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Genghis Cohen posted:I'm not sure where BF games sit on the chud scale As much as I like Flames of War, BF sits approximately here on the chud scale: 
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Apr 23, 2023 08:44
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That's the kind of thing that's inevitable when you decide to start doing faction dice for your WWII game. A pretty good reason not to do faction dice, really.
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Apr 23, 2023 15:35
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Given Battlefront's tendencies toward WWII I wonder how their books on Vietnam, the Six Day / Yom Kippur War, or the Cold War in general frame those conflicts. I mean not enough to read those fuckin things but I wonder if the reactionary slant continues.
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Apr 23, 2023 16:48
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Picked up Five Men At Kursk and Where Sten Guns Dare. Will probably start working on minis for Where Sten Guns Dare soonish because commando raid movies are neat and the squad creation rules say:quote:In war movie tradition, one of the characters must be a foreigner. And that kind of silly, strictly-for-fluff rule is something I support.
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Apr 23, 2023 18:22
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Endman posted:As much as I like Flames of War, BF sits approximately here on the chud scale: Yeah, while I get they make faction dice for all the armies, it's not a good look is it? I get the impression ze germans are a big seller for them. The fact there's separate books for SS and regular german army could indicate catering to the people who really, really want to play as aryan ubermenschen.
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Apr 23, 2023 19:59
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Springfield Fatts posted:Are you wanting specific genres? As mentioned earlier in the thread NordicWeasel's 5 Parsecs/Leagues/Klicks are all designed as solo games. I'm not so much into skirmish level stuff, really anything multi based is up my alley. And I'm not looking for something necessarily designed for solo play, just something that plays well solo. 19th century through modern is ideal.
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Apr 23, 2023 20:47
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All of my historical wargaming has been solo since getting back into the hobby about six months ago, my findings: One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas is spot on and covers Ancients up to ACW/Crimea/Zulu well (although technically has rules for WW1/WW2) - games are IGOUGO with 4-6 units per side and over quickly and easily. It also comes with 30+ scenarios which makes solo gaming a lot more interesting than just playing British Bulldog. It's scale agnostic so you can simply half or quarter measurements for different sized figures and regiments. Units don't have formations, but I use two to four multi-figure bases for a single unit in this game. I think the biggest complaint is that the rules are VERY simple - so there's an idea that you're not getting your money's worth - but complexity doesn't always yield greater authenticity or enjoyment, so beware of that trap I guess? Absolute Emperor by Osprey is a generally unloved Napleonic-era game but is very playable. There are some small bits which need house-rulng (such as increasing command radius and always playing in the 'divisional' level of the game where you are controlling units of brigades rather than divisions.) but it works well, is quick and the rules are cheap enough to play a few times and keep as a curio. I have found DBN by KISR Publications is about as crunchy as I feel a Napoleonic game needs to be - it is much more than just a port of DBA 2.2+ - but the same battle fought with this ruleset takes 3x the time as OHW or AE and frequently has yielded the same result, so I would suggest it may be more of a trap choice. Lasalle 2nd Edition is something I'm still getting to grips with - hands down the most challenging thing is the interruption system which adds a huge cognitive load to not only choose to interrupt, but to take actions which would then permit <you> to interrupt <yourself>. Honestly I don't think I can recommend it, having played a couple of games I'm still not sure if I actually like it! I've got a few rule sets which have yet to make it to the table for Ancients ( Art De La Guerre, or DBA 3.0) and Pike and Shot (Pikeman's Lament, Victory Without Quarter, With Pike and Shot and my own P&S skin for OHW called An Hour with Pike and Shot. I have also picked up a HYW English Army and the Lion Rampant rules but I can't yet comment on those at all. Irrespective of specific ruleset I think having a campaign background to a game makes it much more easy to play a non-solo game even handedly, for what it's worth. Donald Featherstone, Tony Bath, et al have lots of methods for setting up normal wargames as solo-friendly - mostly from a pre-battle perspective such as double-blind deployment (with cards representing units being randomly shuffled and deployed for one or both sides, with or without addtional 'confounding' cards) to variable turn limits, realistic objectives, scenery generation, etc. etc - the Solo Wargaming Guide by William Sylvester is a great primer and his bibliography is spot on for further reading. In unrelated matters, I've got the 1:700 Black Seas freebie from Wargames Illustrated blocked in and I think it's looking quite nice: 
Southern Heel fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Apr 23, 2023 23:05
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Awesome post, thank you!
