[Shahbahraz]

Ok, I am going t0 be brave, or foolish enough to take a stab at this. Firstly all games are narrative to a greater or lesser degree. It depends in large part on the players, although it would be foolish not to recognise that some game systems are better able to generate a narrative.

So for example, a game with a solid historical basis, or a well established back story makes a narrative easier to create or sustain. A game on a smaller scale will make it easier to empathise with the protagonists. A campaign where characters have a recurring place creates narrative inflection.

But it is the players who generate the narrative. By treating the troops as men, as actual living and breathing characters or units, not a collection of stats. It happens when players make it happen. I have had a narrative game playing DBM, I’ve had a soulless game of SAGA.

If rules-writers want to create a narrative game, then they need to create an experience where the shared story-telling of the players is more important than the competition for a simple winner. Of course, it is a game, there is a winner and a loser, but I have enjoyed some games more when I have been on the losing side, than others where I won. So add ‘colour’ not ‘chrome’, make it clear at what level(s) the players are engaging at. Create scenario and campaign based games, not ‘equal points encounter battles’. Implement mechanisms that are unobtrusive and intuitive so players concentrate on their orders and incidents, not the mechanics.

My tuppence worth.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Fantastic looking results there. The teddy bear fur one is especially fantastic. I must try this out.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Nah, the Frothers Spam (non)Filter provides us with an additional source of levity..  and the Ukrainian Brides are a notch above the offering from other websites. 🙂

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

The antidote to horse archers was better armour (so cataphracts) and foot archers with powerful bows – simple equation, you can get a lot more foot archers into the same space as a horse archer, and mass shooting kills or wounds horses. This was one of the reasons Chinese armies were very keen on crossbows. The Sasanian response to Hunnic invasion was armoured horsemen with bows.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I have heard that story about the Tunisian Tigers. Not sure where I heard it or how verifiable it is. As for weathering, well, in 1:25 I would say, start out with less. Paint scratches also can look good, but in the larger scales most people paint them two tone which is a lot of mucking about (in my book).

Dust would be your friend if it gets a bit messy.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Very simple. you know the cheap sponge packaging you get in blister packs like Warlord etc? Ok, get some black or very dark grey (I use German grey, as I find black too harsh), dip a corner of the sponge into it. practice using the sponge to ‘dab’ the paint onto a flat surface, and when you are happy with the consistency of coverage and that you have the technique right, just dab onto corners and heavily worn areas. Don’t put too much paint on the sponge, and you wasnt to be almost ‘dry sponging’ if I can use that term. Each time you dip the sponge in the paint, do the ones you want most heavily chipped first, then as paint is used up on the sponge, go to the less worn areas to give very light chipping. Hope this helps

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

The hairspray method is pretty good. Or you can just do it with a piece of packing sponge. Not sure how badly chipped Tigers would be, they didn’t spend that long in country IIRC.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I’d be interested to hear a description of the system. I have loads to do for the AWI.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Thanks very much for this. I read it with interest.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Ah..  Auchentoshan. A very nice single malt. Up there with my favourites. Bit harder to find than Talisker,

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Thanks for that. Some nice looking games on show.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Well, an additional pack of figures arrived. So I now have most of my original order, (still short one LMG pack) but I have received an additional email from John which was very apologetic and offered to send additional figures to compensate. I still have the Paypal dispute pending, which requires a response by 11 April, but they are making all the right noises.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

All right. An update. A package arrived from BTD. Not the complete order, but at least something.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

That’s all fine and well Mike, and I don’t mind a week or two, but three months with no communication, and no replies to emails?  Anyway, as someone said, Paypal have now extended their dispute period to 180 days, so I have raised a dispute, and will hopefully get my money back to spend with a more reliable vendor.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

My comment was based on an observation that this is literally the ONLY wargames company that I have ever dealt with where this has happened. I have heard all sorts of stories, “oh the UK company orders stuff that has to come from the US”, sickness etc. If that’s the case, then it would be much more honest for the guys in the US to fess up. I thought I was dealing with a supplier with a UK business, not a reshipper of US products with limited stock on hand, dependent on the next cargo shipment via seaborne freight from the US when their caster can get round to it.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Very tasty indeed, those old figures look great.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Steve Burt wrote:

Having gone through WRG 4th,5th,6th,7th,DBA, DBM, DBMM, Field of Glory, Hail Caesar, Strategos, Sword & Spear we’ve ended up with ‘To the Strongest’ as our go-to set. Unlike most of the other rules listed, you can actually finish a large ancients battle in a couple of hours, there are plenty of interesting player decisions, and it is fun. The grid and use of cards really speeds things up a lot.

