I have drafted a number of further changes to my WSS siege rules [Leaguer] - these include the first working versions of a few features, so I happily accept that the game is too unstable (rough?) in its present state to involve any other poor soul in testing, and I propose to fiddle about on my own for a week or so before canvassing for volunteers.
Amongst many other changes, I have fixed the rule for starting and controlling fires in a town, I now have a prototype system for supply of ammunition and food, and the first (very flaky) version of the espionage rules is scribbled out on working sheets. One of the objectives of this next week is to try to put together a QRS which actually helps. As you may imagine, nothing can possibly go wrong.
Here is my test fortress. It seems to be sort of French, and thus far has acquired a couple of battalions of infantry, the regulation issue of one-fortress-gun-per-bastion and a couple of mortars. Not a bad start, but a fair way to go, and some choices for the Governor to make (you can see him standing on a walkway near the edge of the table). One early complaint from him is that the new putting-green paint for the glacis is going to have to be calmed right down, since it is horrible, not to say ridiculous. Easily fixed. It is my job to keep the Governor happy - he hasn't commented on the ice-lolly sticks marking the covered way, so I'll take that as approval
A general view of the table. The besiegers are not here yet, though evidence of their presence includes the First Parallel around the edge. You may think this looks more like a road than a fortification, but it's OK. There will be a lot of fortification and digging and stuff as we get into this; in any case, this First Parallel is outside artillery range from the walls [the hexes are 200 paces across] and the defenders are not allowed to carry out Trench Raids that far from home. At the far end of the table you will see an outwork called Fort Louis, which the defenders apparently abandoned at the first opportunity. This outwork will probably play no part in the siege, apart from adding a little distraction in the scenery department, though the besieging force (who will be sort of Grand Alliance chaps) might use it as a safe place
Righto - that gets me started. Tomorrow I have to refine the rules for purchasing a force for each side, do some auditing of the stores of food and powder (that's gunpowder, but is probably wig powder too), and get on with some digging and all that manly stuff.
Porridge and Lucozade will be issued first thing in the morning. A soldier's life for me.
The lolly sticks work great. You’re probably right to tone down the glacis green, but it definitely marks it out as different from a regular hex.
ReplyDeleteI feel obliged to claim that the glacis colour looks rather less stupid on personal inspection, but the photos under the daylight LEDs gave me a real fright. It will be fixed. I should have painted these hex tiles red, to blend in better. I'll get them fixed, but I'll need some different paint, so it might not be this week.
DeleteWorking out how many different shapes and sizes of lolly stick pieces I would need to cope with all possible situations was quite a challenge - in fact the answer is three - an inny/outy [parallelogram, capable of being used either way up] and two different sizes of outy/outy [trapezium]. Three-quarters of a bottle of Montepulciano didn't help much - I was very pleased to find that I could cut the wooden sticks with the kitchen scissors, with a very small proportion of breakages. Thank you for the idea.
This looks good. Very neat work with the lolly sticks. If I did that I'd make a right hash of it.
ReplyDeleteThe governor sounds a real Martinet. Having you paint the grass green.
In the interests of honesty, I have to state that the lolly sticks are really waxing spatulae, though I must also point out that I have no idea what a waxing spatula is. Actual lolly sticks would have been too small.
DeleteThe Governor is a horror - Colonel Baptiste-Amédée Bâtard, Comte Tatillon. He has just been installed in the place by King Louis, and has already drafted a standard letter of surrender (in Dutch), stocked his larder with quail and fois gras and organised a programme of musical dinners for his senior officers and the prominent citizens.
If you're doing some more work on your glacis, have you considered doing a lozenge that will slot in ahead of the bastions? It would match up to the side of the two glacis hexes in front of the bastion and extend to centre of the empty hex in front of the bastions. It does create a hex part glacis and part open ground (problem?) but I think the projection of the glacis to a point in front of the bastion would look good.
ReplyDeleteHi Rob - by this morning I had already added an extra hex of glacis in front of each bastion - I am still having difficulty with coherent thought in the presence of the current experimental shade, but I think that does at least keep the glacis roughly the same overall shape as the fortress. With luck, there should be a major continuity glitch later this week when the glacis suddenly changes colour (perhaps it was a spell of dry weather?). In the meantime I'll carry on - where are my Raybans?
DeleteMany of the glacis hexes have something else painted on the reverse side, and hand-cutting 3mm MDF sheet plays hell with my wrist these days, so I am holding off on preparing special pieces, though it may come. Hexes which are part glacis and part not would not be a big problem - apart from the tricky bit about there being cover beyond the lolly sticks, the only significance of the glacis in the rules (thus far) is that the defenders can't make a trench raid against anything on the glacis or on the First Parallel.
I'll feel calmer about the glacis when I get some paint on. [For the detail enthusiasts, I was originally going to use Dulux "Parrot Green", but panicked in the hardware store, and ordered 250ml of "Venus Flytrap", which was a bad mistake. There is a terrible shortage of agricultural greens in the ColourMatch range, presumably because people don't wish to have their sitting rooms painted in such shades, but my friendly paint mixing man can make any shade known, and he has some "under the counter" sheets. My standard baseboard colour is "Crested Moss No.1", which has been OOP for some years, but I still have a note of the mix codes, so that isn't a problem.]
The covered way is a triumph! I have found that decent scissors work for all sorts of modelling projects and are a lot easier to use for some things than a craft knife.
ReplyDeleteThe waxing sticks have just enough strength to (mostly) hang together when cut - I had assumed they would just splinter when scissored - I guess that's my lucky break used up early.
DeleteA great idea to provide a putting green to keep up morale during a long siege. I will follow developments with keen interest.
ReplyDeleteHi Ian - the putting green is not quite what I expected - my colour vision is well out of warranty these days. I'll have a more restful version for the members to play on, later this week.
DeleteSomewhere I've got a reference to a WSS siege where the besieging commander had to issue standing orders, because some of his soldiers carrying fascines were taking a short-cut across part of the glacis, and even chatting with (and cadging tobacco from) enemy troops in the place d'armes. Not the thing at all.
DeleteI seem to be a bit late to this party but not too late, I hope, to say that your lolly sticks/spatulae look very effective. I am very interested to read how things progress.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jim - this afternoon I have mostly been re-engineering the army pts/purchase system - I can hardly believe I'm writing this, but it's true; I've never willingly used a purchase system in my life, but I'm having a go at present!
DeleteHaving a contrasting color for the glacis is a useful idea especially if playing remotely where color differences can be muted. Good progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon - I'm pleased with progress - I'll tweak the glacis colour so that it still stands out but isn't necessarily visible from space. A lot of the work for this week is going to be finding and printing the correct rules drafts - lack of documentation is a problem at the start; well, to be more accurate, there is plenty of documentation, but the version control could be better!
DeleteVersion control is imperative in development projects of many kinds.
DeleteImperative.
Delete