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Wargaming Charles the Bold, 1474–77Three years. Three lost battles. Grandson, Murten, Nancy. Charles the Bold tried to join his Netherlands to Burgundy through Lorraine and the Rhine, and the Swiss broke him.
That stretch from 1474 to 1477 is a good war to game. One side likes an arranged fight: guns behind works, infantry dressed on the gun line, gendarmes held for the moment. The other side comes on in deep pike blocks, tightens up, and hits before you are ready. The interesting part is not “Swiss always win.” It is whether the Burgundian line is dressed, whether the guns have an arc, and whether the keil arrives in one piece. Two pages on the site are for that table. The first is a rules-agnostic guide. Why the war started. How a Burgundian ordonnance actually sorted itself on the field — men-at-arms, coustilliers, pike, longbow, crossbow, handgun — instead of standing as one mixed lance on one base. How a Swiss banner on the road becomes three wards in the fight. Where the guns sat. Who stood where. Typical deployments. Which published systems will carry 1474–77 without being rebuilt from scratch, and which need a house rule so a keil stays one deep body and a gun line is not a toy. https://www.manxgamingsolutions.com/wargaming-the-burgundian-swiss-1474----77-wars.html The second page is a scenario generator. You press the button. It gives both sides commands, detachments, men, horses, guns and wagons, a short brief each, and a tendency for how they might arrive — a guide, not an order. You still deploy. You can print Burgundy, print Swiss, print an umpire sheet, or download the lot. Year presets lock the campaign season. Winter cuts the field. It will not play the game for you. https://www.manxgamingsolutions.com/burgundian-wars-scenario-generator.html Read the guide first if you have not put this war on the table before. Use the generator when you want a game tonight and you are tired of refighting the same three named battles in the same way. Take either page to the club. The figures you already own for late medieval will do. The rules you already use will do, with a little honesty about blocks, guns and arrival. Turn each URL into a Weebly text link. Post Options → Advanced for the fields below.
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A night at the table is not the same as a night on the sofaA wargame looks like toy soldiers. A role-playing game looks like people talking over a map. Neither looks like work. That is why both are easy to dismiss, and why both are easy to underrate.
What you are actually doing is this. You keep the whole table in your head. You count. You measure. You guess what the other person will do, then you find out. You say what you mean clearly enough that someone else can act on it. When the plan fails you do not throw the evening away. You pack up and talk about the next one. Television does none of that. The pictures move whether you are paying attention or not. Rest has a place. The trouble starts when the sofa is the whole evening, night after night. A game stops and waits for you. If you stop thinking, you lose, or the story stalls. That is the short version of why the hobby is good for an adult who wants the evenings to leave something behind, and for a young person who needs numbers, patience, and a reason to speak to someone in the same room. Miniatures add the quiet work before the dice — painting, basing, sorting the box, laying the cloth. Board wargames add maps, charts and a problem that will not fit on one sheet of paper. Role-playing adds a voice and a shared story you have to keep straight. Competition, if the table is decent, teaches you to lose without sulking and to win without being a pest. Writing a scenario or a house rule is extra: you build the problem, then you find out if it actually plays. None of that is a cure. It will not replace sleep, a walk, or a doctor. It is still a better offer than another hour of a screen that does the choosing for you. The full piece is here. It covers adults and teenagers, the three branches of the hobby, school-ish number work, the usual charges (toy soldiers, girls, teaching children to kill, glorifying war), what to play, and how to keep a game going when the opponent lives in another country. Mind Games — Exercising the mind and training it to think https://www.manxgamingsolutions.com/mind-games.html If you play on the Island, the Manx Wargames Group still meets in Port Erin. If you play anywhere else, the same evening exists in a hall near you. Sit down.  https://fb.me/e/4bEVLkPFN THURSDAY 12TH MARCH 2026
Details Event by Ramsey Dice Pirates Quayle’s Hall, Albert Street, Ramsey Public · Anyone on or off Facebook An opportunity to try out the latest tabletop board games, war games and roleplaying games, or just relax and build or paint your latest modelling project. Ramsey Dice Pirates meet every Thursday evening and often Saturdays at the usual location. A friendly, utterly sane bunch of gamers who will welcome you with open alms. CLOSING DOWN - MOSTLY!Sad news... it is worth reviewing their site for all those half-hidden gems be they be their excellent 10mm range or 15mm or 20mm. Update: 10mm moving to 2mmand6mm site.
if for no other reason than you can start or finish a collection in such areas as: In 20mm scale
Our Latest SCENARIO GeneratorWe have been working on several projects and have finally fixed our Burgundian Wars Scenario Generator. This has required not only quite a lot of fixes but also quite a lot of detailed research.
I am sure that we will tweak it some more but in the meantime it is ready with the scenario designer having considerable latitude. The generator is not rules specific but does have a moral rating for each unit or formation. Orders of battle and Scenario details can be printed off directly from this site. Without more ado you can find the generator by clicking here Kriegsspiel Resources: Where to Start, What to Buy, and How to Play
well this is embaRrassing We had to copy our site to make costs more manageable at it seems our blogs didn't transfer. Bless!
Whilst the distinctly average people at Weebly who host this site were of no help in us saving $59USD a month, so I guess it is up to us to fix it in the coming week. Loads of other news including our first set of published rules - these are what is called "Living Rules" and by that we mean we after looking for your participation in making them better - though we think they are ok (but we also know that we might be wrong). |
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