Following the
battle of the Finkelmos Farm I’m going to call an end to the second chapter of “A
Mauxican Rebellion.” “The Republic Returns” has been a fairly intense
campaign for the last four months (it started in September). With up to twenty
players active at a time it was certainly lots of fun, but it also had some
problems. Whole elements of the politics did not work, the factions didn’t gel
as I hoped they would, and the tactical military actions being daily certainly did
not help. All that said, I hope people have had fun.
This campaign lasted longer than the first Mauxican
Campaign, mostly because I used a different set of tactical wargaming rules which
meant the battles were not too tedious to play. I am a huge fan of “Little Wars
TV” but it will be a hot day in hades before I play another game of “Live Free
or Die”. Johnny Reb III is (to my mind) the finest set of battalion scale
wargame, with all the complexity and simplicity you could ever want. I highly
recommend this wargame to any enthusiasts (and I used some of the variants from
the “Johnny Tremaine” system to make it slightly more AWI).
In our campaign, after the battle, the Free Mauxican forces
are far too diminished to put up resistance, and the Crimsonians will take
Asadero. This does lead the way to a future campaign in Mauxica between the two
sides, for which I will redo the political rules.
For those interested, here are the faction sheets:
As
the Crimsonians have been victorious in the last battle, they have won the war,
so technically none of the Free Mauxican players win.
However,
had 1st Brigade (or even just 1st Paw) and 2nd
Brigade been present, it could have turned against the redcoats pretty easily –
in which case Biggs (Apodemus Tuttle) would have been the overall winner with
11 influence, and his faction, National Freedom and Oversight, would have had
the highest average influence, which means that Common Defence League would have
been in last place.
As
said earlier, I am disappointed that the politics aspect and factional work did
not go better – perhaps I should just leave that stuff to work itself out naturally. Factions can be tough when you get lumped with people you don't know / don't like / don't want to play the game. We had one faction full of "new boys", and they never seemed to get themselves interested / involved. I will try harder to do political stuff in the future, perhaps by trying not quite as hard.
Where
to from here?
Well,
I’ve probably had enough of AWI for a bit – time to put the 15mm figures back
in their boxes and play with the 6mm Napoleonics again. Or maybe something
else?
I
have two competing ideas –
The
first is to go back to Maustria, and resolve that nagging succheesion crisis –
Maustria has soundly whooped the second coalition, who are all cowed and in
recovery – so now it is a question as to who will sit on the throne of Maustria
– will Goudarian make a play for the big seat? Or one of the other Generals?
A
third Maustrian game would probably be a Civil War, with all the players involved
in a side of that semi-dynastic struggle. I am thinking I would use an updated
map of Maustria, with players commanding Divisions of troops that march around
and do battle. No matter who wins, a united Maustria would find itself exhausted
and diminished just in time for a fourth coalition to do something stupid all
over again…
The
second is to step into a new era – perhaps late mediaeval – in a “War of the
Roses” (War of the Mouses) kind of game – the players would each lead a noble
house in a Mausropan Nation (I’m thinking Zurin) and have some good old
dynastic struggles to become Prince and reign supreme. This game would be based
on the classic board game “Junta”, and politics and deals and back-stabbing,
etc, would be more of an aspect.
When
sizeable armies meet there would be clashes.
As always, I will ask for the opinions of my players and supporters, and will then do whatever I like, because, hey, it's my party and I'll take my bat and ball and dance like this analogy is getting out of control.
