Friday, the 22nd of April Year of Our Lord 2022.
A few things have been happening and gladly cover the corners of the hobby without any snob affiliation to any format; Cardboard and miniatures and something in between.
For the future I am anticipating the release, on the 25th April, of the newest rules set by Reisswitz Press, the sister label of Too Fat Lardies ( yes, the one of galactic renown ).
I am referring to Strength & Honour, a set of rules that aim to cover ancients warfare at army level from that cinematic bird eye view
Instead of modelling individuals or individual troops, the rules aim at the mass.
Mark Backhouse, the designer, did put several demos over the past months and together with Richard did present us with a superb series of videos showing what the game can be by playing his own helvetii tribesmen against the caesar republicans. You may want to start with the first segment but I expected you to follow through the entire series.
Yes, it is that good and gives a good overview of how the game works and how spectacular this scale is.
The greatest news of all was that both labels have partnered with the Karwansaray Publishers; of which I am subscriber for the Wargames Soldiers & Strategy magazine; to distribute directly to the EU. This is golden as it gives us “eurochaps” quick delivery and no hassle with customs.
https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/strength-honour.html
The pre-orders include the physical rules and the PDF versions including print versions of the game pieces so one can perfectly start playing a.s.a.p. while taking time to prepare and paint the miniatures.
That is what I will do in the short run – because I have not yet create or bought any army bases.
Although I am considering investing my budget with Kohryl Miniatures given it is EU based and specifically casting for S&H – https://korhylminiatures.bigcartel.com/gallery
As the days past I’ve been ravaging the arts and crafts supplies and creating some terrain tiles to populate the table. I’ve not yet complete the processes nor added a bit of paint on any of them yet, but so far things are going smoothly – oh, i really do like this scale.
6 tiles
3 woods
3 farm/undergrowth
Total time, less than 2 hours
Price – the cost of rain.
I am expecting this wargame to be a mainstay at home. Seems fun, comfortable to be taught quickly and have enough command and control decision making to be challenging. This is important when inviting other people to the table. Not everyone – almost no one ! – will be keen on digesting complex rules that cannot be taught in an afternoon let alone be played in less than a weekend.
Let’s carry on…
Without having many opportunities of returning to a regular club schedule where a multitude of games are setup and patrons are always ready to try new games or engage in good narrative play, I cannot pass any chances of playing face to face and past weekend did match up with a friend in a short afternoon battle using miniatures. I wrote a short after action report illustrated with the mandatory snapshots.
On the carboard side of the hobby I’ve been having good fun recording a play through of Fields of Battle by Vae Victis ( original title is in french, Champs de Bataille ) and with short segments being posted on the channel you may want to follow the action – and how the mechanisms work – by starting … with the starting segment.
So what is there to fit in the “in between” ? You ask…
Quoting the eternal grognard of the year, Jim…
“…you are telling me you want to play a miniatures game without telling me you want to play a miniatures game.”
Go no further and enjoy the battle report posted the past week as well covering napoleonic battle with almost a miniatures feeling and allure…
It has been a very good period since the last Coffee Break entry and mostly because of the variation of media used I did not fall into the “boredom” that is seemingly grabbing some of the “content makers” I’ve came across in the last months post lockdown period.
The trick is exactly that – to explore new rules, new methods, new scales. Setup a game on the fly, invite a friend for some beers and snacks, have a chat and play a game, even if it is not the favourite and most intricate one – remember you are not trying to present your military knowledge, nor speaking out how you wrote your phd thesis working out supply lines of the peninsula guerrilas and explain it with a hex and counter game.
You both are there to have a laugh, roll some dice and have good stories out of it.
Have a good weekend !
wargamer.coffee.break 