Need help with Kriegsspiel...

Started by SpanglyClown, January 16, 2020, 07:35:10 PM

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SpanglyClown

Hello all,

I have been trying recently to gather the resources necessary to start to play Kriegsspiel in its' various forms with myself and some friends. I have looked into the v. Reisswitz 1824 version, and the 1879 American version. I have also reviewed the excellent articles written by past Grogheads and those were very helpful. My difficulty is that I am not very well versed in the topic of KS and wargaming in general, and as a result I find it difficult to parse through the different versions and iterations of the game. I have seen there is a modern written edition of the game via Leeson (1983), but I have yet been unable to find any copies anywhere, save for some expensive ones on Amazon. The Universities near my area do not have anything at all in their catalogues concerning KS in the context that I am looking for.

Essentially, I am seeking resources on Kriegsspiel, any version from 1824 and on. Of my particular interest is anything that has been modernized or reworked for ease of use, as my playing group will best be introduced to the game in this manner. I assume people here have played it via tabletop before so I am hoping those that have can pop in here and help me out. I just frankly haven't found much in the way of information about actually playing the game that wasn't written pre-1900.

Also for housekeeping purposes if this post is in the wrong area of the forum please let me know.

SClown


A list of the current materials and sources I have found.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2013/20130610001am/20130610001am.pdf
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2013/20130610002am/20130610002am.pdf
http://grogheads.com/featured-posts/5321
http://grogheads.com/whatever/history/3898
https://kriegsspielorg.wordpress.com/resources-2/rules-and-playing-aids/

Bardolph

Howdy, just a few things off the top of my head:

The Leeson version is hard to find, but the guys at Too Fat Lardies published a nice version of the 1824 rules a few years back that is still available on their website as far as I know. I own both the Leeson and the TFL version, the TFL version is easier on the eyes, easier to get, and they sell maps and stuff for it.
The later "Verdy" Kriegsspiel is much more free form than the 1824 v. Reisswitz rules and relies more heavily on the umpire's ability.
The various later 19th cent versions from US and UK that I have seem rather clumsy and assume large staff numbers to make things work.

When I ran KS, I leaned heavily on the "army level" set of rules that used to live on the old Kriegsspiel News website. It streamlined a lot of stuff from the v. Reisswitz rules and put an emphasis on keeping things moving, which in actual play is FAR more important that all the crunchy detail stuff. The consensus on the old KS News forums seemed to indicate most folks found the fun in the movement to contact, and the actual engagement less interesting. Running a KS is much more like running a good D&D game in my opinion, and your team of umpires can make or break your gaming experience. (I highly suggest at bare minimum a head umpire and at least one for each side, and more per side depending on the number of people involved.) It can be hard to talk folks into umpiring but I found it enjoyable watching the players, some of whom were very aggressive indeed in our typical tabletop games, behaving like timid mice, and blundering off in the wrong directions and writing orders that were already outdated before they turned them in. ;)

Too Fat Lardies website: https://toofatlardies.co.uk

The KS news addy: http://kriegsspiel.org.uk/
Which seems to resolve to the one you linked but through the magic of the Wayback Machine...

an older version of the KS News website that might have those army level rules I mentioned:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110717180509/http://kriegsspiel.org.uk/

If you're interested I have about a million map websites bookmarked, some of which may have useful maps for running games.