Lead Adventure Forum
General => Announcements and forum stuff => Introductions => Topic started by: mmcv on February 04, 2021, 02:44:35 PM
-
Hello! I've had a nosey on this forum a few times recently and thought I should take the plunge properly.
Some of you may know me already from a few other forums and groups I frequent, I know I've seen a few names I've recognised in posts about the place but for the rest of you, greetings! I'm a wargamer from N. Ireland, I've been in the hobby for a few years now (not counting a brief teenage flirtation with a GW starter set or two) and mostly focusing on historicals, and interesting in a wide range of periods.
I started out with a Warlord Romans and Celts starter set, painted up a few units and decided I wasn't going to have the time or space to do 28mm justice, so after experimenting in a few different scales found 10mm as the nicest balance between mass and detail and most of my projects have been there since.
First big 10mm project I did was Crusades era troops, both Christian and Islamic forces, which has continually grown and been added to over the years. Since then I've done a couple of ECW armies (that I hope to expand further), recently "finished" some Chinese Warring States/Early Imperial armies and have just put the finishing touches to some Aztecs and Tarascans. Ongoing projects I have are the Trojan War, alt-history 20th century (my take on AVBCW in Ireland) and I just recently received some Greek hoplites for the start of a new project. I've also a long list of other armies and eras I'd like to get onto the table as well.
Non 10mm stuff I have going on is a 2mm Crimean War project well underway as well as some 2mm Pike and Shot figures in the planning stages. I've also a few samples for 6mm that I may take on at some point. I've done a few 10/12mm fantasy single based figures as a palette cleanser from time to time and for use in skirmish gaming and have a 15mm Japanese Folklore army project in the early stages also. I'll find something to do with those 28mm Celts and Romans one of these days...
Oh, I've also painted up all the figures from the original Zombicide game and made a start on the Zombiecide Black Plague ones. And I'm not opposed to gaming with cardboard counters and pencil and paper when needs must. I also post occasional rambles, battle reports and rambles on my blog here: https://mmcvhistory.home.blog/.
So that's me really.
-
Welcome, & please enjoy the forum.
-
Good to see you over hear mmcv - keep spreading the 10mm word!
-
Welcome :)
-
Crazy coincidence! I have just joined this forum and I, too, live in Northern Ireland (Belfast). I too have been building 2mm pike & shot army.
You might know me anyway since NI is a small place - Dave Kershaw. I'm also on twitter and boardgamegeek with same username (kerpob2 on BGG)
-
Welcome! Yes I'm in Belfast too, though moving a bit further out in the near future. I don't know you though, I've only been in the hobby a few years and haven't yet been to any clubs or the like. I did find out about a monthly one on the Castlereagh Rd a while back but didn't get an opportunity to go to it and presumably it's not running with COVID this past year.
Regardless, look forward to seeing what you get up to!
-
Welcome MMCV, from beautiful downtown Greyabbey, have seen interesting posts from you elsewhere esp the Pendraken forum.
Peter Millen (niktherake)
-
Welcome to the best forum on the net 😁 . Didn’t know there were so many other guys from good old Norn Iron on here .
-
Thanks for the welcomes! Seems there's a few of us littering up the place here then. ;)
-
Crazy coincidence! I have just joined this forum and I, too, live in Northern Ireland (Belfast). I too have been building 2mm pike & shot army.
You might know me anyway since NI is a small place - Dave Kershaw. I'm also on twitter and boardgamegeek with same username (kerpob2 on BGG)
Looked up your Twitter there and saw the 2mm pike and shot. Impressive stuff. What rules are you using them for? My initial plan was to make a mini version of ECW for For King and Parliament, though considering rebasing and reworking my existing 10mm ECW instead. Having played a few test games from the Twilight of... series in tempted to do 30YW in similar style to what you've done with your forces.
-
Welcome aboard MMCV :) Thats a great range of projects.
-
Welcome to the forum, love that you're into 10mm stuff! :D
-
Thanks! Yeah 10mm just struck the right balance for me between being fun and characterful enough to paint, quick to put together units, playable in a small area, and looking good on the table. Not as wide a range available as the likes of 15mm but growing all the time, and modifications are easier as you can get away with "effect" rather than details.
-
Looked up your Twitter there and saw the 2mm pike and shot. Impressive stuff. What rules are you using them for? My initial plan was to make a mini version of ECW for For King and Parliament, though considering rebasing and reworking my existing 10mm ECW instead. Having played a few test games from the Twilight of... series in tempted to do 30YW in similar style to what you've done with your forces.
Thanks! I was thinking of the "Tilly's Very Bad Day" free rules, but was put off by playtesting with a friend prior to lockdown - it uses multiple D6 rolls to hit with a 6 usually required. A lucky hit basically wiped out units.
So, been developing my own rules which suit well for the enforced solitaire gaming we all have at the moment! I'll upload them at some point - I think this site has that facility.
-
A bit late of me, but welcome!
-
Thanks Rick!
Thanks! I was thinking of the "Tilly's Very Bad Day" free rules, but was put off by playtesting with a friend prior to lockdown - it uses multiple D6 rolls to hit with a 6 usually required. A lucky hit basically wiped out units.
So, been developing my own rules which suit well for the enforced solitaire gaming we all have at the moment! I'll upload them at some point - I think this site has that facility.
Kerpob, a bit late myself, missed this comment previously. I've seen Tilly's but can't say I've read much on it. There's a few other ones like Tercio's and Baroque which I've briefly looked at but not quite been drawn to. FK&P/Twilight of.. are ticking boxes for me these days, but I'm not beyond homebrewing rules too. Have a few different rulesets for other periods I've been working on myself. What's your approach to brewing upr own rules? It's really been making me look closely at what I like in a rule set and how I inject some flavour and mechanics to suit the period.
