Adelaide Gamer

AAD and other things

2012-01-06T00:25:00.002+10:30

Well, I hope all those who read this had a safe and fun silly season. We at Adelaide Gamer did, most certainly. Not much in the way of games though, except for a bit of Tanks. And a recce on some modelling, for when I get the chance.

In the World of Tanks I have seemed to shift up a gear in my playing style, although it isn't necessarily immediately obvious when viewing the stat pages I think I am playing a lot smarter than I was a month ago. This is reflected in steady kill ratios of 1 per game or higher, and climbing averages for experience across my stable (T34, T34-85, IS2, SU-85, MS-1(!)).

I have also joined a clan, the ANZAC Armoured Division (2nd Battalion) - or AAD2 for short. The core of the clan consists of committed long term WoT players, it was formed in April 2011. The original AAD is presently 89 members, the 2nd Battalion has 30. The 1st Battalion is the gang who will provide the armies when Clan Wars finally starts up a Asia-Oceania server and fighting the daily round of battles in the quest for World Domination at a time more suitable for oceania timezones than does the present North American based server (early afternoon aussie time).

When you realise the First Battalion is composed of those with top level tanks waiting for the clan wars to start, and that the Second Battalion is for the more relaxed, less developed Tanker, then you'll probably understand that I give no secrets away when I say that the plan is to hit the ground running when Oceania opens up for conquest, grab territory and hang onto it. Apparently there's some well established russian clans with the same idea, so it will be interesting.

On a more mundane level, the AAD runs a basic forum and Team Speak set up which, when combined with a little message discipline and the ingame information streams in WoT, provides good forums, meeting points, communications networks and information storage to run a pretty major operation. The TS server set up is good, with channels for individual platoons, companies, training ground players and miscellaneous use, as well as main lobbies. Very functional and focused, without being neurotic about it. Kinda like us ANZACs (Australia New Zealand Army Corps, from WWI and Gallipoli) like to think we are.

Oh. And I'm chasing down some putty for the T34-85 model, and eagerly awaiting the end of silly season so I can set up and use my new air compressor and spray gun.

And there's a Knizia game of the Hobbit to learn and play.

And S&T is releasing its Germany-Russia 1920 hypothetical game in a couple months.

2012 looks like being a very good year.

The day after the day after

2011-12-26T22:48:00.004+10:30

I almost was a xmas grinch by throwing out our old tree when one of the elves dropped off a new one the day before the day before. Instead, I left it out on the roadside verge in case anyone who saw it needed a tree (with a little note saying they're welcome to it). No-one took it, and the bin won't have enough room for it for a week or two to come, but at least I avoided grinchisness.

As for the treasure ... a high grade micro air compressor (variable flow, water trap) and modeling airbrush plus fixtures, models of Fokker Dr VII (biplane) and 1:35 Russian Tank Crew, an Order of Battle of the Red Army's main fronts in WWII and a more detailed history of their armoured forces, and a military history 'daybook'. Treasure for those near and dear included 'The Hobbit' boardgame (a Eurogame designed by Knizia) and a pretty dramatic scaletrix track and cars (slot cars). So, Santa was kind indeed, and at least as perceptive as has been in past years.

And it was nice on the day after the day after the curse of grinchisness was avoided to finally take some time out and settle back into some solid driving on my IS-2 in World of Tanks. More on those adventures later ...

Six hours tankin' it

2011-12-11T02:55:00.004+10:30

Just ended what was about a six hour World of Tank session with the Lizard King. My prime tank was initially a KV13 (Tier 7), while he had a T44 (Tier 8). We were striking pretty well, but in the battles where our platoon got knocked out early we then filled the time with our reserve vehicles (T34-85 and M4A3E8 'Easy Eight'). At about H+5 I had achieved the necessary credits to trade in my KV13 for an IS Heavy Tank (Tier 7).

Much as I was a bit sad to sell my KV (over 170 battles I had become quite attached to its nifty combination of speed and heavy armour, albeit its relatively weak 85mm gun was irritating at times), it was nice to move into a heavy tank for the first time in WoT. And I'm within a handful of games of being able to research the T43 from the T34-85, which will make it 'elite' and allow me to hopefully get 100% camouflage ratings on the crew while I accumulate the necessary credits with which to trade it in and actually purchase the '43.

But for now, I love it when a good plan comes together.

Two new old blogs on my list

2011-12-02T21:04:00.002+10:30

I've added Winter of '79 and Клементи Ворошилов ('Klementi Vorishilov' - thanks Ralph) to the blogs I follow. The first is imaginations in a thatcherite UK after the coup, the second is an ASL inspired rave with a bit of attitude. Sadly my own imaginations project stalled part way to first base (ah, the fate of a million projects) and I have never played ASL (being an unregenerate Squad Leader fan), but love both blogs. Worth a look.

WoT update

2011-11-30T23:57:00.006+10:30

I've been playing World of Tanks (wikilink*) for just over two months now (seems like forever) and have some decent vehicles in my garage. I have just fought my 100th battle in my KV13 Medium Tank, and hope to change that for an IS Heavy sometime in the coming week. I've been in over 500 battles in my T34-85, and am within about a hundred battles of being able to begin production of the T-43 (which line of development will eventually culminate in the T-54). For a bit of light entertainment I also have an SU85, armed with a 107mm tank killer, which I may or may not decide to upgrade to an SU122 sometime in the future.

I have of course kept my T34, and still enjoy charging around with it and its rapid firing 57mm gun. One can almost sense the surprise of some of those I bump into when I seem to pour shots into them twice as rapidly as the more normal 76mm armament would!

And I still have my MS-1, though hardly ever drive it now (these days getting my lower level kicks from driving my level/Tier 5 T34). It won't last much longer though, as after I replace the KV13 with an IS, I will need the 'slot' presently occupied by the wee MS-1 for my T43 unless I wish to sell off either my T34 or T34-85 (which I don't), or stop developing my line of tank destroyers.

All good fun, and all free. What more could one ask for?

*Updated 'wikilink' to wikipedia link (18 Dec '11).

S & T Nicaragua - First Impressions

2011-11-30T23:29:00.005+10:30

My impressions of Strategy and Tactics Issue 120?

In a word, 'impressed'. Several articles about revolutionary warfare central american style makes both for a sad list of the countries that had to undergo the ensuing 'uncivil wars' and an interesting analysis of 'low intensity' warfare environs and the strategies and tactics for use by the various factions. Of course, it hones in on Nicaragua, but the coverage is much wider.

And then there's the game. I haven't yet played it, but look forward to doing so. Suspect it might be solo, but look forward to it none the less as it appears to be a genuine 'simulation' as well as a game. I can easily foresee situations arising in the game which the dark humourist in me would enjoy - in the same way one enjoys a game of Junta or Illuminati.

Cadres, fronts, social classes, public institutions, terrorism, guerrilla tactics, diplomacy and foreign intervention, popular will, political programs, military combat and repression, propaganda, psychological operations, all interwoven quite neatly through simple row and column shifts and dice rolls. In my mind's eye, it seemed to make sense. To get a feel for it, the map and its provinces is more a 'political geography' of the land than a simulation of the terrain. In fact, the terrain rules are optional extras for the basic combat system.

Definitely a wargame, but with more of a eurogamesque approach to simulation than is usually found in such. I look forward to playing it.

To see some graphics of it (and reviews etc), check here.

As a final sidenote, the biographical notes on the game's designer (and author of almost all the articles) say he was (is) a retired US Army Captain. His military career seemed to have been spent in the psyops and then academic fields of endeavour. Thus, my theory of the game as being as much 'simulation' as 'game' might actually be correct!

S & T

2011-11-26T21:35:00.006+10:30

At loose ends one lunch time in the city I wondered into a newsagent's that I hadn't been inside before to scan their 'hobby' section of magazines. Imagine my surprise when I found a copy of 'Strategy and Tactics' for sale! I haven't seen this magazine for decades (!) and, when I last did, it always seemed to be more S&M than gaming fun, what with its concentration on the design, backstory and rules of the hardcore game which was contained in every bimonthly addition. Never-the-less, and realising that I've allegedly 'grown up' a bit in the intervening years, I purchased it. It was edition #270 from Sept/Oct this year, featuring analysis of the American Revolution and the game of that name.

I must say, I was a little disappointed. Firstly, no game. I know, I knew that before I purchased it, but it was still disappointing. And secondly, I felt the articles were less 'meaty' than my memory was telling me the old ones used to be. Larger font, more pictures, dumber diagrams, more filler, less content. Still a good read, but ... well ... disappointing.

It can't have been too bad, however, because when the next edition came in the following week, I bought that too (this one, looking at the Second Battle of Kharkov)! Edition #272 is going to be about the Battle of Lepanto (might give it a miss) but the following one will feature a game called 'Reischwer'. Which, of course, I am already excited about. I might even order the game itself...

Anyways...

Imagine my further surprise this morning when I'm visiting Miltary Hobbies for my bi-annual visit and, while I'm there, the storekeeper pulls out some newly arrived bundles totaling about a hundred copies of old S&T's and plonks them on the counter to show an old customer of his. Unable to help myself, I mosey on over and browse through. These were all old editions, complete with game maps and pieces (still unpressed). Gold!

Restraining myself, I ended up choosing #120 from July 1988 (the 'Nicaragua!' edition, the whole magazine being dedicated to the game, analysis and design notes for the game and background articles examining later 20th century Latin American revolutions) and #156 from December 1992 (concentrating on the Russo-Polish War of 1920 and 'White Eagle Eastward', the included game). At $10 each I considered them a bargain, and nearly got another but had blown my budget rather badly already. Might need to make a return visit!

I'll have a closer look at my purchases and report back here as to whether the inclusion of the games was as wonderful an idea as I thought at the time, and whether the content of the magazines themselves was indeed more substantial than the modern day equivalents.

RIP Anne

2011-11-24T21:52:00.003+10:30

I have just heard that Anne McGafferey passed on on Monday. She was 85 years old. I've read a few of the Pern series, been intrigued by the world she created, read a few of her other books. One of the great women of sf/fantasy.

Can anyone here help Ralph?

2011-11-15T21:40:00.004+10:30

Ralph, over at Клементи Ворошилов (how do I pronounce this?), is doing some really interesting stuff with Advanced Squad Leader. After reading this post, outlining some of the travails of one dedicated to simulating obscure yet important campaigns (in this case, the Brit-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941), I wished that I knew more of the campaign, or that I had (or had the time to play) ASL - as Ralph was looking for playtesters for his project.

If you can help him, perhaps let him know.

Rule of Thumb

2011-11-13T00:10:00.002+10:30

Last week, I commenced work on my 1:35 tank model. On Sunday, I had hoped to complete the wheels and suspension, preparatory to the tracks. Seeing as it was a nice day, however, I thought would go and do some things in the garden. This, sadly, resulted in me being very un/lucky in that I managed to jamb my thumb pretty bad but not crush or amputate it (which was never-the-less very painful). Which put paid to my plan to work on the model. Who want's real blood on their model, afterall?

So I went and looked at modeling sites on the web for a few hours, discovering some most excellent youtube videos along the way. Particularly informative is this guy, who's detailed, understandable, knowledgeable and practical productions will be very useful in future. In retrospect, it was very good that I had this enforced time-out from the blood rush of pushing ahead regardless that comes with a new model. Vicariously looking at the detail of what will be required in future, the various stagings of the project, better enables me to determine what needs doing next (my ultimate question at any particular moment). I suspect that this is saving me a lot of grief down the track, and rapidly accelerating my learning curve beyond the old trial and error ways. Of course, it must be matched by skill development which will take time, but you get what I mean. But I digress...

After a couple of days of web research I was in the middle of a busy working week and couldn't really bring time and inclination together, so contented myself in confirming a probable Xmas delivery of a selection of appropriate decals. By that stage, it would be nice to have the construction done, or at a stage at least where minor variants are all that is required to match up with the particular decal and paint job that I decide on.

The only 'real' modeling job I've done since spraying my 67 parts of wheel, suspension and lower hull, with undercoat last Saturday was to grind the diameter of the axles so they fit the wheels a bit more comfortably. Without doing this the fit would be too tight to allow what I learnt from the videos was the advisable method of construction (put on the wheels to fit the tracks during their construction, remove them then prior to painting, glue them on prior to final detailing) and I would likely have experienced grief and heartache at some point.

I've also checked out what a modeling spray gun would be worth, to give the enamel coats of paint and varnish prior to the weathering work with brush and oilpaint. Luckily for me, the Mrs thinks this is a good idea. I'm a lucky man.

Tank Stable

2011-11-05T23:15:00.005+10:30

My cunning World of Tanks Russian Campaign unfolds according to plan.

My T34-85 continues to steadily mount up the experience, within several days I'll be able to convert the points I am accumulating into 'research' for a new, higher 'tier' tank (KV-13), with enough 'free experience' points left over to upgrade perhaps the suspension on the new tank before it even leaves the factory (from the KV13 I hope to eventually research and start developing the heavy line of 'IS' tanks). My trusty crew are approaching 70% in their camouflage skill, and will hopefully advance towards 100% by the time I accumulate sufficient further experience to research the T-43 medium tank (the other development path leading from the T34-85).

My T34 now has an 'elite' crew, having researched all the modules and models available for the tank. Being 'elite', all future experience goes directly into crew training in their specialist skill (which I have elected to make 'repair'). Sadly, as the crew approaches perfection I will probably also be becoming involved in new, higher 'tier' vehicles, and thus return to my stable to drive the T34 less and less often. Besides equipment, the T34 also required me to research both the T34-85 and the SU-85 (Tank Destroyer) before regarding the crew as 'elite'.

I've only driven the SU-85 a couple dozen times so far (compared to the almost 400 times I have driven each of my main tank models) and am still getting used to the concept of driving a vehicle without a turret, with all the tactical, practical and visual difficulties that entails. I have upgraded the suspension and am presently accumulating experience to research a better gun. I doubt I'll get an elite crew for this vehicle as will be aiming directly at upgrading to a SU-122 (in W.O.T. the SU-122 is a variant of the SU-100).

Although basically a 'sideline' to me, I am enjoying playing the russian turretless tank destroyer in a different fashion to the tanks. For the TD I am keeping my vision limited to the 'gunsight view' - a little like peering out of the commander's slit in such a vehicle. Although limiting, it puts one right 'inside' the wonderfully rendered terrain of WoT and leads to a deepening of the immersion factor.

The 'strategy' I am following can thus be seen as being focused on the development of my stable of tanks. As a 'free' player I am limited to having five vehicles at any one time. Presently I have the above three models (T34, T34-85 and SU-85) as well as the lower tier MS-1 and BT-7. When I get a KV13, I will dispose of my BT7 to make room, and develop this into a line of heavy tank development, culminating in the IS-4. I will dispose of the MS-1 when I get a T43. This line will culminate in the T-54. I will dispose of the SU-85 when upgrade to a SU-122, and dispose of that when am looking at the SU-152. The Tank Destroyer line is, afterall, only a light diversion from the main game for me.

I will hang onto the T34 and T34-85 as long as possible just for the fun of driving these classic tanks in middle tier battles in the World of Tanks.

This leads to that

2011-11-03T00:01:00.003+10:30

You know how it is. You go to an expo and come home with some model kits of a size and subject that you've never built before. And, after getting over the fact that there are over 160 separate track links that will eventually need to be put together to complete the T34-85, and checking that all the pieces are there (even if the decals are not) and only having one brief moment of gloom until find the piece that was knocked loose from the spruce somewhere in the last 17 years, and then looking at this site to confirm a few ideas about the turret and finding out that the model which I had been thinking of matching up with a tellermine wielding defender of the vaterland (ie circa early 1945) only to find out that the model is of the real model that was produced late in 1945 (ie after the war), I finally decided to start the thing anyway.

So I pressed out a few wheels and axles and wheel hubs, cutting off the attached spruce, filing off the bits of flash, finding out that most pieces fit together albeit a bit tightly but that some don't resulting in a bit of filing and shaving of the offending parts of the parts, learning how the glue works, thanking jah that I had approached the task conservatively, doing the parts for one side of the vehicle so I could work it better on the other side, and got to gluing.

And then I got to thinking about what should be painted when, as some things will be impossible to get to once the assembly proceeds (eg. the suspension springs) and some things will be difficult (eg. the inside 'flange' of the roadwheels). I realised that at this scale (1:35) any 'small' error is actually a 'big' error, so I want to do as well I can. So, while I let my mind work its magic in its dark recesses in a way that will hopefully bring forth the solution to my problem, I set about preparing myself.

Which means I have to sort out the odd collection of knives, blades, files, brushes, paints and other assorted and very miscellaneous modelling equipment. So, I open up the roll top desk into which I have been squirreling away such things since we got it about five years ago at some garage sale, and get to work.

Of course, when it all got too much, I went for a drive in my own T34-85 in the World of Tanks.

Model expo = models

2011-10-29T21:38:00.005+10:30

This morning I took a break from playing World of Tanks to take Lizardking and the lads to the SA Plastic Modellers' Associations' annual expo. We got there about 11:30 and spent maybe an hour and a half on site (a large school hall in the heart of Adelaide). There seemed to be lot more viewers present as we left than when we arrived, and the vast empty table spaces between displayed models were filling up. So, we might have missed some of the treasures but we managed to savour what we saw without the disadvantage of crowds jostling us or anxious model owners snapping back against the tide of people.

Instead, we had a cool hour or so checking out the various display categories, and about half an hour at various of the stalls selecting our own wares to purchase.

My favorite individual model was a Dragon T34-85 (1:35), followed closely by a 1:72 Pfalz monoplane. Most impressive exhibition in my mind were the ships of Task Force 72, including a 3m long (!) work in progress of the HMS Hood and a 2m long jap sub. Besides being impressive scratch built models, these were WORKING ships, full R/C and working turrets, etc. The subs even submersed. The nice man said that the group meet at the boat lake in Bonython Park in the parklands, the last Sunday afternoon of each month, so I might head down there next Month (or even tomorrow, but they might have their ships all at the expo so I'll have to think about that one).

So, what goodies did we leave with? Lad #2 decided on a glossy book of American Supercars, and a three pack of 1:72 personnel transport models (Ketengrad, Kubelwagen and Jeep). Lad #1 settled on a 1:72 medieval bombard and crew, together with a 'Sheriff of Nottingham' 1:72 infantry pack. The Lizardking went for a Dragon (?) M4A3E8. And me? A Maquette 1:35 T34-85 and a Dragon kit of four 1:35 german infantry with their ambush equipment. Maybe I have some vague idea of streetfight diorama? I've never built a 1:35 kit before, nor have I constructed human figures before , so when I finally get both time and space to get to work on them I'm sure it'll be quite an adventure.

Needless to say, a good day was had by all. For me now, it's back to the grind of World of Tanks.

