Jack is no longer with us, but he wants to make sure we remember to thank our veterans for their service and their sacrifices on this Memorial Day. I think those of us who turn history into games have a special responsibility to remember those who made the history in the first place.
Next topic: there's a book called The Martian Legion that I was able to resist for a long time. But I caved; it's about John Carter and Barsoom, after all. And every other character ERB ever created. . . and just about every other Pulp character ever created. It is a big, beautiful over-priced book that is supposed to be a big, beautiful mash-up of ERB and The Pulps. I have a feeling I'll be underwhelmed by the big, beautiful mash-up but the book itself is big and beautiful and the paintings by Craig Mullins are EXACTLY how I picture Barsoom.
The unveiling. . .
It is beautiful. . .
Next Topic: Two Hour Wargames. They are not for everybody, but I am a fan of the "reaction" mechanics and the way that you are forced to manage the battle as opposed to commanding it. The only character you are ever in complete control of is YOU, no matter what set of rules you are playing. . . or genre or level of command. AND you can play solo. Really solo, against the game rather than just playing both sides "honestly." AND the "fog of war" is real, due to the game mechanics. Watching the movie Midway this morning reminded me just how critical that "fog" is to a more "realistic" impression of history in our games.
So I am going to spend some time playing through some THW rules for the French and Indian War and World War 2, and eventually Sci-Fi and Pulp (Barsoom, again?). Not exclusively, but seriously.
See ya!
Made ya look! Construction is underway at Castle FusterCluck.
Since I can't get to any of my projects, I've been doing some rules research. I am currently fascinated by THW's Nuts Big Battle rules. I like the scale (company-sized battles) and the relatively marker-free environment. I think they would work great for micro-armor; I'd just have to adapt for early North Africa.
I'm also quite taken with THW's Future Tales; pulp action in a science fantasy universe. For Barsoom, of course. . . who knows if Modiphius will ever actually get to the miniatures rules.
See ya!
I finally received my new copy of DBA 3.0 - my Old Friend - from On Military Matters. No surprises ensued as I have been avidly following online the development of this latest iteration of the "rules that brought me back to wargaming" and which remain, hands-down, my favorite wargame. I like every change made; see this review if you're interested in knowing more.
Lately I have been ruminating over all the varied rule sets and projects I've either started or bought figures or models for and feeling the need for some new prioritizing. It is purely coincidence that I've made some decisions at the beginning of a New Year, but I am just going to roll with it. . .
1. I have some more terrain to build and miniatures to varnish and base for my 54mm French and Indian War project. Getting close (wink) to having the "toys" completed.
2. New main focus is DBA/HOTTs in 28mm. I've already started to adapt some of my French and Indian War terrain for use with DBA/HOTTs and will build some more. Then I want to paint some more armies; Punic Wars- and Norman Conquest-era for DBA, and Orcs, Elves and Dwarves, not to mention completing the Undead, for HOTTs. I also have figures for the Greek and Macedonian Wars with Persia, the Republican Roman Civil Wars, Sengoku Jidai Samurai (and I want some Koreans!) and even Aztecs and Conquistadors! DBA/HOTTs just seems like the best way to make these armies possible.
Oh, did I mention John Carter and Barsoom? I have always admired The Stronghold's approach to Barsoom, but I have always thought that the world of ERB's John Carter should be played in a skirmish/RPG format. After playing around with several rule sets and feeling daunted by the kind of terrain I would need to build, I re-read the first five books. . . and realized that there are an awful lot of full-on battles described in the books between armies and navies outside of the great walled cities. Between the Leviathan models I described in an earlier post and the figures I've purchased from Bronze Age and Tinman, I can do several HOTTs armies in a similar format to those shown on The Stronghold, but in 28mm vs. 15mm. And perhaps even in this lifetime!
3. Oh, and World War 2 with HOTTs?! I found an adaptation of HOTTs for WW2 a few years ago here. I wasn't convinced I wanted to play with battalions as the basic maneuver element, but Field of Battle: WW2 has me rethinking that. . . I have lots of MicroArmor that need some impetus for completion!
