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You may know that I’ve been struggling for a few years now (mental health can and should be discussed) and tried to get enthusiasm for many a game recently with the total result being a larger lead pile and smaller bank balance!
I had been watching The Joy of Wargaming on YouTube (since he started I think) and enjoyed his 2mm and map driven games but failed twice starting up again and got distracted with hex boards and old figures etc. while missing the core point of play the game not matter what you have.
Hunting through the numerous boxes I have scattered showed I had lots of skirmish bits but no real army, let alone two and such a hodgepodge of terrain that nothing really matched and my heart fell and nearly gave in again till I reread the One Hour rules and realised that very little terrain is needed and the whole game is abstracted to minimal troop types.
This minimalism fits well with my current abilities and despite meaning a scratch start it’s doable in little chunks hopefully building up to a ‘real’ nation.
So to start with I’ve tried to limit my aims and needs as follows:
1) Two factions only
2) Rules based on One Hour Wargames – horse and musket through to ACW period (not sure exactly)
3) No figures – I’m using blocks from Battlescale so it’s a bit Kriegsspiel
4) Very basic scenery – I cannot cope with foam, glue, flock etc at this time so it’s felt and a pair of scissors!Limiting myself to the first six scenarios gave me a need to cut out 3 hills, 2 woods, 2 roads, 2 bridges and 1 river:
The board will be an off-cut of hardboard and given the size of the infantry blocks the board is just about 1/3rd that in the rules so it’s easy to scale and means I can pop the game onto a chair / sideboard / bay window if needs must.
I did think about backing the felt with card but for now I’ll keep an eye on the edges to see if they fray.
Next step is to basically paint the blocks and try a game or two as stand alone scenarios – maybe the same games using the different period rules.
Will this end up as a complex multi-nation fight? Maybe across a fictional Lincolnshire (last done as an alien invasion steam punk campaign) but not till I’m comfortable.
Wow, thank you for the support, ideas and best wishes!
I’ve been blown away by the response so far but determined not to let my mind run away with ideas as it does (I have a first class PhD in drifting and runaway thoughts).
@ Steve Johnson I am fortunate enough to have both the rules and ‘making of’ book as well as being a lurker on his blog. I have a Mars vs Human set of 15mm figures (in classic toy high gloss) but not enough and no mounted or vehicles so it’s stalled till I have money.
@ Ian Pillay and @ Warwell As for thread hijacks – do not feel guilty as I enjoy the reading and keeping them together here will be a handy reference for me.
I did manage to get some of the resin blocks washed and dried today – anxiety struck part way through as I imagined loosing them down the drain (the sink plug is a push to seal type) so the rest got left in the box for another day.
I am/was unsure about how to paint them, originally thinking classic red / blue but using the Lincolnshire flag colours for one side sits well. For the less fortunate folk who live outside the county our flag is:
So the infantry and cavalry blocks can be blue / green tops with yellow sides and a red top and dividing stripes, though the stripes maybe a step too far for my painting at the moment. No idea of the other side though – technically it could be a neighbouring county – Yorkshire, Notts, Leic, Cambs and Norfolk being the ‘big ones’ but we do have a large coast so it could be an EU country. In my old game it was Yorkshire backed by aliens invading over the Humber through the ‘Low Villages’ so I may pick that theme up again (without the aliens)!One quirk of the one hour rules is that each unit takes 15 hits to remove – this leads to a bit of a slug-fest and static games once contact is made as neither side can withdraw in some periods and it’s unclear in others (i.e. cavalry are mentioned as being able to withdraw but infantry are not mentioned either way). So to speed up the games for me I plan to use the ‘three strikes and you are out’ idea and a simple opposed roll with unit mods as per the rules.
