Objectives reached !

 

I recently left my job as Financial Director of a registered charity.  Let us say that the crashing waves of my enthusiasm, driven by the winds of 10 to 14 hour working days, had too long been dashed on the sea-wall of inertia, sheer laziness and incompetence.  Ten years was enough  ; )

I reasoned it was also time to move on from the world of finances in general.  There were three reasons for that : I had been in it for 20+ years; was a bit fed up of having to justify my work to about ten layers of controllers (even if I appreciate why that is necessary); I am more interested in the social aspects of finance than making money for shareholders, which reduces options; and I had reached the deadly 50-odd years old doom trap where any change in career, already difficult, was about to become impossible.

That is four reasons, which is another reason I needed to leave. 

So off I went, and with a combination of a decent CV, a lot of searching, and a rather huge stroke of luck* that avoided me having to rely on my good looks, I managed to navigate the choppy waters of change.  I am now doing grassroots work with elderly people, and not a balance sheet or a state financial controller in sight.

Anyway, why I am boring you with this ?  Well, because I have discovered anew the joys of free time, anxiety-free evenings and hassle-free weekends and holidays.  Which means for the first time EVER, I have reached both my first semester objectives : I have played more than 26 games, and I have painted more than 26 "figure equivalents".

Yessssssss !!!!!!!!!!!  Come on 2nd semester, I'll take you to the cleaners !

 

*  If you want to know more : went to the unemployment office (for the first time ever, hated that !), they said they had a presentation in four days time about careers working with the elderly - what a coincidence already - with an employer present; went there, and the employer happened to be the Managing Director of a registered charity, that the one I had left had nearly merged with **.  So he knew me, as we had worked together on the possible merger, and gotten on very well.  He was surprised to see me, but more than willing to give me a shot !

**  Of course, the merger should have happened but never did, see above (inertia, sheer laziness, incompetence, etc....) 

Fantastic Battles Historical

Face à une armée Hindou, j'ai déployé mes Arabes (honteusement en attente de soclage....).  Nous sommes quelque part sur le sous-continent indien au début du XIVème siècle.

Une belle partie, avec une victoire pour mon adversaire !
 

FWC2 - Second Test

Another test run of FWC2.  I basically shuffled the terrain from the previous game around, and added some BUA.  I also made an "offboard" zone for each side, where offboard elements and reserves can be held, along with the air and artillery strike schedules and other bits and bobs.

I improved the flow of the game by using more markers, dipping into my ASL stocks.  I also added in some units that I hadn't tried in the previous game.  The unit cards work well, although next time I need to cut them out and perhaps plastify them.

The game wasn't set up to be the most exciting, as I really wanted a final test run so as to check out all the mechanisms, update the player aids, and house rule a couple of things that were bothering me.  That said, it was very tactical and confirms all the good things I said about FWC2.  One mistake I did make on this test run, was not having enough actual fighting vehicles and too much support (including infantry which are more a support role).

There are a lot of markers on the table, but I can't see how any modern combat game that wants a minimum of grit can get around that.  Sequencing the turn into clear steps is important, at least I find it to be so. The mechanisms are in any case solid and it really does feel like a sci-fi game; even more so once I get some extra-terrestrial terrain sorted out, although that will not be for a while yet.

 

I am now ready to run through a proper game, I'll try and get about 40 units per side on the table and see how that goes !  Note to self : rather than a basic encounter game, a game with objectives and a time limit would be a good idea.

Cardinal

This Cardinal - by Signum Games - will be the leader of the Vatican faction for Carnevale.  Although most of my figures come from the TT Combat "official" range, I do like to mix in a few others, and I couldn't resist this one.

As mentioned earlier on in the year, I've given up trying to take good photos, but I also wanted to show a figure now and then before I get them on the tabletop.  So the photos are what they are ! 

 

 

Future War Commander 2

I have just run through my first test of FWC2.  I decided on solo play, so I could get used to the game, make sure my unit creations worked, and that my various game aids were useful and complete. 

The battle zone is rather earth-like, since I don't have for the moment any specific extraplanetary terrain in 6mm !  Still I felt it looked quite nice. 

 

I certainly enoyed the game, although it was of course slow going to begin with.  There is a lot going on, which makes the gaming aids essential, and I managed to update them.

Even with only 20 units a side, this was a very tactical game.  Terrain density is a major influence, and it is important to clearly define terrain effects, and line of sight especially from high ground and over linear obstacles.

 

I initially feared that infantry would be relatively useless, because I had forgotten that they can lay down suppressive fire on armoured vehicles.  Whilst success is not guaranteed, AFVs do need to worry about infantry because of it.  Bit of a shame to have your heavy AFV suppressed by a potshot from a SAW !

During the first reading of the rules, I realised that there would be too much looking at unit cards if I didn't streamline a couple of things (and indeed, that unit cards would be absolutely necessary).  To start with, I made move rates standard depending on locomotion (for example, 15cm for Walkers and 20cm for Anti-Grav). After the first play through, I will need to standardise firing arcs too : the normal 180° will apply to all turreted weapons, the restricted 90° to all non-turreted weapons, and 360° to missiles.

Infantry need to be standardised too.  I already made all infantry weapon ranges 30cm (that does not apply to infantry support), and the distinction between armoured and unarmoured infantry needs to go to.  There will be a standard 5+ save for all infantry and infantry support.  Otherwise it is too finnicky.

Whilst infantry are all S1 (another thing that is going to make them useful), S and S1 should otherwise be the exception among vehicles, as once again it avoids constant checking of the unit cards.

Unit characteristics cost from -10 to +10 in the rules, but after this first play, it is obvious they need to become a percentage increase or reduction, so I will change that.

I am also going to remove EW assets and make them an abstract factor like Air Superiority.  When on-board, the only thing to do is to park them in the most inaccessible area to the enemy, since they do nothing else than contribute to the EW roll. 

Last but not least, I created a small "off-board zone" to group army specific information, such as Air Superiority (and now, EW), for Reserves, for Infantry that is currently in transports, and for OBA.

Some minor tweaks to the army lists and a little bit of work on some chits, and I will play a second game.  Extremely promising and I am looking forward to it !