4. And how goes my butterfly infatuation with Star Trek? Still going. After enjoying a couple of cool new books. . .
. . . and watching a handful of TNG episodes (not as easy as it once was!) and doing a bit more research, I find I prefer the movie and TNG "world" as opposed to the Amarillo world (see my previous Star Trek post if in need of reference). So I gave the Star Trek: Attack Wing game another look, because that is the game that features all the ships I like, especially the Klingon and Romulan ships, and what do you know, I kinda like it. Rules are simple but pretty elegant, and the individual ship/crew builds, which kinda turned me off at first, make a lot more sense to me now. Still want to use the 1/2500 scale models - I got some for Christmas! - instead of the included models and make the scale/ranges longer, but otherwise I'm still interested. We'll see if I get any models built in the near future : )
Best wishes for 2015!
Yup. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. "That's hardly a new book," I hear you say. OK, A Princess of Mars was originally published in 1917, so the story is not new, but this book featuring illustrations by Michael Kaluta IS new. And handsome.
Frank Frazetta's Barsoom will always have a special place in my heart, as his illustrations in the Science Fiction Book Club editions provided my first "fevered" glimpse into the world of Burroughs' alternate-Mars. Even so, I found this new Kaluta edition a great way to re-experience the first - and arguably the best - of the "John Carter of Mars" novels.
There are some "marginal" - IMNSHO - re-hashings of Burroughs' Martian stories publishing now. John Carter's love interest, the "incomparable" Dejah Thoris, in particular, has been re-invented - though not "re-clothed," I note - for a new audience. I am not against updating per se, but I recommend instead this fine new presentation of the original "story that started them all."
Enjoy.
I discovered John Carter and Barsoom in the mid-70's, while in high school, courtesy of the Science Fiction Book Club's editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs' eleven "Mars" novels, complete with cover paintings and interior illustrations by Frank Frazetta. I have been an unabashed fan ever since.
In the late 70's, Heritage Models, Inc. released a series of licensed 25mm miniatures and two manuals with which one could fight one's way across Barsoom. The manual pictured above includes rules for army-level combat with both air and ground forces as well as stand alone rules for ship-to-ship combat and a simple campaign system. The other manual (which I also own), the Adventure Gaming Handbook, features "man-to-man action rules" with a heavy dose of role-play. The mechanics are very dated, but both manuals have lots of good ideas for skirmishing and campaigning.
What I wanted to game was the ship-to-combat combat. The rules are functional; there are several classes of vessel ranging from "dreadnaughts" to scout flyers, movement is regulated by hexes and "elevation" is modeled, combat uses the good old CRT matrix and damage is recorded by checking off boxes on a "ship chart," with the occasional "critical hit" doing extra-fun-type damage. Some shots of the inside of the Manual:
It was the early 90's before I actually played the game (as The Baron may remember). There weren't any dedicated Barsoomian miniatures available, so I kit-bashed some "Space Battleship Yamato" plastic models along with some of the plastic minis from the classic "Space 1889" game. The interesting design sense of the Disney John Carter movie notwithstanding, I fully subscribe to the "sailing battleship" premise for the capital ships. Built and primed, here's how they looked in the half-dozen or so games we played before we moved on:
And then, twenty years later, New School Barsoom seems to have suddenly dropped out of the sky. It's called "Leviathans."
Leviathans doesn't know it's Barsoomian. It describes itself as Steampunk. I don't intend to review the game itself, which is actually quite good; you can learn more about it at Monsters in the Sky and Gameboardgeek. The rules have a similar feel to the Barsoomian Battle Manual, but are much more streamlined and very pretty to look at. See:
The rules could probably be used for Barsoomian air combat with just a few tweaks (bombing and boarding), but it is the models that hooked me. They are so very close to what I imagine the giant flyers of Barsoom to look like. Here is the French fleet included in the core game:
And the British:
I don't even mind the "Tesla Coil" apparatus in the hulls of the ships; who knows what "radium engines" and buoyancy tanks for the "Eighth Barsoomian Ray" might look like? Of course the "stacks" have to go, and a bit of streamlining might be in order. . . thus:
We'll see where it goes from here. . .
See ya!
