Blinds provide an interesting element of "Fog of War" - highly recommended. My solo game has an option where you can shuffle the identity of the blinds for one or both armies, so that one or both commanders has/have no idea who or what is arriving when - that is a decent working definition of chaos. Probably takes the idea a little too far, though it can generate some furious fun.
This draft rule will be identifiable as heavily influenced by TooFatLardies - but who else am I going to borrow ideas on Blinds from?
If you're going to steal - the Lardies are a good bunch to steal from. I'm not sure if I'm delighted about using cardboard counters as blinds. One of their Specials recommended using bases of skirmishers as blinds.
ReplyDeleteThe overall concept is good. You might want to consider a fog &/or darkness modifier to account for those situations.
ReplyDeleteCan a blind be fired upon by artillery?
If an infantry unit moves adjacent to a blind, does it reveal it? or would it need to declare at least a skirmish attack to force the enemy to reveal themselves?
-Ross
Conrad
ReplyDeleteCome now - I flinch a little at the word "steal", but it's a fair cop! - most of the rest of the game is nicked from elsewhere too. There's bits of Wesencraft, Featherstone, Mustafa, Morschauser etc etc in the mix. The cardboard counters were pretty much TFL-derived as well - I know that Paul Lenister uses bases of skirmishers in his uber-grand-tactical games, and it is an attractive idea, though the real identity of the Blind might be a cavalry unit or even nothing at all, which makes the skirmishers kind of irrelevant (though they look better).
You are right, though - they are a strange aberration considering my fetish about keeping clutter off the battlefield. My original experiments with blinds used big green (tabletop coloured) markers - like unit sabots but with nothing on, and I still like this as an idea, but I tried this and kept forgetting about the things! Mind you, maybe that's good - an invisible blind!
Tony
Ross - yes - absolutely - if/when weather is added to the game there should be a further adjustment for visibility. Weather rules in my main game are far too complicated to run without the computer, but I'm thinking abut a simplified version - very easy for this to grow arms and legs.
ReplyDeleteGame works at present (or doesn't work?) on the principle that you can only fire at what you can see and identify - a blind that hasn't been revealed or spotted yet isn't really there. You get a try at spotting every push, so I don't think you can get all that close without seeing them - by the time you get to an adjacent hex they will be well visible, I think.
The chilling threat of a Dreaded Blind comes when your opponent brings on a blind behind his left wing and one behind his centre, and either of them may be nothing at all or it may be the Guard cavalry!
Tony