Why game in smaller scales?

I suppose a sub title for this post could be are you a modeler first or a gamer first, because that seems to drive the decision as to the size of figures players use.  All of us are wargamers but for the modelers the painting and detail of the resulting figures is a vital ingredient of the hobby.  There is a drive to have groups of beautiful individual figures even if that is at the cost of having 12 men represent a battalion of troops.  For the gamer wing it is the tactical problems and the attempt to create the same decision points that faced historical commanders which is the key.  Both ends of the spectrum want to get toys on the table and roll the dice but the visual aspect of the game is (warning bad pun approaching) viewed differently by both groups.

But there are other issues of course.  Not everyone has the space (or the finances) to deploy a couple of thousand 28mm masterpieces on a huge table.  Of course there are ways around this.  One solution, skirmish gaming has been around since at least the early 1970's.  One of my favourite sets of rules were (and still are) the Bristol Wargamer's Western Gunfight rules which I used to play with 54mm or 28mm figures.  Games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Traveller  werre also played using a limited number of figures.  More recently we have resurgence of games like Saga that allow a smaller number of figures to be used.  The question is are these symptoms or solutions to the cost and space issue.

By now you should be pretty clear that I prefer to fight historical battles (you have been reading the other posts right?) with an option to deploy large formations on the tabletop and to have space to maneuver.  The only way I can do that is to go for smaller figures so that I don't need a playing space the size of Rutland.

Not the size of Rutland when you use 2mm figures

Smaller scales do not have to be less impressive visually than the larger ones.  6mm amd 10mm can be very detailed figures.  Of course the perceived wisdom is that its the look of the unit in these scales not the individual figures which gives the impact.  While I don't disagree that large bodies of troops are impressive that doesn't mean that the individual figures have to be a bit slapdash.

6mm Baccus Anglo-Saxons

I really need to dullcote these

Lets look at the photos above.  The group of Anglo-Saxons looks impressive en mass and at the same time the individual figures, while not being miniature masterworks in the way some 28mm figures are, are still detailed and clearly each differ  one to another.  Yet when I recently timed how long it took to paint them the average (using a batch painting technique) was less than 10 minutes each.

Now I'm the first to admit that I'm not the greatest painter in the world but these are a good tabletop standard that doesn't shame my brushmanship.  I certainly wouldn't be able to paint a 28mm to the same standard in the same time.  For me I can get a 6mm army on the table faster than a 28mm equivalent force.  It needs less space to play and to store, and costs less to purchase the lead.  Mind you, my megalomania off sets the latter point by making me buy more figures but I do get bigger units per pound ( be that in cash or in weight).  For me at least small scale wins on all fronts and I have disposed of my 25mm and larger figures to allow me to concentrate on 6mm and smaller.

Do you like friction in your games...or is it a drag?

A recent post on TMP got me to thinking.  Where is the sweet spot between the eye in the sky wargame where everyone can always do exactly what you want and the version where units don't react to threats, move when their orders were to push on at all costs or simply do random weird sh....stuff?

That there should be some friction seems obvious to me the question is how much is enough?  Morale tests and reaction tests can go someway to creating doubt over outcomes.  But what about those events where a unit just can't move as fast as expected, or where ground that everyone thought was like a balling green turns out to be rough going, or troops who simply can't get the lead out?

I have toyed with various concepts over the years ranging from horribly complex but accurate, to gamey but workable and I'm still not sure where the sweet spot lies.  I know what I want just not how to achieve it.  The shopping list of desirable friction ideas should:

• Create unexpected variations in troop movement that are replicated for all units at the location
• Create delays in executing new orders linked to that units chain of command
• Create occasional refusals to follow orders based on the local commander's attitude to risk and reward and the situation in front of him.

I recall an interesting article on variable terrain effects from one of the wargaming magazines from years back that might fit the bill for the first concept.  An area or a linear feature is marked up as possibly being a variable feature and its true nature is diced for using a chart when the first unit reaches it.  So a river may be deeper than expected or shallower than expected, or a line of vegetation may actually be masking a stream or a ditch.  An area of ground may be boggy or rabbit holes are hidden under ground cover on a hill side.   Its a great idea but the charts need to be rooted in reality so no rabbit holes along the meadow fringing a lake and no unexpected rivers on hill sides the player's troops can see.

The other two ideas I'm beginning to think could be dealt with in a role playing style.  Give generals and sub generals personality traits. These might be linked to a chart that tells us how quickly he reacts (or even notices changes in orders or events affecting his command)  one chart  per general or just  a di modifier. linked to the personality trait.

What do you think are there any particularly good ideas out there that give consistant results and aren't too random?

How do your games end?

One of the issues I have been having in completing my 2mm BCW rules is handling the end game.  It seems to be a fashion at the moment for games to simply stop once one side or the other have reached a predetermined number of losses.  DBA and related games simply stop the action once a certain number of elements have been destroyed.  Other use a slightly more random approach for example the Battlegroup WW2 sets use a system where each time a unit is destroyed the player draws a chit which may have a random event but is more likely to have a number on it.  Once the total value of the chits hits a certain value (based upon the forces selected by that player) the game ends.

