Welcome to our on going report for Pegasus Bridge – The Game. We are planning on hosting this event at Guns of August 2013 and Historicon 2013. We thought that it might be interesting to blog the process of putting on such an event. While Pegasus Bridge has been gamed before, our goal is to host an event at a manageable tactical level depicting the bridge and the surrounding area in true 28mm scale. This means that on its own the bridge model itself will be 50″ in length from one end to the other. The span will account for 26″ of that length. The main structure and layout of the bridge will be provided by GameCraft Miniature’s MDF laser cut model. During the process of bringing this event to life we will post photos and assembly instructions as we bring even more detail to this excellent model by adding styrene and other elements to the piece and the rest of the table depicting the surrounding environs. Also, as we play test the scenario we will post our thoughts on rule selection and overall game play in a candid way to show how much effort an event of this scope entails.
We all enjoy the beautiful tables we see at conventions, but sometimes we don’t fully appreciate the efforts and expense that goes into them. We sometimes take events being presented at a convention or club meeting as something done for our enjoyment alone, without stopping to thank the GM’s for all their efforts in having it there for us to enjoy in the first place. This report is dedicated to all those who enjoy the art in this hobby and not just the game. To those who care about the details when everyone else says, “No one will notice!” We notice and we appreciate your efforts, keep up the good work and we hope you enjoy our attempt to bring a table top to life.
September 21, 2012
It has been a while since I first placed this page on our Blog and I have been anxious to get back to this project ever since, but in the realms of life happening that hasn’t always been a possibility. So now that most of those life fires have been put out I have turned my attention back to Operation Pegasus Bridge. As a group we have come to a few conclusions about how best to approach this project and have settled on some goals to be met as we go forward. First off we have decided on a ruleset to be used for play. I had to blow the dust off my copy, but after viewing the rules again and defining the scope of this event we have chosen “Crossfire” by Arty Conliffe. Yes, these aren’t the newest rules in the library, but given the nature of things we have decided that the concepts that Arty was dealing with in these rules best fits the nature of this event. We are making a few house rule tweaks which we will explain going forward, but for now lets look at the structure of the event so that the reasoning for this choice can be better understood.
First off, this is a major undertaking to produce all that we need for this mega game, and as such we have decided that it deserves more than just a 4 hour time slot. So to that end we will run this as three 4 hour blocks beginning on a Saturday morning and continuing into the evening. So basically a real time event given the timing from capture to arrival of Lovat’s Commandos. The first scenario will begin after the capture of the bridge using Maj. Howard’s planned deployments at the bridge and its surroundings. The reason we have decided to leave out the landing and capture, is the fact that it was over quickly and rehashing the overrun of conscript troops isn’t really the major focus of Maj. Howard’s concerns. He was to “… hold until relief …” so that’s what we have decided to reflect in the linked scenarios over the course of 12hrs of game play.
Next, we needed to handle relatively smaller forces being engaged without getting into the micro management of a skirmish game. This also presented the first area we had to house rule in “Crossfire”. If your not familiar with the rules they are designed to reflect company level actions with bases representing a squad organized into their respective platoon command structures. While this was closer to our needs we still saw a weakness as it relates to how we wanted to model the battle space on the table. Since we are using a 28mm true scale model of the bridge itself it was important that our spacial proportions have the right since of scale. So in reviewing the rule’s mechanics and reviewing variants that others have used, especially when playing with 28mm figures, it was decided that we would use half squad stands versus squad. This would give us a look within the space that works as well as the tactical flexibility afforded with such a basing scheme within the context of smaller actions.
Lastly, we wanted a rule set that was fluid and kept all the players engaged without being encumbered by tons of charts and swallowed up by rule after rule that would only slow play and create confusion. “Crossfire” accomplishes both of these remaining points about as well as could be expected. With the added plus of no rulers out there cluttering up the board. This doesn’t mean that during our play tests we might not make a few more modifications, but all in all we should be good to go as written.
So now we will be basing our Company Commanders, Half Squads and HMG’s on 70 x 50mm bases and Platoon Commanders on 35 x 50mm bases. All vehicles will be represented 1 to 1. Once we have a few stands together on their bases I will post some pics.
That’s all for now!
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