Veteran Campaigner No.8

Waterloo '99 Issue
Wrap Up Edition
Editor: Charley Elsden [celsden@aol.com]

"Oh better far to live and die
Under the brave black flag I fly
Than play a sanctimonious part
With a pirate head and a pirate heart
Away to the cheating world go you
Where pirates all are well to do
But I'll be true to the song I sing
And live and die a Pirate King"

--The Pirate King, The Pirates of Penzance

EDITORIAL #8: Afterwords

On the new JodieConVet net you will be able to write and send us your "memoirs" of the campaign. These can be both your character general's experiences and your After Action Reports/Game Analyses of JODIECON WATERLOO. Those who did this for Gettysburg made great reading for the rest of us and were useful for Pete to use as testimonials of the JODIECON experience. So before you get involved in other projects and begin to forget, please write us about your part in our great adventure! And don't forget to fill out the survey. Thanks for participating, and all the good times setting up, eating, playing, jibing, watching films, flea market bargaining, etc., etc., and etc.

And watch out for those Killer Penguins!
Take care and good gaming!
Charley Elsden
[Anyone who wants to send to me directly can do so at celsden@aol.com ]

THE STAFF EXPERIENCE

During my first Jodie Con player role at Gettysburg '99 I became curious about all these people I suddenly had access to on the player net. Additionally, I wanted to save time by discussing certain things before getting down to Ft. Monmouth with my player team. And so was born THE NORTHERN VIRGINIA NEWSHAWK, The Official Journal of The Army of Northern Virginia "All the News The Yanks Don't Have." After that tremendous struggle was over, Fred Hubig asked me to help out on the newsletter/intelligence distribution aspect of his Waterloo '99 campaign. Well, its not easy to refuse a request from Robert E. Lee!

Thus appeared The London Napoleonic Times, The Paris Dispatch, and The Berlin Gezundheit. Also many messages which basically formed the pregame intelligence reporting/spynet/suggestions for players function. And I now agree with Fred that the staff functions of the game teams are coming more to the forefront as both necessary and fun. After all, I was staff on all three teams at once (whew).

I certainly had a good time as Operational CinC Intelligence, being the only one besides the umpires who could look at "The Big Operational Board" run by Dr. Jim Birdseye during the campaign's evolution. And although I was stretched pretty thin filling in here and there with many tasks no one person (even Pete) knew I was doing, I even found time to watch a few Sharpe's episodes I hadn't seen before (I especially enjoyed the hidden Conquistador Gold episode).

Although I have my own rules for many periods which work for 54mm-15mm, and a truly major hobby collection, my true specialty and vocation is scenario design. I usually build in some role playing and historical doctrine limitations to the player options, and this more than anything else balances out a scenario between unequal forces. Napoleon's task in Waterloo campaigning is monumental and probably impossible. For this reason, Fred wanted to sow the seeds of discord between the British/Allies and the Prussians, and it was with that understanding that I took on the job of entertainment and disinformation.

However, the player need to know that initiative they take in almost any unconventional direction will bear fruit. When I ran a role playing business for a short time many years ago, we partners came early to the conclusion that what mattered most was to show the players/customers a good time. Hence, if a player missed the religious context in a medieval game, it was up to her and us together to supply it. In the same way, if one player wants to set up a spy network in Waterloo, it behooves us to get him some results with it both entertaining and somewhat substantial, with the understanding that one cannot by a simple role playing coup substantially change the outcome of the tactical gaming.

Sometimes the players, being busy with "what is allowed" and what the rules are, lose track of the fact that they are co-creating the game with the Game Masters and staff. The staff should keep that in mind as well, and indulge the players when possible in their solutions and dreams. This to me is the key to any successful game event.

Finally, if you haven't tried volunteering for a staff position, you may find it gives you the kind of insight that is useful in learning to run such an event for your own club/gang/group of Arkham Asylum inmates. And some of us staff did get a chance to push lead (I was French cavalry briefly at Mons, defending a line of breastworks outside the city from the Prussian beasts.

FLEA MARKET TABLE BIG SUCCESS FIRST TIME OUT AT JODIECON

The first and modest appearance of a Flea Market Table near the lounge area at Waterloo '99 made a great breaktime event, without the pressure of salesmen or hustlers trying to sell. Players simple looked up the owner of desired items and spoke to them about purchases. Items offered included second hand books, board games, computer games, home made terrain, etc. One player expressed disappointment that there was no lead for sale. *

[ * Director's note: sorry, the lead sold before it go to the table, it could have sold 3 times over I think.]

As this feature becomes more established, we can expect to see more types and quantity of items featured in the future. I myself got some great books from Stuart Schoenburger and excellent river sections made by Bob Kerstetter, who is also going to made up some wider ones for my 54mm scale. So the next time you plan to attend a JodieCon, start going through your old stuff. You may be able to get some cash and provide a treasured item for someone.

NEW HOBBY RESOURCES APPEAR FROM JODIECON

Two new "publications" appeared free to players at Waterloo '99. They were the Players Handbook (7 pages) and the Umpire's Handbook (13 pages) by Fred Hubig. They closed the gap between the tactical rules used (Modified Fire and Fury for Napoleonic play) and the operational system (Modified from the Napoleon block game by Dr. Jim Birdseye). They also represented the positive spirit of play in the hobby. No doubt Fred will continue to update and work on them for future games. I hope when they are longer they will be published and made available as great examples of how to run campaigns and settle many issues that come up.

I was very impressed by them when they came out of my computer, and just wanted to thank Fred, since they were not cited during the after action report and awards ceremony at the end of the Con. But then, some of us were pretty tired at that point, and there was a lot to discuss.

JODIE'S T-SHIRTS REACH NEW HEIGHTS OF GRAPHIC IMPRESSIVENESS

Wow! The t-shirts this Con features "busts" of Wellington, Napoleon, and Blucher against their national flags in full color with the logo "Waterloo 1815" as well as "Campaign '99 aka JodieCon and "West Point Prep School." I thought the Gettysburg shirts were cool (Lee and Meade against their flags), but these are even more complex. Interested parties should e-mail Jodie if there are any left--they are a bargain at $15 each.

BURGHERS AND BRIDGES

The Waterloo Campaign came to an abrupt halt today, as all three armies realized they could no longer draw supplies from their Lines of Communications, due to the number of bridges destroyed by one or the other of them over almost all of the major rivers in Belgium. Local burghers immediately began to charge double the normal labor rates to repair them. Although work gangs of soldiers were put together, most were too tired from the recent marching, countermarching, and fighting to be effective.

Napoleon then abdicated once again, and rode back to Paris amidst the rabble remnants of starving French soldiers, and chased by Belgian creditors tougher than Prussian Uhlans back to Paris. The semi-victorious Allied Armies promised to pay the burghers out of subsequent reparations assessed against the French, but each day the canny capitalists demanded cash for their work.

As the hungry and ammunitionless French fled the countryside south, British marines landing on the coast began to rebuild the British supply line inland, where they were met by the Royal Engineers. The Prussians, retiring east, were rescued by kitchens from the Landwehr Bakery Corps, aka the Killer Penguins. But when they too charged for their wares, rumors of a Northern Conspiracy in the Prussian army caused an investigation by General Gneisenau, and future army reform is expected.

The last word was taken by Baron Johann Van der Haven, United Burghers of Belgium representative for Holland, who said: "I predict that in the future, bridges will be made of unburnable metal. At least here in the Netherlands.

Yes, you laugh now at this radical vision, but it will happen." Is he right? Only time will tell...