There is an assumption to these systems which is that once one side no longer wants to contest the ground the other side decides to sit down and makes a cup of tea, opens a bottle of wine or some such.  In reality the end game is much more chaotic than this some units break, some retire and others fight on.  Often there has to be a fighting withdrawal until nightfall provides the shelter of darkness.  If we take Naseby as an example, much of the Royalist foot found itself surrounded and surrendered, but other units notably Rupert's Bluecoats fought a last ditch defence, while some uncommitted units tried to counter attack but were prevented from doing so (the King and his reserves).  Those formations who did manage to escape the field appear to have fought a running rearguard action all the way back to Market Harborough.  Perhaps if we are only interested in the crucial combat phase of a battle a sudden halt works and it does have the effect of making games actually come to an end which is good for competition games or a single evening of play, but it doesn't model all of the issues a commander faced on the field of battle.

What I wanted to show in my rules was the steady reduction in willingness of individual units to continue to fight and the cascade effect that has on the higher formations up to and including the Army.  I cracked the modelling of this at unit level fairly quickly by using a series of reducing moral steps rather than modelling actual casualties.  It was the cascade effect which eluded me.  I'm currently getting ready to try a solution based upon the character of the commanders of the higher formations.linked to the morale state of their formations units.

What I have in mind is to give each formation commander (Brigade, Wing & Army in BCW terms) an aggression factor.  The more aggressive the commander the more they will try to keep their formation in action.  The trigger will still be the morale state of the constituent sub formations, so a Brigade looks at it's regiments, a Wing at its Brigades and the army at the Wings, Centre and Reserve.  I haven't decided on the trigger values yet but essentially I'm thinking that a timid general might decide to order the formation onto the defensive if he has no keen units, while an aggressive General may continue to try to press on as long as he has any steady regiments available.  In effect I'm going to model unit morale at the regimental level and General officer morale at the higher formation level.  As I mainly play solo games I don't mind the overhead although I do want it to evolve into a simple and straight forward check.

What do you think, do you prefer your games to end with a bang or a whimper?

Terrain - Camps for DBA

Camps are a chance to show a little flair in our table top terrain.  DBA and its offspring all require a camp on the table so why not take a bit of time and effort over them.

Tactically there is a case to be made for using the smallest possible foot print for a camp but I take the view that a bigger base area gives scope for a diorama style camp design.  If it makes it a tiny bit easier for the enemy to reach then so be it.  After all if they are able to sack the camp I clearly haven't guarded it properly!

With that in mind I set off to create some new camps for my 6mm Ancient and Dark Age forces (I know I should be calling them early medieval but I only just swallowed the fact that the English Civil War is now the British Civil War, there is only so much change a man can take in a week!).

I decided that most Dark Age armies wouldn't have that much in the way of tents on campaign so instead I decided that the focus would be the designated meeting spot for the troops.  After all we do know that when the Anglo Saxon  Fyrd was called out they were told to assemble at a well known local landmark so a similar approach would work for other armies of the period.  Other than Vikings who did tend to build fortified camps to protect their longships.

My first attempt was to create a round barrow and some standing stones.  This where your local garden centre becomes your source of supply.  They sell all sorts of ornamental gravel and often don't mind you taking a small sample.  This can provide useful natural stone fragments for use as standing stones and lintels for the barrow.  I made the grassy dome of the barrow from Milliput and textures the whole thing in the same way I do bases.  A mix of kiln dried sand (the sort used for the gaps in block paving) and flock.

This was the result.

Roman Fortlet

Round Barrow

I also made a Roman marching camp based on the floor plan of a small 'fortlet' excavated on the Welsh marches.  Pretty much the same techniques of using Milliput to form the base this time with a palisade of cocktail sticks and some Leven Miniatures small Roman tents.  I have some bags of supplies from Perfect Six in the painting queue which will be added to both camps once finished.  I'm also tempted by some of the scenics from Baccus especially the camp set with tables and a fire.  Some 6mm sheep wouldn't go amiss either.

Catch up time

What has Elenderil been doing since 2016 I hear you cry?  Well when I say cry its probably more of a resigned whimper.

I have been toying with a new set of ancient rules - Arte del le Guerre which I haven't managed to get a game of so far but the rules have a bit more granularity than DBA3.0 so they look like they should give a good game.  Certainly the reviews from Madaxemen's site are very entertaining and make the game look interesting.  I also did some more work on my 2mm English Civil War rules, although I suppose I should really get used to calling them the British Civil Wars, or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms!  what do you think BCW or TWOTTKs?  I'm thinking BCW will be less wear and tear on the keyboard.

