Italian Wars Campaigning

An interesting question came up on the Twitters whilst I was chatting about my review of the Furioso rule set, what about a Campaign System ? You know each player is a Condottiero building his forces and manoeuvring for position, fortune and fame in late 15th Century Italy, that sort of thing.

Well sit back, I think I have found it.

I present Dell'arte Del La Guerra from a Company who are new too me Real Time Wargames. I found them during a random search on the Googles, I couldn't find much information or reviews about them on the tinterwebnet so I took a punt.

The book has a Campaign System for up to 6 players to take the role of a Condottiero in the late 15th Century in the years leading up to the French Invasion in 1495 (or invitation depending on your viewpoint), everything I mentioned in my opening paragraph.

They are avaliable as a PDF for around £10 from Wargames Vault (you would need to print and mount the game cards this way) or direct from the company as a printed version complete with gaming aids for £20 (link below)

https://www.realtimewargames.com/product-page/dell-arte-della-guerra

I bought the printed version and if it's your thing I would go for that version as will become plain during the review.

The Contents

First thing to say is that the book also has some tabletop rules within them, this review does not cover that part of the publication, I am happy with Furioso at the moment. 1st off a video covering the physical content of the book.

For those who don't do the Utube here are some stills of content. The use of the cards becomes clearer when watched in conjunction with the game play video.

Above are the game mats included in the printed version, we have,

1. A fast play sheet for the tabletop rules
2. A chart for recording current financial details of the players and the City States involved.
3. A campaign chart for army movement.
4. A Chart for recording passage of time during the Campaign 

A set of Unit Cards for each of the Condottiero, defining two units from that army, they are printed on decent card and are good quality. Each of the 6 players have 10 cards each.

Next up are three sets of cards, one each for the two schools of warfare in the game. These are specifically for the tabletop rules and are used to influence game play, however I don't think they would be too difficult to adapt to whatever rule set you use.

The third deck are objective cards, these are drawn at random each game year and provide a focus for the campaign.

Above is a picture of the remaining cards in the set, there a unit cards for the City States (50 cards) plus a number of cards representing the French Invaders.

The rest of the cards are for use on the Campaign Charts shown above, things like markers for money on the finance chart, army position markers, debt markers for money owed etc

In fact everything you need, bar a few dice and a deck of playing cards. There are hundreds of cards here and for me, well worth the extra 10 quid.

Campaign Game Play

The next section covers an example of the set up and workings of the Campaign, I have done this solely on the Utubes as it's much easier to present that way.

Hopefully that will have given you an idea of the rule set and how they might work for you. Don't forget they include a tabletop rule set as well.

The movement map for the armies is very straight forward and some may miss a more traditional map based system but it's a nice simple way of working out Army Movement and we will definitely be giving it a go. 

I'm off to raise (ok paint) some more troops for his Holiness, "Viva il Papa"

Suzy Cube Update: June 8, 2018

#SuzyCube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity @NoodlecakeGames 

There's no point beating around the bush. June 19, 2018. Less than two weeks from now is when the world finally gets to meet Suzy Cube!

Read more »

Louard's game design sounding board and home of the Pro's and Con's reviews.

What Does It Profit A Man...?

I was in my local Second Hand games store today, I'm not a collector of games, but I enjoy keeping an eye on how much things go for these days, and I like to see in real life a few of the old games I used to play and enjoy.

Anyway, as often happens on these trips, I was thrown back by the price of a few of the old games I saw, especially some very mediocre PS1 games, games being sold with a price tag WAAAAY beyond their quality! It's incredible! Star Ocean 2, £79! Ehrgeiz, £49! Then looking over to the SNES- Secret of Evermore, £79! And for the NES, Popeye, £79!

It got me thinking a little bit later about the value we put on things,

These games are expensive more because they are rare than because they are good, they are sought after, they have a value from their limited availability.

And then what about my immortal soul?

The crazy thing is, in God's point of view, my soul has a value of an inestimable amount, it was ransomed neither by gold or silver, but the blood of the lamb without stain.

So we are talking like a Stadium Events or something, really rare, super valuable.

And what am I willing to trade my soul in for?

Thank Almighty God for instituting the sacrament of confession....He didn't need to, it could have been a no refunds policy- you trade your soul in once, you've lost it. Praise the Mercy of Almighty God for confession, we can get that Stadium Events back even if we traded it in for Fifa 2000, we can come before Almighty God in humility, through His minister the Catholic Priest, a be restored once again with that precious soul, that soul of incomparable worth- My friends, keep it mint in box, so that when its true owner inspects it He finds it worthy of His collection.

Want Free Adobe Creative Cloud For Two Months? Here's How To Get The Hidden Offer - Ars Technica

Want free Adobe Creative Cloud for two months? Here's how to get the hidden offer

Op Compass Game 6 - Surprise, Surprise

Back to the Desert for the 6th game of our ongoing Op Compass, linked scenario Campaign. In this match up the two forces are rushing to their own objectives in the middle of a Sandstorm when the weather clears and they spot each other across the Desert plain.

