Verdun: Snippets

It's been quiet here at The Hissing Fuse. Family matters and a project at work have taken a good deal of my free time and, more importantly, my energy and attention.

I do plan to play through a couple of the Verdun games I mentioned in the last post and report on the outcomes, but I'm handicapped by (a) lack of time, (b) lack of an opponent to give the games a proper two-sided playing, and (c) lack of a safe, cat-free space to leave games set up from one playing to the next. I'll try to play through the four (of the total of six games) that I own at some point, and when I do I'll relate what I find.

However, my Verdun game collection has grown slightly of late! I have been working my way through Alastair Horne's excellent, though dated, The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916, and had just finished the section on the chasseurs' fight for the Bois des Caures when what should arrive in the post but Coup de Grace, the latest module for John Gorkowski's In The Trenches tactical system. This has two scenarios on the Bois des Caures fighting--a German probe and the main assault. I may make that my first tabletop foray into Verdun.

Two of my friends have also shown an interest in Great War tabletop gaming with miniatures, so this made me pull out the different rules sets I have on hand and do a review (just for myself :-). Although this year's tax refunds ended up going to pay off bills from our wedding last spring (or, more literally, to fill the holes in our bank accounts from paying those bills), I do feel like a small treat would be in order, and Verdun seems to be the topic of the moment, so I've been trying to decide whose tiny Frenchmen (and possibly Germans, if I choose a scale in which I do'nt already have German troops) I might want to splurge on. Peter Pig makes lovely figures with lots of animation, but they're on the small side for 15mm. Battlefront/Flames of War does suiable French (since by 1916 le kepi and les pantalons rouges had given way to the the Adrian helmet and l'horizon bleu, but their only Germans have the later stahlhelm, not the still-hanging-on-in-February-1916 picklehaube. Blue Moon do rather large 15s. Great War doesn't do 1916 French in 28mm, but Brigade Games do. And there's always the 6mm Baccus line to be considered. A lot depends on whether one goes skirmish-level (Through the Mud and the Blood or Price of Glory), company-level (No Man's Land or If the Lord Spares Us), or battalion-level (Great War Spearhead or Square Bashing).

I'm not going to be linking on other media to my posts here in future unless I'm able to put up a substantial piece of research, writing, or analysis. My last post got a bit of stick on one wargaming board for not having a great deal of substance. While that's true, I write here mostly for my own amusement; I don't have the time or budget to write scholarly history or in-depth game reviews or critiques.