One Hour Wargames again!

A break from the never ending year end!

I have never known a year end like this before. I'm sure it will come to an end shortly and I can get back to normal but I think my immediate priority will be getting some sleep and cutting the grass!

In preparation for my return to normality I have spent some time aimlessly surfing and I have found some new reviews of One Hour Wargames from a couple of big hitters (that's a compliment of course!).

Battlefields and Warriors Blog: Norm Smith has done a very detailed review of the rules with couple of AARs. A very fair and thorough review with some nice graphics.

Marco Arnaudo: I regularly watch Marco's reviews which are largely of boardgames. He is an insightful and entertaining reviewer and I have a lot of time for him. This week he has posted a review of One Hour Wargames. It would be nice to see him putting it through its paces but his review is entertaining enough as it is.

On a slightly different subject, I was very taken by Marco's review of Unconditional Surrender, a full scale WW2 strategy game (play the full war or individual campaigns). It has a great and very simple combat model which I am thinking about for use elsewhere.

What is really interesting is that there is a print and play campaign for Unconditional Surrender featuring Case Blue. You can get this for free from BGG, nice!

Well that was very therapeutic and hopefully I can get back into regular designing and blogging mode shortly.

QB the last...for the moment

Its the Menu de Renforts!

Oh yes, one last bit of activity this holiday weekend. I have had the privilege of re-reading Peter Hofschroer's Waterloo Campaign to research the reinforcement schedule. This is a great resource even if the conclusions are a bit iffy for an Englishman! I have added the draft reinforcement schedule to the QB page. All we need to do now is find some time to get playing and see if it actually works.

There may be a number of issues with this game, mainly around activation levels and attrition. It will be interesting to see how it plays. The idea is that this should produce a very tense game all the way through to the finish.

Quatre Bras - Ferraris (18th century) from Walking Waterloo

I have also enjoyed reading the Walking Waterloo Blog over the weekend. Another great resource. Thankfully, I have not felt the need to go and change anything on the play test map as a result. Some great map extracts and photos though, as per this example.

More QB at last....

Counters!

A busy weekend but I have had some time to put together a set of counters for QB. I have uploaded the file to the QB page. It looks a bit messy when you open it up but it prints out OK. Let me know if it doesn't work for you.

I have improvised some Brunswick counters and will return to do a proper job on them when I have time. In the meantime, here are some nice Dutch-Belgian types!

Quatre Bras nearly there.....

Just in time for Easter

I have found some time to work on this game over the past couple of days. I have finalised the play test map....

Gemioncourt is now a fortified hex given its similarity to the Waterloo farms. Here it is....

I have also pulled together a draft set of rules, based closely on the Waterloo a la Carte set. These are now on the new page I have set up for the game.

My to do list now has only two items:

• A reinforcement schedule
• The counters themselves

I have nearly completed the reinforcement schedule. I think the counters will be straightforward and I'm looking forward to doing the Brunswickers. Something for the weekend I think.

Quatre Bras again...

Revised map

I have had a few minutes away from the coal face today and have used that time, wisely I hope, to have another go at the QB map. Here is v2:

The real changes here are to the top right hand quadrant which I think now better represents the landscape. The Thyle sector is now more dense and offers less scope for flanking. The QB to Thyle road now much straighter. I have used some tree images adopted from one of the electronic versions of Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame (see the site here and have a play on your browser, these are really good little programmes!) to show the sunken road area. I'm not sure I like the way I have represented this feature on the map, the hex alignment felt better on the earlier version, but in game terms it should work out fine.

Still on the subject of QB, I am following the development of a new game by Dave Kershaw. A while ago (2012) he published a little game called Napoleonics: Quatre Bras as an Android App. I leave it up to you to try this one, the demo is free, and here is a nice screenshot. Unfortunately my phone is a little on the small side and I have not found it easy to get to grips with.

Dave is now building a paper version of the game (Battlelines Quatre Bras) and you can follow his development blog on BGG here. It will be interesting to see how this turns out as it looks very promising.

Year end mega stress blow out!

Oh yes, its that bad!!!

We will be working pretty much up to midnight on 31 March to get the ball over the line for this year. That sounds quite exciting but is actually also very tense. Very little time for any game related activities and I'm almost permanently asleep on the train these days. However, a little light in the darkness........

Yes, a draft map for Quatre Bras a la Carte! QB is one of my favourite battles because of the potential for volatility in reinforcements. It is also one of the few battles in which a British regiment lost its colours. Plenty of colourful characters and troops from across Europe. Go Brunswickers! 

The map is not yet right but it is getting very close. I can simply cannibalise the counters from Waterloo a la Carte. The rules are also pretty much there. I notice on re-reading Waterloo a la Carte that there are some areas of uncertainty that can be cleared up easily. If I'm not working this weekend I reckon I can probably get a quick play test in. Roll on Easter!

Painting success!

Completed WSS infantry

Sadly not at WMMS today, busy with chores and recovering after a nasty fall off a ladder (entirely my own fault). Never mind, I'm making some progress with my Baccus 6mm troops for my Cocked Hex rules. As usual, units consist of three bases, each 40mm across and 20mm deep. First up, four units of Bavarians, pretending to be the bad guys:

Here are two British units to go with the Dutch:

Horse next on the list.