91,000 players at one time

2011-10-19T23:28:00.004+10:30

I have now driven in over a thousand tank battles in World of Tanks (WoT). The team I have been on has won slightly less than half of the battles I've been in. I've averaged a 'kill' about every five battles (though the ratio varies from one 'kill' every two battles for one type of tank to one every nine for another). I have seriously driven seven types of tank, and had cameos (ten or less battles) in three others. The most advanced vehicle in my garage is a T-34-85 has been in 252 battles at time of posting, second only to my T-34 in number of times I've driven it. The most kills I've had in a battle was 4 (T34) and the one which I gain most experience points and credits with is my T34-85. I have been playing it for almost four weeks. My immediate goals are to open up the possibility of new types of tanks by continuing to gain experience in my t34 fleet and to increase my team victory percentages. I have not spent a cent on the game, and don't intend doing so.

The game itself originated in Russia and attracted a large following from Germany and Russia. More play from these two countries on the european server than from anywhere else. There are over a million registered users in Russia. The Russian server established a guiness world record for number of players simultaneously on a server in a MMPOG (91,000+ in January 2011). The US server apparently has about half the volume of players that the European Server does. Average nightly playing time is apparently 3 hours and 20 minutes for active players.

I've no doubt I'll be posting more on this excellent online game.

Most of the information summarised above about the game itself comes from this wiki.

Tanking It

2011-10-17T21:55:00.003+10:30

For the last month or so I've been busy playing World of Tanks. You might remember that I first mentioned this game in June when I found out that my (then) computer didn't have sufficient guts to run the program. Since then I had a birthday, and on my birthday (besides the amazing cake) I got a new computer. And, on that computer, had been conveniently loaded the client program for the online megamulti player game of World of Tanks. Seeing as the machine runs on Vista, most everything else I have doesn't work on the new machine, so guess what I've been doing for the past month when in front of the screen?

I'll post a pic of that birthday cake just as soon as I get this vista worked out.

Civilised

2011-10-10T21:43:00.002+10:30

Played a game of Civilisation (the old AH classic) on Saturday. Five players and about six hours to get through to the end of the late bronze age. It was all very civilised, with only a bit of narkiness between North Africa and Italy late in the bronze age as the Italian began to feel put upon. Which, considering the african owned all the desert from Carthage to the Great Western Desert as well as Southern Italy, Sicily and Minorca, they might have been justified in feeling.

I played Crete, and had a nice comfortable little space on my own islands and well as the greek mainland city sites, where I managed to avoid any conflict except to keep the poor Balkans as my buffer against the Thracians and their western Illyrian neighbors as they spread south from the breadbasket of Europa.

Thrace grabbed prime agricultural land early and was beginning to take the pelopynese islands, as well as balancing trade, income, urbanisation, and cultural development nicely for a rush towards the iron age when the player had to depart for other activities (a zombie walk, of all things). Lucky for the rest of us, as Thrace might otherwise have become a cultural powerhouse.

Poor Illyria had a player who hadn't played for ten years (though he had previously won as North Africa, no mean achievement) and so got left behind in the development stakes, despite all the prime agricultural land he held. He does however wish to play again sometime within the next ten years (haha), so this will be a space to watch.

North Africa won on points, with Crete a fairly close second. All in all, played under the verandah with kids playing around our feet on a beautiful spring day, a great way to have some fun.

Sorry to be away for so long. I've been reading my usual blog roll when I can, but not much else. Will fill you in soon (it's gaming related) ...

Gaming atm (rave)

2011-09-06T21:36:00.008+09:30

My gaming life at the moment, in terms of time spent playing, is primarily Renaissance Kingdoms (where have recently been summoned to travel to advise the King in Girvan while the world stumbles towards a state of generalised war), followed by a couple email games of East Front (where I am in both cases the german defender trying to hold back a russian post-kursk armoured armada), and the occasional excursion into the Yugoslavian partisan campaign in Art of War.

Of course, I am also reading various of my fellow gamebloggers and admiring their work in the real world (ironic, isn't it?), be it miniatures, boardgames, role playing, technical, after actions reports, cartooning, film criticism, or just general good natured bullshitting (some of us are very good at that). And that is very much a part of gaming these days.

I missed the Adelaide Con, I only remembered after the event (Sorry fellas!). At the time I would have been there, however, I was at a old book store in the Barossa Valley, where I picked up Arthur Machen's "Tales of Horror and the Supernatural", Panther, 1963. Apparently it's quite rare, I haven't seen it before. Paid a fortune for it as it's a first edition (do I sound like a CoC antiquinarian?), but sure am looking forward to reading the seven or so short stories within (no rush, will take in small pieces to make it last).

Even though the Con had a lot of CoC games happening, it seems I can't be tooooo disappointed...

Trivial Success Pt II

2011-08-27T11:29:00.006+09:30

You might remember that on The Blitz online wargaming site I had been posing a question in the twenty question competition, in the nature of a 'who am I' query. Finally, after several weeks and sixteen questions (well, seventeen, but I was generous with a whinger) someone finally guessed the answer ... Tom Wintringham. Below is my final post on the thread, with a snapshot bio of this fascinating person.

I am so glad someone could get to this fellow's name. He lived an amazingly full life, of which below I only ramble off some of the more public dimensions.

- An able mechanic/despatch rider in RFC in WWI (served with the baloonatics). Notably, convicted of mutiny and returns to front.
- Founding member of Communist Party of Great Briton, editor (Daily Worker), journalist, (Picture Post, etc). Imprisoned on conviction for sedition in late twenties.
- Core influence in the founding of the International Brigades upon Franco's rebellion in Spain.
- Captain, Machine Gun Company in the British Battalion.
- Acting Commander of the Battalion at Jarama, wounded, hospitalised for two months.
- Return to the front, wounded again, two more months in hospital.
- Convalesce to Britain, anti fascist sympathies have him propagandising to a broad public during Chamberlain's appeasement.
- In the phony war and the dark days, is one of two major voices in public inspiring resistance and preparation (his arch enemy Churchill being the other). Heard by millions.
- Founder and chief instructor (with his old spanish civil war comrades) at Osterley House, in the Irregular Warfare Training course for the Local Defence Volunteers. (5000+ trained here).
- Refuses to join the Home Guard while running Osterley House as the bureaucracy and MI5 move in - eventually closing it down. By this time has left communist party, so joins for a few weeks the Home Guard as an ordinary volunteer before resigning.
- Founds 'Common Purpose' political party in latter stages of the war, party wins seats.
- Dies and buried at Grimsby, some of his books being published well after his passing.

AAR - Bloody Odessa

2011-08-06T11:48:00.007+09:30

Recently I completed the East Front scenario "Bloody Odessa", after a game composed of email exchange of turns. I played the Romanians in a regimental infantry assault on fortified heights, held by an equivalent force of russians (or so it seemed), in pretty low visibility conditions, set in the late autumn of 1941. It was a complexity '4' scenario of 15 turns each, the axis (me) moving first. The optional rules for Fog of War and Armour Facing Effects were 'on'.

After I chose the scenario I looked at the field of battle. Slowly it dawned, I would be assaulting across open fields up steep hills against bunkers and trenches, with my force divided into two elements by a wide open flat area under the fire of both of the enemy's bastions. Up the middle of this valley between the hills was the sealed road to Odessa (this battle was part of the 'break in' phase of the army level assault).

Lucky I didn't yet know about the roadblocks covered by anti tank guns, or the fields of barbed wire and mines covering the northern flank (the southern was covered by forest and fen and broken ground beneath the fortified cliff face). Nor did I notice that the cliffs were in some parts too steep to scale.

I sent one battalion to loop as far north as practical (A1), another to assault up the southern heights (A4) with smoke for the initial phase, a third to cross under cover of smoke to join the southern assault (A3). My armour I sent up the middle till it discovered the roadblocks (A2). The russian appeared to have battalion units in all round defence on the two hill tops (R2), with reserves moving up from behind (R1). A little while into it, two armoured platoons (BT7 and T40) came down around my Western flank to have a go at my onboard artillery (R3). If I couldn't expose his recovery areas to fire, I'd have a hard time of it.

And, so it proved, resulting in a major axis defeat. My infantry were cut to ribbons, my engineers got caught up with the infantry assault with similar consequences, I didn't breach the roadblocks, failed to use my smoke properly, got shot up in the open basically. The brightest moments were when one of my onboard artillery pieces shot up a stray BT7 trying to be smart in my backlines, and when my first group of battered romanians first crested the ridge (they were promptly shot off by hordes of ruskis).

As a scenario, the name of it was pretty accurate. It was also an enjoyable game, despite the relative scale of the Russian victory. He was worried for half the game, and I was still hopeful for a lucky second-to-last turn to capture and hold enough 'objective' hexes to reduce the scale of my loss to 'minor'. Alas, it was not to be.

Well done Lizardking!

My Precsiousssss - (Risk LOTR)

2011-07-30T18:28:00.008+09:30

Following the recent rediscovery of Risk: Lord of the Rings, it predictably didn't take long before one day someone said we should play it again.

So, after a few phone calls and a quick scan through the simple, clear and concise rules (it is a game of Risk, afterall), it was time to get into it. A great way to use a mild and sunny late winter afternoon (hence the streaming sunlight and long shadows in the pic).

The game varies from the traditional risk in a few ways, besides obviously the map. Principally, there is a 'timer' on the game, with the Company of the Ring (represented by a gold ring on a stand) moving one territory per turn along its pre-determined path until it leaves the map via the dead marshes (that's when the game ends). In the photo here, the ring is in Gladden Fields, with two more territories to pass through. The ring might be delayed in certain locations (it's progress is delayed unless the player rolls a '3' on 1D6 in Moria, Lorien and the Dead Marshes). Additionally, there are certain 'adventure' cards which can make it tougher to advance the company also.

The addition of 'Adventure' cards is another significant change, with 'event', 'power' and 'mission' subcategories. Players draw one of these cards at the end of their turn if their leader has passed through a territory that has a 'site of power' in it. If an 'event' card (eg. wolves, snowstorm) it is played immediately. If it is a 'power card' (eg. 'knife in the back', 'wormtongue') a player keeps it for later use. If it is a 'mission' card a player will try and hold it until their leader reaches the territory named on the card, when they will be able to draw certain reinforcements.

Changes to the game that affect tactics are, most noticeably, the addition of 'leaders' (combat bonuses in attack and defence, can generate 'adventure' cards (see above)), rivers (can only be crossed at bridges), mountains (cannot be crossed), Fortresses (eg. Helms Deep, aids in defensive bonus for combat, worth victory points at the end of the game) and Ports (there are three coastal ports, connected by sea lanes, which effectively make them contiguous to each other despite the actual distance).

There are a few 'minor' changes to some of the classic Risk rules (eg. each turn a player can 'maneuver' one 'stack' or a leader from any one of one's territoritories to any other provided they are connected by other friendly controlled territories - unlike the original form of mass movement, allowable only into an adjacent territory).

In my opinion, the net result of these changes is a game which keeps the bloodthirsty cutthroat nature of Risk, but limits it in time and rewards good play a little better.

Today's game lasted about three hours. Shaun (red) won with 44 points, Adelaide Gamer (green) and Nancy (yellow) tied for second on 15 points, poor Paul got stuck in the badlands of Rhun, coming in on 3 points. I think that everyone enjoyed it. I know I did.

A day at the forge...

2011-07-25T23:06:00.006+09:30

This is a picture of the 'Soot n Cinder' forge, a 'place' located on the forums in the Renaissance Kingdoms world. It is out the back of the cottage where my character lives with his family and friends, on a slope overlooking the Clyde above the town of Ardencaple. It exists purely in the collective imagination of those who read and write on the thread. To see it 'in real life', you'll have to travel to RK Ardencaple.

For a several months now, my character has been mainly occupying himself in his day to day actions (one a day) making things in the forge (his other main activity has been serving on a rostered basis as part of the Clan Guard, a voluntary self defence organisation which has put down about one attempted rebellion per month since our own 'great rebellion' late last year). At the moment there is a slow but steady trade in axes and knives on the town market. It is not a thriving trade so he is slowly losing money (albeit, while his capital stock increases).

In town, his tavern 'The Wounded Boar' makes a steady after tax loss, but well within the level of still being a 'hobby expenditure', so he keeps it open. At the moment he is selling cost price beer there in celebrations of the King's death. The tavern is the only one in town that has fish on the menu. For the regulars, there's (much cheaper) porridge. In about eight months, the tavern has only been drunk dry on the one occasion. My character sees this as a major achievement.

There's lots more happening in my world of the renaissance, even in the 'quiet times' we are presently experiencing there. I'll write more of it sometime soon.

Still More Treasure

2011-07-24T12:41:00.004+09:30

What can I say? I open another of my storage boxes expecting to find painting paraphenalia and what do I find, but more missing games, a few framed pictures of medieval ruins from Scotland, some notes about force organisation for SCW wargaming, and some painting paraphenalia! I hereby publicly retract and apologise for any ill thoughts I thought about anyone who I suspected of having borrowed but not returned Risk: Lord of the Rings.

In my opinion, these are all great games. Go, because it's go. LOTR Risk, because it has all the fun and blood of classic risk, but a time limiting factor (the passage of the ring across the map on its way to Mordor, one province at a time). York Town, because it is a clean cut and physically beautiful game which puts one at ease in the playing.

BTW - to answer a question I've been asked, the most exciting 'treasure' in the initial trove was of course the game of Buccaneers.

Taking on the system...

2011-07-15T18:29:00.002+09:30

Chaotic Good was always my favorite alignment in D&D terms, maybe because it most closely aligns with my personal reality. How could I resist this picture, and how could I refuse to share it once I had succumbed?

Trivial Success

2011-07-05T22:43:00.003+09:30

Over at the Blitz there are a selection of ongoing forum based military trivia games of the 'twenty questions' variety. Until recently, I'd never really taken much notice of them. For some reason (idle surfing in safe waters?) I recently checked them out. To my own amusement, one of the current questions was of the 'what famous general am I?' variety, and I pretty well had it pegged after reading the third or fourth question. By the time I read the last (15th) question, it was certain, so I wrote in my answer (Jan Smuts). Which was right. So now I get to pose the 'who am I' question.

I won't, of course, say who it is I am thinking of here until they've worked it out there (or used up their twenty questions).

PS if you're interested in my Alcazian project, check out the comments in the post preceding this one, where John asks a question and gets a flow of consciousness reply (in three parts, no less!) outlining the process whereby is produced part of the history of Germania and Ruska.

Progress at Alcazia

2011-07-03T22:43:00.007+09:30

Well. It's nearly 11pm on Sunday night, the weekend is almost done, and I'm not launching my Alcazian venture as I had optimistically thought I might be. It's not that I haven't done anything on the project, I have actually done quite a bit. It's just that there's so much to do!

I've started the new blog but not published any posts beyond a 'test post' while I was playing around with the initial graphic settings (it sure is fun to dive back into that exciting moment of the birth of a blog, with a few year's experience under the belt and a bit more of an idea of what I want to achieve than I had when I started Adelaide Gamer).

I decided to use 'pages' for ready reference materials on the imagined world of Alcazia and its times. I started with a patched 'Alcazia in the Thirties', putting down a brief thematic history of the political geography of the nation. From this, was able to deliniate in two separate pages the basic 'types' of the forces available to the principal factions. From this, a fourth page to outline the broader European scene. Then, a fifth page to act as a political gazeteer, and a sixth to act as glossary and guide to the burgeoning number of groups, individuals, parties, nations and organisations that will interact when the big day comes. As there are only ten pages one can use on the blog (and, face it, ten is a lot), I thought I'd stop at six and allow myself the luxury of keeping four up my sleeve against future needs.

The difficulty I was having was imagineering a location for Alcazia in the 'real' world that didn't push the 'disbelief meter' too high. I was also having a few problems breaking away from the determinism that a reasonably detailed knowledge of the period gives me. Eventually it 'clicked', and I created a 'what if' scenario of continental proportions, elevating the creative principle to the point of creating a new 'Europa' similar to, but not the same as, the Europe of our own 'real' time line.

So:

- The Germanian Revolution of 1919 succeeded and Germania is a Socialist Dictatorship,
- Stalin was not paranoid, there was a right wing coup in Ruska. The monarchy was restored and now international capital is basically in charge of the slave factories, and
- The King did not abdicate in Engaland. Mosley looks certain to win the general election.

Some things haven't changed, however, such as:

- Italia has a long term national front government bent on imperial expansionism,
- Frankia has a weak popular front government and tries to not get involved.

Needless to say, I had great fun thinking up the names of various political parties and international organisations (often so that their acronyms match those historically used so that I can use 'real' photos from the time and paint up roughly historical models).

As I put the finishing touches on the glossary at 3 in the morning, I reflected that I had a lot of work still to do before setting the wheels in motion. Once I get to actually posting onto the Interbellum site I want to spend my time directing the motion, rather than generating it. So there's a bit more work to do. So today I took a breather and went to the football.

Oh, and I've sent off my third turn in the East Front scenario, 'Bloody Odessa', that I am playing pbem. It's been too long since I last played this great game!

I have altered the blogscroll on the left sidebar so that it only shows the blogs with the ten most recent posts. Ironically, this way I can add more blogs to it, without generating a list that is ridiculously long. I have added the following blogs to it:

Defiant Principality - an impressively worked imagi-nation based on the 'what if' scenario that the Catalans gained and kept independence during the Spanish War of Succession.
Campaigns of General William Augustus Pettygree - dashing colonial campaigns.
The Scattergun Gamer - a little like me in that this guy is into lots of things. At present, starting off a late thirties fascist England campaign (this time, Welsh, with cameo role promised for the Anglican League).

More Treasure!

2011-07-01T23:12:00.003+09:30

More Treasure!

Some alternate recreational gaming links

2011-07-01T19:05:00.007+09:30

Alternate - My Alcazian project continues to develop. I am presently narratively developing the history and political structure underlying the conflict. I hope to 'officially' launch the new site at some time this weekend (having finally got some 'spare' time this week), though the link is already in existence.

Recreational - this link to youtube shows the Battle of Viborg Castle, a bunch of russian medieval recreationists at war. They are pretty extreme at times. It certainly gave me a clearer idea of mass medieval combat. Originally linked by the (soon to be closed) blog at Battles in Miniature.

Gaming - I came across this interview while reading The Excessive Gamer (another interesting blog, especially if you are into Warhammer, GW, etc). The interview article is with the founders (?) of Games Workshop and an interesting exposition on design, psychology of adolenscents, the history of gaming, running a business. It is 27 pages long but worth the effort.

Here's a couple favorite quotes:

JS: Something I found out only just a couple of months ago, a funny wargaming fact, is that Wilkinson’s, the big Woolworth-like store, has a stipulation in their buying department that their pan-scourers have to be made in a mid-green, because “wargamers make hedges out of them, you know!” The fact is that they’ve got to be made in a colour anyway, so make them in green. Isn’t that amazing? - John Stallard

RP: Your sense of overview is very poor as a teenager, but your sense for detail is fantastically precise. That’s something that people sometimes forget, and even today, when I’m writing rules ... - Rick Priestly

Not that I've ever even played Warhammer, mind you ...

