The first is an 11-page hand-out entitled “Les Grandes Hommes: Backgrounds for French Big Men in Through the Mud and the Blood”. As I mention in the introduction to the hand-out, the idea is to fill in some of the blanks regarding Big Men, or “Grandes Hommes” as you could call them, from the French army of the Great War in the “Through the Mud and the Blood” wargames rules produced by TooFatLardies. It’s my attempt to give a little character to some of the figures which might find their way onto your wargames table.
I tried something very similar a couple of years back with British and German Big Men, publishing a very similar article in one of the TooFatLardies’ Summer Specials. This is the French companion piece, and I hope you enjoy it.
It’s available to download on Google Drive, and everyone should be able to access it. You can access the document by clicking on the link on the right hand side of your screen under the section headed “Playtesting Scenarios, Campaign Diaries, Play-Aids and Painting Guides”. If you have any difficulties accessing any of the documents posted there, please let me know in the comments section below.
The second piece is really just a slightly more graphically attractive version of the last part of the hand-out, which describes various “career exists” for the Big Men after the War has ended, should they survive. It’s not meant to be particularly serious but could, at the end of a game or campaign of “Through the Mud and the Blood”, add some suggestions on where you might find your Grandes Hommes reappearing in your Inter-War games. I’ve posted not only the French Big Man Exists but also the British and German companion exits in a single document. I’ve used the British and German exits in quite a few games, including at Bovington in 2012, and players seem to find them fun and interesting at the end of a game.
The “Career Exits” document is also stored and freely available on Google Drive.
In the future, I’ll post the British and German backgrounds for Big Men, by very kind permission to Mr Richard Clarke, one of the two TooFatLardies. If you’ve not tried Richard’s excellent large scale World War One rules, “Through the Mud and the Blood”, you should do. I am, of course, terribly biased and compromised in recommending them. But despite that, they are really jolly good.
I’d also like to mention my good friend Joe Legan, author of the most excellent supplement “Platoon Forward”. Joe’s ideas set out in “Platoon Forward” were some of the starting points for these Big Men background articles and hand-outs. Without Joe’s work, my own ideas would probably never have got very far off the ground. I have been remiss before in not thanking Joe for his very generous help and inspiration. Standing on the shoulders of giants indeed. Thank you Richard and Joe!
If you have any thoughts, comments or (most likely) improvements on these hand-outs, or any of the other documents posted on this Blog, please let me know. I’m always open to feedback!
Great stuff Sydney. I must be A St Cyr... A good confit and a Burgundy ... Just the job!
ReplyDeleteThe exists are wonderfully constructed..
Thanks Dave. I know you're a person who loves creating a "breathing" background to a wargame. I always think that's something which works well with participation games, or where players are new to a period....as well as being a lot of fun!
DeleteExcellent. I look forward to downloading these.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. I really hope you like them. I think they'll be very much in line with what you like to introduce into your games....
DeleteI've never played Through the Mud and Blood, but I have always heard good things about the Two Fat Lardies rules. I have been meaning to try out I Ain't Been Shot Mum at some point, are the two rules sets similar?
ReplyDeleteMud in blood has smaller sized forces - about a platoon per side. IABSM is for a company per side and for WWI.
DeleteThanks Alex, as Chris mentions, "Through the Mud and the Blood" is focused on platoon level engagements of about a platoon a side (on a 1:1 scale). At most, "Mud and Blood" can manage about a two platoons, with associated supports - but I find that the idea level is between half a platoon and a full platoon. We've had many great games just with 20-30 figures a side, playing trench raids, actions at High Wood, and some of the smaller engagements on Broodseinde Ridge in 1917.
DeleteThanks guys, it certainly sounds interesting. I play Square bashing but don't really concentrate on the small scale stuff, so I may start looking in that direction...
DeleteI actually picked a copy up in my local gaming shop today, from reading the introduction I realise it's based on good WW1 revisionism, which is right up my alley!
