SOBH: Rebels Warband

Hi,

Work has been very busy but I was able to complete the Rebel Roster for this conversion.

I tried to make each character unique to make each character uniquely valuable in a campaign.

I tried to show the list as nice images but its hard to get the Warband builder to print out the images in a nice format.

This txt is for use to be imported into the HTML SOBH Warband builder.

;Rebels
Aldus;40;3;3;false;Armored,Good,Paladin;
Arlon;33;4;3;false;Sharpshooter,Shoot or Move,Shooter: Long;
Barin;36;4;3;false;Magic Resistance,Shock,Shooter: Medium;
Barney;38;3;2;false;Acrobat,Free Disengage,Stealth;
Ceodoras;64;3;3;false;Quick Shot,Sharpshooter,Shooter: Long;
Cerenbril;70;3;3;true;Sharpshooter,Shooter: Long,Sniper;
Davrich;26;4;2;false;Opportunistic,Shock;
Dill;32;4;3;false;Armored,Hatred,vs orcs;
Evans;32;4;3;false;Armored,Steadfast;
Ferin;36;3;3;false;Mighty,Shock,Short Move;
Findarfin;56;3;3;false;Forester,Hatred,Shooter: Long,vs orcs;
Gerfindel;80;3;3;true;Leader,Sharpshooter,Shooter: Long;
Godiva;42;4;2;true;Cleric,Shock;
Gorin;27;4;3;false;Hatred,Shock,Short Move,vs orcs;
Gotmar epreuve;36;4;3;false;Group Fighter,Mighty,Shock;
Gotmar;10;5;2;false;;
Grast;32;4;3;false;Armored,Mighty;
Gustav;24;4;2;false;Free Disengage,Shock;
Hohmley;42;3;3;false;Armored,Steadfast;
Hurin;29;4;3;false;Shock,Shooter: Medium,Short Move;
Jon;26;4;2;false;Sharpshooter,Shooter: Medium;
Kerin;60;3;3;true;Leader,Shock,Short Move;
Khuzun;36;3;3;false;Berserk,Shock,Short Move;
Konrad;102;3;3;true;Armored,Hero,Leader,Shock;
Laberne;41;4;2;false;Quick Shot,Sharpshooter,Shooter: Long;
Lucifer;50;3;3;false;Animal,Bodyguard,Long Move;
Matt;29;4;2;false;Armored,Hatred,Shock;
Paul;29;4;2;false;Armored,Shock,Steadfast;
Rix;24;4;2;false;Mighty,Shock;
Roberts;20;4;2;false;Armored;
Santiago;23;4;2;false;Free Disengage,Shooter: Short;
sarah epreuve;35;4;2;true;Coward,Summoner;
Sarah;25;5;2;false;Entangle;
Simon;24;4;2;false;Opportunistic,Shooter: Short;
Thorin;44;3;3;true;Shock,Short Move,Weapon Master;
Zacharie;60;3;3;true;Magic-User;

Example Archers using archer specials

In the Dragon Noir campaign, each individual has a name. To make the campaign more interesting, I tried to give each model some unique traits to make players attached to the characters.

Here are examples of 3 different characters using the archer specials.

I thought Elves with a Quality of 2 were overpowered, so I increased their quality. In addition, I made ample use of the prototype rules of Shock and Sharpshoooter to differentiate models.

Archer Specials for a Song of Blades and Heroes

Here are two specials for SOBH. I haven't had a chance to play test them much.


Shoot or Move
Cost: -3
Requires Ranged Attack.
If you move, you cannot shoot. If you shoot, you cannot move.

I modeled the cost after the slow move. The standard SOBH rules basically allow archers to shoot on the run, so you need to give crossbowman some benefits.

This seemed to work well and the cost looks ok in my playtest.

Quick Shot
Cost: 7
Requires Ranged Attack.
If the character does not move, you may make an additional ranged attack. Each additional shot is at -1 combat. You may not make any additional melee attacks using this special.

This allows you to simulate robin hood or any excellent archer at the cost of shooting on the run.

The cost is a bit high but based on the high costs for other multiple attack specials.

