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Who Asked This JokerParticipant
Actually the question was originally couched purely in terms of the qualities of Wellington; however, all observations and reading recommendations are gratefully received.
I guess I picked up on the vibe of several other posts in this thread then! 😉
Wellington was a superb tactical commander. Mostly his tactics revolved around an initial defensive posture followed by a swift counter attack.
He was a womanizer.
He was not terribly charismatic, which may be how the program you watched came to the conclusion that he was “indifferent.”
He seemed to embrace the idea of working with anyone, even those he did not like. Picton was a nasty individual on a personal level even by the standards of the early 1800s. Wellington saw his talent and used his aggressive nature in battle. Lord Uxbridge ran off with the wife of Wellington’s brother which wellington despised Uxbridge for. never the less, Uxbridge served loyally under Wellington.
He took many personal risks in order to ensure his troops were used in a manner he would want. He was nearly captured or killed on several occasions. Which does bring me to a final quality that Napoleon himself sought in his generals.
Wellington was lucky. Not, he got lucky and won all those battles. He was lucky in the sense that good things seemed to happen for the man.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantGiven the right kind of terrain, Wellington was certainly hard to beat. His record would suggest unbeatable. That said, at Quatre Bras, he was taken to the mat by Ney. I think the secret to his success is in the attention to detail, how he could always be at the right place at the right time and the fact that he was quite willing to take great personal risk to lead his troops. In short, he was a brilliant tactical minded army commander.
Napoleon I was a strategic thinker. He too could take great personal risk to win battles but gave that up after becoming Emperor. He was not above doing it late in his career though. His ability to outmaneuver his enemies is legendary. In the 1814 campaigns, he demonstrates this ability quite clearly, holding off armies several times the size of his own. In the 1815 campaign, Wellington did not know Napoleon crossed into Belgium until the French were in Charleroi. It’s actually really hard to over state just how good of an Army commander Napoleon was.
So who is better? Well we are at Olympic levels of competition here. The difference between the two men in terms of ability is pretty small. Either would do in a pinch for different reasons. If you want a campaign to close quickly, you want Napoleon. If you want to keep your army fighting, go with Wellington.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantPaper Modelers is a fine place to be, especially if you are a novice and have questions. I will happily second that suggestion!
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantBad marriage. An interesting analogy. I think FoG can give a good game. You just have to be willing to do all of the in game calculations.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantPlay what you like. You get an A+ for your determination alone!
Me? I thought they were too complex with the usual endless exceptions. That said, I quite like the computer version. They’ve just released version 2 which is similar to their computer version of the Renaissance version of the game.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantArmored and well equipped men almost always move to the front of the unit wile the less armored, equipped and experienced formed the back ranks to add mass. So, in a sense, units are mixed. However, Huscarls will always be a cut above the select Fyrd and select Fyrd will be a cut above the great Fyrd. So, I am not so sure that wargamers got it “wrong”. I think they simplify things by making all members of a unit have the same kit, whether it is full armor or shield only.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantI’ve read a couple of overviews of the rules and glanced through the text once. I have to agree that Airfix Battles is not really an intro game. I think some of us forgot what an intro game is supposed to look like. 😉
My son likes Memoir OK. I happily play it with him on occasion when he wants to play a game. We tried out OHW when he was 7 or 8 (I don’t remember which) and the scenario was a Dark Age fight. His comment was that he did not like that once you got into a fight you nothing else really happened until something was destroyed. I was thinking “So it does simulate Dark Age Battles well!”
The OHW WW2 rules work well. As well try out The Portable Wargame and Developing the Portable Wargame. Both can be had from Lulu. Those are some fine wargame rules and can be adapted to various periods without too many modifications.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantI am guessing the cost increase is only going to be a few dollars. I’m OK with a digital copy of around $10 or less. Anything higher than that, I’d want to make darned sure I wanted the product. $5 and slow delivery is very reasonable. $10 and fast delivery also very reasonable. I think if you are in that range it really will only depend on how much work you want to do. Eve the simple tasks in life can become annoying when repeated over time.
I mainly order from Wargame Vault. I’ve ordered from Wargames Downloads, Too Fat Lardies, Ganesha Games, and Sam Mustafa in the past.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantWe finished the game in little more than an hour, and I (as Villeneuve) was resoundingly thrashed. All the best, John.
