An invitation to our HITS & Couriers games
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:16 pm
There are around 30 of us playing Gettysburg, on both sides of the Atlantic. Not all play MP regularly though, and our regular online games typically involve 6-9 players at a time. We are actually a subset of a much larger group who have been interested in the old Prussian Kriegsspiel map-based officer-training game for many years. Kriegsspiel features umpired team play, with fog-of-war, couriers etc. So you can see that the publication of Gettysburg was very good news for us.
Everyone is welcome to join our games.
We are keen on the history, and play HITS (2 yds camera) & couriers because we feel that’s as close to historical as you can get on the pc. The ability to do that is one of the main attractions of the game for us. For similar reasons we use TeamSpeak for communications, but only have conversations about the game when generals are together on the battlefield. We play with a chain of command, so each team will have say a corps commander, and under them will be division and brigade commanders. That doesn’t mean junior commanders have no discretion – far from it – but it does mean that they attempt to achieve the task they are given, unless local circumstances require a change. Everyone gets a chance to play senior commands if they wish btw. We also avoid ahistorical tactics, even in the few areas where the game permits that.
We play ad-hoc games in sandbox, but have recently started also playing user-defined scenarios, with separate briefings sent out before the game for both teams. These scenarios appeal to us because each team’s objectives (which may not mirror each other) relate to the military situation set out in the briefing, rather than it being just a question of counting points. It gives an authentic context for the game itself.
Our games are played in a very friendly spirit, and with a fair amount of humour. Everyone is on first-name terms for example (rather than using avatars), and folks don’t get cross or critical of other players if they make a mistake in the game. With HITS everyone tends to make mistakes quite often.
Our games are not for everyone. Very competitive players may find them frustrating for example. But if you like the sound of the above, it would be great to hear from you. Look us up on the Kriegsspiel forum. Details of our TeamSpeak server are there at http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t269- ... ation#1853
There are normally games on weekday evenings, and folks generally meet-up on the TeamSpeak server from 7 pm UK time. New games are starting many hours after that though as it’s still daytime for our American friends. If you would like to know more before joining us on TeamSpeak, please send me, or one of the others in our group who post here, a private message introducing yourself.
Any Gettysburg fans in the UK are also welcome to join us for face-to-face kriegsspiels, if you can get to our games. We meet in Hertfordshire, about 30 miles N of London. We we do not limit ourselves to the horse & musket period. Our next face-to-face game on Sunday 15th April, is on the strategic U-boat campaign in the North Atlantic in WW2, with players taking the role of Admiral Doenitz & his staff, and their Allied equivalents. There are also occasional kriegspiels held in the USA. For more about kriegsspiel generally, see our website at http://www.kriegsspiel.org.uk/
Martin
Everyone is welcome to join our games.
We are keen on the history, and play HITS (2 yds camera) & couriers because we feel that’s as close to historical as you can get on the pc. The ability to do that is one of the main attractions of the game for us. For similar reasons we use TeamSpeak for communications, but only have conversations about the game when generals are together on the battlefield. We play with a chain of command, so each team will have say a corps commander, and under them will be division and brigade commanders. That doesn’t mean junior commanders have no discretion – far from it – but it does mean that they attempt to achieve the task they are given, unless local circumstances require a change. Everyone gets a chance to play senior commands if they wish btw. We also avoid ahistorical tactics, even in the few areas where the game permits that.
We play ad-hoc games in sandbox, but have recently started also playing user-defined scenarios, with separate briefings sent out before the game for both teams. These scenarios appeal to us because each team’s objectives (which may not mirror each other) relate to the military situation set out in the briefing, rather than it being just a question of counting points. It gives an authentic context for the game itself.
Our games are played in a very friendly spirit, and with a fair amount of humour. Everyone is on first-name terms for example (rather than using avatars), and folks don’t get cross or critical of other players if they make a mistake in the game. With HITS everyone tends to make mistakes quite often.
Our games are not for everyone. Very competitive players may find them frustrating for example. But if you like the sound of the above, it would be great to hear from you. Look us up on the Kriegsspiel forum. Details of our TeamSpeak server are there at http://kriegsspiel.forumotion.net/t269- ... ation#1853
There are normally games on weekday evenings, and folks generally meet-up on the TeamSpeak server from 7 pm UK time. New games are starting many hours after that though as it’s still daytime for our American friends. If you would like to know more before joining us on TeamSpeak, please send me, or one of the others in our group who post here, a private message introducing yourself.
Any Gettysburg fans in the UK are also welcome to join us for face-to-face kriegsspiels, if you can get to our games. We meet in Hertfordshire, about 30 miles N of London. We we do not limit ourselves to the horse & musket period. Our next face-to-face game on Sunday 15th April, is on the strategic U-boat campaign in the North Atlantic in WW2, with players taking the role of Admiral Doenitz & his staff, and their Allied equivalents. There are also occasional kriegspiels held in the USA. For more about kriegsspiel generally, see our website at http://www.kriegsspiel.org.uk/
Martin