Executive DecisionTime

Well, I've reviewed pretty much every option I've  ever tried and several that I haven't. Eventually comes a time to either choose a direction and go forward or give up and go home. Since I'm already home there is really no where to go but ahead.

Last winter, after much testing and experimenting,  I decided that I did not want to limit myself to gridded games despite the many things in their favour. In an effort to keep some of those things I decided to retain as many mechanisms as possible. This now appears to be misguided as it seems to retain many of the artificaial restraints of the grid without the benefits associated with a tradional ungridded approach.The result was looking more and more like various more recent commercial system that I have tried  and not liked enough to adopt. The alternative now beckons of making the games very different so as to have all the more reason to play both the Square Brigadier and Hearts of Tin.

After having wasted countless enjoyable hours poking at my tablet and arguing with auto correct functions (now shut off once again) I have decided that I'm wasting my time trying to produce a complete and consistent draft until the basic structure and mechanisms are set and properly tested (vs 2 units facing off in a corner).

Ready to go.

Here are some of the issues and the approach I have decided to test in a full if small game.

Command Control. Here is an issue that I thought was set until I looked at the scope of types of game that I might want to play. The Pip system that I have been using works well in the Square Brigadier world but when a game might range from  a handful of units in a 40mm Atlantica skirmish with rebels  to a corps sized 1/72nd ACW action, getting the proportion of Pips dice to commanders and to units is tricky and starts to feel very gamy if not tedious.  Despite the difficulties, this will be my fallback position if this experiment doesn't satisfy.

However, I also don't want to  go back to an activation mechanism, especially not one which only applies when a unit is beyond command radius since experience has shown that they are too easily forgotten since there is no player benefit, only a penalty, and they are not habitual.  Neither do I want my old style where a unit might never get to move all game. If I ever go back to an activation roll it will be closer to the one in Fire & Fury where a fresh unit in good order and the attention of higher commanders can be guaranteed at least a 1/2 move.

The alternative I am going to try is to return to the mechanism that I used for years with older versions of these rules, variable length moves with generals having a limited ability to add dice to units. Without an activation roll there is no chance of no move but really a move of 2" is close enough to 0. The new wrinkle will be to insist in Black Powder fashion that the player announce what he is ordering the unit to do before he rolls. Failure to do so will allow the opponent to decide whether he must  reroll the dice or  not.

Play Sequence.   The play sequence in SB is one that I like and works well in that context but has "feel" issues with a bigger, more traditional or OS look. I also miss the old inititative roll but Pips and initiative don't fit well for me since winning the initiative then rolling 1 PIP seems like a gotcha or double jeopardy sort of negation. It also causes difficulties for non simultaneous combat. Being able to bring it back is one plus for going back to variable moves but the feel and rules complications of multiple unanswered shots just gets worse as the game grows. Looking back to just before I switched my focus to gridded games, I was very pleased with a test game using  a mechanism closer to Featherstone whose Battle with Model Soldiers is where I got the initiative idea from. So the game ahead is going to have an old fashioned sequence of initiative roll, A moves, B moves, both shoot, both melee. Trading volleys just feels right as does just shooting once a turn rather than both sides shooting in both halves of the turn.

Morale and Rallying. Still a bit of a bugbear here. I want better troops to be more resilient but I don't want units that never die, and I'm not keen on rosters and markers or morale tests. When I thought briefly that I could swing 6 stand units it was not an issue as each stand loss was not critical but I already know that some units will be 1 or 2 stands, especially in small games. So markers it is, just not sure yet how many. I'm leaning towards going back to tying the number of hits  per stand to the morale grade but may instead just go with a rally roll after a melee defeat to encourage players to close and chase the enemy off. Quality based saving throws is another option that I have not ruled out.

So, hopefully, I will get the table set up tonight and start playing an hour or so a day (avoiding the hottest parts of the day).

Down To The Sea Again

Decades of my life have been spent on the Halifax waterfront, a few months on HMCS Ottawa, a few years as Watch Officer for the Queen's Harbourmaster, almost a decade in the old Post Office across the street from the Maritime Museum, slipping across to have lunch dangling my feet over the water and a decade high up in Purdy's  Wharf Tower looking down on the harbour through plate glass from my desk (including a certain September day when we were suddenly conscious that the US embassy was only 1 floor above us and a coworker couldn't resist pointing out that Window and exclaiming was that a plane heading across the harbour toward us? We all turned then most of us laughed, a few were not so amused but the tension did drop a notch.)

Anyway these days I usually make only make it to the Halifax waterfront once a year. Today was the kind of day to do it with warm verging on hot sunshine with the faintest of breezes. Unfortunately, with this lovely summer day being the first weekend of the summer break and many people making it into a 4 day Canada Day weekend,  nipping into the museum to check out board games appears to have been low on people's to do list.

The view out the window. HMCS Halifax on the left was open to the public. HMCS Sackville on the right was a WWII corvette and is now part of the museum but in my day with QHM she was a working Dept of Fisheries research vessel. Seems odd to me that of the current fleet, only 3 were in service in my day. Doesn't seem that long ago.......

Meanwhile inside, those of us who were present, staff, volunteers and a trickle of kids and mom's had a good time. Various people said nice things and there were two runs of the game, including one in which the privateers lost both of their ships.  Doesn't do to not leave a watch on board.

I also got to play 2 full games of Crocinole, a childhood favorite that I have not played in over 40 years. The Uckers board (a variation on Parchesi) just visible on the right above, brought back memories of evenings in the Wardroom on the sweepers doing navigation training on the West Coast.

So, all in all an enjoyable day out. I'm tempted to bring the Privateers down to Huzzah next year as a walk up and play game in addition to the main event.

Sometimes Different is just Different

While I have not had any big chunks of free time recently, I have had ample small chunks as well as plenty of time sitting with tablet while keeping 1/2 an eye on various things. The result is that most of my 1840's/50's infantry is rebased and I have been exploring all sorts of rules options and variations and reading old HofT blog posts.

Actually, looking at the header picture, this is pretty close to the way  Hector originally designed the units in 2008 but on bases 50mm wide instead of 60mm wide.
Sometimes its a long winding road that brings us home.

Part way through cutting 2"x1" bases it occurred to me that since some of the testing had resulted in a decision to treat 2 such bases as 1 2"x2" base unless needed as skirmishers or to fit into a town etc, I could just split 1 base per unit. That was swiftly folllowed by me recalling that 2 years ago I had based these armies on 2x2 bases for Huzzah and that those bases were still somewhere. I found them, some need some sanding but enough were ready to go to speed the process. What I haven't found is any indication of exactly when and why I debased the troops. They still appear in May but suddenly in December the troops are back on singles.

Oh well. Now the troops are back as they were in 2012 and basically the same as in 2009 except that the units are 3 bases not 5 and have a 6" frontage (150mm roughly) vs a 200mm frontage. Doesn't sound like much but over 12 units that's 2 feet less table space required which oddly enough is just what the reduction has been since 2009.

For the rest, I've been revisiting some old ideas and trying out various brand new ones. Some of these look like they would work really well, but, they would be a different game, not my old Hearts of Tin at all. Not better, not worse, just different and to my mild surprise right now I'm not really looking for different. I want familiarity.

Sometimes, like Doc Ruddy used to tell us "You pays your money and takes your choice".

Off to Halifax tomorrow to expose the public of all ages to miniature wargames at the Maritime Museum but hopefully some gaming at home on Sunday.