My first game on" The Sword and The Fire."

[Andrei1975]

Hello, friends! Last weekend we played the first game according to these rules. Here are some photos, and more here:

http://andrei1975.blogspot.ru/2017/05/blog-post_15.html

[commissarmoody]

  Lovely table and armies. And looks to have been a very action packed game.

[Andrei1975]

Thank you my friend. The game was really very stressful.

[Mad Guru]

Andrei,

Congrats on your first game of TSATF!  Not to be a jerk, but I feel I must mention the "F" at the end stands for "FLAME" -- only because as you may know, the title is a direct quote from a Kipling poem, and title: "THE SWORD AND THE FLAME," carries an instant recognizability, and sentimental power, for many of us who have played it for one, two, or even three decades!

I'm afraid Google translate made a bit of a mess of some of your original Russian so I'm not 100% sure what you thought of the rules, and would like to hear more of your reaction/opinion.  Were they "stressful" because they were new... or because they set up such intense, high-stakes choices for the players... or maybe for a not so good reason?  Good, bad or indifferent, I'd really like to hear more.

Needless to say your game looked good and like it was a lot of fun -- stressful of not!

[Andrei1975]

Thank you, Mad. I appreciate your evaluation! All problems with the translation. I meant that the game was not stressful, but dynamic. The situation on the playing field changed every turn. It was very interesting! British artillery was a god in this game and the Russians had to constantly maneuver, fleeing from its fire. We liked the rules very much and we will play on them. Moreover, we want to play companies on The Sun Never Sets (TSNS)

[Plynkes]

An epic fight! Love those views of firing lines opposing one another, partly obscured by smoke.

[Mad Guru]

Fully agree, Plynkes, the smoke shrouded firing lines are the standouts from a great bunch of pics!

Andrei, thanks very much for the clarification, and I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed the rules!

RE: The Sun Never Sets, I think you mean you want to play a CAMPAIGN game, which is a wonderful idea!

Long, looooooonnnnggg ago, in the very early Eighties, I was part of the very first campaign every played with those rules, in the back room of The Complete Strategist on 33rd Street, East of 5th Avenue, before the rules were first published in The Courier Magazine.

I don't know if I should laugh or cry about it, but literally 35 or more years ago I was the guy with the armies for Anglo-Indians vs. Afghans... as I still am today.

Back then we were using 15mm Mike's Models.  "The Sun Never Sets" is a fantastic campaign system, with a simple structure that provides a strategic political boardgame element that results in tabletop miniature games in a variety of colonial theatres on a regular basis.  Every player simultaneously plays a member of British parliament, a local commander of British and/or Imperial Native forces in one colony, and a local commander of Indigenous forces in another.

In that very first campaign game I commanded the British forces in China, based out of Hong Kong, and was one of two native commanders in Afghanistan.  I hope you and your friends get the chance to play a The Sun Never Sets campaign.

It was a lot of fun, and stands out as one of the 2 or 3 best ongoing campaign game experiences of my entire hobby life -- at least so far!

I'll always remember attacking the British embassy in Kabul, and just managing to get some of my forces over the walls, and then the opposing British player (who was much older than my boyish self) throwing in the towel and surrendering what was left of his garrison instead of playing the rest of the game.  It turned out that an official Imperial "surrender" resulted in a few more points to my Native "Independence" tally, and when added to the victory points from the successful siege and another field battle I had won on a previous campaign turn, it was just barely enough for me to gain Afghan INDEPENDENCE -- which was a bit of an accomplishment.  Of course, Afghanistan had started the campaign as an Independent state, but an event card, probably regarding a Russian ambassador in Kabul, led Her Majesty's Government to send an army to the border -- over my righteous objections during Parliamentary debate! -- which resulted in the "Political Level" reaching a boiling point, war being declared and invasion following right after.

I also led a successful invasion of Burma, in my role as British CO in China.

Ah, the good old days.  Haven't thought about that campaign in a long time, but remembering it still makes me smile!

[Plampers]

Guru ,

That campaign sounds absolutely Epic!

[Andrei1975]

Mad, I'm very glad that I was the reason for the pleasant memories of your youth! You with your projects are really gurus!

[Mad Guru]

Thanks, Plampers, and I heartily agree, it was epic!

Andrei, THANK YOU for starting this thread & mentioning those awesome campaign rules, which reminded me!

Maybe if I'm lucky at some point in the future I can organize something similar.

[Codsticker]

I played my first few games of TS&TF last year and really enjoyed them. When I consider how long ago they were published, in some respects they were ahead of their time.

[Andrei1975]

I agree. I also thought that these were the new rules, and when I found out that they had been so many years, I was shocked!

[Pijlie]

They brought me back to the wargaming hobby some 15 years ago and even then they were venerable 

I wrote a review a few years ago to celebrate their 36th birthday. Better late than never!
http://pijlieblog.blogspot.nl/2015/10/the-sword-and-flame.html

[Andrei1975]

Perfectly my friend!

[Codsticker]

BTW a friend of mine will be putting a couple of copies up on ebay soon'ish. I think there are a set or two of the limited release cards as well. I could post a link here if any are interested.