Something a little different for this post – not a review of figures, or some new rules, or a show and tell of one of my armies, or even an AAR of a recent game. Not even a rant either! Instead, this post is going to review a Youtube channel, LittleWarsTV. I first became aware of the group behind this new venture a couple of months ago, when they posted a video of a large scale ACW game, Antietam, which was posted on the Baccus website forum and elsewhere. It caught my attention because it wasn’t just some bloke with a camcorder showing bits of a wargame taking place and mumbling about his unlucky dice like most are, but took the time to explore the background of the battle itself, take a trip to the battlefield, and discuss elements of the conflict. All these things called to me (I am a historian, after all), and I kept an eye out for more of their videos.
It also helped that they were using 6mm figures (mostly, if not all, Baccus), for which I have a great affection, and playing using their own Altar of Freedom rules (which I’d picked up but not yet played – Longstreet has been my go-to for ACW), and heard good things about.
At the time there were only a couple of other videos on the channel, a teaser for the channel, a short intro, and a brief history of wargaming, but in the last few months, they’ve been uploading quite a few videos (about 8 or 9 wargames, several battlefield visits, some rules reviews, interviews with people like the Perrys, some terrain-making tutorials, and general silliness (blooper reels from their other videos and the like). It’s shaping up to be a good addition to the wargaming community, with a nice variety of videos on offer. The presenters (all members of the same club) seem like a decent bunch, and are obviously knowledgeable about the background of the battles they portray (at least one is a history professor, I believe). Their delivery isn’t as smooth and professional as it could be, but they’re still a damn sight better than most others out there doing something similar, and the production values are pretty good. They obviously enjoy making these videos, and there’s an excellent sense of camaraderie that comes through when they’re playing.
While two of the videos use their own rules (and two others review them – fully admitting that these are quite subjective, but which nonetheless give a very good overview of the rules), most of the posted videos so far use a variety of rules; I’d hazard a guess that this has been done purposefully, to offer a wide showcase of different rules systems out there. Similarly, they don’t focus on a particular era, theatre or period, type of game (skirmish or large battle), and while many use small scale figures, they also use larger scale figures too.
I’m going to later briefly comment on some of the other videos they offer, but for most of this review, I’m going to outline the gaming videos they offer, in order of posting.
Antietam. Using Altar of Freedom, the first of the videos they uploaded is a great example of how they produce their work, and lasts about 22 minutes. It starts with a brief visit to the battlefield and discussion of the battle (there’s also another battlefield visit video for this site), before focusing on the wargame itself. Like (I think) all of their online battles, they have an umpire and 4 players, stakes for winning or losing (for the players – the losers have to grow ACW-era facial hair in this particular game, and for the generals they’re portraying, victory conditions), and some friendly banter, with quite a bit of discussion of the situation (together and separately) as the game goes on. The host for this first episode is Greg (the rules’ author), who does a good job of explaining Altar of Freedom, and some of the reasons why he focused on particular elements in the rules. As with all these videos, they examine a particular historical battle. The table looks awesome, and the figures (6mm) complement the table. This was the first of their videos I watched, and really sets the pace for their following videos. I won’t spoil the result, but this is a good start to the series.
Foy. Based on the episode of Band of Brothers, the discussion (hosted this time by Keith, a WW2 buff) centres on how accurately the episode depicted the actual battle. The rules this time are Too Fat Lardies’ Chain of Command (which I really wanted to like, but which just haven’t grabbed me), and using 28mm figures (bleh). Despite two elements which I dislike (scale and rules), this is still a fun watch, though I’m still not convinced about the rules. Scenes from Band of Brothers are used throughout the video. As with their other videos, the table is excellent, if not quite to the standard of the Antietam game to my mind.
