The Defense of Duffer’s Warpgate The Defense of Duffer’s Drift was a Boer War-era book about tactics. The premise of the book was a series of dreams in which the main character had been given command of a small force and tasked with the defense of a river crossing area against a Boer resupply column. The character makes mistakes in the first dream, leading to his capture. He then learns from the mistakes. In the next dream, he remembers what he learned, but makes additional mistakes, eventually learning from them as well. This process continues over many dreams, until he applies everything that he has learned to the final dream and is victorious. For those interested in reading the original, please go here: http://www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/misc/duffers-drift/duffers-drift.htm As I read it, I couldn’t help thinking that it was a great idea, a way of teaching tactics a little at a time in an interesting fashion. Since I enjoy 40k, I thought that the story could use a little translation. Some of the concepts don’t apply in 40k, since this is a table top game, but the idea as a whole is still sound. I plan on writing this as a series of battle reports, with one battle and set of lessons each week. I will use the same scenario and forces each time, to stay consistent and more readily show the changes in tactics. The game will be a 500 point cleanse mission and the forces are below: Space Marines 71 Chaplain +boltpistol 131 Hvy Bolter, Flamer, 6xBolter 131 Hvy Bolter, Flamer, 6xBolter 116 Hvy Bolter, Flamer, 5xBolter 50 Landspeeder w/Heavy Bolter 499pts Dark Eldar106 Dracon 152 Raider Squad (DL+SC+Blaster+Sybarite w/Agonizer+4rifles) 144 Raider Squad (DL+SC+Blaster+Sybarite w/Agonizer+3rifles) 95 Reaver squad (2xBlaster, 1xSplinter rifle) 497 I also plan on using a style of battle report that is somewhat new to me. This is the result of a discussion at The Millenium Gate about different kinds of battle reports. While reading the extremely detailed version of battle reports (Squad Marg Isturrith fired both Dark Lances and all 8 Splinter rifles at the leading Space Marine squad, hitting 6 and wounding 4, but 3 made their armor saves…) is helpful for understanding exactly what is going on and can be useful for understanding tactics, it is also very boring to me. On the other hand, the fluffy narratives (Maximus dodged through the crackling beams of dark energy as he leapt toward his hated foe. The servos in his Powerfist whined as he prepared to purge all who stood before him…) while interesting to read, don’t necessarily make it easier to follow the game or understand the tactics the player used. Pictures are useful in understanding the flow of the game, but they take a long time to load and they tend to obscure some details. However, I’ve found maps to be very helpful to my sequential understanding of the game and the tactics involved. Eventually, I decided that the combination I would most like to see would be a narrative description of the battle with maps for clarity and tactical understanding. This series of articles will be my first attempt at battle reports using this format, so I'm eager to see how they turn out. Let me know what you think by contacting me at charlescowanata@msn.com. |