One Page Rules

There is something about one page rules that attracts me to reading them. The rules are short,concise and easy to pick up. There is almost a zen like quality in trying to express rules simple enough to be displayed in 1 page.

From the boardgamegeek website, here is a link to several one page war games. The author put in a bit of work in actually creating maps and icons to accompany his quick one page war games.

Take a look!

Dragon Noir Special Rules

Here is a list of the special rules used in the SOBH conversion of Dragon Noir.
There are a few custom rules I wrote or gleaned off the SOBH forum.

You can copy these rules into Ray Forsythe html warband builder for SOBH.

I used the custom rules to record specials that are against certain types.

Dragon Noir Special Rules
Acrobat;3;
Amphibious;3;
Animal;-3;
Armored;3;
Artificial;3;
Assassin;15;p;
Beastmaster;8;
Berserk;3;
Big;3;
Bodyguard;3;
Burrowing;4;
Cleric;15;p;
Clinging;3;
Combat Master;10;p;
Coward;-2;
Danger Sense;3;
Dashing;3;
Desert Walk;3;
Distract;12;
Drain;8;
Elementalist;15;p;
Entangle;15;
Epic Attack;5;p;
Evil;0;
Fearless;3;
Flying;10;
Forester;3;
Free Disengage;3;
Ghost Blade;2;
Giant Slayer;3;
Glancing Blow;5;
Good;0;
Greedy;-2;
Gregarious;3;
Group Fighter;3;p;
Hatred;3;
Heavy Armor;5;
Hero;15;p;
Huge;5;
Leader;15;p;
Lethal;3;
Long Move;10;
Magic Resistance;2;
Magic-User;15;p;
Mighty;3;
Mountaineer;2;
Mounted;6;
Mutant;3;
Necromancer;15;p;
Opportunistic;4;
Paladin;2;
Poison;3;
Quick Shot;7;
Running Blow;8;
Savage;3;
Sharpshooter;3;
Shieldwall;1;
Shock;3;
Shoot or Move;-3;
Shooter: Long;7;
Shooter: Medium;4;
Shooter: Short;2;
Short Move;-3;
Slow;-5;
Sniper;10;p;
Snow Walk;3;
Sorcerer;15;p;
Standard Bearer;0;
Steadfast;3;
Stealth;3;
Summoner;15;p;
Swamp Walk;3;
Swarm;3;
Tailslap;3;
Teleport;12;p;
Terror;15;p;
Tough;15;p;
Traps;3;
Undead;3;
Weapon Master;7;p;
Were;0;
vs dwarves;0;
vs elves;0;
vs evil;0;
vs good;0;
vs humans;0;
vs magic users;0;
vs mounted;0;
vs orcs;0;
vs trolls;0;

Elves Oath - Dragon Noir

Dragon Noir Scenario:
Map: The WaterMill Map. For a miniature map, you will need to build a map with
a river running through it with a building on one side and forest on another.
A sample image of the Cry Havoc maps can be here.

Setup:
The exiled Rebels - Laberne, Jon, Grast, Hohmley, Gustav, Evans (all mounted); The Orks - Zed (mounted), 1 archer, 1 crossbowman, 2 Elite Orks (both 16 attack strength), 3 warriors (2 x 14, 1 x 10).

The humans start mounted on horses. Give them the special "Mounted" and "Long Move".
For the unnamed orcs, pick orcs that match the general stats on their images.

As a special rule, if a mounted figures ever gets "Fallen" as a result. Remove them off their horse and place them adjacent to their mount. It takes 2 actions to remount a horse in battle. Horses stay in the hex where their rider was unmounted. They may be pushed aside with no penalty as part of a character's move to an adjacent empty hex.

Flavor Text:
"We are like leaves from the same tree: same blood, same destiny" says the Oath of the Elves.
Since their arrival on Kazhdin, Zacharie has advised Konrad to send a small group to meet the Elves in the forest of Penrad.
If Laberne and Jon, half-elven through their mother, were to join with the Elves
then the assistance of the Elves of the island would be acquired.

Black Fox, well named, suspects that there may be elves among the strangers
and that they will seek contact with their brothers on the island.

So he sends a patrol to intercept them on the road leading to the forest.

