Why I Do These Things.

It is not every day that you get one of those clarifying moments that reminds why you pursue a particular hobby or go about it a particular way.

Last night's Battle of Teugn-Hausen with the lads from the Armchair Dragoons was one of those nights.

First, for those with short attention spans, here is a video of the whole shooting match:

Yep, three hours and eighteen minutes of Black Powder 2 played using "Tabletop Simulator" and a Teugn-Hausen module of my own creation.  We made it through three turns of a projected eight, although we certainly were not at the game for every minute.  Why was it special?

1.  The people.  Watch the video and know these are the kinds of guys you would like to play games with.  Sure they are playing to win, each in their way, but it is never an over-serious matter.  The response to the French decision to run at those Austrian guns in the west should tell you that.  While yours fondly was not always the most capable (coherent?) umpire, it never once devolved into the kind of rule-lawyering nastiness that we have probably all seen out there.  It was the spirit in which Black Powder 2 was meant to be played and I was very pleased to be a part of it.

2.  Black Powder 2.  I have played an awful lot of Napoleonic systems in my time.  No, really, a lot.  Trust me on this.  BP2 is presently my favorite for what it is.  It plays with a good spirit, it is Napoleonic enough, and, as one of the player's discusses in the video, creates a tabletop that looks Napoleonic.  I have heard the criticisms loud and clear -- oh, yes -- but this is a really good system.

3.  The camaraderie of the tabletop.  Once upon a time, in a world I can barely recall, we up here in Milwaukee were favored to have one of the finest wargame stores to ever exist, Napoleon's.  Run by a man I came to call a friend, it sold miniatures for decades, beginning in an era when Minifigs came in blister packs.  When I was a teenager I fell in love with the 32' X 6' table the store had in the basement on which Napoleonic battles could be fought.  And all around the table there were friends who mocked one another, drank, celebrated their victories, and howled at their occasional bad fortune.  I grew up thinking this is what fun was.  I suspect it is why, almost 40 years later, I am still dragging my family to farm fields in Europe because they once had battles there.

These days, I have no time to paint soldiers and my eyesight would not let me paint them well if I did.  Moreover, I have always been far too ADHD to ever paint just one army or even set of armies.  Worst, though, is that Napoleon's was ground under the juggernaut that is the World Wide Web (that's still a thing, right?).  There has been nothing even close to replace it.

So howling around a digital tabletop last night was very special and a fine memory.  A few photographs:

That'll Do Pig.

Austrians At Left

As for the battle?  Well, the Erzherzog Karl Jaegers are the battle's only casualties so far as both sides have struggled to get their troops forward.  Still, as the third turn ended, the better part of half an Austrian division was finally shoved over the Buchberg to join the scrum.  Much more left to be said.