Please note my new e-mail address: cvasey@aol.com. You can attach letters or articles to your e-mail (Word 6) but across servers maybe a .txt file is better. You will be delighted to hear that I have made a "little friend" on AOL, it is Ted "Boy" Raicer who is jolly annoyed that I do not think his ghastly World War One games are simply brilliant (an opinion which he has). Ted got so bad tempered that he stamped his little feet and announced he was not reading any of my posts, sadly that left him unable to follow the threads, so back in he comes.
I then pop up on the Command volume (which in Ted's deathless phrase is his "turf") and dare to express an opinion on something nothing to do with him (the Perfidious Albion game). He piles in and in the resulting fracas we both get our messages removed. So if when you try to e-mail me you find I am not there I will have been ejected for fighting. (Oh and I still think he is no good as a designer, but then he hasn't really tried to persuade me otherwise).
My apologies to non-UK readers for the delay in posting the last PA I am up to my ears in work. If this hacks you off let me know and I will try to get you your money back, I might try to say it would not happen again but it would be untrue. I wish it would not happen though. Game Kit News
Les Quatre-Bras: Off to the distant play-tester
Flowers of the Forest: Now available from me. This is a game kit covering the battle of Flodden 1513 at a tactical level. The unit counters (no more than six a side) are multi-hex in some cases and are placed on the full colour map with some jolly banners. Representing the men in the units are the tactical counters stored off map on unit arrays. These use silhouettes of the unit types. The main struggle is between the numbers of the Scots armed with a weapon with which they are not experienced against the better weapons (bills) of the English. If the weaponry exerts itself the Scots will be defeated, but if they can hurt the English then numbers can tell. Often combat comes down to a vital turn where one side's morale snaps. The game system is based on the sort of analysis you find in The Western Way of War.
Players may chose between a historically accurate chaotic order system or something more akin to standard figure play (with a number of stages in between). This is not a game of intense strategic decision making, it is about fighting and hoping you win. It takes about 90 minutes to play, and I recommend you play it once each side to achieve the balance.
Flowers of the Forest requires the counters to be mounted on thin card, I reckon it should take 30 minutes to assemble (drying time aside if you use glue rather than double-sided tape). The rules include two historical accounts in eye-wrenching period English (printed at Ye Old Tea Shoppe i'faith) from Hall's Chronicles and the English State Papers. £9.00 in the UK or £10/$16 (cash only please at your risk, cheques will not be returned) for surface delivery elsewhere.
A Day of Battle; Mars-La-Tour: A new design featuring one of the finest passages of arms ever accomplished by a German army, especially when commanded by me (perhaps that should be despite being commanded by me). Simple system, target play two to three hours for the full battle, lovely uniforms. Half a dozen playtests completed, host system is Bloodiest Day. Initial testing indicate quick play with results being pretty historical (short hand for I lost all my infantry and had to cower under my guns while singing Preussens Gloria and affecting a mocking sneer). "Boots & Saddles" Bragaglia has been demonstrating that mounted action has its place in the era of the rifle by seldom missing a chance to charge. I have moved the calibration through the first three hours and it is holding up nicely, but for such a simple system the inputs need to be very exactly calculated. Big Map and 1" counters look a possibility. Iron Man Davidson and Mad Mike Siggins have also ventured forth, Mike producing an impressive end-run that called on desperate German artillery fire to throw back his flank force. Marechal Davout would have been proud.
Gunpowder and Galleys (El Rey Prudente): Held aside
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© Copyright 1996 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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