Notable Folk for a Notable Land

Ultimately I think DBA is likely the best foundation for rules, and was a big DBA 2.2+ and WADBAG fan.....though something happened in the last year that seems to have killed both.  While this makes me sad, the show goes on.  I would note, that while wargaming focuses on the most static of times, basing games in our shared history, miniatures and rules seem so much like mayflies.  Sad, but onward.

For clarity I'm building a world leaning on Tolkien with a smidgen more magic.  Armies may be based on DBA but I expect we'll see some magic in the mix.

Rules based, the bigger issue is not the rules for the battle, but the rules for the world.  I will be rolling out the hexmap soon for the armies I have, but that part is easy.  What is not easy is the idea of solo proper.  There's two schools of thought for solo gaming:

• I'm building a world and I don't care who wins each battle I'm sold on both sides equally.  Sadly while this likely builds a better narrative in the log term, I'm curious to see what will happen to my little state of Noremgaarm. 
• You can figure out a system for programming the world and the foes, with random options for the foe based on their expected range of behavior.  This is a much more difficult way to build a legitimate foe, but likely the only option.  

So with this in mind I've created my core cast - six characters who shall serve as the basis for this first generation of events.  Each was generated randomly, with at most one stat swap each for narrative cohesion.  Each of them have a set of stats: 

• Health
• Combat
• Command (to avoid another C with Command) 
• Administration 
• Loyalty (to the current leader)
• Age - Only stat in reverse.  Higher score is older
• Diplomacy
• Skill - Riding, reading, anything not otherwise covered. 
• Magic - X is susceptable to it, while ✶✶✶ or ✶✶✶✶ may be able to cast. 

Each of these stats have a rating from X (zero, or incompetent) to ✶✶✶✶ (exceptional).  Of all stats 20% are X, 40% are ✶, 20% are ✶✶, with, for dramatic purposes, 10% are at ✶✶✶ and ✶✶✶✶.  I was slightly concerned when the first character I rolled up came up with only four total stars, but I chalked that up to him being the predecessor.

 And with no further ado-

Teos DornAthan -  Regent Captain of the Northern March - Unmarried, no heir

• Health -  ✶
• Combat - X
• Command - ✶✶ 
• Administration - ✶ 
• Loyalty - N/A 
• Age - ✶
• Diplomacy - ✶✶✶✶
• Skill - ✶✶
• Magic -X

 Vost PraeVist - Childhood friend of the Captain Regent and Commandant of the West

• Health - ✶✶✶ 
• Combat - ✶✶✶✶
• Command -  ✶
• Administration - X 
• Loyalty - ✶✶
• Age - ✶
• Diplomacy - ✶
• Skill - ✶✶✶
• Magic - ✶

Paraht DornAthan - Uncle to the Captain Regent, Commandant of the Center

• Health - ✶
• Combat - ✶
• Command - X 
• Administration - ✶ 
• Loyalty - X
• Age - ✶✶
• Diplomacy - X
• Skill - ✶
• Magic - ✶✶✶✶

Hegran Sworn - Leader of the Freesteads thrust in to leadership too young, Second to the Commandant of the East. 

• Health - ✶
• Combat - X
• Command - ✶✶  
• Administration - ✶  
• Loyalty -  ✶✶
• Age - X
• Diplomacy - X
• Skill - ✶
• Magic - X

Paet Dornborn - Adopted child of Paraht DornAthan, legal cousin of the Captain Regent

• Health - ✶
• Combat - X
• Command - ✶✶✶ 
• Administration -  ✶✶
• Loyalty - ✶
• Age - X
• Diplomacy - ✶✶
• Skill - X
• Magic - ✶✶

The Fourteenth Noremgaarmi Raeedmas - Independent religious judge of the faith, no name save his title. 

