MadDrMark | 04 Sep 2015 8:25 a.m. PST |
…Or, the attack IN the schoolhouse, to be more precise. Some students at my school read "Four Days in June" for their summer reading book, and we spent a day refighting the battle in miniature. Beats working! link
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marshalGreg | 04 Sep 2015 8:36 a.m. PST |
Well done Sir! I can't get eleven players for Napoleonics, let alone any youngsters…. and with 1/3 being young ladies to boot! Do we see the future for the Historicons (East/West)? MG |
MadDrMark | 04 Sep 2015 8:42 a.m. PST |
I would say about a third had seriously caught the bug by the end of the day and had asked about more opportunities to game. It's a nice opportunity for me to advertise my military history class. |
JD Lee | 04 Sep 2015 8:46 a.m. PST |
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Skarper | 04 Sep 2015 8:47 a.m. PST |
Nice job. Classrooms make the perfect wargames rooms. Maybe one day I'll get my figures and terrain shipped over and my home classroom can do double duty! |
Sloppypainter | 04 Sep 2015 8:57 a.m. PST |
Well done! But…why is there a TARDIS on the field? (Lower left there is an English unit hiding behind a building. Beside the unit is a blue police call box.)I think having Dr. Who on your side is a big advantage…lol. |
darthfozzywig | 04 Sep 2015 9:31 a.m. PST |
Sadly, the images on your blog appear blocked to me for some reason. Sounds like a great time, though! |
deadhead | 04 Sep 2015 9:39 a.m. PST |
Brilliant…there is indeed a Tardis! Someone has a sense of humour. Maybe just me, but I enjoyed "Four Days in June" immensely. Dead easy reading, but cleverly portrayed the difficulties in concentrating the Allied army, something rarely tackled in "popular" literature. What a shame pics are indeed blocked. Would love to see more |
John Treadaway | 04 Sep 2015 10:52 a.m. PST |
Sadly I can't see the images either. Still: good work. John T |
Skarper | 04 Sep 2015 10:58 a.m. PST |
It's really a reenactment and that's a portaloo. |
Tin hat | 04 Sep 2015 11:20 a.m. PST |
Sadly I can't see the pics :-( |
Who asked this joker | 04 Sep 2015 11:51 a.m. PST |
I can only see the one pic that also got posted to TMP. All the other pictures do not come up on your blog. Never the less, very nicely done getting the students interested! |
MadDrMark | 04 Sep 2015 12:05 p.m. PST |
A portaloo? How dare you insult the name of the TURDIS that way! Actually, my 11 year old daughter insists on placing the Tards on all of my 28mm setups. One could make the argument that it could appear anywhere in time and space. Sorry about the technical problems, folks. I'll try to fix the problem tomorrow AM and post here when it is done. |
wrgmr1 | 04 Sep 2015 12:17 p.m. PST |
Very cool! Would love too see the pictures when you fix the bug. A local high school history teacher has asked me to put on a game for his class this term. He's teaching 20th century. My question is what kind of game should I put on? I have ancients all the way up to WW2. Suggestions? |
MadDrMark | 04 Sep 2015 12:27 p.m. PST |
OK, I think I fixed the bug. The hosting site to which I uploaded the pictures stripped off the file extensions, so your computers had not idea what to do with the files. They should (God willing) work now. If you have the terrain for it, go WWII. There's so much of visual interest on the battlefield and it can be a real learning experience for the student who thinks that the way to achieve a goal is by charging ahead in a straight line. WWII tactics always demand co-ordination and teamwork, which is never a bad thing to teach. |
Esquire | 04 Sep 2015 1:11 p.m. PST |
I may have missed it -- what rules are you teaching? |
wrgmr1 | 04 Sep 2015 1:17 p.m. PST |
Yes, works now. Great looking figures and game. Looks like they all really got into it with some very pensive looks on some of them. I would have brought the Prussians on anyway just so your students can get a taste of what that might be like. Our group plays Rapid Fire with a house made easy firing table. I can do that, terrain, figures are available, but my problem as I see it are numbers of players. Most high school history classes have 30 +/- students. I may be able to accommodate 10 or 12? I could possibly rotate through them all every 20 mins, it's an hour long class? Ideas? |
Empires at War | 04 Sep 2015 1:31 p.m. PST |
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Herkybird | 04 Sep 2015 2:14 p.m. PST |
Impressive, I even got to see all the pictures! |
MadDrMark | 04 Sep 2015 5:50 p.m. PST |
We used a simplified version of the already-simple Black Powder. The students were running things pretty much by themselves by turn three. Wargmr1, thirty students would be a challenge. Perhaps teams of students could make tactical decisions for a unit. If you can get some of your gaming crew to help out, maybe simultaneous games? |