Agincourt. I was hesitant about this one (my PhD is in medieval history, though mostly monastic history rather than military, and I’ve seen some bollocks spouted before by people who think they know something of the period). Tony hosts this episode (using Chipco’s Days of Knights rules, which I’m completely ignorant of), using some really beautifully painted 10mm figures. There’s a stunning series of bad rolls from the English commander (unlike others in this series, there are 3 French players and 1 English player as well as the umpire) in this videos (at least 4 1s in a row), and some atrocious accents and pronounciation, Don’t let that stop you from enjoying the show though (if I can get through it, anyone can).
Fallujah. I’m not a big fan of wargaming recent conflicts (the closest I come is what-if 80s cold war gone hot scenarios), and this is something they discuss at the start of the video, before a round table discussion that involves some veterans of the war in Iraq who are members of the club. Josh hosts a stunning table (filled with buildings) and using 20mm figures with Ambush Alley’s Force on Force rules. The losing group has to eat a 2004 MRE. Yum. The gameplay in this video seems quite a bit shorter than their other videos.
Guadalcanal. The second video in a row that focuses on something I’m not keen on (naval gaming), but the other videos have been so entertaining that I gave it a go anyway. Steve hosts a 1/2400 scale game (outdoor!) using ODGW’s General Quarters III. As a naval game, the terrain is lacklustre, though there’s not a lot you can do when you only need a blue sheet. The ships themselves look nice though. Still haunted by an unfortunate foray into an all-day Napoleonic naval wargame about 3 decades ago now, in which after about 5 or 6 hours, one ship finally got into arc and range of the enemy, and promptly missed, I’ve never been a fan of naval wargaming. While the game looked fun (and a lot quicker, I’m sure), it still didn’t convince me to try again.
Trebia. Now this is more like it. I’m a big fan of Punic wargaming, and so this is right up my alley. Chal hosts using the club’s own Age of Hannibal rules (which I’m now really intrigued by, and will have to try out). The table is wonderful, again, and here’s an accompanying video on how they made it. The figures are 6mm Baccus, and also look great (and which are tempting me to buy a load for use with these rules, despite already having 15mm Punic Wars armies based for Sword and Spear). For a relatively empty battlefield with sides lined up against each other, this looked like a fantastic game to play in. I really enjoyed the subterfuge in this game too – because the battle famously involved an ambush, in order to allow the Carthaginians to surprise the Romans, the Roman players were told they were fighting a different battle (Dertosa). A close-run game, and one of my favourites of the videos they’ve posted so far.
Princeton. Greg hosts again, using 28mm figures and Warlord’s Black Powder rules, neither of which I’m a fan of, and in a war that I’m not particularly bothered about. The table is a little more sparse than their usual ones too, so not among my favourite of their videos, but still an entertaining watch.
Kawanakajima. This one, however, is definitely in my top 3. The famous showdown between Takeda Shingen and Useugi Kenshin, using Brian Bradford’s Killer Katanas II rules and loads of superbly painted 6mm Baccus figures on another great looking table (with the exception of the rather cheap-looking river), it looked an absolute joy to play. Steve hosts, and supplies some erm…interesting headgear for the players.
That’s all the gaming videos so far, but there’s a good number of others too that they’ve done. The battlefield visit videos are informative, and highly accessible. These are not academic articles in film form, and are usually fairly short (10 minutes or so), and unsurprisingly not too far from their base in the north east of the US. Likewise, the terrain tutorials are short (often only a couple of minutes), and while most aren’t anything special or unique (there are a lot of terrain tutorial videos out there), they do add to the remit of the channel as a one stop shop for all sorts of wargaming info. Most of the rules sets they use in these videos have an accompanying review video which are also well worth watching.
The group also have a website (littlewarstv.com) which has extras (some more battle reports, OOBs and scenarios, paper building downloads and the like) and where you can buy hardcopy or pdf versions of one of their sets of rules (Age of Hannibal); they also have another website (6mmacw.com) which caters to their er…6mm ACW rules (Altar of Freedom), and which has a lot of extra free stuff, including several scenarios and two free campaign packs (Vicksburg and Gettysburg) that look awesome. I strongly encourage people to check out the websites and watch the videos – there’s some great stuff there, and they seem like a bunch of good blokes who ought to be supported in this endeavour.