A Playtest Siege
My interest was peaked early on by Eric Burgess' new Vauban's Wars ruleset. I had seen posts about them off and on for a number of years and was excited to see that the rules looked very close to publication. I reached out to Eric to see if I might be able to get a play-test copy of the rules so that I could get an early start with producing the terrain for this game. As it turns out, he was gracious enough to engage me and in return I helped to provide some final edits prior to the printing.
I think many of you will agree, that sometimes the preparation to play a new ruleset is the most exciting part. These rules were particularly exciting as they offer the chance to use the 15mm SYW armies many of us already have in a new and exciting way and an opportunity for some serious 3D printing.
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| The entire Fortress of Altenberg, defended by the Prussians and Besieged by the Austrians, is 3D printed. The Fortress and Ravelins are based on STL Files from Laser DreamWorks (with some customization) while the Glacis was designed by myself using the wall files and some customization in Tinkercad. |
I still have work to do like flocking the glacis and painting the trench gabions, but I was able to put together enough of a game for my son and I to try our hand at a couple of Siege Turns.
First, let me say a little bit about the rules. This is a very comprehensive set of rules. It comes in at 90 pages and address all aspects of siege warfare very well. While its A LOT of content, the mechanisms are simple and straight forward, well explained and very well documented with a table of contents and many notations for various rules. So, while it is hard to remember everything as a new player, it is very easy to find the answer you are looking for. There are the usual set of QRS documents and other player's aids.
The game does have a very unique (and I think interesting) time scale. The Siege is played out in Siege Turns. It takes a bit to reorient one's mind to this as it's an extended abstract time period vs the very fixed time per turn feel we get playing tactical rules. The Siege Turn actions are governed by a deck of 14 siege action cards that each player flips and acts upon. A Siege Turn could represent a few days to a week. Since we are talking about days here and not minutes or hours, troops can move large distances and you can fire at virtually any time. If the siege culminates in an actual assault of the fortress then you switch from the Vauban's War Ruleset to the tactical rules you most prefer and fight the battle out. I currently use Honours of War or my homebrew rules but am exploring Piquet also.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been printing out a 3D Vauban Fortification from STL files I purchased from Laser Dream Works. Over the course of the last couple of months, I finished printing (more pieces than I needed as it turns out) but also created many custom pieces for the game. I created a Glacis for the fort, 18th century Siege Mortars, Gun emplacements for trenches, Mine Entrances, a City Magazine, and other game pieces.
So far the game tells a great narrative and is getting easier as we learn the action cards better.
Given the space I had to work with, I started my game out with the Austrians in the Second Parallel. Above you can see that their sappers have created additional trenching to create the Third Parallel just short of the glacis.
and the Siege Drags On.....
For God Sake Boys - Forward....
