Since I'm eyeing Chosen Men we'll probably be playing a lot of fights between foraging parties. That means we'll need some forage. In addition to a couple of heavily laden donkeys, we'll need a couple carts, and these come from Irregular.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
More Napoleonic Eye Candy
Since I'm eyeing Chosen Men we'll probably be playing a lot of fights between foraging parties. That means we'll need some forage. In addition to a couple of heavily laden donkeys, we'll need a couple carts, and these come from Irregular.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Bit By Napoleon
It finally happened.
Reading through some old Featherstone books, I've been bit by the Napoleonics bug. Maybe it's age and the fear of not getting to the things I always meant to get to, but whatever the reason, I'm eyeing horse, foot, and guns. More than eyeing, I've been slapping paint!
This unit of line infantry are also from Irregular and they paint up really well. I'll throw together a comparison shot of Irregular with Eureka figs next time.
Meanwhile, I've even got some horse boys, seven in all, to go with them. With all of this done, I now have enough forces to start playing around with Osprey's "Chosen Men".
Eureka just send me more metal figs so that I can expand my current 300 points of Red vs. Blue and add in some variety. Then maybe we can think about running a Featherstone map based campaign just like they used to do.
Friday, August 20, 2021
It Begins
Remember when I said the following?
[W]hen a critical mass of people adopt [the lost art of Gygaxian campaign play] for their own table, you can expect a deluge of smart-boy posts from the Usual Crowds staking a claim to have "always known" about the glories of real-time and always-on gaming.
This is another aspect of old school play that I think is forgotten nowadays: the play of multiple characters. In my House of Worms campaign, this is not unusual. Most of the players have several characters whom they can play at any given time, depending on what is happening in the session.
It's nice to see a recognition of the value of Gygaxian play. Really looking forward to Jimmy Mal discovering the value of 1:1 timekeeping and having always used it but just never got around to mentioning it until lately. Grognardia is also on the cusp of discovering the joys of faction play all on his own from reading the Big Three D&D books and just about ready to tell you all about his breakthrough realizations that he had all on his own.
Not even being ironic or sarcastic here*.
The guys who have been pushing the D&D envelop and making Real D&D sing for the last year or so have been pushing back against some pretty stiff resistance. To see others adopt and claim the OG (Original Gygax) for their own is gratifying. While I can't speak for the rest of that crowd, I can speak for myself when I say that I'm not pushing this new/old style of play for my own gratification. I genuinely want to make play better at your table, and if it takes time for these ideas to percolate through the culture deep enough for the smart boys to pick up the signal and run with it - great!
Heck, J-Mal probably doesn't even understand where this new shift in the conversation came from. It's just...you know...this thing that's out there or whatever. You can't explain it, it's just one of those "nothing can stop an idea whose time has come" things. It's just what people who shall remain nameless because everybody is talking about it are talking about. And hey, if it's an idea that needs somebody to jump in front of the parade dedicated to it, rest assured there are plenty of people trying to sell you products who are more than happy to jump in front of the band.Meanwhile - you and me? - we know where these discussions come from. We know who to watch to see what people will be talking about next month, and why. We know why people are talking about last month's news. As usual, we're one step ahead of the crowd and already turning our attention to deeper mysteries.
*Okay, maybe a little.
Friday, August 13, 2021
Random Shots
As we ease into the weekend, let's take a look at a couple of preview shots of battles coming up on The Joy of Wargaming. First up a look at Osprey's "Black Ops" which features a surveillance fight gone wrong when competing espionage agencies arrive to gather blackmail from the same luddite professor's backwoods cabin.
fun this weekend, guys.
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Epic D&D Made Easy Through Faction Play
Throw them into a blender and see what happens. Does the merc make a deal with the druid to protect the grove with promises of pushing back against the city? Does the cleric enlist the mercenary's aid, trading moral authority and combat buffs in exchange for muscle to push back against the thieves guild? Do they all agree to work together to overthrow the Duke?
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
New Era, Who Dis?
Sometimes it do be like dis:
ASA17 - Napoleonic Sinking Frigates |
ASN MSP3 - Privateers and Barbary Corsairs |
ASN MSP4 - American 1814 |
These were a nightmare to put together and involved a considerable amount of superglue, stripped skin, and sweaty brows. And I'm really looking forward to ordering more of them.
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Finished Figs
Just a couple quick shots of some quick paint jobs today. My 15mm fantasy adventures needed some Bowman at home in the woods. These DemonWorld figures have amazing detail for the scale. Best of all, you can order them individually.