Free Kriegspiel Revolution on the (remote) Tabletop

 Read this first:

Wally's reaction to this confusion and how to quantify it? "Don't ask me."

FKR's reaction? "Don't need to."

I've recently dipped my toe into Discord, a software platform popular with gamers. Invited by Michael Raston of the Lizardman Diaries blog, I wanted to try a wargame with miniatures rather than the entirely electronic "map" games he's been having success with. He runs a channel called KriegHammer, since its games are loosely inspired by Warhammer Fantasy. Having been away from 40K and Fantasy for a long while, I wanted to try historicals in this vein too.

Michael writes about and runs "Free Kriegspiel Revolution" games, mostly roleplaying but branching out into skirmish and even campaign wargames. FKR is named for the original Prussian Free Kriegspiel of 1862, but focuses on "lite" roleplaying games like these which have become increasingly popular in the last decade or so. The R sometimes stands for "revival" instead, denoting the simplicity of the very earliest RPGs played by Arneson, Gygax and company.

I turned out to be the only historical gamer in the group, but that didn't stop a few players from expressing interest in a new genre. Which was okay with me, since any games I play on the job will be focused as much on educating the players as on the rules. A fellow who calls himself Kir took the first slot.

I set up a table and two small armies, confined my gamer kitty to the bedroom, and signed on.

Here I learned that Discord has a voice function. I had intended to take photos and type up the results in a fluffy, gamemastery fashion that would allow other viewers to follow the game in Discord, with the fringe benefit of me not having to write as much of this battle report. Kir instead suggested the voice chat, and I'm glad he did, because this way I didn't have to move betwixt table and computer and back again. The game was conducted via my cell phone. It would be possible to do it with video as well, as Wargaming for Grown-ups has been doing with a variety of rulesets. In practice, and in part because I wanted the photos for Facebook and this blog post, we used the voice chat for communication and the camera for the "map".

Kir had not played historicals before and knew nothing of the period (1740s, since I was using my collection of '45 Wofun Paperboys). I linked him to Charles Grant's introductory Waterloo, available free via Archive.org. Two brief chapters provided useful and quick background on unit types and tactics, particularly the rock-paper-scissors feel of foot, horse, guns and their formation choices. However, Kir had to "unlearn" a bit when I explained that units forming square were not common or necessary before the Napoleonic Wars. I probably should have been ahistorical and used them anyway, but he was a willing pupil nonetheless. He was at least vaguely familiar with the Jacobite Wars and, in between turns, was apparently reading the Wikipedia entry on Culloden and gaining some inspiration from it. Even though none of the Scots on the table were of the Clans!

I also provided a basic ruleset (the Charge! variant I used in my first Battle of Sawmill Village), for guidance only. It provided the basic moves and an idea of relative capabilities and speeds. Instead of counting casualties, I determined to use the dice-comparing adjudication rule SCRUD (found in Wargames Illustrated 64 and a few other places) for any serious dice-rolling. In practice, I used it for a couple close combats, while the rest were either common sense or just a roll-off ("1-3 the cav stop and use their pistols, 4-6 they charge in.")

On to the report!

"Seventeen Forty-something, somewhere in Europe.."

British and French positions respectively: 

The British have (left to right) a dragoon regiment, a gun, grenadiers and Black Watch. The French have, in same order, Royal Ecossais, Dillon's Irish Regiment, a gun and French Horse (taken from the War of Spanish Succession collection). I explained to Kir that his cavalry might be unreliable, the grenadiers were his most elite and reliable troops, while the redcoat Highlanders didn't yet have the reputation they do now - they were "regular" but perhaps untried. Oh, and since most of the artillery-shifting was done by easily-terrified civilians at this time, he might have difficulty moving his gun once it got shot at. 

As for my chaps, the Irish and Ecossais had a long and valiant history and could be regarded as elite, while the rest were fairly solid "regulars." My memory failed me on the Ecossais, which I confused with the Swiss and French Guards; the Ecossais were formed long after the Irish Brigade and, while professional, were at this point elite only perhaps in comparison with the Highland clans they served with in the '45.

Then I offered him choice of where to place his general; he picked the grenadiers, with the intention of keeping them and the Highlanders together for leadership test purposes.

(Cumberland is pretty tiny beside his Life Guard, isn't he?)

Kir moved his cavalry around the field, moved his gun forward, and formed columns of his infantry, one of which headed for the hill to his right.