• Health - ✶
• Combat - X
• Command - X 
• Administration - ✶ 
• Loyalty - ✶✶
• Age - ✶✶
• Diplomacy - ✶✶✶
• Skill - ✶✶
• Magic - ✶

And while we're at it, let's bump into the neighbors, who we'll see in our first outing, the three of Firdyoc, neighboring barbarians with a curse of the Trohkborn.

  

Pyoroc the Sixth Firdyoc - Last upright earl of the Firdyoc, shares name and destiny with his people. 

• Health - ✶✶✶
• Combat - ✶
• Command -  X
• Administration - ✶✶ 
• Loyalty -N/A
• Age - ✶✶✶
• Diplomacy - ✶
• Skill - ✶
• Magic - ✶✶

Roakh Firdyoc Trohkmarked - Misshapen and short tempered heir

• Health - ✶✶✶
• Combat - ✶✶✶✶
• Command -  ✶
• Administration - ✶ 
• Loyalty - ✶✶✶✶
• Age - ✶
• Diplomacy - ✶
• Skill - X
• Magic - X

Dinaik the Hunt, semi-sacred killer of the crossroads

• Health - ✶ 
• Combat - ✶
• Command - ✶ 
• Administration - ✶ 
• Loyalty - X
• Age - X
• Diplomacy - ✶
• Skill - ✶✶✶
• Magic - ✶

So....

I am still here, though with a 20 month old and an active work life there is little time available for anything but the necessary.  I've not completely stopped mind you, and figured I best come here for proof of (gaming) life.

So...What am I doing. Or trying to do. Limited time should help me focus but so far my Gamer's ADD has won out.

1. Duergar-As you may or may not know, Dragon Rampant is due to come out come winter.  At my current painting rate I'll not have a new army ready, even if it's for the smaller scale for which Dragon Rampant calls, but the rule set has me started.  None the less I have recently acquired some of Clam Miniatures Ewal Dvergar.  I've not seen much traffic of them but bumped into them while looking for Chaos Dwarf substitutes. I've purchased some of these, and along with some Skaven Auxiliaries I think my Duergar expedition is set.

2.  As seen elsewhere, I have a few of the Star Blazers ships in my Battle for Planet Earth project.  After a recent order, the few has blossomed into too many.  Still, I enjoy putting them together and hope to get a game going, though frankly the rule set on this one is deeply in doubt.  Clearly in my mind this is a story of Pre-Dreadnoughts in space, but the rule set remains a challenge here.

3. Lastly I looked at my pile of Mechwarrior Clix. That too has grown, and as a result I've added to them an order of N-Scale train kits from Japan with a distinctly Shogunate era flavor to them.  Between these two components I have a view of one of two options:

• Mech Wars a la Battletech on a sparsely populated city-state dominated world.  

• Kaiju Hunting on Hokkaido.  

In either case I need to figure out the rules.  For Mech Wars, give the number of Mechs we're looking at, Alpha Strike looks like a front runner (I can't stand filling out dozens of bubbles).  Alternately there is the Ganesha Set which between Samurai Robots Battle Royale (battle report elsewhere on this site) and Mighty Monsters.  This later gives the advantage of having two very specialized rule sets for the two participants if I go with Kaiju Hunting-but the rules have limits (six a side gets a little clunky as experience has shown).  Alternately I'm looking at Savage Worlds Showdown as an option.  What this all comes down to is the ability to push three inch tall mecha across the table.

So three options.  So what.  Pretty boring read, but my hope is that one of the three of these will actually turn into something.  Time will tell.  So far it's not gone well.  I have 2mm sitting by the way side, as well as others.  Too many others.

(By the by, any folks in DC with an appetite to unload a pile of Mechwarrior Clix, please contact me).

When did it become 2013?

I'm sitting here at the new house, cat asleep on my lap, an O'douls by my side, which can only mean one thing.  It's sober January, which means we crossed some annual meridian into 2013.  I'm sure few others are surprised, frankly with the fanfare it's hard to miss.  But looking around and my last entry is Sept 2012...Ok. So where are things?

