I have started work planning for my first game for The Rejects. I've not really umpired a game before so this is a big leap into the unknown for me, but one that I promised I would do before the year was out. I can't give away too many details at this stage but I can say it'll be set in North Africa during one of the series of battles that occurred around the El Alamein area of Egypt between July & Nov 1942. There were three major battles during this period and I have settled on one particularly crucial engagement of one particular battle...but I'm not saying which until after I have run it for the guys.
I launched into the planning stages earlier in the week and I very soon realised that I have a lot of work to do. I have already started making some custom terrain for this game and I've ordered some scenery specific to this battlefield from a supplier in the US. I still have some painting to get finished and I'm sure I'll end up adding a few more units to the Order of Battle as the game approaches. For obvious reasons I don't want to reveal too many details but rest assured I'll be taking pictures and will post more details after we have had the game.
So far the biggest problem I have encountered (other than the shear amount of work I have set myself) has been pinning down the details of the battlefield. I found eight maps of differing quality and detail that showed the area I wanted to focus on but some of the details vary enormously from map to map. I even tried looking up the area in Google Earth only to find the screen filled with an apparently barren stretch of desert with absolutely no features whatsoever! After discarding the most simplistic maps as being far too vague I was eventually able to recreate the topography of the battlefield by combining the details from the maps that remained. This took quite a bit of time as some of the 'features' of the battlefield appear to move depending on which map you look at!
I have now settled on the layout for the game, but I have had to use quite a bit of poetic licence with the exact placement of topographical features. For a start I have condensed a battlefield that actually covered several miles to an area that four companies can fight over (I guess at most one mile). But given that few of the maps I have referenced seemed to be able to agree on the exact placement of some features I'm not going to stress too much over my rearrangement of the field of battle.
My posting schedule for the next few weeks may drop off a little, mainly because I will be focusing all my efforts on preparing for this game. It's all very hush-hush but rest assure that I'll be working hard in the background building terrain, painting models, writing player briefings and above all studying the rules!
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| "I think we may be lost" |
So far the biggest problem I have encountered (other than the shear amount of work I have set myself) has been pinning down the details of the battlefield. I found eight maps of differing quality and detail that showed the area I wanted to focus on but some of the details vary enormously from map to map. I even tried looking up the area in Google Earth only to find the screen filled with an apparently barren stretch of desert with absolutely no features whatsoever! After discarding the most simplistic maps as being far too vague I was eventually able to recreate the topography of the battlefield by combining the details from the maps that remained. This took quite a bit of time as some of the 'features' of the battlefield appear to move depending on which map you look at!
I have now settled on the layout for the game, but I have had to use quite a bit of poetic licence with the exact placement of topographical features. For a start I have condensed a battlefield that actually covered several miles to an area that four companies can fight over (I guess at most one mile). But given that few of the maps I have referenced seemed to be able to agree on the exact placement of some features I'm not going to stress too much over my rearrangement of the field of battle.
My posting schedule for the next few weeks may drop off a little, mainly because I will be focusing all my efforts on preparing for this game. It's all very hush-hush but rest assure that I'll be working hard in the background building terrain, painting models, writing player briefings and above all studying the rules!
Poetic licence is the name of the game Lee, you'll never get it 100%, not even 80% correct, as long as it makes an interesting game we'll be happy!
ReplyDeleteMy main concern has been to include all the key salient features that made up this battlefield in roughly he right place. Everything is an approximation but I'd like to think you'll be able to look at the table, compare it to a map and say "yeh, I can see the similarity".
DeleteStop procrastinating woman and get on with it!
DeleteOne more word out of you Sonny Jim and you'll be put in charge of the baggage train! Lol
DeletePut me in charge of the baggage train. That's where all the chow is.
DeleteAs Ray says you will never get it totally right. So don't stress yourself too much about the details. As long as you know the basics of who fought and what their objectives were the players will muck it up without any more help at all. History will go straight out of the window (or door in the case of Posties Shed) as players either roll the worst possible dice results, totally ignore what you think are clear objectives and set about the usual trying to win by all picking on either Ray or Fran or Ian! (Delete as appropriate!).
ReplyDeleteOne last piece of advice, give Postie all the worst jobs as this may be the only chance you get to do so!
Time for a little Payback!
DeleteTake a look at Google Maps. You should be able to filter to get a topographical map with elevation lines. There may not be many though.
ReplyDeleteThere arn't many lines at all. I guess one mands 'ridge' is another mans anthill out in the blue.
DeleteYou can never get things exactly right. The best anyone can do is to include the important features in approximately the right locations relative to each other and hope for the best. that is particularly true when compressing the battlefield down to a smaller area.
ReplyDeleteBesides, you know that with those reprobates all your carefully laid plans for how the scenario will play out will be shot to ribbons before the first die has even been cast!
I'm going into this game with only one certainty...that the guys will turn histroy on its head!
DeleteHi Lee, go for the right feel, not for accuracy of details. Make sure the players face the right dilemmas. They have no clue about the details anyway, so they won't notice.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who makes maps as my primary job I am always interested in them outside of work. If you are working on the battle that I am thinking of then Maps played a big role in the outcome in my opinion. If you think this post is going to give too much away then please delete.
ReplyDeleteCheers Lee.
I think the main differences are down to none of the maps I am looking at are primary sources. All are illustrations from historical accounts etc and each is therefore an 'interpretation' with the authors bias and own emphasis. Features that one illustrator considers important another doesn't. In some ways this frees me up to be just as flexible in my interpretation but from the point of view of understanding the actual battle it can be confusing.
DeleteWW2 mapping was extremely poor. But it improved because it had to of course. Even maps made from Black and white aerial photographs had problems as they sometimes got the scale wrong. You may not find a primary source for those maps as there may have not been one.
Deletecheers