Trouble in Alcazia?

2011-06-29T22:16:00.004+09:30

World Creation, the biggest and most daunting of tasks. I'd almost forgotten, until this most recent Imagi-nation project took a hold on me. I think the last fully fledged creation of mine was a barbaric swampy area in the back of beyond for a cut back low tech D&D campaign, many moons ago, so I have no real template 'system' to apply to the problems that go with making a world. To counteract the resultant paralysis I also remind myself that I therefore have fewer preconceptions about 'the correct way to do things' and I might as well make the most of it and let the imagination roam. We get precious few chances to do this in this day and age, so take the opportunity...

So, for now I've settled on an ‘emergent approach’ to integrated game development, take an idea and run with it and see where it takes you. It promises to be an interesting trip, as I enjoy a variety of types of game (role play, skirmish, grand diplomacy, naval, political, trad tactical wargame, operational level campaign, grand diplomacy, board, computer, miniatures, card, pen and paper, solo, two player, pebm, etc, etc, etc) and would like to integrate the experiences of as many as possible into the narrative design of the resultant/precedent 'world'.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I'll invent the world as I play the games, with a basic historical model (spanish civil war) to follow if in doubt. I'll be designing the fabric, writing the code, of the world as I set up the games. It all sounds pretty hippy, but will give it a go.

I've decided to call 'it' Alcazia, a fictional place in the western Mediterranean in the second half of the ninteen thirties. The fun will start with some sort of military coup. I can perhaps make use of a scenario I once modeled on the initial seizure of north african airbase by Franco’s rebel Army of Africa (allowing Ju 52's of the Luftwaffe to immediately start an air ferry service for the rebels to the Iberian peninsula).

I had thought of using something like a dimly remembered card game (?) called Junta that I played once in the eighties (!) but, having had a look at the game at Boardgame Geek (here), reckon I’ll stick with the miniatures instead.

I’ve started a new blog for the project, but won’t direct you to it until I have at least the basic settings set.

Musings

2011-06-28T11:27:00.008+09:30

Several days have gone since the penny clicked regarding the imagi-nations concept. I've amused myself with my musings, and have wandered around the web, seeing what others have been up to in this field of human endeavour. To force me to be clearer in my thoughts and ambitions, thought I'd use some time now to post a few of them (in no particular order).

Period - well, I have a bunch of 6mm Spanish Civil War figures and scenery all ready to go. And I have long been interested in the military and political history of the first half of the twentieth century. So, I will center myself into the nineteen thirties.

Scale and type of game - the nominal point of an imagi-nation for a wargamer is the gaming of the situations the imagi-nation thows up as it evolves. I'm not particularly limited to gaming with miniatures, though for any battles that occur I think that the 6mm scale is fantastic to have considering my limited space and time. If that's not practical, I can use John Tiller's 'West Front' to set up a scenario (albeit with forces pretty well limited to those of historical conflicts of the time) or even - if I wish to put the time into learning the editor function - The Operational Art of War III. With my own story telling proclivities and active imagination, RolePlay type 'board/card/dice' games are always a possibility also. So, if I'm versatile and patient enough, it should cater to most of my gaming needs. And, if my focus changes to another era of history, I'm sure there's a whole backstory to be filled with colonial, napoleonic, 17th century, medieval, etc gaming experiences to be explored!

The ethics of it - I have at times had pause to consider that from which my gaming is drawing its inspiration, the experience of war. While conflict interests me intellectually, I do not wish for war. The fact of it leaves me unsettled and disturbed. Be that as it may, the gaming of it sometimes creates ethical issues for me. Playing an imagined nation should reduce the occasional angst and give less cause for upset.

The socio-politics of it (I know this is getting obscure, but heh it's my blog :)) - the whole imagi-nationsphere is pretty diffuse. One can track it through such 'hubs' as Emporer v Elector, Interbellum or Imagi-nations (warning: non wargamer site) and the blog rolls of individual sites, but it has no real centre. Each is, in a sense, an island, true to itself yet part of the main due the wonderful internet. It's a non-hierarchical network of imaginary creations based on the principle of non-interference (the only real ethic I've identified is - don't presume upon others' imagi-nations). The transactions and inspirations that occur are really interesting to me for their own sake, praxis made visible (in a sense).

To return to more mundane things, I believe that it is the way to go for me for now. An imagi-nation set in the thirties with some affinities to the situation of Spain during its civil war. The next challenge was to break away from the historical cast of my thinking about the era and come up with a coherent narrative entity to function as my imagi-nation.

More to come...

In my musings, the following sites grabbed my attention:

Imagi-nations - the site that gave the concept a name back in 1997!
Morts 1938 Scrapbook - a ripping yarn indeed (on my blog scroll), with some designer notes.
For God, England and King Edward - another example of 'A Very British Coup' campaign setting used by Mort, though set in different part of Mort's england.
Crisis in Alcovia - modern day eastern european imagi-nation, with designer notes.
Vehiculos y blindados de la guerra civil espanola (in spanish, but not much text) - hundreds of pictures of a bewildering variety of locally and mass produced armoured trucks and cars and trains, ambulances, tanks of the SCW.
Military Aspects of the Spanish Civil War - another extensive Mitch Williamson reference site.

The Week that Was

2011-06-26T23:51:00.006+09:30

In RK I have been leading a discussion about how we can rationalise the town's production of wood from the forest. This is not a simple thing to do anymore (the rules have changed from what they were). We have formed the Autonomous Association of Ardencaple Axeworkers, or the "AAAA" for short. We have now got to the point of having to start circulating blunted axes from the foresters with sharpened axes from the smiths, via the open market. As we are a collective, we combine efforts to keep our prices down to each other. RK being RK, there will be people trying to manipulate the market for their own ends. So we are now setting up the mechanism of exchanging our items and creating chains of evidence for future prosecutions should anyone try and intervene. It really does have the feeling of being in a medieval guild, restricting trade for the benefit of the members.

In East Front, I have commenced a game after over a year's absence from the field. My opponent acknowledged the turn I'd sent him within a few hours of me having done so.

In blogosphere land, I have been joined as a contributor to the Interbellum Imagi-Nations site. Again, within hours of sending my enquiry. Very efficient indeed. In fact, I'd planned on being able to spend today mulling over the issue of what I'm gonna do in terms of my imagi-nation and maybe come up with a few ideas. Finding my name on the list of contributors so quickly adds a definite pressure to get on with this one.

Sadly, I wasn't able to do much today as I went to watch a game of football this morning and was then on family duty for the next eight hours. And then I was playing around with a glue gun on an textile-architectural project of the missus in the evening. So the imagi-nation-ing will have to wait till I find the mental space/time during the week.

Happy gaming.

Interbellum Imagi-Nations?

2011-06-25T22:22:00.009+09:30

This picture is of the last occasion that my combined 6mm Spanish Civil War armies paraded before their commanding officer. You'll know that they've been at peace ever since and are presently ensconced in their 'barracks', still awaiting the call to duty. I was beginning to despair when that day might come, or how it might come about, as every time I felt the urge, something in 'real life' seemed to intervene. It was getting very frustrating and, grumble as they might, the troops remained at peace. That might be about to change.

"How is that so?", the reader may well ask. Well, I'll come to that, but please first bear with me as I work my way from then to now.

Miniatures wargaming was not the only thing that took a hit as I lived my life over the past few years. Adelaide Gamer, for instance, took on a torpor often associated with death in the blogosphere. East Front and Renaissance Kingdoms were put into minimalist mode. Hardly even any boardgames and, even then, none of the hardcore ones. Something has changed recently (moved through the midlife crisis?) and I now find that Adelaide Gamer has more and more to talk about - I have probably a month's worth of posting materials lined up with more materiel arriving almost daily.

"All very good," the reader might rightly say, "but what's the relevance to the mustered 6mm armies?"

An bonus side effect of my prolonged absence from the scene was that there were lots of nice surprises when I returned, including the growth of the gaming blogosphere and many of the amazing blogs that I have since found. A 'new' subspecies of gaming blogs are those of the 'Imagi-Nations', a concept which I immediately found fascinating, if obscure in its meaning.

For several weeks I was looking around the web for a definitive guide to what this whole concept of Imagi-Nations is, and was beginning to get frustrated when I couldn't find any location. Eventually, it dawned on me that the whole concept was one whose philosophy and 'rules', such as they are, is actually contained in the accretion of sites forming the imagi-nations network of blogs and related activities. In a sense, a non hierarchical and non centralised game of games. Very philosophical, but it did make a lot of sense to me then.

After this realisation, I went back and had a look at two 'hubs' of imagi-nations with fresher eyes, Emporer v Elector and Interbullum. Now I think I get it. I like what I see. I am thinking that my armies might find their place again in my active gaming universe if I become an active player.

I love the worlds and spaces and writings created for the EvE set of Imagi-Nations, even though 17th century is not really my scene. So, when I came across Interbellum it didn't take long for the thought bubble to form, why not create my own imagi-nation set in between the two world wars? Afterall, I love a bit of history and role playing and I have a set of armies of the period, and the creative bug has been attacking me quite strongly recently...

So, I've written off to the Interbellum mob and asked if its worth the investment of time and emotion that a worthwhile imagi-nation will deserve. I think the answer will be 'yes'. If so, I'll set about creating my own imagi-nation (probably on its own separate blog) and working out some sort of campaign / battle system to take advantage of the online tools I've come across over the last few years, just in case it takes a while to sort out some space and time for the 6mm panoply.

So. Another project beckons. I'll of course keep you informed how it goes.

I think my diary is getting full!

Have added four more sites to my followed blogs:
Interbellum - hub site for interbellum imagi-nations
New Byzantium - a gamer/imagi-nation blog of interest
Battle Game of the Month - imagi-nations active, classic wargamer, philosopher
Mort's 1938 Scrapbook - a great imagi-nationesqe campaign set in a 'fictitious' English Civil War in 1938. The history of the Anglican League in particular is an interesting thread!

Return to the East Front

2011-06-25T10:46:00.007+09:30

This is my avatar at the Blitz. It's a picture of an unnamed digger, taken in Sydney 1916 before he went off to the war. I don't know about the ethics of this, but I find it a striking image. Of the First AIF which went to fight, a third of them never returned. So his odds weren't good.

I have finally sent in my battle report for the game of East Front which I found myself badly losing about March last year (my bad). Because I could only bring around myself to do it today, I put down the 'completion date' in the battle report as being today. Therefore, I have an entry on the Blitz's Championship Ladder for East Front for 2011, as does my opponent, Lizardking. One thing I like about games in the Blitz competition is that both players receive some credit for it by way of points on the ladder. Points for participation is always a good thing in my eyes.

Seeing as I've finally ticked this item off my list of things to do, I rewarded myself with emailing Lizardking the first turn in a new scenario, 'Bloody Odessa'. The short version, set in autumn 1941 it recreates a part of the Romanian front as the axis finally closed in and around Odessa on the Black Sea. It is (approximately) regimental in scale. I am expecting it to be more of a bloody footslog than the dashing armoured thrusts we tend to associate with Army Group South. I'll report how it goes.

I might even whip up a AAR for the game I just conceded ('The Desperate Lunge').

Quick Hexographer Link

2011-06-24T06:56:00.006+09:30

Grognardia recently posted a reference to the online hex mapping resource, Hexographer. Although I don't have time to play around with it at the moment, between the Grog's commentary and what I see at the linked site I can already see a number of uses for the application. And I know that some of my regular readers will appreciate it also!

I really will have to sort out my label categories and go through this blog with the edit post feature. Another gaming project to add to the list...

Life in Arden, 1459 - Pt 1

2011-06-23T20:10:00.010+09:30

My character in Renaissance Kingdoms continues to live his happy life at the port town of Ardencaple, County Glasgow. He has not traveled outside of town since he went for a picnic in Stirling with some cousins around new year (after the rebellion and siege) and it is over a year since he moved there with all his family and possessions. He had first visited the place several times since the town's formation in 1456.

When we moved Arden's natural resource was 'fish'. The young of the town could go fishing if there was no work available for them elsewhere. Life was easy. Since that time, a number of things have happened that will potentially change the sleepy seaside village for ever.

Firstly, the game underwent a major 'rationalisation' in terms of the number of towns and counties. Population had declined to the extent that some places were dying ghost towns, trade and commerce was grinding to a halt, the intensity of the 'community experience' provided by the game was diminishing. So, after a consultative process, entire towns and counties were 'mothballed' and their populations redistributed amongst the surviving locations. The intention was to recreate a critical mass.

Ardencaple remained on the map, as did Glasgow County. The county lost the town of Lanark, whose population was relocated to the capital, Glasgow Town. Lanark had been a 'fruit' town, Glasgow Town a 'wood' town. When the Lanark population was relocated to Glasgow Town, Glasgow Town was converted from a 'wood' town to a 'fruit' town. Unfortuantely, sadly, Ardencaple was turned to a 'wood' town and we lost our fishing grounds.

To make things worse, the county council (which, we later discovered, had actually asked for our town to be converted from fish, without actually asking (or even informing) us first) closed down the local gold mine, removing the one source of income left to our youth. And to cap it all off, the rules about axes and forests had changed before all of the above happened, so as to make running a 'wood' town a painfully expensive operation if organised the same way as it had been for years. With no warning that we were going to be faced with a forest one morning, we were rather unprepared.

Previously, mayors could buy some axes and then 'loan' out up to 20 of them each day for citizens to take into the forest where they would cut wood. For each loaned axe, there was about a 5% chance of its going 'blunt' per day, in which case the mayor would have to pay a smith to sharpen it before being able to loan it out again. And about every hundred days an axe would 'break' and need replacing. In return for loaning each axe, the mayor would receive one bushel of wood per axe per day (the forester would keep the rest), which they would then redistribute to the smiths and bakers and construction workers as required. It was all very neat.

Then, the rules for axes were changed. Now, axes break frequently unless the user keeps their character's 'mood' up (which is done by going to the pub a lot, or going to church - haha). This requires a workforce of socially responsible drinkers. A consequence of low levels of public education (or public spirit) has meant that this requirement has generally not been fulfilled. A consequence of that has been that the repair and replacement cost for mayors has rocketed up. Axes have become a serious drain on a town's resources. The young are discouraged from using (breaking) the declining number of axes in use and taxes need to be imposed.

Life has grown tougher all round.

More piracy

2011-06-21T22:53:00.004+09:30

Had another quick game of Buccaneer tonight with Nancy, Jess and Brodie. Jess went out to an early looking lead, till newbie Brodie jumped her ship and took the treasure so labouriously traded for crew in Brodie's port. Me, I got caught at Treasure Island and lost most of my crew overboard so had to hang around far too long in order to replace them. Meanwhile, Nancy roamed the seas, followed her treasure map, raided my harbour and won quite comfortably. Good fun.

I've added Garage Gamer to the Blog Roll. A pretty well fully documented large scale Napoleonics Campaign, plus other things. A lot of material to work through and some great looking battles. Have a look at the earliest posts to get an idea of the garage.

Finally, John over at Roll Dice and Kick Ass is back in the land of blog. Welcome back, John!

Buccaneer - Treasure Ahoy!

2011-06-19T21:51:00.012+09:30

Waddington's "Buccaneer" was published in 1971 and is as much fun now as it was then. My old box is getting a bit crusty, and there's a substituted button for a missing pearl amongst the treasures, but it is otherwise holding up well after nearly forty years. Not bad for a family game.

The basic idea is to collect at your home port 20 points worth of 'treasure' - barrels of rum, pearls, gold ingots, diamonds and rubies before anyone else. You do this by hanging around Treasure Island, trading at any of the ports, or piracy (of course).

The rules are well written, and printed on the inside of the colourful box cover. Although simple, they leave players with different strategies, modified always by the vagaries of Treasure and Pirate Islands, as well as the tropical storms, yellow fever, lost charts and piratical hero's like (Long John Silver). A player needs to be flexible to catch the tides of fate in this free flowing game.

The structure of a player's turn forces them to consider their plans for future turns (as one would expect with a good sailing game), especially when maneuvering in the waters off Treasure Island (left).

We played a couple of three player games this evening. Each game took less than an hour and, surprisingly for us, involved no vigorous debate. There was one act of piracy in the second game (shaun plundering nancy's galleon), but combat did not feature heavily. For the record, I won the first game on a conservative sail and trade strategy, and Shaun came home with the goods in the second - from my port! I suspect there'll be a few more piratical adventures over the next week or two.

All in all a grand ol' game, accessible to new gamers young and old, and with enough intricacies in its play to satisfy the old seadogs amongst us.

"Haaaahr me hearties!"

PS I have added Storm and Conquest to the blog scroll. Part of another aussie group, interested atm in ECW and Dark Ages. His blog scroll is interesting also. In his most recent post, he has some nice pictures of a magnificent motte and bailey at the Goulburn Gamers, with a bunch of his viking and saxon rebels attacking it. The defender's perspective is here at the Unlucky General. All of it worth a read.

It was fun while it lasted

2011-06-18T21:05:00.007+09:30

Another post on posting, sorry! It's that danged anthropological bent in me.

The mystery becomes a little clearer. The updating scroll of over a thousand wargaming blogs over at blogs of war has changed its settings, and is now a static list (presumably in order of being joined to it with the most recent additions to the list at the top, as Adelaide Gamer is in the top fifty or so). This appears to be an action designed to wind back the 'acceleration' of traffic measurements being driven from the site. I wonder if it was the site's authors, or blogger admin, that brought about the change.

Much of the recent increase in traffic to Adelaide Gamer was steered here from Blogs of War. The fact that I had commenced more frequent posting would have explains why. It seems that there is a 'systemic resonance' on the web whereby some traffic generates more, so the new traffic brought more. The 'reverse resonance', of course, might also be true, which would explain the marked decline of hits when, firstly, blogger (or someone) disabled the count of visits from Blogs of War - or, if not, disabled counts from blogger scrolls generally - which would be really sad), and then reverting the scroll to a static list ordered by date of addition to the list.

I raise the possibility of the disabling of counted traffic from the blogger scroll function at blogs of war because, even when the scroll was still functioning (for a few hours after I posted the previous post earlier this morning) there was none of the usual 'spike' in numbers. As I know there were a fair few people watching their stats (like me) over recent days and eager to talk about it, this was unusual to say the least.

So, the 'distortion' is being taken out of the numbers.

But, at the same time, the insight provided by the dynamic view of the active gaming blogging community which was the blogs of war scroll, has been denied us. Unless, of course, there is a system update happening. Which I doubt.

It is still a great list, mind you, and a treasure to be troved, but one whose use has been changed from hub to historian.

It was fun while it lasted!

PS The other big change with blogs of war is that if you now click on a blog's name, it takes you to a 'formatless' version of the most recent post, with the blog's own template and dressings pared away. One actually has to click on the post to be taken to the actual blog. So it is now a much more restrictive environment for those of us who were getting the hang of surfing the wargamer's blogosphere.

