No need to ask, I survived. After being marooned in Dallas and driving back after midnight with the storm to the east facing me down, I abandoned my car in Houston and headed the rental back home. Just as well as the photos of Interstate 45 suggested it would have been a rough ride.
I picked up the car yesterday. There were still puddles of water and wrecked cars but I got there and back. Which is all to say that there is not much else going on with me this past week.
It has been raining now for weeks. The ranches in the area now look like lakes with cattle carefully walking on the few dry areas left. This morning it rained. The lightning and thunder started around 6 just in time to get most people out of bed a little too early on a Monday morning.
Rain is good for gaming. There is not much else to do except watch TV, read a book, or eat large quantities of unhealthy food. Sadly, my gaming is confined to a few half hearted attempts. There really is no room to play and time is as usual very limited.
For me, the prospect of moving looms once again. I spent the weekend inspecting boxes, discarding junk, and preparing things for a trip to the Goodwill. Sadly, the rain has prevented me from taking any more photos since I remain dependent on natural light but I hope to get a little more posted in the next week.
The living room has become a sea of small boxes. The miniatures get moved by me and only me so I have stacked them where I can keep an eye on them. I will find out whether I move or not in the next few days. Moves can be exhilarating but I know this one will be a challenge.
To close what may be the last entry from my old home with a positive note, the website has been up for a year, there have been 7 malicious logon attempts and almost 500 spam comments. It has allowed me to write and in doing so focus on exactly why there is this enormous mass of boxes in the living room. No answers yet but I expect to have them eventually.
From the Battleline game company also responsible for Ship o’ the Line, precursor to the popular boardgame Wooden Ships and Iron Men. Battleline rules tended to be slender and easy to follow. S. Craig Taylor who wrote these clearly played them as well so there is reasonable clarity in the presentation.
The rules use a 1 to 20 figure ratio with 4 infantry figures on a base 2″ x 1″ for 25mm figures. A standard infantry regiment is composed of 5 bases. There is provision for a commanding general but none for command at lower levels.
The rules use a standard Move-Fire-Melee sequence with an additional charge sequence at the very beginning of the turn. Everything is assumed to happen simultaneously though with movement, it is a matter of moving figures before a 5 minute timer sounds. Formations are column, road column, open order, skirmish order, and line.
GDW created its be all-end all set of rules loosely patterned after a series of articles in Wargamer’s Digest. Each army’s organization is carefully worked out on a reduced scale even down to the musical bands. Scale seems intended for 1/72 figures but would work with 1/300th.
The emphasis on organization. The first edition could atomize the organizational structure of a division-sized unit in meticulous detail but later editions dialed this back a bit. Military bands are great but there are really no rules to accommodate them.
The rules are written for 20mm/15mm though can be adapted to smaller scales. Ground scale is 1” = 50 yards. Turns represent 15 minutes. Vehicles and towed weapons represent 4 – 6 of the same. Standard stands 3/4” x 3/4” represent 40 – 60 men represented by 2 figures while half stands represent 10 – 30 men represented by a single figure.
The rules offer a rich variety of terrain, command and control rules requiring order writing, command and staff stands, phases are, in order, command, movement, fire, close fire, morale, and close assault. Fire is simultaneous as is movement. Movement can be interrupted by opportunity fire. There are also advanced rules containing such minutia as engineers, weather, and airborne assault.
Appendix I covers painting (like we need more on the subject) while Appendix II covers campaigns including an example complete with a hex map and 6 individual scenarios for those wishing to leap right in. The action covers American and German forces in the area around Aachen. There are also ever helpful and interesting designer notes and an equally helpful index.
Two scenario books have also been published, Bastogne for western front enthusiasts and Barbarossa for the eastern front. The game is still played with current editions my own first and second GDW editions. http://testofbattle.com/drupal-4.7.4/