Sharp Practice 2...

Sharp Practice 2 is a black powder era skirmish level war game from Too Fat Lardies. Requiring something like 40-60 odd miniatures a side, it is a game that focuses on small actions and is strong on theme.

I was lucky enough, a few nights ago, to get in a first learning game, and despite having only a few blocks of infantry on the table, it was a huge amount of fun. After one game I am not familiar enough with the rules to offer any insightful commentary on what might make for strong tactical play, but what I can say is: I'm hooked.

Like Dux Britanniarum, the other Too Fat Lardies game I have played (and thoroughly enjoyed), Sharp Practice manages to capture a strong flavour of the period in a relatively straight forward rules set. What is fascinating about Sharp Practice (and also present in Dux) is the emphasis the rules set places on leaders as the fundamental core to utilising your force on the table. By pulling chits (we used poker chips in a bag) or via a card deck, the leaders each player has on the table are activated. When a leader is activated they may spend their command points (called Command Initiative) to activate the groups or formations around them, to remove Shock (a form of cumulative damage a group may suffer that reflects its morale, and which is very important, as I found out) and do various other things like forming groups into formations and so on.

Leaders are fundamental to the operation of a player's force, and the random order in which the leaders on the table are activated (and some may not get to activate every turn), makes for a tense and exciting experience. There were many points in the game where myself and my opponent where both anxious for a specific leader chit to be drawn from the bag, hoping to get the drop on the opposing force.

Some players may find this method of activation too random, especially as one of the cards/chits is the Tiffin, which ends the turn (even if there are leaders who have not activated). While there is truth to this, the randomness in this case manages to beautifully encapsulate the feel of the theme magnificently. As a commander you never are quite sure who will manage to make the first move, whether the soldiers are chomping at the bit to get to grips with the foe or whether they are hesitant, whether your Officers have managed to relay their orders in time... For a gamer used to the steady back and forth of I Go You Go, or Alternate Activation systems, it can take a little getting used to, but believe me, in my experience it manages to do one thing above all other activation systems... and that is feed into the story of the game.

The rules set beyond command and control is solid, and while we had some questions come up through the game which we couldn't find the answers for immediately, we made a ruling and pushed on (and found a solid FAQ afterwards). Groups and Formations, when activated by a leader, have two actions such as move, reload, fire, and present (aim). With only two actions, and the requirement to reload before firing (and preferably to present as well), the system captures the theme well. The dice system follows a buckets of dice approach, which, while many gamers think this is 'lucky' actually makes resolution closer to the bell curve. I won't go into details but to note the system is solid and well devised. It manages to do what needs to be done and get out of the way in order to allow the action to happen.

Luck, at first blush, seems to play a strong hand in the game, you dice for movement, for attacks and for other things, you draw chits (or pull cards) for activations, but the luck doesn't feel overwhelming, and the methods through which it is implemented gives it a role, but not a dominant one. At the end of the day tactical play is vital, one cannot win the game without it. To be honest, I absolutely adore the way the game runs, as frustrating as it can be to see a leader go unactivated in a turn, to have your formation loaded and presenting yet holding back their fire till too late, it is also exhilarating to take a chance and see it pay off. The simple truth of it is that the bigger the gamble you take the less likely you are to be able to see it come off; and this is as it should be. Luck is there, but it is not overriding, good and clever play, daring do, careful maneuver - these are all vital components of good play.

One thing Sharp Practice manages to do better than most other games I have ever played is to create a story. Ahh, the story. I have played few games where a narrative rises so easily from the happenings on the table as I have when playing Dux or Sharp Practice. The rules in play manage to seamlessly create a scenario in which players are doing their level best to gain the upper hand, but in which fortune and circumstance, like in every good tale, will conspire to have the successes of the erstwhile hero fluctuate. Games take on a life of their own, and the story that rises from the game play takes the players on a rollercoaster from success to failure and back again.

I have never played a black powder era miniatures game before, but Sharp Practice is a marvel, I am thoroughly looking forward to my force arriving, and getting them on the table more over the coming year!

Tempus Fugit

Sitting here staring at the blank screen, thinking about all the blog posts I had planned to write by now I realise it's been more than a month since I last posted something, a month and a half in fact.

I had certainly intended to write more, reviews of games I had played, games I was looking at, the book I am reading. I had the topics for half a dozen posts, but life got busy, as life does, and time flies.

In the last month and a half things have certainly been busy, professionally and personally. My mother passed away, and while I won't write about it now, if I ever do, I should add that she was a singular woman who instilled in me a passion for reading, for games, for information, for curiosity and creativity, the last two perhaps the most important. It is in the arrogance of young adulthood that you convince yourself you are a self-made person, and for me at least, it was the loss of my mother that reminded me how truly formative our parents are.

The Castle has also been wracked by plague, with child and adult alike hacking at their lungs with unabating coughs and fevers running rampant.

Work has kept my hands from idleness, as a teacher and as a writer. For the latter I have had chapters for the Infinity Role Playing Game's Core Rule Book (by Modiphius) to write and review (so far I've worked on the Concillium, O-12 and PanOceania chapters), characters and adversaries to stat out and describe, short biographies to create and more. I have also been proofing the upcoming Achtung! Cthulhu Skirmish Game (also by Modiphius and based on the Legions game from Spartan), and have been working with Spartan Games on upcoming things. All of this has been immense fun, but left me short on time for blogging, painting, playing and reading.

Writing of reading, I am, at the moment, working my way slowly through Ancillary Justice, by Ann Lecke. A Hugo and Nebula Award winning book, I am only a little way through. I have to be honest and say that it has only partially grabbed me, though unfolding events are drawing me closer. Part of a trilogy of books, I am looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds.

