My next shipment from the USA of Blue Moon, Old Glory, Sash and Saber and Raven Banner will - so says UPS- be delivered this coming Wednesday. It is a big shipment of 15 boxes/crates containing roughly a quarter of a tonne of miniatures. Chaps waiting for back order will as usual be dealt with on a "longest wait first sorted" basis once I have broken down and sorted out the several thousand packs of figures. This job may take a while but stuff will start leaving here on Thursday and Friday I should think with the bulk going off early next week.
As soon as this lot is sorted I will be putting in another order to the USA for the gear I've run out of in the intervening time while this order was being cast and packed though I cannot guarantee that I'll get that in hand before Christmas.
As always if your are unsure drop me an email or give me a bell- details on the website - alsp check out the oldglory newsdesk blog on the OGUK website.
Monday, 27 November 2017
Tuesday, 14 November 2017
Shiny Chasseurs and a Curassier
As always when you work for a living personal stuff takes longer than you estimate - usually by a good way.
Thus it was with these finally finished Chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard- Napoleonic of course. I've been at these for what seems like years and there are only 10 of them. Of course I've been painting other stuff as well both for this project and for others such as the 40mm Wars of the Roses game our group put on at the Durham show last June.
However these are now finally finished all but the Officer being 30mm Minifigs from the late 60s- early 70s . The Officer himself being a Stadden. Horses are Stadden or Willie.
I've also begun a unit of Minot French Curassiers. These need work most notably with their carbines(which were I dong an earlier campaign I need not worry about but this is 1815 so they need carbines). Now I have carbines for a good number of these. It comes as a small casting integral with the valise but the figures have no carbine belts so as it stands just sort of hangs there uselessly. Carbine belts are easily made from metal foil from used bottles of a decent red. French, Spanish or Italian- your choice, though currently my taste runs to Italian. Its a bit fiddly but better than letting the carbine hang at a silly angle from nothing in particular. The casualty- hiding quite sensibly in the shrubbery is also a minot.
Was hoping to get the first shinyloo game in this weekend but it does not look likely. Most of the rest of the T.W.A.T.S. have work commitments so once again I will probably have to postpone until I can get enough TWATS in one place.
Thus it was with these finally finished Chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard- Napoleonic of course. I've been at these for what seems like years and there are only 10 of them. Of course I've been painting other stuff as well both for this project and for others such as the 40mm Wars of the Roses game our group put on at the Durham show last June.
However these are now finally finished all but the Officer being 30mm Minifigs from the late 60s- early 70s . The Officer himself being a Stadden. Horses are Stadden or Willie.
I've also begun a unit of Minot French Curassiers. These need work most notably with their carbines(which were I dong an earlier campaign I need not worry about but this is 1815 so they need carbines). Now I have carbines for a good number of these. It comes as a small casting integral with the valise but the figures have no carbine belts so as it stands just sort of hangs there uselessly. Carbine belts are easily made from metal foil from used bottles of a decent red. French, Spanish or Italian- your choice, though currently my taste runs to Italian. Its a bit fiddly but better than letting the carbine hang at a silly angle from nothing in particular. The casualty- hiding quite sensibly in the shrubbery is also a minot.
Was hoping to get the first shinyloo game in this weekend but it does not look likely. Most of the rest of the T.W.A.T.S. have work commitments so once again I will probably have to postpone until I can get enough TWATS in one place.
Monday, 6 November 2017
Set unit sizes in wargames rules
One of the things in "modern" wargaming that really sets my teeth on edge is the use of set and immutable unit sizes. For me an otherwise decent set of rules such as Honours of War or Maurice is totally ruined by the use of the same unit sizes for all nationalities.
Now the two sets I have mentioned are by no means the only ones or even the worst offender(That prize goes as with most things to DBR) indeed any set of rules which enforces a set organisation upon the player will get my back up. Now as it happens I like both Maurice and Honours of war and- certainly with the latter if I can work out how to solve the problem of the set unit sizes the rules will rise further in my estimation.
If you take even a cursory look at any campaign you quickly see that unit strengths in any give army vary widely and that between armies and nationalities the variation is even wider. So why do so many of today's "game designers" cop out and impose a set organisation upon the players?. Equally why do so many players accept it. Well that one is easy because its FunFunFun and please don't ask us to know anything about what we are doing because knowing stuff isn't funfunfun . Of course it may be even more funfunfun if the organisations are completely fictitious and bear no resemblance to reality.(DBR again and of course Pikemans Lament ) Never forgetting for one moment that the funsters only allow their kind of funfunfun to be any fun at all- and who appointed them the Fun Police anyway?
So if knowing your military history- even a little bit- isn't fun then why bother to be a WAR gamer at all. There are plenty of games that do not require any kind of knowledge, that are equally as absorbing (so I'm told).
Without the history and knowledge I couldn't be bothered with the actual gaming. It would have no real point of itself and I'm sure I could find another reason to meet my mates down the pub.
However back to the plot.
Set unit sizes - or rather rules which force set unis sizes are only a gaming convenience. A lazy way of organising rules for the convenience of the game designer and in theory the convenience of the gamer who then- obeying the diktats of the game won't need to sully his mind with anything as difficult as actually knowing about the period he is playing.
