Friday, January 14

Weekly Musings # 2 - ACW rules thoughts..

Trying to get into the swing of regular posting, so a weekly post, antholog'esque in style (anyone remember "Firing into the Brown" in the old Wargamers Newsletter??😊), seems achievable even if on some occasions they may be short... 

Before we launch, the spammers are also strong this year, so apologies I've added the "I have to approve" thing for if my reader needs to comment..  apologies again, it's a pain but it saves everyone being offered Cialis/Viagra..  though some of the recent offers were decent prices! πŸ˜‚

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..I've been giving some thoughts to including officers in the ACW rules DG and I worked up (link [clicky]) from those in the Neil Thomas "One Hour Wargames" book..

As I mentioned in the last post, the use of officers to convey/gift strength points back to a unit mid-battle at first sight is a little counter intuitive given that the whole point of the rules is to get a quick game, and adding points will extend the game, but there are some counter arguments..  and besides it's always fun to tinker..

Also I can think of a few scenario specific reasons for doing it in some cases..  for example, I am looking to recreate a particular battle or skirmish where:
  1. the actions of an officer had a significant effect on the outcome, or 
  2. a unit/regiment/whatever, that on the day performed in a super human way, and remained active far longer than would normally expect,
  3. .. etcetc. 
 Anyway - the rule would be optional - I can't see it being needed for every game - and my current thinking is leaning towards including them in a couple of ways...

First - as per the last game, give them a fixed number of strength points they are allowed to gift to any unit, the officer has to be attached to the unit they are gifting (as in base to base contact), and while doing that they can potentially be adversely affected by any casualties the unit takes from firing or melee..

Second - the same, but give them a variable number of strength points they can allocate (say 1D6 worth, or half a D6 worth rounded down, etc)

Movement would be at cavalry rate.. 

While attached to the unit the officer figure would be subject to any damage the unit takes while in combat or under fire..   there's a handy little rule in the AWI McNally rules I use that will cover that nicely.. 

Risk to Generals/officers

If the general /officer is with any unit that suffers losses from melee/firing throw 2d6
  • 2 - 8 No effect.
  • 9 - 10 Suffers a light wound and moves at 1/2 speed.
  • 11 - 12 Dead.
If a general/officer suffers a second light wound he is incapacitated and is removed from play.

Job done..  on a shallow level it also means I have a use for all those officer figures I painted.. 😁

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Finished off a few bits and pieces on the paint table from last year..  by the by is there anything sadder than a water pot that has dried out?? 😏

These were tail ends of the WWII skirmish re-basing for the French - I need to go back and check but this rebasing project may now be complete...? (post edit - yes, the French are complete - need to crack on with the Germans)

Before...


After..




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The Christmas Dickens is now finished, as above, it was "Our Mutual Friend" this year and what a monster of a book - took me weeks! LOL..

I think that completes most of his works for me now and funnily enough this is apparently the last complete novel that Dickens wrote so it is kind of serendipitous that the two events should conjoin...

Quite good I thought (Dickens and "quite good" in the same sentence anyone? 😏) the story concerns one John Harmon believed lost at sea/murdered, and heir to a not inconsiderable fortune that in his absence transfers to his aged (and much loved) guardians the Boffins. The story is basically about how Harmon clears his name and struggles with how he can reclaim his fortune given it will deny his guardians the money while along the way he enrols as their secretary (without them knowing as they haven't seen him years), falls in love and eventually marries ..  but while that is a fairly simple story, along the way there is a simply huge cast of associated and not associated characters that allow Dickens to really go to town on the social inequalities of the time...  "the satire is strong in this one, Obi Wan"... read the passages about the Veneers (what a brilliant and wholly illustrative name for a character) and you think as you (don't) watch "Made in Chelsea/Essex/Jungle", nothing's changed..  excellent 8/10

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Laters, as the young people are want to say...

22 comments:

  1. I think the OHW rules lend themselves perfectly to tweaks here and there as one thinks fit. Your suggestions make perfect sense to me. I like to include some form of C&C in my games, especially as the vast majority are solo at present.

    My Blogging motivation is weak at present but hope to put up some musings soon. Real life has made time to do this in short supply of late but things hopefully on the up on this front.

    Charles Dickens. Hmmm, not a favourite of mine as we had to study him at school and Little Dorrit was mind numbingly dull to read. Our teacher said he was very much a Marmite author, you either loved or hated him. The tv dramatisations are much better as they get to the core of the story and avoid the detailed interiors descriptions etc that bedevilled his writing. Mind you as he got paid by the chapter which was printed monthly IIRC, you can't blame him really!

