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PatGParticipant….I’m happy with my decision and don’t miss the bigger, more detailed models.
And your boats don’t look like hovercraft. 1/600 gives a better feel for the ranges involved as well.
PatGParticipantWargamers being people are more likely to buy from the 75p guy than the £1.50 guy, why would you not?
…. For the rules we all play a typical 15mm army comes in at 120-odd figures. That means the price difference between buying an army of the most expensive figures on the market today (50p each = £60) vs the cheapest (31p each = £37.80) is just £22.80. ….
I use 15mm for SF skirmish so that £22.80 is another 73 odd figures, another 2 platoons, or a 160% increase over a 120 figure army. Buying better has a lost opportunity cost for variation. In my opinion, the difference in appearance between “good enough” 15mm and “superb” 15mm at table distances is not all that great.
Moving up to 20mm WWII in North West Europe. This is my “cheap” project done with Airfix style plastics. I have a few ABs and they are indeed stunning. I need to buy more Germans but there is no way I am going to spend more than the price of my Matchbox/Italeri Canadians – especially since I need to buy SS.
25mm Colonials/VSF – I have been lusting after some Tsuba 28mm Japanese from Empress, but I have a sizeable collection of true 25mm that I am not about to replace. To be fair, with true 25mm getting harder to find, sometimes the price differential is less of a concern.
28mm WWII – Now this is where your discussion resonates. Figure counts are low, and detail makes a noticeable difference at this scale. This is where I will consider spending more for better figures in the future.
PatGParticipantThere also seems to be an increasing tendency for rules writers these days to try to carve out and fill new niches in regard to game design. … The suggestion came up of taking the game even further into experimental territory by having the player(s) control the “evil” world instead of the heroes.
…Maybe old rulesets have had plenty of time to wind their way through the second-hand market into the hands of the “right” people (the collectors and devotees who won’t keep selling them on) and the new ones haven’t.
The Dungeon Keeper and DKII video games were the epitome of Evil vs Good. Brilliant pieces of work – though stay away from the more recent app – it’s effectively pay (a lot) to play.
The WRG/DBx series certainly fit into the “right rules finding the right people” category. As a new player, DBx is nearly opaque but they give a very good game for some players who choose to stick it through. Parsing Barkerese just to play a game is not for everyone. Having re-acquired some old board games and acquired some old rules that struck my fancy as a youth but I was unable to purchase at the time, there is definitely an element of nostalgia. I can see how I as a teenaged wargamer would have powered through confusing or poorly written rules because I was in love with the theme; now as an over 50, I don’t have the time or patience to invest when there are better rules out there.
PatGParticipantGiven the current political environment in the UK, I don’t think the school and police responses were completely out of line – remember Jo Cox. As others have said, we only have one side of the story. It is entirely possible that the intervention and meeting were called prevent a young man from being radicalized by an extreme political ideology – we simply don’t know.
What we do know, is that whatever the intent, what Vespasian, his son and his family experienced, was distressing for them, and that is unfortunate.
About all we can do is be sane and calm representatives of our hobby.
PatGParticipantThose are excellent!
PatGParticipantVery nice!
PatGParticipantDBA wherein the tactique de jour was jockeying to get your base a fraction of a millimeter behind that of an enemy base so that it would be destroyed rather than simply recoiling.
PatGParticipantIt all looks great – loving the steamer.
PatGParticipantI was a reservist in Canada in the early 80’s. Our combat shirts had purpose built pockets for 6 FAL mags though I never carried that many. As others have said, we were expected to keep our empties and reload them with loose rounds when possible. Now these magazines were well made of fairly thick sheet steel with a brazed on solid lug to engage with the weapon and a removable floor plate. We were told that there were war stocks of disposable mags, pre-loaded, made in one piece out of thinner steel and with the front lug simply punched out of the front of the magazine – these were supposed to be disposable. I never saw one of these war stock mags in person so this may be just a war story but I have seen pictures of FN mags that do fit this description.
PatGParticipantI do WWII North West Europe in 1/72 Airfix, Esci and Italeri with some 20mm metal addons form AB. The ABs are gorgeous but with the plastics I can get a platoon for under $20 Can. The plastics are easy to modify into specialists as well. They paint up fine for the table and are cheap as chips.
PatGParticipantBeautiful work! One small detail though – the flag’s wrong for HMS Chesapeake. 😉
PatGParticipantLooks great – consider yourself followed. In a trade for WWII western desert forces I received a few AXM-13s and some other assorted allied and Soviet vehicles so I have been contemplating doing some early AIW in 6mm.
PatGParticipantVery nice
PatGParticipantFull sized boats will not fit on a wargames table comfortable. Some compression is required and you have done an excellent job with this model.