1. The house is purchased, and there is a hobby room.  It's small, not a complaint, but frankly right now it's appropriately sized.  Frame in book shelves and other storage solutions and I'm really not sure what I'm going to do for a gaming table.  4x6 will fit.  You won't be able to sit down at it, or probably stand either, but it will fit.

2. Stuff is back. After about a three year hiatus for some of my key items, and a good 20 month hiatus from all the toys. And that feels good.

3. Holy Crap I have a lot of toys.  I've reduced already-twenty one boxes of books and other stuff, and tossing papers of previous eras. But as I have continued to dig, and placed to the side a full box of miniatures for a good home.  Even as I look to other solutions for storage, more have to go. Or at least get them off Popsicle sticks.

4. Project take aways.
     a. Finish unpacking
     b. Reduce, reduce, reduce I've gotten rid of about half my books at this point, and probably it was time.  But more minis have to go.  Already I've cut some 28mm Heroics, 28mm WW2, 6mm Epic, and, sigh....10mm Warmaster.  Maybe.  That may be later.  Stuff is still missing though.
     c. From here I shouldn't need to buy anything new for a while...what's old is new.   I'd forgotten about some of my projects.  And wow that's a lot of Austrians. This means no 3mm modern/advance wars, no investments in figures frankly for a while.  Terrain's in play of course.

Sigh...not very exciting.  But let's face it, it something.  Let me go nip off and work on the other drafts I have laying around.

Principle of Scale

So, I had a dark and evil secret.  I really want to do ACW in 10mm. On first blush, it doesn't appear to be much of an evil secret, but Pendraken puts out some amazing ACW figures (check them out if you haven't already).  However, here's the problem: I'm seeking orthodoxy in scale.  This means I am claiming the following scales to be core for all wargaming activities:

Heroics/Skirmishing 28mm:  This is for Squad on Squad level activities with individually based figures, whether Super Hero, Fantasy, or World War II.

Standard Wargaming 15mm: This is for elements (stands of 2-4 figures on a base) and the occasional individually based game.  Here I'm looking at the fallback for everything, I have Ancients, Fantasy, WW2 large scale, Napoleonic, etc.  With this in mind I also must admit I have embraced WRG Standard-so 40mm wide for all figures and from 15mm for close order infantry and 40mm for war machines for depth.

Small Scale 1/300 and 1/600:  There are exceptions that don't fit. Jet Age and, after much debate, WW2 Aircraft will run in 1/600.  I have my Horse and Musket in 1/300, and if American Civil War doesn't end up in 15mm, it'll definitely end up in 1/300.

And this is it.  Admittedly there are a few exceptions.  After all, what scale is a Star Ship?  All this said, I'll continue to try to restrain all activities to these scales.  The basis for this is scenery.  Games in part are driven by the battlefield they're fought on.  Consolidation on scale results in minimal requirements for scenery.

I profess this, because, as I've mentioned, I'd really like to do 10mm ACW.  Or some of those beautiful 20mm SCW.  And so it goes.  While I may allow for the occasional justifiable exception (1/72 WW1 Air screams at the moment should I ever try it out), the less the better.

A small note

Not that this particular enterprise is getting read, but I would note that I'm in the process of a new job and finalizing the purchase of a new house...so this endeavour may be less than prolific in the near future.

That said, I have been forced today to place my "Miniature Slum" or panting storage space in storage.  So in recognition of this, as well as the apparent immanent purchase of a house much earlier than expected, I'm delaying the start of the hobby year until things are under control....I believe this will end up being December 2012, but I may be a little optimistic.

On the bright side the house we're moving into will allow for a Man Cave....not a basement (generally a bad idea in a flood plane) but at least a room for the hobby to thrive.

