Thursday, May 4, 2023

One Hump or Two?

Oh! Two please, but could you put them on different camels?

The newly expanded camel corps. Not having time to order more camels I demoted the mysterious Turkish camel artillery to a normal mountain battery using mules. 

When I decided that a multiplayer, constantly growing, game using single figures and my current 'quickplay' version of MacDuff, would never get finished in the time available, I switched back to a set of 'fast play', Morschauser inspired' rules where each 'stand' is essentially a 'unit'.  Worked fine for a game that lasted about an hour, and a  game would probably have lasted longer if I'd painted up enough figures to double the number of stands. That wasn't going to happen.

A series of failed experiments of various sorts followed until finally, while trying yet another approach, it occurred to me to that I was basically writing yet another variation of my Hearts of Tin rules. (duuuhh). They were designed for this sort of thing so I typed up a One Page version using units of 3 stands for infantry battalions, 2 stands for cavalry, camel corps (relax, I only have one), local militia, and light infantry, 1 stand per battery (I don't have time now to cast up and paint double the number of guns and crews.) 

So far the test game is finally achieving my goals. Players generally can act the commander and have control over their units, but not complete control. Combat is quick but units are not so brittle as to disappear on one good or bad die roll. Hits will be tracked by unit rather than stands which reduces the hit tracking dice requirement by more than 1/2.  The players in these scenarios should have enough of a force to keep them in the game unless they are determinedly suicidal, but not so many that a decision can't be reached within the time limits.........I hope.........

The current version can be read or downloaded here: A Whiff of Dice.  

Right, I still need to finish another units of  Mamlukes, and...... 2 weeks and a bit to go!

8 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. The main reason for taking the trouble! (plus when else can you field a Napoleonic French camel corps?)

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  2. Very nice Ross…
    And it sounds like you have a plan…

    All the best. Aly

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, yes I have a plan, but can I execute it? Less than 2 weeks to the event and then we'll see!

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  3. Marvellous looking regiment de dromedaires and a beaut arrangement of figures on the stands too. Full of action!
    Regards, James

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  4. I love these multipart SYW Prince August castings. 5 grenz + 1 senior officer + my own heads and volia!

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