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Apr 23, 2023 23:13
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Springfield Fatts posted:Given Battlefront's tendencies toward WWII I wonder how their books on Vietnam, the Six Day / Yom Kippur War, or the Cold War in general frame those conflicts. I mean not enough to read those fuckin things but I wonder if the reactionary slant continues. I think the problem isn't that they're reactionary per se, but that they're super orthodox in how they view WW2. They're still ensconced in the Cold War-era view of the conflict: hordes of barely trained Red Army conscripts overwhelming elite German troops with superior weapons. They even put personal bios of "Panzer Aces" in their rulebooks and base scenarios and campaigns off of their exploits. It's a very "your dad" way of viewing WW2, and it makes sense when you realise that the guys who write the rules are literally in their late 50s/60s now. It is changing, albeit incredibly slowly. They've only just now realised that SS troops were typically of worse quality than their Wehrmacht counterparts and given them lower stats but higher motivation.
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Apr 23, 2023 23:22
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Count Thrashula, so I think rather than looking for a ruleset if I were in your position I would read One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas (ethos, scenarios, simple historical rules for a variety of eras) and the Solo Wargaming Guide by William Sylvester (to set up the strategic perspective around a tactical game/campaign). Honestly those two books could set you up for years! I'm quite interested looking into first principles rather than reinterpretations and as such I enjoy reading the grognards of the hobby in Featherstone/Bath/etc. but your mileage may vary on those. Neil Thomas provides a great list of further reading - I'm devouring "With Pike and Shot" by Charlie Wesencraft at the moment and it alone has given me more inspiration and meat than any other book I've read about the pike and shot era. Just to show I'm not talking out of my arse: 
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Apr 23, 2023 23:30
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How good is one hour wargame at the Napoleonic level? Is it skirmish or can it do battalion or corps level games?
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Apr 24, 2023 03:49
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Comstar posted:How good is one hour wargame at the Napoleonic level? Is it skirmish or can it do battalion or corps level games? When I say it is simple, I mean it is SIMPLE. There are only four unit types (infantry, skirmishers, artillery, cavalry) and only one formation (an optional square for infantry). The author strongly advocates a simple rules system and makes no bones about it, balancing army variety, rules, scenario with complexity, time undertaken, board size, etc. to be a generally pleasant and easy 45 min diversion. He gives a few pages of justification for each of his rules choices, suggests critique and ultimately for readers to write their own rules - but all his choices so far make sense to me. For example: Napoleonic Infantry may not engage in hand-to-hand combat as it's defined in his rules. His argument is that 90% of infantry-on-infantry combat was done yelling, shouting, and firing within short musket range and a charge and ensuing mêlée would only occur when the enemy was so close to routing they were essentially a spent force. He declares it as interesting chrome but ultimately unnecessary to write rules for a system of charge/countercharge, charge reactions, combat results and morale, pursuit, etc. and that that action can be driven narratively rather than through tables, charts and dice rolls. This is a modified version of the OHW Horse and Musket Rules but is close enough to give you a very good idea of what the official rules are like. It includes Springfield Fatt's rules on command and control and the revised rules on damage rolls. I believe Mr. Fatts had his own Google Drive link but I've lost it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F4fz8v8KKOumNLzmhOBSpM3kR_wG5f8s/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105222694688883539479&rtpof=true&sd=true PS. This is a game that is simple enough that I can definitely video it, so I will do that tonight.
