"Ever been bitten by the 'Grand Game' bug? " Topic

Yes, The 'Grand Game' Bug? You know what I mean. Like building and running that beautiful 50ft long Operation Market Game that took your breath away. Now of course I'm not talking to those 'demi-gods' of wargaming that can actually pull off these schemes but to those mortal gamers who dream/plan/purchase/paint and then find themselves
wondering if they have bitten off a bit more than they could ever chew. So what do you dream of pulling off one day.

As for me I actually have the bug and am looking for something special, thinking WWII but am eager to peek at your dreams.

And for those demi-gods, an pitfalls that I should be prepared to aviod.

Have always wanted to do Kursk and Leipzig

The entire amphibious assault on Engebi Island in the Eniwetok atoll. Granted we used Command Decision, but we still hit the island with a regiment plus of Marines backed up with landing boats, LVT's LCI gunboats, destroyers and aircraft.

G dog, what scale did you guys end up using?

Just found this Vietnam game.
It boggles the mind!
link

Never built one but laid out a Squad leader Cross of Iron road board that would of taken over a week to play . Convoy 16 boards long thousands of pieces

Right now working on Longstreet en echelon in 40mm, over 2K figures terrain four six foot by 12 foot tables.

Star Wars Hoth the grand battle. Just look at club Landwehr for an idea of what I am doing.

Fredricksburg in 15mm, 30 feet by 6 feet. too many buildings to count.

Ecnomous, Roman Naval in 15mm scale with about 120 ships.

Brandy Station in 40mm. Waiting for S&S 40mm Confederate dismounted cavalry.

And a few more I am too tired to list.

VR
James Mattes

I was giving serious thought to doing Battle of Jutland. Just think of that massive battle! It boggles the mind. I have not found a good set or rule or want to mortgage the house. Just yet…………

I'm currently working on Leipzig using Grande Armee, but am scaling it down for those of us with arms shorter than 12' !

Yanks Along the Yangtzee.
I want to do the scene out of Sand Pebbles where the Yanks run the Chinese barrier.

Speaking of Market Garden…our local guys ran it in 54mm Using Disposable Heroes on a 40+ foot table at our last con.

I'm running a 72 ship version of the Battle of Jutland at GenCon on Saturday using Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts.

That's every ship of armored cruiser sized or larger.

If I was sure I'd have people who had played a couple times, I would run it all. . . every ship down to the smallest destroyer!

We've got 7 hours blocked off. . . but I'm shooting for wrapping it up in 5.

Austerlitz & Gettysburg-10mm. Hav'nt figured out the rules yet. Any suggestions?

I have been working on the Battle of Berlin since I was 17, and I am now 53. 1/72nd scale figures, HO vehicles, aircraft etc. Even took the wife to Berlin on the honeymoon and purchased Roco!

Mike "Bunkermeister" Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com

>TheDreadnought

Do you have any pics of your ships?

The most lead for the least progress … 1200 2dragon samurai, still waiting for the club to start a samurai project.

Chortle -

Sure. Check out the second gallery down on the left.

link

20 foot table with 24 ACW ironclads
picture
OR Gunboats on a gym floor
picture

or 30 footer with 16 pirate ships in 28mm
picture

Battle of Wagram, Napoleonic French vs Austrians, June this year 36 ft table 7000 25mm figures, 19 players.

link

Oh shame on me – I cannot get the simplest of terrain completed at the moment

Congratulations to all who have managed to pull this off.

Andrew
blog.kings-sleep.me.uk

I think most gamers at some point get involved in a big project/game. Its a perfect cub activity, and doesn't take that much organisation once you get a few people involved.
I've been involved in quite a few big games, in fact I'd rather play in a few of these a year than have a 3 hour game every week. The biggest problem usually is not figures or even terrain (although the storage of it later can be),but getting all the people you want to be ableto make aspecific week/end whatever.
If you don't have a group that can put on a big game there are plenty of ones you can buy into. In the UK the WHC is an obvious one, you get to play with 8 to 10,000 figures for the weekend then walk away, I've also played in the "Domgaming Megagames" which are week long residential WWII campaigns down in Cornwall. Again, you pay the money, turn up, play the game and don't have the hassle of organising it.
Lots of stuff about biggish games here:

itinerantwargamer.blogspot.com

Just completed Wagram in 6mm.

Waterloo next, but that is hardly a "big" project in comparison!

We once did Aspern-Essling in 1:60 for Empire II, in 15 mm. Every battalion from both sides, including Davout's Corps and the bridge over the river. The only big enough table we could find was the First Army Commander's Conference Room at Ft. Meade.

I've never done a huge game. About 2,500 28mm figs was the biggest and several more with 1000+. I always do big games as solo projects (though with multi player participation) – I collect both sides, paint both sides and make terrain.

