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Author Topic: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!  (Read 2623 times)

Offline JBaumal

  • Mad Scientist
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40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« on: June 02, 2019, 03:04:18 AM »


This year will be the 40th Anniversary of the iconic colonial skirmish rules set "The Sword And The Flame" written by the venerable late Larry V. Brom, USMC. In my humble opinion these are by far the best colonial wars rules set ever written! The fact that I consider Larry and his daughters Lori & Christy my friends has nothing at all to do with my thoughts about these rules. I'd first found these rules at an old Historicon convention at the Penn Harris Inn about the mid 1980's. Larry was running an Egyptian vs Brits game and I instantly fell in love with the flow, game speed, period specific nuances, exciting melee phase, and the user friendly game mechanics.

I've been playing these rules ever since. I've tried many others, but none came close to the fun, excitement, and adventure of these rules, for me personally at least. The fact that the mechanics are set up for skirmish type actions and not competition has led the faithful followers of these rules to have one very common awesome trait among them, that all games must be FUN! The fun aspect has always kept me locked into these rules and I have made some of my best and life long friends while rolling dice around a rip roaring fun TSATF games table.

Now with the 40th Anniversary Edition of this masterpiece rules set on the horizon I can't wait to see what Larry's daughters have done to celebrate the rules and Larry. Lori had told me that the 40th will contain updates, corrections from the official addendum, scenarios, and some surprises. Count me in!

Check out the official The Sword And The Flame Website: http://www.sergeants3.com/

Read more and photos:  https://sgtguinness.blogspot.com/2019/

Offline Sparrow

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2019, 07:21:11 AM »
You’re right about these rules being fun! One of the downsides on this side of “The Pond’ has sometimes been getting hold of a copy (I managed it but it too a while) .

Any chance you can have a word with the right person over there to see if there can be a UK distributor? (North Star or Caliver Books immediately come to mind as the sort of people who may be interested?).
Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry!

Offline bulldogger2000

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2019, 10:07:45 PM »
You are correct, about the rules and about Larry's impact on the hobby and colonial gaming in particular.  Add to that, he was a great guy.

Out of curiosity will the rules be the original version with D6 or the later version?

Offline italwars

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2019, 08:12:26 PM »
I understand that TSATF legacy has to be supported but I really hope that this 40th edition will be the same of today’s edition with just a few “corrections” ...sorry if I think that but the fact is that the current edition is almost perfect without any needs to touch it...so the better feature of a new edition could be certainly scenarios, certainly more troop types , certainly ideas to scale down historical TOes but I really hope that I do not have to learn again something different or worst “modernized” version of TSATF...please tell to don’t touch the “Old School” approach which allowed, up to day, to rank TSATF as most elegant rule sisthem ..🙂
« Last Edit: June 03, 2019, 08:27:36 PM by italwars »

Offline Mad Guru

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2019, 05:49:21 AM »
Italwars my friend, I truly, truly doubt that you have anything to worry about!

This new edition was compiled by the two daughters of Larry Brom, author of the original rules.  The very last thing they want to do is to mess with what you refer to as the "old school" and "elegant" approach for which The Sword And The Flame is known.  I believe this edition is focused on cleaning up typos, misprints, oversights, etc, incorporating various errata compiled since the previous 20th Anniversary edition, and also on providing some additional materials -- perhaps including some of the things you mention.  I played a good size North-West Frontier game of TSATF a couple of weeks ago with my son and a new gaming friend, and all three of us -- winners and loser -- had a fantastic time.  Still, I am excited to get my hands on a copy of this upcoming edition.  After all, it has been 20 years since the previous version of the rulebook was published!
"We shall see what wisdom lies beneath my madness!"

Offline Belisarius

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2019, 10:31:52 AM »
I’d certainly be interested in buying the new edition , and hope that a British distributor is found .

Offline italwars

  • Mastermind
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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2019, 11:28:26 AM »
Mad Guru...always a pleasure to read you..
well i must confess that TSATF has been the first and only wargame rule-sisthem to which i was seriously and carefully comitted...usually i'm very lazy with other rules books ..i like to accurately, even maniacally, research historical battles (as you did with the beautiful Mainwand Day), buy and paint (and convert)accuratly the very appropriate minis..devise and send to future  opponents accurate scenarios and explain to them..and always happy to host opponents for a game and an entertaining and friendly Italian dinner plus wines/coctails and good talks....but i'm a very very bastard lazy guy as concern what is, for me, the only less amusing aspect of wargame..which is learning rules >:(..so i always find somebody that do it for me with me acting as a sort of parasite.. ;)...not surprinsingly my moon sign is Gemini...at University (and i graduated twice)..i did more or less the same..i studied only what enjoyed me...and the other exams were prepared with great distress and absolute unconsciousness and at last minute during the last nights before ...welll TSATF has been an exception i meticulously studied it and enjoy to read it again and again...maybe the only thing i studied carefully in my life!    lol lol lol  .....i also remarked, among other things, that TSATF is very easy to explain or just guide trough for participants that had never played before with it...mouvment ... formations...change of formations and fire are very intuitive...a player with a minimum military education could be put in charge of European/Imperial units..itll not be difficult for him to understand that he has to form a line to fire at will with all the muskets of his unit ...while a rough, ineducated player or newcomer can simply be put in charge of tribesmen..he will certainly act as a primitive fighter...and the single basing of minis helps a lot in that way.....years ago i even spent some time translating the rules in Italian to facilitate games with newcomers (Italians usually only speak Italian and also a very bad Italian) ...but it was not necessary...we all followed up the game just by intuition and thanks to a  few simple tables provided with the rules....so welcome to this new edition and continuation of the adventure! 8) :) :)
« Last Edit: June 05, 2019, 12:23:09 PM by italwars »

Offline Smokeyrone

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2019, 10:12:28 AM »
Best Rules Evah! 

Cant wait to add this one to my 25th edition!
Reigning USTA Florida, and National 50+ Singles Champion  (tennis)  TWO Time Florida 50+ Singles Champion!  Just won State 2019!

Offline ColCampbell

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2019, 07:48:24 PM »
I'm going to be working with Lori and several others on the 40th edition.  My goals are to:

1. Include all of the errata that were promulgated for the 20th anniversary edition in October 2002.

2.  Clean up the "nuts and bolts" of the rules without destroying the intent (playing the game and having fun!).

3.  Develop an index to make finding things easier.

Jim

Offline JBaumal

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2019, 02:16:00 AM »
Jim, that's outstanding news! Me and my pards are really looking forward to it. I've done my own cut n paste version of the rules replacing the sections as needed with this official errata and corrections taping them in my 20th Anny rules book. Your efforts will not go unappreciated. I'm looking forward to seeing you all at a con soon.

If there's anything I can do to assist please don't hesitate to contact me.

Offline Mad Guru

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #10 on: July 04, 2019, 02:06:47 AM »
Jim,

Just echoing what Jeff said above!  That's exciting info and thanks for sharing!  An INDEX would be a fantastic addition to the rules!

Offline grant

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Re: 40th Anniversary of The Sword And The Flame rules!
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2019, 02:18:02 AM »
I’d probably buy these just to have; the “changes” sound appropriate and reasonable.

I’ve always read good things about this rules system. (Not sisthem)
It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words - Orwell, 1984