 

I can’t say I have ever had any problem finishing a DBM or DBMM game in three hours. For good or ill…  but then I believe firmly in what Montrose said. ‘He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch. To gain or lose it all.’

😉

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I’m still playing DBA and DBMM.

I prefer DBMM for the spectacle, the limitation to command and control, the depth of the rules and the fact they build a convincing narrative, and feel like a big battle. Ancient skirmishes, such as are modelled in some of the other sets (work out the figure and ground scale based on archery ranges), just don’t appeal to me in the same way.

DBMM is a truly good game, hidden away in a text that could have been substantially rewritten and wrangled into a modern and much easier to use format. The ‘cottage industry’ mentality of WRG meant squeezing the word count and dispensing with niceties like pictures, examples, guidance and explanation.

I do like Command & Colours as well for a giggle, but for me it is too constrained for me to enjoy multiple replays, with just a little too much randomness in the card play for my liking.

Arguably Armati is one of the best representations of particular periods, but the tendency to discover on deployment reveal that you have lost, but have several hours to suffer through, doesn’t appeal much.

I’ve also played Crusader recently, but frankly it just feels like a buckets of dice skirmish set, with very old fashioned mechanics.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

alan wrote:

Any suggestions for suitable rules? In particular, I would like to have some provision for “encouraging” figures to surrender rather than shoot it out to the last man in scenarios such as trying to round up downed Luftwaffe crew.

What scale of engagement are you talking about? If it’s platoon, then Chain of Command with tweaks, for squad based, I would be using something like the Ganesha Games ‘Flying Lead’. Any larger than platoon level wouldn’t seem right.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Having walked the Zulu Wars battlefields accompanied by a Zulu guide, it’s not a conflict I would game. But I would suggest you are posing a question that is an artefact of a particular rules set. The personal character of the ‘Colonel’, the loyalty of the rank and file, are all characteristics that would apply regardless of army.

Now you could make a case that the married regiments were older men, with experience, and extrapolate particular characteristics from that. So if the rules you are using don’t, and yet have that level of detail for colonial troops, then that’s a problem.

There were nicknames for many of the Zulu regiments, and varied experience. You could quite easily add additional characteristics if you wished. I suspect though, that some players still see colonial era opponents with colonial era eyes.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

It really depends what you want. Set some parameters and that will dictate your choices. Personally, lately I have played some old skool rules (Crusader) and I still much prefer the sophistication of DBMM.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Why can’t you get a dashboard up? You should be able to sign in, select ‘design’ and change everything.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I have to agree with the above. I participated in the development of DBA 3 and DBMM. It wasn’t tournament players calling for tweaks, it was players citing original sources.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I use my cheap Chinese double-action top reservoir airbrush all the time – for terrain, buildings, vehicles, and figures. I purchased it from HobbyCo Japan, it came with a cheap compressor (fairly low pressure), and I have bought replacement needles. (I keep bending them..) I think it cost me about 25 quid.

Cheap, cheerful, and purchasing decent airbrush cleaner works. Just make sure you don’t mix the different cleaners and acrylics. I find Tamiya works really well, using the Tamiya X20 thinner, but for Vallejo you have to use the Vallejo thinner.

 

And I tend to wait till I have a decent amount of stuff to be sprayed before I use it, the cleaning up is a pain.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

We’ve played some Airfix Battles for light relief, replacing the grid with a 4 inch move per grid square, and they give a fun quick game. Great for armour on armour bashes. The only thing we find is the infantry AT weapons are a bit underwhelming so there’s little incentive to take infantry when you can bash through most things with a big enough tank.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I’m currently painting French for 1940 CoC,and the Germans are hopefully on their way. Very much enjoyed the Chain of Command games I have played so far. Very different from other WW2 sets I have played, really fun, challenging and for meat least, feels a lot more like being in command than any other set of rules I’ve played.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

‘Agile’ painting? errrr…  not for me.. but for example, yesterday morning – undercoating some figs and a couple of vehicles with a spray can, when I got home, bodged up a Panzerjager crewman from the Warlord Games ‘German Infantry’ box, (a leg here, an arm there.. ), undercoated that, applied the interior colour to a vehicle, painted the little numbers on some shock markers for ‘Chain of Command’ using the Warlord Bolt Action pin markers. Overall, not much actually, but a little bit each day, nothing too challenging, and before you know it, there are some new things to share.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I am not making it a resolution, but I am going to try to do some hobby related stuff every day.. even if it is just sorting through figures. The last week or so, I have painted every day. Even if it is just applying a wash to a piece of terrain. And it is amazing how fast you get things done when you just do a little bit regularly. So for example – cut some bases from MDF one day, glue on resin parts the next, undercoat in the morning before work, add colour after…  And you soon have some very acceptable entrenchments for WW2.