Now there are plenty of rule sets which don't force unit sizes upon you.My favourite commercial ECW set -Forlorn Hope- doesn't. WRG didn't. The Classics didn't really- though Grant came close but you could get round his unit sizes easily as the rules were figure driven WHAB didn't or its offshoots. Young didn't- though his suggested units sort of did the rules were not dependent upon the unit sizes to actually function and that is the nub of my distaste for set unit sizes. If the set unit size is and worse- the points system are part of how the combat and morale mechanisms function then - at least to me- it is pretty obvious that the game designer has not read up on his period- or if he has he then decides to chuck all of that out in favour of his favourite(this week) "game mechanism" . Now this may not matter if you are making a fantasy game of a sci-fi game or a game of zombie vampire cowboy nazis or whatever adolescent bandwaggon you are jumping on this afternoon but it should matter if you are writing any set of rules which purports to depict an historical period.
As I write it occurs- not for the first time- that there may be a widening distinction between the "game designer" and the rules writer. Their objectives may be very different. A rules writer may actually want to reflect the historical period in his rules for wargaming the military actions of that period. A game designer may simply want to make what he considers to be a "good game"- whatever that might be. Now if the 2 differing sets of criteria overlap all well and good you may - just may get a good game that reflects its chosen period or part of it. Many "games" these days are significantly more limited in scope than say Forlorn Hope or Tactica or WRG or even Black Powder . But of course to actually mention this to the Fun Police brings down coals of fire upon any who do not want lightweight adolescent amusement ALL the time (instead of just some of the time) and whose idea of fun may be different from another zombie dice rolling contest.
The set unit size is of course only a symptom of limited game disease and convenience wargaming and in themselves there is nothing actually wrong with either but if that is all that is left when the Fun Police have finished..... Fortunately at the moment there are still enough blokes out there who have their own idea of fun.
Now the two sets I have mentioned are by no means the only ones or even the worst offender(That prize goes as with most things to DBR) indeed any set of rules which enforces a set organisation upon the player will get my back up. Now as it happens I like both Maurice and Honours of war and- certainly with the latter if I can work out how to solve the problem of the set unit sizes the rules will rise further in my estimation.
If you take even a cursory look at any campaign you quickly see that unit strengths in any give army vary widely and that between armies and nationalities the variation is even wider. So why do so many of today's "game designers" cop out and impose a set organisation upon the players?. Equally why do so many players accept it. Well that one is easy because its FunFunFun and please don't ask us to know anything about what we are doing because knowing stuff isn't funfunfun . Of course it may be even more funfunfun if the organisations are completely fictitious and bear no resemblance to reality.(DBR again and of course Pikemans Lament ) Never forgetting for one moment that the funsters only allow their kind of funfunfun to be any fun at all- and who appointed them the Fun Police anyway?
So if knowing your military history- even a little bit- isn't fun then why bother to be a WAR gamer at all. There are plenty of games that do not require any kind of knowledge, that are equally as absorbing (so I'm told).
Without the history and knowledge I couldn't be bothered with the actual gaming. It would have no real point of itself and I'm sure I could find another reason to meet my mates down the pub.
However back to the plot.
Set unit sizes - or rather rules which force set unis sizes are only a gaming convenience. A lazy way of organising rules for the convenience of the game designer and in theory the convenience of the gamer who then- obeying the diktats of the game won't need to sully his mind with anything as difficult as actually knowing about the period he is playing.
Now there are plenty of rule sets which don't force unit sizes upon you.My favourite commercial ECW set -Forlorn Hope- doesn't. WRG didn't. The Classics didn't really- though Grant came close but you could get round his unit sizes easily as the rules were figure driven WHAB didn't or its offshoots. Young didn't- though his suggested units sort of did the rules were not dependent upon the unit sizes to actually function and that is the nub of my distaste for set unit sizes. If the set unit size is and worse- the points system are part of how the combat and morale mechanisms function then - at least to me- it is pretty obvious that the game designer has not read up on his period- or if he has he then decides to chuck all of that out in favour of his favourite(this week) "game mechanism" . Now this may not matter if you are making a fantasy game of a sci-fi game or a game of zombie vampire cowboy nazis or whatever adolescent bandwaggon you are jumping on this afternoon but it should matter if you are writing any set of rules which purports to depict an historical period.
As I write it occurs- not for the first time- that there may be a widening distinction between the "game designer" and the rules writer. Their objectives may be very different. A rules writer may actually want to reflect the historical period in his rules for wargaming the military actions of that period. A game designer may simply want to make what he considers to be a "good game"- whatever that might be. Now if the 2 differing sets of criteria overlap all well and good you may - just may get a good game that reflects its chosen period or part of it. Many "games" these days are significantly more limited in scope than say Forlorn Hope or Tactica or WRG or even Black Powder . But of course to actually mention this to the Fun Police brings down coals of fire upon any who do not want lightweight adolescent amusement ALL the time (instead of just some of the time) and whose idea of fun may be different from another zombie dice rolling contest.
The set unit size is of course only a symptom of limited game disease and convenience wargaming and in themselves there is nothing actually wrong with either but if that is all that is left when the Fun Police have finished..... Fortunately at the moment there are still enough blokes out there who have their own idea of fun.
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