PPS I added a couple more blogs to my own blog scroll:

Udder's Well - a documentary history of active ongoing D&D campaign sessions, and
Jim's Wargaming Workbench - with among other things a concentration on weird / alternate games, particularly a fascinating looking campaign set in Edwardian Age transcaucasian regions.

PPPS Update about 10 hours later - Blogs of War has now come back to 'normal', with its scrolling update including snippets of the most recent post. This, of course, puts my theory back into its place about the reduction in posts. Maybe no one likes me anymore?

I forgot that I also added these two to the blog roll:
Wall Advantage - ASL (Advanced Squad Leader)
A Wargaming Miscellany - Involved in imagi-nations, SCW and ancients, and a cool writing style.

Hits return to 'normal'?

2011-06-18T09:51:00.004+09:30

Over the past week and a bit a lot of wargamer blogs reported a large 'spike' in the number of hits they were receiving. Although not as big a spike as some, this site experienced that. Numerous theories for why this occurred were washing around the comments pages of those that mentioned it.

Over the last two days, albeit two days when I haven't posted, the number of visits to this blog suddenly dropped back to their pre-spike levels. I'll see if it's related to lack of posting fairly shortly...

I wasn't gonna post on this subject (too many posts on posting makes for a dull read) but thought I'd mention it as it appears no one else has. I'll post on what I was originally going to shortly...

Cthulhic Tomes

2011-06-15T00:00:00.004+09:30

Because I promised Grey Wolf I would.

(click on the picture to expand it a bit)

Lots of treasure in this lot, too!

On blogging, and some renovations

2011-06-13T20:06:00.007+09:30

I recently returned to active blogging after two years' of 'survival posting'. On my return my blog was much the same, but the world in which it lived had sure changed!* For example, there was a new tab on the 'blogger' dashboard interface called 'stats'. As google is collecting the information anyway, I see it as a good thing that they are sharing some of it with me. Very interesting. So I looked at my stats in between postings...

Eventually I found that a significant source of traffic for the Adelaide Gamer was coming from a Blogger site called "wargamesblogs". I went and had a look, to find it going under the name of 'Blogs of War', a perpetually updating list of the posting activity of a sizeable portion of the wargaming blogosphere. It has over a thousand blogs listing on its updating scroll. Treasure indeed! So I added it to my list of favoured sites and, inspired by the many wonderful blogs I had seen, returned to my dashboard page to look at what else had changed in the years of my virtual inactivity in the scene.

As far as this blog goes, some of the results of my investigations are evident in the design of this page.

Previously, I had featured links to gaming sites, and a set of static links to blogs I followed. I did it this way for a purpose, linking to sites of activity in the 'real' virtual gaming community ahead of what I saw as 'pushing' myself or other individuals. This was my way of being a wargaming community activist.

In the two years I'd been gone, the online gamer community had exploded in size, hiving off into multiple parallel communities that blogged in ever increasing numbers about more and more things they had in common. Fascinating. Something had hit critical mass and the community was now definitely maturing (I have seen the same thing happening elsewhere on the blogosphere of recent times) into something that was functionally 'new'.

Which meant my place within that community was also changing. Now, it is individuals and the links between them which are the constituent things (rather than just our shared interests), the connections are developing around all of us as individual nodes on the network, rather than as mere feeders to the 'activity sector'. We are now a part of the wargaming world, as a blogging community, as a 'player' as well as an abstract phenomena (eg. a 'market').

So, to cut a long story short (haha), I renovated the page design of this blog. I have put my profile at the top so people can see who I am. I also changed the content of my profile to reflect my blogging soul more accurately than what was there (from another age, I started this in 2004).

I elevated the scrolling 'other blogs I read' updater** to just beneath my profile, both to (1) share out the traffic that comes my way from google searches etc (I have several posts that rank fairly high on some reasonably 'popular' search expressions), and (2), make it easy for me to see and access (I find that Adelaide Gamer is becoming practically my 'home page' these days).

I inserted a small section of 'my handy links'*** between profile and blogscroll to catch those sites that fit the definition of frequent use and not a blog (even though 'blogs of war' technically is a blog).

I kept my archive available, immediately beneath the scroller.

I have kept my other collections of links (some of which are now inactive, I suspect) beneath the 'active' parts of the margin. I will have to think about what other sets and sources of information I want to include on my page before I decide what to do with them. For instance, the concept of stand alone 'pages' intrigues me, and blogger has added it as another feature to its growing palette.

What interesting times we live in!

_______________

*The world is always changing. Here's my Adelaide Gamer Brief History of the Blogosphere.

1993 - the first Weblog (though not yet named as such), created by an I.T. student, the year the 'web' is born.
1999 - The term 'blog' is coined, 23 'blogs' in existence (?), Blogger starts.
2002 - 1 million blogs in existence.
2004 - 3 million blogs in existence, Adelaide Gamer is born.
2005 - 50+ million blogs in existence.
2007 - I notice a new wave of gamer blogs
2011 - ?

** To the old few I have added several which I have come across since discovering the Blogs of War:

The Man Cave - aussie gamer with dark ages passion.
Victoria's Boys in Red - weird and alternate wargaming genres.
Warfare and Wargaming - representative entrant for Mitch Williamson's sites (see here).
The Nothelm Chronicle - nice dark ages modeling and gaming theme.
Emporer vs Elector - well trafficked member of the imagi-nations worlds. I don't know much about it, but I like what I see happening in the background of the wargames.

***The links I include on this select list include:
Renaissance Kingdoms
Blogs of War
The Blitz

Another quiet year in the Renaissance

2011-06-12T01:30:00.016+09:30

Dracmuller MacTavish has been alive (mostly) and kicking in the online RP world, Renaissance Kingdoms, for nearly four years. It's been over a year since I last related his exploits in any detail, and even that was merely a reprint of his ingame profile.

At that time, Dracmuller's horizons had generally shrunk to what was visible from where the walls once stood surrounding his hometown of Ardencaple. After spending years in the army and in public life, usually surrounded by controversy, he had retired and taken up sheep farming on the hills above the Clyde.

When we last left him there, his most public activity was a weekly rostered shift in the Clan Guard, helping maintain a watch over comings and goings in the quiet village (does this sound like the start of an Asterix comic to you?). As it's rather late but I still feel creative, I'll blog for our mutual pleasure the exploits of Dracmuller MacTavish since then:

1458

27 May, Take up sheep farming - where we left our hero the last time we looked.

19 Jun, Oscar Hohenzollern MacTavish born to Arien. A busy night for Drac and his cousins as they provided moral support.

10 Oct, Convert fields to corn - in response to the threat of the new Count to bankrupt all sheepfarmers. To this threat is added increased levies of taxes on local town halls, closures of mines, massive tax hikes on vegetable farms. To this is added the continual insult of a shouting, deaf, aging madman as Count. The Count takes control of the courts and laws, all verdicts and legislation being reduced to his whim and backed by his mercenary muscle.

22 Oct, MacTavish Torc Tog Aghaidh. The flag of protest is raised outside Ardencaple, shortly followed by two allied commands. Over the following week the county marshals its own and allied forces in the capital, while free citizenry and clansfolk congregate around their banners and organise themselves at Ardencaple. Eventually, the county army marches on the town. The locals retreat behind the walls at the last moment.

1 Nov, The Siege of Ardencaple begins. It will last about a month. Significant events of the siege would include: the attempted rebellions of a 'fifth column' within the town; the imposition of martial law to restore order by the MacTavish Commander; the furious debates that occured about tactics and strategy amongst the town inhabitants; the cameraderie of the town taverns; the dying expressions of liberty or death by clan, citizen (and even a revolutionary frenchman who happened to be present on his honeymoon); the aid given the non professional rebels by a handful of hardened foreign volunteers; the Count's need to retreat back to the capital on one occasion to reorganise and re-equip; the valiant though illiterate milita; the international interest; the fact that the town did not declare independence from the king, and that work on the harbour continued almost without break through the siege; the mad escapade of a couple surviving MacTavishes near siege's end to burst through the besieging army and make a mad cross-county dash to confront the count in his home town (he cowered and didn't show himself) before returning past a second hostile army hunting them down, back through the seige lines, in time for the last of six or so battles - all but one (the last) won by the rebels.

8 - 16 Nov, Treason Trial of Dracmuller MacTavish occurred in the County Courts. He had been grievously wounded in the first assault on the gates, about a week into the siege, and found himself before a trumped up court with a judge who dispensed with all evidence or charge in his urgency to finish the trial and execute the clan leader. Condemned, the Count's men came at dead of night to do the deed - but failed. In the morning Drac was to be found at death's door, but at home (and his would-be executioners, unexplainedly found dead in his old cell). And there he remained till the final days of the siege, protected by the King's Edict until he again raised the sword of rebellion.

29 Nov, Siege of Ardencaple ends in a welter of blood. All the defenders have been either killed or badly wounded in battle, most have been bound up by the king's bailiffs following trumped up trials. The rebellion's leaders and their advisors are all put on trial for their life, lesser rebels are generally paroled after a hefty bribe. The final battle occurs on the day Dracmuller first feels fit enough to again pick up a sword (!) and he is taken down again, the last man to fall, taking the banner from his valiant wife as she is struck down, and holding it aloft before being overwhelmed (somehow, smuggling it to a cousin before he is again led off to captivity and trial).

30 Nov, Disorderly trial starts. The first ever trial in Scotland where the penalty for disorderly conduct is death.

2 Dec, 'The Wounded Boar' opens, Drac's tavern. Displaying the blood stained banner of the rebellion behind the bar, many come and have a drink with Drac while he waits for the drawn out trial procedures to end and him to be put into custody.

9 Dec, Disorderly trials ends. Needless to say, Drac loses the trial (which is a repeat of the farce of the first trial). In total, 36 MacTavishes and friends face the courts, 35 are found guilty, there are 9 executions. The repression begins. Drac executed, exists in limbo for four days before deciding to 'resurrect'. NB 'death' in RK need not be permanent unless one wishes it to be. There are, however, attendant ingame penalties and restrictions that follow a 'death' - even after one 'resurrects'. These penalties are particularly harsh if one dies by 'execution'.

1459

13 Jan, Return to good health, the regulation 45 days after the execution. Now able to travel again, if he chooses, his stats are markedly poorer than they were when the banner was first raised.

19 Jan - 1 Feb, Picnic in Stirling with an armed mob of cousins to get some wood from their forest as there is none in Arden due the Count's austerity measures.

Feb - Mar, Childcare and home duties. Self explanatory, while Arien goes into longterm retreat following long term harassment from our foes. Drac does not blame her, is himself tempted, but who would look after the baby?

April - producer of fine axewear to support the local forestry industry, freeing other smiths to work on the harbour's defences.

2 May - Clan Guard reforms and takes up duty, this time in accordance with a contract with local authorities. Outside the town a county army lurks, ostensibly keeping watch over the harbour but equally keeping a watch on the locals.

These days, Drac occupies himself doing a couple days on town hall duty per week with the clan guard, parcels out the rest of his time between various tasks at his blacksmith forge. He keeps the Boar's Head open despite the fact it loses him money (everyone needs a hobby) and can be found in one of the local taverns (not necessarily his own) for between a half hour and an hour of an evening. Life goes on.

In other words, just another quiet year in the Renaissance!

WoT? Whoops!

2011-06-11T08:17:00.007+09:30

World of Tanks was recently recommended me by a friend. I had recently also been reading about it (on one of Mitch Williamson's sites, can't remember which), after hearing of it for a couple months (in a Renaissance tavern!). So, as I occasionally do when the gods of synchronicity roll a double, I went to have a look at this free-to-play online MMO. Not much luck.

The download of the client onto my machine required 1.8 Gb so it took a couple hours to get ready. Installation took awhile also. Right at the end of the process (just before it asked if I want a desktop icon) a windows message flashed up on screen telling me that the program's needs exceeded my system's capability and that the installation was thus aborted.

I'm not used to seeing messages like that, so went to the FAQ on the forums. System Requirements: 2 Gb RAM. Check my system specs: 1GB RAM. No dice. How sad. I haven't been so disappointed since I found out that Conan Online wanted my credit card number after downloading the 4Gb client ('play for free' promotion (for which I'd bought a magazine I normally wouldn't, all because I dig R.E.Howard))*.

At one level, WoT appears to be a pretty standard shootemup, (excepting the premise that you are a (upgradeable) tank amongst other tanks rather than a psychotic killer amongst other psychos). It operates the way a lot of games do these days, with a free player able to grind their way forward just at a slower rate to payers. You can join a platoon, even a clan. There are clan wars.

This is where it gets interesting, as there is another 'level' of game set on a provincialised map of europe, with warring clans struggling for world conquest by taking over one province at a time via a formalised 'tournament style' scheduling of battles. This in turn creates a long term persistent 'story arc', and opens up a whole 'Risk' style of strategic meaning to interclan battles, with a bunch of live players rather than lifeless drones as one's opponents in tactics as well as strategy. And that, to me, was and is interesting.

Alas, I'll just have to read/hear about it as I'm not planning to upgrade my RAM anytime soon.

* Over at the Blog that Time Forgot, Big Al is in Howard Country. He's made the trip to the grave. Reading that, I had to work in a Howard allusion somehow for the link! Also ... if I find the link for Mitch's article on WoT, I'll let you know.

Thanks Mitch!

2011-06-08T19:57:00.006+09:30

A Shed Circa 2001

While looking for a picture of a shed on the web (chasing down a witty idea for a post) I came across one of Mitch Williamson's websites and got diverted. He has created and built a number of websites with a whole heap of stuff on a whole heap of things of interest to wargamers (and others). He's collected a lot of information and links and made them available in useful format. A grand service indeed. Casting my eye down one of the lists of sites on one of his sites, for example, I see the following niche sites on subjects which appeal to one of the various gamers in me...

Broch, Crannog and Hillfort - the centrepiece of an idea for my RK 'other' life ...
Jacobite Rising - ... where I am a scot royalist.
Spanish Civil War - a Military Legacy - a couple armies of 6mm waiting to play.
Malvinas Conflict - long held desire to create a TOAW III scenario based on this.
Best Mods Central - frontpages a mod for TOAW III at time of post, need I say more?
Minor Nations' Militaries 1914 - 45 - mmm, the 'interwar' years.
World War I in Africa - again, a minor theatre of major interest to me.

The above is a sample only. There are others. Well worth checking out the links from any of these sites, something will grab your attention. I'm not going to nominate a single site to go see for this dude, but have included one on my blogroll to make access easy for me - Warfare and Wargaming.

If you ever read this Mitch, thanks!

Computers, the Final Solution?

2011-06-06T21:40:00.008+09:30

Wizardry Screenshot

My issue of "Wargames! Presenting all aspects of this exciting hobby" magazine (1985) is full of gems of articles and titles. For example, the final (unattributed) article is entitled, 'Computers, the final solution?'

The article doesn't really make clear what the problem is, but spends a good two pages covering the usage of computers in gamingland circa mid eighties (with competition between Atari and BBC at the upper end of the author's perception of the market). I assume Asquith wrote the piece, as he was the editor at the time. If so, it makes an interesting development on his ideas put forth in the opening piece, 'Computer Wargaming ... is easy?'

The author in 'Final solution' surveys the field of 'wargamers' as we then were; tabletop players, board gamers, role players*. In brief, the author doesn't think that tabletop wargamers will have much need for the computer and that it won't affect them much in what they do. For the boardgamer, the limited range of quality product at the time seems the main concern. So, jury still out on whether computers will solve all their gaming needs.

For roleplayers, the author first looks at the range of classic dungeon crawl games that were around. I personally remember two of these, Zork (text based) and Wizardry. For the record, I never got the chance to get any further than frustrated with either of these games. All a bit lonely, however, on one's own.

This is where the author makes their most interesting and final comment, announcing that Ultima III, which allowed for group play on networked computers, was the reason that computers indeed were the final solution for our ultimate gaming needs.

Which is kinda comforting to know.

*Note the absence of the dedicated 'computer gamer', one who's gaming existence is defined by the computer itself.

Computer wargaming ... is easy?

2011-06-05T15:16:00.005+09:30

Tandy TRS 80

The title of this post was the title of an article by Stuart Asquith in "Wargaming: presenting all aspects of the Hobby" (1985). At the time he wrote that article we'd moved past the kit built TRS-80 (illustrated above) and into the age of BBC, Commodore 64, Apple 2e and the early IBM PC's. Asquith saw the main role of computers as an adjunct to tabletop gaming rule mathematics, spent a lot of time putting his rules into BASIC code, thought there was a role for computers in this aspect of the hobby. He was pretty excited at the prospect of being able to link computers together to hundreds of "K's" of processing power and looked forward to the future.

It is particularly heartening to note that one of his group's first two projects was to 'computerise' their Spanish Civil War rules (a point which I missed at the time). Good to see that SCW and interwar period gamers were at the front of the wave, even in 1985!

Needless to say, I report the above after finding a copy of said magazine in my 'archive' of the era. Lots of other goodies also, including a 1980 'Breakout' magazine "Dedicated to the future of gaming with computers". I'll read and report when I find the thing again (as I already filed it away in a fit of organisedness).

When that was published, we were building our first PC's at school instead of going to sports (true geekness). Hence the picture of the TRS 80. It had an onboard memory of 4Kb and used a audio-tape and tape deck for data storage. You had to program your own game for it. I was very proud the following year when 'taught' the computer to 'teach itself' how to play noughts and crosses (tic tac toe).

Ah, memories...

Bookish Indulgence

2011-06-03T20:17:00.004+09:30

Here's the bulk of my books on military history, strategy, etc. Since taking this snap I have found a few more, including the quarto sized picture books. When I have them all sorted and settled, I'll post another update pic. It's hard to believe, but in the mid nineties I had but a literal handful of these books. Scary. On the other hand, I had quite a few science fiction and fantasy novels, so when I sort those out I'll wack up a pic of them also (as I know more than a few of my regular readers are into that sort of thing).

The emphasis on history and strategy is probably reflective of my approach to wargaming. Not much emphasis on the minutae of uniforms and weapons systems, only a little on small unit tactics, more on campaigns and operational aspects, interest in the 'ancillary' aspects (eg. logistics, command structures, signals and intelligence, training) and lots of maps. And aeroplanes.

Congratulations to Ubergeek for his winning entry to the treasure hunt. Now I just need to figure out what the prize will be. While I do that, there's opportunity for others to still get their late entries in if they wish. Then I'll have to think of consolation prizes...

Can you spot the treasure?

2011-05-31T21:11:00.009+09:30

Actually, there's more than one magic item in this lot. For example, the 'Education for All' sticker on the spine of the upright blue folder in the top left 'cube' denotes that in the folder are contained the battle plans and records for two divisions worth of 6mm Germans that fought in the epic Battle for Stalingrad in a mate's back room many many moons ago. Or, in the taped up box in the cubical right upper centre are contained the tomes associated with a terrifyingly enjoyable Call of Cthulhu campaign. But neither of these is the 'treasure' that I am thinking of. More to come.

