"I'm confused about the Historic Trust Gettysburg project..." Topic

Perhaps someone can help me in my confusion over this project that was announced by HMGS today. You can read blurb below, but the essence seems to be that to raise money for the Battlefield Trust, which obviously is a good thing, the Little Wars TV crew is going to refight Gettysburg somehow incorporating the results of poll questions for both Union and Confederates that require a decision be made that would change the course of the battle.
It appears that they are focused on Day 1, when Ewell and Reynolds have key decisions to make…OK, then what, you refight the rest of the battle with those decisions made, some of which may be the decisions made in real life.

Unfortunately, despite the claim that "all the details" are on the Facebook page I cannot find on either the main Facebook page or the poll question pages simple answers to questions like,

Who will be playing this game, using what scale figures and what rules?

How will they incorporate the poll questions into the game?

How will they be playing the game "on the Gettysburg battlefield"?

More critically, how is this going to actually raise any money for the Trust?

Finally, how much is this costing and is HMGS underwriting that cost?

Perhaps the lack of details is designed to pull us into the project, needing to have more information as time goes on…if so, it's not doing much for me.

"Our friends at Little Wars TV are collaborating with the American Battlefield Trust to run a wargame of the Battle of Gettysburg – and you can influence the critical strategic decisions that Generals Lee and Meade make during the game.

The game will be played and filmed on the Gettysburg battlefield later in May. On the anniversary of the conflict, the full video will be released.

Watch the overview on Facebook and follow the links in the post to cast your vote on the command decisions!

Why is HMGS promoting this? Because our mission intersects those of the American Battlefield Trust and Little Wars TV.

"The American Battlefield Trust preserves America's hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters."

"Little Wars TV is a YouTube channel about the hobby of historical miniature war-gaming."

Check the American Battlefield Trust Facebook page for all the details!"

I'd bet dollars to donuts that the members of the club that created Little Wars TV will be the ones pushing about the toy soldiers. I'd also wager they use Altar of Freedom and 6mm because that's what they used for Antietam and Greg is the author of those rules.

I'm sure some member from the Little Wars crew will be able to chime in better, but typically these sorts of partnerships raise money for the Trust via raised awareness and donations.

If you haven't watched the LittleWarTV videos on youtube or their website I highly recommend it. Decent discussion of the history surrounding the battle and a much better implementation of video battle reports than you typically see.

You pretty much nailed it Halfmanhalfsquidman, though our LWTV guys will only be half the players (you'll have to tune in to see who the other players are!) and we'll be using a modified Altar of Freedom to play the game.

As for some of the other questions, when we say ON the battlefield, we mean ON the battlefield – we've worked with the Park Service to get the permits and find an ideal spot to set up the game outdoors on the battlefield itself (which I'm pretty excited about).

Once the polls close, as we play the game we players have to follow our orders as best as possible, even if we might do something else. How exactly that plays out will depend on a lot of things we just can't explain yet.

Finally, this isn't costing HMGS one cent. This was an event planned between LWTV and the Trust primarily to expose our hobby to the wider Trust following. HMGS simply agreed this might be an event people who are already historical wargamers might be interested in, and thus let you all know about it!

Little Wars TV Steve

Why all the negativity oldnorthstate? This seems like a fun project, and it's not hurting anybody. If it opens up the hobby to more gamers (and purchasers of figures), that seems like a good thing to me.

Cool, thanks for the response, Steve. I discovered your channel over the weekend and binged just about everything you guys made in the course of a day. Excellent stuff. Also, I am so jealous of your clubhouse.

To surdu's point, there is a large community of generally younger folks out there playing Warhammer 40k/X-Wing/Age of Sigmar and your presence in the digital space with the kind of high-quality content you produce is definitely one way to get positive exposure for the historical aspect of the hobby with that demographic. I hope YouTube's algorithm is getting more eyeballs under 40 watching your stuff.

6mm…hmmm I'm underwhelmed and played outdoors…well, good luck with the weather…who exactly is the audience? How is it going to "open" up the hobby to new members, unless they happen to wander by the game, but without knowing the logistics I'm not sure they are going to see much in 6mm.

I still don't understand how the results of the July 1st deployment options will be carried onto the table and apparently the organizers don't either.

Other than possible publicity I don't see how does this directly raises any money for the Trust?

Assuming the game concept can be fleshed out and makes sense and the TV guys want good video to use on Youtube I suggest running the game at Historicon.

I wish them luck.

