Adventures in Wargaming
Less productive week this time but still more soldiers for the Crimson Militia. Three more Spectre MENA miltia ready for the board.
Tomorrow will be more productive – probably to counter-act all the purchasing that will be done once the Spectre technicals and Russians arrive
Over my Christmas break I intended to get some stuff painted. However, I ended up doing a lot of other stuff (like going on walks with family and a day of KillTeam in York) so I didn’t get a huge amount done. I did manage to paint the bases on a large number of the insurgents I had been working my way through.
Just this week I did the finishing touches on the rest of the figures I had partially painted. As with all the Spectre figures they are great fun to paint. As with my last set of insurgents, I’ve kept using the red colouring (in bandanas, t-shirts and scarfs) to theme them when deployed together on the tabletop.
The next step will be to carry on painting up the insurgents I have left. This means I can more easily deploy large numbers of them which are required when going up against the more well trained and equipped forces.
A while back I wrote a long post about making some Little Birds to add to the tabletop. Since then, nothing has happened.
The reasons for this are multiple:
Due to this, I’m going to sell the model kit and reinvest the money in buying the King’s Hobbies models. So that’s why you haven’t been seeing tons of picture of little birds.
I mentioned in my end of year post that I plan to make a demo board for modern wargaming at some point this year. After having been to a few shows and having a wonderful time, I’d love to get even more involved. In addition, various parties have given me some advice and offers of support to get out there and do stuff.
The real question is what do I want to demo (in terms of scenario) and what board do I want to make?
Before I can choose the scenario, I first needed to decide which ruleset to use. As you can tell from previous posts, I have a few to pick from. However, the more I think about it, the more I really want to demo Skirmish Sangin. As well as being my favourite game, I also know it can be demoed well after watching Tiny Terrain showing it at Colours with his excellent board set in Africa.
With the rules decided upon, I next started thinking about the scenario I’d want to play, something vital to get right if I want to be successful
Thinking back to my trips to shows, the boards that stood out to me was stuff you just can’t do at a normal club night. Be it a complete destroyer for your soldiers to fight over or the incredible underground WW1 fort that appeared at Partisan, boards that are different really stick in your head. Wanting to do something similar to this, I set off on a bender of films, tv and games for ideas I could use. And I finally settled upon an idea that should make for a fun board.
A C-130 carrying CIA equipment suffers a technical fault and crash lands on the outskirts of a city in Bazistan. As the local militia rushes to the site to claim it as salvage, American Special Forces have been deployed to search and recover the items in a daring day time raid. Of course, they are not the only group interested in recovering CIA technology…
Gameplay wise it would be a three way fight between the two special forces teams looking for objectives and a militia force that is constantly receiving new forces from off the board. More than two players allow for more interesting gameplay and to get more players involved on a single board. The requirement to hunt items means the special forces HAVE to keep moving, rather than sitting back and just hammering fire at each other..
Visually, the idea of a crashed C-130 sat in the midst of a shanty town is a powerful image. I’ve hunted down some reference photos (mainly from Call of Duty) which I’ll use to help work out the layout. A big point is that a C-130 in 1:48 is about 2ft by 2ft in size. Obviously making it crashed means I can trim parts off it and separate out various bits to make it less of a solid mass in the middle of the table. Around it, I’m planning a maze of shacks with a few large buildings close the edge of the board. And of course lost of scatter terrain to provide cover.
In addition, I’ve had some thoughts about the size of the board. A 4ft x 4ft board would just about fit in the back of my car with some extra space and is a reasonable size for Skirmish Sangin.
So the big obstacle to this is finding a 1:48 c-130. There is a plastic kit but it’s about £50 so it would be good to see if there is some alternatives before I buy one and take a knife to it.
Timing wise, I think it would work best if I aim for a convention near the end of the year. Fiasco in Leeds is on the smaller, more laid back end of the scale (perfect for a first time showing) and takes place in Leeds so on home turf. Even better, it’s in October this year. My plan is to do the first showing there and then take any improvements to Vapa in 2018. Of course, if it’s ready before August, the local show Claymore might also be an option, although a risky one. All of this is subject to change but its really a rough idea to get started with.
That’s the end of part 1. The idea is very much in early planning stages so it might end up falling to pieces. But, I’m am very excited about going through the process.
If you want some objective thoughts on the rules listed below, the main article is here.
I repeat the disclaimer I have used throughout this series: I have done some writing for Skirmish Sangin and I am listed in the Spectre Operations book as a play tester.
To be clear, these are my personal thoughts as of date of publishing. I own all the rulesets (there are physical copies sat next to my desk for referencing) and honestly I’d probably be happy to play all of them! But there are pros and cons for each of them which I will detail below. PLEASE NOTE THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION.
