For fans of "Setting The East Ablaze"

[coggon]

I've been a long time avid reader of the adventures of the Edinburgh Wargames club, particulary their adventures in the Back of Beyond.  But the most recent post on the Back of Beyond page takes the proverbial cake.  http://www.edinburghwargames.com/Journal%2080.htm

You'll need to scroll down a bit, but scenario is well worth it.

[Earther]

Such exquisite madness!

Fantastic stuff!

[mysteriousbill]

What a wonderful game. I never get to play in such a fine game     

[Ignatieff]

Superb stuff!  I will be nicking this idea at sme point.  Madness at its most inspiring (as is the comment 'next game on Orkney!') 

[Ataman]

I'm envious of them, that sounded like a fantastic and rather confusing adventure!

[Ignatieff]

I'm envious of them, that sounded like a fantastic and rather confusing adventure!

Confusion is the petrol of progress!!!

[H.M.Stanley]

Top looking game. Thanks for sharing chap

[Phil Robinson]

More pics and words on Dave's Blog

http://davestoybox.blogspot.co.uk/

[Yankeepedlar01]

Super stuff on the Blog Phil's just mentioned!

[Ignatieff]

That really is a fine looking and brilliantly conceived game!

[coggon]

That really is a fine looking and brilliantly conceived game!

Amen-thanks for posting the additional links.  Greatly appreciated

[Sakura]

Thanks Coggon for pointing out Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames Blog and thanks for all the kind comments.  I was one of the organisers and Dave O'Brien was the other.  You have also been introduced to his blog I see.

Well this saves me the trouble of writing my own report of the game which Dave and I managed to take part in as well as umpire.  This was largely down to the ease of understanding the rules.  The 14 players, 11 of whom had never used the rules before were all issued with playsheets and within a few turns everyone was able to play quite happily without reference to the rules or the umpires.  We used cards but only one per faction rather than one per unit - so all of a factions units acted at once.  I added some simple ship vs ship and plane vs plane rules.  We used Chinese funeral money as currency (available from Chinese supermarkets) and this could be used to rebuild damaged units or build new ones.  Revenue was obtained from the Trans-Siberian railway which passed through every factions base town.  Up trains from Moscow were designated RED and benefitted Red aligned factions, Down trains from Vladivostok were designated WHITE and benefitted White aligned factions.  Sometimes no trains ran and sometimes both did.  Revenue could also be obtained from farms, mines, etc which were dotted about over the five tables.  We also had an extensive list of Random Events which could be good or bad and a list of Special characters who were again allocated at random.

This was our third Back of Beyond big game but the first using the "Setting the East Ablaze" rules.  They are certainly an improvement on Chris Peers "Contemptible Little Armies", on which they are based, and which were our previous rules of choice for the period.  Highly recommended.