If you want more information on the Campaign I have set up a separate page which is updated regularly with updates on rules along with links to all the previous games,

https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/opcompass-1940-resource-page.html

The games are based on an excellent book by Robert Avery which is available from The Toofatlardies, there is a direct link to purchase the book on the Resource Page.We use 28mm figures with this scenario taking place on an 12 x 6 table using a home brew set of rules, based on Iron Ivans Disposable Hero's.

Don't laugh, at least they don't have to walk.

Historical Background 

It's the 9th December 1940 and the Italian Forts at Tummar West and Nibeiwa have fallen, it's time for the British and Empire Forces to move onto the Tummar East defences. 

The weather had deteriorated and visibility was poor as British troops raced towards the start line for their attack on Tummar East, Italian Forces drove in the opposite direction to relieve Tummar West, as the weather cleared both sides were surprised by what they saw.

Pass me a Yorkie Bar you big Trucker !

Table Set Up and Terrain 

This game was played on a 12 x 6 table which was covered in areas of scrub and low hills, the area to the top right of the photo below represents the ditch around Tummar East with a lone unoccupied watch tower.

The following Special Rules are in force (see Resource Page for full details.

All vehicles which move off the tracks are subject to a Difficult Going Roll.

Sandstorm  - there are 3 Sandstorms placed down the long center axis of the table, one in the centre and the other two equidistant to the short table edges. I used some randomly shaped pieces of card about 12 inches round to represent, see Resource Page for full details.

British Briefing

The day is going well and Italian Forts have fallen, it's time to move on to the next. No time to rest. Move your forces off the far end of the table defeating any opposition you meet. Don't expect reinforcements, this time you are on your own.

Your troops are as follows,

In the lead of the convoy are 3 Bren Carriers, each contains 3 men who may dismount as either a Boyes AT Team or a Bren LMG team.

Next up are eight trucks, the first four contain,

Truck 1 - HQ Section of Officer, Radioman and Sgt, a 2 man 2" Mortar Team and a 2 man Boyes AT Team.
Trucks 2,3,4 each with 1 x 10 man squad Sgt with SMG, 2 man Bren Team and 7 Rifles.

The following 4 trucks are the same with the rear of the column brought up by two Bren Carriers, one with a 3 man HMG Team, the other with a Mortar.

The front of the column is halfway down the table opposite the front of the Italian column.

Italian Briefing

Things haven't been going to well, reports coming in are all about losses and surrender, Tummar East will no doubt be the next target. It's time to fight back and get troops in motion towards Tummar West and hold the line there.

Get the convoy of trucks off the bottom end of the table as soon as you can, the rest of your troops will arrive on foot. Engage any British troops you find and stop them from exiting the top of the board.

The Italian Convoy sets up on the opposite side of the table with the front of the column level with the watch tower and the front of the British.

1 x Staff Car with 2 x HQ Figs 
6 x Trucks each with 1 x Italian Squad of 1 Sgt with SMG, 1 LMG with two men and 7 Rifles.

The remaining Italian Troops will arrive at random, place an Italian Reinforcements card to the activation deck, each time the card comes out the Italian players will pick one card at random to add to the game deck. The new unit arriving on the next turn of its card.

Italian Reinforcement Cards
4 x Rifle Section each with 1 Sgt with SMG and 10 Sgts
4 x LMG Sections each with 1 Sgt with SMG, 2 x 3 man LMG teams and 2 Rifles 
2 x Tankette Sections 3 x L3 each
1 x Medium Mortar
1 x 3 Man MMG Team
1 x 10 man Bersaglieri Motorcycle Squad 1 Sgt with SMG, 2 man LMG team and 7 Rifles.

Draw 4 cards at random prior to the start of the game and add to the deck, the remainder added as reinforcements as above.

How did we get on

Another great game, what I have really enjoyed about the match ups so far is we are playing with troop types and mixes of troops that we normally wouldn't go near and as a result  having fun.

Before we started the game I thought this would be an easy win for the Italians, dash the convoy off the table and hold the line with superior numbers preventing the British from exiting the table, Bing bang bosh, easy win for the Italians and onto game 7.

It all went wrong for the Italian Convoy very early on, I had command of the rear of the Allied Column and immediately on spotting the enemy trucks, I debussed my Mortar and Vickers. Hands up I got lucky, I underestimated my Mortar aim point and missed by a good 10 inch, spun the spinny thing and rolled my dice and deviated right on top of one of the trucks. The same turn, the truck in the photo two up was bogged down and easy prey for the Vickers. 

Meanwhile at the other end of the table the Italians had got all their Tankettes on the table early doors and formed a solid (ish) line on the hills just North of the Watch Tower. L3s aren't much use but 6 of them with 2 machine guns a piece is a decent amount of firepower.

The British Infantry took up a position on the low ridge in front of the Italians, the Bren Carriers selected Boyes AT mode and a big firefight started up.