Over the last little while I’ve been finding if I mix terrain, game aids and figures, then it’s way easier.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Main reason? Because the people I enjoy playing with are using something different. I respect their opinion, so if they think a game is worth trying I will give it a go. I also have a range of periods I have an interest in where I haven’t found a ruleset I really like yet. This has changed a little as I have now found rules I like for small actions for WW2, I have found rules for small actions in the black powder era. I have rules I don’t mind for massed battles of the WSS, and I have a few I want to try for Napoleonics or 7YW. No-one locally plays my ancients rules of choice sadly.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

There are many devices that with the addition of rubber bands or a velcro strap make great paint shakers at a much more reasonable price, they aren’t customarily marketed as paint shakers though. 

If you were keen to make a paint shaker, it’s a simple matter of a geared irregular weight, a small electric motor, a 9v battery, straps and a base.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Cold War Commander… usually in 6mm,  in Africa, AK47.  I have a copy of Team Yankee, and also Force on Force, but haven’t played the latter two. A quick read through of TY suggested it might be a bit comic book for my tastes, and FoF seems to be primarily designed for post 1980s Asymmetric combat rather than Cold War (I do have their Cold War supplement, which looks not too bad admittedly).

In addition, for the scale of FoF, I would prefer to use an updated version of Chain of Command, rather than get funky with different dice in FoF,

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Well, Spanish sword and bucklermen were used to cope with tercios, backed by shooty things. There’s a lot of received myth about the Highland charge, but there are certainly verifiable accounts of it breaking opposing forces. Of course many folk will claim this was because of poor morale in their opponents and that they ran before contact. This is then exactly the same argument about well disciplined and formed infantry resisting cavalry.. if they broke they weren’t disciplined and formed. The ‘No True Scotsman’ fallacy IIRC.

Hanoverian accounts from Culloden certainly suggest the charge was ferocious, with limbs being chopped off, and ghastly wounds suffered. In my view, it would likely have been more successful had the clans not been standing under artillery fire for an extended period, and on the right, being fired at from flank on the way in.

There is a danger though in that the trope was about how different these people, were, they could safely be viewed as savages, because that made their extirpation a civic good, and neatly made them ‘other’.  The violence and cruelty afterwards could only be explained by a world-view that saw the Gaeltacht as primitive and barbaric outsiders who must be tamed or destroyed. In such circumstances the legend of their ferocity very neatly parallels the Roman accounts of Gallic or Germanic tribes.

 

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

The mercedes space-ships are pretty cool.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I use Shipwreck, no complaints…

 

http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com/2013/09/shipwreck-first-outing.html

 

cheers

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I built the 28mm version and was very pleased with it. Michael is a good bloke, and his designs are well thought out and delivered.

 

I didn’t do the rubble so well.. I may go back  and add kitty litter, plus the PVA in the well hadn’t cured when this was taken.

 

I also have some of his other buildings and very happy with them.

http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com/2017/12/desert-buildings-completed.html

 

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

Except that Austrian cavalry were generally rated as superior to French in the earlier part of the Napoleonic Wars, and were in larger units.

Really, it is all a bit reminiscent of ‘National Characteristics’ as per Quarrie.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

As opposed to ‘Everybody knows that the dice are loaded’   ?

 

 

 

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

On a related note with the Peninsula, in all fairness, it’s a lot easier to arrive at a more accurate report when you hold the battlefield. If you’re bundled off the battlefield in disarray, it’s a lot harder to establish the true state of affairs.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

The real question is whether we can identify the Picts with the neolithic broch builders of Birsay and so on.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Shahbahraz]

I live in what would have been part of the old Pictish heartland. We know a surprising amount about them, and far from the supposed flint-using savages, they lived in complex urban centres, carved in stone, and were to all intents and purposes exactly the same as us.

Locally the tradition is that dark hair and blue eyes are ‘Pictish’ markers, but that’s in all likelihood, an old wives tale. Frankly, tales told of mysterious savages in far away lands by Roman are a constant trope. At not too far a remove from the period when the Pictii were supposed to be mysterious and dangerous creatures, Herodotus was regaling audiences with far more outlandish tales about lands to the East.  Given that very few travellers would be calling them lies, I suspect all sorts of stories were circulated about these dangerous outsiders.

From what I recall, we don’t know for certain who the Picts were related to, but they were Crannog and Broch builders, had a matrilineal line, and traded extensively. They also had very sophisticated carvings skills, and left many monuments.

--An occasional wargames blog: http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/ --

[Author]

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