Wasted

I have been busy over the Christmas break, doing the family thing, recording the odd episode of Here Be Gamers! and writing games. It seems that whenever I get more than two days off in a row my mind gets all creative and I just can’t help myself.

I have written a simple fantasy RPG to play with my nephews. Dungeon Quest is straightforward in its premise – fantasy heroes (Knight, Wizard, Thief, Priest) of a variety of races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) delve into dark dungeons to rid the land of evil and collect treasure. I had originally intended to play Dragon Age with the boys, but wanted to give them a game to walk away with and (if luck was on my side) play with their friends. As generous as I am, my wallet would not extend to two additional sets. Also, I wasn’t confident that the boys would be able to play and run a game of Dragon Age after a single game with me – even at a mere 132 pages, there is a lot for a 12 year old to assimilate. I wanted a complete game in a quarter of that, so wrote one myself. I am intending to give the rules another comb through and I will post them here for the world to enjoy – Creative Commons liscence and all.

conquest copy

I have also been back into miniature wargaming – in a fairly major way! With the arrival of my nephews looming I decided to dust off and expand a dinosaur hunting game I had played with them a few years back. One thing lead to another, and I ended up writing an entirely new game. Conquest of the Lost World suggests a past where all the stories of Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle and H. G. Wells are true. There is in fact a resource-rich world beneath the surface of our own and a race for wealth, land, slaves and other valuables has begun in this lost world. Of course there are natives, Atlantis, dinosaurs, the Imperial Roman Army and more to contend with too! This is a skirmish wargame, where players control two to three units of infantry, plus vehicles, monsters and assorted goodness.

I had a playtest game on the weekend and it went pretty well. Rob fielded Atlanteans with their dreaded arc guns, while I was in control of a British expeditionary force. The British explorer Professor Widebones had made contact with the reclusive nation of Atlantis and after a successful mission headed off home. Unfortuneately he took with him some valuable Arc Stones that power everything in Atlantis from weapons to lightbulbs to flush toilets. The Atlanteans sent a troupe of warriors to reclaim the stones and teach the invaders a lesson. And a lesson they taught – I lost terribly. But the game worked marvelously. Expect to see more soon!

Finally, having seen Avatar last week (see my blog post about wargaming Avatar), I have been keen on the idea of sci-fi wargaming. A long time ago my game of choice would have been Warhammer 40,000 but these days I just can’t fork out the kind of money that particular hobby asks for. Instead, I decided on 15mm sci-fi battles. I mentioned this at the game club last weekend and Brett was also keen. We haven’t decided on a rules set yet but it will probably turn out to be a mod of either Flames of War or Battlefield Evolution. If anyone can tell us a good platoon-level game (we only want to field about 30 infantry plus some tanks and bits), speak up!

Brett went straight home, rummaged through his bits box and got straight to work;

Brett's first figures

They are Flames of War figures with pin-heads for heads!

I have spent three days searching the ‘net trying to choose between all the awesome options. I realised that “lets play sci-fi games” was too general and after a few emails we have nominally decided on post-apocalyptic Earth. I have decided to collect two small forces to begin with (so anyone without an army can participate too).

The first force are from The Bunker, a military base that survived the end of the world. I will be using Rebel Minis Earth Force Marines for infantry and Ground Zero Games’ crab-walker tanks;

Earth Force Marines from Rebel Minis

GunCrab from Ground Zero Games

The other force will be the dreaded robotic menace (as yet unnamed). I will be using Rebel Minis’ Scourge miniatures for infantry and a range of unmanned VTOL vehicles from GZG.