So what have I been churning over the last month or so?
- Bolt Action
- Saga
- Square Bashing
- DBA 3.0
- My company-level WW II rules
- One More Volley (a Sixty-One Sixty-Five derivative for the AWI)
- BattleLore
- In the Emperor's Name
- FUBAR
- Richard Borg's new Abaddon
- Napoleon's Triumph
- And even a little Flames of War
- With Musket and Tomahawk (Vols I and II)
- The Great Chevauchee
- Aztec Warrior (I bought a large collection of 450+ 25mm Aztecs and now I have to do something with them)
- Hardwired (I was thinking about making a cyberpunk-style game)
- Wally Simon's Secrets of Game Design (Vols 1 and 2)
I needed to get the Wooden Warriors out and play a game – I took a lot of pictures – and I started a "comic" of the game and the rules that go with the narrative, but the rules did not quite work out (I kept changing them from turn to turn as I thought of new ideas and rejected others). I may still post the pictures without any narrative about the rules themselves as the battle was rather humorous and putting out all of those wooden 40mm soldiers does look impressive (at least to me).
I hope to knock out a mini-review of both Bolt Action and Saga here soon. My main emphasis will not be to describe every aspect of the rules – you can find a lot of reviews out there on both – but to zoom in on several specific game mechanics and discuss them.
I have also been painting quite a bit. I knocked out six 28mm WW II US paratroopers (I was trying to see if I wanted to do it or send them out to be painted), 6mm Franco-Prussian War units, 40mm wooden Napoleonics, and 6mm Space Marines, Orks, and Chaos Space Marines. I might have done an odd Dark Ages and Modern Africa figure or too in there also...
Right now my wife is eye-balling my Aztec purchase, and as I am currently enamored with Saga, I am definitely looking to make Aztec and Chichimec factions, base the figures for the two forces, and then really exercise the game. My first thought was to use them with Dux Bellorum (did I forget to mention those rules too?), but I am still holding off until DBA 3.0 ships. Once they do, I can take my remaining figures (after building the Saga forces), build to the official DBA army lists, and then use them for both rule sets.
So why some of these rules? Well Bolt Action and Saga are pretty easy to explain. Both have been hyped tremendously and have received a fair amount of praise in reviews (Bolt Action less so, however) and both are aimed at letting the gamer get involved for about 25 to 75 figures per side. I am increasingly finding myself enamored with that size of "commitment" for larger scale figures. (I allow for a lot more figures when it is 6mm, although most games end up at about 12 to 24 bases per side, unless I am using very few figures per base.)
For Bolt Action it helps that I have been collecting painted 28mm WW II figures for years – no, more than a decade – and have yet to really find a set of rules that I like. (Both NUTS! and Flying Lead are okay, but I cannot get many others to play either of them.) Of course, my WW II collection is a bit "random", as I bought well-painted troops here and there as I spotted them on TMP or eBay. I do have some unpainted figures to try and fill in some holes, but at this point I can easily field a German Grenadier list and make a dent in providing a US Airborne list (with no goodies).
I still want to blow off the dust from my AWI and game with them. I pulled them out a week or so ago, but ended up putting them back in the box as I still had not solidified my ideas with One More Volley. I am getting closer now.
Well that is the news from Rancho Spazzo. I hope to start posting the mini-reviews and battle reports soon.
If it's any consolation, your churn is pretty inspiring.
ReplyDeleteDale,
ReplyDeleteFeel your pain buddy. Not in that space right now, luckily. You do seem to have it bad at the moment. "Pain" of course is relative. The pain is from times like these, as you mention, there is not enough hours in the days to get through everything.
What do you think of the Wally Simon books? I have been tempted numerous times over the last few months to get the first, and then the second when it came out. Just a hint will do - do they look interesting?
I just need to exercise a little more self-control with my spending. The less I buy, the less things to distract me. Now that I have loaded up on Saga, maybe it will stop.
ReplyDeleteRe: Wally Simon, see my next blog post.
Dale, I had to laugh when you wrote "Now that I have loaded up on Saga, maybe it will stop." I think that is one of those statements that marks out a true wargamer. I am sure you have said that uncountable times before! But just in case I am dinting your self-denial, I think you are right - now you have loaded up on Saga, you are sure to stop buying more stuff and will stop getting distracted by shiny things :-)
ReplyDelete