[Sparker]

Anyone interested in large scale – ‘Grand Tactical’ games might want to wait until Sam Mustafa releases ‘Blucher’ early next year. I can’t say too much as I am involved in the play testing process, but its open source that it is pitched at the 1 unit=1 Brigade level and unit base sizes would ideally be around 75mm x 75mm:

http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/2014/04/blucher-is-coming-in-2015/

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Yes lovely painting!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Thanks Bandit – that is good news!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

having said that Rapid Fire is also extremely popular, excellent, and loads of fun!

Well its certainly popular and can be fun….In my opinion though its not ‘excellent’ – an excellent set of rules should surely make up its mind what command level the player is commanding at. I’ve certainly had great fun with them, but only by completely throwing the notional figure and vehicle scale out of the window and treating a group of 10 infantry figures as a section/squad and 3 or 4 AFV as a platoon. Then they bear some resembalance to reality, but the ease with which trained infantry in cover can be mown down still makes them the wargaming equivalent of a shoot ’em up video arcade game…Good infantry are actually extremely hard to kill with direct fire unless you get very,very close!

Hence for me the BattleGroup series of rules, with their emphasis on suppressive fire until you get close enough to close for an assault, seem so much more authentic.

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Alfa had (have?) a much smaller reactor but which produced more power than normal thus allowing its overall length and beam to be far smaller than most Soviet SSNs, making it faster and more agile – perhaps this is a nod to that characteristic?

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Great points Neal. I’ve not thought of that before but now its obvious that what might be a great set of rules for a long anticipated, multiplayer historical game with lots of email interactions between players about the scenario and troop stats benefits from a set of rules that may not necessarily be ideal for a quick and relaxing ‘pick-up’ game after a long day at the coal face…

Maybe designers should start producing ‘Lite’ versions of their rules for the harassed wargamer on the go!

In our circle we have developed what we call the ‘Black Powder 123’ concept – a series of 6 set scenarios involving no more than 1,2, and 3 units – whether they be Foot, Horse or Guns is left either to the specific scenario, or to the players choice, depending on the scenario. So above you see a Prussian BP123 force of 3 Infantry Bns, and in the background 2 Cav Regiments and an artillery battery. We use none of the BP special rules and only the ‘plain vanilla’ troop stats from the main rulebook. It takes all the prep time out of things, although its main purpose is to train us up in the core rules so we are better at the really big games we love…

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/black-powder-123-tourney-at-hall-of.html

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/black-powder-123.html

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Scarborough war games club – now that’s a byword for impressive games. Welcome Sir!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Hi Sane Max – welcome! Good to have yet another call sign I recognise around…

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Yeah I can live with it too – I prefer to settle in for a bit of a session, visiting my boards of interest one at a time…

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

They were very popular and are certainly a good workmanlike set of rules. But I and I think a few others have moved on to the bright sunlit uplands of Black Powder. No way of knowing of course, and each little clique or region has its favourites, but if I were a sporting man I’d wager that Black Powder has overtaken GdeBde in popularity.

Which is no guarantee of quality of course….

As it goes I also use BP for my rate 15mm games – using centimetres instead of inches – which for some peculiar reason makes the command radii very tight and so the question of where to put your Generals becomes agonisingly critical!

 

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

OK Piers you have got to stop challenging my limited vocabulary! How can I continue to express my appreciation of the regular and frequent displays of painting awesomeness you show the wargaming world?

‘There very nice actually’ doesn’t quite seem to cut it, particularly as the Pz III mit schurtzen is one of my faves. I have just finished the first 3 of a batch of 6 for next week’s game, but there’s no way I’m posting pictures of them now!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

simultaneous activity can often result in chaos.

What Jurgen said right there!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Well to prove Connard right I will disagree with him on almost every point. Well, not about the Front Rank, they are gorgeous figures, especially the new ‘Reinforcements’ range!

To be honest I haven’t played Lasalle, I was put off just by reading the rules. And thats not to say I’m not a Sam Mustafa groupie, I love his Maurice and Longstreet rules and am quietly confident that his Blucher Napoleonic Operational rules will be the industry standard for strategic games. But I didn’t think Lasalle brought anything new to the evolution of rules, apart perhaps from some elegant artillery effects.

