17 February 2008

Now this is a little more like it! Not only do I have two more battle reports, but they are both something special. The first was a playtest that will give you an idea of what we're planning to do in the future. We want to move Stand Your Ground  into other historical periods where the musket was still in heavy use. Our first attempt to see if this will work comes with this battle report on the Mexican American War from 1846-1848. If these continue to prove successful, we would look to kick out scenario booklets for that period with everything you would need to fight battles during that time period. To see how this one went, click here!

The next battle and surprise is a playtest of one of the upcoming games offered in our scenario booklet to be released in April. We routinely playtest all of our games to shake them down for problems as much as possible before letting them go out the door. I always feel that if you have to pay for something, then it had better be worth it! It is like a service. You go to a restaurant, you order a good, expensive meal, you expect it to be prepared properly. The last thing you want is the waiter coming back and saying the chef has never cooked this before, but it should be OK for you to eat after you are done! Oh, and if you like, it is more than OK to suggest to the chef what he could do to prepare this dish better the next time around! Yeesh! Well, I see wargame products in the same way. You are doing me a great service by spending your hobby dollars (or marks, pounds, pesos or euros. I'm good with that) on me or our ideas. You deserve to walk away feeling it is money well spent! So once more, here is a battle report of a playtest we conducted on one of the scenarios. I hope you'll enjoy reading about it as much as we enjoyed playing it.

Previous Announcements

Ah know, Ah know, it's been way too long and no updates. In fact, its been almost a year. Guilty as charged, your honor! This thing called work got in the way of my hobby and for a solid ten months, I have been coding my little (well, not really little) fingers to the bone. As such, when I got home from the grind, the last thing I wanted to see was a computer - unless I had a Louisville Slugger in my hands! As that could get very expensive very fast, I felt it best to stay away and take what was left of my brain upstairs to watch mindless TV.

But this year saw a change in work load and a breath of fresh air into programming again, so here I sit looking to get caught up on everything with a seasoned eye that is looking to make some changes to the web. First off, I have to eliminate some older files to make room for newer ones, so look for some of the vintage Combat Command reports to fade away in the next few weeks. I also am working on upgrading the menu system off of the PHP one I have now. Too many complaints from fans saying it doesn't always work. See? I really (somewhat, maybe) care about your needs.

With the new year also comes the first new product from us since SYG released. It is a scenario book for the game! Yes, yes, I know that Russ told me years ago to get off my dead backside and produce one. Just consider this proof that old dogs can learn new tricks even if it takes them years for their brains to interpret the command! Regardless, I am very excited about the booklet! It will contain 12 new scenarios. Six are covering the French and Indian War and the other six are for the Revolution. We have some great games as part of this release. They run the gamut from small where a less than 100 figures duke it out on a 6 x 4 table to massive where whole armies collide! There is literally something for everyone and - gasp - we plan to make it available in PDF form. Yes, yet another technological breakthrough from LGR that brings us into the 1990's! More information will be coming in the coming months and we look for an April release in time for Little Wars in Chicago. What can I say, We like that convention!

Spee-acking (Angry Beavers reference for the non-Nicktoons unwashed masses) of which, we will have two games on Friday at that convention. The games are called 'Vanguard Clash' and it is a scenario from the new booklet! This is a massive game taking place during the later years of the American War of Independence, so feel free to look for our game and swing by for a chat with me, Kevin or Mike or like normal, a point and a giggle. We don't care, we're wargamers and we're used to it.

And just in case you forgot, here is the final game of the campaign. France lost the new world yet again, but it wasn't without a fight. Through maneuver and superior force, Kevin and Cooper drove D model and me back towards the final victory city of Montreal. We tried several different feints but in the end, could not hold off the English. As the campaign was going to end with a whimper in the spring of 1759 due to all of the militia and Indians going home and what was left of the French regulars who wouldn't last five seconds on the battlefield. With no better option, we tipped our hats to the English and surrendered with the good manners that Mom taught us. But as we did so, we began to weasel. Wouldn't it be better to fight it out with the forces as they are now just to see if you could have taken Montreal. And just like that, we had a game! To see how the final contest went, click here.

So then, where are all the battle reports from over the last year? Well, umm, y'see, errr, they're aren't any! That's part of the problem with being so busy is that when you actually get time to game, you just want to game and all thoughts of the camera go right out the window. But, as I said, changes are coming and they will be good - and that does mean more battle reports. Just as soon as I remember where I put my camera.

CIB was sold out a few months ago and will not be republished - at least not in the current format. Work continues sporadically on updating the venerable game but nowhere near as fast as I thought. Just like you might imagine, once you start changing one part of the rules, it ripples throughout the whole design. So while we were blissfully hoping it would be easy to convert a d100 game to a d20, it has not gone as well as we thought. More on this as it comes in, but for the moment, CIB 2 is fading off the radar scope.