Starting positions and Sequence of action: The Orks enter by side 8 of the map, in the section between the corner (with side 5) and the stream.
They make one initial full move and then a second.
The exiled Rebels then start the first game turn by entering through side 6 in the section between the corner (with side 7) and the stream.


Important: A bridge is placed over the stream 2 hexes from the edge of the map (side 6), where the watercourse is no wider than one hex.
Characters may make use of this normally.

The fallen wall represents the bridge.

Victory conditions:
The first scenario is essentially a breakthrough scenario. Team 1 needs to break through the opposing team's side in order to achieve the scenario objective and gain victory points.

Specific rules:
If, before the end of the twelfth turn, the Rebels are able to exit Laberne or Jon through side 8 of the map, between the stream and the corner (with side 5),
they have won. If neither of those two characters exit the map by the specified edge before the end of the twelfth game turn, the Orks win.

Victory Points: 1 vp per 25 point kill. 3 VP for winning scenario + Campaign scenario bonus below.

Campaign scenario: If the Rebels win, the 4 Elf archers will take part on their side in the decisive battle (see Scenario 5).

Dragon Noir Song of Blades and Heroes Conversion

After reviewing the scenarios for the game Cry Havoc, I realized that the scenarios are a natural fit for a Song of Blades and Heroes.

I've started a conversion of the Dragon Noir Campaign to the Song of Blades and Heroes game to allow more people to enjoy the scenarios for this game.

The idea of the campaign is to play through the first 5 scenarios of Dragon Noir using the Rebel and Orc Army List provided by Dragon Noir scenario.

Each scenario will post the map rules along with some conversion of the original scenario to Song of Blades and Heroes.

My first attempt at this conversion is the first scenario: Elves Oath. To speed up play, I use the default teams defined in the non-campaign scenario rules.

Heroscape Warbands

Here is a set of rules for running warbands in Heroscape with similar campaign rules to Mordheim. I loved the Mordheim campaign rules and created a similar set for use with Heroscape. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to playtest it much.

Summary:

Heroscape Warbands

Supplemental Campaign rules based on Games Workshop Battle Companies and Mordheim rules to add
experienced based play to Heroscape.

Might and Fate
All Heroes can now acquire 2 new attributes: Might and Fate. These attributes allow heroes abilities
beyond normal Heroscape heroes. A hero can have a max of 3 Might and 3 Fate.
Might
Might represents a hero’s great skill in battle. During a heroscape game, a hero can expend a Might
point to reroll an Attack roll, Defense roll, Special Attack roll or any d20 roll on his Hero card. He may
not use this ability to reroll any other player’s dice.
Fate
Fate represents a hero’s unnatural luck or the divine favor of the gods. Whenever a hero suffers an
attack that would reduce him to zero life or destroy him instantly, he may expend 1 Fate point to roll the
Fate Die.

Heroscape Warbands

Battlephase games

If you ever search for Cry Havoc, you will come across the battlephase games website.

The developer here created two working implementations of the Cry Havoc game: Test of Faith and Deadly Ground. Both are simple quick tactical games which give you a test of the Cry Havoc game system. I'm not a big fan of the rule set but the beautiful counters always appealed to me.

The developer also has a few other free games on his website for the busy gamer looking for a quick fix.

Mekka Advance

Here is a link to a game I rewrote several years ago: Mekka Advance. Its an advanced version of Mekatac by Warpspawn games.

I wanted to keep the simplicity of Mekatac with some campaign rules.

List of changes:
- resolution system from d10 to d20
- added the concept of commanders
- reworked the usage of the action cards
- added supply points concept to add repairs/buying new pilots in between scenarios
- added an experience level system borrowed from one of the other warpspawn games(Star Fury)
- added pilot injuries.
- Cleaned up the tables and put them in nice excel format embedded in a word doc.

Red Hand Orcs - Stats

This is the starting stats for Red Hand Orcs

Treasure Hunt - Results

Onfrey and Uzun were decisive and quick in battle. They easily moved forward to the center of the village before the Orcish warband could organize itself.

Onfrey, not content with an easy victory, moved forward to spill some goblin blood with Uzun as support. Arek was the first goblin on the scene but he held his own against the mighty warrior as the orc warband slowly moved forward.

