The Rules Lawyer is a species of tabletop gamer that can quickly ruin a Wargaming or Roleplaying session. They seem to know the rules better than everyone else and have no inhibitions about using that for their own advantage. They know every loophole and misprint in the rules, especially if it's to their advantage. Most annoyingly they often conveniently forget any rules that don't support their game. So can this anti-social behaviour be channelled for the good of the group? Are rules lawyers actually a good thing when managed properly?
I hope you found that video interesting and it has given you some food for thought.
A few weeks ago I made some prototype hills just to work out how I wanted to do them. The intention all along was to make a large batch of foam hills to fulfil my gaming needs for many years to come. With the arrival of a new batch of XPS Foam, I set about the task of cutting, sanding, painting, and then applying the static grass. The whole project took just a couple of days, most of that being drying time.
Enough hills to give me plenty of terrain choices
The build was so simple, and low cost, that I decided to make a very short tutorial video on my work process. If you have wavered over making your own hills for the games table then this short film will show you just how easy they were to make
For those that are interested, here is a list of the raw materials I used and a cost for the whole project.
*This low unit cost was achieved by buying a much larger pack and stashing half of it away for use in future projects. One can never have enough foam!
I hope you found the video useful and if you have never made foam hills before give it a try. You'll be amazed at how easy they were to make and how much money you'll save.
I have recently been quite busy making terrain for my Normandy games (although much of it is generic and could be used for other periods/settings). Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing some videos showing off some of this work, but right now I am working on a new project. I'm still sticking with Normandy 1944 and Chain of Command, but I'm starting work on some late war British Infantry that I recently bought from Skytrex. If you watch the 'unboxing' video in the link you'll see how nice these 15mm metal figures are, and now that I have started work on them I like them even more.
My eventual aim is to have a couple of different platoons for both sides that can fight alongside each other in a big multiplayer game down the shed-o-war with the Rejects. This is a long way off and I need to prepare well for such a complex undertaking. Not least because I'll need all my umpiring skills to manage four newbie players simultaneously. The hope is that eventually, I will be able to run this game on a much larger table, in effect playing out two games simultaneously side by side but with linked objectives and of course an overall outcome. Maybe I'm slightly crazy, but the idea has got me excited and I have no doubt I'll live to regret it!!
In the meantime, I have a 'New' project to keep me going. The miniatures are hopefully on their way to me right now...a long awaiting delivery of 6mm Celts from Baccus. I didn't purchase a whole army because I already have several bases of Celtic/Gaulish warriors for some of my other armies so all I needed to do was add some commanders, cavalry and chariots and I have the ability to field a Celtic/Gaulish Army against my Romans or Carthaginians. These miniatures have been on order for a long time but I have been happy to wait for their arrival. When they do I'll have the 'fun' task of assembling the Chariots... and after the Indian Chariots I painted a few years ago I know I will need all my patience for that particular task!
On a side note, I'm quite enjoying making the YouTube videos for my channel Miniature Adventures so expect to see more of these in the future. I realise that most of my posts here have been links to these films and judging from the amount of visitor traffic they have generated the combination seems to be popular. Certainly, I feel the two platforms complement each other and my only regret is that I didn't do this years ago.... mind you, it's only the availability of my still relatively new Operations Room that has given me space to make videos and play solo games so maybe now is my time, stop regretting what wasn't possible, and focus on the future.
Wargaming can be expensive, but with a bit of effort and creativity, you can keep the cost down by making your own terrain. This video has some practical suggestions and top tips for creating three basic types of terrain common to most wargames tables. Hills, fields and buildings feature in nearly every period and genre and if you can make them yourself rather than buying commercial products, you can keep the cost of your hobby down.
I'm happy to buy pre-made and pre-painted terrain but I've also happily made a lot of my own over the years and its certainly one way to stretch limited resources if you are wargaming on a budget.
Another unboxing video this time for a spray shelter so that I can varnish my models whatever the weather. I don't often spray anything indoors because where possible this should be done in a well-ventilated space, but occasionally the weather makes nipping outside impossible.
Let's just say this is a lesson in reading the product specification properly before pressing the BuyNow button!