Hunting through my boxes, I found a set of red/yellow counters (one colour each side) purchased many many years ago but they are way too large compared to the smaller blocks:
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Now Alice (my daughter) was a bit stuck for a pressie for me and kindly arranged for ‘The Magick Shop‘ to hand pyrograph some small 3mm ply circles with the number one and two on opposite sides:
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These will keep the board tidy while cutting out the need to individually label each block and track the damage on paper, also I could use the larger counters to denote infantry in squares rather than scraps of paper.As for period, I’m currently leaning towards the horse and musket or rifle and sabre period rules rather than ACW as I like the idea of cavalry charges! I guess I’ll try both (maybe even the same scenario) and see what I am more comfortable with – for folk who have not read the rules there is very little difference and BOTH periods are covered in 6 pages of rules with another 6 covering the background to combat during the periods. Yup, these rules are light to say the least.
…I imagined loosing them down the drain…
Me too. I have taken to washing stuff in a sieve within a bowl…
Makes a lot more sense – To finish the remaining bits of the first army I ended up having to use a bowl, in the kitchen sink with a plastic cover over the plug and then the plug had a filter in it. I hate it when the thoughts do not let go! BUT I won – they got washed.
Add insult to injury though, I got three sprays into the undercoat and it started raining but not to worry as a light coat will fix the odd spots.
So rather than trying to paint the red stripes, I cheated and sprayed red over everything and can add the blue / green / yellow on the top 🙂 The nice thing about the OHW is the low number of units – a complete army (based on the maximum of each type possible) is
i.e. For the horse and musket period, the max of any unit possible (for games with 6 units) are four infantry, two artillery, two skirmishers and two cavalry but as the troops are randomised the maximums cannot be reached for every troop type at once. So, If you max out on infantry (four units) you only get two of one artillery, one skirmisher and one cavalry unit but if you max on cavalry (both units) then you can only have three infantry.
Strictly speaking, the skirmishers should be the size of infantry and the artillery smaller but what the heck – these are the blocks I have and I’m not sure it would be critical to a game given the three hit removal.
Just had a thought, I could have a game before painting everything up as the grey blocks can be the other army – unpainted figures on the table (gasp, shock, horror).
After a real crap couple of months (worse of my life I think) I decided to spend a little time and get the armies completed today.
I found my white paint thicker than my PVA but not to worry, it gave a reasonable base for the yellow giving me the total forces looking like:
The hardboard did not really work as it slides around and is slightly warped but for now it will do fine esp if I can find my sticky feet (no NOT those). The slight rough top holds the felt ‘terrain’ well but the lack of flock means the blocks clatter when you move them around – it reminds me a bit of the old Heroscape plastic tiles.
The green and red paints could have been brighter to match the flag TBH but it works so all in all I now have the bits for the first 6 scenarios.
To start with I’m going to fight a few games to get a grip with the rules and see how I feel esp as I do not know the classic tactics for the periods so the purest may cringe when I move troops oddly…
Having gone through the rules it looks like I’m about to play my first Napoleonic game ever!
To start with I’m going to use the horse and musket rules and a few dice rolls later the battle field and troops are ready to fight:
The scenario is number 5 – Bridgehead.
Basically, Blue has to get one unit within 4in of the north (top of pic) of the bridge at the end of the game to win BUT to add to the complexity both forces deploy over the first six turns with Red coming on from the north / east / west and Blue from the south.
Gut feel is that the two Blue cannon may be crucial in attacking and Red may have issues catching the cavalry…
House rules are:
a) Three hits and the unit is out
b) Movement will be random – force to move a unit first will be selected by pulling a coloured block out of a bag blind.
Sadly the image is not showing Andrew. Great that you got in game in though and look forward to seeing it when the image issue is fixed
I felt as they progressed they upped the ante and I liked them less.
And yes, they are pretty samey.My favourite bits were the Geheimnisnacht story and the Sewer Jacks, though the journey through the Mountains and the barrows was also good.
What about yourself?
Or is that another topic?
Hope you have fun and chuffed to see the post inspires.
As for me – still struggling to pick up the dice and try a game rather than sit and look at the board. Mind currently saying ‘what happens if you do not like the game’, ‘can you cope with the terrain sliding around / the click of the pieces’ etc etc. I would say it’s driving me potty but I know I am there already…
…Maybe tonight will be a games night? Been an OK day coping wise so who knows.
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