Uzun moved to support Onfrey, lest he be surronded, but it was too late. Arek knocked the archer low as Shaman came in to support his goblins with web spells. Onfrey was able to resist the magic and started his retreat. However, he was soon encircled by the orcs and beaten down.

Uzun had retreated back to the center of the map as the rest of the Apocalypse warband moved to recover the treasure. The orc warband pressed forward with Arek and Zabek in the lead.

Uzun and Alayette easily fell the goblins in their charge. Ugluk charged forward and with a savage blow knocked Uzun down. The rest of Apocalypse fled with the treasure.

Red Hand Orcs: VP 3
Apocalypse: VP 6

SOBH movement rules for hex maps

On our village map, the current movement rules for hex based maps is very restrictive. There are alot of corners, so it makes it very slow to move around. Its also very hard to check quickly if you or your opponent is making the correct move.

To simplify things, I'm thinking of setting up the following house rules for hex based movement.

Counters are given a default movement of Medium on a map. This translates into generally 5 Movement Points( MP ) on a small map. Short = 3 MP and Long = 10 MP.

Each hex of movement costs 1 MP. Any rough terrain costs 2 MP to enter( forest, brush, light rock terrain). Each additional step costs 1 MP. You can change direction as many times as needed during a movement phase for 1 MP.

Water hexes = These hexes end movement unless you have the special Amphibious.

Example: A wardog with Long Movement has 10 MP on a small map. If the wardog runs in a straight line, he can run 10 hexes. If he wants to run in a zig-zag manner on a hex map, he can only move 9 hexes. Any rough terrain he encounters costs 2 MP to enter.

This will need some testing.

Campaign rules for SOBH

I've been looking for custom campaign rules for SOBH.

One of the more interesting links I found was this SOBH rules for "Island of the Lost".

Unfortunately, its a google link so I can't link back and find the original author's website. I'm curious what other ideas he had.

UPDATE 20081014

The author's name is Trevor and his material can be found at www.fionaadoresheroes.com.

It looked like a fun simple campaign system. I would love to try it out but alas my gaming group has grown up( i.e. married with kids).

Alternative Vassal Module for Cry Havoc

While looking around for new counters to enhance my cry havoc game, I came across the Samurai Blades Engine Module. The author definitely put alot of work into the module.

He has custom icons for the buttons and also included a feature to have a mini-map of the game. However, the vassal module looks alot more complex than the original Cry Havoc module.

The bare bones feel of the original module inspired me to try and take it to another level. This module looks a bit intimidating. Definitely useful as a source of inspiration.

First SOBH Campaign

I setup my first campaign in SOBH against J. My first warband is an orcish warband lead by an orcish shaman. J's warband is a small human adventuring party.

To keep things simple in this small campaign, we played with 180 points. A max of 60 points can be spent on personalities. My single personality was Claw, an orcish shaman 3/3 with the special "Magic-User". J's personality is the knight Hume, human 3/3 "Hero".

The first scenario is a Treasure Hunt. J is playing the Attacker while I'm the Defender. I used the Village Cry Havoc map as the map for the first game. J placed 3 orbs to represent the hidden treasure token in the center of the map.

SOBH Mod for Cry Havoc

While using Cry Havoc to play SOBH, I got tired of having to look at the reference files outside Vassal, so I took the time to learn how to create a module in Vassal.

I added 2 more dice buttons to easily roll the d6 in sobh. In addition, there is a summary sheet for the game. To ease bookkeeping, a property sheet was added to characters.

It was nicer to have labels for quick glance at stats but this is a workaround. Ideally, the graphics would have the stats like Cry Havoc did.

SOBH Online: Screencast

I put together a screencast of how to play A Song of Blades and Heroes online using the Cry Havoc Module.

Game review:avernum 5

I came across a review of avernum 5on a review site over the weekend.

It had glowing reviews and I do remember reading about spiderweb software as a decent indie rpg site, so I took another look at the game. So far, I'm only about 3 hours into the demo but its been a fun experience.

Its a lite relatively straightforward rpg. Anybody with experience with Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition will get the hang of it in the first 15 minutes.

