A 1940 scenario using Rapid Fire Reloaded

 WWII gaming was never an easy sell in my group.  It seemed that a few of us wanted to play and we collected huge armies - I have about 400 hundred 20mm/ 1:72 vehicles alone -- but finding a set of rules that people would be excited to play was near impossible.  Spearhead was tried and is a great set, but felt 'stretched' in 20mm.  Battlefront WWII is a well designed and easy game to play but suffers from the fact that a result is very difficult to arrive at in the 2-3 hours we have to play.  We tried BKC and I really liked it...most didn't.  The activation rolls meant too many players were left doing nothing too often.  

I had collected all of the Rapid Fire books over the years and even had a typed set of the rules before RF (1) had been published.  The books are pure delight and inspiration.  But for some reason I never tried playing RF. On reading the rules they seemed strange.  On the one hand there were rules for every imaginable operational function -- even aircraft carriers...yes in 20mm -- but all of that lovely abstraction seemed to be dovetailed with rules for throwing grenades as in a skirmish game!  None of the rules were difficult although RF1 and RF2 still used a casualty table that put off many of the fellows in my group.  It did seem old fashioned and frankly seemed like the rules were not the product of a design concept but more along the lines of a development process that responded to need in an almost ad hoc fashion.  I couldn't see my guys playing this game.

Well, fortunately one of the group suggested, after yet another teeth-pulling WWII game, that we try RF. It was designed for 20mm models and we had all the books...and it did look quite easy to play.  I am so glad we did.

After years of playing RF now, and yes, weathering the frustration of the casualty table, Colin Rumford and Richard Marsh have developed Rapid Fire Reloaded (RFR) and it is fantastically simple to play, has no tables and is fun. In fact, I had developed a simplified casualty system that anticipated RFR precisely.     

Is RFR nuanced and "realistic?"  Probably not.  But I would say any rule set can be ruined by creating silly scenarios and any game can be played with a sense of realism if done in the right manner.  And frankly, WWII gaming is particularly stretched anyway by the 1000-foot general syndrome regardless of the rules played.

So, RFR has kept us entertained for years and will continue to do for many more years to come.  I have valued the very long range relationship that I have developed over the years with Colin, helping doing the odd-bit of editing and have continued to build layouts for the game.  One day I will manage to play all of Juno and Omaha.  I have modelled everything but don't have the 16' table to accommodate it all at once.

Recently we played a scenario from their latest Blitzkrieg book.  Here are a few shots courtesy of my buddy Thomas:

An irony....

 It is an irony that the more work I am doing on BFE and other gaming projects the less time I have to post updates. This has the effect of making it look like I am not doing much!  In fact, there is a load of things happening behind the scenes.  The ACW game is now developing fast and I have continued work on the book rules (as opposed to simply up-dating the play-sheets).  This is very positive.  We have been playing variations of this BFE-based game for many years, but it is far more stable now.  It is amazing how long this process can take when you only play the period occasionally.  Fortunately I have a group in Italy playing the game too and their initial feedback has been very useful.

BFE3 is in a hold pattern. Until the ACW game is done I am not sure how deeply BFE3 will be a revision or a tidy-up.  There were definitely some things that I needed to add/rewrite for clarity.  Things like the siege rules and large buildings sections had gaps that I have now filled.  The basic game however didn't need much revision - just textual corrections and precision.  We will see.  Doing any of these projects "off the side of your desk" is not the best way to get things done.  But play-testing is also a very slow process and I want to make sure my games are well tested before they go out there for consumption.

I have also designed an ancient to "renaissance" (early modern) grid-based game.  This is going really well. The mechanics are, like most games, familiar, but conceptually it is very different from anything I have seen.  The grid is such a wonderful simplification and cleans up so many vagaries in play.  Now, I would not use a grid for many period or levels of play, but for large battles set in pre-modern wars I think it works really well.  To the Strongest clearly shows what can be achieved with a grid but is a game that did not fly in my group.  So I wrote my own.

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I know that the people who visit the blog seeing just text is a turn-off, but I wanted to get a new post up.  Pictures will follow.

Happy Christmas and all the best for 2022

 It seems hard to be jolly this year given all the stories that populate the news.  But perhaps it makes enjoying the company of friends pushing around toy soldiers and ruminating about history and the hobby all the more important.  I hope that those of you who look at my blog have a happy Christmas and much joy in the new year.