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Apr 24, 2023 06:54
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Set up ready, rolling on the scenario list from One Hour Wargames I got No. 26: "Triple Line". Neil advises that it's based on the Battle of Bladensburg in the War of 1812, where the Red (British) are invading against a disordered and hastily arranged defence. The Blue (Americans) have managed to block a crossing over the Potomac, but are a mostly a "reinforced" militia trying to fight against the Royal Marines - as such, it ended up being a defeat for them and led to the burning of the capital. Let's see how it pans out using OHW Horse & Musket - because the rules are not that granular, to represent the difference in quality, training, morale, etc. there are simply fewer Blue units. A view from the Red column across the river: 
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Apr 24, 2023 08:06
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Springfield Fatts posted:Given Battlefront's tendencies toward WWII I wonder how their books on Vietnam, the Six Day / Yom Kippur War, or the Cold War in general frame those conflicts. I mean not enough to read those fuckin things but I wonder if the reactionary slant continues. Similarly, broadly. You can generally assume the communist/communist-aligned force will be the one that's made of hordes of grunts with terrible skill who work by massed attack (to the point where when they did iran/iraq, iraq, as the slightly better army, ended up in NATO). It's improved in a few places - they're prepared to give SS troops who're amateurs hopped up on the glory of the third reich and also meth, and they've put out some soviet forces that're elites with comparable stats to the western forces, but usually under the excuse of "these are the few survivors of the massed attack earlier". Soviet artillery being crap has been a fairly universal problem with any of their games on the basis that "the area they were good at is above the scale of the game", despite the fact the same could be said of things like american air support or blitzkrieg, which do get rules. You can have a game that's somewhat reasonable but the game's default is to let you play enemy at the gates, for sure.
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Apr 24, 2023 10:58
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Genghis Cohen posted:I have just played against my friend who was using Germans out of the new Berlin book. I get that it's a game, but the overwhelming 'point' of the newer options seems to be to field a shitload of late war German tech (because it's cheaper on account of the discount given for being poorly trained and motivated). Which is kind of thematically the opposite of my understanding of the battle of Berlin, ie the Nazis were outmatched in every way, overwhelming numbers, better training, better operational planning. It conjures up the image of the victors approaching the last pockets of resistance only to have a horde of Panthers and Tigers unleashed on them! Not defending their representation of the units in terms of their stat liens (which is not great and can be very inconsistent), but "Berlin" etc. for them just means 1945; i.e. This is the Eastern Front German Book for 1945 with 1945 toys and 1945 crap, so it's not just the Volkstrumm and assorted SS chumps in Berlin, but pretty much anywhere along the whole eastern front. To be completely honest, this is kind of a downgrade from their 3rd edition books which were much better as Campaign/battle studies (e.g. Stalin's Europe as a Hungarian Campaign book) even though the representation of the individual units themselves has improved (e.g. SS no longer being ubermensch). Admittedly, their old approach had a lot of list bloat - At one point there were 7 different Sherman/Firefly British Armoured Squadron flavours (Canadian flavoured/Polish flavoured/Bulge Flavoured/Guards flavoured/Independent Armoured Brigade flavoured/Normandy flavoured/Italian flavoured etc.) and 4 ways of running Cromwells Squadrons. . tomdidiot fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Apr 25, 2023 |
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Apr 24, 2023 22:54
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It was a bit of a nightmare, too, because most of them differed very slightly by, like, whether or not they were allied with american armoured or american paras or whatever.
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Apr 24, 2023 23:38
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Feels like the simplest way to do these things would be to work out a matrix for skill and morale and how both affect cost and then for all possible variations just decide what each unit slots into at each major campaign they're dropping a book on. That'll prevent them doing weird poo poo like having multiple variations of a single unit possible for a single slot in the force organisation chart I guess though 
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Apr 25, 2023 03:44
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Comstar posted:How good is one hour wargame at the Napoleonic level? Is it skirmish or can it do battalion or corps level games? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVd_BjLGXQo
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Apr 25, 2023 09:03
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Heads up, Henry Turner is launching his 3D printed Hundred Years War line on Friday via Kickstarter. He'll be the first to admit he hasn't done much promotion for this one like he has with his Napoleonics or ACW or his ship stuff, but I think this looks fantastic. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ageofadmirals/europe-asunder-the-hundred-years-war-part-1 (Part 2 is going to cover the Wars of the Roses) Also, can anyone recommend a good HYW ruleset? I know there's DBA and l'AdlG and stuff that cover huge periods of time, but what about purpose made for Medievals? Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Apr 25, 2023 |
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Apr 25, 2023 16:01
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Actually on that note, in preparation for Saga's forthcoming HYW book, does anyone know of a 28mm (preferably metal) model for Henry V that looks like Kenneth Branagh, and more specifically the coat-of-arms gambeson he's wearing in the movie
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Apr 25, 2023 16:12
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Has anyone ever drilled Victrix hands for wire spears? I tried but the hands are so fragile. Looking for any kind of tips, tired of the spears breaking from just taking a mini out.
