Weekender XLBS: Talking WWII Desert Warfare & Rebooting Games
February 28, 2016 by dignity
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Happy sunday!
I’ve never looked into playing Dark Age but the models are pretty.
Happy Sunday! I would really like to see a game of the Warploque’s ArcWorld Starter Set played in the studio. I think Warren should play as the Troll.
Buenos dias from Spain.
Nice hair cut Ben.
Happy Sunday!
Happy Sunday
Happy Sunday.
Time for a fund drive for an easyJet ticket for John ?
hear hear
Happy Sunday!
Joan of Arc… & Justin’s best model? Only bfair!
Justin. My uncle ( he departed this worldnearly 20 yrs ago) was an artillery gunner through N Africa and Italy. I’d love to see the Black Watch, part of the 51st Highland division, in your army… don’t worry – only a bit of tartan on their caps!
See here for some background:http://www.rememberingscotlandatwar.org.uk/Accessible/Exhibition/80/Cairo-was-infested-with-bugs-The-Battle-for-North-Africa
Happy Sunday!
Morning 🙂
I have considered playing bolt action for the desert war prior to release of duel in the sun but with release of this and both of you starting to collect armies has now confirmed this.
@dignity Justin where about are you staying in London, then I’ll be able to come up with a few good ideas for brekkie!
Hi what was the youtubers name?
Happy Sunday
@dignity know a few places for a decent hang over breakfast in london will be around on the Sunday
@johnlyons the golden Age of Piracy was 1650s -1730s and HMS Victory was launched in 1765 so she was never a Pirate hunter.
get @warzan to watch Black Sails apart from those Pirates from treasure island like silver and flint many of the Charatcers were real even Isreal hands sailed with Blackbeard (Edward Teach), Hornigold, Rackham, Anne Bonnie, Woodes Rogders, all historical.
rats! Well, plenty of other big ships around 😉
very true, although part of the pirate myth is that it was all about huge galleons and in truth it was nothing so glamourous. Blackbead was defeated by an attack by two british Sloops at Ocracoke. The Queen Annes Revenge( blackbeards last ship) was only a frigate.
And from what I’ve read, Queen Anne’s Revenge was a monster ship, at least so far as pirate ships went. 42 guns? 48, something like that?
Most pirate ships had far, far, FAR fewer guns. They wanted to engage unarmed merchant ships, with just enough to overpower unarmed or lightly armed ships, fast enough to get away from anyone else, and CHEAP enough to operate and maintain to keep a comfortable profit margin.
So we have sloops (as @commodorerob says), brigantines, converted merchantmen, smaller ships like that.
This weren’t battles over destruction, territory, or dominance. This was business with a harder edge to it. The second you take one cannonball to your ship, you’ve probably lost more money in repairs than you’re likely to make in taking that other ship. and you sure as hell didn’t want to SINK the other ship, you wanted to capture and sell its cargo, then sell the ship itself. Hence all the boarding actions we see.
Please understand I’m not trying to “discourage” anyone by saying encounters between pirates and the Royal Navy practically never happened (and when they did, I’d expect the Royal Navy to win in the first fire phase). Pirate warfare should almost be thought of “Mad Max on the Ocean.” Great vehicles, that fight (and race . . . yes it’s about SPEED most of the time) similar vehicles . . . but you DON’T put them up against M1 Abrams, Challenger IIs, or Leopards is all I’m saying.
if anything, pirate warfare done RIGHT is in many ways MORE interesting than straight-out naval battles of the day (Spanish vs. British vs. Dutch vs. French), because t’s not just two relatively slow, heavily-armed ships pounding away at each other, trying to sink something made of wood (i.e., takes a while). It’s about speed, deception, taking your prize WITHOUT heavy material, human, or financial losses, and then getting the hell out of there before the “cops” show up.
Less of an “assault on bunkers”, I guess . . . and more of a bank robbery. You’ve got guns for the guards and the bank tellers, but you’re not about to fight WW2 in the streets with the police. A different, and in some ways more interesting, flavor.
Hmm, picturing a guy tied to the bow of a ship playing electric guitar … so need to see that now ;D Love the Mad Max Analogy
If I had to change anything about a game, I’d change how Infinity models are packed in SWC boxes, I’d throw in a sprue of weapons and at least one “base gear” troop to use as proxy , EG all grunts all have pistols and knifes in addition to whatever other weapon they tote around.
Happy Sunday!
Looks like Joan of arc WILL be critiqued….be a man and just take it on the chin.
Your painting is good enough don’t be so hard on yourself. Most of us are our own worst enemies.
Happy Sunday gents. It wasn’t the same without Warren but you three blokes did a stirling job.