The problem with completing one project is that it inevitably leads to another. So having 'finished' my British Airborne troops for Chain of Command I couldn't help myself and decided to expand my British forces even more. So last week I bought some 15mm Command Decision WWII British Infantry figures from Skytrex. Cast in white metal these figures are packed with detail and character. So much so that I decided to make a short unboxing video to show them off, straight from the packet.
I have bought enough miniatures for a full Infantry Platoon, plus some support elements such as a Vickers MMG, extra 2" Mortars and medics. The models need a little bit of cleaning up but I hope to get started on these soon.
Inspiration comes from strange places sometimes and such is the way with today's video on my YouTube Channel Miniature Adventures. It's a how-to tutorial video on how to make cheap, quick and easy smoke markers for wargaming. Smokescreens are often hard to replicate on the wargames table but this easy method creates reusable markers that look good for just a few pence each. With materials bought from pound stores, this is a very cost-effective way of making good looking terrain for your wargames table.
Using basic materials, easily available from any high street or online, these smoke tokens can be used to enhance the look of the miniatures wargame. They take only a few minutes to make and can be in use on the table in moments.
Today I have a short video showing off a couple of reproduction D-Day maps published by Godfrey Edition. These have all the D-Day Bigot planning annotations on the maps and will keep me engrossed in the detail for days to come.
I plan on using these to enhance my setting up of terrain and possibly for a campaign series of linked games sometime in the future.
This week I have completed a set of Drop Cannisters for my 15mm British Airborne troops. I'll use these either as scatter terrain, objective markers or jump-off points for my Chain of Command games. They are from Peter Pig and contain spare packs, Piat anti-tank guns and rifles.
The CLE Container (Container Light Equipment) was a standardized cylindrical container used by the British during World War 2 to airdrop supplies to troops on the ground. They could be dropped from the bomb racks of aircraft and deployed a parachute pulled by a static line. Fully loaded they could hold between 200-250lb of equipment and were used to support parachute troops on the ground and for drops to resistance fighters. During Operation Market Garden they used different coloured chutes to indicate the nature of the contents; red for ammunition, green for rations, white for medical supplies, blue for fuel and yellow for communication equipment.
Today I thought I would share a very short video battle report that follows from the game I posted on my channel on Friday. I recycled the same terrain for a very quick game of What a Tanker!
The game was pretty short, but good fun none-the-less.
I recently read an article which mentioned some data that was published last year suggesting that the Average UK household spending on Games and Hobbies was just £3.20 per week. That is a pitiful sum of money when compared to my hobby spending so it begged the question, is Wargaming an expensive hobby?
So it probably won't come as a big surprise that my conclusion is that while I may spend more on my hobby than the average Brit, I consider that money well spent and therefore consider my hobby to be a good value for money. You may disagree and of course, I would love to hear what you think in the comments below or over on my YouTube Channel Miniature Adventures.
As usual, if you enjoyed the video please like, subscribe, and share.
Last weekend, I used my newly enlarged games table for the first time and played a solo game of Chain of Command. The battle is set on D-Day, east of the Orne River and Canal near the landing ground of the 8th Airborne Brigade. While the action is fictitious the landscape is as close as I could get it for the location. I used Scenario 6 in the rulebook, attacking an Objective, with the Germans defending a critical crossroads.
As before, I am trying to keep these video battle reports to about 30 minutes (give or take), so I didn't film every dice roll except for a few critical ones towards the end of the game. There are plenty of great Chain of Command games played in their entirety on youtube, which is great if you have a couple of hours to spare. However, I wanted to offer something a little more 'bite sized' without the spectacle of watching me fumble my lines, flicking back and forth through the rule book while muttering to myself. I hope you enjoy this shorter format and of course if you do please hit the like and subscribe buttons.
Last week I posted a video of two resin terrain pieces from Ironclad Miniatures and I said I thought they were really nice looking models. I've now painted them up and I'm even more pleased with them. There is so much detail in these resin casts and that made painting them very easy.
The models saw some action at the weekend and the Battle Report video from that game will be posted later in the week.
This week my Quarantined Wargamer video returns to the subject of Solo Wargaming, this time to take a closer look at some of my favourite and often used techniques in more detail.
Even though many of us will be getting back to face-to-face gaming soon, I still think that Solo gaming has a useful role to play if you are able to do so at home wherever you play.
Until next week, keep gaming and of course keep rolling high!