You are never allowed to play Villeneuve again. 😉
I’ll second JG for rules for the simplicity!
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantAnother vote for a pin vice. I can’t imagine what you’re doing to break the bits whilst using one.
Too much pressure seems to be the consensus.
…and perhaps clogging of the flutes/channels? Soft stuff (plastic, white metal) may act like an adhesive against the wall of the hole if not able to clear up/out of the hole? My vote against any sort of power tool is driven in part because of the fact that all the things mentioned above that can go wrong will still do so, but much quicker.
All the above. I broke one when it got stuck. I think I must have flexed it too hard and the tip snapped off. The fine ones are quite brittle I can assure you!
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantPin vice is the way to go. Any hobby shop should carry them. Spend the extra money and get solid metal. Get a pack assorted microbits. Be careful with the fine bits. They do snap easily.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantRemember, most sci-fi settings are set in a galaxy far, far away. For instance, the Millennium Falcon set a speed record for doing the Kessel run in under 10 parsecs. Speed measured by units of distance. Nobody so much as batted an eye over this. Obviously, the term “parsec” means something different in the SW universe.
Personally, I don’t really care much if Sci-Fi or Fantasy somehow gets real world logic, terminology or whatever completely wrong. What doesn’t work here, still may work there.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantGreat book! I have the Kindle version. I think it is a great source for wargamers with the scenarios. Hackett seems to still have his “Old Grognard Card” as his rules are a simplified version of WRG rules. This is a fine book for all things Britain during the Anglo-Saxon period. I guess technically that makes it England but whatever. 😉
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantBack when Junta was being game-tested, one player’s wife was so good at it we nick-named her “Evita”.
Back in the day, we played a good bit of Junta. I remember a game where we got my friends room mates (both non-gamer girls) to play. They played in a very cut-throat fashion!
@JozisTinMan A gaming wife. Win or lose, we should all be so lucky!John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantThere were 20 sided D10s. Those actually came first. It was suggested that you roll a D10 and a D6 together. a 4+ on the D6 indicated that you add 10 to the result of a D20. That was in the mid 70s. The D20 came soon after in the late 70s. I remember using those in highschool. c1979-1983. The actual D10s with only 10 sides came out sometime in the mid 80s…best guess. I remember seeing them for the first time in college. Probably 1984 or 85.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantThose paint jobs look great! The Orcs remind me of the Chariot Miniatures fantasy line. I assume those are 28mm?
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantEvent cards govern the way the monsters move. In that vein, the ones I can remember off the top of my head are Monster Frenzy (all monsters move) Hordes Activate (hordes move or form from single minions) and Loners Activate (greater monsters move). There are reinforcement cards, cards that state that reinforcements arrive behind the party and ambush cards where a monster jumps out and attacks from behind a terrain object. Some cards are drawn once and removed from the deck. Found object cards, scenario event cards, trap cards things like that. In all, there is 25 cards. The ones labeled “remove and reshuffle” or with only “reshuffle” guarantee that you never run out of cards. In theory, it could mean that a scenario event does not happen. I suspect that is rare but I’ve only played once thus far.
Did that answer your Q?
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantThat is a really nice looking figure, paint job and all!
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantAs usual, nice looking game and great battle report, Vincent. At the high level scale, it appears that different formations are not used. correct?
Looking forward to the next installment!
John
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantReally well done! Thanks for posting!
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantTo answer your question directly, how about might, wit and vitality?
If you wanted a more casual naming scheme, keep brawn and brain and change vitality to grit.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantI look but usually don’t buy. Like the Phil (the OP) I have a limited amount of time to game.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantFor me, I’ve tried all the major turn sequences and some of the variations. For me, it comes full circle back to the beginning with Featherstone’s rules. At the beginning, dice for initiative. Winner chooses to go first or second. If they go first, they move everything that they plan on moving. The second player now does the same. During the firing phase, units that did not move fire simultaneously. Casualties removed. Then units that moved fire. Casualties removed. Finally, troops in close combat fight.
Morale checks are always taken at the beginning of the turn. If a unit fails, the result is assessed as that unit’s move for the turn.