For those interested in such things, The Major General’s site available from the Internet archive is a great resource: http://web.archive.org/web/20060615181350/http://zeitcom.com:80/majgen/50ship.html
PatGParticipantMost excellent!
PatGParticipantOh and this had a lot to do with it:
05/06/2017 at 13:58 in reply to: Systems you think are good but you do not think you would enjoy playing #64093PatGParticipantDBM. it’s clearly one of the best systems when it comes to representing actual ancient battles. But I really don’t think I would enjoy it. It takes the rather elegant simplicity of DBA and adds just enough additional troop-types to baffle my increasingly limited powers of cogitation. Pat
I love DBM’s offspring DBMM which informed the redesign of DBA3. The troop types aren’t so bad once you realize you only need to know the details for those armies on the table. However, it is written in Barkerese which some people find hard to digest for some odd reason. 😉 Played at the 100 point level, DBMM plays like a more subtle DBA without the 12 base limitation.
04/06/2017 at 16:24 in reply to: Systems you think are good but you do not think you would enjoy playing #64044PatGParticipantFlames of War – Huge following so they must be doing something right but having watched a few games it leaves me cold.
D&D 4th – D&D “superheroes” As others have said very well put together and well supported but somehow just wrong.
Fields of Glory – Looks beautiful very polished rules but very expensive compared to other systems.
Car Wars 5th edition – I get where they were going but I didn’t want to go there. I’m a Car Wars classic guy.
Advanced Squad Leader – I loved Squad Leader but ASL wound up over chromed (and expensive).
Anything to do with Superheroes – there are some very good systems out there but the whole genre leaves me cold. The only system that interested me at all was TMNT because it locked into the rest of the Palladium series.I should probably stop here lest my grumpy old man completely take over 😉
PatGParticipantThe game. I will play with chits with out complaint but miniatures are nicer to play with. Painting figures and making terrain are a nice adds on to the hobby that board games don’t provide.
PatGParticipantRules – An old version of WRG and some Airfix plastics got me back into gaming after decades away. This was followed by DBA2 and HotT then DBMM came out. While I enjoy DBA, DBMM played at the 100 or 200 point level really does it for me. It gets away from the 12 piece a side chess game while fixing some of the more egregious micromeasurement issues of DBA2. I will add I haven’t played DBA3 yet.
PatGParticipantRule of Cool!
This – the science doesn’t support them at all. See:
PatGParticipantThe spectacle, love of the history, my ancestors painted themselves blue and collected heads….
PatGParticipantOperational Mechanised Unit.
Or ant lion
PatGParticipantIn TSTF it is a bit of a problem because the arc is like 30º or something that no one seems to be easily able to estimate and aiming is per figure, and supposed to be along the point of their weapon – not their base – and because the collection we play with is based on round bases, doesn’t help either.
I primarily play Soldier’s Companion which is heavily based on TSATF and I just eyeball it. 😉
PatGParticipantI appear to be in good company. For friendly games – I go with what makes sense but there is an assumption of give and take. Usually that means allowing a couple of extra mm or 1/16 of movement. I also tend to specify ranges like Ivan says. No unit in history has ever moved exactly 6 scale inches (which is why I like randomized movement) so a little wiggle room is par for the course. I rarely play tournament but the last time I used a “cooperate the first time then tit for tat” strategy. Really though with decent human beings it’s a non-issue. Indecent players will rarely get another game.
Side note: over the weekend I soloed a game where one side charged enemy on the other side of a hill. They had (4 dice)/2 for move and came up short. Then I re-read the rules and saw they should have used (8 dice)/2 so I rolled another 4 and they still came up just short of contact. It was too epic a gaming moment to give them the benefit of the doubt, so pulled up short they stayed.
PatGParticipantI guess that depends. Maybe hover skirts protect the gubbins and as such you are less likely to get breakages. Maybe whilst breakages are rare, the parts are harder to ship in? But then, maybe you just print the spares and fit? I think the answer really depends on how your sci-fi world works?
I was using “current” (WWI to present) practice and thinking. The laws of physics won’t change in the future.
As you say though, it depends on how you put your world together. Though straightforward to fabricate using locally sourced materials, you’d find it very difficult these days to find someone with the skills to make a wagon wheel. 😉
PatGParticipantLooks great and it’s wheeled too. 🙂
PatGParticipant…. In a remote colony, what is easiest to fix with limited supplies?….
Wheels by far. lower weight, lower fuel costs, lower maintenance costs etc. As you note though different terrain will require different solutions.
