The game that I won without be in the place, without be in the same city. Well, all this is a little unusual, but it could be. Sergio, Drums & Shako author, thought about a very large battle for his Drums Shakos Large Battle. It was the 12th of December, and this is a chronicle from far.

Three gaming tables, six players and two coordinators for faction, one master. At the coordinators were referred the duty to plan the battle, to supply troop reinforcements, to order strategies to players. And they couldn’t see the tables. So a fog of war occluded the real development of the battle. Moreover messages between coordinators and players, commander-in-chief and generals, were slowed and confused. To add fog of war, the players had various shapes instead of real miniatures to concealing troops at the enemy. Stratagems and surprises were planned by Sergio along the battle. I played as French coordinator, so I had a map of the terrain and could refer to it to give orders. In those days I had an allergic rash so I couldn’t go to Terni. Thanks to Sergio I could play through mobile telephone and emails.

Often what you plan is not what you realise. We had more people than we planned, nine players for the tables. But at most they didn’t remind the rules so well and play turns took too much time. So the battle was stopped before the natural end of the conflict. The communicating system between me and generals lacked due to not strictly rules about my role. I planned the battle but I couldn’t intervene in it. But my faction won. All lessons for another time and another very large battle. We are thinking how to play it better another time.

Share