Sunday, June 24, 2018

Red Alert! I'm back!


Red Alert! I'm back! I'm back? You didn't notice I hadn't posted for a couple of months? Well, the Red Alert isn't for me. . . more on me at the end of this post. First, the gaming content.

Richard Borg and PSC games launched a Kickstarter for a new space fleet game, and I'm all in: Red Alert. It uses the tried and true Commands and Colors board game system that started with the American Civil War, then moved into WW2, Ancients, Napoleonics, WW1 and now to what would seem an unlikely genre, space fleet combat. I am a fan of
Commands and Colors: Ancients from GMT Games and have played a lot of games using 15mm miniatures. I also own and play Commands and Colors: Samurai Battles by Zvezda.

So, does this system work for "space combat?" The kickstarter actually posts the complete rules for download. 


I really like the "fleet" aspect and emphasis on "positional" warfare as opposed to "dogfighting in space" like WW2 airplanes. My plan will be to exchange the multiple miniatures per unit to track losses with the individual 1/2500-scale Star Trek miniatures, tracking losses with "shield" markers instead of additional ship miniatures. That will mean about 12 ships (plus fighters) per side. The game ships in March 2019, which should be enough time to build the models, but we'll see!

Here are a few images from the Kickstarter. Hurry, if you're interested, it closes in about 40 hours.





So where have I been? Getting new knees. Or, at least getting the first of two partial knee replacements. Hereditary osteoarthritis and years of martial arts training finally made the replacements essential, at least if I want to be able to walk for more than 15 minutes at a time! Surgery, rehab exercises and a full-time-plus job is cutting into hobby time. Plan is to get the second knee done in the fall.

I decided NOT to leave you with a Cluck-Amok-style selfie featuring my new scar : )