"Sharpe's Practice and Anglo-American Wargaming on my blog" Topic

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Thanks for looking.
-Joe

I wonder if there has ever been a set of rules so misspelled as poor old 'Sharp Practice'?

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No-one seems to be able to get it right, even if they own the damn things…

Joe, interesting thoughts, but I think it's more of club by club basis than a difference in countries. For example, you come to a conclusion that Americans like simple rules, but yet rules like Age of Eagles, Battles for Empire, and more are far more popular here than over in England. Also, I've seen many a "simple" game in Wargames Illustrated, Miniature Wargames, etc., from overseas as well, so I think it's just the club or area in both countries that you deal with.

We've played Sharp Practice several times with a few good games, but the last one had the exact problem you were talking about and we had two Tiffin cards in the deck requiring both to be pulled to end the turn. Either several players went for an hour or two with doing barely anything to going through the entire deck(with 7-8 players playing two units each) where the turn took forever. I'm still positive on the rules, but at times there appears to be something missing….

You can get around that by making faction rather than individual cards – i.e. one card activates multiple big men.

For instance if there are two size with 2 wings for each side you can activate all of the Side A, wing A grade 1s, etc.

We did a 12 player game and that system worked fine.

Joe:

Your blog comments state cards are assigned to units; I think you meant to say, assigned to "Big Men" – correct? That's how you could activate more than one unit – up to the initiative/status level of the Big Man whose card is flipped. I've played SP (haha, won't catch me misspellin' it) about four or five times, and each time I end up liking it more – if for nothing else, an excuse to paint up smallish Napoleonic units Dean

Following up on DeanMoto's comment, the Grasp the Nettle cards also are key. They allow the Big Men to get extra activation points, & thereby do more stuff.

And also, having a musician can help since the Big Men can issue a command to the whole group using him.

That was something that I forgot until you mentioned it,Deanmoto. In the game that I played cards were assigned to both. If the big men moved a unit before its card came up, then it could not move on its card. We are going to finish the game we started last week. I'm open to changing my mind about SP.

-Joe

Joe:

No big deal – SP is not everyone's cup of tea. In fact, I only got the rules after my two closest gaming buddies had the rules and said they looked promising. So, I jumped in and hosted a game or two with each – one already has another rule set, and the other is looking for another set. Oh well, there are still enough folks around who are willing to try it out, at least. I'm into it now because I only have few figures (for Napoleonics); if I eventually get more figures, I may look for another set of rules too – I'm flexible on that. Regards, Dean

I hail from Texas and absolutely love SP. Having played 20 or so games w/ various scenarios & set ups, we have come to the conclusion that SP works best with no more than 4 players per game (2 per side) and about 6-8 groups of figs w/ 4 or 5 big men per side..any more than that (either players or groups) then the game bogs down.

IMHO, SP gives a good feel for the period (for a skirmish game, anyway) and has a good mix of detail and playability…I dislike the ultra simplistic games and do not get much out of TSATF and the like…

I call the SP rules "Hollywood Napoleonics" when giving a briefing to new players (I have run the game at local conventions with great success, but limit to 4 players)…to get into the rules you have to imagine yourself playing out a Sharpe's TV Episode(Hopefully I spelled that correctly so I dont get called down by Mr. Sage) and be prepared for some wild things to happen…thats the fun of the game….the random element…

Most of the response I received when I ran the game at Mil-Con in Texas was positive…there did seem to be some confusion on how to actually run a game, as I had at least a half-dozen people approach me and state that they had a copy of the rules, were interested in playing them, but did not really understand how to put a game on…

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But I do agree that for more than 4 players, you will get some turn angst…may not be the best choice for 6+ player club games…

faron

[In the game that I played cards were assigned to both]

Was this a special scenario rule? The game was meant to be played with activation cards for Big Men only (unless we're talking blinds), not units…

I like Sharp Practice, but some of my mates don't like the part where your attack is under fire and the turn ends. Your attack doesn't move (no card) and instead trades fire with the defenders, bad news if the foe is in cover.

I may do a house rule that allows attacking units to go forward if they are under fire. The firing/morale system is great – units just slow down and become ineffective without much fuss or bother. You get that rare thing in games – a unit that's not routing but is not interested in charging. Usually any unit that has not yet bolted will do prodigies of valor. Not so in SP.

[Your attack doesn't move (no card) and instead trades fire with the defenders, bad news if the foe is in cover]

I just see that as the group is confused or has stalled and doesnt know what to do…once they accumulate shock they will begin to fall back….but, there are some mechanics in SP that folks either love or hate…faron

Usually any unit that has not yet bolted will do prodigies of valor. Not so in SP.

yep, extreme bottle-loss will turn even the most heroic into sickly-coves (whatever that means)

I think that the key issue here seems to be that if you play any game with numerous players on one side then you will potentially have the issue that some of those players aren't doing too much for some of the time. Personally I reccomend that each player of Sharp Practice gets at least three Groups and at least two Big Men, this means that with one Tiffin card in the deck they will on average be activated at least twice in any turn, and with two Tiffin cards they'll be activated more often.

When the battle hots up and units get in range they can all do the minimum of firing in every turn, even if not activated by the cards, at least until they run away!

It's horses for courses. Some people like to have absolute control over their forces, which is counter to what our games provide (and counter to what you read about war in any account), but clearly the idea is to get an emjoyable game. Our group regularly plays with ten people, five a side, and we don't have a problem as people seem to enjoy the social aspect of watching the narrative of the game unfold, even if they are not at the centre of the action all of the time. However it is certainly true that with one or two players a side you will have no issue with the run of the cards as you'll tend to have plenty to do. Once you expand that to more players you just need to make sure that you have enough groups and Big Men to go round.

On the national differences issue, it is my experience that in the past seven years we have sold our rules in equal proportions to the US and the UK. I am convinced that there are vastly more similarities between wargamers wherever they are in the world than differences.

I cant speak for the UK but I have notice the dynamics change from social group to social group within the US for historical gamers. Some players like details. Others prefer simpler game. Some historical gamers hate scifi and others seem to enjoy any type of game including scifi games.If you live in an area where there are few gamers to chose from you sometimes have to accept your gaming tast is different than the group and just have to suck it up as they say.

I am lucky (or unlucky) in only playing Sharp Practice with two of us so no downtime at all. You have to be careful with the forces but all in all they give a great game of TV Napoleonics which is just right.

Probably my favourite set of rules for this scale of figure fighting.

Brilliant

Craig