Skarper | 05 Sep 2015 6:53 a.m. PST |
Works fine now – could see the pics embedded before but not click on them to enlarge. Funny about the Tardis. Nice way to involve your daughter. To the guy contemplating a 30 strong class wargame – I'd say it's too much to handle. If you can go with groups of 6-10 you maybe have a chance but an hour is not long enough. An after school club would be a better idea. Make a presentation of what wargaming is during the hour long class and then have kids sign up for a club. |
deadhead | 05 Sep 2015 7:30 a.m. PST |
Great pictures…. Impressed by attention to detail. The buff faced regiment have buff, not grey, overalls, as currently being discussed only today in the 71st HLI discussion. OK, everyone of us gets the colours (Regt vs King's) the wrong way around (again as in 71st)………..the daft thing is we have a 50% chance of getting it right! Great bunch of kids and inspiring teaching……….. |
Gazzola | 13 Sep 2015 7:50 a.m. PST |
MadDrMark Never mind the Tardis model-I spotted a mobile phone on the battlefield. Shouldn't be allowed, the very idea and so unperiodic! LOL But a great idea and getting them interested in history and wargaming at a young age should certainly be applauded. However, I wondered why you used a historical novel rather than an historical account? Did it have to be a novel? If not, and this may be a silly question nowadays, would they have not been so keen to read it if it was not a novel? The novel appears to have gone down well with them, as it has with those who bought the novel, judging by the number of of Amazon 5 star reviews, but I was suspicious of the fact that the author attempted to get into the minds of Ney and Delancey, since Delancey died from wounds a few days after the battle and Ney was murdered by execution not long after, which means neither had the time to disclose their thoughts about the battle, so anything said in the novel would be that of the author, not the historical characters. I wondered if you discussed this? It did put me off buying the book, but I might relent and give it a go, since there are not that many Napoleonic novels about these days. But a great idea and a great game and hopefully other schools will follow suit and show that history can be both fun and educational. |
MadDrMark | 13 Sep 2015 8:35 a.m. PST |
Gazzola, though there were many reasons for choosing Gale's book, ultimately it came down to salesmanship. Our school offers about forty options for summer reading, and most nonfiction about the battle would have been tough to get high schoolers to pick up. Remember that most summer reading is done on the beach, hardly the place for "The Waterloo Companion"! ;) Gale is worth a read. Definitely more sober than Sharpe 's Waterloo, and better written than some other historical novels set in 1815 (I considered "An Infamous Army" for its civilian perspective, but I couldn't complete 100 pages. Like a bad parody of Jane Austen). I think he chooses Ney and Delaney because they are such cyphers, and they can serve the novelist ' ends without fear of much contradiction. The book has errors, I am sure (what book doesn't?) but Gale does not go nuts with rewriting history or improbable heroics. What he does well (and what my students took away) is representing the many complex factors that led to the outcome of the battle and the decisions that led up to it. |
Gazzola | 13 Sep 2015 8:53 a.m. PST |
MaddrMark I was thinking more in terms of paperback formats of Kershaw's 24 hours at Waterloo and Clayton's Waterloo, rather than Adkin's massive tome. And in terms of errors, yes, you are certainly correct in that area. I don't think I've come across one title that does not contain them during the mass of reading I've undertaken over forty years, including that for my MA and two BA's, along with the reading undertaken while researching several Napoleonic magazine articles. I guess a novel would be more attractive, and I'm sure your students were aware it is a novel and not a genuine historical account, as well researched as it may have been. And why not? If it gets just one student interested further in history and especially the Napoleonic period (and possibly even wargaming), it is a job well done. Your project did, at first, make me consider reading Gale's book but I noticed that, besides getting into the minds of two characters that died before their thoughts were known, he has also tried to get into the mind of Napoleon. That has now put me off for sure, as it did with Scarrow's failed attempts (in my opinion) to get into Napoleon and Wellington's minds. It just doesn't work and after talking to some fellow wargamers who have read it, Gale's imagined version of Napoleon does not work either and Gale comes over as very biased against him. But even so, a great idea and I certainly hope you manage to get more like this off the ground. |