Long time gone - time to Go

Ice Hockey stole my life for a few years which really put a dent into my time budget.  Sadly, gaming suffered most out of the 'other things' in life (eg. family, work, gaming).  First to go were board games.  Next, online games dropped in frequency and then almost out of the equation (limited to World of Tanks).  And then I took a redundancy and moved to the country so everything got packed and stacked in boxes and still pretty well remains there (not sure if you'd call my present state one of semi-retirement or not, but I sure have kept busy).  And before you know it, the years have rolled by (take note, young ones).

There was the odd game in the past few years, but very few.  So few, I can recall them!

Condotierre - against the nephews, winning two out of three.
Settlers - against the nephews, winning none, losing two.
Ticket to Ride - against the daughter and grandson, miracle victory as the cards fell my way.

And, recently, Go.  This one has really taken my attention for a couple of months now, playing or studying it for a minimum of an hour a day.  I use an online go site and it has started refreshing my mind back into the gamer's mindset.  Very enjoyable, and a great relief for someone who is hours away from all known gaming opponents!

But, my gaming related interests have continued.  History, and anglo-saxon / viking / early norman periods in particular.  And rules get looked at.  And armies get planned in the spare moments while chopping wood etc.

And I've even had a look at Alcazia again.

And thus it continues...

Trivial Success

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

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.

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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!

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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).

Some alternate recreational gaming links

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?

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

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

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?

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!