This is a crazy experiment that popped into my head yesterday. Why can’t we play Pirates! over YouTube?

I’ll be the umpire. I’ll explain what just happened in the last turn and what the basic options are going forward.

You guys tell me what you want to do in the comments. I’ll take a consensus of what most of you say, and then conduct the next turn. Kind of like a live Kriegsspiel type game over YouTube. Why not?!

Go watch the video here:

Then tell me what you would do in the comments on YouTube. Fun!

Pub Battles is used by many military schools and academies around the world. We often hear back that it is their favorite system to game. It is used in classrooms for teaching and as exercises for training.

Now the military is very sensitive about endorsing products. It would be an ethical violation for them to publicly say anything about 1 particular product or company. It could look like government corruption / favoritism, right? So we can’t say who or where, but we get many glowing reviews from military instructors and schools from all over the US, France, UK, Ireland, Denmark and Scandinavia.

Here is one we got recently:

“The survey feedback for Pub Battles …

was that it was the best game out of the 10 we ran.”

The survey feedback for Pub Battles “Waterloo: into the abyss” with all of the expansion battles and the campaigns rules was that it was the best game out of the 10 we ran in my “history in action” elective.  If there is a vassal mod of the full campaign in pub battles, you should consider using it with a special communication and orders rules.

Note, the students had played “Austerlitz: One Sharp Blow” 2 lessons prior to the final class where we played Waterloo, so they had already learned the Pub Battles system with a single battle before playing it with campaign rules.

I had 3 planning rooms for the Army Commanders (Blucher, Wellington, and Napoleon) and had maps for the two wings of the campaign separated (Ney [Quatre Bras] and Grouchy [Ligny]) with strict rules not to talk to anyone on the other map without sending a letter via a runner.  I also have a house rule that you can only communicate with corps commanders that are in command range (I assign a student to each corps commander, as well as the army/wing commander).

I only allowed the Army Commanders to be at the battle table where they currently were located.

It wasn’t as rich as a full Kriegsspiel, but it was enough that the players got the idea, and loved it.  Had a huge impact on how they saw the campaign, and the AAR was excellent. 

Best review ever!:

”I have been wargaming for thirty years and can safely say this is my top wargame system. There is a place for miniatures, hex games etc, but If I have to pick one, this is it. Fairly simply to play, yet feels like the most realistic experience of being a General during a battle. I spent 20 years as an Army officer and this is the only game that felt more like a real wargame vs. fun wargame. Coupled with the new Brigade pieces and quality of the components, this is the ultimate scotch and cigar game for me. Hurry up and get the Bull Run brigade blocks made!”

-Shawn R.

Yes, the new Brigade series is out now!

What are all the small or thin slope lines on the Antietam map?  Are these hills or not?

–I wouldn’t call Cemetery Hill a ‘hill’ at all.

Those were on the historical base maps we used as a reference.  We decided to include them on ours as well. 

I’ve walked this battlefield.  Everything from Antietam creek to the west is all up hill.  The whole thing slopes up from there. 

We almost considered a rule that says that if you are attacking west, it is up hill.  Another approach would be to count the small slope lines.  That is basically what they are trying to show:  that everything west is uphill.  It is a minor rise though.

So what is the official answer for the game?  We ignore them.  We only count the big hill slopes.  We included the small ones for historical reference, so players could house rule them.  I’d recommend just using the big ones.

This is consistent with Kriegsspiel.  Slopes lower than 5 degrees don’t have any impact. 

By that measure, Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg is also not a ‘Hill’.  I’ve walked that battlefield too.  I’ve walked and jogged the route of Pickett’s charge to the high water mark.   I was shocked at how flat it all was.  I wouldn’t call it a ‘hill’ at all.  It’s nothing like the Round Tops or Culp’s Hill.  Look at the famous painting:  Cyclorama of Pickett’s Charge: 

Yep, looks pretty much like that.  Pretty flat, huh?

From a strict game modeling perspective, I would count Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg as clear terrain.  That would be most accurate.  We almost decided to go this route.  Why didn’t we?  Marketing and consumer’s expectations.    

It is counted as a ‘Hill’ in almost every other game on Gettysburg.  Gamers expect to see it.  They look for it.  Fight over it.  Where is Cemetery Hill on the map?  What?!  It’s not on here?!  It’s called a ‘Hill’, right?  You expect to see it that way on the map.  Imagine the howls of protest from trolls and critics:  “They actually made a Gettysburg game with no Cemetery Hill on it.”

Well, it is easy to remedy.  Just house rule it.  Play the battle ignoring that hill.  What happens then?  It would be an interesting play and see how it impacts the game.

How do we play it? As shown and written in the rules. We do count it as a hill. That’s our official answer.        

With the release of the new 4.0 rules, we made a few tweaks to the combat results.  A number of good improvements to the game here but what if you have the old dice?  No, this isn’t a scam to make everybody buy all new dice again.  No worries.   =)

 If you have old Pub Battles Dice and want to update to the new Musket Battles design, just let us know and we’ll send then out to you for FREE. 

All we ask is that you wait until you order something new.  That makes it easy for us to just include them with your current order.

 –Otherwise it will turn into an insane mess of us trying to send out thousands all at once by hand with thousands of more complicated emails to sort through.

How to get the new dice stickers?

Next time you order something from us, put a little note for us when you checkout.  Tell us the number and types of dice you need new stickers for. 

How to replace them?

Soak your old dice in a bowl of hot water for an hour.  Replace the water with fresh, hot water to warm them back up for about 5 min.  Then the old stickers should easily peel off.  Dry and rub off any remaining residue with a dry towel, then you are good to go!

Very special thanks to Aitor for translating these rules for us!

Check out his site HERE.

Here are the Order Sheets for all the battles in the Waterloo campaign. You can download them for FREE here. These are especially critical for hidden marching on the 17th.

All 4 maps are out now for the Waterloo campaign! We also have a new updated version of the Waterloo Scenario. These are completely revamped and include the extra rules you need to play a continuous running campaign on all 4 maps at once. You can download a copy here for FREE.