WOW - online grind by real life slaves

2011-05-30T17:41:00.002+09:30

You might guess from my past posts that I'm not into the style of online gaming exemplified by World Of Warcraft, Lord Of The Rings Online, Guildwars, etc. You'd be right. But that doesn't mean I'm not interested in them (in a sociological kinda way). Especially when I come across news items like this, reporting on a disturbing practice developed by chinese prison guards who make a nice little bit on the side by forcing their charges to 'play' at such games as WOW, generate ingame credits, and then sell these credits to consumers for real currency which they then pocket. Yet another example of how the intersection of online games with real life can lead to serious problems. It's not all glitz.

Bookcases and hidden treasures

2011-05-25T23:35:00.005+09:30

I recently acquired a bunch of bookcases from the one 'Borders' store in Adelaide, now defunct. Getting them home was quite an adventure, but that's a tale for another day. Besides picking up some much needed bookshelves I can't say I'm overly happy about another bookshop going down the tube (though I never saw a wargaming book in there, they did have an 'indoor games' section of about two or three shelves). And, of course, one has to feel sorry for the staff. But there's a bit of karma involved here, because I remember when Borders opened here and a whole swag of bookshops closed in the following year or two.

Of relevance is the fact that with all these bookshelves I should be able to pack most if not all of my unshelved books onto shelves, freeing up a bit of room for other more important things. High on the list of which are the reintroduction of my modeling rolltop desk thingy to a place where it can be used, and maybe even the setting up of at least one of my wargaming 'half tables' for my first game of miniatures in nearly five years (wow how time flies). Or a game of Squad Leader.

Of some interest is that when I dismantled my old planks on milk crates sets of shelving I had a chance to look inside the milk crates, where my almost mint set of AD&D books has been hiding for almost a couple of decades. They still have that smell. Mmmmm.

Learning Curves

2011-05-23T22:48:00.006+09:30

As someone who came relatively late in life to console gaming, my first major disadvantage when competing with anyone under thirty is their seemingly innate symbiosis with the controller (above), though after a hundred races I am becoming more familiar with its subtleties. I am, however, more familiar and thus more comfortable with something like this...

Of course, lack of comfort with the 'controller' is not the only form of disadvantage one faces as a dinosaur with a new toy, although it is rather obvious when one first plays a game which one first played in a PC version (eg. Call of Duty Blackops - biggest budgeted and biggest selling (PS3) game - or Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - about which I have previously written a bit). I've even tried out the latest iteration of my favorite IL2 flight simulater - Birds of Prey (a subject post in itself). For now, suffice to say that I find the keyboard is my preferred, though the console is more convenient (don't need an encyclopediaic knowledge of Alt QWERTY to master it), means of doing stuff in an action game.

Which all means that, when combined with youth's natural neurological advantage in picking up things quickly and reacting to new surroundings faster, not to mention better reflexes and hand/eye coordination, we older gamers are thrown back on those old staples, rat cunning and persistence.

All in good fun, of course.

Gran Turismo - GT5

2011-05-22T21:36:00.003+09:30

This is the game for which I was willing to buy my first ever console based game platform (PS3) so that I could play it. It's a car racing game. I recall playing the original a long time ago on one of the predecessor playstation models, and then got to play the current version against my nephews over summer when I stayed over their place for a few days. What a buzz!

The usual comments about GT5 amongst those game afficianados that have visited our PS3 since purchase is that it 'takes ages' to learn, 'isn't very easy', 'swallows up the hours'. For that reason various other driving games are mentioned as more suitable, social, alternatives (such as Need for Speed). However, when playing these other games they seem just that, games. GT5, on the other hand, seems to swallow one's sense of the here and now when playing the 'campaign' mode, in that familiar immersive effect that is one of the gamer's holy grails.

Here's the gamespot review for GT5. I haven't had so much fun with a driving simulation since that old game of 'Driver' (campaigned the 2002 Australian V8 Supercar season - I can't find a link to it).

Some silly facts to do with the economics of GT5 - five years and $80 million for design and production, 6.5 million copies sold in the first couple months. Do the maths yourself.

Console gamer sociology 101

2011-05-20T17:55:00.002+09:30

Indeed, I did purchase a Playstation 3 because I decided that I still wanted 'that' toy after all these years / decades, and that I am in a position in life that I could actually afford to do so, but why did I go for the the PS3 rather than its competing game systems? Afterall, there isn't that much difference between them as pieces of furniture or pieces of technology. At least, not to this dinosaur's eye.

It is of course, the games. Or, in this case, a particular game. But before I get into all that I'll digress onto that subject of market segmentation. If there was once a single amphorous class of 'gamer', which later bled into the subcategories of 'video gamer' and 'others', then these categories have themselves hived off into subcategories ever since.

A layperson's view of it distinguishes 'chess men' from 'checkers men', 'cards' from 'dice' from 'dominoes' from 'boardgames'. To the educated, the last bifurcates into 'parlour games' and 'heavy games', and then one breaks it down into subject matter and mechanism of game. Usually. But I am digressing in my digression...

In the case of video games, 'Pong' has morphed into a vast multiverse of sumptuous graphic adventures in gaming. And because they're all branded, and there's a limited number of brands (the economics of the industry presently dictates this), they've differentiated between themselves. Thus, one gaming platform seems aimed at the non-gamer, ironically, and probably uses the word 'family' a lot in the fine print. Another has gone for the 'cute' kind of non violent simulation. And then there's playstation, with a whole universe of gore, adrenalin and simulating challenges to explore. Sony has gone for the 'serious gamer' in consolespeak.

But I gotta say, most of Sony's games are of the same sort that I don't play on my PC, so the fate of my loungeroom didn't entirely depend on the category of 'gamer' I best fell into, but upon the spec's of a particular game.

Remember Pong?

2011-05-19T22:19:00.004+09:30

Older readers may recall the original video game, creatively named 'Pong', which in my mind came out about the time colour television came to Adelaide (early seventies). Basically, players controlled a graphic bar which moved up and down 'their' side of the tv screen. A 'ball' shuttled back and forth between the bats. The idea was of course to move you bar up and down your side of the screen to hit the ball back to your opponent. They would try and return it the same way. If you missed the ball, your opponent scored a point. Here is a modern java based imitation from which you can get an idea of how it works.

What's made me reminisce like this? The fact that we recently became the proud owners of a Playstation 3. The people in the electronic shops must love seeing middle aged gamers come into their stores saying 'it's time to upgrade'. And if you're buying a telly for the first time in ages, why not get the modern equivalent of the toy you wanted as a kid and still want as an adult? So you end up walking out with the full complement.

It becomes immediately obvious when you look in the stores that there are about three main gaming console 'brands', and that the games are different for each. It's pretty blatant market segmentation, but that's capitalism for ya. Anyways... why did we get a playstation? Afterall, that meant that we couldn't play Mario (an old favorite) as he works for Nintendo (I think), so there must be a good reason.

Resuming life

2011-03-10T23:28:00.002+10:30

Hi, back again after an extended break. Not sure why that happened, but such is life and life has been busy. I still kept going with my MMPORGs, particularly Renaissance (in which time I became a grumpy highland rebel chief, hung for treasonous activity purely due my leadership role, and an even grumpier post rebellion highland chief as the admin and the ingame rulers together conspired to take the fun out of the game), had a look at some online games, had a few games of cards, and played a lot of The Operational Art of War III (playing the partisans, about 90 turns into the 400 turn Yugoslavia 1941-45 scenario), read a lot of books, found a new game shop, and had an abortive attempt to be interviewed on a gaming podcasting site (when i get a microphone that works AND if they have me back again, I'll post up details here).

And that's the longest post I've done in ages. I'll put in a few details in near future.

Latest RK Banner

2010-12-04T16:03:00.002+10:30

Another sign of life post, this time to show that not only am I 'here' still but also life is going on in Renaissance Kingdoms. Will fill in more in future, but for the moment put up this, the latest banner.

The smell of Mirkwood in the morning

2010-05-30T21:05:00.005+09:30

As long time readers might remember, I have been a fan of the Total War series of comp games since the release of 'Medieval' a few years ago. Since then, there has been Rome, Medieval II (using the new engine from 'Rome' on the medieval theme), Empire (18th cent?) and Napoleonic. I haven't played the last two, and most enjoyed the original 'medieval'. Although I put many hours into Rome, and some into Medieval II, that was mainly due the wow factor as the game evolved and the fact that the system itself is pretty good. But they lacked the magic of the 'medieval' experience, at least to me they did.

It's hard to pin down exactly what the 'magic' is, that thing that draws us back to our old favorites time and again. In the world of flight sims, there was an old Amiga game from twenty years ago called 'Wings', but you could 'smell the avgas', until 1942 Pacific War (mid nineties) there was nothing like it. Ilyushin filled the void, but not quite the same.

In WWII tactical games, the Talonsoft classic East Front seems to 'catch the essence' of this type of gaming, and has warranted various continuations of its existence from different 'publishers' in an almost unchanged format. Not bad for a game that itself seems to take off from where the orginal Avalon Hill boardgame Squad Leader left off. Not that surprising, perhaps, considering that several of the team from Avalon Hill were involved in the project.

Anyway, Medieval II didn't to me catch the edge of seat feel of its predecessor.

So, I was pretty pleased to find in one of my random surfs on the web this link to a series of mod's (modifications) to download and patch onto the original game program to make it a recreation of the War of the Ring. It looked pretty good. So I went out and got the necessary expansion to my copy of Medieval II ($7 for the upgrade, the game itself cost $12, both from the local second hand game trader) and then downloaded about 2GB of mods, spent an afternoon installing them (a couple hours) and was well surprised.

It's great. I'll write more of it later as this post is long enough, but suffice to say that Third Age: Total War has all the flash graphics and smart engine capacity of this leading edge game, and has managed through cunning use of graphic and audio reference to the shared reality we all share from book and film to create a 'believable' environment, and that the design of the game itself leaves a lot of excitement to be discovered. To me, the mix is right and one can smell mirkwood in the morning.

Renaissance Profile

2010-05-27T23:08:00.002+09:30

Below is the profile of my character in Renaissance Kingdoms. You can read between the lines for getting onto three years of Role Play adventure. Just thought I'd record it here for posterity, and for your interest (as I haven't posted much in last few months)...

Born on 18 August, 2007

Last known address
Country : Kingdom of Scotland
County : County of Glasgow
Town : Ardencaple

Level : 2
Reputation Points : 250
Money : 6

Dracmuller is a blacksmith.
Dracmuller has one sheep field.

Last connection 27 May 2010 at 15h33

Role Play description

Chief of Clan MacTavish yet a humble soul, I am learning about the world of society. If I unintentionally offend thee, I beg thee thy forgiveness!

1455

A foundling, with but the inherited rags of my father's loincloth to clothe me, a thistle, and an old parchment from my McTavish mother, I started out by showing myself to be a diligent worker and enterprising soul.

Reward came my way despite famine and fraud and I soon found myself spending much time on my farm, where I raise pigs. I joined the Galloway Regiment and swore my allegiance to our king, James II, my country, and its people.

I built MacTavish Hut in October 1455 and enjoyed spending time there with my kin. I was acclaimed Chieftain of Clan MacTavish, and had the honour of representing us when the status of 'Founding Clan of Scotland' was bestowed - November 1, 1455.

On my longer trips these days I am generally accompanied by, Arnawlf, the black pigdog who I found on the doorstep of my cottage on Christmas morn, 1455. She isn't fully grown yet, but already is large enough to cause worry in the eye if she snarls.

1456

1 February , I first fire my forge.
6 February, I meet a witch and Arnawlf proves her worth. I take up reading.
27 March, I open the Guild of Scottish Blacksmiths.
9 April, I first enter the Privy Chamber of the Regent of Scotland.
4 May, I am struck down by a nasty virus. My paperwork is destroyed by flame.
30 May, while guarding Dumfries Castle I lead a tour of the catacombs beneath.
26 June, I try peacekeeping in Kirk. My blue bonnet takes on new meaning.
2 - 26 July, I enjoy a tour of Scotland with my clan.
9 August, I am given custody of Blackwind, ancestral sword.
10 August, I open the Council of Chiefs.
27 August, I take part in the Battle of Muirkirk.
11 September, I bump into robbers and vow revenge.
3-6 October, I enter retreat for the first time in a year, returning refreshed.
9 November, I am promoted to General of the Galloway Regiment. Jah be with me.
1-22 December, Participant in Kirk's chaos week, witness Battle of Three Armies at Dumfries.

1457

2-3 Jan, Battle of Whithorn
9 Jan, Assassination attempt, Dumfries.
11-28 Jan,'The King James', Dumfries.
5 Feb, Elected Steward of Scotland. Wow!
6-28 Feb, Inaugurate the High Court.
1-26 Mar, Tour the three counties.
31 Mar, Retire to clan and army duties.
9-13 Apr, Easter in Drummore Mine
21 Apr, Return to Whithorn
2 May, Ambushed (Girvan).
3 May, Wigtown Veteran's Hospice
17 June, Return to duty
July, RSA Operations - W.Galloway
August, RSA Operations - E.Galloway
13 Sept, Deputised Field Marshall, RSA
18 Sept, Whithorn visit
19 - 25 Sept, Northern Campaign.
26 Sept - 3 Oct, Working Holiday,Glasgow
9 Oct, Wedded Arien von Mainz, Girvan
28 Oct, Commissioned RSA Field Marshall
6 - 17 Nov, Security Patrols, Drummore
25- 28 Nov, Security Patrols, Whithorn
1 - 16 Dec, Borderwatch, Dumfries
24 - 31 Dec, Kelburn Castle, Largs

1458

1 - 18 Jan, Kelburn Castle, Largs
4 Jan, resign commission from RSA
21 Jan - 12 Feb, Dockwork, Ardencaple
14 Feb, Valentines in Ol' Glasgow Town
15 Feb - 15 Mar, Confined to Stirling
16 Mar, Angelic Intercession
17 Mar - 19 Apr, Largs Volunteers
20 Apr - 13 May, Dockwork, Whithorn
21 May, Move to Ardencaple on Clyde
27 May, Take up sheep farming

RIPs

2010-05-22T10:46:00.002+09:30

Frank Frazetta (artist).
Ronnie James Dio (musician).

Frazetta helped frame the visual side of fantasy RP, Dio provided the soundtrack of many a game in the golden age. For this, they are part of our (or my, at least) history. Thanks to Big Lee and Grognardia for the links.

Renaissance Rambles

2010-04-04T22:31:00.002+09:30

I am spending a lot of time playing Renaissance Kingdoms again. In brief, have gathered a bit of my clan together to defend a town against possible attacks by any of four armies wandering around the landscape. We are doing it because the mayor of the town is in our clan and her town was a little open to bullying. We have held the wall for a month while the town has gotten organised and increased our fame in the process. All good. More later.

Gamers Unite

2010-03-20T17:36:00.006+10:30

How lucky are we here in Adelaide when in the usualy drum roll of politicians heading to our state election there's a wee political party of GAMERS who are standing for election as GAMERS?! Funniest thing, they're getting more votes than predicted. For me, the way these fairly smart lads and lassies are directing their preferences isn't too far from the way I would do, and the closest to my view of things of all the parties, so is actually easyish for this little gamer to give them a tick.

I mean, seriously, if the Attorney General in your state said that he felt more under threat from gamers than from bikers, wouldn't you want to vote for them?

If you're interested, here's prbly the most complete blurb I've yet found with these guys explaining what they're about. By the way, their preferences (determined after the interview) went green.

Seriously weird. If it wasn't real I'd say you'd be joking!

End of political hacking, I'll let you know the results of the vote down the track when they roll in but will revert to my more usual apolitical self for future posts.

Happy gaming.

World Day against Cyber Censorship

2010-03-12T18:35:00.005+10:30

March 12th is the World Day against Cyber Censorship. The fact you are reading this says that you enjoy the benefits of access to the web. We use it to pursue our passions, our hobbies, our games. The community we forge is real. In the broad community of netizens around the globe there are growing numbers of people locked away in countries throughout the world for online reportage and networking activities. Not that that will likely involve the readers of this blog in the foreseeable future, but who knows what the future holds?

In Australia we are about to get a government run filtering system to block sites the administrators deem 'unsuitable'. No choice. And in South Australia we will be losing access to many games as our Attorney General refuses to participate in a national classificatory scheme for the hardcore games (the 'R' rating). Not that I particularly like most of those games, but if they get away with this, what next? Social networking sites? Militaristic hobbyists? Who knows? If you recall the various panic waves and crusades against Dungeons and Dragons you'll know that the most innocent of activities can lead to crazy situations if the censors move in.

To show how ridiculous it can get even in this 'civilised age,' in an election campaign occurring here and now our Attorney General has been publicly grabbing headlines saying he is more at threat from 'gamers' than from 'bikies' (against whom he has passed anti-association laws). The logical next step would be to stop gamers from associating, and then what would we do?

Anyway, to break the non political nature of this blog for this one day of the year, I just wanted to spread the word and ask everyone to think for a moment of the joys we have with a web on which we can write what we want and read as we feel. And to cherish that.

If you're interested, check out the site of Reporters without Borders (Reporters sans frontiers).

If you wonder why I'm posting this, my beloved country is now being ranked with various totalitarian states such as China, Iran, etc because of the internet filtering 'service' our government is about to ram down our throats. It has me rather upset. Back to normal transmission after this post...

The Claws of the Tiger

2010-03-08T23:31:00.003+10:30

The Claws of the Tiger is a simple East Front scenario I just completed with Rick from the Blitz site. 10 turns, complexity 2. Russian armoured battalion with 2 attached submachine gun coys advances on Gertova, must surmount german roadblocks to do so. German has a company dug in across the road after it crests a rise, and a couple tiger platoons coming up from the west (with a PzIV platoon in support). I was the axis.

I sent my tigers around western flank to hit russian in his side as he bogged in front of my roadblocks (1). PzIV around the north to support lone AT gun protecting a lateral road, hopefully to buy enough time for me to work out something if this was the main axis of russian advance (2).

Russian sent his main force on a tactical flanking mission on the main roadblock (1), two coys of tanks and the infantry. He detatched a company of T34s to try (unsuccessfully) to hold my tigers off the flank of his main force (3).

The tigers played merry hell with any russians that remained visible on the crest or who tried to work around their own flanks. The PzIV skirmished with a russian recce, then fell back in case needed to fight delaying actions. When realised didn't need to, came back to hit the main russian effort to the east of the roadblock. Meanwhile, the infantry defending the roadblock slowly withdrew under close pressure in the surrounding woods to the main positions on the road (3). Although they had all nearly run out of ammo by game end, they didn't break. Their attached AT guns swept the open area in front of the trenches, preventing russian tanks charging across the open to hit the germans in the flank while engaged by the russian infantry coming through the woods (2).

