As usual just before Christmas, TooFatLardies has just released today its Annual Lard Magazine. This is HUGE 180 tome of scnearios, special rules, army lists, etc, covering a broad range of rules sets from this publisher, as well as some other very useful wargaming-related materials.
At an unbeatable price of GPB5.5 (equivalent to 1 pint of beer in the UK and around three beers if you live in Spain), you cannot miss it.
As COVID 19 will unlikely go away so easily (or anytime soon), my gaming group and I will continue meeting by VASSAL over the weekends and almost daily during the Christmas break. In fact, some new boardgaming projects are being planned already during the early part of 2021.
One game to be extensively played next year is GMT's Empire of The Sun. This is a game to become very popular in the Spanish-speaking world, following the recent publication in our native tongue by the nice people of Devir Iberia.
For those of you not familiar with the game, Empire of the Sun (EotS) was designed by Mark Herman, also the father of the monstergame The Pacific War. Unsurprsingly considering who is the designer, EotS is a very robust game despite being card-driven, profitting from Herman's deep reserarch and knowledge of the Pacific Theare of Operations.
The game takes an strategic view of the conflict, in which the Japanese player is doomed over time when confronting the industrial, demographic and economic power of the United States. Japan's only hope is eroding the social and political support of the American public, enough to force a negotiated truce before becoming too weak to resist the almighty US military force.
I'm fairly familiar with the game, as I had the opportunity to play three long campaign games during the summer via VASL and to attend as an observer a a few other played by my gaming group. This past summer I also read two tomes of the Pacific Crucible trilogy by Ian W. Toll. These are books that I cannot recommend more if you are interested in the topic, covering not just the military aspects but also the political and economic; the content is also well balanced, describing the internal situation at both sides (Japan and the Allies) with good level of depth.
The second major boardgaming project for next year is the Battles from the Age Reason (BAR)system, published by Clash of Arms. This is a battalion level wargame covering most of the XVIII century period, from the Wars of Spanish Succession to the American War of Independence.
I have always been attracted by the period to play with miniatures, but I have been scared about the complexity of painting the uniforms of that age. The boardgame will hopefully allow me to recreate the period reallistically withouth having to make a major investment (and painting effort).
One important dimension for me in the hobby is to study the history of the period. I have been doiung some research and bought a few interesting books, including a "classical" tome The Armies of Frederick the Great by the well known military historian Christopher Duffy. This is an out of print work but you can find second hand copies at very reasonable prices in eBay among other sites. Nonetheless, to get a high level and quick view of the period, I decided to buy the conrresponding Osprey book about the conflict.
BAR is no a light set of rules. The system is very detailed in many aspects (from movement, to fire and close combat, to changes in formations) and takes into consideration the very different tactical features of each nation in conflict, as awell as specific factors affecting each battle within the system.
Some people argue that the level of complexity equals that of Advanced Squad Leader. It is no an easy system but it's far less complex than the ASL system. I am just getting myself introduced into the system through some videos in the YouTube channel of the Spanish wargamer celebrity Agustí Barrio, and reading the rules and the primer manual (available in pdf from the Wargames Vault site).
Last but not least: Caesar- Rome vs Gaul. This is a recently released title by GMT Games by one of my favourite designers Mark Simonitch. The system is very similar to Hannibal Rome vs Carthage This is
Caesar's campaigns in Gaul are very dear to me and no doubt I was going to be hooked by the game as soon as it was announced; a plus in my interest is of course the designer. For some reason copies of the game have not yet arrived to our local stores in Spain (or they arrived in limited numbers and flew away in just a few days) so I'm in a waiting list with my usual supplier of games.
As you can see an exciting wargaming year ahead. In addition to these three new sets, I plan to continue with my regular weekend ASL games on VASSAL. And if the pandemic allows it, I plan to return to my miniature games specially with Infamy!Infamy! and Chain of Command. It's a shame that I heavily playtested the former and when the book was finally released, the club was shutdown I haven't had the opportunity to display my minis yet!!!
Tell me about your plans in 2021 in the comments section of this blog.
If 2019 marked my return to boardgaming, 2020 marked a rendez-vous with my old friend Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). The image above is a photo of my venerable copy of the binder book acquired in the late 80s to the Avalon Hill Game Company incarnation pre-Hasbro.
I have had a sort of a love-hate relationship with this game over the yeas. Love, because I've always been attracted by tactical games in a Second World War context. Actually my very first wargame was Panzerblitz in 1980, and naturally I moved to the original Squad Leader (SL) system as soon as it was released.
Hate because, after gradually learning the different original SL modules, I went into shock with the ASL binder book: how on earth I was supposed to play a game whose rules book was closer to lawyer's manual than a typical wargame?
Over time I decided to give up on the system; not much later, I discovered the world of miniature wargaming, first fantasy related games (Warhammer Fantasy), followed by Ancients, Napoleonics and finally Second World War. Boardgames were abandoned and my hobby time was since then dedicated to researching, painting and collecting miniatures.
So how and why the return? The how was simple: a dedicated group or boardgamers at the club invited me to join a Holland ´44 game last year and I got immediately hooked to it. The why even simpler: being Market Garden one of my favourite periods, I realized that boardgames were a superior and more efficient means to explore the campaign.
The COVID arrival and the long-enforced lockdown (from March to June) made the rest: with the club shutting down sine die and the impossibility of playing miniature games, my boardgame group planned a busy calendar of weekly VASSAL games, extending from Friday evenings to Sunday afternoons.
Longing for playing some tactical games, one of the members introduced us to ASL around May and almost eight months later I have become a proficient player of the game. True, I have invested a lot of time in playing the game (the only realistic way to learn the rules). But believe me if I tell you, the monster is less fearsome that it may look at first glance, juts by planning a little bit your steps into the game and setting some realistic targets.
What follows are some of my personal lessons learnt, shared now with all of you potentially interested in the game.
ASL is one of the most popular wargames in the planet. Try finding someone in your gaming circle that already plays the game and train with him. For many of ASLers this game is like a religion and attracting new souls to the congregation is like a spiritual mission, they will never reject your call for help.
If you are unlucky enough to find a ASLers near you, then find online assistance in one of the many hundreds of ASL forums on Internet. There you'll find all kinds of support and advice for newbies.
Another silly advice. Browse YouTube and find introductory videos to the system. I cannot recommend any in English unfortunately because I was lucky enough to have a long series of introductory materials by one of Spain's most active and reputed wargame youtubers (Agustí Barrio). But I'm sure there are similar characters in every single language and specially in English.
You know the year is coming to an end when Curt from Analogue Hobbies releases the roll call for the Painting Annual Challenge. This is a very friendly international miniature painting contest hosted by Curt (a.k.a. The Snow Lord) and his lovely wife Sarah, with the help of a bunch of voluntary minions, extending through the bleak winter months.
You score points for each painted and based mini as well as get extra points completing a set of challenges. Last year, the challenges took a twist and we were all set to explore different dwellings in the mysterious Island X; and after a great success, this year (marking the 11th year of the contest) we are bound to explore the terrifying pits and dungeons below the Island is search of the Snow Lord's Altar.