-
Thanks Rick!
Kerpob, a bit late myself, missed this comment previously. I've seen Tilly's but can't say I've read much on it. There's a few other ones like Tercio's and Baroque which I've briefly looked at but not quite been drawn to. FK&P/Twilight of.. are ticking boxes for me these days, but I'm not beyond homebrewing rules too. Have a few different rulesets for other periods I've been working on myself. What's your approach to brewing upr own rules? It's really been making me look closely at what I like in a rule set and how I inject some flavour and mechanics to suit the period.
Haven't logged on for a while - something I plan to remedy. So sorry response is quite late.
My rules principles - in rough order of priority:
1. Realism - If the rules cannot recreate a historical battle then they are no good. Equally, the ground/time scale needs to be correct for movement rates, formation size (bases) and ranges.
2. The bell curve - I try to use probability generation that will give a bell curve of probabilities so that there are common results and rare results. 2D6 will give this - a 7 has a 1 in 6 chance, but a 12 has a 1 in 36 chance. Similar for oppositional dice (I roll D6, you roll D6 and the difference between them determines the outcome). However - you don't want the extreme results to ruin a game, so they need to be justified if they happen & may be better removed as "chrome".
3. Agnostic units. The unit of measurement used in the game is notional - you can adapt it to your own figure scales. So if a formation has to be 1 unit wide, that unit can be an inch, 2cm, whatever works - and this "unit" is then used for all movement/ranges etc.
4. Keep the chrome separate. I try to write the rules as basic as possible. Then complexities and edge cases ("chrome") can be added as separate bolted on elements that you will only need in a specific scenario. Examples: terrain, lancers, mortars, etc. This very much helps with learning rules and keeping the game moving so it actually completes in an evening's play!
5. Player interaction. I also try to keep the players involved throughout the game, so that one person is not sitting for a long time waiting. This can be done by limiting unit activation, but also by alternating player's actions within a turn.
The toughest thing I think to put into rules is command and control. This element can ruin a set of rules by either making the player too "god like" able to move whatever they want with no restriction, or it can add an onerous layer of rules that kill a game's fun/playability (e.g. tracking couriers with orders).
All of this is obviously just my preferences. Others may love randomness or else prefer highly complex rules. There is no single solution as the proliferation of rules available demonstrate!
-
Haven't logged on for a while - something I plan to remedy. So sorry response is quite late.
My rules principles - in rough order of priority:
1. Realism - If the rules cannot recreate a historical battle then they are no good. Equally, the ground/time scale needs to be correct for movement rates, formation size (bases) and ranges.
2. The bell curve - I try to use probability generation that will give a bell curve of probabilities so that there are common results and rare results. 2D6 will give this - a 7 has a 1 in 6 chance, but a 12 has a 1 in 36 chance. Similar for oppositional dice (I roll D6, you roll D6 and the difference between them determines the outcome). However - you don't want the extreme results to ruin a game, so they need to be justified if they happen & may be better removed as "chrome".
3. Agnostic units. The unit of measurement used in the game is notional - you can adapt it to your own figure scales. So if a formation has to be 1 unit wide, that unit can be an inch, 2cm, whatever works - and this "unit" is then used for all movement/ranges etc.
4. Keep the chrome separate. I try to write the rules as basic as possible. Then complexities and edge cases ("chrome") can be added as separate bolted on elements that you will only need in a specific scenario. Examples: terrain, lancers, mortars, etc. This very much helps with learning rules and keeping the game moving so it actually completes in an evening's play!
5. Player interaction. I also try to keep the players involved throughout the game, so that one person is not sitting for a long time waiting. This can be done by limiting unit activation, but also by alternating player's actions within a turn.
The toughest thing I think to put into rules is command and control. This element can ruin a set of rules by either making the player too "god like" able to move whatever they want with no restriction, or it can add an onerous layer of rules that kill a game's fun/playability (e.g. tracking couriers with orders).
All of this is obviously just my preferences. Others may love randomness or else prefer highly complex rules. There is no single solution as the proliferation of rules available demonstrate!
No worries, good to hear from you!
Interesting, sounds quite similar to my own preferences. I've been developing my feudal rules a fair bit recently, particularly focused on Feudal Japan (though the core concepts should transfer to other periods with the appropriate chrome/flavour and unit changes). I use 2d6 for general tests to give that bell curve effect and 1d6 for quick and dirty tests to give a bit of variance. Dynamic player turns and some simultaneous actions (e.g. melee) keeps the interaction going (though only played them solo so far). I'm reasonably happy with the command and control system. Not all commands may get activated in a turn but when they do they all get a free action, then any further actions require using up special command points or else accumulating fatigue (which can then trigger morale/loyalty tests). That way if you try and push your units too hard and fast they'll be considerably more likely to fall apart and means you have to think carefully about which commands to activate and how to expend your limited resources on them. Feudal Japanese command structures were particularly fragile (especially in earlier periods) so straying too far from your commander or his banners, or losing the commander, can be pretty devastating. This should encourage the use of historical tactics and formations for the period. I've some ideas and drafts for other periods too, particularly the Crusades for which I have a good size collection but haven't really settled on a set of rules that gives me all that I want from the period. I suspect I'll toy with some "post-feudal" rules at some point too, as many of the core principals would work pretty well, though would need to make some changes around the command structure.
For me, the biggest balance is keeping the simplicity while also allowing for advantages and disadvantages for various situations. The number of modifiers has changed quite a bit over various drafts. I'm trying to keep it as streamlined as possible, few enough and sensible enough that you should be able to remember them without checking the QRS too often, but still provide enough that it gives interesting tactical decisions for the player to make.