Let me just say ArcWorlde! How cool is that , I was totally oblivious to this game and company until you brought it to my attention. I’m a sucker for nice halfling army ….Thanks
Holy Dark Age Batman
Happy Sunday!!
Ah, happy Sunday, watching XLBS while prepping dinner.
I wouldn’t be rebooting any games… maybe a new version of Warhammer Quest… updated rules, allowing race and class selection, “evil” parties… you know, what Mantic have done with Dungeon Saga 😀
Check out the past kickstarter for Exploding Kittens. they used a ton of social media quests to improve the game.
happy sunday.
@dignity Sundays in London are sometimes tricky to find decent places open but if you fancy a decent pub to help sooth the brain pain then assuming you’re staying South of the River try the Market Porter on Stoney Street near Borough Market. It’s basically right outside London Bridge Tube (and the main station). And if you’re movie buffs the streets around there are where they filmed much of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Yay) and Bridget Jones’s Diary (Boo). You are also right by the George Inn which claims to be the oldest pub in London, it’s a 17th Century Coaching Inn, I prefer the Market Porter, but the George is quite charming.
From there you are 10 mins from HMS Belfast and about 20 from the Imperial War Museum (though easier by tube frankly) Round the corner is also a moored Pirate Ship which is rather amusing.
exactly the area i was thinking:-) by Pirate Ship are you talking about the Golden Hind II which is a replica of Francis Drakes ship?
I would reboot 40K if I had my choice. I’d re-inject a sense of humour into the game, but more importantly, I’d take the opportunity to build a robust modern game system from the ground up, rather than just tweaking 3rd ed over and over again.
Also, Dark Age :p
If John is thinking of doing particular units for the desert I would humbly suggest the 6th Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery, D Battery,which was Spike Milligan’s unit
Happy Sunday. Can’t wait for salute, not sure which Angel demo to see ( I want to see them all!!)
Show the mini to Angel, but film it, and possible also Johns reaction when he sees it 😉
Infinity is more of a post-cyperpunk background and that’s what I like about it. Too many post-apocalyptic or cyberpunkish dark story backgrounds nowadays. Infinity is something different. Humanity is still fighting among itself, but it’s on the right track technological and socially.
How could you not know Blake’s 7
Great video guys.
Highlight for me was the Normandy Scenery, I love homemade scenery but I simply don’t have the time to make any these days, so this precoloured stuff is perfect. Incredibly well done scenery is really a major part of being able to keep playing games on good looking tables for me, I’d be back to the piled up books under a green blanket and some shoe boxes otherwise.
@commodorerob – Yes indeed I am!
happy Sunday
@johnlyons I do like that rambling of yours
Could you maybe make these 8 hours long? Nothing gets me in my painting zen like having a weekender on in the background.
Happy Sunday
An other plus side to social media challenges is that if you can’t back the project you can still support it by sharing this to other people, who might then back or support it further.
Not to be picky but Fort Eben-Emael was/is in Belgium
Cool show! Eben-Emael is in Belgium though, gave it a visit last year. There was actually some air defence in place there, light mg’s in gun pits, and they were in the process of placing barbed wire on top. The command however was ineffectual and once the Germans blew up one of the main entrances and disabled the guns from the outside with their shaped charges, the garrison knew it’s role had been played out. It was strategically well placed on the edge of the Albert canal that is basically parallel to the Belgian-German border and was able to fire on all the main bridges crossing that canal (which was it’s secondary function). It could even fire into German and Dutch territory, but as said above the command was flawed and therefore the fort never got to play the strategic role it was intended for (aside from being attacked by gliders…)
What struck me most when reading Panzer Commander was when Hans von Luck entered a remote Russian village and the villagers asked him how Kaiser Wilhelm was doing…
This incident makes for an excellent participation game at a convention or show. The participants can each take control of a German glider unit, whilst the umpires run the, very much, static Belgian forces. I played this scenario for the first time in the early 80’s, still remember much of the details to this day, from it!
The problem wasn’t really the command, just that nobody had planned for this…
The AA crews first task in case of an alert was to set fire to the troop barracks outside the fort to clear the fields of fire for the ground level defenses. So they wouldn’t have been at their post anyway.
The one surviving cupola fired on the Germans building a pontoon bridge across the Maas near Maastricht untill it ran out of ammo.
Happy Sunday! Re: Ben’s rebooting of Infinity, this sounds, for flavour, just like the settings for games like Shadowrun by FASA, or Cyberpunk 2020 by R. Talsorian, both initiated in the late 80’s, projecting a near future of corporate wars, intrigue and espionage on a covert scale! Yes! That gets my vote also, Ben.
I remember cyperpunk 2020 rather fondly
John, Justin and Ben are a very good team of presenters. Quality job, guys.
Awesome weekender guys pleased the micro art ks got a mention.