But even with some cover the Boyes teams and the Allied Mortars started to pick the tiny Italian Machines off one by one. Things hadn't got any better for the Convoy either, turn after turn trucks where taken out by Mortar and HMG fire until the Italians escaped with only a Staff Car and one Truck.

Under the cover of one of the Sandstorms the South African Infantry dashed across the open gap and into the trench and the Watch Tower in an attempt to break the deadlock.

With the convoy destroyed I had the chance to reposition the HMG and pour some more fire on the Italians.

One red meeple equals one morale fail, safe to say this Italian Tank wasnt happy !

The British and Empire Commander declared that he had insufficient forces to breakout and the game ended in a draw. The Brits had prevented the Italian Convoy leaving the table whilst the Italians had prevented the British from breaking out.

So that's 2 points a piece and the British lead in the Campaign 15 to 9. 

Just remains to say that my brand new Bersaglieri Motorcycle Squad was the last reinforcement card out of the deck and spent a grand total of one turn on the table, on the plus side it didn't take any casualties and avoided the traditional first game drumming.

The Op Compass Campaign will take a break for a while whilst we concentrate on our yearly Naval Campaign. See you all soon.

Spring Game Jam 2020 Is Right At The Corner!

Please sign up ASAP if you have not done so!

Please check out more information here and check out the previous Game Jam events!

January 31- February 2, 2020
Opening Ceremony: January 31, 2020, 5PM

The Experience

I once spent nine days as a guest at a Taiwanese Buddhist nunnery. Their hospitality was incredible and what stuck in my mind was the most amazing food I've ever eaten. They made Chinese meat dishes out of plant protein, most likely because the nuns were brought up on a traditional, Chinese omnivorous diet, and this food met their vegetarian religious restrictions without compromise. It was so good, I questioned it's meatlessness, being a vegetarian at the time.

After a week of this amazing food, I mentioned on the way back from our conference, that I could really go for a pizza, especially because there was a Pizza Hut next to the nunnery in busy downtown Taipei. No matter how good something is, you often long for the tastes of home. You know you'll get that consistent experience, even if it's not great. Consistent beats great sometimes. An older scholar overheard me and slammed me for being so disrespectful as to want pizza when our hosts had been so gracious with their amazing food. When we returned to the nunnery for dinner, awaiting us was glorious Pizza Hut pizza. The heart wants what it wants.

When it comes to hobby game stores, consistency of experience is wickedly hard. You can train your staff to greet customers, provide stellar customer service, create intricate systems to maintain product and service, but in the back room it's another story. In our Game Center, your consistency of experience is kind of in your own hands.

I could pay employees to run games of a particular style and quality, but the games they run would be limited to the customer desire to pay for that experience. Other than convention fees, which they seem to have no problem with, nobody wants to pay $10 cash money for me to run Dungeons & Dragons. $10, times six players, is $60 for a 4-hour session paying someone $15/hour. That's just their labor, not profit or materials, or prep time. This is a traditionally free experience that can cross over into "nominal" fee territory, but a real fee will never really capture the value being provided.  That may change with the mainstreamization of gaming, and someone will certainly point out the "professional" dungeon masters, but it's rare.

So we run the Event Center a bit like a concert hall in which we attempt to host high quality concerts, but with no guarantee the experience will be great. We are concert hall people, not the performers. I've been to great concerts and I've been to concerts where the performers were drunk off their asses, but in neither case did I credit or blame the venue. But in the game trade that's exactly what happens. Sexist comment? Bad DM? Poor hygiene? It will all be a black mark against the store, even though there's not a whole lot we can do about it, other than craft policies, brief organizers, and strictly enforce rules. We are facilitators. We use volunteers. The only other option is the thing doesn't happen.

This chaos is also our strength, our protective armor. The inability to provide a consistent experience, but to only provide a neutral venue is unacceptable to anyone with deep pockets who wants in on this. What happens if something really terrible (actionable by law) occurs? How do we make sure the D&D session doesn't have something inappropriate? How do we actually monetize this space that costs us $6,000 a month? Really, that's what we pay. About $50 a seat per month.

The reality of most D&D sessions is there are a lot of slightly boring ones and then one amazing one, which you tend to remember without remembering the boring ones. D&D especially is a constant playtest, as most people don't run the same adventure twice. Imagine sitting through a bunch of boring movies to get to the great one. That's how it tended to be before the Internet, but people want blockbusters every time nowadays, and they can get them by picking and choosing. All of this inconsistency is why there are no national chains of game stores. Managing the managers and the organizers would be like herding cats. You would have to have a whole department called Program Development to plan and test event structures. Publishers can't even pull this off well with their one game. Plus, as mentioned, the customers would never pay, at least not so far.

Anyway, this is something that keeps me up at night. Labor, as minimum wage here approaches $15 an hour, can no longer be the solution to bespoke experiences. We are fast approaching hard limits that are testing the demands of customers with the reality of what is possible in small business. It may just be the little store, with the passionate owner working for close to zero dollars, will be the one providing the consistently amazing experiences that big stores could only dream of. The rest of us are wondering if we should get a liquor license or hire some circus performers.