The sequence makes initiative an interesting decision. Sometimes, you will have situations where it will be advantageous to move first on one part of the battlefield and second on another. As well, in order to gain the initiative again, you must beat the enemy’s roll. A tie goes to the side which held the initiative in the previous turn.
We played Quatre Bras at the brigade level to completion in 2015 in about 4 hours. This included lots and lots of banter. The game was quite relaxed and nobody left with a brain ache from too many calculations.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantI scale all of my stuff to 1/72 scale. So those big “flimsy” 28mm models hold up quite well. I am quite happy to use card models for a variety of games. Cheap, easy to build.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantI’m kind of done with anything WW2 except for early war Western Europe and Western Desert theater. I will not game any anything past that chronologically. Just too topical and for the most part was not a game to anyone who served. Most of the WW2 veterans I’ve known are gone now but in their memory, I continue in this vein.
I don’t do gang violence, concentration camps, massacres or any other distasteful game situations like that. I am no completely on board with Viking Raid type games, at least not with the kids.
Other than that, I’ll try about anything if done in good taste.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantPersonally, I think it is a gamer thing.
Nope. If anything it’s a boy’s toys thing.
I’ll go with that.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantPersonally, I think it is a gamer thing. For instance, if I ask how to change a light bulb in my car(I’ve actually researched this for a Toyota Yaris) I get very specific if not wrong answers. I am about to as a neighborhood group who hauls junk and the best place to get breaks changed. In general, folks are helpful and give you plenty of suggestions.
I think gamers are more willing to push their own agendas to make sure game X or product Y gets used above all else. I’ve certainly asked on another page about what one thinks of an Ancients game only to get answers like “Dunno. I play DBA.” or “I know lots of people are playing Hail Caesar.” It seems to happen a lot with mainstream sorts of games.
I am certain I have be guilty of this crime in the past, usually because I am answering when at work and am in too much of a hurry to consider what I’ve just written. 😀
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantWhat’s their beef? Nice brush work!
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipant“What would you say for miniatures companies?”
Smaller companies are “indie”…the ones with less deep pockets. I think here (for me) the definition becomes less clear.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipant“What do you think of as Indie Games Companies?”
I consider an Indie game company one who is not a mass market company. They don’t sell you a high gloss, over engineered set of rules but rather simple, playable and reasonably well produced rules, often only in PDF. So, with the news feed, you are getting much more of the Nordic Weasel games type news and less of the GW or Warlord news.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantI use forums and wargame sites as a way to stay connected to the community. I post to my blog mostly as a personal record so that I don’t forget the “great idea” I just came up with. I am grateful for the commentary I get there from others. I always happily post links to other sites if I think the post might interest others.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantTMPs traffic has slackened I’ve noticed. I suspect the advertisers that are still there are on contract and may or may not renew at the end of their term.
TWW is a well setup place with friendly members. I really do enjoy reading the posts here but often don’t reply if only because I’ve been retty busy as of later. The indie bit is a a big draw for me. Which follows into the next point.
TGN does seem to only cater to main stream big production gaming. It does not interest me. Those sorts of games are not really my cup of tea.
I don’t know anything about WGN&T. It might hold a bit of interest for me. I’ll have to check it out!
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantMarmon-Herrington MKIII has a fairly square back and is a bit shorter.
MKI and MKII have the more angled back and perhaps a bit longer. Armament is basically the same.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantSo, what I see from this interesting thread is that arms and armor were varied as was dress. Colors could be anything. Likely, the pro Marcher Welsh looked a lot like their English allies/lords. The native Welsh probably had somewhat more “antique” equipment but maybe not overly so. I cannot disagree with any of it. I think, in the end, pick some figures of the period that look right to you and go with it. Surely there are some figures of men-at-arms types of the time that are at least dressed in hose that would fit the bill?
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantWho Asked This Joker Uchelwyr were from all over Wales, not just Gwynedd – land owning class – lords or noblemen. Not sure why you think the figure NCS posted looks to be particularly Irish influenced? Is it because of the green?
