Armchair Dragoons Forums
Wargaming => Age of Gunpowder => Topic started by: bob48 on June 25, 2020, 05:19:09 PM
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Or, to give it its full title, 'Dorking - The German Conquest of Britain - 1875'
And just to stop you wondering, Dorking is the name of a small town in Surrey, and not an illegal activity or some sort of despicable habit.
This is a small game designed by Mark Wightman and produced by Tiny Battle Publishing, and a copy recently came my way from a good friend.
The premise of the game is based on a short story by G.T.Chesney in 1871. He was a serving officer in the British Army who had great concerns about what he saw as the deplorable organisation of the army, much of which was posted to various parts of the Empire and had little changed since the Crimean War.
Having witnessed the Prussian Army and its successes in the wars with Denmark, Austria and France between 1864 and 1871, his aim was to alarm and make the powers that be aware of how vulnerable England would be to a belligerent and now newly united Germany.
His book did in fact influence a lot of people and eventually this resulted in the long delayed Cardwell reforms being pushed through a bit quicker.
The game uses a very simple system, one 17 x 22" map and 88 counters. The rules are easy to understand and the system is not by any means complex. I have set it up for a bit of a run-through and I'll report further once I've had chance to play it.
It looks like fun, and its has an unusual 'what-if' theme.
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We should have named the site 'Dorking'
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..which would have made us all Dorks?
Sounds about right to me.
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I had a couple of goes with this now and...its a very strange game - apart from the obvious subject, of course.
Units are basically in one of three states; normal, disrupted, or broken (destroyed). Each unit has a 'break value, between 7 and 10, and there are 3 'types' of combat each conducted in a specific phase. Artillery Fire, Rifle Fire and Melee.
Basically, a combat unit rolls 2D6 and if the number is equal to the targets break value, then that unit is disrupted, If the score exceeds the break value then the target is destroyed and removed from the game. There are a few modifiers for terrain and so on, and disrupted units have reduced values and are restricted in what actions they can take.
Artillery is, to my mind, a bit too powerful and despite the fact that the Germans are using their splendid Krupp steel guns with superior munitions, while the poor Btits have reverted to cheaper and simpler muzzle loaders, both sides used the same artillery fire table. Admittedly the German batteries have a generally higher break value, but that is about the only difference.
Anyway - artillery works slightly different insofar as the gunnery table gives a 'to hit' number needed on 2D6 and this depends on the range to target, so, for instance, at a range of 7 hexes, and 9 is needed to hit. So, if your hit number is equal to the targets break value, the target is disrupted and flipped over. If, however, the target is not in cover and the number exceeds its break value, then its destroyed. Now, here is the odd bit. each battery has a 'break surplus' number - either 1 or 2, and if the hit number on 2D6 is greater than the targets break value by the break surplus value or more, then its dead.
Confused? I certainly was.
The game itself is very easy to learn and not bad for a bit of fun, but the mechanics do seem a bit 'off' in some ways, especially the artillery rules.
I'll certainly give it another bash at some stage, but not for a while I think.
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I think I understand the title of this thread now.
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Did you manage to get through the headache of setting everybody up within certain hexes of each other without too much trouble?
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That was not a problem at all - in fact, I actually enjoyed the setting up part of it - its pretty straightforwards for the Brits, but, for the Germans, who only have 6 game turns, you need to give the set-up some serious thought. The first artillery fire by them I found to be devastating on both games played so far.
No stacking in the game, so again, unit set-up is pretty critical. I suspect I placed too many defending units too far forwards.
I'll definitely be trying it again, although, as you will have gathered, I'm not too keen on the arty rules.
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Hello guys !!!
The first thing is to apologize for not having written here before, until today I have not seen the thread ... as you know, we have many problems with the transport company and we are trying to solve them ... that is why we have had to change company...
We did the survey to see who the game had not reached and to see how many shipments we have to do again and we are working on it.
Please excuse the delay and inconvenience ... we are a small publisher, but we care about any problems that may arise with our customers ... you are the ones who make it possible for us to continue launching games on the market.
To those who have not yet received the game, we will send it to you again, you can be sure of that.
I want to apologize to you again and for any questions you have about the game, please ask me ... I will be watching this forum.
Best regards
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I want to apologize to you again and for any questions you have about the game, please ask me ... I will be watching this forum.
This one might be in the wrong thread ;)
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That was not a problem at all - in fact, I actually enjoyed the setting up part of it - its pretty straightforwards for the Brits, but, for the Germans, who only have 6 game turns, you need to give the set-up some serious thought. The first artillery fire by them I found to be devastating on both games played so far.
No stacking in the game, so again, unit set-up is pretty critical. I suspect I placed too many defending units too far forwards.
I'll definitely be trying it again, although, as you will have gathered, I'm not too keen on the arty rules.
You made it further than I did. I bought this a couple of years ago and made it about halfway through the rules before I decided to shelve it.
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Didn't know you had this one, Doug. Well, we both can't be wrong :bigthumb:
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We should have named the site 'Dorking'
'Dorking Without Pants'
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We should have named the site 'Dorking'
'Dorking Without Pants'
Not recommended as it can induce severe head-aches.
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We should have named the site 'Dorking'
'Dorking Without Pants'
Not recommended as it can induce severe head-aches.
You may be over-Dorking it.
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Over Dorking is the next village down the road, and is not far from Greater Dorking. These places should not be confused with Dorking-on-Sea
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Over Dorking is the next village down the road, and is not for from Greater Dorking. These places should not be confused with Dorking-on-Sea
Let's not forget Nether Dorking.
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Or the Forest of Dorking
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Over Dorking is the next village down the road, and is not for from Greater Dorking. These places should not be confused with Dorking-on-Sea
Let's not forget Nether Dorking.
Oh yes. I'd forgotten about that.
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Dorkingham
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Wasn't Guy of Guisborne the sheriff of Dorkingham?
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Wasn't Guy of Guisborne the sheriff of Dorkingham?
What Guy dorks to his ham in the privacy of his Guisborne is entirely up to him.
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...you may be the only person in our version of reality that actually understands that statement. ???
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It's safe to say that no one else understands him.
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This sounds like the start of a Midsommer Murder episode.
Can Chief Inspector Bawbany ferret out the dastardly villain?
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he may have used Dorking as a previous wargame Rules for the conduct of the war game on a map published in 1896 used the maps titled the Hills east and west of Dorking https://archive.org/details/rulesforconducto00grearich/page/n5/mode/2up see page 17
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and also used in the 1884 version of the game http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1594188685099~338&locale=en_GB&metadata_object_ratio=10&show_metadata=true&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&preferred_usage_type=VIEW_MAIN&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true
this seems to be a good version of the rules
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This is interesting. I do enjoy 'what if' types of games.
I found the original story online, if anyone wants to check it out: https://archive.org/details/battleofdorking00chesrich/page/n9/mode/2up
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Of course, reading it now, and thinking about it, you realise that the forces involved would have been totally inadequate for the task. The idea of a couple of division marching to and then through London, which is a pretty big place, and taking the centre of government is pretty far fetched. And then they detach a force to take out Woolwich Arsenal, who, it seems, is the sole provider of ammunition, and no reserve stocks to be had?
By the time they had marched through the suburbs, half of them would have disappeared into houses of ill repute, pubs, gambling dens and drug holes, Womans Institute tea parlours or pounced upon by various religious zealots and dragged off to sing hymns.
By Jove, it won't do sir! dash it all.
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Well, those places would attract the lower, coarser type of landser.
For the more erudite, there was the Salvation Army bands and reading rooms.