DeleteAlex, I should have mentioned about the revisionism! Richard was a good friend of Paddy Griffith before Paddy passed away so tragically early. Richard spent years reading about the War, reading all the material about the BEF "learning curve" before even starting to write the rules. I've lost count of the number of times I've ad something in contemporary writings, or a modern commentary, and then thought about adding it into "Through the Mud and the Blood" only to find that Richard had either added it already, or had thought about it, discussed it and dealt with it another way! Like all rules, they're not perfect (what is?) but they are really well written, and they play brilliantly. I am, of course, deeply biased - but they'll give you many fun games with a strong historical basis. I'd be very interested to see what you make of them.
Deleteyes, I was very pleased to see that slant of WW1 history coming through loud and clear! I'm all for destroying the Lions and Donkeys nonsense, so this will be another way to do it! It'll be a while before I get a game, as I will need to start collecting more figures!
DeleteCracking stuff, these are really fun reads - and realistic ones as well! Particularly found the German chap "on manoeuvres on bicycles through the '20s" a good one. Smashing stuff!
ReplyDeleteEd, I am so glad you have found these!!! I'd wanted to post them for a while, but during last year one of the things which made me very keen to post more hand-outs, scenarios and guides was the material you and Kieran have been producing on your own blogs. I love the idea of creating backgrounds for wargames which creates an added context to the action on the table. But more than that, when we've used material like this in club and participation games, players really seem to like it. It's all about helping players to enjoy the game more....making things just more fun and a better experience. And yes, the Heer bicycles were fun to research!
DeleteCracking post Sidney, I just might have to crib some of this for my RJW Project. i am running a loose cmapign at the moment, adding in the Character backgrounds will certainly help an depth to the games.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting.
Cheers
Stu
Thanks Stu! Please crib away - feel very free to do so!
DeleteJust a very quick post to say that I've now downloaded the British and German Big Men Backgrounds, as well as some "blinds" cards as asked for by a couple of people. Please let me know if anyone has any questions - either here, or by email (you can get my email address through my profile on the right hand side of the blog).
ReplyDeleteHaha these a bloody fantastic, and suitably characterful - but I wouldn't expect anything less!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kieran!! Very pleased you like them. I tried to make them characterful, without being too unbalancing or frivolous!
DeleteSidney, not directly related to this most excellent post. My usual source of Carr's ballast (Finescale) is no longer stocking it. Do you know of another supplier?
ReplyDeleteOldSchool, you're very welcome, ask away.
DeleteI get a lot of my supplies like that from 4D Models on Lehman Street in East London. It's a reasonable walk from the City, but well worth it. From Tower Hill Station is less of a walk (about 10 minutes). The staff are really helpful and they've a great selection of materials. They do mail order as well. They used to offer Carr's Ballast, but there's some bags of alternative gravel which is exactly the same sizes as Carr's but less expensive. There's a full price list on the 4D Models site, which is: http://modelshop.co.uk/ I'd highly recommend the shop, which mainly serves the architectural modelling community and design colleges in London.
Thank you Sydney. Taking the time to answer is very much appreciated. I have tried the 4D ground olives, but they are rather fine. The closest to Carr's I can see on their site is the medium brown ballast by Gaugemaster, is this the one you use?
DeletePat
Pat, sorry for the delay in replying. Yes, I think that's the stuff - medium brown ballast by Gaugemaster.
DeleteSuperb resource mate, which I have duly nicked for my 1940 Chain of Command French big men! Fantastic graphic design on the After the Guns article as well. I figure it will work for 1940 with only a little tweaking. Roll on the CoC campaign supplement!
ReplyDeleteBen
Use it however you find useful, Ben!! Please, you're very welcome. It's a free resource, as far as I'm concerned. Hope you're enjoying "At the Sharp End" the CoC campaign supplement - it's a real cracker, as they say in St Albans!
DeleteWonderful!
ReplyDeleteA fair amount of the credit should be your's, Jur!!! The information about the Chars d'Assault has been invaluable! Huge thanks again for that!
Delete