Early this year Sam Mustafa will be releasing his latest game system in his “Honour” series, Blücher, which provides the ability to fight grand-tactical type games in the Napoleonic Wars. One units, stand, or counter, represents a Brigade or Regiment (incorporating multiple-battalions) or a massed Artillery concentration. Also included with the rules is Scharnhorst, a pre-game campaign that determines the manoeuvres of the opposing armies and ultimately how their deployment occurs on table. Continue reading “Blücher By Sam Mustafa”
Tag: News
“Maurice” Reviewed
For those interested but who may not have seen it – there is a fairly comprehensive Audio-Visual review of Maurice on YouTube by Shieldwall100.
Watching it again, its enough to make me want to get back to my WSS project and the dozens of boxes of Plastic Wargames Factory Infantry & Cavalry awaiting assembly! Continue reading ““Maurice” Reviewed”
A Theft Most Foul
Many Wargamers may not have had to experience it – but recently in New Zealand a local wargamer had his entire Warhammer collection stolen from his car during a storm (along with his PC, Xbox, etc). Likely the thieves don’t know the value and took it as a peripheral to the Electronics and other gear – but if you are a NZ gamer and see some new Warhammer figures mysteriously appear or be offered for sale check out this blog to see if they look like part of the stolen collection, it has links to photos of the figures: Trouble in the Border Provinces. The original theft occurred about 2 weeks ago in Paraparaumu, near Wellington. Continue reading “A Theft Most Foul”
Win An Airbrush Compressor Competition
Air Supplies in the UK are running a competition for model makers on their site. In a nutshell they’re asking you to show them your favourite model from your collection. Trains, Warhammer, Wargaming, Airfix, Table Top Gaming, etc – it doesn’t matter what the model is it just has to be one that you’ve painted, built or even designed yourself. They want to see the one you’re most proud of to be in with a chance of winning a Bambi BB8 Compressor they are giving away as the 1st Prize.
Stunning M42 Twin-Forty Night Shots
A friend recently sent me a link to these stunning Vietnam War photos of an M42 Twin-Forty “Duster” in action at night against a ground target in Vietnam in 1970 (The image is © James Speed Hensinger / Rex Feat).
“A Vietnam War veteran has released incredible night-time photographs he took of American troops opening fire on a Viet Cong sniper who had been firing on a U.S. Army camp.” Continue reading “Stunning M42 Twin-Forty Night Shots”
Blenheim Redux! Another Take With Maurice…
Back in December 2011 before Sam Mustafa’s full version of “Maurice” was released Cam and I had been play testing it. As I previously posted we had done a re-fight of Blenheim, but weren’t completely happy with how we modelled the terrain and the armies – so with suitable adjustments to both we had given it another bash. I never finished writing up the battle report but did take a reasonable selection of photos – this is a photo gallery of our Blenheim Re-fight, Take 2, using Maurice. As with the previous game we did not have the suitable 28mm figures, so we instead had our Lasalle Napoleonic Armies standing in for the War of the Spanish Succession period troops. The play test is now rather redundant, and Maurice has now been available for 9 months or so, but I thought a few gamers out there might enjoy seeing the photos and our ‘bathtubbed’ order of battle.
Continue reading “Blenheim Redux! Another Take With Maurice…”
More Secrets Of Wargame Design
Following on from Wally Simon’s SECRETS OF WARGAME DESIGN: A Tabletop Toolkit of Ideas, Analysis, and Rule Mechanics (Volume 1), Russ Lockwood (of MagWeb fame and now the Center for Provocative Wargaming) has now published a second work in the series entitled: Wally Simon’s MORE SECRETS OF WARGAME DESIGN: A Tabletop Toolkit of Ideas, Analysis, and Rule Mechanics (Volume 2). Wally Simon was one of the founders of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (in the USA), and as a statistician he used his mathematical skills to analyse probabilities within wargame mechanics. With 25 years of work to draw on, this is the second in a series of ‘best of’ booklets that explore the nuts and bolts of wargame design as seen through his eyes, via the articles he wrote over the last 40 or so years.
