It was my birthday recently, and a good gift option for the family are gaming publications. I'd have probably have bought these anyway, but I'd much rather have these than more pairs of running socks!
A fair heap of stuff, with an emphasis on scenario books. I do like a good scenario book.
First up, Napoleonic Bloody Big battles scenarios. I mainly got this as I've been scratching my head over Eylau for ages now as the sources are so contradictory, and this one has an Eylau scenario in it I can plagiarise. It has some other decent battles in it too, including an interesting take on Dresden and Borodino. All grist for my One Hour Napoleonic rules, but I'll prioritise setting up a decent Eylau scenario to go with my Friedland one.
I didn't buy this at the time, but as I'm on a Napleonic kick at the moment, and this has tons of Napoleonic stuff in it, as well as Nick Hubands 3x3 WW1 rules which I want to have a look at. I contributed a fair bit to the first one, so got a free copy of that, but I didn't write anything for this one.
TYW is a period I'm desperate to like, I've read tons of books on it, studied it at University, even watched re-enactors recreating Wallensteins amphibious assault in Stralsund etc but I have yet to play many decent games of the period. This book has a good range of scenarios which will hopefully get me going, and although I find the later iterations of the TsK rules themselves ludicrously complicated, the original Twilight of the Sun King were beautifully simple and accessible.
Ditto for the English Civil War. Although tbh the ECW battles are well documented in Cassells 'Battlefields of Britain', I've only really dabbled with this stuff.
While Alexander was critically panned, I thought it was a decent effort and this version (there are many, many versions) is supposed to be the best and includes scenes covering Alexanders upbringing. The recent Netflix series on Alexander was also excellent and I'd recommend it if you haven't seen it.
Finally, I was going to ask for the published version of NQM as a present, but Chris had a knockdown sale at the recent big Megablitz game and it was too tempting to turn down. This is one of the very rare unsigned copies!
That looks a good pile. Will be interested to see what you make of the Napoleonic BBB scenario book, been thinking of getting that one myself. I have made lots of use of the TYW scenario books and been very pleased with them, but I have held off on the ECW stuff, since I have no shortage of those in old magazines.
ReplyDeleteOn a first read the BBB Napoleonic book looks very good.. Some of the battles I've already got decent scenarios for, but there are some new ones as well. The TYW scenarios ar great, much easier then peering at seventeenth century woodcuts to try and figure out what is going on!
DeleteAnd many happy returns!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteSomething to keep you entertained, Martin, for a good while to come! The Pike and Shot books look interesting!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ion
I certainly hope so. It will give me something to get my teeth into anyway.
DeleteOh that's a nice collection of presents. I'm a fan of the Twilight of the Soldier Kings rules.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Although I prefer the earlier iterations of TSK, I rapidly discovered you can ignore 90% of the complexity added in the later versions.
DeleteLooks like a good haul, Martin. One suggestion to check out for TYW is "Tillys Very Bad Day". I like their simplicity and price. They definitely make a period like the TYW more "gameable" if that makes any sense, and would port easily over to hexes.
ReplyDeleteEagerly awaiting your Eylau scenario. I picked up the BBNB book for the exact same reason!
Thanks. I think I've glanced through TVBD but I'll have another look at them. At the moment Eylau is a straight port of the BBNB one with simplified terrain and objectives. Originally I wanted to include the fighting over Eylau on the previous day, but I think it makes too hard.
DeleteAgree about the latest versions of TSK - way way too many modifiers to wade thru. But we do play the earlier version and it gives good games.
ReplyDeleteYou can strip out the mods which aren't relevant to a particular force or battle, but there is still a lot of unnecessary clutter. I really don't care if units are big or small, but some people like that level of detail.
Delete