ADudeWhoAbides posted:

Anybody have a lead on somewhere that has L’Art de la Guerre in stock? That ships to the US?

I’d like to use some of this downtime (just got furloughed) to work on some ancients. I’d like to get two armies that are compatible with both DBA and LAG. Seems like the latter just adds a few units to the former, but I’d love to be able to read the book before I start a project.

Springfield Fatts posted:

That's a good synopsis. It recommends a roughly 4 x 2.5 foot table for models up to 15mm. My biggest point in it's favor is it is way easier to parse the rules than DBx and many, many illustrated examples are given in the book (it's the real reasons the rules are 70 pages). The lists are balanced by period and points, so your elite Romans will be outnumbered by more numerous Goths. Be warned that elephants and war wagons will slow the game down. It's also cool that North, Central and South American native peoples are included in the lists if you want to do something different. For $5 as a pdf it's a pretty good deal with lots of content. If you want a game that's faster playing look at To the Strongest! but it's gridded which rubs some people the wrong way.

lilljonas posted:

Yeah I've been thinking for a while about a sonae based 6mm samurai warfare game where you basically have unit cards with stats for the sonae as a fighting force, and unit cards with stats for the commander. So imagine each side has like, 4-6 of these sonae, which can have varying quality (size, morale etc) and varying personalities leading them. Maybe a hothead that is super inspiring for the troops in combat but very likely to advance into danger no matter his order, or a wiley uncle that is unlikely to get stuck in if others are not already in combat. Or someone that's more likely to get pissed off if you give them orders repeatedly, and so on.

Then you act as the damiyo, herding these cats into battle. The idea would be to somehow be able to have a risk/reward command system where the odds could be affected by how happy or pissed off the commanders are , but also depending on the morale of the men they are leading. Troops led by a less bold general will retreat more easily, generals leading a sonae in disarray is less likely to obey your orders, things like that.To make it more interesting, you'd be able to mess with the opponent as well, reflecting spies, bad luck and other things that puts your plan in danger. Just imagine it as a company management boardgame, with swords.

So yeah, a little bit board gameish with some of the same ideas as the Sekigahara board game that StashAugustine mentions, with the actual combat being VERY simplified and abstracted as it would not be the main dish at all. This is my personal mini wargaming hearbreaker, next to a 1/300 scale Japanese feudal naval game.

Endman posted:

David Glantz's book When Titans Clashed is still the go-to single volume on the Nazi/Soviet war imo. It can be very dry, however, but his use of Soviet sources is matchless and it even came out before Beevor's Stalingrad (but has since been updated in a new edition)..

David Stahel, whom I mentioned previously, mostly only deals with the German side of the conflict, but thankfully doesn't fall into the trap that most historians that write books for the mass market do: believing that German sources are inherently more "truthful" than others. Turns out the Germans lied all the time just like everyone else, and German command during Barbarossa was a constant slapfight between senior officers who hated each other's guts.

Guest2553 posted:

A fightin' battalion might have more success than a fuckin' one

Arquinsiel posted:

A quick google tells me that there were many schemes, so the best thing to do is post a picture of the one you mean.

Jobbo_Fett posted: