SFAR -first playtest

Well, we playtested SFAR last night at the Baron's Chateau. As a play test it went fine. Found out lots of stuff as soon as we got started. I like playtesting if everyone is in the mood to test. And I enjoy trying to come to grips with why you did what you did. Somethings click, somethings don't. I took many notes and will incorporate them into the next version. Some things to work on.

There was some struggles with group activation and units. Nomeclature I think as I am approaching it a bit different than a normal set up. Must ponder this.

Artillery - I did the artillery rules litterally in 1 minute before I printed last night before the game. they need much work to be able to be feroucious, and still maintain balance. They were killers and too powerful for sure.

ECM. Not sure if this is mdeled the way I want it. But it did force some maneuver, hunti9ng of reece units, etc. so I'm 50/50 on it.

Fire and hits definition.  Again I think nomeclature held a few people up. I need to rename some things to make it more clear as to what the intent is to make it simpler for the players.

Number of pieces on the board. I had forgotten how small 6mm is and the effort it takes to maneuver them.  we had about 12 units a side and it was an effort to move them all.

Length of time for a turn. I would like to have a much quicker game. turns took a long time. Part of it is a new set of rules, part is the sequence. I may look at going to alternating unit moves, or doing unit to unit firing, and just having a fire factor for a unit. i.e. Add up all the gun factors(say 1 per tank). so a uit of 5 tanks would have a fire of 5. roll that against the armor of the opposing unit. distribute hits against the unit(attacker chooses). It would quicken things up(instead of model to model firing) but takes the level of the engagement(looking down on the battle, think of a satellite or camera lens, I guess resolution is a good work too) up from 100' to 1000'.

Anyway. It was a good test. It was a little soon for a 6 person test, but I learned a lot. Some folks didn't enjoy them, but that's ok too. I will keep working on them until they are what I want. Thanks to the Generals for their input.

Quick Update 4-16-12

Well its tax day tomorrow here in the states, so I wish all of you a lucky tax season.

I just wanted to give a quick update on progress over the weekend.

28mm British Napoleonics - Well, I now have 8 finished 24 man 6 stand units. 4 Line Infantry, 3 Light Infantry, 1 Rifle Infantry(which could be broken into two tiny units for Black Powder). Nice to see them all lined up.

I also got my next two units cleaned, put on sticks, primed and have the faces and hands base painted and washed. I tried a little bit of flow enhancer (the no-spot dishwasher additive) to see if I can get a smoother finish on the vallejo flesh wash. It looked good when I put it on, we'll see how it dries. Since GW stopped putting out thier old flesh wash, I have found that vallejo game colors flesh wash is the closest.

So I will finish these two units. A guards unit, and a royal unit. Then its on to the 2 units of highlanders. After that, the reward. Painting Cav. I have always found that the infantry is the grind. The cav is ususally so enjoyable, its a breeze. So I have been trying to stick to finishing the infantry first before the reward of the cav. Not sure if I can stick to that for the French. I may have to do 3-4 units of infantry, then 2 units of cav. But the Spanish come first, since In a pinch, I bet I could get my bro-in-law to come play a pennisular game with his French against my Anglo-Spanish Army with the Basement Generals.

Still enjoying this. Alot. So much so that I have to temper my enthusiasm so I don't alienate my wife and kids. Gonna keep pushing on till its done.

15mm Sci Fi - Lots still happening in the 15mm world. I am hopeful of some Khurusan goodness this week. And as usual, Spacejacker has done an incredible job on some of Khurusan minis, and has made an incrdible future cop on a speeder bike. amazing. I have to try to put this together. Art crime bikes(which I really like) and head swaps. and the object source lighting is fantastic. and all in 15mm. Nice job Jacker as ususal. I will get back to my 15's in a while, or when I need a break from the Nappy Fever.
:http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.com/

6mm Sci Fi - Still waiting for the pause in Nappies to get some extra units painted and some buildings added. This is a nice change of subject and scale so it is probably what I will do if I take a break. I have been play testing a set of rules solo on a quick and dirty micro armor game. Not there yet, but I like where its headed.

Keep Painting!

Update 2/7/12

No pics yet, but I got an entire second 6mm sci fi army almost complete.

Armor is done(Tanks, tank killers, micv's, artillery and movers, air support, scout tanks). Infantry is base painted and highlighted. Detail for them is next. Finish bases and done.

The first Army is a Hi-Tech Grav Force. Mass Driver Cannons, Energy Weapons, etc.

The second force is a more conventional tracked force with high efficiency turbine engines, rifled chemical propellant munitions, and even some old school drop and place artillery(also some mobile heavy rocket artillery), and more infantry than the first force.

I can use the forces for Future War Commander and such, but I may also write my own set, since that's what Basement Generals do. If I can get the force complete by the weekend, I'll take pics, otherwise, should have pics of both forces and some initial terrain shots next week.