Happy 2018 and some plans

Last post of the year, wishing the blogosphere a very happy and prosperous 2018, hoping it brings health and success in your personal and professional fronts. Not a happy 2017 for us at ahome specially the first six months and wishing the year to end once and for all.

As for wargaming plans, after the experience of 2017 I've decided to shorten my planning horizons and try to live by the day, not terribly concerned with failures or success. This does not mean that I have no t sketched some ideas for  next year.

There's actually one important milestone at the end of April which will be the triannual trip with my club friends to a battefield, convention or museum. In 2012 it was Salute and Bovington; in 2015 it was Crisis, Waterloo, Arnhem and Bastogne; in 2018 it's going to be D-Day Normandy and the Samur Tank museum. Very excited with the trip as you can imagine.

On the gaming front:

- To continue with General d'Armee and Commands & Colors Napoleonics (the last expansion “Epic Battles” was my Xmas gift)

- New potential projects: retaking the First World War with Through the Blood and the Mud (one of my club friends is taking a lot of interest in it and I would not mind playing again after several years); I just recently listen to a Podcast dedicated to the GMT game of the COIN series called “Labyrinth” that has attracted my attention and is now in my line of sight; and finally explore some Cthulhu-related project (don't know yet if card-related, role or tabletop).

So this is it, reiterate my family and my own best wishes for 2018.

TFL Christmas Special

A quick post. Just before Christmas day the traditional TFL  Special issue was released, containing over 130 pages of scenarios and ideas for many of the house's rule sets. This year it also includes a scenario I wrote for General d'Armee called "Encounter at Guareña River".

This a small battle or large skirmish (whatever you may want to call ot) that took place on 18th July 1812, two days before the major engagement at Salamanca, between a British-Portuguese and a French force.

It's been extensively tested at the club and was even some time ago adapted to be played as a Sharp Practice scenario (you can see a review in my blog here)

Merry Christmas

May I wish you a very Merry Christmas in the company of your families, relatives and beloved ones. As many of you know 2017 has not been specially good to us, at least initially, when my wife was diganosed breast cancer on 22nd December 2016. Luckly we have overcome the problem and since early summer we have returned to a more or less normal life. These Christmas start in a complete different mood at home as you can imagine and I hope 2018 will be a better year.

Other people I know has not been so lucky and they will be having a special place in our thoughts tonight, in particular Kay the wife of Michael Peterson (aka MadPadre) whose example and love have been a light for us in these difficult months. Wherever you are today Mike, you'll be present in our house tonight.







 

General d'Armee - A player review

As many of you know, General d’Armee (GdA) is a new set of Napoleonic rules published just before summer by Reisswitz Press, the sister company to TooFat ardies. The author, Dave Brown, is a well-known and experienced wargame rules writer so I was expecting a good quality set, as it’s been the case.

Although I bought the book the release day and read thoroughly in my summer holiday break, I decided to refrain from commenting in the blog until after I had tested on a gaming table and could consider myself enough familiar with the system.

For that purpose, I gathered a small group of players in my local club and have been extensively playing since late September. GdA is not simple, on the contrary, the learning curve is fairly steep at the beginning; but now I feel finally fairly confident and familiar with the rules.

What is General d’Armee?

In GdA players seat in the saddle of a commander of an army or division (in Napoleonic terminology): 5 to 8 brigades, each composed of several regiments. The rules however can be stretched and extended to play with a full Army Corps. So at least on paper, GdA is suited to play medium to large battles.

However the basic manoeuvre unit is an infantry battalion (300 to 1000+ men), cavalry squadrons and artillery batteries, representing the building blocks of the regiments; and this is as we’ll see later one of my main objections to the game.

General d’Armee is an old-school wargaming set; the 100 pages manual is basically all rules, with some photos and a good number of examples to illustrate or clarify the different topics. It is not designed for a light reading; it’s full of details and as I said before, it requires a fair investment of time in reading, annotating and playing with the book on the side for consultation.