When I get round to painting up a desert force, I’m probably going to base it on the North Irish Horse. Had a great uncle serve in the regiment during WW2. I know they supported the 38th Irish Brigade in North Africa at some stage but that is about as far as my knowledge goes.
I am gonna try so hard to make salute this year.
And we are back to awesomnes, great show Bow. I think micro art could do some pleges for gaming clubs I think.
Do love the dark age fluff
Archworlde looks so cool
On the topic of historical piracy, there was a nice little documentary series called Britain’s Outlaws with an episode on pirates: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qskdx
Not currently on the iPlayer or the BBC Store, but in the true pirate spirit there might be some hidden bays with such buried treasure.
Happy Sunday. Justin could go for the British 78th(battle axe)Division from 1942 who fought in North Africa and Italy from 1942 onwards, includes famous regiments as the Inniskillings part of the 38th(Irish)Brigade. It was very diverse with also a Welsh Artillery unit a Glaswegian Anti tank unit and plenty of English infantry regiments too.
Happy sunday! So much miniature awsomeness, yet I need to take a year of to paint everything I have already!
I definitely agree with Ben I would love to see infinity brought down a level to cyberpunk.
Happy Sunday!
@dignity – don’t forget Outlaw will be at Salute this year with all the WWX loveliness
Reboot a game – 40k. Streamline the rules a bit, cut out the formations shenanigans and move to using D10s to allow for more representative stats to fit the fluff, eg a Space Marine can be a Space Marine and not just a slightly buffed up Imperial Guardsman.
Dark Age you say? Well if you insist on sending them to me I won’t complain
@dignity I like the desert war making WW2 seem a little less dry 😉
(Just ordered the book from Warlord, can’t wait for it to plop through the letterbox – I have a huge need to do Italy as a second theatre.)
Happy Sunday!
40k rebooted ah visions and dreams!
And yey Dark Age lol
I second Borough Market..great food as well which should help with an overhang. The Golden Hinde is the Mother of All ‘Pirate’ ships and certainly worth seeing. The Tower is just over the bridge and always good for a visit if you like medieval weaponry (or jewellery).
It will be very busy tho, isn’t it London Marathon as well?
The Western Desert would be an ideal theatre for a multiplayer campaign weekend over at yours, don’t you think 😎
@dignity you might want to consider the Prospect of Whitby in Wapping for Sunday hangover breakfast.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_of_Whitby
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/prospect-of-whitby-london?start=0
Enjoyed the food and the atmosphere that breathes history (and does not veer into kitsch), especially in the upstairs restaurant.
happy sunday
Id reboot 40k so that Lords of War could only be taken in Apocalypse scale games. Though tbh the rules themselves are fine its the super competitive players that have started to annoy me.
Every time John’s on talking about WW2 it really makes me want to get into Bolt Action, but Historical gaming feels a boxy, like I’m limited to what I can do hobby wise.
The Salute meet up sounds fun.
You might be surprised at how varied certain forces and theaters can be. If you want something a little outside the box there are plenty of divisions and regiments who technically didn’t exist, but were the subject of trials. Like the night-fighting German Panzer regiment, which are covered in Flames of War’s Nactjager book. There are tons of “what if” scenarios. All of which roll into widening the hobby aspect from “is it green or green?” Another German example would be late war, talking April 45 here, where you seen examples of the Germans running out of paint, so many tanks and vehicles went around either partly painted or mostly in their base primer coats. In Leningrad, Russian tanks left the factories in bare metal. All interesting hobby aspects you could explore.
Nothing better then a cup of tea and the xlbs on a Sunday morning …
Reboot little wars by H G Wells, it would be almost like playing god with the genetics of wargaming with toy soldiers. I think these were the first printed set of rules for our what has become a farming combine of a world wide industry and players. Make the wrong bit different and it fails and wargaming as we know it does not exist, or is it a better world for wargaming.
As for the competition I can think of some one who I could play that game with further more what an incredible job DARKWORLD have done re-booting their game through (not) a simple return look at their figure sculpts.
And finally a grouch! When other established companies return to their sculpts and remodel a range, then this company (GW) is panned as changing them to rake in more cash. No disrespect to Darkworld, but they do it and hey what a great idea bringing it into the now and not I like the game but the minis are well dated and there is a game over here with great minis I can proxy.
Chris G
Rules for Kreigspeil were first written in 1812 but apparently the rules were cumbersome and went through a few changes after that. The original was on a grid system with terrain pieces etc placed on the table
Happy Sunday, nice to see John back!
Dark age looking good
The kickstarter for Infinity looks pretty cool.
if john gets his model critiqued by Angel at Salute its only fair that Justin steps up as well with some of his own. great show today chaps but i do miss the infectious crazy world of Warren,
Unfortunately you forgot to mention that the Battlefront terrain is a limited bundle. Only 600 will be possible to be purchased…
@this what to change in a wargame: Add points costs to AoS
Nice work chaps.
