Overlord - Feedback and Review

[Mike the Pike]

I was talking about last weekend, when I went to Knotfest (which was F**king awesome!) \nn/

Anyways, I loved the Overlord event overall. Highlights include holding off YS's Yankee Paras with his very own German Paras, watching Prim run around like a chook with its head cut off and the sheer spectacle of it all.

My only real suggestion would be to give the defenders a bit more to do. I basically just sat on the closest objective and that's about it. It was fun annoying the crap out of YS but I didn't have to move very far. Perhaps separate but linked tables might work a little better. For example, if the forces on the beach achieve certain objectives, the other tables get reinforcements or other bonuses.

Anyways, this Chardonnay is really kicking in, so I'll leave it there.

P.S. Well done Prim, it was awesome!

[ashmie]

I was only there in spirit and from what I saw from the photos it looked pretty damned good. As a suggestion for when you play again could you span it over two days? With all these big projects it takes a hell of a lot of work and then it's always a bit of a rush getting through the scenarios on the day. More time, more beer between days and more chilling maybe? In an ideal world you would have this set up on someones table all year and just chip away at it like a game of chess. Spend ages on your moves, talk about the possibilities etc
Hobby room volunteers perhaps?
All in all very pleased with what I saw. A mixture of Iiinaa envy and a deep sense of pride for the Nagoyahammers. I know I wasn't the easiest player to get along with at times but I am proud to have been part of this number. Salutes.
Still yet to pick up Bolt Action but have been inspired from seeing this Overlord campaign. Flames of War this weekend.

[Primarch]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I haven't heard from any of the Japanese players yet, but I guess we have some things to work with here.

-2 Days of Gaming
I had considered this, but then scheduling becomes a much bigger problem. As it stands, we had two people drop out in advance of the event and 1 was sick on the day. Pikey had to leave early as well. In many cases significant others and/or family commitments limit how much time people have for gaming.

-Dice pulls
Yeah, this is a tricky one. Keeping things flowing and keeping everyone active was a struggle. YS suggested limiting it to 12 dice per turn. Players were limited on dice (12 per turn actually), but some players passed dice over to others so it seemed like they had a lot.

-Table size/scale
The board looked epic (IMHO), and there was so much going on all across the table. As some of you said, it was hard to look at the bigger picture and focus on your own area. I personally like that aspect of having a tactical level view and a strategic level view, but I can see how it would be frustrating to miss out on parts of it.
Time permitting, a break between turns where commanders can walk round the table and discuss their progress would be good. I think the length of the table was an issue, preventing some players from getting stuck in quickly. While it did make weapon ranges an issue, I think table orientation was a problem. Playing side to side would have been better (Though I think 12 feet of beaches and cliffs was beyond me).
Playing multiple games across multiple tables is always possible, but I think that really does separate the action even more. The goal was to put on a massive, grand scale battle, which I think we achieved (at least in part) with Overlord. I am mulling over a few ideas on how we can compromise between the two, to get the best result.

-More objectives
Yes. I found it much easier to assign goals to allied forces than to axis and even then this was the weakest part of my planning. Apologies to all for this failure on my part.

So, some definite points for improvement there.

Some other things I have been considering:
-Armies
Thank you to everyone for bringing along such a massive selection of troops and tanks. There wouldn't have been half as much excitement without everyone pitching in and providing models for their team mates and even opponents. An extra round of thanks to those of you who bought new armies just for this event, whether you got them finished off or not. I know a lot of work went into the Germans, Americans and British (and Russians ) that hit the table.
For standard games, the Reinforced Platoon (1 of each team and 3-4 squads of troops) works just fine, but in a larger game we have the opportunity to be a bit more historical with our forces. In a 1000 point game, a Sherman or a Panther can be pretty potent, but tanks usually operated in squads. With the exception of light mortars, most armies grouped their tubes together to bombard an area. I was thinking that if we tried another big game, each player would begin with their own infantry platoon, but support weapons and vehicles could be grouped together to make their own mortar/mg/AT/artillery platoons.

-Baggage
It's just a minor thing and one that probably only affected me as I was dancing round the room, but there were bags everywhere (mine included). To avoid tripping over anyone's collection, I think we should make more of an effort to keep bags, jackets and boxes at the very edge of the room.

-Terrain
The table looked spectacular once it was all laid out, not just the beaches, but the whole set-up. Pikey's Farm is a gorgeous piece of kit, kudos for him on a job well done. Koji's car was heavily laden with nearly everything I had available and even that wasn't enough, so I'd like to thank everyone who brought stuff along, big and small. Nice terrain really does make the game come alive.
As I don't have a car of my own and can't always guarantee being able to get my collection to the venue, I'd like to encourage everyone to keep working on their own terrain collections, so that we can properly decorate our gaming areas at future events.

And that's about it for now. I'll keep my thinking cap on, and if anyone has anymore ideas in the meantime, please let me know.