Until then however, the focus now must wander to the question of rules, in particular the idea of Superheroes.  Most folks are quite satisfied with Supersystem (v3) from the Goalsystem Family Tree. It's not a bad system, but since college I've been a proponent of the concept of using the Savage World Showdown System since it was simply called the Great Rail Wars.  We'll see what happens but I'll focus on making that finally happen in absence of actual figure wargaming.

The Currency of Wargaming

One of the driving theories of this Blog, as mentioned previously, is to drive the number of fully completed forces available.

Before any more figures can be purchased, a credit must be built up against the existing lead piles that collect like dunes.  I joke about owning more unpainted lead than my body weight, but I'm pretty sure that's not an exaggeration.  I'm getting more careful about where I joke.

To solve this I am hoping to create a system of currency and credits, famously a number of folks have listed variants of "the Challenge".  For the gaming year (01 Sept 2012 - 31 Aug 2013) my target is to be net positive on painted figures.  Before new figures can be bought old must be painted or sold. Of course the effort involved affects the credit value.

What this means is that:
15mm Figure painted = 1 Credit
8 x 6mm figures painted (2 strips Baccus) = 1 Credit
1/600 Aircraft = 1 Credit (they're small buggers)
25/28/Heroics = 2 Credits
Figures Partially Completed at Start of Painting Year, etc = x1/2 value
Cavalry = x2 value
War Machines (Arty, GOP, etc) = x4 value.
Selling Figures = x1/2 Value

And right now I'm at 0 Credits.  This Hobby Year has not been very productive thus far.

Mission-Vision-Goals

Mission for this blog is simple-increase the quality of my hobby of Wargaming.  That means the enjoyment I get out of it, how often I play it, and how many full forces I have.

How I envision completing this is by gaming more often without attempting to take more time from our schedule (Married, Moving, etc). It means more wasted time focused on hobby efforts and capturing what time I can. It means finishing projects.

Goals-Currently there are a number of open current projects. I need to focus on three, as much as I want to do otherwise.

Maurice in 6mm-My Austrians are started and in the most need of completion. Foot is almost complete. Cavalry and Artillery are not more than basecoated. This project must be the priority. Success is defined as my 100pt Austrians complete.

DBA 15mm-Theoretically a quick whip of a paint job to get armies done. Then you bump into my painting speed. And my completist streak to get every option and variant. So I have two armies done (Dark Age Irish and Roman Patrician) and one halfway done (Numidian), with probably the lead for a dozen more lying around and that again storage. Success will be defined as the Numidians complete and two more done.

Check Your 6! Jet Age 1/600-I was able to get six aircraft painted in quick order, which is a good feeling. At 1/600 this is a small effort, admitedly. Success here will be defined as two more completed matched sets/battles for a total of a dozen more aircraft.

The gaming year starts 1 Sept-other things will prevent me from starting earlier. I have until 31 Aug 13 to get these projects done. Also the goal is to increase the amounts of gaming I get in-here the goal will be one wargame every month of some sort. Not a grand goal, but better than nothing and far better than what I've been able to get thus far.

Beginning

Let's be honest, this is one of a plethora of blogs popping up in the realm of wargaming of late. If you're here, you're probably familiar with the theory. If you're not, I play with toy soldiers and attempt to justify it with a bevy of overpriced or homegrown rules.

I've been a lurker on TMP since college and gamed when the other hobbies (lately mostly brewing) and that day to day lurker, the life more ordinary have allowed. Geography blesses me with access to a number of good conventions I manage to miss with regularity. Currently I have my body weight in lead (almost all unpainted) in storage, along with most rules, and the ensuing shrinkage of space required recalibration of how I play. That's meant smaller games, smaller scales, and standardization of items (primarily to 15mm).

Suffering from GADD (Gamer's Attention Deficit Disorder) and sitting in awe of those who can avoid it's infection, I start a lot of projects. I don't really finish many. On the bright side that means that in this in my life I've accrued a number of projects within range of completion. Others who run these blogs comment that it can help them keep on target.

So let's see what happens from there.