That Pirate game looks amazing, happy sunday!
Good show guys! Look forward to it every weekend.
https://www.facebook.com/Paradice-Board-Game-Cafe-500707320107788/
ideal venue, I believe its the U.K’s biggest board games cafe, serves food and drink with an alcohol licence. It also has a large dedicated war games area. Jason is a top bloke!
Great call out to Vsauce ! Indeed an awesome channel, I’ve been subscribed for a while. 😀
I know everyone’s seen the at-night photos over North and South Korea . 😀
Pirate history is great. Blackbeard (Edward Teach) was very big in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They have a small museum on Ocracoke Island. And if I remember correctly he was captured around there and tried in Williamsburg. I am getting old and I may not remember correctly but it was always cool to me as a younger man visiting those areas.
I would love to see a few battle reports on Post Apocolyptic games like Dark Age, This is not a Test, etc.
Happy Sunday! May your games be exciting and your dice roll true!
What I like about the Micro Art Studio 1 ft x 1 ft mat is that you can easily use them for any size of table, 2×2 , 3×3, 4×4…
Happy Sunday!
Just wanted to throw out an idea about a online campaign…
with summer blockbuster season coming up…have you looked at the new Marvel game?
an online campaign could use a “battleworld” style map or multiverse concept to explain heroes fighting against heroes.
@johnlyons Don’t make me come over there and throw you in a duffle bag and drag you over to Salute. We are making the trip from Chicago, come on my friend. Also, DUST mechs are cool and you can make them much more closer to real world tanks.
Great show guys … can’t believe Warren didn’t know pirates were real lol
Happy Sunday.
Getting Angel to critiques John’s model is an awesome opportunity, but I think it needs to be Skype’d or something similar. He’s such an amazing painter but half of the critique benefit is the techniques he can suggest to hit the next level, and I feel you need at the very least to have John be an active participant so he can see the suggestions to understand what he’s being advised to do..
Bring on Dark Age!!
Good job! Tough to do without Warren and Lloyd.
Happy Sunday!
I really like the direction on the new Dark Age sculpts.
Happy sunday, good show, you can send over the prices, lol
@dignity If you’re looking at early war/desert Brits then the only option to consider is Perry Miniatures Desert Rats 1940-43 plastic box set. The rest of the early war/desert range on the Perry website is also outstanding.
@john i think that you have to try the rules for another great WW2 game witch is
”Rules of Engagment” and the beauty of that is that you can use youre Bolt Action mini, the guy’s at the club around here say’s that the rules are a little bit more realistic than Bolt Action but i have to admit that they really like the Dice Mechanic of Bolt Action ,
And if i had to chand something in a game it will be like Ben in Infinity i will just add Cards for all the different models with their pictures stats on it cause i am always lost looking at my mini to know what they are exactely and searching about their special ability on the shee ot paper ,
and finally Dark World , like i said yesterday their mini looks awsome and in the last month i was looking to get in to this game i have watched a couple of video on you tube about this game and i thing that it’s easy to get in to , fast , brutal , and it got stat cards lol
have a nice sunday gaming guy’s
I think it has already been said earlier, but I would reboot Warhammer Quest. Just take a look at all of the cool mini’s available and plenty of people doing dungeon scenery. Anyway Happy Sunday to all 🙂
Happy Sunday afternoon.
Another excellent show.
I would love to see Infinity get down and dirty, it all seems so clean.
Let’s see games with street gangs being buffed by the main fractions.
Games on Ariadna where cover is the trees and rocks, river banks and holes in the ground.
You also mention street battles and cover. There were times when there was no cover and you either went around, marched straight up the street or waited for a tank to help.
Happy Sunday people.
I wonder how AOS would be received if it was a new game and not a replacement for an established game. It is not a bad game, just not WFB…
Happy Sunday!
I’m into Micro Art KS mostly for the 1’x1′ mat tiles but, i’ll be getting a few more stuff like the Industrial Haulers, they are really nice.
The Conan RPG looks nice too, my friend is getting into it and i’m thinking of going for at least the core book.
See you guys around!
Happy (late) Sunday! Just finished doing a bit a Sunday painting… did enjoy the show and another few Sage figures done – what fun.
Happy Sunday!
Honestly, how well can having tanks play in the desert scenarios work at this scale? I can understand 15mm or smaller.
Happy Sunday
I’ve gotta get on this, to enjoy a full Sunday!
Would like to win the Dark Age prize
Happy Sunday!!..Jeez Warren your taking your diet a bit far …one little thing what happened to your hair mate!!..Reboot Warhammer, loved the world war 2 segments, Good show lads!!