The audience is on YouTube where people who are watching videos about miniatures will potentially have Little Wars suggested to them. And there are tons and tons of Warhammer videos on YouTube. Even if only a few people get it suggested to them and click it then it is still good exposure. As for not seeing much, I again recommend you watch their content before dismissing them. They have an episode where they refight Antietam in 6mm on a good looking board.

I also think it's fairly obvious that the implementation is that the players commanding the Corps will do their best to execute the course of action suggested by the poll. Don't mistake your lack of understanding and common sense for poor planning on their part.

They also have not billed the event as a fundraiser, so I'm not sure why you're fixated on that.

Well, oldnorthstate, the good news is you don't have to watch if you're underwhelmed by it all, but as halfmanhalfsquisman alluded to, we've had some success making 6mm games work quite well for video (our 6mm Antietam game is our most popular video with over 11,000 views and has garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews!)

As for how this opens up the hobby, well, the Trust is promoting the pregame voting, possibly hosting live "look in's" during the game on Facebook, and will be publishing the recap video to their roughly 400,000 social media followers. I think it's fair to say there may be a few people in that number who might gain a newfound interest in the hobby. I also think it's fair to say more people might be interested in tuning into a video taking place on the Gettysburg battlefield than in a noisy convention hall (even one as nice as the LCCC!) That being said, Greg is running multiple Gettysburg games at HCON using the same board, figures and rules so be sure to swing by and check it out.

Lastly, rest assured that once the command decision polls close and we know what orders we have to carry out on the table, we'll be able to do so (we've done this sort of thing before in our club games). Don't mistake my not wanting to get into details here as our not having any idea what we're going to do!

Given the thousands of votes the Trust has already logged for the command decisions and the excitement the event has generated within their community and ours at Little Wars TV, this has already been a success and we look forward to sharing our video recap of the action this summer!

Little Wars TV Steve

It seems like a real cool project. I voted and see that more than 1600 others have as well. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

This is an awesome cooperative effort IMO, and hey, it's about history and wargaming, and they're even publicizing it by utilizing that multi-media thang.

Hope this gets some TV media coverage too (even if it's only local).

Is it possible to attend and view this event in person- or is it just via Facebook and YouTube?
And what are the links to the Facebook and YouTube options?

I must say the decision to run the game outside on the actual battlefield strikes me as an excellent idea. It would seem, outside the LWTV coverage, this is one of those stories likely to be picked up by at least local stations and who knows, maybe even a mention to a wider market. Just the thought of being able to pan from say a close up of the game in progress to the actual battlefield seems to be a photo op just begging to happen.

Thanks to all who are making this possible and wishing only the best of luck.

I think this is an innovative idea that can only help the hobby. I've really enjoyed the Little Wars TV videos and my son and I are currently watching the series on 3D printing. Great job guys!

@WarWizard – The actual game will not be open to the public simply because this is the first of this kind of event we're running and because we did not want to complicate matters with the Park Service. That being said, we do hope to be able to conduct some similar "live" historical gaming events in the future where the public could be involved.

And if you go here:
American Battlefield Trust Facebook Page and watch/read the pinned post at the top you'll see the various command options.

The Trust also announced the event on their YouTube channel and we did so on our Little Wars TV channel as well.

Little Wars TV Steve
littlewarstv.com

Interesting opportunity, good luck, hope the Battlefield Trust and HMGS both benefit from this event. Also hope you have a large open-air tent cover just in case mother nature seeks to alter the battlefield action!

I could see something like this working at other Battlefield Parks, living history events like Feast of the Hunters Moon at Fort Ouiatenon in Indiana, or even at museums like 1st Div. museum at Catigny in Illinois.

Best of luck,
Bill

Also, check out the Trust's In4 videos. This one is on Terrain from the perspective of a Colonel at the War College and a Licensed Battlefield Guide.

YouTube link

Very cool idea. I am glad these will be on YouTube. Your target audience is probably on FB. But quite a few people are not on FB. A for real website or blog would be a welcome addition.

It is unfortunate that this is going to be done in 6mm. 15mm would have a greater impact and be more camera friendly. I have done the first day (and the 2nd day) in 15mm regimental and it has a huge visual impact.

Are you having custom terrain for this event? At the risk of the Villagers coming at me with their little 6mm torches and pitchforks. I would consider stepping up your game by using custom terrain for this. Not only because of the venue and the exposure, but generally speaking 6mm or smaller really needs good quality terrain. As the small figures lack visual impact on their own.

However if you did this at the regimental scale, even 6mm would have a much greater visual impact. Your target audience would respond more to it. Thanks for representing the hobby and your efforts to grow it.

