Second Heavy Gear Blitz KickStarter

 

After a month's delay to fulfill their Jovian Wars KickStarter, Dream Pod 9 have announced a launch date for their Heavy Gear Blitz expansion. I understand it will be in the next couple of days.  

If you've not been following their FaceBook page I recommend looking at some of the renders they've been posting, and the tease for the Gilgamesh tank looks really interesting.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely I can pledge due to my other financial commitment, namely publishing Bad Dog. But if I could I would, so check it out.

Bad Dog Finished Art

  

 Here's the artwork for Bad Dog.  

Third World Future Tank

 

These models are from the Takara micro-tank range.  They're a 1/144th scale Russian T95s, more properly called Object 195, because it never reached production status, as it was cancelled in 2010 due to budget problems.

Given that Russian tanks have a look to them, my idea was to use this model as the basis for a near future Third World tank, if only because it's an easy way of plonking something down on the table for a game.

Of course saying that means I'll probably want to customize these a bit, to jazz them up and make them look more futuristic.  Haven't decided what this will entail yet, but you know me, when I do I will post pictures.

Bad Dog

I've made the decision that I'm too old to waste any more of my life waiting for replies from traditional publishing houses about my novel. It has been two years, with one reply back, which was promising but, as they say, close but no cigar. 

The thought of waiting another two years to not hear back from editors who requested to see my work, or getting a nice rejection, because no one understands how to sell my work, is not on.

So, I have a choice.  Give up or self-publish.

he answer is, never give up, never surrender.

This picture is by the talented artist Elartwyne Estole whose work can be seen here. I asked him to do a cover, and he came up with this sketch, which I think is awesome. The current plan is to have Bad Dog out by January the first 2018.

We shall see how the plan survives contact with reality in due course. 

PS: You can follow my writing site here. 

Making Life Multiplanetary

Call me a starry eyed dreamer, but this was what Heinlein wrote about when I was a kid.  I've waited all my life to see mankind go back to visiting other planets.

Made me emotional to watch this, so good I've posted this on both blogs.
   

SJG Ogre Miniatures Wargame

 

This piece is going to be a criticism of the Ogre Miniatures wargaming rules by Steve Jackson Games.  If you've followed my blog for any length of time it should be obvious that I have played a fair few game of Ogre/GEV, and have a sizeable collection of the miniatures.

The picture above is proof of that.

Let me start by stating the obvious, the board-game is a classic.  Now that has been said let me explain what makes the rules for playing using the miniatures less than a fully satisfying miniatures playing experience.

It's quite simple really, the photo above is almost the perfect illustration of the problem–range to move ratio.  It doesn't matter what ground-scale conversion one uses: one inch to the hex, two inches, three or even four the problem remains, and the larger you go just makes other things more difficult too, like the size of the table need to play on.

In Ogre, units move one to four or more hexes per turn.  The range of the weapons is one to three hexes, with specials like howitzers being an exception, and cruise missiles of course, which in my experience are scenario specific.  Also, in Ogre terrain blocks, as in costs movement points to cross, but line-of-sight is is irrelevant to targeting an opponent, as it is abstracted as a defence bonus.

So what's the problem?

When the distance you can move a unit is as great or greater than the range you can shoot, what you have is a high level (more abstract) game, and miniature wargaming tends towards a lower level (less abstract) game.  The move to range ratio is a big issue here, because it just doesn't give the feel of a miniatures game.

As a player of miniature wargames I want tactical problems arising from terrain blocking line-of-sight and manoeuvre, which is why I use my miniatures as tokens on a hex map board.