Tracked vs Hover – I love the aesthetic of hover but I think we will be on tracks for a long, long time. Hover takes power just to lift the vehicle and then there’s making it move and powering weapons etc. A tracked (or wheeled) vehicle can use a smaller power plant to achieve the same performance with the attendant savings or all that lift energy can instead be put into bigger weapons, thicker armour or higher speed.
A final note – If you have played Car Wars with the hovercraft rules, you’ll have some understanding about how hard it can be to control ACVs. 😉
PatGParticipantGreat job. It really improves the look of the game.
PatGParticipantA bit paralysed on Ancients at the moment. I have Alexandrians and Marians in 6mm but I can’t seem to commit to a basing standard.
PatGParticipantFifth Frontier War – but that’s counter based at one hex to the parsec. Go The Duke of Regina’s Own Huscarles!
PatGParticipanthmmmmm what about some of that very thin whispy bandage put on then coat with pva/water mix and apply a few tea leaves?
That’s what I would do.
PatGParticipantThe standard since Featherstone et al has been Basic soldier for any period gets 1d6 (or counts as “1”). Hit number can depend on troop quality or other factors like defender cover. What that number is depends on how bloody you want your game to be. Another question would be are you just rolling to hit or using a more in depth process like roll to hit, roll to save, roll to wound. For example, for Naps, you would want to use a high hit number with a lower save and no wound. Musket balls have crap accuracy but if they manage to hit, they will mess you up. For SciFi, one might use a low hit number to represent better optics etc but use a higher save and wound to cover body armour and active defenses.
PatGParticipantSide tables for stuff whenever possible. I am ok with markers though. A longer term project is to make up ambulances for various periods into which players can put any rifles, muskets spears or other bits that get knocked off of figures during a game.
PatGParticipantOttawa, Canada
PatGParticipantGruntz, very simple learning curve, adaptable to any minis/scale, would work well for 40K
This. Gruntz is a very flexible set of rules with lots of dice to roll.
PatGParticipantgermancolonialgaming.blogspot.com
Obscure? I like obscure! Consider yourself followed mate!
PatGParticipantGreat idea.
PatGParticipant(Simplifying of course) Sad Puppies began as complaints about Science Fiction book prize nomination processes pushing out traditional SF in favour of more inclusive SF. It rapidly spiralled out of control and turned into Rabid Puppies pushing a very right wing reactionary agenda.
Gamer Gate began as complaints that a specific game in a very niche area got good reviews because the coder was sleeping with the reviewer. Having played it, it’s a bloody good game regardless of who was sleeping with whom and whether or not that affected the review. GG then degenerated into misogyny, threats of violence and unending harassment of female developers who dared say anything.
Compared to the antagonists in both these event, we wargamers come off looking pretty good.
PatGParticipant… However, sorry, but not sorry: I’m going to say it: I have a big issue with people who play an era and say they won’t field or play a particular force for moral reasons, BUT WILL play against someone fielding the offending force are judging the other player(s) and people like me for doing so. That’s ****ing preachy, holier than thou (“because I play allies”), and hypocritical, pack right off. Sorry, Pat, just my own view. I’ve not encountered that except on line, but if I did encounter someone like that, I would play something else with them.
I will respond by saying first that I am not judging anyone. One of my regular gaming partners has an extensive 12 SS FoW army – because that was his Grandfather’s unit. He’s also a rider so has Florian Geyer force as well. However, he understands the history and has sound reasons for choosing those units. While I have yet to play FoW with him, playing SS on either side wouldn’t phase me in the least. Secondly, I’m primarily a solo player so I decide what my opponent brings to the table. My old armoured regiment served in NWE and I wanted to put them on the table so I bought a bunch of 20mm plastics. When it came to opponents, SS is a necessity but I decided that I didn’t want to spend my money on SS figures, so I didn’t. That’s it. If I was putting on a convention game, I would of course have to suck it up and start painting peadot. As for being “holier than thou”, not a chance, though yes the Allies definitely had the moral high ground for some very obvious reasons. What we did to Dresden, Tokyo and many, many other axis cities was indeed a war crime and yes my friend’s grandfather was lucky to be allowed to surrender rather than being shot out of hand.
Now let’s go back to the kid in the T-shirt – again no concerns about his army, but his choice of outer wear at a Canadian wargames convention showed a profound lack of understanding of history – Am I judging him for that? Damn straight I am. I think that is what pisses me off about SS, they seem to be played simply because of the “rule of cool”. I find that attitude ignorant, perhaps even willfully so.
Oh and if you ever want to drop by for a game, I have Fallschirmjaeger for NWE (also correct for the theatre) or we can play Western Desert in 6mm. For ancients, In only have Romans and Alexandrians but I won’t make you play the Romans. 😉
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