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Ultramodern Wargaming – Ukraine 2024
Recommendations: 13001
About the Project
Lately, I've been running war games every weekend with members of the community via web conference. Players log on and play wargames with each other in real time, regardless of location, and we usually have at least a couple spectators as well. Many times it’s been Darkstar, but we’re also running wargames in Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars, and now Valor & Victory.
BoW/OTT community members @brucelea, @damon, @davehawes, and @rasmus have taken the plunge, leading battalions across thousands of meters of desert, starfleets in pitched battles across the heavens, or vicious firefights in the jungles of Vietnam, all without leaving the comfort of their home.
Hard-core, old-school command-tactical wargames can now be run (complete with spectators and recordings) in real time, with BOTH PLAYERS moving pieces across THE SAME virtual game board, thus maintaining player agency, speedy and instant results (no play by e-mail), interwoven turn sequences, any questions / feedback instantly received and addressed, and with the game being virtually recorded as it goes, a ready-made battle report can actually be created as we go.
All of this without the players having to install any new software on their computer, on any platform (PC or Mac). All that's needed is to agree on a time, a handful of dice, and a bellyful of courage!
Every weekend can now be a boot camp! All without costing me thousands of dollars in airfare, too!
Related Game: PanzerBlitz
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
Video Replay: Panzer Leader Engagement in the World of Twilight 2000
No more background, no more discussion, here is Part 2 with the battle already in full swing, first blood drawn and opposing units fully engaged and intermingled!
Here is the Part Two of Sunday’s stream, where Damon and myself sat down to try a small-scale tactical wargame in the bleak setting of Twilight 2000.
Damon’s got the starving, threadbare remnants of Soviet 21st Motorized Rifle Division and the Polish 10th Tank Division. I command the exhausted, shell-shocked survivors of Task Force 3-77 Armor (2nd Brigade, 5th US Infantry Mechanized) and elements of Canadian 4th Mechanized Brigade Group (Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and 8th Canadian Hussars).
The game is played with the fictional units, vehicles, and weapons included in the original 1984 release of the Twilight 2000 game. The battle is set right as the 5th US Infantry (Mechanized) finally disintegrates completely, in the absolute last gasp of both the NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in the irradiated wasteland of central Poland.
Infamously, this is where the base campaign pack of Twilight 2000 begins, when 5th Infantry Division HQ is overrun by Polish armor and the commanding general radios to his men in the clear: “Good luck. You’re on your own.”
Can my Americans and Canadian allies hold off part of this Warsaw Pact offensive and perhaps buy time for more of our comrades to escape?
ALMOST DONE!
I am finally getting close with my American Revolution buildings project for the Battle of Trenton.
All scratch-built construction, made from gift boxes, Photoshop skins, and pine hobby sticks from the craft store.
Two more houses and another church (smaller than the one already completed for this project).
Those little "side sheds" and wings on the church are all detached, so the buildings can be "lego-blocked" in different combinations and shapes.
I'm a lot happier with the way this church came out. Now my other, larger church looks rather lame by comparison. So I might have to quickly revisit the first church and give it a bit of a facelift.
I find that on town / city / urban boards, the NUMBER of buildings is important because that's where you get your streets, alleys, corners, and tactical features for a good up-close shoot-out. Anyway, just 1-2 more small buildings left and I'll then set up the whole "village."Video Replay: Panzer Leader Engagement in the World of Twilight 2000
Here is the Part One of Sunday’s stream, where Damon and myself sat down to try a small-scale tactical wargame in the bleak setting of Twilight 2000.
Damon’s got the starving, threadbare remnants of Soviet 21st Motorized Rifle Division and the Polish 10th Tank Division. I command the exhausted, shell-shocked survivors of Task Force 3-77 Armor (2nd Brigade, 5th US Infantry Mechanized) and elements of Canadian 4th Mechanized Brigade Group (Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and 8th Canadian Hussars).
The game is played with the fictional units, vehicles, and weapons included in the original 1984 release of the Twilight 2000 game. The battle is set right as the 5th US Infantry (Mechanized) finally disintegrates completely, in the absolute last gasp of both the NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in the irradiated wasteland of central Poland.
Infamously, this is where the base campaign pack of Twilight 2000 begins, when 5th Infantry Division HQ is overrun by Polish armor and the commanding general radios to his men in the clear: “Good luck. You’re on your own.”
Can my Americans and Canadian allies hold off part of this Warsaw Pact offensive and perhaps buy time for more of our comrades to escape?