So far, its been a great experience putting together a fledging party and hacking away in the underworld.

Gundam Scenarios

For scenarios involving Gundam, you can use the campaigns outlined at the excellent Gundam site: Mobile Suit Battlesystem.

Mobile Suit Gundam Battlesystem is an excellent system based on Game Workshop mechanics of 40k.  The author also wrote up a neat set of campaign rules for his Gundam battlesystem rules. 

Its relatively easy to take some of the ideas in my previous post and use the scenarios he outlined.

Gundam mod for Song of Blades and Heroes

I had some initial design ideas for a gundam mod of "A Song of Blades and Heroes".  Here are my design notes.

Could use the basic rules to model a quick Gundam game.  I would need to pick different traits to represent the mechs.

RX-78  Q:3 C:4
Ranged(Long). Hero

Zaku Q:4 C:3
Ranged(Long)

Break up the Combat score between Melee and Ranged so that you can do a bit more diffentiation. The other thing is to have a trait called Melee to give units a +1 in Melee combat to defentiate between their ranged and melee scores.  A melee trait fits more in the system than breaking it out.  When you build the model, assume all Mechs have a default combat value for ranged. Give better melee mechs a Melee trait.

RX-78 Q:3 Melee:4 Ranged:4

Zaku Q:4 Melee: 2 Ranged:4

Something simple like that. You could give the generic mechs gregarious, so they can do group move or something.  This could simulate unit actions.
Command Mechs get the Leadership trait.  The system is pretty flexible, so it should work.

Reuse the simple scenarios from Gundam Game as sample scenarios.

New Traits:
Melee: +1 to Combat score in Melee
Ace: Treat Ranged combat hits as Lethal
Melee Master: Treat Melee Combat hits as Lethal

To model new type powers,
Magic-user: No ranged attack but you get the Transfix ability( represents mental stun)
Cleric: Represent Fast Recovery and basic buffing of troops

HelHerron

I came across a review of this quirky little game about six months ago. I think the words that drew me in were deep turn-based tactics.

I ended up playing it a few nights over the winter. The user interface is a throwback to the eighties but its fun in a retro way. The game is hard and very random. My party had the habit of running into a group of Orcs who easily chopped us to bits the first few times out.

In hindsight, Helherron feels like a party based version of rogue. Definitely a cheap and interesting turn based strategy game for someone who is looking for some old school Ultima style gaming.

Vassal using a Song of Blades and Heroes

I tested this a few times and it works as a quick way to get a game of SOBH online working. Here is what you need to do:

1. Download Cry Havoc for Vassal
   
2. Download the base module
3. Download the Map Pack1 and Map Pack 2
4. Download Dragon Noir 1 and Dragon Noir 2
5. Setup a map
6. Drag some characters onto the board
7. Label the characters with their stats
8. You're ready to go!

The Cry Havoc module provides a hex based game for skirmish combat. The graphics are colorful and appealing. The nice thing is that if you right-click on a character, you can change their status from healthy to wounded, stunned and dead. This fits in great with SOBH.

The game also provides a d6 for rolling on the screen. SOBH is simple enough that you can easily play it using Cry Havoc gameboard.

In the example above, you can see I labeled the characters with their stats to make it easy at a glance to see what's going on.

Powder: quick impressions.

Over the weekend, I came across a little rogue game called Powder for the NDS.

I've seen numerous references to rogue type games over the years but never got pulled into one. The idea seemed kinda of mind numbing at first. I played Diablo for awhile and thought it was okay.

Anyway, I needed something different and quick to play while I avoid thinking about work, so I downloaded the rom and took it for spin.

Powder is a very fun addictive little game. I'm not sure quite what it is but if you like dungeon crawls, this is the game for you. Once you get past the controls, creating and adventurer and going slaying is a breeze.

The game is tough. I think 7 out of 10 adventurers never made it past the first level. Its very luck-based in your starting magic and skills. If you happen to get the right combination of skills, starting weapons and spells, you got a good shot of getting past level 3 of 25.

