Saturday 5 June 2021

7th Cavalry skirmish and some moral angst

A great game at Eric the Shed's this week with a skirmish between a US cavalry patrol and some rampaging Native Americans.  All the figures and terrain courtesy of Eric.  There's a great write up on his blog here

It was a close run thing with the Cavalry just holding off the attacks by the braves.  We used Black Powder v2 with a random activation system for the Native Americans which worked really well.


'A' Troop, pinned down by a creek



Cavalry ride to the rescue


Forming a defensive firing line...

Just in time as the Braves charge in.




If you read Eric's blog post (and you really should!) You'll see he mentions that one of the players had expressed some moral qualms about the setting... that would be me!  Morality in wargames is a tricky thing and can often lead to too much navel-gazing.  I've met players with some very particular ideas about periods or settings that they won't play.  For example, not using SS troops, not playing any 'Colonial' period games, not playing the Confederates, being uncomfortable with anything where there are still living participants etc.  Some of their arguments make sense and others can be a bit random... to be honest though I'd rather play with someone who has thought about it than the kind of player who is very... erm... 'enthusiastic' about certain unsavoury groups (and I've met a few of those too!)

Generally I'm happy to play most things and most sides... I can happily condemn the CSA as a bunch of slave-owning racists while still playing a game with them.  I have a pair of Zulu and British armies (which I really ought to get out more) and have played a lot of Zulu and Dervish games at the Shed without blinking an eye.  But Cavalry vs Native Americans is one period that has always felt uncomfortable to me. Cowboy games are fine, but most Cavalry encounters with Native Americans tended to be pretty squalid massacres (I know there are of course exceptions).  

I realise as I write this, that it makes little sense to have qualms about this but not about for example, the Sudan or South Africa.  Funnily enough playing the game this week didn't cause me any worries once we got going... I guess it's about respecting the bravery of both sides and balancing the game while keeping as much historical accuracy as you can.  I was quite happy to play A Troop, desperately defending the wagons against ferocious Comanches and my concerns disappeared like so much passing tumbleweed.

Up in the loft I have some Darkest Africa figures which I've used with 'Congo' rules and I must admit they do raise some troubling questions and may not make a reappearance.

10 comments:

  1. That’s a nice looking game Alastair…
    It can be a bit of a tricky thing when you start thinking are they/we the good guys or bad when wargaming… in gaming terms they are certainly the enemy.
    I suppose you could go down the path of just using blue army red army in the style of HG Wells in Little Wars.
    I have to admit that there are periods I don’t play for various (some may say moral) reasons… when we play ACW I always favour the Union…
    However when we play Napoleonics I favour the French… But of course they were seen as monsters by many nations.
    So am I they bad guy… No I just like toy soldiers with pretty uniforms.
    I think the difference comes when you start expressing and following the opinions of the recognisable villains in your toy soldier collection.
    I think it is also worth bearing in mind that we are playing with toy soldiers.

    All the best. Aly…
    Oh! I would definitely have played the Comanches…😁

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    1. "I think the difference comes when you start expressing and following the opinions of the recognisable villains in your toy soldier collection".... definitely this!

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  2. Looks an excellent game. I was interested by your comments. It is a difficult one and not one that can be resolved easily. I find imaginations can be helpful personally and save me agonising about things.. It is not a solution for everyone even for me. I’m moving more and more towards seeing what I do as playing with toy soldiers to tell tales , some of which are true.

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    1. Imagi-nations is definitely a way to take the reality out of it.

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    1. Cheers Simon...I can't take any of the credit for that. All Eric the Shed's collection.

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  4. Hi Alastair, I think it's admirable that you even consider these issues, when so many of our fellow gamers either don't care, or even worse, as you say, admire the 'bad guys' (which usually means Waffen SS). I tend to look at both forces in a game. For example, I have no problem gaming the Zulu War as the Zulus were also imperialists and destroyed neighbouring tribes in brutal fashion long before the British turned up. On the other hand, there will be some genuine 'victims' in history, like native Americans perhaps, where one just cannot excuse what happened to them, and which makes it impossible to for me to root for the other side. I don't like playing Confederates or WW2 Germans for obvious reasons, but I must confess to not wanting to play French of any period, just because!

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    1. I have a similar attitude with my Aztecs. They may have been cruelly crushed by the Imperialist Conquistadors but they weren't exactly paragons of virtue either and their neighbours may have been glad to see them removed (although perhaps not with what followed). All this moral wrangling can give me a headache!!

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  5. It's an interesting point. I always struggled with the moral issue when I started out playing wargames in the early 80s. However, I've come to a realisation that it's just a game not actual carnage. Having said that I do struggle to play anything involving Nazis!

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  6. Yes...it's easy to over think all of this and forget that we're pushing little plastic and metal men around a table!

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