Ardennes Day

[Leslie BT]

Wardy, shame that you both did not look in to see what we were doing.

[Big Mike]

Simon, thanks for taking these excellent pictures, especially as you were under fire from US troops and "Jabo's ".

[Big Mike]

Guys, time for your unvarnished feedback now as per the email. This will help any one crazy enough to run another game like this. I hope it will be soon.

[Big Mike]

Some pics of the day.

[martin goddard]

Feedback
Obviously just my subjective opinion.
Well the good bits first
1. Everyone was busy and involved.
2. Great visual speculate.
3. Good choice of an interesting battle.
4. Good use of soldiers to player share.
5. Timing and length worked well.

Bad bits
1. No Karen Carpenter songs
2. My van interior got soaked; probably an allied on car action.

Good memories created there Mike!

[Big Mike]

More pics of snowy Dorchester

[Big Mike]

I bought the camera from an Aussie!

[Leslie BT]

Great set of pictures Mike. When clicked on, the pictures do open up the correct way!

Comments
The table with the gap worked well with the game progressing well across the table over the day.
The day was well managed with the two gaming slots and a deliberate lunch break.
The cross sector playing was too complicated and time consuming.
To the US players, their did not seem to be too much risk to the axis with regard to ammo supplies.
The cooperation for the supply of figures and scenery worked really well.
The only difficulty was that the owners of loaned figures did not lay these out according to the lists that Mike had prepared.
In the end it was a shame that the free road move bonus was not used.
All in all an excellent well organised day.

[Colonel Kilgore]

My thoughts are very similar to those of Martin and Les:

- well organised - a huge amount of work must have gone into this
- everyone turned up on time - well done all!
- the venue was very suited to the purpose: size; lighting; parking; tea and coffee; toilets - it's good to get the logistics right!
- decent lunch nearby, and other options too - very important to keep the troops happy
- the use of the same terrain mats across all tables really helped pull the whole thing together: it might well be worthwhile planning on ordering a complete set of matching mats for the next PBI extravaganza (is it still Arnhem, Miles?) and similarly sell them off to participants to cover the costs?
- the "split" table layout worked well (although I couldn't easily move behind the German lines as there was a small random table stuck there - no doubt by some cunning Allies intent on disrupting our lines of communication...)
- good ad-libbing by the umpires when we failed to complete actions within the allotted times, yet we still got to a satisfying (unless you were playing Germans, of course...) conclusion at the end of a hard-fought couple of game "days"
- very handy to have the "friendly" umpires as well as an overall commander on each side, to help keep things moving, joined up and take some of the load from the main umpire
- Martin setting up the special "Ardennes" shopping option [thakns!] for the day removed any possible lingering barriers to splashing out on more Piggy goodness


A few thoughts for another time:

- PBI stood up well to the extended playing area: I'm not sure that any special rules were actually needed for movement between "tables", as the "span of command" of the Company and Platoon commanders in the rules is probably enough to prevent units straying too far from their allotted sectors
- I think we played - under Stewart's guidance - largely "straight" PBI at our end of things: so maybe fewer special rules (which none of us had read properly) were needed?
- I didn't experience any of the expected fuel supply shortages, and am not sure why (maybe something to do with the captured fuel dump?) - perhaps more "narrative" could have been shared by the umpires?
- some means (trays, spare terrain templates)? would have been handy to move the carefully-organised troops to the playing area: or maybe even set them all out behind the baselines in anticipation?


All in all, a most excellent day, played in the best of spirits and with many happy memories all round.

[Big Mike]

Keep the feedback coming, guys. All very welcome.
(Just don't keep going on and on about no Karen Carpenter songs, please !)

[martin goddard]

You don't fool me Mike. You doth protest too much. Goodby to love?

[Big Mike]

Plenty of "incoming". Keep your feedback coming whilst it is still fresh in your head. At the moment the Alllied umpire leads the pack with quotes from Milton and Einstien vs the Carpenters. Seriously there are some excellent ideas to share so far. A video clip attached.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[martin goddard]

I can hear Mike and Les.

[Leslie BT]

Great bit of video Mike, shows how busy and noisy the day was while we were all playing.

[Rob R]

Sorry have been remiss in not attending this forum.

The comments of the allied umpire that Mike refers to where:-

I think the game was enjoyed by everyone.

What went well. The layout and the organisation were superb. The effort that everyone put into providing the set up/figures and the pre-game organisation were great.

With a game like this, what you want to avoid is players being sat around for hours at a time with nothing to do. It is a game after all and not a simulation ('they also serve who only stand and wait' – Milton). Of course the collorally of this is that every one was so busy all the time. In the afternoon session in sector 3 (W3/E3) three turns were played as two players were managing two full companies. There were also issues with co-ordination between the sectors as the turns were running out of sync. This led to some frustration with firing and movement between the sectors. One way (which I do not recommend) is that all the turns are synced to the slowest table (which means loads of down time for everyone else). Another alternative would be a strict time limit for every turn, anything between  twenty minutes and half an hour (or faster if everyone finished). This would mean that the commander would have to prioritise the important things rather than firing every square (two points of rifle fire against a target in hard cover – 9 times out of ten no effect) – of course, they could do every thing available within the time slot for the turn – this would penalise slow players.

Having written that, is this a load of rubbish? Take sector 3. There were three turns each in the afternoon session. If turns set at half an hour (and assuming no time lost between turns) this would be a total of three hours which is what was achieved. Turns would need to be twenty minutes (nine turns – five and four) or fifteen minutes (twelve turns – six each – might be too rushed).   However, remember, 'Time is an illusion' – Albert Einstein.

One possible alternative might be to run a series of scenarios on individual tables in one session - an example off the top of my head. An Arnhem game.

Morning session  - say four games.

1)   XXX Corp breakout – (thankless task for the German player, they should have the pick of the afternoon games)
2)   101st Airborne try to capture the Son Bridge intact.
3)   81st Airborne defend a counter attack on the Goosbeck (Sp?) Heights
4)   3rd  or 1st Para try to reach Arnhem Bridge (assume 2nd Para moving on the river route make it for the afternoon game).

Depending on how these went would effect the afternoon games and the overall result.

As I said the Ardennes Day was a very enjoyable day which is why everyone is keen for a repeat (but next year).