenery will scaled thereabouts.

The main criteria for the rules is that they should fit on two sides of A4 at a maximum. All measurements will be in inches and the only dice in use with be our old friend the D6. I am torn between using a roster or marking the blocks in some way for any hits scored. The former has the advantage of preserving the ‘fog of war’ so the opposition will not know what they are up against until they are engage with the unit in question. In truth this will probably be the option I use although the latter has the advantage of being 'in plain sight'. At this stage the definition of a unit will be fairly flexible as it my intention that the scale should be able to move and down as required by the action being fought. In this respect using blocks is certainly advantageous as, for example, a 24 figure unit will look like a 24 figure unit whatever scale of action one is choosing to fight. The abstract and indeterminate nature of the block is its greatest strength as evidenced by the way that they are used in military maps – the standard symbols I have chosen for my blocks can represent any formation from a platoon to an entire army.

Believe it or not but this was fought six years ago between Bob Cordery and myself in the man cave.  The game was based loosely on the Russian attack on the Grivitsa Redoubt during the Siege of Plevna in 1877. We used a version of Bob's 'Memoir of Battle' rules that were based on the Richard Borg designed Command and Colours game Battle Cry by Avalon Hill. The Hexon has gone and the book cases have moved walls since then but it is still my 'inner sanctum'.

An alternative to starting a rule set from scratch would obviously be to make use of any number of existing sets or to adapt for use 'off the grid' some tried and tested rules - namely the Portable Wargame or any of the MoB or MoMBAT series by Bob Cordery.

The key thing for me this time around with the blocks is ensuring that the action being fought has an obvious identity which is why I am taking some time to get the flag issue right. This will help immeasurably in showing the personality of the army being represented which in turn will be reflected far better in the supporting narrative.

This will of course mean the return of the purple prose....