Back of beyond adventures

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

What a lovely looking game. Must have been great fun playing that. Thanks for the AAR, most enjoyable.   

[has.been]

What did you think of FFOL Bigger Battles for BoB/RCW?  I really like the core mechanics and how flexible they are.  We’ve tried a few small games and they were fun.  RCW and Napoleonic skirmish so far.  I’ve not tried vehicles yet though.  We found the combat brutal but as figures can return with a Queen of hearts not every removed figure is dead.  BoB/RCW armies probably should have a liberal distribution of negative traits too.  What stats did you use?

Yes the rules are brutal, but as a group we have lots. We didn't field all of it by any means. Yes figures can return (patched up) by playing the Queen of hearts, but not enough of them in the pack. Players could have used some of the Aces (wild cards) as Q.of H. but seemed to have too many other uses for them (Short of ammo, too much shock, Got to activate first, etc. etc.)
As to how I 'stated' the units up, well I just went through the rule-book,
followed the  guidance & tried to give us a wide variety of traits. I think
it is best if each player 'stats' his own up, as each of us has his own idea of what those little men should be like.
I agree with more negative traits, I would even give some units only negative traits. The Afghans for example, I gave them the negative of,
'Yellow bellies' so they wouldn't charge down from their hills, but even though I gave them obsolete rifles (to further hamper them) they managed to almost wipe out the White Russian 'Household' unit with just one round of firing!  Bloody rules indeed.
As we have enough units/vehicles to use as a second (and even third & forth) wave, I would like a simple morale test. Players don't mind say losing a death or glory unit, quite so much, if it means the tank can come on.  Speaking of tanks, & vehicles in general, that bit was the newest to us. I really need to study that part of the rules more. I might even add some more negative traits. That will make those horrible metal beasts a bit more unreliable.
We may, in order to speed up game play, give players say two cards less
than the number of units they have. It would concentrate the action.
We had five players, more like four, (as plumpire I was controlling the Afghans, but the cards did not favour me & only one unit turned up!)
but that is still 25 'things' (units, vehicles, commanders etc) to be: moved, shot with, rallied etc. No big surprise that we only finished three moves. We did however manage a LOT of 'banter' & the very important:
Bacon Butties, Sausage Butties, Hash Browns with lashings of cups of tea (&  some other drinks).
All seemed to enjoy themselves, & (as Flatpack his-self said) we will play again.

[SJWi]

Superb looking game. Some threads on LaF have inspired me to dust-off my long-neglected Back-of-Beyond forces especially now we can game face-to-face.

My issue has been finding a decent set of rules. I’ve considered buying “Setting the East Ablaze” version 2 but now see mention of “Fistful of Lead”. Does anyone have views on the relative merits of these rule sets? Also for FFoL do you need both the “Core rules” and the “Bigger Battles” set?

 Thanks

[flatpack]

You don’t need the core rules, just bigger battles will work. That’s all we used.
They are fun, and usually quick, so we are happy with the whole range of their rules.
We always end up smiling.

[Digits]

I’m liking the pith helmet Bob!  I think perhaps we should all take to wearing a hat when gaming!

[flatpack]

Just got to worry about the shed roof ?
Could be a little low ?
Might need a hard hat 

[Digits]

Hmm....need to look what I have...unfortunately mostly seventeenth century......I need something a little more recent me thinks!

[BaronVonJ]

Good looking game. As far as bloody goes, yes, modern weapons without troops in cover will take it's toll. A yes, out of Action isn't dead, just combat ineffective. When a unit loses half it's number to a Machine gun burst, they aren't all dead. Most have just decided "this isn't for me".

[vodkafan]

I think to be honest the rules are as fast play as the fastest "fast play" rules out there. It was just us that were slow on the day. We hadn't been together for over a year and the turns were punctuated with a lot of conversation in between and during. Personally I don't think we will need to ration cards out to speed things up.

[trev]

Interesting ideas on the reduced cards and reserves I like those.  Reduced cards could simulate variable command efficiency.  We used reserves for destroyed units in a game but you need objectives and a turn limit.  Allowing units to voluntarily withdraw stops silly suicidal attacks.  Dicing for reserves or their starting point makes them less predictable. 

The FFOL rules are nicely elegant and easy to modify. The brutality could be reduced a bit by shifting the casualty point up or dropping the 2 casualties band.  That would bring out the nice shock and reform mechanism more.

For the perception of game speed I’d say it is about how often a player gets a turn and how long that turn takes.  With small numbers of units and players you can keep it fast.  With lots of players and units the gaps between player actions gets long.  You could up the scale like bigger battles does to get more figures on the table with the same number of units but to have lots of units and lots of players you probably need to reduce the sides to 2.  Having 2 groups is fastest but less interesting/dynamic.  However once you reach a certain size it’s really the only way to keep things moving.  Of course if you enjoy a more sedate game pace with lots of banter there’s nothing wrong with playing like that. It’s ultimately a subjective preference.

To convert FFOL into IGOUGO you could use the cards still for their special abilities.  Perhaps with less cards than units and/or cards you must play and miss a turn.  Perhaps 8s?

[BaronVonJ]

If you convert FfoL to IGOUGO, then it’s not FfoL anymore.

[trev]

It was only a suggestion for speeding up very large games.  Didn't realise I was crossing a line. 

[has.been]

I think that when you buy a set of rules, it is entirely up
to you what you do with them. What you ignore &/or use.
This was taught to me many (many) years ago, while I was
new to wargaming & still young. I objected to a few proposed
local amendments to WRG Ancients. Why? 'I wouldn't be able to
play other people around the world'  The retort was direct, ' But you
only play these few people here'.

Having said that, Fistful of Lead is much liked by our group BECAUSE
it is so Cinematic & NOT 'IGOUGO'.

[Zingara]

Great looking game guys, and love the pith helmet.

[BaronVonJ]

I my rules say “ you bought these rules, they are yours now. Change what you want. But let the other players know what you changed, and make sure everyone is agreed”.