(Luckily, Kfira is not a gamer kitty. She observed with regal patience, and at one point tiptoed across the field without, to my surprise, knocking anything awry.)

My chaps marched straight forward, the Ecossais bunching up rather than go over the hill. This would prove a mistake. On the other hand, Kir was alarmed to see heavy horse coming his way...

And hastily formed into line, at which point he learned that infantry masks guns:

He was okay with this, however, and picked on the Irish regiment for the rest of the game. While I didn't know it yet, I was in trouble.

The Highlanders make it atop the hill. Though they're still in column, the grenadiers are still an easier, if pointy, target for the French Horse.

For the first time, Free Kriegspiel comes into play. Kir declared a charge on the still-forming Ecossais. I messed around with rulers doing quarter-moves to see if the infantry could fan out into line before the dragoons reached them, tossed a die (it came up a 1), and decided they were not ready to receive a charge. Even fame and status wouldn't help at this point.

I didn't even bother to roll after that. The dragoons burst through, shattering the expatriate Scots and causing severe casualties.

At this point, Kir learned that noble-born cavalry are a touch unreliable, and would take some time reforming. This was good for me, since the Irish would need time to turn their facing, and their cannon rolled another one and got stuck in the road whilst trying to point at the cavalry. Another roll to rally the Ecossais at this point failed and they disintegrated.

Meanwhile, my own charge against the stolid grenadiers and their general in command came to nothing. Since the French tended not to conclude charges in favor of using their pistols, I tossed a die with penalty and declared that they would swerve instead. Another die, for direction, decided "to the viewer's right." As they passed between the Highlanders on the hill and the hastily refusing flank of the grenadiers, they took musketry from both sides; I decided that range, lack of accuracy and the Highlanders firing downhill meant there was no chance of friendly fire. The cav, like their British counterparts, would also need time to turn around.

The British cavalry reformed, and made ready to attack the Irish. The gun still failed to fire; perhaps a rammer was stuck up the spout. Kir's own gun, incidentally, was continuing to fire at the Irish, disconcerting and slowing them if nothing else.

At the other end of the revolving door, my own cavalry prepared for another charge. It was here I explained to Kir that cavalry tired quickly, or at least their horses did. One more charge was all they could hope for at this point before exhaustion took its toll.

Kir asked at this point if the musketry smoke from his infantry was filling the low ground and blocking visibility between his units. I agreed, made a simple paper cloud, and cheerfully added that this only made his Highlanders' position worse - they couldn't even see their commander now, much less take direction from him. Said commander and his grenadiers were nicely refused now.

The British cavalry exchanged pistol fire with the Irish, who were still getting shot at by Kir's cannon.

Then, horrors - the French general got blown away by that annoying gun. If the Irish were disconcerted before...

(I rolled a lot of ones in this game. Next time I think I'll try the 2d6 method to provide a bell curve!)

The dragoons charged in, seeing their chance and daring the incompetent gun crew to blast them with canister. (They missed.) I used the SCRUD method for the second time in the game, rolling one die per base and comparing, and giving the dragoons an extra die.

Oddly, it didn't help, the Irish handily won almost all the matchups. Their elite status coming to the fore, perhaps.

I decided this meant a tie rather than an outright Irish victory; both sides would be nearing exhaustion, the one by getting incessantly shot at all game, the other by blown horseflesh and the strain of even a victorious charge.

Meanwhile, the French horse surged up the hill against the Highlanders, but their own tired horses balked at the end. After a desultory clash of sword on bayonet, the French swept away, back towards their baseline:

End game:

We ended the battle here. With one regiment destroyed, another exhausted, and a third retreating, I felt the French would fall back to fight another day. As for the British, they were mostly intact (save for their bloodied cavalry) and were sitting on the objective, the crossroads. So Kir won. Or, if we treat this as the roleplaying session it mostly was, he beat the scenario with me as GM.

Managing the game via Discord was far quicker and easier than I feared; I'd be happy to try it again, perhaps with more players. The course of the game still feels realistic to me, which is pretty much the point of a "lite" freestyle RPG; if the result makes sense, you don't really need the dice. More importantly, perhaps, the interaction allowed by voice chat was key to the session's success; Kir was a patient and eager opponent, and I really appreciate his playtesting help. I think he learned a lot, too, which is good from my perspective of wanting to use this style of game as a teaching tool for kids.

If you, too, would dare, please let me know:

Jennifer's Test Game Server