I have been doing a bit of painting and modelling mostly 6mm figures and terrain.  I now have a start on an Early Sassanid Persian army to match up against my Late Imperial Romans.  My Dark Age British forces have expanded so I have the nucleus of Welsh, Strathclyde, Dal Ratian and Pictish Armies and a decent size force for Saxons and Vikings.  I also rebased my Dacians to put more figures on each base. That said of late my painting output has dropped off a bit as work on the house has limited the space available to have my painting table setup.

Rebased Dacians

A start on Sassanid Persia's finest

I managed to get to a couple of war gaming shows including the Joy of Six at Sheffield and actually got some games in.  I'm currently inspired to try a solo BCW campaign after reading the 1642 and all that blog.  I'm thinking about campaign rules already.

Chilli Jam

I thought that I would share my chilli jam recipe. I have been growing chilli peppers on and off for about 10 years usually a variety called Apache which is a medium hot chilli (about 75,000 on the Scoville scale if you are interested) and as they provide a lot of fruit this lets me use up the ones that don't get used in cooking.  This is not an act of random kindness though as it ensures that I can find it myself in future.  I've lost the book with the recipe before and probably will again so if its on my blog I know where to look!

This chilli jam is great with cold meats, it makes a great alternative to apple sauce with roast pork.  I like it with sausages too.  The original recipe came from Allotment Garden.org in the Val's Preserves bit of the site.  I changed the recipe the first time I made it as I didn't have enough red peppers but I liked the result so I have stuck with the change.  Below is the original recipe my changes are shown further down the page.

Ingredients
8 Red Peppers.  De-seeded and roughly chopped.
5 Medium size Chilli.  Roughly chopped.
1 Finger sized piece of fresh Root Ginger.  Peeled and chopped.
8 Cloves of Fresh Garlic.  Skinned and chopped.
400gms canned Tomatoes. Chopped.
750gms Castor Sugar.
250ml Red Wine Vinegar

Method
1. Blitz the Peppers, Chilli, Ginger and Garlic in a food processor.
2. Place these in a heavy bottomed pan with with the can of tomatoes, sugar and Red Wine Vinegar and bring to the boil.
3. Skim off the scum that rises and simmer for 50 minutes.  Stir regularly (it mustn't stick as it will burn). 
4. Continue to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes stirring continuously.  Check if will set by dropping a little of the mixture onto a cold saucer.
5. Allow to cool slightly and bottle in sterile jars.

I swapped 3 Red Peppers for the same weight of fresh Tomatoes leaving the seeds in.  This has the bonus of making the resulting chilli jam look a lot like raspberry jam!  Not that I would ever take advantage of that fact.

The finished article

I use Apache chilli as I grow these.  One plant usually provides all the chilli's I need for cooking and making this jam.  Apache Chilli's are reasonably hot (75,000 on the Scoville scale about three times hotter than Jalapeño's).  This produces a jam with bite but not unpleasantly hot.

Make it between now and the end of November and it will be perfect as a gift for Christmas.

Enjoy.

I aren't dead........

........to quote Granny Weatherwax.

Sorry that it has been a while since I last posted!  Real life got in the way as it so often does.  The last you heard from me was that we had to move house.  Things became 'interesting' after that.  My mother in law was diagnosed with a terminal illness and she had little local support available from Mrs E's family.  Her brother had done a sterling job but was finding difficult to cope with the drain of work, family and caring all at the same time, so Mrs E took on the mantle.  That meant her moving from Northamptonshire to Yorkshire to become a full time live in carer.  As these things do her mother's condition worsened and in the end I too moved to Yorkshire while continuing to work in the Midlands.  Once the inevitable happened we then had the job of settling the estate and selling the family home and moving again.  We settled in North Lincolnshire and bought a house here as two of our children live near by.  I work from home a couple of days a week and stay in the Midlands for a couple of nights so I can be in the office.

Then just to prove real life can be just as difficult as soap opera life, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  It appears it's currently the fashionable one to have; me, Bill Turnbull, Stephen Fry all the cool kids have it!  I was told that if you have to get a cancer as a man this is the one to get as it is more likely to be treatable than most others.  Fortunately mine was caught early but as it showed signs of being aggressive surgery was decided as being the best option.  That took me out of the loop for most of the first half of 2018.  Tests, surgery, recovery and recuperation left me with little interest in sitting in front of a computer screen for more than the time I had to for work purposes.  Work on the house went on the back burner.  Since the surgery we have slowly caught up and for the first time in what seems like years (it is actually a couple of years since I posted anything!)  I'm feeling like I want to blog again.

I haven't been totally idle, Facebook interest groups kept me in touch with my hobbies and its easy to put a couple of lines on FB compared with a blog entry!  At August bank holiday I was able to take part in a battle re-enactment as a combatant for the first time this year.  Things are coming back to what passes for normal in my life.

There is a lot to catch up on, 6mm figure painting,  games of  my 2mm ECW rules, re-enacting,  comments on other blogs I like.  And I have one night a week most weeks when I'm in digs in Northamptonshire with a good Wi-Fi connection and not much to do.

Hello world, I'm back.