Good to know about locations etc. As for why, the tunic is too long. Falls more in line with Irish fashion. So this man is from south west Wales maybe? Also, Britons tended to wear trousers. This guy has bare legs. The rest of his equipment is fine to my mind. Even the nasal helm should be fine. It was suggested that they didn’t have nasal helms but this might have been liberated from an enemy warrior or something.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantHello everyone, Where to find in 25 mm/30 mm figurines representing Uchelwr of the eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth century? Thank you Pascal
So we are talking anywhere between 1000AD and 1299AD. That’s actually a pretty big range! I will assume you want something after the Norman conquest of England. 1066 or later. I will admit that this is the first I’ve heard of Uchlewr. They seem to be nobles commonly from Gwenydd, right? That being the case, they are more likely similar to native Britons in dress. The man in the picture seems to be influenced by Irish fashion of the time. I’d suggest that an Uchelwr would have a tunic that ends at the upper knee, not different from a Norman, Saxon or Viking (Norse) tunic. The kit (armor/weapons), of course, could be of any style and type. I would think that a Pre-Feudal Scottish Noble would fit the bill really well. Maybe Crusader Miniatures Mounted Scots Thanes?
Here is an article by Dan Mersey that seems pretty informative.
My 2 cents.
John
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantWell, there is always Osprey’s Campaign series. #220 is on this very subject. https://ospreypublishing.com/operation-crusader-1941-pb
I have not read this specific one but others in the series have been good, fun reads. Makes for an excellent starting point. Panzer Armee Afrika is another good choice though it cover the whole of the desert War from the German perspective.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
09/11/2017 at 16:13 in reply to: Laserstorm: Suggestions for consideration in proposed revision #75923Who Asked This JokerParticipantJohn – I rather like that mechanic because it solves a lot of scaling issues, but if you come up with something comparable on a single die, I’d be interested for sure.
Challenge accepted!
WARNING This comes from eyeballing the rules. No actual game-play experience
First off, I don’t think the extra granularity in armor is really needed. You have enough traits and abilities to add plenty of variety.
Second, there were quaite a few 100% saves which would likely result in a negative save number on a D6. I’d suggest turning everything over so you could express even better saves as 8 or less on a D6 instead of -2 or better. It just looks better. The percentages cannot be accurately mimicked with a D6 but you can make a workable system that gives the feel…hopefully. 😉 Infantry did not change in armor but I will express all saves as that number or less.
So infantry saves are 3, 2 or 1 based on type. Includes light vehicles.
Heavies are 6, 5 or 4 based on type. Equate the 6 to a 1 or 2 save. A 5 to a 3 or 4 save and a 6 to a 5 or 6 save.
Super heavies would have saves of 7 or 6. 7 equates to anything with a 2 or 3 save. 6 equates to the 5 save.
Behemoths have an 8 or a 7. 8 equates to a 2 or 4 save and a 7 equates to a 6 save.
Weapons remain the same except cut all save mods in half round down. At least with the infantry type weapons, every one made sense. There was differentiation beteen the Buzz bomb and the plasma rifle both end up with a -1 save mod but the plasma rifle is GP and the buzz bomb is AT. Small arms and MGs have 0 save mod as does the gauss rifle but the latter is a GP while the others are AI. It all kinda works.
No need to make the saves positive numbers. Instead of deducting from the die roll, you can deduct them from the save number. No need for any more “squad leader” math. 😉
John
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
08/11/2017 at 14:16 in reply to: Laserstorm: Suggestions for consideration in proposed revision #75853Who Asked This JokerParticipantI don’t like the multi-dice saves As in Roll 1 two or 3 D6 for a save. With this, you can’t pick up a handful of dice and save for a bunch of hits at once. You have to roll each hit one at a time. Consider distilling saves down to a single D6.
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
Who Asked This JokerParticipantOver my lifetime…and this is not an exhaustive list.
Minifigs
Essex
Gripping Beast
Herritage
Grenadier
Perry
Warlord
Splintered Light
Rebel Minis
GW
Black Tree Designs
Newline Designs
HaT
MiniArt
Italeri
Revell
Early War Miniatures
Raventhorpe
Britannia/Grubby
Freikorps 15
QRF
Falcon
Donnington
Old Glory 15/25
Feudal
I am certain there are others. 😉
John
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
--Abraham Lincoln
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