Black Ops
Blacks Ops is the definition of a good ruleset in my opinion. It’s fun to play, has some clever ideas which it does really well (the stealth rules and noise system is fantastic) but it’s isn’t truly excellent in any one particular way. It’s a game I taught to a room full of people at a friend’s housewarming, they had a lot of fun and many of them remembered the rules the following day. It is the quickest game to get up and running and is spot on for what it is designed for – black ops. Overall, its a great set to own, have on the shelf and roll out when you fancy a change and want to play something simple and exciting very quickly.
Pros: Quick and easy to learn, an excellent stealth system, lots of toys to play with, very fast setup time
Cons: Can be a little too simplistic, finding a rule can be a bit of a pain
Danger Close
The ruleset makes sense BUT I find its simultaneously very detailed and too slight. If I want this style of game, Skirmish Sangin is preferred and has a lot more to it to make it more exciting. I do give it a little bit of slack because of how short the rules are but even so, there are other things to play that do everything better.
Pros: Short and easy to learn.
Cons: Other rules do the same job but better.
Force on Force
Honestly, these rules are great.The sheer breadth and depth of rules is amazing, allowing for literally any military situation on land in the last 80 or so years. It does a good job of showing modern combat with all it’s confusion and various skills. My problems really start with it being so broad it can be overwhelming. The lack of an sort of army builder is a pain when wanting to try something different which can lead to players creating massively inappropriate armies. Finally, the books are lovely being filled with artwork, photos and scenarios but can be a pain to find rule definitions in there.
Pros: Massive amount of rules, lovely presentation, interesting core system
Cons: No army list so very dependant on checking, a lot of rules to learn, not easy to find a rule you want in a hurry
OSC: Part 1
OSC is fantastic in that it does something different. It does away with long statlines, instead focusing on a single value and a pile of actions you can do. It’s well set out, easy to thumb back and forth through. The actions make you feel like you are in an action film; in fact I’d say it’s the game on this list that reminds me most of airsofting thanks to it’s focus on claiming objectives (be they positions, items or people).
The main downside I have is that it feels like the first part of something. It’s the early chapters of a rulebook showing you the core but tempting you with what is coming soon. I think Part 2 will really add to the game and make it something I’d be more interested in playing more of. This isn’t really a knock against the rules, it’s just the next game down really occupies my mind when it comes to controlling single figures in a skirmish game. I’m also not a huge fan of the setting it creates but it’s easy to ignore and just use the rules for everything else.
Pros: Lovely laying out of the rulebook, lots of actions to do, simple core mechanics, It does something different…
Cons: …But not different enough, can feel uncomplete
Skirmish Sangin
If someone says “Set up a game for next week”, this is the first game I would choose to play. I love how a character feels like an actual person, with a variation on the stat-line depending on a dice roll and a host of specialities to pick from. I love how combat revolves around the idea of “easy to spot – > hard to hit -> easy to kill”; firefights without cover are brutal things. Explosions take up a more realistic size on the board and the difference between being caught in the kill zone and sitting just in the damage zone really drives home how dangerous a modern battlefield is. I like the action point system, I love how choosing between changing stance and running just a little bit more can be the difference between life and death. I love how body armour of any kind is a genuine trade off; true it will have you from that shrapnel, but it might just give your opponent the edge in activation order. There are so many parts to the game that tie together to create a gripping game that is a fantastic story at the end of it. I find myself finishing a game and rather than talking about dice rolls, I talk about the game as if it was a tv episode.
Now there are downsides to this game. The main rulebook and list of modifiers is pretty intimidating for a player reading it for the first time. The game definitely has an upper limit on the number of troops a single player can control (15 is the upper limit of comfortable in my opinion). There can be a lot of counters between morale, current pose, wounds, etc. I don’t get the “Kid in the Candy Store” feeling a crave when writing an army list. Creating a scenario can be almost RPG esque, rolling up and writing down profiles for each and every character. But at the end of the day, I keep finding myself rolling D100’s and trying to remind myself of the modifiers table. The reason I write scenarios for it is that I want to play more of it!
Pros: Deep character system, quick to play (once you know the basics), logical rules, ongoing support, one of the rulesets that make you feel like you are on the ground IRL, lots of scenarios to play among the 5 books/online downloads
Cons: Can be intimidating on first look, lots of counters, lots of setup if writing own scenario, hard to play above section level with only one player per side
Spectre Operations
The newest on the list, these rules are beautiful to behold. The rulebook is great to read and the rules simple to learn from it. It’s easy to run battles from a few SF operators up to full platoons. The gear selections makes every weapon feel different and so crafting your force is almost as fun as playing. Once ingame, it’s fast and fluid. Characters outside of cover do not last long – you need to play tactically, using all your tactical and command skills to get through the day. It has a wonderful sense of character to it – every mission feels like a military operation. The game also supports vehicles making it perfect for a “get all the toys on the table” sort of game.
Pros: Most modern set of rules, ongoing support, simple to learn and quick to play, lots of goodies to play with, supports platoon level engagements with ease, very flavourful, very busy community
Cons: Can feel a little “in-progress” with some elements (vehicle rules and large engagement specifically), points balanced forces can be massively outnumbering each other, one or two head scratching rules