Whereas Black Powder somehow manages to combine fast play, and the management of large battles that this allows, with delivering an authentic feel of the horse and musket period, whilst allowing the play to concentrate on tactics and battle management during the game.

Thats not to say there is a lot of work involved before the game, in setting troop stats, selecting scenario specific rules, and so on – there is! But because its all done before the game – or taken from one of the various supplements, once you step up to the plate its all plain sailing, so that the only frustration comes from the action and your troops’ reactions – which is how it should be!

So what is revolutionary about Black Powder – there are several things: a simple and effective ‘friction of war’ mechanism that allows your troops to either thumb their nose at your orders, or go off on a mad cap charge you didn’t order, coupled with slightly more complex mechanism to model commander characteristics if you choose; the ability to close to engagement range very fast, which allows large scale battalion level games such as Borodino (at a 50% Orbat ratio) to be completed in a day; and the selection of add-on special rules to allow you to put together a very period, army and campaign specific set of rules for your given battle.

As an example, I have been wargaming for over 30 years, and have read about how the superior Grande Armee of the glory years 1805-1807 was able to run rings around larger but slower thinking and moving coalition armies simply because of its elan and superior leadership and centralised command. No rules until Black Powder have allowed me to replicate that on the table top without crude ‘Plus 1 for being French’ biases. Whereas Black Powder allows you to reflect the OODA loop reaction times and qualatative leadership differences without necessarily reducing the quality of the fine Prussian, Austrian and Russian Regiments who were so poorly led.

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

The main consideration for me is solo-play – I always go for IGOUGO rules because it allows solo play without brinking on the incipient schizophrenia! Its good to be able to complete all moves from one side of the table, then physically move around ‘to the other side of the hill’ and look at the whole sequence afresh from the other perspective.

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Great that you’ve joined this forum Piers! Love the Batrep – as I said on fb its good to see the old boys do well – a bit of a shock for the Ivan team I’ll be bound!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

I think the standard has been set for 1940 games…

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Ah – I’m really not a fan of the glossy toy soldier look! Chacun a son gout!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Thanks Your Grace! My figures – the Brits, are either AB or the Eureka own brand Nap figures. Most of David’s French and local troops were I think AB, but also a mix of all sorts! Plus he does a lot of conversion work (which in this scale seems crazy to me but he does a good job!)

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Thanks Guys! TT you’re a familiar callsign from my TMP days…

Barks great blog – love the work you’ve done on the Zvezda T-72. My turret pins are getting dodgy too…I’ve tried to get around it by shaving them done some, fingers crossed that will work!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Yes we are – but very welcome you are all the same! Looking forward to seeing photos of your fleet…

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Total Recall? – One of my faves, anyroad!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Hi Jeff – with your academic background coupled with your military experience you look like a real asset to the forum – and I hope wargaming picks up for you later in the year!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Have some more info about the George F Nafziger 1814 trilogy; first off is ‘ The End of Empire” and its putative publishing date is 28 Dec 2014:

http://www.bookdepository.com/End-Empire-George-Nafziger/9781909982963

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

I actually heard it on TMP, but the original tell was on the Napoleon series. Coming out in July apparently ?!? -but its The Emperor’s Press we are talking about – they don’t do fast – excellent, yes, fast, not so much!

http://www.napoleon-series.org/cgi-bin/forum/archive2006_config.pl?md=read;id=57967

 

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Good question and one that vexes me often. I had a huge collection of 25mm Minifigs, most of which I had painted as a kid. But they looked so small, uniform, and just plain old fashioned compared to the new 28mm stuff thats come out since. Whilst my mates don’t see an issue, to my mind they just look second rate. So I have sold off pretty much my entire French and Bavarian collection and replaced them with professionally painted plastics with the proceeds. I am keeping  my Russians however until I have enough plastics to stage the ridiculously large games I am addicted to…

I just can’t bear to get rid of my early painted British minifigs though, so they soldier on…