If I got a chance to reboot something in a game it would be…40k Stats. The Stats go all the way up to 10 but nothing uses them so it seems like such a waste. And it will help spread out the different factions feels. Like the Guard, Now and For Ever the Guard, They can go from Conscripts of 2-3. With the Standard Guard person being 3 and the Veterans/Stormtroopen 4s. Then Scout Space marines Starting at 4-5 range with Full Marines in the solid 5 range. Yes weapons/armor would have to take a massive change but I think it would be a good change.
awesome show, really enjoyed the bolt action segment
24:05 – Thanks, @dignity ! 🙂 That definitely sounds like an interesting idea for a project. I’ll send a PM shortly. And @johnlyons – if you go ahead with your article on Bunkers and Defences of Normandy, I have many, many photos I can donate if you wish from my 70th Anniversary trip two years ago. Just in case there’s a spot for which you may not have many photos. I took photos of many of the more out of the way places, along with the more commonly-visited sites like Merville, Longues-sur-Mer, Ste. Mere Eglise, etc.
The game I’d like to reboot would be Warhammer 40k.
I’d take the it back to the feel of 2nd edition when it comes to force sizes, the factions and humour and fluff. Rules would be refreshed and there would be either card based or alternate activation with the addition of reactions. Then there would be no codex-books, but regularly released campaign/source books. The books would describe a campaign or war with two or more factions, contain new units and rules and whole bunch of narrative driven scenarios with suggested forces. Each book would of course be accompanied with shiny new model releases and Black Library novels. Additional rules and army lists for competitive play would released every year as a ebook or free download and would be adjusted to maintain game balance.
I really enjoy watching when John gets on the topic of WW2. It is such an enjoyable experience sitting and listening to someone talking about their passion, especially someone as knowledgeable as John.
Great show thanks.
Pirates are real and the best book to read on them is Pirates A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates By Charles Johnson. It is a classic source for the history of piracy, as used by Robert Louis Stevenson in the writing of Treasure Island. Captain Charles Johnson’s General History of Pirates was one of the best-selling books of 1724, when it was first published. It provides a sweeping account of what has come to be called the Golden Age of Piracy.
You really should give Arcworlde a try, it is a great, different and fun game.
Cool Mini Or Not are definitely on the up. I reckon they have the potential to overtake GW if they carry on as they have been.
It turns out John is quite chatty on no-Warren Sunday. But I don’t mind the rambling. Keep it coming please. It’s nice to hear all these quirky details about The War.
I understand what Ben is getting at when he wants to reboot Infinity, but I’d say it would work better as a spin-off game. In a way the RPG might already solve a lot of what he would want from the game.
I do see how it would be interesting to put all those civilian ‘extra’s’ from the Dire Foes sets and the like in the spotlight and make them the main heroes of a scenario.
The game I would want to reboot is Battlefleet Gothic. But wait, didn’t Hawk Wargames just do that?
Trafalgar is another interesting candidate. I had a lot of fun with this game one summer, diving into it together with a friend. I especially like the fickleness of the changing wind and how you need to take into account this uncertainty in your tactics.
But I do understand why many other people I showed the game are put off. It does involve a bit too many tables and dice rolls just to get going. So a more streamlined version of the rules, but keeping the wind gage would be my suggestion for this game.
The Desert Campaign of WW2 is a great topic. Great to see it get some additional coverage on the site. And I’ve said it a hundred times, but let’s go for 101 … Always let @johnlyons ramble! 😀
1 – (37:40): Colonel-General Heinz Guderian indeed takes a little more credit than is due … although he’s definitely my favourite German general and he still deserves a lot, particularly before the war in building the German Panzerwaffe. But he was also a great salesman, he had to push these ideas through a very traditionalist and hidebound General Staff in the Reichswehr, and it wasn’t an immediate sell. This “publicist salesman” in Guderian comes out again after the war when he writes Panzer Leader, a great book, even if it’s 600 pages of “I told you so” … “If only they’d done as I said” … and “yeah, that was MY idea.”
2 – (46:00) Yep, I’ve got Panzer Commander by Han von Luck. It was a heavily used source during the Desert War article series put out last year (including the LRDG raid on the Italian airfield. 🙂
http://www.beastsofwar.com/battlegroup/desert-war-ww2-north-africa-turning-tide/
This link leads to the last part in the Desert War series, which has links to the rest of the series. It deals with Battlegroup, not Bolt Action, but might provide some additional background, fluff, and scenario ideas for Bolt Action desert games (and how we built our sand tables) … especially in John and Justin start working on a Desert War campaign, particularly in the early war. 😀 Five parts in all.
http://www.beastsofwar.com/battlegroup/desert-war-gaming-ww2-endgame/
As far as Sicily and Italy go … (mid-late war) … I’ll have to defer to others, I’m on much shakier ground on those campaigns. 😀
Happy Sunday.