I like the idea of having a open air tent as a backup. Hope the wind doesn't come up. Good luck and thanks!

Very cool idea. I am glad these will be on YouTube. Your target audience is probably on FB. But quite a few people are not on FB. A for real website or blog would be a welcome addition.

It is unfortunate that this is going to be done in 6mm. 15mm would have a greater impact and be more camera friendly. I have done the first day (and the 2nd day) in 15mm regimental and it has a huge visual impact.

Are you having custom terrain for this event? At the risk of the Villagers coming at me with their little 6mm torches and pitchforks.

I would consider stepping up your game by using custom terrain for this. Not only because of the venue and the exposure, but generally speaking 6mm or smaller really needs good quality terrain. As the small figures lack visual impact on their own.

However if you did this at the regimental scale, even 6mm would have a much greater visual impact. Your target audience would respond more to it. Thanks for representing the hobby and your efforts to grow it.

I like the idea of having a open air tent as a backup. Hope the wind doesn't come up. Good luck and thanks!

@ Rallynow, thanks for the input, but we're way ahead of you!

The construction of the custom board and terrain is coming along nicely, and you (or anyone) can actually follow our progress as we are posting video updates along the way. To gain access all you have to do is register on the "free stuff" page at our (for real) website littlewarstv.com. As you might guess from the "free stuff" label, registration is…free!

As for 6mm vs. larger scales, I guess it depends on what kind of visual impact is important to you. We at LWTV like the visual impact of a base (whether representing a regiment or brigade) having a lot of tightly packed figures on it (particularly for ACW lines) as that just "looks" more like a regiment or brigade to us than a handful of larger, albeit more detailed, figures. We recognize that others have a different view, though, which is why we spread our ten "main" episodes this past season around different scales. What we (and hopefully our viewers) have concluded is that any scale can be made to look great!

Little Wars TV Steve
littlewarstv.com

Great concept and it sounds like you are executing this thoughtfully with an eye toward increased exposure to a wider audience through social media. You have the forum and the pulpit to make this work so by all means do so! I will enthusiastically follow the developments on this project with great interest and perhaps make a donation. (which is one of the main objectives)

I should note that anyone who has a collection of figures, the means and the will to pull something like this together should by all means just do it!

Kudos to LWTV

TRU

PS. If HMGS were underwriting this event I would fully endorse such support as it is completely within the organizations mission statement.

This is an outstanding idea. I am pleased to see that three of my favorite organizations are involved and anticipate great success.

A friend and I put on the Battle of San Jacinto on board the USS Texas some years ago for the 2011 Broadside Convention. We had some positive comments from the Park Supervisor and observers. That made it worthwhile painting all those 28s!

Now, if Ewell can just overrun Cemetery Hill things should get interesting.

It looks like an excellent project that can only have a positive impact for the hobby. Having been an enthusiastic subscriber to LWTV for several months, I can vouch for the fact that these guys definitely know what they are doing!

Here is a link to the Antietam game video that Steve alluded to above: YouTube link

Littlewars TV thank you for that detailed information and links.

I rather like the way Gettysburg turned out the first time!

6mm makes big battles look like big battles. Fight me.

I was a member of CWT and then American Battlefield trust and I can say proudly it is a great organization to support. One dollar donations can become many more dollars due to the matching options that are available in just about every fund raising campaign through private groups and sometimes government sponsorships of certain locations to be preserved. The organization has now embarked on preserving more and more Revolutionary War battlefields and has had tremendous success. Visit the American Battlefield Trust website for more info. This is really worthwhile for all Americans who revere the history of the country and who honor the sacrifices of many Americans who went into battle for their beliefs and a willingness to serve their country. It is very appropriate that the videos be made and shared especially in this digital age and show how and what happened in our earlier history as well as what is going on now. The smart phone helped bring this digital revolution to the public and can be a great tool to spread the information of our history to the American public and the world. The organization states it has preserved 50,000 acres of land for the edification of American history and culture and learning.

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?"

Well looks like the OP had the knives out for the project months before the project was completed.

I have no problem with smaller scale.

Here is the video of how they built the terrain:

YouTube link

Here is an introduction to the game:

YouTube link

It is my understanding that Little Wars TV will do a longer video in due course. Editing takes time.

Now I appreciate that this will not meet the high standards of a Grognard; wrong scale, wrong level of game, presentation. You know they will tell us. I enjoyed participating in answering the questions on FB.

Here, as mentioned above, is the longer Gettysburg wargame video by Little Wars TV:

YouTube link

It was a very nice event. Thank you all for your efforts.