HOLF Players' Guild Forum

(Registrar's note: The consistent Danish team finished in second place in the Great Northern War scenario. Danish Monarch Roger Placzek provides his perspective on the game, speaking on behalf of team members Nick Grenier, Tom Downs, and Roger Placzek).

We felt that the teams should have had some input into the starting forces of each nation. With the limited, and I mean limited treasury's that were provided it wouldn't have created any huge advantage, yet would have allowed the teams to provide forces based on their strategy. As it was Denmark saw a 2000k reduction from its starting treasury AFTER the first turn was run. That was a late game decision that obviously effected how we established our start up strategy. In addition it was obvious by the way the Danish forces were positioned that we were poised for attacks against our northern cities by the Swedes and we had very little resources to prevent it, since most of our forces were in either southern Denmark, and or Germany.

The PATE action was a pleasant surprise, as the Swedes had numerical superiority in the Baltic's, Denmark was the only one on our side with a Navy. Yet the one major battle went favorably for Denmark due to Nick's tactics, and due to the fact the Swedes underestimated Denmark's navy.

The key to our overall success was our close cooperation between Saxony and Denmark. In addition the Swedes did not take advantage of the unfavorable start up deployment of Denmark's forces and invaded Denmark in force. They could have easily captured and certainly diverted the Danish army from the German front if they have done this. Rather they concentrated their forces, and majority of the seaborne landings on Germany. This enabled the Saxons and us to work together to destroy the Swedish Army in Germany.

We felt that the measurement of VP's in this scenario was not a good fit, since the starting positions were already in place and fixed and had no relationship on the VP's going forward. Rather this type of scenario should have had predetermined military objectives that has to be met to achieve victory.

Treasury's were used to "level" the playing feel based on what premise, we do not know, but in essence Denmark was broke at the start of the scenario, and that was not the case in the real conflict that started in the 1700's.

Like any game, or campaign, the rules need to be clearly defined and presented so all team members can make decisions based on those rules. Also the victory conditions should be established and made clear to all involved.