Game end, major victory to the axis. Russian managed to throw his main weight against my main positions, which was bound to be a tough call. Suspect Rick not yet worked out the true value of SMG squads he had. I was worried enough by his recce on my left flank to pull back the PzIV as well as pull platoons out of the main line to guard the rear objectives in case that turned out to be his main thrust. Luckily for me, not to be.

To show the lineage of the game we play now (Matrix version of Talonsoft's East Front II), this scenario was designed by Don Greenwood, who was a play tester (?) in the old Avalon Hill Squad Leader board game. IN fact, this scenario is based on the Squad Leader scenario, "The Tiger's Paw."

AAR - March to the Front

2010-03-08T08:55:00.004+10:30

My first foray into an official game on the Blitz Ladder resulted in a Major Victory. I don't know if I'll always do an After Action Report, but thought I would for this at least. To left is a 2D version of the map used. Highlighted with MS Paint are main axes for German and Russian.

1 Inf Coy with MG support advance into village against russian opposition of aprox 1 battalion and initial light tanks forces. The bulk of the russian infantry retreated back to Andrey, the tanks also. The Gn Coy spent the last half of game securing against a lone russian company at the top of the farm and lining the orchards to the East (1a), threatening to adv to the town while securing against a counter attack.

2 Inf Coy secure initial deployment site, maintain artillery observations from hill top (2a) and then advance to take half of the next state farm. Advanced about 3 kms in the open, through hill, ravine, mines, artillery against russian battalion. The number '2' also shows the location of where I parked onboard artillery battalion.

3 Last Inf Coy of the 1st Battalion, assist to clear up harassing activities of Russ armoured cars during deployment turns, then advance to seize road junction behind russian tank penetration. Finish game holding southern flank against light russian pressure.

4 Tank Company, 3 platoons of PzIIIs, one of PzIIs (HQ). Delay initially to clean up russian rear raiders (4a), detach one platoon to bolster defences of state farm (4c) and hold the central approaches (4b). This last also cleaned up the russian armoured penetration of the mid game after they came north (rather than keep going to my undefended rear lines).

While I'm on the subject of 4b, I should speak a little about the impact of air power in the scenario. I tried to use my single air attack early in the game when could see russian armoured reinforcements arriving (southern point of R1). For some reason (probably the spotting unit becoming disrupted) the mission didn't arrive and was canceled (not replaced with another). The russian flew in one air support mission, it struck my PzII HQ tank as it moved up to support the first two platoons on the central corridor. One of those platoons and the commander had, coincidentally, just moved from the spot as the PzII arrived. Loss of its company HQ platoon makes it more difficult for a platoon to recover from disruption so I played my armour different from that point.

5 Battalion of infantry reinforcements, sweep around to secure northern hill line (5a), block off threatened armoured sweep (5b) and threaten to take northern state farm (5c).

As to the Russian, he was pushed back to defending the Eastern half of the map. R1 shows the general flow of his reinforcements, which I think were pouring into defending the high VP township against my 'threatened' assaults. The greatest threat he made was the penetration of an armour company (R2). Lucky for me he swung this north to its eventual destruction at the hands of my PzIIIs, rather than keep going west and clean up my artillery which was undefended and scrambling to limber up as he approached within a couple hexes (was hidden from him by buildings). That took nerves.

Was a great game. Although the last 4 of 16 turns were a bit of a german procession, until my Pz IIIs had cleaned up the armour penetration I had the feeling that it could have bogged into a draw as I had no reserves and everything was committed. The grand deception of threatening the township (never in my sights) was perhaps what saved me.

The wrap up was Major Victory to the Axis. On the Blitz ladder we have both moved out of Bootcamp with the completion of our first ladder game.

Dice Roller

2010-03-07T17:38:00.002+10:30

As we draw to the end of the game in the Marching to the Front scenario the mind turns to the next one. In choosing the next East Front scenario, we have a list of them in historical order and are playing through from the start, randomly selecting the next from the list according to a 1D6 roll (re rolled if it is too one sided, too big, played before, etc). So, here was I, sending of the last turnfile to my opponent looking at the list of scenarios in late 1941, and I couldn't find a dice. Shame on me.

So, I used this handy dice roller. I've put in my sidebar for easy reference.

Ubergeek

2010-03-06T01:57:00.002+10:30

I've just added Lair of the Ubergeek to my blogroll. Great miniatures wargaming site by a dude with a sense of humour. Terrain, models, after action reports, nice photos, enough personal posts to humanise the author, and not too highly stressed.

While I'm praising blogs, check these cartoons out at Iron Mitten, 'Judgement Day' and 'Brits Abroad.' Excellent work!

Blitzin'

2010-03-02T01:17:00.005+10:30

I've joined The Blitz Wargaming Club, an online community which has been helping fans of various combat strategy games (eg. Campaign Series (East and West Front, Rising Sun) and The Operational Art of War, etc). It has 'ladders', and seems to neatly link up players for games against each other by PEBM. It's been going over 10 years in its current guise and has some very dedicated gamers. A lot of scenario design, and history stuff in the background. I actually joined a few days ago, but only just started my first actual 'ladder' game.

It's a 1941 East Front scenario, 'Marching to the Front' (complexity of four). Late October and Barbarossa is running out of steam as winter approaches. It's the grab to secure the food and position in open cultivated plains scarred by small ravines and state farms, before the snow closes in. I won't say too much more here about the game until the scenario is properly decided for fear of giving too much away.

Sorry, lizard king :)

East Front - Surprise for the 17th Panzer

2010-02-28T12:03:00.006+10:30

Am presently playing the final stages of a EF low-moderate complexity 1941 scenario, "Surprise for the 17th Panzer". Again, playing by email exchange of turns. This one looks like it will be a major victory for the Axis (me).

Later edit: major victory for the axis (me).

Broad situation: a 10km penetration to the East by german armoured and recon battalion through scattered woodland and potato fields, taking highway towns and intersections as they go. Late arrival of russian light tank regiment, with a company of T34s and a KVI to assist, hitting the german in the northern flank of his extended line. So far, as we enter the final couple of turns, the german has captured the high value central built up objectives and all major road intersections along the highway.

Highlight to me has been the daring sweep of main force of recon battalion (M/C, A/C and support units) along secondary southern road to join in pincer movement, with detached company of armoured cars that snuck through several kilometers to the north, to capture and hold deep objectives.

This is the second game in a row where I have managed to coordinate an assault with units that are marching isolated for up to six turns (in the last game, it was the remergence of survivors from early attacks from their hidden pathways in forest and fen in the final turns of the game, to threaten recently won russian objectives and divert valuable units from the final assault in the centre). Pleasing.

I am also finally getting the hang of how to use anti tank guns (after all these years). An 88mm looking down the main road with automatic weapons hosing down any threatened infantry attacks against its position, 50mm's setting themselves up in objectives newly seized by columns of armoured cars and motorcycle troops, smoke still in the air. Very useful support for light armed mobile units.

Perhaps the most enjoyable moment, though, was the complete destruction of a BT7 company by a lurking Jagdpanzer I (!) unit in some wheatfields to my rear. Coming on late, the JgdPzs (under armoured and undergunned for close in swirling tank combat) were detatched to rear security duties along most likely axis of any potential russian deep flanking sweep. They were actually going to sweep up around the area themselves, but became aware of strong russian forces moving in their direction due the fleeing soft transport from a 37mm AT company that had been overrun while acted as a northern outpost. Even at this stage of the war, these guns were virtually useless.

Its heavy AT guns having been sent to join up with the armoued companies, the JgPz company changed its mission from driving up the northern road to waiting for something to drive down it. Having just enough time to organise themselves, they watched a company of BT7s burst from the woods and (not seeing the tank hunters in time) drive within point blank range. Eliminated before they knew what hit them. The JgPzs then pulled out of sight as heavier tanks blundered past and are presently securing an 'industrial' village against desperate attacks by fragmented russian light armour units.

This will probably be the last game we play with our old EFII disks as Wayne now has a copy of the Matrix version of this classic game.

East Front - Sabres in the Sun

2010-02-28T11:45:00.002+10:30

You may recall that I was playing a PEBM (play by email) game of East Front with Wayne at the start of this year. It was a moderate complexity scenario, Sabres in the Sun, featuring a the attack of a russian cavalry regiment and armoured battalion against a series of scattered german outposts in rural countryside. The germans had a few Stug IIIs to help them, but not much chop against the T34s and KVIIs of the soviet.

The game took us about two months or so to complete, mainly because we had several week long breaks through the silly season. After initial resistance, the soviets punched through and shattered the german front line outposts before any reinforcements could reach them, pushed on towards the inner belt of objectives. As they pushed the germans back, however, resistance toughened, and was shored up in the nick of time by the arrival of the Stug company. The battle slowed down into a slugfest for the latter part, until the last five or so turns of the 21 turn game.

At that point, the germans pushed back into the 'State Farm' with their infantry on the Eastern Flank of the battlefield, somehow catching the russian asleep in the sector and making a daring dash across the open to break their way into the russian lines and retake the farm with minimal losses. They couldn't have done this if the russian hadn't gotten a bit cocky and sent some of his cavalry forces away from the site towards the centre of the map (where a lone german company had held out under close range armoured bombardment for most of the game, they crumbled in the last two turns).

The other excellent fun thing from my perspective was the way I managed to pull together several platoons that had been shattered and scattered in the initial soviet assault, shepherding them through woods and swamps out of sight of the russian, to emerge in the final three turns and threaten to retake at least one of the previously lost objectives in the west of the map. The russian had to divert a company of tanks to hold those locations, reducing the amount of resources he had to throw at the final redoubts in the north. Subsequently, the germans held the core objectives against the final russian assaults over the open.

End result? A close fought draw, not determined until the last turn of the game.

Secondary MMPORGs

2010-02-28T11:33:00.006+10:30

Besides playing Renaissance Kingdoms, I also am active in two other MMPORGs. The site owners of RK have started a new world called Shogun Kingdoms, in which I have a humble buddhist peasant who spends all day in the temple, regularly starves himself, and whose only present ambition is to own his own rice field in the not too distant future. I'll put a link on my sidebar to the site very shortly.

The other MMPORG is the Tribal Kingdoms, where my Aztec peasant continues to make obsidian clubs in his home village towards the day when he too can have an army and devestate neighboring tribes. Recently they upgraded the site so that I now can visualise what I look like (these are all text and menu driven browser based games).

All three of these 'Kingdoms' games are run by the same crew with the same game engine. I'm not sure what their business model is as they seem to have backed off of advertising in outside sites and cannabilise players from RK to these other new worlds they have set up. This is not a long term proposition, i suppose, but then again, RK is going strong into its fifth year so who am I to criticise?

My dedication to RK varies between fanatical and keen, spending between 20 min and 5 hours per day on it still, after two years. This is not an unusual pattern. As to the Aztec and Nippon characters, about five minutes each per day. In regards to these later, I see my participation as being somewhat of a public service as the Kingdoms need peasants and 'commoners' to go about the daily grind while those who get into the running of the world manipulate and scheme to determine our futures.

It's kinda relaxing after the intensity of RK.

RK update

2010-02-28T11:11:00.002+10:30

Above is my new banner for use in Renaissance Kingdoms, the ongoing online role playing world I'm involved in. The present situation of my character is that he is in the northernmost town of the Kingdom (Stirling). He is stuck there because the local warlords have placed him on a kill list of an army to my immediate south, mainly due the fact that my character seems to have a cutting tongue that upsets tyrants and brigands. Have almost renounced all responsibilities not to do directly with clan duties. The Kingdom is brewing up to a big war, with irish mercenaries arriving by sea to join the rebels and robbers who run glasgow county for their promised assault on Ayr county to the immediate south. While this is happening, a Campbell dominated Galloway is pushing for independence of the southern counties from national institutions, and the Royal Scots Army is gathering in the centre of the land to fight their old enemies in the north.

It is a bit different not being stuck in the thick of it. In fact, I am really on the margins for this coming war, allowing me time to do things other than organise troops and rally the people. Will probably spend the time organising the clan for the coming disintegration of a unified scotland so that we can look after our own in the dark ages to come.

Settlers Game

2010-02-28T10:33:00.002+10:30

In the first week of January (just shows how long I can wait before posting if I'm busy elsewhere) Nancy, Shaun, Paul and I played our first game of Settlers of Catan. We all agreed it was good fun, took us a bit over two hours. We played the recommended starting set up for a first game rather than use the randomisation of geography etc which gives the game its newness on each play. Using the standard set up, I presume, gives each player a roughly equal chance to win while displaying some of the different 'styles' required to master the game. In this trial, Shaun (White) won with an expansionist approach, Nancy (blue) came close with her trading approach, I (orange) kept myself happy with a coastal network and Paul (red) got frustrated by playing an expansionist style when he should have concentrated on internal development. All good fun and hope to play again in not too distant future.

Civ Game

2010-02-28T10:21:00.011+10:30

The above picture shows the situation at the end of our game of Civilisation from the Dog Days (sorry about the blurry picture, forgot to use the flash). It was a rollicking good six player game that went for 13 hours. Babylon (Jess) won in a close tussle down to the last turn, with Illyria (Nancy) coming second and North Africa (Jarrad) a close third. Minor places were taken by Egypt (Paul) , Assyria (yours truly) and Thrace (Wayne). A great time was had by all. Most noteably, at different stages in the game everyone was under a fair bit of pressure to the point of being upset, but no one said anything they regretted and we all shook hands at the end. In the pressure cooker of a thirteen hour game, that's pretty good.

Below is a link to a slideshow showing the rise and decline and rise of the Assyrian Empire in the game of Civilisation we played at the end of last year.

In the slide show you'll see how Assyria expanded into Asia (Anatolia), dealt with a warlike Babylon pushing from the East and various minor coastal invasions in the South (North is to the bottom of the picture). Although I tried to keep the centre of the asian peninsula free of cities (allowing me internal lines of communication to deal with my war like neighbor and exposed coast ) I eventually had to build cities there to secure the position. In the latter part of the game you'll also see a barbarian (pink) influx into Babylon territory. I included it here because it was a nice thorn in the side of an aggressive opponent playing what is usually a passive people.

Victorious Babylonian

Holiday Gaming - online GRAW, EF, RK

2010-01-04T23:46:00.002+10:30

Over the past two weeks I've dabbled a bit in online media for gaming. Surprise surprise.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - classic shoot 'em up for the thinking player. Have had it for a year or so and played single player on desktop, not the best at it (still haven't finished the programmed scenarios). High tension game, however, big maps and difficult scenarios with good sound and graphics. Here is the link to a user video on youtube which shows someone playing through the mission I have gotten stalled on (in the mass fire fight at the end). This dude makes it look easy.

Anyway, after maybe a year of having the game I finally 'patched' the game with the official patch and had a look at the multiplayer function. There seems to always be a dozen or more games going on online at any time, most of them being cooperative games on usergenerated missions. It's a game of small interlocking fire teams and rests a lot on observation and tactical movement. Good fun. Also of some interest is that one can make one's own machine act as a server. This is especially useful here in Australia considering the usually high 'ping' penalty we pay for living here (most game servers being on the other side of the planet).

East Front II - continue into turn 3 of the 1941 scenario of what looks like a russion cavalry brigade and tank regiment attacking a string of isolated german company's at a number of crossroads etc. The russian tanks appear poised to 'overrun' in the next turn.

Renaissance Kingdoms - Since I last wrote of this here I have done a stint as Field Marshal of the Royal Scottish Army, backing on to a term of about two months as Deputised Field Marshal while my predecessor underwent court martial procedures. My own time as Field Marshal was marked by a Court Martial of none other than my ingame wife, with me having to determine penalty once the Military Council had determined guilt. My penalty managed to upset nearly everyone to some degree for some reason. That was before Christmas. After Christmas I faced a vote of no confidence amongst the army as a result of the High Command being mighty upset at what they saw as the leniency of the penalty I had handed down in the court martial.

The no confidence vote was taken in each of the three regiments, the officer corps and the high command. These five results were tallied, equally weighted, and I ended up losing my job by one vote. The High Command voted against me and the officers did, but galloway and glasgow regiments supported me. There was only one vote cast in Ayr Regiment and it was against me and effectively determined the whole show. Ironically, this voter made clear that he thought the decision was fair and just but that I shouldn't have been the one to make it due my relation to the accused. I won the majority of the votes but lost in the tactics of it over the xmas new year break. So my character gets to live a normal life again after over a year as general of a regiment and then effectively as a warrior lawyer in the military courts as field marshal.

An unexpected turn indeed.

The Dog Days

2009-12-25T22:07:00.005+10:30

Happy xmas (to those of you who celebrate it)! Believe it or not, amongst other gifts I received was a game - Settlers of Catan. I know it's been around awhile and that many of the regular readers of this blog will have played it, but I haven't and am sure looking forward to it. Though the boardgame we are planning to play sometime in the next week and a half (when the world here stops for summer dogdays* holiday) is a six or seven player game of the old Avalon Hill classic, "Civilisation". That'll take about 12 hours to play. Is pretty cool how can usually get folk together to play it once or twice a year.

A few days before xmas i got myself a 'little something,' one of those computer game magazines which has a game disk with it, "Age of Conan". It sounds like a megagame, and suffers from a lot of the commercialisations that come with these things, but I was grew up reading the original Conan stories and can't resist having a look at the world of Hyboria for thirty days before the free period of this online game expires. With holidays in front of me, hopefully I'll be able to advance enough to travel a bit and have a look around. Who knows, I might even like it?!

* The dog days is a term from the roman era referring to the sliding number of days after the solistice to correct the calander each year (I think). I use it to describe the null days between xmas and new year.

East Front again

2009-12-12T03:06:00.002+10:30

Wayne has started up another scenario of Talonsoft's East Front II that we play by emailing turnfiles. Again, he is the russian and I the german in this WWII tactical hex based comp game. I think we're about one all in the present run of scenarios. This one seems to be a russian cavalry divsion trying to swarm over some isolated german outposts on the steppe, but that will clarify itself as the turns progress (we always play it with fog of war 'on').

5 player LOTR

2009-12-06T16:57:00.002+10:30

Had a five player game, with Jess and Jarrad being the two first timers. We got further than in any other game (though still didn't reach Mount Doom before Sam the Ring Bearer (me) was corrupted by Sauron - along with all the other hobbits except for Merry). The dynamic was a bit different as one would expect with five players, with 'advantages' to the group and 'disadvantages' to the players, as I put it. Again, took about two hours (including a snack break).

The ring has now been taken from our home for a week to be used elsewhere. Little doubt that the young ones will soon have optimised their playing strategies and will be keen to show us 'oldies' how it is done when the ring one day returns.

Session 5: Sauron starts on 15. Shaun, Nancy, Jessica, Jarrad, Mark. Scored 57.

More LOTR

2009-11-29T01:14:00.003+10:30

Went and played two three player games of LOTR. The first of them took around three hours, had several children watching for some of the time with their various hobbit and gollum imitations. Very funny, and they seem to understand the principles of the fellowship of the ring easier than us adults, judging by the results...