Back from Tactica.
What a weird weekend it`s been………………………………..No Warren!!!!!
I`ve have missed his one (if some what close to the mark) liners, maybe he`ll make up for it next weekend.
Great show`s over the weekend guy`s, well done.
Firelock Games’ Blood & Plunder – Proper Historical pirates! I`m just waiting on the kickoff for this kick starter, as i`ve grown up watching the late great “Burt Lancaster” playing “Pirates”, but up until now i`ve never thought about playing the table top game. So roll on the release date.
Nipped over to kick starter and had a look at “Battle for Troll Bridge”, and watched the short video. look`s very well thought out, and i do like the look of the “Halflings”. As it`s still got a few day`s to go, i have time to decide as i have a few other things on the go can i go for one more……………………
Duel in the sun, i think that`s one book i`ll be getting this year. As i used to have a DAK force back in the day (Air Fix day`s), so getting a small force in 28mm is differently on the card`s.
infinity terrain KS looks good, but the buy in is just a little too high for the goodies.
thanks for a great show.
well if a jobs worth doing
yous do a good gob
Nice to see John back on this weekend, the lineup had been getting a bit samey lately. Maybe let Ben get a word in though eh? 😉
have you Guys seen this one
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1013086270/28mm-skulls-and-bones-for-basing-and-terrain/description
Great show this week, Lots of nice shinny things to catch my eye
Good night everyone!
Nice work, guys!
Good to see Justin and John escaping from the Unboxing videos room to work on this one.
As far as reboots go, I’d say Battletech for me.
The original is a bit too granular; I know that they brought out Alpha Strike, but I think that it went too far in the other direction. Something between those two would be nice. I think that there’s a gentleman around that seems to have put a lot of time and effort into such an endeavour – I rather liked his ruleset.
Looking forward to hearing more about Dark Age, it’s been on the periphery of my gaming radar for a LONG time!
I simply cannot wait to try that Conan game, I need some proper sword & sorcery role playing!
Drake was a pirate in the navy stealing Spanish ships for the queen.
The best pirate ships were stolen converted cargo ships made for speed &cargo capacity which is perfect for getting in & out of battles or hauling booty.
@dignity if you are doing this go for the 7th armoured division?
Great show guys.
http://www.desertrats.org.uk/
for background @dignity
Reboot? I would go with Infinity too. This may annoy people that adore the complexity, but for me it is off-putting to new players to find their feet. If it takes you minutes of rulebook skimming or remembering rules to finally get to your target to hit number you are no longer in the scenario and suspending disbelief. I enjoy the Infinity fluff as it is now, but I have backed the Infinity RPG kick-starter and am looking forward to the way in which this may affect my Infinity miniatures gameplay too, because they have made an effort to make a link between the two systems. The 0-12 Bureau Noir secret agents give the game a chance to go more gritty as Ben suggested.
I think Corvus Belli will both expand the high tech side that people love, but I think the potential market they open up through their RPG game will see a spike in imagination and creativity towards the secret agent / detective / special ops midnight on a rainy street type miniatures.
The new out this month Nomad Bandit looks cool with his hood and jacket. Some of my favourite Adriana miniatures have great overcoats, which again plays into the blade runner look that Ben mentioned.
I think Corvus Belli will continue to expand the rule complexity sadly, because the very loyal ITS competition fans are all Meta heads that demand more chances to “out list” their opponents and remember more of the obscure rules than their rival. I love Infinity miniatures and look forward to painting them all up, but I think I’ll only start to really enjoy the game once I’ve played it 20 times to get used to the rules. I’m not sure I’ll convince my son to play that many games, because it isn’t easy to get into. (Donut full of razor blades – a vicious circle)
That said the Infinity Army list tool webpage is the BEST digital tabletop gaming tool EVER. It is easy to use and takes all the painful maths away from list building.
Bolt Action is my son’s favourite game, so the one we play the most. I love the Bolt Action Facebook page and often check out what people are discussing. Regarding balance, the German players complain that there are not enough traits and benefit from playing their armies and that some points balances are against them. I am not sure I agree. I do remember one game where my expensive German Tank was popped round 2 and suddenly I was at a massive disadvantage, but I guess that’s just the dice gods challenging my faith and any force that loses a tank will struggle in real life.
I got some Perry DAK and 8th Army plastic box sets and look forward to recreating some North Africa warfare. I now have a Valentine (for Valentine’s Day) and Panzer III to scale up the points and the big bangs. I have enjoyed the army books and the D-Day to Berlin supplement I have so far. I might get the Duel in the sun book. The Mad Jack Churchill mini has almost encouraged me to get the Early War supplement. Can’t argue with the miniature, quality and beautiful look, but cost and low page count puts me off buying.
