I purchased Partizan Press'
The Gatling's Jammed rules last week. They are a colonial wars variant of the
General de Brigade Napoleonic rules, covering the period 1815-1911 or so.
As background I need to state that the club where I
play uses General de Brigade and
Guns of Gettysburg both of which use the same basic rules system. Since all the players know or are familiar with the mechanics of these rules, I have been looking at G-
de-
Bde variants with an eye toward using them for my games. The logical choice would seem to have been
Bloody Picnic but those rules turned out to be a major
re-engineering of the system, and, though I like the end result, it defeats the goal of introducing rules which are familiar and
seamless.
So when I saw that this variant of the G-
de-
Bde was out, I took a look at a review(
http://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/html/rd_gatlings_jammed.html) and was intrigued.
The Gatling's Jammed is self-described as
General de Brigade lite
and I think this is a very accurate description. The mechanisms are much less baroque than in the original while still retaining all the best elements of the original rules. Rather than being based on a # of figures representing a Battalion, units are built around single stand "elements" (
read Companies) typically there are 4-6 elements in Regular Battalions while Irregular units may be anywhere from 2-10 elements strong. Each element will take a number of hits (based on Strength) before it is eliminated and often this ability to absorb damage will not be a known quantity with Irregular units until they actually come under fire. This then triggers a morale check. A player who was familiar with G-
de-
Bde. could be given a single side one page summary of differences and easily play
TGJ.
Now, how does this apply to WWI in the near-east? As you know, I have been searching and searching for a divisional level game and since these rules
accommodate everything from
Jezails to Maxim guns they seem, on the surface, to be a workable solution for the earlier more "colonial" aspects of this theater. The campaign against the
Senussi, the Mesopotamian campaign up to the siege of
Kut (but especially 12/1914 through 5/1915), the Aden campaign,
Darfur, Dyer's campaign in the
Sarhad all could be played with a very minimum of modification. This would mostly consist of adding
QF artillery, HE shells and a
doctrine which emphasised deploying into extended lines.
But why not keep on using
Price of Glory? The reality is that I probably will. The rules work well and for Skirmish action they are my first choice. That being said WWI in Mesopotamia and Palestine
feels like a Division-level theater to me. The combined operations of Infantry, cavalry artillery and Armoured Cars seem to be best represented with Battalion sized units. The truth is that I'm a rules junkie and always get enthusiastic about new things. My club also plays and knows the
Disposable Heroes system, and we will certainly be using
P-o-G for Western Front stuff. But I can dream can't I?
Any how, I trust my opponents will keep me in line.