So this rear line in this Brigade column are Minifigs 23rd Royal Welch Fuzileers – actually in this shot they don’t look too diminutive!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Just recieved my copy, thanks Nick!. Not had a chance to flick through it yet. But both the positive and negative feedback have raised my expectations, and I am definately casting about for a set of Cold War rules, so I may ask my long suffering club-mates to play test these soonish…

With the Inches/Centimetres issue, maybe thats a good thing? Use inches for 15/20mm and centremetres for micro-armour? Speaking as a paid up member of the anglosphere of a certain age I find inches easier anyhow!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Hi Bandit,

I take it you’re familiar with Michael Leggiere’s first volume in the Cambridge Military History of 1814? Unfortunately he seems to have been distracted from starting the second volume, and the first is really just setting the scene around the diplomacy and campaign start. A real shame! I believe that George Nafziger is on the cusp of publishing a continuation of his 1813 trilogy on 1814, so that should be good for OOBs! His maps are usually pretty good too! So it seems to be all ‘jam tommorrow’ at the moment…

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Yes several big names in the hobby signing on now – Roly ‘Arteis’ I think has long been making wargamers green with envy at his painting skills, John D Salt is a pillar of wisdom when it comes to all things Armour, Nick Turner is an inspiration to me and others for all things Cold War, and of course the Bandit is a tower of Napoleonic intellect…a good geographical spread too – from North Wales to New South Wales, NZ and beyond! – and the site only a few days old – a great start, and kudos to Mike and Sam for rolling their sleeves up and getting on with it! If we were manning up a 100 gun First Rate Man o’ War we’d be well pleased recruiting so many experienced old hands and keen young volunteers!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Hi Bandit – I was exactly where you are now about a year ago, then I found BattleGroup Kursk/Overlord etc as mentioned above. I heartily recommend them – you can use your FOW based gear, as the rules are designed for both 20mm and 15mm. Although infantry are supposed to be based individually, with no more than one inch seperation between squad/section members, I have found no problem with based figures,s imply marking casualties with a small red die.

I would characterise the complexity of the these rules as slightly higher that FOW, but in doing so they deliver what feels like a major breakthrough in authenticity and the ‘right feel’. This is what I wrote in my ‘Action at Authie’ thread in answer to John about my experiences with these:

“Thanks John! Good question – I have actually been through 3 phases in my attitude to these rules. First off the ‘Oh Shiny! Oh New!’ reaction, and the belief that they offered a credible alternative to RF2 for dusting off my long dormant 20mm kit. Then in actually trying to apply them, on my own, using the large format BattleGroup Kursk book, which has the rules interspersed with information about the theatre and campaign, most of which I knew already (Bighead!), I became very frustrated….

Then they introduced the smaller, A5 format rulebook with all the campaign guff taken out and just the core rules. And I was off! The rules make sense now, and I am just at that stage where I am beginning to see the seemingly infinite subtleties and sophistication of these rules.

I have some peacetime experience of soldiering, for example attended the British Army’s School of Infanty’s ‘Platoon Commander’s Division’ way back when, so I know enough about infanteering to assess how authentic a ruleset is, at least to my subjective satisfaction, which is about as much as you can ask of toy soldier rules! And to my mind the emphasis laid in these rules on direct area fire, with the sole object of ‘pinning’ an enemy until you can get in close to assault with grenades and smgs, is the essence of infantry work. I also like the way that you can subdivide your section/squad to drop off the Bren team, and the ‘Reserve Fire’ rule which allows you to leave units in overwatch to interrupt enemy movement or fire.

Now in order to achieve this level of sophistication, it has to be said the rules are comprehensive and lengthy – but they are not complicated! So if you take your time and start off small with section attacks and work your way up, I think these rules can’t be beat!”

 

 

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Thanks Bandit, yes I intend to be on my very best behaviour here!

I play regularly at two venues, my local FLGS at weekends, so large all day or all weekend games, and at the Uni where I work on Thursday evenings. So the FLGS games tend to be larger and more photogenic, so get blogged more!