Great weekender; role on the awards show next week.
About Ben ideal for rebouting infinity, It might be better to change infinity to work with shadowrun world. In that you have gangs, security forces, runners and corporation for factions.
Happy Sunday!
Historical Pirates sounds like something worth a look into.
I would love a revised ‘2.5’ of Warmachine where they beef up the ability to run more Warjacks efficiently (as @brennon suggests), incorporate all known errata in the books/cards (releasing new 2.5 faction decks as they did when they switched from 1E to 2E), and go over the entire range of models/units in the game to fine tune and re-balance everything (ideally so that all models see regular play and none are ‘must takes’ that clearly overshadow other models in similar roles).
I would also like them to find a way to incorporate ‘generic’ warcasters/warlocks (and maybe even generic warmachines/warbeasts) with a variety of options–something like WH40K’s unnamed Space Marine Captains but with a much more comprehensive system for building your caster. I think it puts some are people off that all the warcasters/warlocks are named characters. Of course people can always make their own custom warcaster/warlock and play it with their friends/club (if their opponents agree), but having an official system (even if it’s not tournament legal) would be a great boon to making the game your own as well as helping bring in new players who like to tinker.
Also (like @dignity) I’d like to see more narrative focus in the game. I would also like ways to play (be it scenarios or alternate army construction rules) that don’t require a warcaster/warlock. After all, in the setting, there are only a limited number of warcasters and warlocks (which is why they are so important) and they can’t be everywhere there is fighting. We should be a able to run autonomous Warjacks too.
Overall, Privateer Press does a good job with Warmachine and Hordes, but with so many models/units, there are definitely some of them that need a tune-up after all these years after 2E was released.
Much like with Warmachine, @johnlyons there are a few things in Bolt Action that need reworked (such as Vehicle flamethrowers) and all of the errata needs to be incorporated into a ‘revised’ BA rulebook and some re-balancing of entries as well would be good too ; )
Great show. My vote for changing the game is with Mantic’s walking dead … instead of walkers, I propose … Zombie Pokemon. Uhm, yea … instead of catching them, they try to catch you .. mwhahaha. John, love your enthusiasm for Bolt Action, but … like Lloyd, I do think adding some weirdness helps. Mechs and Cthulhu oh yea ;D
You guys keep my Saturdays and Sundays fun.. keep up the good times.
I’m reminded that I really would just like a series based on John waxing on about WWII for a half hour or so.
I am so stoked for the Plastcraft stuff. I have a table waiting for them !!
Good one once again boys.
Really looking forward to seeing Dark Age!!
Some of those Dark Age models are definitely sweet!
Brand new Board Game Cafe in Bromley Called Warboar and Paradice Board game cafe. got a coffee shop cakes and lots of games. give it a look and checkout their facebook page.
Happy Sunday, sorry I’m late watching s always.
I had a friend who actually fought at Monte Cassino. He had at one point been left out of the first aid station because they assumed he would die from his wounds. When they found him still alive later in the day they brought him inside and tended to him. Despite all he had gone through he still thought the soldiers in the First World War trenches had suffered more than the troops at Cassino. An absolute gentleman. He passed away a few years ago.
Dark Age looks great
I’ve always loved the minis for Dark age, always loved the background just find it hard to get the stuff.
Looking forward to Johns Joan of Arc painting blog as I still have my own to paint
@dignity @johnlyons would love to see you doing the Desert war
Good job guys. John your painting skills are very good. Don’t worry about having your work critiqued. You’ve done great work and I’m sure the mini Justine wants to take is awesome.
I want to win goodies. Please pick me to win. 😀
Freebooters Fate is an excellent game. Would love to see some coverage.
Is it’s okay to say Happy Monday? Dark Age looks amazing!
Love Wings of Glory and like the reboot they (Ares) has done and that would have been my vote.
Nice terrain!
Enjoyed the show also on a Monday… 🙂
Poor Ben, sometimes John and Justin go on for a bit… and Ben just waits patiently in the background, get him in on that ramble! 😛
They tried that once, it went down the horrible road or Euro Truck Simulator haha
40k would be the most in need of a reboot imo .. it doesnt have to be fantasy in space to be cool, it has enough good fluff to lean back on. stuff like overwatch shots hitting point blank targets on 6s just because the game wants to keep melee usable is some of the silly that has to go. How about having melee oriented troops use terrain and equipment in creative ways if they want to close in instead of adding abstract crap and call them stuff they arent. Some of these new 40k board games have mechanics that make more sense and function more realistic than those of the main game. Even space hulk acheives this and its an oldie but goodie.
Loving the content, have a great week
Loving the look of Blood and Plunder, though I wonder if having a proper gaming table for it, or enough terrain is a barrier for players.