The things I have learnt to make such projects possible are:

1. Be sure you really want to do it and make sure you can use almost all the stuff for more than the one big game (like a campaign).
2. Buy all of the lead to do it as quickly as possible – that way you have tied yourself in.
3. Set a deadline for completion – not variable but absolutely fixed. Work out how much you have to do each month to get it done and do at least that much EVERY month until it is done.
4. Don't get side tracked into other things whilst the project is ongoig – EVER!
5. DISCIPLINE! DISCIPLINE! DISCIPLINE! If you are a lazy sod unable to complete anything before giving up or getting side tracked you are best to do it the easy way: Save up lots and lots of money and employ others to do all of the painting and terrain building for you!

Just did Wagram on a 12' table and a big pulp game on the same this year. Once you have critical mass in a collection it is actually not that hard to pull big games off – it's the first time that gets you.

Thanks "TheDreadnought". Very nice. Hope you are able to post some pictures of the big game.

Only back in the days of my youth in the 1970s. These days I do not play massive grand games.

We did a 16'x 16' L shaped D Day game taking in Caen, Pegasus Bridge etc. – looked great and was fun to play but it was just too big to set up and clear away for a 1 day show!

Perpetually.

We did Liepzig in 15mm using Napoleons Battles about ten years ago. Luckily the Rhinedahlen club rooms were huge. The table had a big cut out so a portion could be moved to get access to the centre. Good fun, but even with about ten players we could have done with at least another weekend!

Tally Ho!

A little late, but the answer is, we did Engebi in 1/285-1/300.

It was a great group project as it pulled in figures from several guys, gave me an excuse to use my landing craft collection and model ships (assault ship/seaplane tender and destroyer) and allowed Bruce to show off his fabulous terrain collection.

We did Wagram at HCon last month with almost 3,000 figures (28mm) and a 30 foot table – team of six of us to set it up, assist with running it, and packing it all up. We had a great time doing it, and the players and spectators seemed to enjoy it. Although the majority of the figures were mine, we had contributions from 7 other gamers to make it possible… and we did 5 other 1809 games at the convention as well.

I do have to admit a certain amount of exhaustion after a solid year of preparation for that, but…

Bordino is planned for 2012!

Yeah. Our group has done Kolin and Lobositz. Lobositz I believe had every unit represented. Kolin all the units that were in the main fight. In 28mm. Big tables.

I'd love to do some historical naval with 1:1250 ships. I have some. I'd love to do russo-japanese war battles with that.

I participated in the Ramillies 2006 thing at Enfilade which was probably my most rewarding gaming experience – great figures and great game.

I'd love to do some TYW stuff – Breitenfeld and Lutzen for example.

I've done Trafalgar, but at 1:2400, it only amounted to an 8 x 10 foot table over 6 or 8 hours. It looked and played great, but even with all 60 or so ships it pales next to the monster sized land games I've seen done at Historicon, for example. Naval gaming is kind of cheating when it comes to terrain…too easy.

What a great Arnhem game it was I saw at Historicon in 2007 or 2008. It Must have been 40 feet long, ten wide. It also looked like a bear to run, to play in, and to set up. Not my cup of tea, but great eye candy.

Jim

I think it depends partly what you mean by a 'grand game', I've done loads of big historical battles (all ten days of the Arnhem campaign twice, three days of Goodwood including the Canadians, the whole of Cambrai, Waterloo several times, the entire 1967 AiW etc etc) but they aren't necessarily table groaning monstrosities. I have to tailor my meglomania with what is practical, particularly space, time, players available and how much I'm willing to invest in terms of kit, terrain and time.

Like any game design, you need to think about your target audience, how much time you anticipate to spend playing it, how much room you've got and the overall point – is it actually a game or is it a visual spectacle? I generally tend towards the game side of it rather than visual spectacle.

Like Olicana says, you need to be disciplined to pull it off and stick ruthlessly to your design goals. Assembling 10,000 tanks and your favourite set of WW2 rules isn't going to work, I usually write specific rules for big games either based on commercial sets or written from scratch.

When I did Cambrai, I originally wanted to include the German counterattack as well but there just wasn't going to be time so focussing on just the first day made the whole design click into place. Nine British commanders in a proper command hierarchy with defined rles and responsibilities vs umpire controlled Germans, basic elements battalions as the only way to handle the dozen divisions involved, plus a ton of tanks with step reduction to represent attrition both from combat and mechanical failure. Wrote a set of rules based on 'Square Bashing', pre-programmed the German defensive responses, assembled kit from a number of people (and painted a bit more), did a terrain model, playtested and tweaked with volunteers and then good to go.

If it is a complex scenario you probably want to playest it first using card chits or whatever to make sure it is actually going to work as a game. There was a game at Triples last year which looked stunning but was a complete disaster as a participation game as it obviously hadn't been playtested.

'Speaking of Market Garden…our local guys ran it in 54mm Using Disposable Heroes on a 40+ foot table at our last con.
'

Amateurs ;-)

John

My Dream project is Gilder-style 25mm Napoleonics.

This being Napoleonics, I'm unable to find anyone locally who's interested in helping, since I'm the only local gamer who truly understands the period. </sarcasm>

Manzikert on the "scale terrain": that would require something like a gymnasium, or bigger….

Bitten by the bug certainly. So far nothing has come of it but I dream of Dien Bien Phu, Market Garden and Gettysburg in various scales.