Gaming wise, I have played a few games here and there, some of which I'll cover below. The most enjoyable of the games I have played in the last couple of months are:

Playing the first mission in HeroQuest with my son, who had a blast. A simple but highly enjoyable dungeon romp that goes to show nostalgia isn't always the reason games of yesteryear seem so good.

Playing through a thoroughly disastrous campaign of Dux Britanniarum, in which my Saxon Lord has done little but prove his ineptitude and the poor judgement of his men in selecting him as leader. This game is absolutely brilliant, as much for what happens outside the game table as for what happens on it.

I've also been thoroughly enjoying Infinity the miniatures game, by Corvus Belli (upon which the RPG is based). This game is a lot of fun, and full of little storied moments.

The best new game I've played has been Morels, a funny little set-collection game about gathering fungi. An odd theme, but a rather enjoyable two-player game that moves quicker than you think it might.

The best of my older games that has hit the table, and one I haven't played in some time, was Shadows Over Camelot. Shadows is a co-operative game where the players, as knights of the Round Table must attempt to win various quests to both stave off disaster and gain enough 'white swords' to claim victory against the forces of evil. There may also be a traitor, of course, and in this game there was, and he won with a brutal twist just as things seemed like they may turn for the better at the end.


What's upcoming?

Well, I am planning on getting a group together, in some form or another, to play some Fate. I've never played this RPG before, but I like the look of it a lot and it should be good fun.

I also have some 15mm Chariots I have put together for a game called Fastvs Fvrivs, by Ganesha Games, and I'm very much looking forward to getting them on the table!



Well, that's enough, probably far too much. I am hoping to come back to some of these games and things and write about them in a touch more detail, but for now this will suffice.

Dark Age Gaming...

Dux Britanniarum is a miniature wargame set in the period of the Saxon invasion of England. Using the base book players will either represent the Romano-British defenders or the Saxon invaders. Really, the game is a wonderful campaign system with a miniatures game attached to it, but while that may sound critical of the miniatures game aspect, as a whole game it really is a wonderful experience and well worth exploring. I'll get around to writing a proper review of Dux Brit at some point, and the exploits of my Saxon chieftain Njal Ulfson (who at this point is swinging between the monikers of 'The Unlucky' and 'The Inept').

I made the decision early on to use 10mm figures to play Dux Brit, partly because of the cost (I have more than enough figures for more than two armies, and they cost me less collectively than a box of 28mm scale models).  And partly because they are easy to store and don't take up much room (I have two armies in a single tackle tray).

Using 10mm figures presented some interesting choices, I needed firstly to make sure I had enough good terrain to use with them. The trees and hills are no problem, but for the buildings and whatnot, I decided that 15mm scale stuff isn't too far off the beaten track, and have a couple of the 4Ground Dark Age buildings (which look magnificent). I also decided to convert the game directly into centimeters rather than inches, and have experimented with different sized boards to accommodate that.

A nice little Dark Age building... 4Ground make some wonderful stuff!

So, I had the figures, board, trees, hills and buildings, what I needed was some fences. After a little googling I ran across this blog post, which gives a rather excellent tutorial on making some wattle fences. Without further ado, I jumped into making some of my own.

Using icy-pole sticks for the bases, I drilled out holes every 1.5 cm along their varying lengths.

Toothpicks were then glued into the holes and left to dry.

Using a pair of snippers, I trimmed them all to a suitable length.

I painted the bases in PVA and gave them a dusting of sand.

Once the glue was dry I undercoated everything with a black primer.

A base coat of dark brown paint.

Followed by several layers of drybrushing, each with a lighter tone of brown through to a skin tone.

Using a nice braided string, I tied it off on one end, then weaved it around the upright poles, working it down so they were bunched nicely but not overlapping.

I then liberally painted the string and base with a watered down PVA.

Finally, I added some static grass to the bases in spots to give some relief.

So that was the fencing completed. They look rather nice in my humble opinion, and are relatively easy to make.

As for the boards... My key mistake when setting up my forces for Dux Brit was in basing the figures on 20mm round bases. In retrospect I should have used 10mm square bases, but I really can't be bothered rebasing everything, so 20mm rounds it is.

The base size has an interesting impact on the game, as movement is measured in centimeters, the base size of 20mm makes a reasonable difference. In the end I decided to experiment with two board sizes, one straight conversion, of 48cm x 72cm using corflute. The other board I made using thin MDF sheeting, and is 60cm x 90cm. So far I have played on the 60cm x 90cm board, and it may be a little large. Next time I'll try the 48cm x 72cm and see how that feels.

For the base paint I mixed a reasonable amount of sand in with some brown paint.

The sand gave a really nice texture to the boards.

Using a house brush, I liberally drybrushed the surface of the boards several times with ever lighter shades of brown, finishing with a skin tone.

I have yet to add static grass to the boards, I'll get around to it at some point.

Lastly I needed some animals for the odd occasion in which the scenario generator called for the Saxons to raid cattle.

Some N-Scale farm animals meant for model trains (oh, the fate that awaits you isn't what you were intended for my little beasties)

Based on 20mm round bases with some sand and static grass added.

Looking rather spiffy I think...

Some Saxons wondering if the heifer is light enough to carry off.

Romano-British soldiers come to let them know it is probably too heavy.

I should add that the 10mm figures are from Pendraken, and are top quality, with solid detail given the scale!

Yes, I still have many 10mm figures to paint, but I'll get there eventually!