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Apr 25, 2023 18:28
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alg posted:Has anyone ever drilled Victrix hands for wire spears? I tried but the hands are so fragile. Looking for any kind of tips, tired of the spears breaking from just taking a mini out. I used to know a guy who, and I'm not saying this is smart at all, heat a needle or small nail and melt through the plastic of the hand.
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Apr 25, 2023 20:15
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StashAugustine posted:Actually on that note, in preparation for Saga's forthcoming HYW book, does anyone know of a 28mm (preferably metal) model for Henry V that looks like Kenneth Branagh, and more specifically the coat-of-arms gambeson he's wearing in the movie The Perry one is wearing the coat of arms; he’s mounted though and you can only get their dismounted version if you buy three boxes of plastic Agincourt English.
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Apr 25, 2023 21:56
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alg posted:Has anyone ever drilled Victrix hands for wire spears? I tried but the hands are so fragile. Looking for any kind of tips, tired of the spears breaking from just taking a mini out. Cut off the existing spear flush to the top and bottom of the hand. Start with a t i n y drill bit, drilling about halfway down into the hand from the top. Drill from the bottom to meet the top hole. You can probably use the area you cut flush to help centering your holes as you start. This gives you some leeway in trying to center the hole on both sides and using a tiny bit keeps you from instantly destroying the whole hand. I would use a slightly larger bit than the t i n y one to make the hole slightly larger and not blow out and weaken the hand. Since you are already drilling into a pilot hole, this should be pretty fast. Finally, drill with the size to fit for the wire spears. You should end up with a nice, clean hole and little, if any, white, weak spots. Maybe some between the fingers, but certainly not across the knuckles or back of the hand. If you do it in reasonable batches, even switching bits between one pin vise, it shouldn't take too long. I would highly recommend doing it by hand. Using a Dremel or whatever motor tool is asking for something to go sideways. This is a drill set I recommend for an entire assortment of t i n y bits to ones that should be big enough for wire spears. https://www.micromark.com/The-Rogers-Drill-Bit-Set-61-80-Set-of-20 Once you get a feel for what sizes of bits you like, https://contenti.com is a good place to get good quality bits in specific sizes.
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Apr 25, 2023 22:00
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Stabilise the hand with blutac or similar as well so you’re not relying just on hand and eye to get the drill bit in at the right angle
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Apr 26, 2023 13:51
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Endman posted:I think the problem isn't that they're reactionary per se, but that they're super orthodox in how they view WW2. They're still ensconced in the Cold War-era view of the conflict: hordes of barely trained Red Army conscripts overwhelming elite German troops with superior weapons. They even put personal bios of "Panzer Aces" in their rulebooks and base scenarios and campaigns off of their exploits. It's a very "your dad" way of viewing WW2, and it makes sense when you realise that the guys who write the rules are literally in their late 50s/60s now. Well said. Battlefront is very much "Dad History," not up to date with current historiography. But, hey, it's a game. Play it or don't; there are lots of alternatives.
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Apr 26, 2023 16:41
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Cessna posted:Well said. Battlefront is very much "Dad History," not up to date with current historiography. Honestly, the main reason I like Battlefront is their minis are pretty good, plastic (for the common units), and affordable, even if their ruleset is a bit mid.
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Apr 26, 2023 21:05
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I like Flames of War because it’s simple, pretty quick to play and lets me push around lots of tiny tanks that I love painting. When I only want to push around a small number of tiny tanks I play What A Tanker! If you’re after something that approximates command and control at the company or battalion level, Flames ain’t it, but there are great alternatives if that’s what you’re after. I’d love to give O Group a try one of these days.
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Apr 26, 2023 22:22
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I would love to hear an opinion on which of these seems like it would be a more interesting game. The basis is a small force of blue defenders on a hill. The red army has the objective of capturing the hill. For deployment/reinforcements: Option 1: The red army is fully deployed against the small blue defender contingent, and the rest of the blue army moves onto the board from their table edge on Turn 2. Option 2: The red army has an equivalent small force deployed, and both forces must bring on the rest of their army assets with successful dice rolls that get easier as each turn passes. This is for a Lasalle battle report I'm about to film later today. Any thoughts?
