All being well I will be getting quite a few games onto the tabletop for my WW1 Palestine Campaign, between 8 to 12 games seems likely, possibly more. This number of games can turn the writing of Battle Reports or After Action Reports (depending on how you like to call them) from being an enjoyable exercise into a bit of a chore. Part of this dilemma is self inflicted as I have a general rule that I don't like starting another campaign game until I have written up the report from the previous game. This presents a quandary and I was pondering about a taking a different approach with these reports by creating some self imposed constraints on the writing of a battle report.
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| A Samurai game currently underway - nothing to do with the post. |
The constraints I plan to apply to the battle report will be the consist of: 4 paragraphs and 4 photographs.
The paragraphs will have the following structure:
- Battle background and order of battle.
- The attacking battle plan.
- 2 paragraphs describing the battle.
This structure is based around the scenarios presented on the "Command and Colors" website where I often go looking for scenario ideas. The game descriptions have a map and a description of the historic events at varying levels of detail. The ones I enjoy reading the most generally have 3 to 4 paragraphs with the following structure:
- Background to the battle
- The plans
- What happened (often over 2 paragraphs)
The four photographs will have:
- 1 photograph of the tabletop or map.
- 3 photographs of key points in the battle.
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| Another picture - just to add some images |
That makes a lot of sense Peter, I sometimes think some of my posts with 20 pictures or so are far too long for a reader to wade through.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing what you come up with and may try something similar.
Regards,
Paul.
It will be interesting to see how the reports progress and as to whether, or not, I adhere to the constraints.
DeletePeter, your suggested approach seems reasonable. Writing BatReps/AARs do take a lot of effort. If this style works to allow you to report your campaign games in a timely fashion while not overwhelming you then this is the proper road to take. I look forward to your new approach.
ReplyDeleteIt may be just having a consistent structure makes the writing of battle reports/AAR less time consuming.
DeletePerhaps in the vein of "official communiques" - "X Cavalry Division engaged the enemy piquets at around 13:00, bringing on a general action thereafter. Somewhereistan was secured by the Royal Foot and Mouth by 17:00. Enemy prisoners numbered in the hundreds with VCorps destroyed as a formation." ?
ReplyDeleteNeil
Hi Neil, Yes, a similar style to the communiques.
DeleteWith the Punic campaign I really liked having a sequence of photos of most of the table as it helped me to follow the battle.
ReplyDeleteThe photo sequence certainly helped with the ebb and flow of the Punic battles. I suspect the photo constraint will be the one that shifts.
DeleteJon of course just had a discussion of similar issues on his blog. Your format seems sensible. Maybe a bit more pictures (six?), at least in earlier, more colorful eras, sucjh as your Ancients campaign/
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how I go with limiting photos. It could be certain battle report styles suit different periods.
DeleteHi Peter, a great idea to have a structure for the reports as writing them becomes much easier. I used to write a weekly report for my son's soccer/football games and having the structure made it much quicker to write.
ReplyDeleteAnd a good idea to constrain the number of photos as too many can often be confusing for others.
I just have one for the end of each turn in my reports but thinking about it could often have less as the situation does not always change that much.
I think your plan is a good one, You can always add a photo or two if you want to remember something for yourself :)
During the games I will likely take one photo per turn, then select the ones required. You a right about a structure helping to simplify things.
DeletePeter -
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to think that the regimen you are adopting might better suit me as well. Although I often quite like doin a detailed narrative, and hope they are entertaining, they can be a chore, all right. Perhaps one ought to let the pics carry more of the narrative, anyhow.
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Ion, The pictures with narrative do work well. Although I am finding uploading a series of pictures into Blogger problematic. Thanks, Peter
DeletePeter -
DeleteThere you touch upon a matter that has been exercising me lately. The unloading ... thingy ... indicates that you can upload multiple pics at a time. In my last post I thought I'd try uploading the whole sequence I planned to use.
Yep: the whole lot reversed. Dumped the lot, and tried again, two or three at a time, and hope. One of those devices that could be sooooo useful, but .... isn't ... or at least, not so much.
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Ion, all very frustrating and you end up doing them one at a time. Peter
DeleteThank you for posting this. I have just been rethinking how I write after action reports and this gives me food for thought.
ReplyDeleteKnowing I will be having a series of WW1 AARs I am hoping these constraints will help speed the process and consistency.
DeleteA common issue it seems that we all struggle to find a solution to Peter. I know that many moons ago only about a 1/3 of my time was spent on the game itself (for BKCII), with 1/2 on set up and take down and the final amount on writing up the AAR, which could take 2 hours or so. Since then I have tried to be more concise, using captioned photos as a guide to the action. I find an overall shot of the table each Turn from the same position helps the reader to keep track of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteConveying what happened on the tabletop to the read seems to be a bit of an art. As you say photos are a useful guide to both writing and reading about the action.
DeleteDefinitely a case of "to each his own" or as my old Prof used to say "you pays your money and takes your choice" .
ReplyDeleteI've never been particularly good at artificial routines or consistency but if it works for you and keeps the chore aspect from overshadowing the pleasure aspect, then give it a try and fine tune with experience.
I suspect I will be doing some fine tuning and adjustments as I go.
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