It's Been A Little While. . .

The last time I posted was on the eve of the Chief's first regular season win of the 2020 season, and here we are now hours after their one-sided loss in Super Bowl 55. The Chiefs had plenty of heart, they just didn't have the tools. Repeating is really hard. . .

So why the lapse in posts? Well, not playing any games for almost a year hasn't exactly been an inspiration, and I haven't had a lot of free time, either. Thankfully, I have been very busy with work, and when I had hobby time, I spent it building terrain or reading new rule sets. LIke what, I hear you ask?

I finally built some corn fields. Can't really play wargames set in North America without corn fields, and they'll be useful for the Aztec and Conquistador project waiting in the wings, too. I started with the Britains corn models and then repainted and added greenery to the bases.

 Also working on some more woodland terrain, featuring some rock outcrops to fight "around."

Still flirting with skirmish gaming in other, more ancient periods, so have been reading some new rule sets. Really like what the SAGA folks have done with Age of Hannibal; I think the "factions" have real character. 

 

Finally a plug for a board game I am excited to finally get my hands on, Bayonets & Tomahawks. I posted about it previously after getting an opportunity to do some play-testing. It will make a perfect vehicle for campaigning with the French & Indian War, if we ever get back to that kind of gaming! The "period" map is just stunning. Here is the link to the author/designer unboxing his production copy of the game.

 See ya.

So What's New?

Well, I'm working more hours than I do normally, so I have no great stories about all the hobby projects I'm finally getting completed. . . Not playing any games, so the basing goes on. Above is a photo of the British Grenadiers from the 47th Regiment. Working on the "hatmen" still. No photo, but I also finished up 3 French and 3 British artillery crews.

Been tinkering a bit with solo rules for both DBA 3.0 and Commands and Colors: Ancients, but really most free time I have right now is going toward completing bases.

I did pick up 2 new rule sets in the last month or so. I supported the Kickstarter for Clash of Spears, a skirmish game set in Ancient times, in particular, the Punic Wars.

They had me at "Punic Wars." Scale is small-unit; around 6-12 soldiers per unit. I really like the deployment system; it reminds me a little of Sharp Practice 2. It's different but also uses a concept of "deployment points" that is a fun alternative to the "line up and go" of some Ancients games. The rest may seem familiar. . . roll to hit, roll to save, lots of traits and customization possible. Haven't played it yet. Lots of pretty eye candy.

The other set is Muskets & Tomahawks 2. 

Another very pretty hardback book. Same basic game as the original version, but with some streamlining and clean-up. The command system has been re-vamped; the optional hand management system from the original version is now standard, and an interesting additional system of command points has been overlaid to provide more tactical flexibility. Like Sharp Practice 2, Muskets & Tomahawks 2 is a broader volume covering all theaters of "black powder" warfare, not just the colonial wars in North America. To get the army lists and specific rules for said North American conflicts, a second softcover book is required: Redcoats & Tomahawks.

Not sure that this will ever replace my "go to" Muskets and Mohawks, but I am sure I will at least give it a test-run.

And while we're talking about small-unit skirmish rules (I just realized we have a theme going now), check out Wiley Games' new Fistful of Lead offering:

Stay Safe!