The funny part is the interesting stories of how your adventurers died. One lucky gal, Monika, made it to level 5 because I somehow polymorphed her into a Flesh Golem. As a flesh golem, she had no trouble pounding critters to death but when the spell finally wore off, she was toast.

The funniest adventurer was Thorin. Thorin survived because he found an evil ring of teleporting. On many near death battles, he would run away and magically teleport to safety where he could rest. Down on Level 5, he was walking around when suddenly the teleport kicked in.

He found himself trapped in the corner by a two red dragons. He shortly found himself dead.

So if you looking for a quick gaming experience, I highly recommend powder or other games in the rogue genre.

Vassal: Song of Blades and Heroes

The Song of Blades and Heroes caught my attention when it got nominated at Origins for Best Miniature Game.

The rule set fits my needs for being elegant and concise while still giving a variety of tactics. There is a core set of simple rules which are modified by specials to give individual units more characters. The rules are also nicely illustrated and edited. All this for $4.00 ;)

As I noted earlier, the Cry Havoc module is nicely written for simple d6 based man to man combat. You just need to download the main module, a few maps and the Dragon Noir setting to have some fantasy troops for your online fantasy skirmish map.

To playtest my idea, I setup the Cry Havoc module using a Song of Blades and Heroes. To give some element of randomness when solo gaming, I quickly added the reaction charts from Mayhem Warrior Heroes. It actually worked out pretty good but required some quick decisions.

I'll do a separate post with my notes for combining the two.

The SBH system works pretty good.

Vassal: Mayhem Warrior Heroes 2

The Mayhem Warrior Heroes rule set is great for solo gaming. The chain reaction forces the characters to react in unpredictable ways which allow for opportunities for story telling.

Thorin assembled a small party to search for the lost Battlehammer of his famed clan. In an earlier encounter in the Silver Hills, Thorin's party was ambushed by the Red Orc clan. His good friend was brutally slain and the party routed.

A month later, Thorin has assembled a new party to hunt down the Savage orc who killed his good friend. They trailed the savage orc with the help of the hunter Jon and attacked in a small clearing.

The hail of arrows only sparked anger in the huge orc who charged the elven archer. She was the first to fall to his mighty axe. Thorin and Uzun tried to take the orc down but Thorin routed under heavy orcish arrows. As they fled back into the woods, the orcs charged and slowly took them down among the trees.

Mayhem Warrior Heroes review:
* The rules are not very clear about alot of points. It definitely needs to be organized and edited better.
* The whole reputation idea with passes is confusing. However, once you get the hang of it it does flow.
* The chain reaction system is nice and definitely great for solo gaming.
* I'm not too excited by the combat resolution. I had quite a few passes where both combatants made their passes and no result happened.

Vassal: Mayhem Warrior Heroes

I tried out playtesting Mayhem Warrior Heroes ( Two Hour Wargames) using Vassal Module: Cry Havoc.

The Cry Havoc is a great Vassal Module. The game has alot of nice counters that can represent characters in different states.

In the scene above, a party of adventurers has ambushed an Orcish raiding party. Unfortunately for the adventurers, MWH is a brutal set of rules and the small party will soon be overcome by the Savage Orc.

PBEM: Vassal + Special Forces

So far, Vassal has been the big success to get my daily gaming fix. Its relatively easy to setup once you get the hang of it.

I think the Battle Cry module is well written and has a relatively simple interface. It helps that the rules are basically UGO/IGO which makes it easy to adapt for PBEM.

We've finished 2 games in the last 2 weeks and are starting the third game.

I also looked at DVG's special forces vassal module. I like the module clean looks,the design and the setting:modern day squad combat.

The module has good clean graphics. The rules look pretty straightforward with a simple one die resolution system. I'm not sure how well it will play PBEM because there is a reactive element to the play.

My other problem is the price tag at $10.00. It looks like you need two registered ids to play the game which puts it at $20.00 for 2 gamers. Its hard to say if its worth $20.00 for a virtual game with roughly 5 scenarios.

Maybe I'll look at it again later.

Solo Gaming

On a related note, if you don't have time for gaming with others, you start to look at what systems are great for solo gaming.

Obviously, computer games are great for solo gaming but I want a ruleset that I had more control to tweak to my personal tastes.