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Apr 27, 2023 14:01
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Option 2 sounds better as a battle report because you start smaller and the battle scales up to a climax. Sounds like Waterloo to me with blues reinforcements coming in on a flank. Give me night or give me Prussians.
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Apr 28, 2023 06:26
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Breaking News: What a Tanker still fun!    pew pew
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Apr 28, 2023 06:43
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Endman posted:Breaking News: What a Tanker still fun! Looks beautiful!  Very nice job
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Apr 28, 2023 06:44
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Major Isoor posted:Looks beautiful! Thanks! I definitely need to add some grass to the roads to make them blend in with the mat and the bases on my trees a bit better, but I’m happy with the table so far. Definitely need to get some buildings
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Apr 28, 2023 08:54
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Comstar posted:Option 2 sounds better as a battle report because you start smaller and the battle scales up to a climax. Thank you, did this - ended up rolling all supports arriving on Turn 2 anyway (four 5+ D6 rolls) lol. I hope you appreciate, I'm at Turn 3 and still 5 to go...
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Apr 28, 2023 13:36
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I got sucked into the world of 3mm modern planes and ended up painting a few squadrons. Is there a good ruleset for doing mass air battles? I don't mind it being bit abstract but was hoping to do some CMANO in tabletop form. Current idea is to use a modded and simplified VBAM Mercenary Air Squadron rules.
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Apr 28, 2023 14:45
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OK chums, here's the video of Lasalle 2nd Edition. I still had all the research up for the battle of bladensburg so I used the historical OOB there to fight out this 'Take the High Ground' scenario pitting the British under Ross against the U.S. under Winder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypqgGnUDEyQ Please let me know your thoughts, and if these kind of battle reports are enjoyable or worth doing - it takes up a lot of time to video and edit the footage!
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Apr 29, 2023 08:52
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Southern Heel posted:Please let me know your thoughts, and if these kind of battle reports are enjoyable or worth doing - it takes up a lot of time to video and edit the footage! I quite liked your video battle report: it was MUCH better than all the 40K reports I've tried to watch - you had clear titles for each phase, some commentary on the bottom and it was easy to work out who was who. I still think that showing the dice rolls doesn't help much in game though, but that appears to be just me. i do think 2mm it really hard to see what's actually what: the scale of everything is so close to each other they all seem to merge into each other - without you telling us I couldn't tell what's Dragoons and what's infantry, little lone units. Laselle seems way too complicated for me - it seems like a game wanting to be at the company level but insisting its going to be played at the division level and you you should be playing it as a computer game to remember whose doing what. Thanks for the video!
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Apr 29, 2023 12:19
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I'm glad at least someone found it entertaining. I'm starting to agree re: 2mm and am pivoting towards 10mm. Lasalle is quite unlike playing anything else with such a focus on the tradeoff between triggering interruptions and spending momentum: it is the kernel around which the entire game is based, and honestly I just don't enjoy that system as much as IGOUGO or alternating activations in my particular solo gaming world. I am still planning on playing out Absolute Emperor (which is absolutely an overlooked gem IMO) and DBN to round out this Napoleonic series. I maintain as per the video that it's a fantastic game, but I just don't think it's for me: If any UK goons want a cheap hardcopy of the Lasalle 2nd edition rules please PM me and I'll send them over for beer tokens. Southern Heel fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Apr 29, 2023 |
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Apr 29, 2023 22:06
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I'm working on getting a medieval (HYW/WotR) army or two set up, are there any good rules out there for the era aside from the catch-all ones? (I.e. DBA, Impetus, etc.) I'm looking for battle sized, not skirmishes. Anyone have experience with Days of Knights?
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Apr 29, 2023 23:27
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The parliamentarians rise! I decided to differentiate each of the English Civil War armies by choosing a discrete colour palette. The Royalists are all in yellow, red, burgundy, etc. and the Parliamentarians are all in shades of blue, white and black. For giggles, I also used a purple hued contrast paid for their skin rather than the ruddy orange for the Royalists.
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May 1, 2023 07:23
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