Session 3: Nancy, Wayne, Mark. Sauron starts 15. Score 46, eaten by Shelob.
Session 4: Wayne, Mark, Nancy. Sauron starts 15. Score 54, overtaken by events and Sauron grabs the ring. Pippin was alone for most of his fateful journey in Mordor in this game, but the eliminated players were still 'involved' in what was happening.

LOTR Sessions

2009-11-28T18:37:00.003+10:30

Board from 25 Nov 2009 (Postgame)

Game 1: Paul, Mark, Nancy - 53 points - Sauron starts at 15 on Corruption Chart
Game 2: Mark, Shaun, Paul, Nancy - 46 points - Sauron starts at 15

Both games took about two hours, though wouldn't be much more than an hour once people are familiar with the game. Highly challenging with a sense of impending and inevitable doom. The game hangs together neatly, encouraging the company to support each other. Utilises on board tracks to keep the forward momentum, cards to generate actions, nice components, clear rules. As the company passes through Shelob's Lair (we didn't get past through it to Mordor in the second game) the tension rises, as Sauron reaches out for the company the fear rises, as the hobbits have to risk themselves to save their friends the group coheres.

A good game, am even taking it to someone else's place tonight to induct them. Maybe I'll give it a rest then...

Lord of the Rings - Knizia board game

2009-11-21T15:20:00.006+10:30

Have just purchased Knizia's Lord of the Rings cooperative board game from the pawnbroker (of all places). Will let you know how it plays when we take on Sauron - but the concept of a 'corruption line', the artwork and the favoured status of almost anything designed by Knizia leads to good prospects.

After having read the rules and finding them somewhat intriguing because of the new possibilities opened by the group v the system approach I went for a quick google to see what sort of a game this was. I have found nothing but praise so far, but what was interesting is that I found this academic article on cooperative and collaboration game design ("Collaborative games: Lessons learned from board games" - Zagal, Rick, Hsi). It uses Knizia'a LOTR as its case study of a 'collaborative' game that works, is itself an attempt to draw lessons for use by the MMORG fraternity. Worth a read, as are the archives for The Gaming Journal (which I found in the article's bibliography).

PS sorry again for delays, RK has taken over again. I'll post sometime a summary of what's happened there. Suffice to say my character is now Field Marshall of the Royal Scottish Army, married, and rather busy in the role play side of things.

As a final note, I've activated word recognition in the comments on this blog as a result of the massive spam influx on the previous post.

Sign of Life

2009-10-31T12:04:00.006+10:30

For some reason, this post is the one that draws the second greatest number of googling visitors to my blog. At time I originally wrote this I wasn't around a lot, I am around a lot more these days. If you want to see what I'm up to more recently, click on 'Adelaide Gamer' above and leave a comment on the most recent post.

Postscript: I have left the large number of junk comments on this post as it is probably something in them which is drawing the visits (or perhaps it's the post title). Also, it's a reminder to me of the spam plague that can strike a site without notice.

[Above comments were posted 12 June, 2011]

Month and a half since I last posted here, and that was only a 'sign of life' post, like this one. Obviously things are going on distracting me from this place. Rather disconcerting since I was doing so well. Probably lost most if not all of my regular visitors. Can't see things changing here for a little while, so will have to content myself with sign-of-life posts like this one for a little while yet. Still, it's a long run project so I'll just get through this bad patch and hopefully be able to move forward again. Until then, if I'm patient with myself, will you be?

Still Kicking

2009-09-10T18:54:00.002+09:30

Just to let you know I am still around and busy. Will start more regular posting again very shortly. Presently am (still) right into my Renaissance Kingdoms and Tribal Nations online RPGs, have recently gone through a stage of Mafia FPSing and am taking up Medieval 2 again for a strategic burst. Have again had my gaming/painting room taken over by a family member who needed a roof so have again lost opportunity to revert to my original self and create tabletop gaming things.

More later.

Atmosphere and Elegance

2009-07-09T17:56:00.004+09:30

In commenting on this post over at the Grog I said the following:

I got closest (to the epitome of 'elegance and atmosphere', minimal rules, maximum affect) when I used the philosophy of cutting, not adding, elements in the rules and campaign setting. I boiled it down to a couple pages of charts. All was taken from AD&D (1.00000). The emphasis shifted from books and paper to dialogue, imaginings and the dice. With less dice rolled, each became more important. It was great.

When I walk into a game store these days that stocks the latest morph of D&D I never cease to be amazed at the number of volumes available, their expense, their quality of production and the amount of shelfspace they consume. Adding it all together I come to the conclusion that, besides being much more affluent than me and my 1e gaming friends were, modern gamers seem to be much more 'thing' oriented. I won't rant about the consumer society, but it worries me when I see the concentration on this vast profit making enterprise to the exclusion of home made fun and backyard businesses.

This isn't just about AD&D, RPGs, mass market computer games and so forth, but includes the other types of game as well. For example, in my little history of flight simming I have played on something for the Super80 way back when (!) right up to my present IL2 passion. I have tried maybe two dozen flight sims in my time. My favorites were 'wings' on the amiga, '1942 - Pacific War' on windows 98 and IL2 on XP. Each of these games faced off against more action oriented or more extravagent simulations, yet it is these to which I continue to return (in the case of IL2 and hopefully one day in the case of the others). Why?

Because they work well (elegant) and you can 'smell the avgas in the morning' (atmosphere).

It's like comparing the joy of the orginal squad leader game with the monster that it became - one is beer and pretzels , the other is abstract literary expertise. Both are fun, don't get me wrong, but you can probably guess which one I prefer.

Drummore, hive of activity

2009-07-07T22:32:00.003+09:30

It is now about two weeks since I first distributed plans for Operation Drummore. There are presently around 16 soldiers in Drummore (which I expected) with squads from all the towns (which I had hoped for).

I am about to start a three day 'advanced training course' for six of my officers/NCOs. They will head out and 'scout' the nodes on the road between wigtown and drummore. I will be running a tour of inspection of their positions with two of my MacTavish bodyguards. I have all the different scouts operating on different 'settings', and will get a chance to see what they see, and what I see, during the inspection. We will all need to post our sightings on the regimental forum to pass the examination.

While advanced training is happening the soldiers will be all working in the Drummore mines, except of those rostered for sentry duty. They will post what they see on the Regimental forum. This is their basic training.

I have asked all the soldiers in the mines to give me their 'receipts' for their labours. I will be collecting them on the Regimental forum. This is our 'civil aid' mission.

While the above is all happening ingame, we are running a 'military camp' Role Play thread on the town's local forum. I also seem to be meeting a lot of soldiers in the generally otherwise empty taverns. This is raising the profile of the RSA in this isolated town.

From around 10 July, the first scouts will leave town to cover the route for the return journey. On the twelfth, the squads of the Regiment will pull up their stakes and go back to their homes. This will complete the basic training requirements for the recruits. By leading one of the squads and participating in the scout training or cover force, the NCOs will have completed the formal element of their training.

When we get home I will collect all the receipts which the troops have collected when they worked in the mines and see how we can use this to obtain some cash from the County.

Of interest, since we have been in town the price of bread has risen, the wages paid in the mines have dropped, and some of the locals are whinging about the fact that where we go we are bound to attract trouble.

Sigh.

(With this post 2009 becomes the year in which I have (so far) written more posts (n=66) than any year bar one (2007) since 2004).

The General's Office

2009-07-07T22:09:00.003+09:30

It has been interesting getting a second chance to do the job of 'general' in the Galloway Regiment of the Royal Scottish Army in RK. The first time I ran around the country from one fragmented crisis to another until became an absolutely exhausted tragic hero in popular imagination. Good for tall tales in the tavern but not what was needed. Though, looking back, it was about the only thing that could have been done, and provided a popular base for the rebuild.

Here I am, half a year later, with the privilege of leading the Regiment again. The decay and demoralisation upon entry was pretty bad, and numbers are down. So. I have taken a rather different approach to my duties.

Have spent a lot of time in the General's Office, a subforum open basically only to the general. I must say I have got done a lot of work in there. I appointed officers to all the vacant positions in the regiment and set a timetable for setting up the infrastructure (town band forums, usergroups up to date, numbers, names) and a plan of action. People were hanging out for activity.

Putting a lot of time into it in the office, I soon had timetables, newsletters, task lists and piles of correspondence begining to pile up. It took a lot of planning and sweat to get it all happening.

And most of it happened behind closed doors.

Drummore or bust!

2009-07-03T20:02:00.004+09:30

In RK I am on a little jaunt with 'my' regiment the Royal Scots of Galloway of the Royal Scottish Army ('RSA'). I had quite a plan worked up, drawing squads from the three main bands together in Wigtown and then marching them over to Drummore. There was force procection scouts planned to be on the nodes before we passed, a 'slack' day in Wiggie to absorb inevitable delays, and a coordinated push through to Drummore, picking up the scouts on that road as we passed.

Things have not gone as planned.

Whithorn put together two squads, which could have been one. They had a scout leave town, but he has kept on marching and arrived in Drummore after three days out on his own. I was intending to lead the second squad to wiggie on the day after the first squad. Turns out the first squad left the day after me. They have only now gotten to Wiggie, the day after we were meant to leave.

My squad has therefore had a day chopping wood. We would have left on the day planned except that the Kirk squad has also arrived a day late. And they didn't scout the road before them.

As for the Wiggie band, the band leader seems to have 'disappeared'. She is still opening her mail so I assume she has read her orders, but I have had no response and it seems that the no one in town is doing what they're meant to. Which means there's no wiggie squad waiting to go out, and there is no one scouting the road to Drummore ahead of us.

The delays to Whit squad 1 and Kirk squad were both caused by waiting for someone to finish some business in town.

Dariangreen is trying to get something happening with the wig band. He used to be their adjutant before he became my military councillor so he has the contacts. Not much operational experience though.

When we get to Drummore I am seriously thinking of rostering the soldiers to mines/sentry duties, while I take the officers on a crash course of small unit tactics (command protocols, scouting techniques) so that they can then start training the soldiers of their bands on the return journey.

An interesting subplot that has worked was organising for the officers and those of my former bodyguard to be issued 'RSA Sporrans'. This entailed getting the town mayor of Whit (in the case of the non commissioned bodyguards) and the County Trade Minister (for the officers) to 'issue a travel grant' to these people. Basically, a grant is an inventory that is independent of your personal inventory that travels around with you. Thus, even if thieves rob your personal inventory, the contents of the grant remain safe. So I rebadged it as a RSA Sporran, had them issued, ordered the officers to keep emergency rations and weapons in them. Seems to be a popular move. Will have them issued to the whole regiment just as soon as we complete Operation Drummore and work out exactly who is in the Regiment these days.

The week that was

2009-06-27T11:13:00.005+09:30

IL2 Campaign - RAAF, 1942 New Guinea, P40E

I have flown my third mission over Moresby. I actually played it most nights, having up to three attempts at the mission per night. The situation is that a small flight of 4 x P40s (Kittyhawks) take off as their airfield is bombed by about 20 Japanese level bombers escorted by a flight of fighters. My plane was being shot out from under me or I was crashlanding with a damaged plane. I kept replaying it until I managed to at least land my damaged plane in one piece before progressing to the next mission. I occasionally got shots on target but didn't succeed in shooting one of the bombers down before I made my forced landing.

Renaissance Kingdoms

General Dracmuller spent several hours per day in the process of rebuilding the Galloway Regiment. He has appointed the necessary skeleton of staff, issued basic standing orders, planned and got underway a major regimental peacetime maneuver - 'Operation Drummore'. You will hear more of this as it unfolds. Otherwise, just the usual puttering around my various scottish haunts and at least an hour a night spent in a pub chatting and encouraging town activity.

Blog Roll Blog Posts of Note

DM as alchemist, neat summary.
Quiet times, social occasions and the rhythm of Dwimmermount.
John gets excited about Claymore '09.
Another DMG is sighted in cyberspace.

I don't know if it is just me but there seems to be a bit of a sense of community developing within the small part of the gaming blogosphere which I frequent. Hard to put a finger on it exactly, but seems to be something changing...

Back in Black

2009-06-19T00:40:00.004+09:30

My latest RK Banner.

I have fully recovered from my injuries and am able to hit the road again. To mark the change of circumstances I thought it time to change my look again...

I enjoyed the 45 day period during which I was unable to travel, work my forge, defend the power, etc. It meant life was a lot simpler - chop wood on most days, spend time in the pub each evening, participate in the Wigtown Veterans' Hospice forum based RP. Particularly this last as it flowed over into the interactions that were happening in the pub across the road and also because it allowed for some sustained literary RP over time with clan members who I would only fleetingly meet normally.

I have heard that Whithorn has gotten really quiet so it is with some trepidation that I return to my home town. If nothing else, I'll be able to work my forge and concentrate on a few things that need doing (army duties leap to mind).

Go!

2009-06-17T22:40:00.007+09:30

When I started this blog I had recently been given a Go set for xmas, or my birthday, or whatever. Full of expectations I eagerly awaited playing games of Go against all and sundry. To date, however, almost nothing. But the game has never yet released its hold on my imagination.

To me, Go is the epitome of a strategic contest boiled down to an abstract game form. And it is deliciously simple. Rather than try and write an introduction to it I've stayed clear of it on this blog.

And now I read this post on Tabletop, and think the whole presentation of the blog as well as its content (an examination of those 'gamey games' for 6-600 year olds) is worth a plug. Beautiful blog and a guide to get you go-ing.

Flying High Again

2009-06-14T18:01:00.003+09:30

After a long long time and much thinking about it I finally took to the virtual skies again in a P40E Kittyhawk over New Guinea on Il2-Sturmovik:1946. Escorted a bunch of B17s from Morseby down to Milne Bay, took about an hour and a half to fly there and back again. Only saw a few enemy way out on the horizon. Bombers hit their target. I crashlanded safely.

Took a little while to get the hang of the controls again but it was a reasonable first mission after such a long break.

Girvan Crisis - Summary

2009-06-14T08:53:00.001+09:30

Twenty five characters had been 'killed', with about the many wounded, over the crisis. The maps still showed Girvan belonging to Ayr. New seeds had been laid for future conflict (the campbells and the macgregor 'marines', for example, had unfinished business). The army had had a successful outing again (good for morale).

No one knew how this would all work out when it began, and no one guessed the way it acutally did end. Yet there was a remorseless logic to it all. At one time there were over a hundred people in the various armies within scotland, and there was an english army over the border to contain things to scotland if it had gotten seriously crazy. In the post mortem of the crisis there were resignations from the army, complaints, redrawings of charters, court cases, feuds and many many tales told.

For me, it gave a glimpse of medieval warfare from the 'inside', the lumbering of large national armies, the scooting around of auxilliary forces, the importance of politcs and personality to war, treachery, loyalty, mistakes and plans gone awry.

Great fun.

And, finally, at time of posting this, I have about two or three days left in the Hospice in Wigtown and then I will be recovered and can go home to my forge in Wigtown and start doing what I've wanted to do for ages ... living the quiet life.

Sure...

Girvan Crisis (conclusion)

2009-06-14T08:32:00.004+09:30

I'll keep the rest of the events of the Girvan Crisis to as short a narrative as I can as I suspect that some or all of you, my beloved readers, might be getting a bit tired of it all.

The individual soldiers of the Galloway Regiment continued over the following several days to try and sneak past the hostile town of Girvan. One of my previous bodyguards and the present General of the Regiment were amongst these. Their names were on the Kill list. They ended back in Wigtown in the Hospice. The rest (numbering nearly a dozen) got through and joined up with the northern regiments, gathering in Ayr.

Meanwhile, in Girvan, the Ducal Guard contained in its ranks many who were candidates in the Galloway election. To take their positions they'd have to march back into the county the day after the polls closed. Which they did, leaving Girvan in the care of their fellow renegade army, the marines.

Having spent a day in Wigtown to accept their positions on the council, the ducal guard proceeded to return to Girvan. At the same time the northern regiments descended from the north upon the town. Things were reaching a climax.

It was assumed that the marines would allow the guard within the wall (them being allies and all). Although they were majorly outnumbered by the northern regiments it would be a close fight once the defensive bonus of the walls was factored into the expected climactic battle that would follow.

The following day, however, there was a surprise. The northern regiments attacked, as expected. The campbells ('ducal guard') tried to get into the walls. The marines, however, kept the doors barred. The campbells were killed almost to a soldier as the combined northern regiments fell upon them in front of the town walls (needless to say this caused much hilarity amongst the loyalists but greatly upset the campbells).

The following day the northern regiments attacked the walls, manned now only by the marines. With some nifty generalship, however, the marines managed to sneak away with only a handful of casualties. They ran all the way to Dumfries on the English border, chased by a triumphant loyalist army.

The conflict finally reached a negotiated settlement in distant dumfries, with the marines laying down their arms and seeking refuge within the castle walls. The Clan army of the Wallaces, which had been acting as 'backstop' to the loyalist forces, marched into Girvan and reannexed it to the County of Ayr. This marked the end of the Girvan crisis.

Girvan Crisis (7)

2009-06-14T08:25:00.002+09:30

Our deaths were not in vain. We had determined that there was a kill list in operation in the renegade army (our best argument to bring the pacifists onside). We had shed Gallowegian blood (bringing the glaswegians onside). Our two deaths probably increased the strength of the loyalist armies by many times that number.

The outpouring of grief on the forums as word of my death travelled brought tears to my eyes. I didn't know how widely or how well regarded my character was within the Kingdom. I found myself soon having to notify folk that i was 'resurrected' within Wigtown or some folk would have done stupid things (eg. leave the game because the 'nice guys' are getting killed).

Perhaps most valuably, by my death I had removed any middle ground between the warring factions. Killing a nice guy like me was a fact that the renegades couldn't explain away, especially as I was heading too Girvan, not past it to the northern regiments. They were now seen as common cutthroats by those who had not already thought this of them due their propoganda to date.

As we set up a RP forum thread called 'Wigtown Veterans' Hospice' to occupy ourselves during our enforced stay in the town we felt some satisfaction knowing that our deaths were not in vain, even though we were now out of the action for the rest of the crisis. Our duty had been done.

And with that, we watched events from afar while we settled into our rehabilitation.

Girvan Crisis (6)

2009-06-14T08:19:00.002+09:30

The Wallace and myself marched to Girvan in our group of two. We were prepared for hostility. We were still rather surprised when 'reset' happened and a new day began and we found ourselves back in Wigtown.

Shock.

We had been attacked and 'killed' by the ducal guard upon our reaching Girvan. We were automatically sent by the game system back to the last town we had been in (Wigtown). Although able to 'resurrect' ourselves we had lost a portion of our stats (stength, charisma, intelligence). Our swords and shields were broken beyond repair. We were not able to step outside the town for 45 days while we recovered.

We were the first casualties of the Girvan crisis, killed on a 'beer run to Girvan' as the publicists were soon broadcasting across the kingdom.

