Doomsday Roster, Or Wargaming Is Reductive
Planning out a wargame army can be a lot of fun AND a lot of work. A while ago, I was inspired to create a non-historic force for Flames of War and other 15mm-scale wargames based on the amateur militia Billy Joe's Boys, from the spoof movie Suppose They Gave A War And Nobody Came?. It's a parody of a modern cavalry troop, yahoos riding in old jalopies with Army Surplus armaments.
Thanks to Gear Krieg, statting out the vehicles wasn't tough. Plus I'll use a few off-the-shelf pieces to keep my force "sanitary" for tournament play. But I was getting antsy about paint schemes, numbers of miniatures needed, and other details.
Then I decided to do a rethink from a graphical perspective. An old wargaming magazine called S&T ("Strategy & Tactics") bundled games into their issues by reducing the pieces to a map, a rules booklet and a sheet of punch-out cardboard counters called "chits". They're a simple design and would do double duty, as both labels for miniatures and a "cheat sheet".
So I came up with a blank:
Which I could color and overlay with numbers or military symbols. From there, I filled out one for my Billy Joe's Boys troop:
This set uses military symbols from the current NATO symbology system to describe 104 miniature pieces in the still-hypothetical troop. As my force is nearly all mounted in vehicles, I use the triple-circle icon on the lower center of the inner box to mean "mounted" in the majority of my chits.
Explained, one by one:
* Two command vehicles (Billy Joe Davis and his deputy)
* Eight Security teams
* Ten Carbine teams
* Ten Flamethrower teams (tho' these may be replaced by other weapons)
* Ten Heavy Machine Gun teams
* Ten Light Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Medium Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Heavy Antitank Weapon teams
* Three additional Carbine teams
* Four Mobile Observation Post teams
* Four Tank Destroyer vehicles
* Five Antiaircraft Gun vehicles
* Three Heavy Mortar teams
* Twelve Motorcycle Recon teams
* Three Ground Attack Airplanes
This total force is bigger and far more powerful than the troop in the old movie, but perfectly legal for Flames of War once it is arranged into platoons. That's why I call it a "Doomsday Roster"--it is the unit at its maximum level of organization and equipment.
Thanks to Gear Krieg, statting out the vehicles wasn't tough. Plus I'll use a few off-the-shelf pieces to keep my force "sanitary" for tournament play. But I was getting antsy about paint schemes, numbers of miniatures needed, and other details.
Then I decided to do a rethink from a graphical perspective. An old wargaming magazine called S&T ("Strategy & Tactics") bundled games into their issues by reducing the pieces to a map, a rules booklet and a sheet of punch-out cardboard counters called "chits". They're a simple design and would do double duty, as both labels for miniatures and a "cheat sheet".
So I came up with a blank:
Which I could color and overlay with numbers or military symbols. From there, I filled out one for my Billy Joe's Boys troop:
This set uses military symbols from the current NATO symbology system to describe 104 miniature pieces in the still-hypothetical troop. As my force is nearly all mounted in vehicles, I use the triple-circle icon on the lower center of the inner box to mean "mounted" in the majority of my chits.
Explained, one by one:
* Two command vehicles (Billy Joe Davis and his deputy)
* Eight Security teams
* Ten Carbine teams
* Ten Flamethrower teams (tho' these may be replaced by other weapons)
* Ten Heavy Machine Gun teams
* Ten Light Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Medium Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Heavy Antitank Weapon teams
* Three additional Carbine teams
* Four Mobile Observation Post teams
* Four Tank Destroyer vehicles
* Five Antiaircraft Gun vehicles
* Three Heavy Mortar teams
* Twelve Motorcycle Recon teams
* Three Ground Attack Airplanes
This total force is bigger and far more powerful than the troop in the old movie, but perfectly legal for Flames of War once it is arranged into platoons. That's why I call it a "Doomsday Roster"--it is the unit at its maximum level of organization and equipment.