Press Release: Wally Simon’s Secrets Of Wargame Design
Russ Lockwood has just published a booklet entitled: Wally Simon’s SECRETS OF WARGAME DESIGN: A Tabletop Toolkit of Ideas, Analysis, and Rule Mechanics (Volume 1). As you may know, Wally Simon was one of the founders of Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (in the USA), hosting the first meeting in his basement. A statistician by trade, he used his mathematical skills to analyse probabilities within wargame mechanics. “Wally’s Basement” at the HMGS Historicon conventions is named after him. With 25 years of work to draw on, this is the first in a series a ‘best of’ booklets that explore the nuts and bolts of wargame design as seen through his eyes.
Continue reading “Press Release: Wally Simon’s Secrets Of Wargame Design”
John Curry’s “History Of Wargaming” Upate
On the 04 May 2012 John Curry sent the following update out concerning his “History of Wargaming” project for those who may not have seen it:
This is a short occasional update on the publishing progress of the History of Wargaming Project. The project has gone digital and about 20 of the books/rules are now available as e-books from the iBook Store, The Nook, or from www.lulu.com. The rest of the back catalogue will be converted in due course. Peter Perla’s Art of Wargaming, a book about the professional use of wargaming (as well as much interesting material about the history of wargaming), is now out in paperback. Donald Featherstone has seen his novel Redcoats for the Raj, back into print and he has completed a new novel, The Badgered Men. Donald Featherstone’s classic book Air War Games has now been updated and is now [again] in print.
Continue reading “John Curry’s “History Of Wargaming” Upate”Some Great New WWII Dragon Armor
Dragon Armor has announced in the last few weeks the release of several of their new models planned for the 2011-2012 period, as many will know the Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go and Type 97 Chi-Ha have both been released (there are now 2 colour schemes available for the former and 3 for the latter) along with the U.S. LVT-A(1) with 37mm gun turret, and various German light vehicles such as the SdKfz 222 Light Reconnaissance Car and SdKfz 251/22 Half-Track with PaK40 on board. Most recently has been the release of the Neubaufahrzeug from Panzerabteilung z.b.V.40 in Norway 1940. Now due in early 2012 are the German SdKfz 231 Heavy Reconnaissance Car in early war Panzer Grey (a much missed model from all ranges), and a British Infantry Tank Mk.IV Churchill Mk.III (the 6pdr version that served from Dieppe in 1942 until the end of the war in Italy and to a lesser extent in NWE.
Blenheim 1704: A Maurice (Refight) Experience
Following on from our two previous outings with Maurice (see Maurice: First Game Impressions and Maurice: Second Game & More Thoughts), Cam and I decided to have a go at a historical refight – deciding on Blenheim, so last weekend we set to it It would be heavily “Bathtubbed” to fit it down to the size of a typical Maurice game, and we’d be playing with all the full rules (rather than just the free Maurice Lite version). This meant we’d have troop quality, enhanced morale, and other factors involved. We both calculated out separately what size we thought the armies would be in Maurice – I based mine on the battlefield size & frontage and came to about 32 units of Infantry & Cavalry for the French (the larger force), however this was clearly too big so halving that came to 16, about the right size, and co-incidentally the same amount Cam had calculated starting with the troop numbers and working from that direction. Continue reading “Blenheim 1704: A Maurice (Refight) Experience”
Maurice – Second Game & More Thoughts
So a week after our first game Cam and I set about a second – the plan this time to start to try and be a bit more savvy and also Cam decided on a gimmicky “All Infantry” army to see how it’d do! Note that as I did with the previous game I’ll generally talk in terms of Maurice Lite (as that is what is currently published) but we were using aspects of the full game as referenced throughout the Maurice Lite rules (and I’ll note in the narrative where they occur). The game commenced with us determining a battle in the Tropics (this is a full game feature that determines type of terrain and how much can be selected, what type of troops aid scouting to gain the initiative, etc), Cam won the scouting (with the help of a special ‘Notable’ espionage card) and chose to Defend (another full game feature). Normally the players would then now determine and place the terrain but I had pre-determined it’s type and location randomly to save time prior to Cam’s arrival – so instead Cam chose which side he wanted. As Invader I then deployed first…