A Song of Fords and Shallows

 Mostly eye candy today with some thoughts on "A Song of Drums and Shakos".  It's just a reskin of Andrea Sfiligoi's "Song of..." series, but I'm really glad to have added it to my library.  Having the background and points lists for each army really makes it a snap for a Nappy neophyte like myself to throw a game down and get to rolling.

Here we see a veteran unit of French trying to hold a crossroads following defeat at Tres Verdes.  The Redcoats are in full pursuit, and if this French unit can do enough damage to a squad of British dragoons before they cross the table, they can save a lot of lives.  Unfortunately for the, the British have an equal number of green infantry on the way as well.  The British infantry hope to do enough damage or at least distract the French enough to allow the dragoons to slip past.

The French commander opts to split his forces.  He positions three men in the woods between the two fords with the bulk of his men inside the small hedged farm field.  Here you can see the larger unit of British as they advance in two waves.

Having disrupted the French a bit, it's time for the British Dragoons to begin their race northward...

Refusing to be distracted, the French quickly put down the first two mounted enemy...

To win, the British need to get four horses off the road on the north side of the table.  Here you can see that two of them are off, with a third just about to cross the finish line.

All that remains is for the British squadron leader to make his escape...

To find out how this fight ends, check out the full battle play over on "The Joy of Wargaming"!

Oooo, what a bait and switch.  Have I no shame?  Apparently not.

Hintervale: Gondor Calls for Aid

Will you answer?

In all seriousness, I need your help.  My latest project for The Joy of Wargaming can't go anywhere without you.  Check it out.

Help a brother out.

Let me know what you think the best option is here, would ya?

Chainmail's 50th Anniversary - A Video

This makes for a good watch. A lovely little glimpse into the wargaming world of the midwest in the late 1960s. Out of this culture, and countless others littered across the anglosphers, was spun the tabletop RPG community. It's a quick watch at just over 22 minutes, and includes some fairly candid recollections from Jeff Perren - the other author of Chainmail.

 

Primordial D&D

 Been thinking about this a lot.

Ever since watching this movie.

Which is great.  A must-watch for anyone interested in learning more about the evolution of tabletop wargaming and/or role-playing games. It's a deep dive into the roots of the hobby, and surprisingly even-handed.  But I can't shake the feeling it doesn't go back quite far enough.  This is no slight on the film, just a bit of wistful musing about the movie might have looked like had it been made by Brits as eager to discuss Featherstone and Bath as the film-makers are to discuss Arneson and Gygax.

Spoilers: the right answer is - no one invented fantasy campaigning, and everyone did.

Expect to see more on this subject when time permits.

Death Cult for Cuties

Alternative Armies' sci-fi death cult paints up great.

All right, smart boys, so it's actually the Post-Apocalyptic warband (HOFP05).  In the House of Wargaming, we treat them as cultists.  Look at them robes and death masks and heads on pikes - what else could they be?

Vince Venturella over on YouTube taught me how to get a better look out of the color purple.  The trick is to know whether you're dealing with a red purple or a blue purple, and what you want to get out of it.  Here's a great lesson in how to get the most out of yours.

Feelz Good Man Strikes Again

 If you're still on the fence about it, or haven't given it a chance, The Joy of Wargaming is going like gangbusters.

But don't take my word for it:

We're doing a long-form series detailing a logistical and strategic campaign using the book shown in the picture above.  It's got a lot of surprises and the action kicks off here:

Twargame Advice

A world of advice on using Twitter to get your wargaming fix:

Stay away from the #warmonger tag.  It's for people who don't do a lot of wargaming.  They like "thuh comm-MUNE-itay".  You get lots of ads for milktoast content providers and soy-based podcasts.  A lot of  paint-by-numbers figures that will never face the trial of the dice.  Lots of consoomer activity with maybe a splash of vaguely wargamey webcomic art (circa-1998 in style).

Not a whole lot of wargaming, tho.

Warmongers. Nothing a little testosterone
supplement can't fix.

You're looking for the #wargame tag - that's where people who actually wargame show up to show off their tables and link to interesting blog posts.

An odd dichotomy, but one for which I am grateful.

By way of apolgy for all those wahah!-wahah!-wa-hacky! soy-faces, let me recommend a solid channel for those of us looking to up our painting game.  Vince Venruella isn't a personality whose primary goal is establishing a brand.  His videos are not bookended by marketing ploys and video diaries and tedious attempts at humor.  Instead, they are hugely informative, densely packed with the theories and fundamentals of painting, and all presented in a cool and casual style that educates.

The Future of Miniature Wargaming

It's fine.  Miniature wargaming is going to be just fine.  Check out this fantastic kid banging out videos like a boss:

If you're on the Youses and the Tubeses, and you're worried about "the graying of the hobby"* why not throw the kid a follow to encourage him to keep it up?  He's just starting out on his journey, and every little bit of support helps.

That's something new.  For something old, here's a great little clip that highlights the special effects used in (what I believe was) the first ever on-screen appearance of the Space Marines:

*I am not worried about it.

Another Half-Hour One Hour Wargame Live Play

"Live Play" the man says in the title to describe a battle fought on the table two weeks ago.  Whatever.  I didn't land on the post-definitional world, the post-definitional world landed on me.

Here's another battle report you can view from the comfort of your own bunker:

In more boring news, I cleaned up the link rot on the left-hand column.  Removed a few busted links and dumped in a few new hot ones. 

Check out 15mm Through Space and Time for some richly painted figures in the One True Scale to Rule Them All.  Or hit Picts From the Front for some world-class kitbashing in 15mm, including mechas made from old plastic sprues.

Actual Play - Barbarian Prince - Episode 1

If you haven't seen it yet, Castalia House Publishing has a new blog feature called Wargame Wednesdays, for all of us hex-and-counter-philes.  The series has inspired me to push some cardboard around.  All of my kids love themselves some Awful Green Things, and we spent a summer tooling about with the print-and-play games over at the Dwarfstar archive.  We played enough Outpost Gamma to decide it was just too danged tough for the marines, and a game or two of Goblins! before losing interest.

Last weekend, I finally had a chance to sit down and play through the classic hex and counter wargame, Barbarian Prince.  It really is less of a wargame than it is a jumped-up choose-your-own adventure slash analog version of turn based computer RPGs.  But it has lots of hexes and at least one counter, along with a turn tracker, resource meters, and a couple of other wargame signifiers, so I for one am comfortable putting in the wargame family, even if it is one of its distant cousins.

Not only did I get a chance to play, I got a chance to film, edit, and prep a short video to share with you lot.  I've taken the liberty of editing out the dull bits like flipping through rulebooks and tedious die-rolling for combat, so the video moves faster than you might expect.  Barbarian Prince is a solo wargame, so have some leftovers and enjoy watching me play with myself for thirteen minutes*. If there's any interest, I'll probably do another one over the Thanksgiving break.

 

Direct YouTube link.

Links mentioned in the video:

• Download the rules here
• Cleaned up map suitable for printing on a single 11x17 sheet
• Reaper Minis (Dwarves)

*Probably a bad joke to make - I'm going to start getting a lot of weird spam comments now, aren't I?