My first megagame!

I had an unplanned crazy day yesterday that involved shooting over to Huddersfield and playing in a mega game based upon the Napoleonic wars. Had you told me that this was something I was going to do, I would have looked at you incredulously and in a state of disbelief.

When John pinged me at 7 AM to ask if I wanted to go to a megagame, I jumped at the chance. Well, when I say jumped, I mean that I talked to Mrs. Crater and asked her what she thought. Her reaction was that since I was asking, I must be interested in going and wanted some small push to get me out of the house. Mrs. Crater had an excellent point, and so I said yes!

I managed to jump heroically in the shower, get my grab bag and grab hold of my podcasting equipment. My plan was to record audio based on my experiences of the day. John graciously offered me a lift over to Huddersfield where the game was taking place. I interviewed John on the drive over and was quite facetious about the game. I was joking around about things, I was interested in the game, but wanted to be somewhat silly about it. John took my questions on board and answered them as best as he was able.

Getting to the venue, we just beat the organiser there, this meant we were able to help set the game up for the rest of the attendees. By 9.30 the room was ready, just as the first people started to arrive. The megagaming crowd seem close knit and know one another fairly well. A lot of conversations sprung up around previous games and what people were looking forward to this time around.

At 10 AM the game started, we all got bundled together to get a demonstration of how the battles would work. A simple abstraction of war gaming had been created to allow everyone a chance to run a battle without getting bogged down by rules. A few clarifications on things like stacking units were needed before we were sent back to confer with Napoleon and get his overall battle plan.

The scenario was fairly straightforward, to recreate the Jena campaign of the Napoleonic wars. I don’t know a lot about that period of history, all I can say is that there were two sides, the French army commanded by Napoleon, and the Prussian army commanded by King Frederick of Prussia. The premise being that the French army had invaded what is now Germany and were looking to take on the Prussians. The game was simple; each side had a number of divisions to command. Each team would consist of two, one commander and one chief of staff. The commander made the strategic decisions for the divisions, while the chief of staff went around gathering intel on where the other units were and what was happening. I was playing chief of staff Dutallis under Commander Neys.

I can’t honestly say I was a very effective chief of staff, I didn’t understand the role until the end and so spent more time dithering on social media and talking about the EU referendum. Thankfully Zach, who was playing commander Neys, was a very competent player and was able to do a great job on his own. I am very grateful for this, as I would have hated to have spoiled his experience for my incompetence! That said, I was able to gather, and share, some useful intel through the game, so I wasn’t as bad as I made out.

There was a lull in the early afternoon where there didn’t seem to be much for me to do. The 6th division was in the middle of a protracted battle, as was Napoleon himself. Our leader being in battle meant that there weren’t many orders to give or intelligence to receive. I took the opportunity to catch up with Becky, who I had met at a previous event. We had a good catch up about work, social media, new clients and the EU referendum; Our conversation cut short once the battles finished and the commanders returned wanting to know what they had missed in the time they’d been away.

The afternoon flowed quite nicely with more confrontations happening and the story ticking along. As is the nature of megagames, so I’m told, control called the game to an end at around the 80% complete mark. The concept behind this is that no side conclusively wins, and there is room for absolute victory on both sides. This way the players get to leave happy and feeling like that have all won the day.

The debrief at the end was interesting, and we got to see the thought processes behind the tactics of the Prussians. People were gracious in their comments, and the debriefing session was a very amicable affair. I came away feeling satisfied with our performance and would happily play the game again.

Megagames occupy an interesting space; they take elements of tabletop RPGs, war games, and board games. These factors are taken and blended into something recognisable and familiar, and yet completely new at the same time.

There are some downsides, the game did get confusing at times, and in a larger game, it could become chaotic and stressful. Thankfully control exists and there is enough of a framework to cut down the number of potential options available at any one time. The games don’t have a clear winner and loser, unless one team has played particularly poorly, or have been very unlucky. The lack of clear winner could be frustrating for some, but also removes a lot of the competitive aspect. The whole experience feels like one big cooperative game, with the intention that everyone has a great time simulating the realities of conflict.

The Jena campaign was an operational military megagame, and folk there said that this was a good place for a new person to start. The outcomes are clear, orders and unit movement are straightforward, and the degrees of freedom are limited. I would be interested in attending one of the political games like watch the skies to see how they play out instead. They strike me to be much more fraught as things aren’t as clear-cut.

Will I go again, almost certainly yes. Would I like to organise and act as control for one of these games, most assuredly so! Would I like to design one, well watch this space and we’ll see what happens!