Spartans vs Vikings - Part 1

[Chris]

Gents,
Thanks for reading (persevering) and offering more comments about comments, etc.)
I have copied and pasted some bits and pieces here:

Thinking about it some more, I might have commented on your terrain selection mechanism.  I like the idea of assembling a collection of historical battlefields (or modern interpretations thereof) but you demonstrated the weakness of random selection by deciding the original selection was inappropriate for the two infantry armies and dicing again.  Are you OK with over ruling yourself or have you developed a classification system to pre-assess the type of battle each terrain suits before you dice?

Thanks. The list is a work in progress and could use some tweaking, I am sure. Yeah . . . The idea of having two heavy infantry forces fight it out across "The Granicus" just did not make sense or appeal, really. I suppose it could have happened and might make for an "interesting" fight, but . . . The decision was unilateral. I just decided that it would be better (easier) to "find" a different battlefield.

So I'm afraid the 532 views may not be all it seems

Oh dear and oh bother . . . Oh well.


He left in 2014.

Oops. My mistake. I should have pointed out at the start of my "statistical analysis" that I have no official training, etc. in this kind of thing. I don't believe I set out with an opinion or position and then searched for the data to support these. I think I was just looking at the numbers and trying to figure out what they might mean.

One final point on whether reports of battles are popular, the third in the list of top 10 topics by replies (a more reliable guide than views, because it isn't affected by guests) is "What was the last game you played" on 1881.

A fair point. But the LGP forum does not seem the place to really get into a "proper" or traditional report/narrative. Given the lack of popularity of Battle Reports versus other categories, I wonder if this forum is redundant and could be folded in with LGP? Would that save bandwidth and storage, etc.?

Cheers,
Chris

[Erpingham]

Oops. My mistake. I should have pointed out at the start of my "statistical analysis" that I have no official training, etc. in this kind of thing.

You just need common sense (which you have plenty of) and a few tricks pointed out.  Like you can see what guests can see of the forum by signing out.  This drops you into guest mode.  They can't see a lot of the forum.  They can see this but not anything about Slingshot or the General discussion section, which includes last game,  for example.

You can find out when a member last signed in by going to their profile in the members list.  I had the advantage I recall Mark leaving (it was a little messy).  What Mark was doing was giving us lots of things to talk about, to encourage traffic.  He liked to raise the content of recent wargames magazines, for example - something we tend not to do any more.  Hence, he created a lot of topics. 

A fair point. But the LGP forum does not seem the place to really get into a "proper" or traditional report/narrative. Given the lack of popularity of Battle Reports versus other categories, I wonder if this forum is redundant and could be folded in with LGP? Would that save bandwidth and storage, etc.?

In truth, we don't seem to have any particular bandwidth or storage issues (though that's admin office not moderatorial office business).  There is a reluctance to remove (or just move) sections of the system, though some are dormant or don't work properly any more.  This is primarily on an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" basis, as we are sometimes unsure of the impact of tinkering.

Personally, I think there is a role for more detailed battle report stuff, if only because the type of game is often different.  Last game often summarises the two sides and briefest result of competitive games  whereas Battle Reports can provide more detail and raise points and questions about e.g. how well the rules performed more easily.

[dwkay57]

There was a discussion somewhere about whether Granicus and Issos involved crossing flowing rivers or dried up rivers. In my recreations I've now tended to make them the latter (but with some boggy ground) so they are suitable for close order infantry armies.

If you have the time Chris, under the Places tab on my website there are some "bits" on my attempts at designing and implementing real battlefields (as far as we know before Rich T tells us we don't). The last page on the real battlefields list outlines a mechanism I'm thinking of using for terrain selection. It might help or give you some ideas to come up with something a lot better that I could then borrow.....

[Erpingham]

If you have the time Chris, under the Places tab on my website there are some "bits" on my attempts at designing and implementing real battlefields (as far as we know before Rich T tells us we don't). The last page on the real battlefields list outlines a mechanism I'm thinking of using for terrain selection. It might help or give you some ideas to come up with something a lot better that I could then borrow.....

A tempting topic for a spin off.  If I get a minute, I may throw something out there and see who wishes to play - David and Chris could perhaps share some experiences.

Though probably need to get the Spartan spin off started.  My obvious routes in - did they wear red uniforms and did they always have lambdas on their shields, and if so what colour - have already been done I think (though they could be revisited).  I may have to ask something related to military performance 

[dwkay57]

My Spartan queries mainly resolve around how big were their armies and who were their close allies? My findings (or vague recollections) from reading are that there were never really a lot of Spartans (of any of their castes) and to get to a reasonable level they had to use allies. But I'm not too sure who they were. My army currently has Tegean, Messene and a vaguely named "Lower Laconian" grouping for its allies. What I don't want is for people to tell me that is wrong (although I know they will).

[RichT]

I'll reply in the new Spartan thread, if that's OK.