All the best,

Chris

A new project

 For a very long time I have wanted to do a SYW collection.  While Napoleonic and Sudan/Colonial gaming was inspired by Peter Gilder, and WWII gaming by Colin Rumford and Richard Marsh (Rapid Fire), the SYW has had its inspiration drawn from John Ray. His vast and unique collection, all sculpted by him (except the horses and guns) presented on a lovely Gider-esque terrain layout and beautifully photographed defines the SYW as a toy soldier period worth doing.  The book of his collection, The Military Gentleman, has been a source of torment for years and recently I decided to take the plunge by starting a SYW Prussian Army using Elite Miniatures.  I love these figures and they populate a high proportion of my Napoleonic collection along with (yes, you already know) Connoisseur.  The Prussian range is quite small and unfortunately incomplete; no artillery nor fusiliers.  But the Musketeers and Grenadiers include a set of complimentary poses for a 'marching' unit.  There are also march attack and advancing/charing poses, but the marching poses are just wonderful.

Now, my collection to date is a mere 2 battalions drawn from IR 1 and IR 5.  I have 2 battalions of converged grenadiers prepped along with a regiment of cuirassiers.  I'm taking it slow.  I alternate painting these units with the usual suspects: a slowly amassing Swiss Italian Wars army, ancients, WWII, lots more colonials, vast numbers of Napoleonics, Great War, oh dear....

All lots of fun.  There really is no finish line. Needless to say, while I am working on a BFE inspired ACW rule set, the Great War version, and tweaking BFE 3, I have written a grid set of rules for ancients-renaissance and a...SYW grid game.  Retirement next year will be fun! 

Here are a couple of poor quality shots of the two battalions.  Hope you like them.  Oh, forgot to mention that I am using the old Willie 30mm officers for some of my units.  

Tamai

 I had not pulled out the Sudan collection in some time and decided to replay the old original scenario from the first edition of the rules, Tamai.  This has been played many times and gives a good game.  Since playing this I have made a new arid mat using a canvas drop cloth and acrylic caulk.  Next time I use it I will post again - I have posted a couple of pictures from a NWF game but not with the Sudan collection.

The mat in these images is my old felt but with patches of, well, not sure, patches of cracked earth?  I spread pebbles on the cloth is a dense clumps and then sprayed it with brown paint. The stones acted as a mask and gave an interesting effect.

The Ansar won this one although it looked horrid for them for a while.  

Isandlwana...again

 A local gamer with whom play I infrequently but always enjoy his company has recently jumped on the colonial gunboat and has been painting Zulu war British.  He was not sure about what rules he wanted to use, but was sure he wanted to amass armies for both sides.  He has not delved into the history deeply and so when I asked him what battle he wanted to play it had to be either Rorke's Drift or Isandlwana. He opted for the latter and wanted to get indeed by playing the British.  Well, it was a cracker of a game - always a relief when introducing a period and/or rules to a new player -- and he is now enthusiastic about the period and the rules.  Yay!  Job done.  Here are some pictures of the fight using my 28mm collection (Old Glory Brits and Connoisseur Zulus with Redoubt and some others thrown in for good measure).

Once again, been a while

 Yes, the blog and I are alive.  Summer is over, classes have started, but gaming is back on the agenda. As I have mentioned for some time, I am very slowly working on BFE3.  This is a project that is more about clarifying things and simplifying the game.  Ridding unnecessary complication or rules that just don't get used is the priority.  But I am also wanting to learn more about the military systems of the "Native" armies.  When I wrote BFE (1) I tapped into the secondary materials that were to hand.  Frankly, much of it was more popular history than scholarship.  I want to remedy that by looking more closely at recent scholarship. It might not change much.  Clearly the Zulus had a well known military structure and doctrine .  The Ansars of the Mahdi/Khalifa also had systems that need more attention.  But whether this will change the way BFE is designed and played, I am not sure.  

Another influence on BFE3 will be the work that my group is doing to develop an ACW version of the game.  This has been very instructive and resulted in some interesting new mechanics.  The game is set at a higher level (regimental as opposed to the company) but there is cross-over conceptually and I have found it useful in contemplating ways to simplify the colonial game.

Progress is slow but stay tuned.

Of course, while all this is happening I am enjoying photography and local travel in our van.