No I’ve never played NAW until this either. Its an enthusiasm of the GO – Dave Brown, and he effectively made up cheat sheets for us. The units are considered Battalions. With my limited experience of these rules, I would assess that they are written at a very holistic level, despite the unit scale, which has been described as the ‘Flames of War’ of Napoleonics. Whilst the rulebook and army lists are certainly as well laid out as Battlefront books, otherwise this may be an unfair criticism! And if it attracts the younger ex Warhammer set into Naps, who’s to object!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Thanks John! Good question – I have actually been through 3 phases in my attitude to these rules. First off the ‘Oh Shiny! Oh New!’ reaction, and the belief that they offered a credible alternative to RF2 for dusting off my long dormant 20mm kit. Then in actually trying to apply them, on my own, using the large format BattleGroup Kursk book, which has the rules interspersed with information about the theatre and campaign, most of which I knew already (Bighead!), I became very frustrated….

Then they introduced the smaller, A5 format rulebook with all the campaign guff taken out and just the core rules. And I was off! The rules make sense now, and I am just at that stage where I am beginning to see the seemingly infinite subtleties and sophistication of these rules.

I have some peacetime experience of soldiering, for example attended the British Army’s School of Infanty’s ‘Platoon Commander’s Division’ way back when, so I know enough about infanteering to assess how authentic a ruleset is, at least to my subjective satisfaction, which is about as much as you can ask of toy soldier rules! And to my mind the emphasis laid in these rules on direct area fire, with the sole object of ‘pinning’ an enemy until you can get in close to assault with grenades and smgs, is the essence of infantry work. I also like the way that you can subdivide your section/squad to drop off the Bren team, and the ‘Reserve Fire’ rule which allows you to leave units in overwatch to interrupt enemy movement or fire.

Now in order to achieve this level of sophistication, it has to be said the rules are comprehensive and lengthy – but they are not complicated! So if you take your time and start off small with section attacks and work your way up, I think these rules can’t be beat!

 

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Thanks mate! Thrilled to see you on this forum. Of course we rarely agree on anything, but your reasoned, articulate and knowledgeable points and argument will be a great contribution to the forum.

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Dear All,

I’ve gone and started a separate post to introduce myself, I know that appears rather big headed – sorry, didn’t know the form!

So anyway, just want to repeat my congratulations and best wishes to Mike for starting this forum, its very timely so ‘good on yer Mate!’

I play principally at my FLGS, the Hall of Heroes Campbelltown NSW Australia, but also regularly at my Uni’s club, in Wollongong in the Illawarra region of NSW, on Thursday evenings. I know the drill is usually to list one’s interests in terms of scale and period, but in my case that would misleadingly imply that there is some sort of rational organisation behind my wargaming – which there isn’t! If its shiny and new, or if one of my wargaming mates is enthusiastic, I’ll give pretty much anything historical a good go!

That said, left to my own devices, I would say that my priorities are 28mm Naps, 20mm WW2, 15mm Cold War…

Look forward to catching up with old friends and making new ones on here!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Yes, great looking site – all the best!

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Hi John,

I would also look at the BattleGroup Kursk, Overlord, etc series of rules. In my opinion they model pinning very well. In particular going for area direct fire as a deliberate option can usually only result in pinning the target, but is very easily administered, no observation required and so on. Only if a ‘1D6’ is thrown on the target’s cover save is a single casualty caused. The gamble however comes in the end phase of the active player’s move – he has to decide if and how many pinned units to attempt to unpin…For every D6 number of units (sections/squad/AFV) he unpins, he has to draw a chit which has a random number that reduces his overall Battle Group Rating. Once down to zero – game over!

It works well in my view, and tends to reduce direct small arms fire to very close range attacks around assaults, most infantry fire in BG games is now dedicated to ‘brassing up’ a suspect enemy position to achieve suppression, entirely authentically I think.

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Thanks Martin, interesting looking blog. Useful info from Junior General on horse colours, gratefully downloaded! I’m also very interested in your e-book idea…

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Good looking blog mate! Always interesting to keep up with the manufacturers and designers pov….

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Sparker]

Hi Roly,

Wow that’s a very extensive collection of Police paraphernalia! Love your profile picture, too, it inspires confidence!

 

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9

[Author]

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