More Construction on 1776 Trenton
Scratch-building some more 20mm Colonial buildings for the upcoming “Christmas Special” anniversary game of the Battle of Trenton (26 December, 1776).
Cardboard gift boxes, Photoshop skins, some pine wood sticks, and 1.7 metric f**k-tons of patience.
Panzer Leader in the world of Twilight 2000
Join community members Damon and Oriskany Jim as they try an experimental game of Panzer Leader set in the grim “future” of Twilight 2000. In the setting of this RPG, a fictional World War III in the late 1990s has crippled global civilization to the point of slow, unraveling collapse. Soldiers in the various armies all around the world just … stop getting orders from command structures and governments that no longer exist.
Can we use tabletop wargames to play larger-scale battles in this setting? Perhaps we can imagine clashes between post-apocalypse warlords, the last futile military campaigns before the final collapse, or maybe the first struggles of some restored local government and militia?
Sunday, 2PM ET / 7PM UK
Using material from the old sourcebooks and campaign supplements, I tried to plot out some approximate positions for the "standard" first campaign in Twilight 2000 - where characters start off with the 5th US Infantry Division (Mechanized) in central Poland. They have just failed to mount an eastward push on Lodz, and are now cut off and counterattacked by Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces. As divisional headquarters is overrun, the radio message comes down from the commanding general. "Good luck. You're on your own." Civilization has collapsed and your division is gone. What do you do? 
Here is the map for today's game. We'll be imagining some of the very last battles of 5th US Infantry (remnants) before its final disintegration, south-southeast of Kalisz (the usual beginning point of many Twilight 2000 campaigns) - July, 2000. 
The US and NATO sourcebooks (at least in the original 1980s editions of the RPG) give great data on what units and equipment was on hand when the final collapse came. Of course these units are long gone by the time a Twilight 2000 campaign typically starts. But the game lists 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group as being attached to 5th US Mechanized (XI Corps, subordinated to Third West German Army). Of course, we're looking at older versions of the M1A1 (shorter L44 gun), and the strange "M1A2" the original game writers imagined might be in service in the "distant future" of the year 2000.
5th US Infantry's final death blow is actually delivered largely by Warsaw Pact Polish units, coordinating with Soviets. Most of the equipment and units here is pretty familiar. Just note the odd "T-90" tank (in the 1980s they had some strange ideas on where tank design would go). Also note the conscripts, the shattered absence of any kind of standard OOB, the use of civilian vehicles for transport, and yes ... even cavalry scouts. Twilight 2000 is basically "Team Yankee" crossed with "Mad Max," the world has been nuked six ways from Sunday and the armies of the world (what's left of them) must now make their own way in the ruins of a new Dark Age.Scratch-Building 1700s 20mm Town for Battle of Trenton
For the last week or so I have been building 20mm Americal Colonial buildings like a fiend … becuase I’m getting ready to run the Battle of Trenton in 20mm on the December 26 anniversary and only recently remembered three facts.
1) The Battle of Trenton takes place … in Trenton.
2) Trenton is a … town.
3) I have virtually no buildings for this scale and period.
So I’ve been building… All by hand, all from scratch.
Here's my little town so far ... You can see some of the boxes I've been using for construction still stacked up in the background.
Downloaded what skins I could find, then did some Photoshop work to scale and assemble them the way I wanted. Maybe here we have some "Sons of Liberty" staggering out of a local pub.
The biggest building I have so far is church. I needed one, the Trenton Presbyterian Church was the biggest physical structure in the town at the time, made of stone, and so is an actual tactical feature. Also, the German commander is buried in its graveyard, you can visit his gravestone to this day.
These are all just "cubes" of cardboard, but with a little but of detail, peaked rooves, and by assembling smaller "cubes" together (With a little work in Photoshop and a pinch of patience), you can get some fairly realistic and more complex shapes.
With enough of these (I'm *mostly* done, I have maybe 5-7 smaller ones left) I hope to approximate most of King Street and Queen Street leading north out of Trenton, where much of this battle took place.Creating Character Artwork for Twlight 2000
Good afternoon, everyone – Here is the replay of last night’s stream, where I took a swing at original character artwork for a character unfortunate enough to live in the world of Twlight 2000.
We try to keep it fresh and approach modern military gaming from all kinds of different angles. Might make for a fun listen while hobbying or painting.
5000 +Recommendations on this Project - THANK YOUI
Last “brag” announcement, I promise … but what can I say, when it rains it pours.
This project recently pased 5000 recommendations on the OTT Project Feature. Thanks so for everyone who has supported this project since 2019 and thanks so much especially to the OTT Team for building and suporting such an awesome feature on the site!