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    1. Steve J. your comments re. blogging chime.. during the second half of last year I couldn't bring myself to do any for the same reason as yourself.. in the end I just came to the conclusion "bugger it" and now put any old bo**ocks up that interests me.. :o)

      Dickens - you're also spot on there too.. he was very much a "by the inch" writer (as in paid by..) but mentally, once you attune yourself to the style of language, it's fairly easy to skim (not skip) the more flowery sections.. I reckon he's worth a go, but only at Christmas... :o))

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  2. Hello old chap,

    For some strange reason you had dropped off my ‘followed blogs’ list so I am back ones again seeing what happens in your world!

    All the best,

    DC

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    1. Hello DC - no need to apologise at all - you have your own issues to deal with currently, so nice to have you back but let me also take this opportunity to pass on my best wishes for a happy outcome with Mrs DC's current trials..

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    2. Many thanks old chap - much appreciated!

      All the best,

      DC

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  3. No stopping you now Steve. I like your WW2 vehicles - I must do somehing about mine! It will be interesting to see how your OHW officer amendments work. They shouldn't add too much complexity I feel. Completely understand about comments having to be approved - you won't stop me though :-). Best wishes. Jim.

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    1. Hi Jim - those French tanks are just lovely.. I'm also playing a lot of online "World of Tanks" at the moment and always gravitate towards them because they look like little Lego toys... and then there's the camo.. not sure if you saw this this week but the Musee de Blindes in Saumur posted up a cracking little vidoe of their R35 coming back to the museum - but look at the camo on that! Hopefully this works for you, but you may need Farcebook.. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FMuseeblindes%2F&psig=AOvVaw3Xf1IZlj-78mDtDrPomXPw&ust=1642250241347000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA4Q3YkBahcKEwjg8b6FobH1AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAw

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  4. Re the officers rule - I like the mechanism and similar is done in Bonnie Blue Flag, though there, each round both sides roll for initiative and add in their officers rating … so in battle, as the officer ‘gifts’ his rating to other units to keep them sustained, his new reduced rating then disadvantages him on the initiative die roll, reflecting that the side is under pressure - clever.

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    1. Cheers Norm - yeah - it was your game where you were using Bonnie Blue Flag that triggered the synapse.. that initiative idea is quite clever indeed... may have to think more about that..

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  5. Oh and re spammers, I quite understand, my own regular spammer took Christmas off, which I thought was a bit of a hoot. I have contacted Google about my ‘repeat offender’, but nothing has been done. In in the good old days, I’m sure that if you marked a poster as a ‘spammer’, they would not get access to the blog again.

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    1. He/she is a PITA - one day I got twenty of the same post on twenty different posts, across both my Blogs, so their AI is getting cleverer...

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  6. Thomas is quite accepting of additions and changes to his OHW rules. They are basic for more than just a quick game. Nearly everyone has different ideas that can be added to OHW rules to fulfill personal likes.

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    1. Khusru - I am of an age where I remember having to write my own rules in order to play games, but you're right, the best thing about the Thomas rules is that they provide a nice airy framework to try stuff on..

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  7. Nowt wrong with tinkering Steve! Rebasing is fun, not...

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    1. David - I'm a complet'ist, so I would say basing is not riveting, but with a good film on the tellybox it can be very relaxing, and I also like it when everything looks the same base'wise... yeah, weird I know.. ;o)

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  8. Steve, good to see you kicking off the New Year with motivation for regular postings. Fab looking armor.

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  9. Love the camo on those french tanks mate! Very nice!

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    2. Hiya JBM.. I seam to have touched on something with that French armour..! Watch for next weeks enthralling episode for a treat for all French WWII armour fans.. :o)

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  10. Sorry I don't often comment but I do read, and good to see you are trying to do mroe regular posts. I know how much like hard work that can be! :-) Anyway, the mention of Our Mutual Friend got me going; I can heartily recommend the 1998 BBC version. Altogether brilliant and it cuts out much of the flowery and repetetive waffle Dickens was so prone to writing (and I suppose I would too if I was being paid by the word! ;-)).

    Cheers,

    David.

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    1. Cheers David - I shall definitely look that version up.. it's a funny thing but I have found almost every Dickens to improve as I get towards the end.. I don't know whether it's because my internal ear is attuning to the prose, or if it's because Dickens himself can sense the ending and also "speeds it up"..

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    2. I think you'll enjoy it; I feel the BBC really improve on the novel. Here's the IMDB link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144727/ where it gets a pretty high score by IMDB standards. BBC DVDs used to be incredibly expensive but now can often be picked up very cheaply on Ebay etc. (or your local charity shop, if they still sell DVDs). I suspect speeding up towards the ends of novels may also have something to do with wanting to know how the story ends! But I agree that one does often become more finely attuned to the prose style.

      Cheers,

      David.

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