I wondered the same thing about Infinity. Thankfully there’s a lot of terrain out there, to buy and put out easily enough. Though for pirate games it mightn’t be so simple.
Just a thought.
The game Ben described is basically Human Interface. Cyberpunk game in small scale. Can’t wait for my copy.
Arcworld looks good, Conan RPG would be class.
Loved Dark Age back in the day, maybe time to revisit!
Awesome show
I would love for a skirmish revamp of Warmachines/Hordes and seeing it play better with terrain. I agree with Ben that I like the warbeasts and casters are why I liked it to begin with. Seeing something more like Wolsung perhaps.
@mliguori What do you mean by ‘play better with terrain’? Just curious about how it could be better in your opinion.
I completely agree with Ben about Warmachine. Like him, I got into the game thinking I’d be able to run a bunch of big, stompy robots with just a few infantry models in support. In truth, this only works effectively with a small number of casters running very specific lists.
I quickly switched to Hordes, as the fury mechanic is much better for running a beast-heavy army.
If I had to reboot something, I’d take Flames of War and remove some of the Hollywood and history channel history in favour of actual history.
And John, you’re not the only one who thinks that way about exactly how much credit Guderian and some of the German Generals really deserved 😉
Modiphius is realy doing a lot with its 2d20 system. I’m still waiting for my Infinity roleplaying game. Now Conan looks cool as well.
hi guys
I would rebbot 40K. Doing a Boltaction random dice turn sequence into it…and seperate the normal stuff from the apocalypse things which have merged and in my opinion have ruined the entertainment experience in the game…in 1500 point games you see three Wraithknights that are invisible (so U dont actually see them!)…Where have the good old HQ, 2+ Troops, support units gone???
Also looking forward to the Flames of War terrain pieces!
Cheers!
sorry John but I voted yes aswell, although I would like to see you at salute aswell, whats wrong with a cheap flight anyhow?
I’d reboot Man o War :p personally :p
Duel of the sun is a great book! Really looking forward to BA V2 later on this year
I’m not sure that what @brennon was talking about with Infinity was really a reboot as such. It’s more of an expansion. All of the street life that he mentioned technically already exists im the lore but the game itself doesn’t focus on it too much. I think it might be quite easy to even play that now with existing rules but you would probably have to source models from elsewhere.
One way that I think it might be interesting to expand your Infinity games would be to introduce civilians who move around the board and interfere with the players models. This could work especially well with tge dire foes packs where you could play with literally one model each and everything else is a civilian (or possibly an armed gang member!) who, just by acting randomly and unpredictably would either help or hinder your efforts to rescue or extract or assassinate your target.
But none of this requires a reboot, just a few extra rules
Really looking forward to that face tutorial at Salute. I was originally worried that I wouldn’t be able to stay for all of it but now my bus doesn’t leave until 11pm so I have plenty of time to attend 😀
Haven’t got Duel in the Sun yet, although my Perry’s Desert Rats box is assembled and has some armour in Canker pattern in it.
Did not know about Conan until i watched the weekender i will be joining that!
I’d like to see 40k rebooted as well, updated with a newer ruleset. The original was published in 1987 and even that was based on the older Fantasy Battles. Despite all the versions it hasn’t really all that much. I’d also like to see it move back to the original squad based size. I want my knights and titans in my Epic Armageddon not in 28mm, consarnit! (shakes fist)
The expanding fluff conversely seems to have made the universe feel smaller and blander in my opinion. Maybe that’s just the nature of GW as a company now vs then. Just some of my old man ramblings.
I like the Brom inspired world of Dark Age. I have some Brood models that I really like, so I’ll be interested what they do for them when they get around to re-sculpting them. Again with the fluff I’d like to see it moving forward rather than stay static. I love what Campaign: Paradiso did for the Infinity universe even if I found the missions themselves a little sub-par.
Good chat show gentlemen, very nice. Thanks for a good weekender.
And another chance to win that awesome Dark Age stuff. Didn’t know about this game before the weekender, it’s some great looking miniatures.
Happy sunday,
Piracy is another time perdiode i like it so much.
For desert war fare i’ll jump to persian gulf war.1990apr
if i would reboot a game, will be Heroquest due the company on charge of it dont do it properly at all, so blame those, haha, poor me that trusting they gonna make a cool game im waiting just yet and no known nothing!!
It will be interesting to see a historical pirate game. Specially looking forward to see the ships, as Im currently building a quit large wooden Spanish galleon which is moving forward extremely slow.. Maybe with this I can get a ship up and running sooner rather than later
A re-boot of Dark Future would be awesome.
I will have to get those new Outcast models. Dark Age has come a long way.
Some cool stuff in this XLBS and some cool kickstarters. Bummed that I missed the Arceworld one.