Two rulesets that look to be good for solo gaming are:
* A Song of Blades and Heroes
* Two Hour Wargames

Both systems are similar in that the behavior of your opponent can be unexpectedly. Song of Blades and Heroes is the simpler ruleset to grasp. However, the more I look at Two Hour Wargames, I realize it has alot of depth and can be excellent for solo gaming.

A Song of Blades and Heroes(SBH) has a low entry price of $4 for the basic set.
Two Hour Wargames has free demos. If you join the yahoo site, you can download a complete copy of Mayhem:Warrior Heroes. This is a skirmish fantasy ruleset with magic.

My opinion is that Two Hour wargames is the more polished product between the two systems as SBH has been around for six years. One of the highlights of Two Hour Wargames is its Zombie game All Things Zombie.

PBEM - Vassal Modules

So I'm back to looking at Vassal modules for games. I own quite a few games, so I have the rules for a vast majority of simple wargames.

At a glance, these systems look to be the right mix of complexity and simplicity:

* Battle Cry
* Command and Conquer: Ancients
* Battlelore
* Cry Havok - I intend to use the hexmap and counters to run "A Song of Blades and Heroes" if I can teach my friend the rules online.
* Manoeuvre(http://tnfc.blogspot.com/). I have this but haven't played it. The simplicity of the rules appeal to me.
* Epic Duels - There are large number of custom decks. We used to play this alot before Heroscape
* Heroquest - I think I can convert the module into a simple skirmish game if my friends are interested.

PBEM - Steel Panthers World At War

While looking at matrix games, I learned that they had Steel Panthers world at war for a free download. For some reason, I thought the game "Soldiers at War" which sounded like "X-Com for WWII" was part of the package.

A quick download and the game was at my fingertips. I quickly booted it up and found it was a WWII engine very similar in appearance to something like Panzer General. It seemed to move quickly when I tried it. Again, it looked a little too complex for a quick spin. I'm really pressed for time and I need a set of rules I can grok immediately.

If the rules aren't straightforward enough to keep in my running memory, I don't want to learn it right now. The engine looks great but too more time for my needs.

PBEM - The War Engine

After looking around, I found out that the War Engine ( http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/thewarengine/full-game/23299.html) is available for download.

The good thing is that it looks like it is packaged for modern computers. It also contains a scenario design kit for creating your own wargames. It sounds great!

I downloaded it and installed it. It has 7 campaigns spanning fantasy, modern, and sci-fi. The campaigns show the depth of the wargame engine.

Unfortunately, I didn't find the system fun. It had LOS, fog of war, and a few other nifty elements. It just was unsatisfying to play. There is a PBEM option but I'm not willing to learn the system.

PBEM - Mission Force: Cyberstorm

Mission Force: Cyberstorm is a great mech strategy rpg game that was created during the mid 90s. You can find more info here.

The latest patch boasts a PBEM campaign. I had an old copy of the game back from college days, so I dug it up and tried to run the game on my new XP computer.

Unfortunately, the game seems to run in Win 95 compatibility mode but I can't get it to save any games.

This is a great game but the inability to save games and thus try the PBEM force me to rate this game as 0/10 for PBEM.

PBEM - When time is minimal

Play By Email Games look like the best option now. I need something that's quick and can be done at odd hours.

What to play though? The criteria needs to be fun, simple to install and simple to run.

The first stop is VASSAL.

VASSAL is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. It allows users to play in real time over a live Internet connection (in addition to playing by email). It runs on all platforms, and is free for personal use.

Basically, Vassal allows you to play board and card games online or via PBEM. It acts as a virtual board. Its a little confusing at first if you're expecting the game to handle the rules for you but it does work quite well.

So far, I've started a battle cry game with another busy gamer. It is working out great as battle cry is a relatively simple game. I recommend starting off on a game you and your opponent know well.

My rating is 8/10 for VASSAL for PBEM.

What's this?

The real world has finally intruded on my gaming. I've seen my average number of games per month go from 10 to barely 1. Career, Baby, and other responsibilities have taken over but I still want to engage in some good old gaming.

So this blog just chronicles my search and interest in the best bang for the buck gaming.