Girvan Crisis (5)

2009-06-14T08:10:00.002+09:30

At the time of arrival in Wigtown, our soldiers had been travelling in bands of five for self protection. These bands would only be chewed up if they came into contact with the hostile armies blocking our route to the north. So we split up the groups and issued orders to the troops to make their individual way onto the nodes and then to try and sneak past the town walls of Girvan.

The exception to this was myself and one other volunteer. Anjel Wallace was not in the army, but had come along to help out. He was generally pacifist. I had spoken to him a few times about what was happening. He wanted to fight but wouldn't take part in any attack upon a town. I thought that if he saw what I suspected was happening in Girvan (gangs of thugs running rampant over a terrorised townsfolk) he'd change his mind.

So Anjel and I formed a group of two and went direct to Girvan.

There was a further reason for this action of ours. So far, no one had been hurt in the evolving crisis. We didn't know whether there was room for a negotiated settlement or not. The only way to know would be to determine if there were kill lists in operation for the ducal armies.

If we went straigth to Girvan we'd come into contact with the occupying army a day before the other soldiers would be attempting to sneak around the town. They would be able to see what happened to us and at least be prepared for the possiblities. If we were attacked, so be it. If we weren't, we'd be able to gain valuable intelligence about the situation within the town.

So, Anjel and I said our farewells and headed out on the road to Girvan.

Girvan Crisis (4)

2009-06-14T07:55:00.003+09:30

There we were, sitting in a pub in Wigtown with Scotland marshalling for war all around. Royalist armies were gathering in Glasgow and Ayr, to take on the renegade Ducal Guard of Galloway which was occupying the formally Ayrish town of Girvan. There was an army of marines, loosely aligned with the renegades, somewhere in the vicinity of Wigtown. There was the possibility of a coup in our capital of Dumfries.

We couldn't raise our own ingame army because there were not suffcient soldiers who had the required skills in our Regiment. We were receiving contradictory orders about what to do; march to girvan with the townsfolk, go and defend our capital, sneak past girvan and join up with the northern regiments, stay in wigtown and defend the power.

So we held a conference in the pub to work it out for ourselves.

Having spoken to some of travellers passing through we were able to pin down the location of the marines, whom they had passed on the road. The marines were heading north to Girvan. This meant that we could leave the safety of the towns of Galloway in the hands of the mayors with a lot less risk, but we still had to work out how we could best contribute to the liberation of Girvan.

The main fighting force would be the northern regiments regardless what we did. The most prudent thing to do have been to remain in Wigtown to cut off any possible retreat by the rebels. The problem with this is that we were hearing strong rumours of internal divisions within the Glasgow regiment (the strongest), with the isolationists seeking immediate withdrawal from the conflict. One of their main arguments was that Galloway wasn't providing troops to the good fight, and why should Glasgow do so if we didn't?

That decided it. So we packed our bags, gathered our swords and shields, and worked out how we were going to try and get ourselves to the loyalist armies to the north of the hostile town of Girvan.

Renaissance Lawyer

2009-06-14T07:30:00.007+09:30

In RK I was asked to take appear in the County Court as defence counsel for Rothum, the Rector of the University. She was prosecuted for Treason. She had excluded from consideration for appointment to a lecturerer position one of the main characters in the Girvan Crisis, namely the Chief of the MacGregors - who had been responsible for the highway murder by the Ducal Marines of a wandering scholar who had been heading to Galloway to teach.

Up until I received Rothum's request I had kept clear of the Renaissance courts on the twin grounds that I have been busy enough, and that legal work is too similar to what I do in real life for a living. However, I made in exception in this matter because I (a) have a lot of respect for what Rothum has achieved so far with the university and the manner in which she conducts herself generally, (b) I didn't like the bullying that she had recently been subject to by Campbells and MacGregors, (c) most others would be scared off of the job because of the larger conflict it was a part of and the reprisals which usually follow standing up to the bullies, (d) in real life I have a bit of a history of activism over education issues and this gelled neatly with that, (e) I am still recovering in Wigtown and this was one way of being involved in larger affairs.

So I took the case. We were successful in getting Rothum aquited, though the Judge reasoned differently to what we had argued in the case. Still, it was fun.

Below is the transcript of the trial as it played out in the court over several days. You will note that it is a very different approach to the previous time I and a friend had been hauled before a similar court in the Aztec World, charged with highway robbery.

Lawsuit between Rothum and County of Galloway

Rothum was charged with the act of treason.

The sentence has been passed

The verdict

The defendant has been discharged.

The charges filed in this case were brought under the following statute.

Article 2.4.6: An act of abuse of power is defined as the use of public position beyond normal duties to earn

political or personal gain for himself or an accomplice.

It is the duty of this Court to determine if the prosecution has met its burden of proof in showing the elements of this statute were shown to have been done, beyond a reasonable doubt.
Immediately, the Court observes that there are problems with this statute. It does not define an act of abuse of power as a crime. It simply defines that act to be one that is the �use of a public position beyond normal duties to earn political or personal gain for himself or an accomplice.� Though located within the Penal Code, it fails to recite that this is a crime, and what level of crime it is. The Court finds that this is a fatal defect in the law, such that it cannot be used to charge a crime, as it makes no declaration that an abuse of public power is found to be a crime under the laws of the County of Galloway. The Court finds that this statute is merely definitional, and does not in fact set out a matter that is a crime. The Court is constrained to read the laws as they are on the books. The Court cannot infer that this was intended to be a crime. In matters so serious as criminal proceedings, the law must be clear. As the Court has noted in its previous rulings, one function of the law is to put residents and citizens on notice of what is considered to be criminal behaviour in the County. And in this, this statute falls far short of what is required for a statute under which a criminal proceeding can be held.

As such, this case is dismissed with prejudice.

Nevertheless, were the Court to make a ruling on the merits of the case, the Court finds that the power inherent in the Rector�s job, to appoint teachers, and the exercise thereof, does not rise to the level of using a position beyond normal duties. It is within the purview and normal duties of the Rector to use her or her considered judgement in appointing teachers at the University. A disagreement over the exercise of judgment, a matter upon which reasonable men may well disagree, does not make such disagreement rise to the level of an abuse of the power of the position of the Rector, and the charge in any event would again be dismissed with prejudice.

Bill of indictment

The defendant stands in court, being charged for the crime within the Penal Code, in "Article 2.4.6: An act of abuse of power is defined as the use of public position beyond normal duties to earn political or personal gain for himself or an accomplice."

The Defendant, is Rector of the County University, and due to this, is expected to guide the University in an unbiased, and fair manner. The evidence below, shows the defendant in a confession-like manner, abusing her role as Rector. The King states that no one charged with a crime, can be punished afterwards, yet the crime claimed in the evidence isnt a charged crime, or law within the County of Galloway.

The Rector is not a prosecution, or a judge for that matter, and should be worrying about the teaching and stability of the University, rather than the personal quarrels with others.

The prosecution presses this case in regard of this, in an unbiased, and fair way. If the Rector wishes to prosecute, or judge, perhaps she needs to take my, or your job your honor..

*Julius says, with a laugh..*

Evidence: http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh300/Tosher1/rothum.jpg

First defence pleading

Not Guilty

Prosecutor indictment

The personal and political gain the defendant has gained is easily stated within the evidence. The ability to withhold teachers from teaching, for personal reasons, without there even being a crime pressed. Now, lets not sway from the point.

Was the Defendant, considering the well being of the University? Or was the Rector considering a personal quarrel with the plaintiff? No matter which way you answer, personal feelings, which is something to consider no matter how you put it, can be gained. Personal gain therefor is made, in the form of vengeance. If you know me, you would know that my family was badly injured due to the plaintiff's actions, and in this, I would love to see vengeance on him for his actions..

The difference is, I did not choose to not press this case, simply based on my personal feelings, but the evidence within the King's own edicts, and the laws we have in Galloway. As PP, I am expected to act unbiased for the laws of Galloway, which I honestly couldnt care less about.. And I think we expect the same with the Rector, and any other arm of the County.

Let me ask this as well.

Your honor, would you punish someone, or choose not to punish them based on your personal feelings, or based on the laws and the safety and structural balance of Galloway?

Last defence pleading

Not Guilty

The defence called Dracmuller to the witness box

Statement:

Dracmuller, bruised and battered from recent goings on in Ayr, steps forth to speak for the Defendant.
___

The plaintiff alleges misfeasance on the Rector's part but does not allege political or personal gain. Nor do they allege conspiracy. Therefore, they cannot prove the crime alleged (which requires such proof). We urge that the matter be dismissed without further ado.
___

However, if the judge would entertain further audience from the plaintiff, we would note that the Rector has not only not gained personally or politically through the actions alleged, but that she has indeed suffered grievously as a result of her lawful exercise of the Rector�s powers within the jurisdiction of the University. The fact of this vexatious matter being raised publicly, and the sadness which she feels at such ill use of court resources, forms but part of the constellation of harm which she bravely suffers as consequence to the performance of her duties.
___

The duty of the Rector, to advance the cause of the community of students and faculty who together constitute the university, is an onerous task and requires continual discretionary judgments on her part. Her duty is not one of care for individuals if that were to place her in conflict with her overwhelming responsibility to the University as a whole.

One of her guiding principles is to maintain standards within the university. Egregious behaviour by staff could bring the university into disrepute. The character of an applicant, as demonstrated by behaviour (and recent behaviour at that), is therefore an important consideration when deciding appointments.

When such egregious behaviour is constituted by the act of ordering the death of one who, for all we know, might himself have been coming to apply for a teaching position (a subsidiary point in the debate, granted, and one for which the only witness is presently incapacitated beyond the bounds of summons or subpoena due the aforementioned egregious act (a point for which we seek that no foul finding be made on the principle that no perpetrator benefit from an act so egregious and infamous as the one committed by the aggrieved in this matter)), the gravity of the discretion exercised is only compounded.
___

The plaintiff refers to the King's Edict regarding the principle of avoiding double jeopardy, or, the infliction of multiple punishments for a convicted crime. We note that the Rector has no capacity to punish for past crimes, nor does she purport to have done so in this instance. The Rector in this matter is simply maintaining a standard of conduct which would be recognised amongst all civilised institutions.

___

We remind the court that there never was a certainty of expectation on the part of the aggrieved that he would attain a position on faculty. Even if the court were to ascribe a value to such an expectation as he held, as nebulous as it was, it would be a far sight from saying that because this has been lost by the aggrieved that therefore the Rector has gained politically or personally from the affair.

Indeed, as we have indicated, the opposite is in fact the case.
___

We urge the Court to summarily dismiss this attack upon the academic and personal integrity of the Rector. However, we stand prepared to provide further argument or evidence if that be the court's desire.

The defence called Dracmuller to the witness box

Statement:
The prosecutor asks that we not stray from the point. We will not do so, once we have identified it.

The duty of the Rector to make decisions about appointments is an inherent part of the job. An intrinsic component of this duty is the capacity to deny such appointment. The exercise of this capacity to deny appointment is a necessary corollary of the power to make appointments. In exercising this capacity in this case the Rector was fulfilling her duty.

We refute the prosecution�s allegation that the decision to deny appointment to the aggrieved was due to a �personal quarrel� (the Rector has never met the aggrieved and knows him not except by his public deeds). We agree that the decision was made after consideration of, and in accordance with, the well being of the university.

We agree with the prosecution that a person in the position of Rector might derive satisfaction from the successful exercise of her duties. We are puzzled at the relevance of this fact, as it constitutes no measurable gain and implies only that the Rector is doing a good job. Would the prosecutor prosecute a farmer who is pleased with a good crop, a blacksmith pleased with a good lump of steel? All of scotland�s fine citizens would stand guilty if our pleasure at a job well done were to constitute guilt of treachery. Such a position would be ludicrous in the extreme and make a mockery of the work of the law in furthering the cause of the people.

We are bemused by the prosecution�s ascription of �vengeance� to the above mentioned satisfaction with a job well done and the biographical details which follow. We ask that he be censured for dragging his personal predilection for such things into this esteemed hall. Never-the-less, we respect the office which he holds and the importance of his function within this court and ask that the verdict in this matter be adjudged on the facts as presented. No more, no less.

We deny any element of �punishment� in the Rector�s decision, we deny any sense of personal satisfaction other than that of fulfilling the broad purpose of the position of Rector, we urge all public officials to compliance with their duties in the furtherance of good order and public safety within our glorious county.

We ask that this matter be dismissed so that the Rector may return to her duties within the University.

Girvan Crisis (3)

2009-06-09T23:13:00.002+09:30

The most militant of the Gallowegians in the RSA departed Wigtown the day I arrived in town. They moved onto the node that first day (a 'node' is the travel 'spot' which lies in between each of the towns in RK, sometimes there can be more than one 'node' between towns). The next night they would bypass Girvan to the node to its north, the following day they'd arrive at the city of Ayr. There they hoped to join up with one of the Northern Regiments of the RSA (who would have to march through Ayr to get to Girvan).

Meanwhile, in Wigtown, the regular rank and file of the regiment was gathering, as well as those citizens who though not in the army had decided to march with us anyway. The situation we were faced with was roughly as follows...

To our North, the mayor of Girvan had let the Gallowegian Ducal Guard inside the town walls. To our West, the larger and more powerful army of the Ducal Navy ('the marines'), had gathered a who's who of Scotland's miscreants and marched onto one of the two nodes that lay between Drummore and Wigtown. The intentions of the marines was not known. To our East lay Kirk and beyond that Dumfries, the County Capital and stronghold of all the Campbells who hadn't gone off with the Ducal Guard into Ayr. The county elections were in a week or so's time, and the smart money was on those who opposition to the present county council.

In the pubs of wigtown the RSA and loyal Gallowegians gathered, talked through the various permutations of what might now occur. We were concerned that, if we'd go marching off to the north, that would leave the county exposed to the depredations of the ducal marines. In two days time they could appear in four of galloway's five towns, with all the best fighters caught to the north of the Ducal Guard. On the other hand, we were concerned that if we didn't head off north immediately the ducal guard in Girvan would institute a 'kill list' (it appeared that, to that moment, they hadn't as they had not interfered with the infilitration that had occurred the night before when various RSA soldiers had crept past Girvan to the free north).

A third and equally unsavory possibility was that the ducal marines would march all the way through to Dumfries and prepare to mount a coup as soon as the likely to be elected council took office post election. With their hands on our treasury the mind boggled at what might then happen.

Just to make our pub talks in Wigtown even more depressing, there were strong rumours that isolationists in Glasgow were growing louder in their calls to not get involved in Ayr's troubles (Girvan being an Ayrish town), which would mean that Ayr on its own would have to potentially fight two ducal armies (the guard and the marines), that Girvan would be annexed to Galloway, that the rampant forces that had taken Girvan would roll north and take the next town down the road before Glasgow awoke to the threat (once they had taken Ayr, any invasion from the South becomes much harder to deal with due the choice of routes it can take from there). It seemed that these Glaswegian isolationists were using the fact that Galloway RSA wouldn't even be fielding a regiment of its own to insinuate that we would sit on our hands while they did the fighting and we would later reap the benefits.

Needless to say, we in Wigtown had some interesting conversations about what we could or should do.

Meanwhile, the clock kept ticking....

Girvan Crisis (2)

2009-06-09T21:00:00.003+09:30

In the two days I had left in my home town of Whithorn (set by the fact that I'd complete the sword I was working on in that time), I slowly ramped up my ingame presence. Mainly in the taverns, encouraging, cajoling, daring others to come on the crusade. Several townsfolk who were not in the army came and spoke to me privately, getting my assessment of the situation. Some of these decided to collect supplies, arms and armour and come with the RSA.

What had upset the locals across Galloway was not so much the theoretical point that an army (our county's army at that) was about to annexe another town from another scottish county. Nor did we get upset so much at the fact that the people of Girvan were probably going to suffer majorly as a result of this. Nor that the Girvanites best efforts to defend their walls against possible attack were subverted by their (elected) mayor letting the ('foreign') Ducal Guard inside the town hall.

No, what seemed to most upset those of us in Galloway that had followed events was that the Ducal Guard had marched across the border to Girvan, despite the promises made at its formation that it would not be used outside of Galloway's borders, and would there be used only for defensive purposes. And they were doing it in our name. And our Council rates were paying for it. Basically, the fact that we'd been lied to.

Some of us had even served for a time in the Guard as a sign of goodwill between RSA and Campbell, soldiers and the elected council. In fact, some of these 'goodwill' soldiers were still marching under the flag of the Guard when it had marched north into County Ayr (they had left its ranks in the day before it marched inside the walls). By marching inside Girvan's walls the Guard had set a clock ticking that was as inexorable as the steady blows of my hammer on steel in the forge on King Street, Whithorn.

I had somehow hung onto my small stockpile of swords against just such an eventuality as was now occuring. After checking to see that there were no likely potential commissiary agents of the Ducal Guard in Whithorn, I managed to sell the lot within two days. In normal times a sword can sit on the market for months without a buyer, so selling four in a day showed how people were thinking that push was coming to shove.

Having sold my stockpile, I packed my clan sword and my newly made spare sword on my donkey and headed off to Wigtown.

The Girvan Crisis (1)

2009-06-09T20:46:00.005+09:30

This will (hopefully) be the first of a series of concluding posts dealing with the history of this warlike series of recent events in RK Scotland.

The Ducal Guard, without notice to any other body, marched north from Wigtown (Galloway) to Girvan (Ayr). Although the pernickity legalists across the land were getting upset at the fact that the army didn't have the permission of the Ayr County Council for this move, and sought legal opinion to this effect, those of us who had been around were thinking other thoughts.

Like, what was this army planning on doing, sitting outside of the walls of Girvan? The army certainly didn't have the numbers to assault the town's walls, so it was a bit of a mystery. If we'd looked a bit closer at the situation we would have worked it out I am sure, for the following day the army was inside the walls of Girvan, having been let in by the Campbell mayor of the town.

Needless to say, at this point things got fairly heated. The northern counties had been marshalling their troops over the previous weeks. This process was put into overdrive. The Ducal Navy, taking advantage of the marines gathering in Drummore's prison colony, raised its own army flag and started recruiting. The Galloway Regiment called its troops to gather in Wigtown.

I had been busy on my forge in Wigtown, enjoying Roleplaying the further adventures of Raebert. I gathered a few supplies together, mailed my band leader that I'd finish the sword I was working on and be in wigtown in three days.

From news we'd heard from Ireland in preceding months we knew that it takes at least a week for an army to conquer a town and cause its allegiance to change to that of the army. The race was on...

Grognardia Blog

2009-06-08T23:55:00.002+09:30

I've added Grognardia to my blog roll. It is a kind of musing appreciation of the classic swords and sorcery cut and thrust style of adventurous RPGs, replete with philosophical musings about what makes this special type of game so much fun and so rare in the washout of middle classed commerce and morality that has overtaken so much of popular culture. Well worth a bit of a look if you're into this sort of thing.