Dear Mark,
I have just received some of Hallmark's rather nice 1/6000 WWI ships; the detail is very good and the painting is, well, easy. Of course the destroyers are a bit tiny, but the Dreadnoughts ! Heavy metal indeed. It is tempting to ignore the small ships and concentrate on cruisers and heavier stuff - to avoid losing HMS Smallfry down the crack in the floorboards. Steve at Hallmark also does 1/6000 Zeppelins.
The rule writing and wargaming stopped when Sue and I went on holiday to west Wales; a cottage in a valley some 16 miles east of Aberystwyth - ie in the wild upland hill country. The area, Cwmystwyth was branded, in 1710 as being "notorious for it's lawlessness and immorality". The official response? A few troops of Dragoons? The Glamorgan Militia? No, they built a church - not exactly the '15 (and thank goodness at that). The cottage was on the old coach road and the terrain made me wonder why did Edward I bother; I mean the Vale of Glamorgan is very good agricultural land and wide open to invasion, but this was dirt poor, upland subsistence farming land in what could only be termed as bandit country.
I can only presume that the Plantagenets would brook no rival power, be it ever so puny. I am not an expert but it must have been years before the taxes etc from Wales began to even approach the cost of mercenaries, supplies etc, let alone the cost of the fleets used and castles built. In the new world order,I suspect Wales (and Scotland) would have been thoroughly destabilised and finlandised rather than marched and slogged over.
Well, I cracked, in a post "English Patient" bout of Desert Fever, I painted Peter Pig DAK/RATS samples. Half a dozen little men fought over three palm trees, a sangar and 2 shell holes for at least an hour. Score RATS 1 - DAK 1 ( a DAK win on penalties).
Fantasy minded Gauntlet readers may already know that Chaosium are planning to produce a new 25/15mm series of rules for warfare in their Gloranthan setting. This will include a dedicated range of figures as well as supplements; as anyone who has played Runequest will tell you, some of those figures may be, well, interesting to say the least. Anyone for bison riding nomads? Militant ducks?
I have just finished Coyle's "A Matter of Honour" , set in a US intervention in Colombia which goes wrong. The left wing rebels are called FARC, which I think is the same as the left wing rebels in Deighton's "Mamista". Oddly, before both books were written, one of my friends ran a postal campaign set in a Central American banana republic; I had the left wing rebels and called them FARC. Strange but true; needless to say I am trying to resist buying Irregulars 6mm modern stuff to do something South of The Border. EDNA would be a good vehicle here; perhap the rules could be called "Never Mind the Nachos".
Well that will do for now, regards to Heather, Cheers...
Dear Mark:
I bought the Bruce Trilogy by Nigel Tranter intending to finish it on holiday ; it simply flows with wargaming scenarios, from big battles to raids, ambushes, and even one-to-one combat. The Bruce-Comyn scrap in the chapel was very well written, making me think of a small medieval skirmish cameo (who insults who and who stabs first ?).
I speed read through the August issue of Wargames Illustrated today and did not bother to read it - the price is almost two packs of Mr Pig`s finest, so I know where my cash is going !
I`ve just finished Vol.1 of Norwich`s history of Byzantium - more kings in 50 years than Italian governments ! I am now tempted to do something in ancients ; there are some old airfix hiding in a box somewhere so I may do Caesar period stuff in 20mm, using them and a few bits from Newline/Qualticast. Anything else will have to be in 15mm, probably Tabletop (fast & cheap). George Heath`s ancients rules in Gauntlet are a start; I could use DBA lists to keep costs down, although I am not keen on DBA per se (but I like the command approach). Perhaps the combat factors could be used ?
Dear Mark
Thanks for the letter and attached rules. Due to your suggestion at Triples I now mount my (15mm) fire teams on 2" by 1" bases and they do look a lot better than the previous 1 1/2" by 1", however the smaller sizes are being retained in my company for FIBUA practicalities. Your right about hating to move figures - I agree they should move by units not individuals, whatever the scale.
I`m sticking to my guns over 15mm figures. I feel 15`s offer a better balanced (company / battalion ) game bearing in mind space / scale constraints.
Your idea for WW1 rules is very good, representing good value for money and hopefully help gamers who currently only plays say Command Decision / Korps Kommander or only skirmish games to cross over and experience the other spectrum at no extra outlay.
The one thing that has put people off gaming WW1 in the past has been the lack of variety with lots of bland infantry units filling a brigade or division level game - but your level of representation of bombing / rifle grenade / Lewis gun teams and the paper / rock / scissors interaction should help redress that.
The scale would be better for me if an infantry base equalled 1 section (about 14 men) rather than a 20 man half platoon. The support weapon / vehicle base scale of 1 weapon representing two actual weapons / vehicles far better than most WW2 1:4 or 5 ratios.
Mathew Sparkes` "Gott in Himme 1" are brilliant ! He really has captured the Victor / Battle / Commando comic feel. I`ve had to dig out all my scenery, and I`m dusting off long forgotten 20mm (shock, horror) to give these a go.
An idea for solo game Turn Sequence comes from Avalanche Games. In Arakan the British are given 5 chits and the Japanese 6. These chits are not linked to specific units but depending upon the sequence they are drawn in, allows the player to choose a full move (move / attack), 1/2 move (move OR attack) or one chit allows two units 1/2 a move. The number of chits allowed per turn is also dependent upon the weather, so some units may miss out. By the way, the die roll alternative of this is my all time favourite game turn sequence mechanism, you really can`t beat the excitement !
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