The Ash, the Elder, and the Hen Elm

Please note: this post's a bit incoherent. It's been rushed out around the schedule of writing the game, which has taken way too long. DTW is a good history. It starts with a rigorous methodological discussion, starting from the merits of history as a discipline and building out to define the terms of its analysis: examining terrorism's effects along a schema of strategic and tactical successes which looks like this: '1. Strategic victory, with the achievement of a central, primary goal or goals 2. Partial strategic victory, in which:     (a) One partially achieve ones' central, primary goal(s)     (b) One achieved or partially achieved one's secondary ... strategic goal(s)     (c) One determined the agenda, thereby preventing one's opponent from securing victory 3. Tactical success, in terms of:   (a) Operational successes      (b) The securing of interim concessions.     (c) The acquisition of publicity     (d) The ...

Here's a system I used to play a GMless Warhammer Fantasy Battles (8th ed) campaign in 2023. I quite like it, and I think it'd be useful for others too. It has the advantages of not requiring a GM and reflecting the progress of each army whilst still producing thematically coherent outcomes. It's not going to be as in-depth as a GMed map campaign probably, and it needs exactly four fairly committed players (well, I'm sure you could make a triangle or hex variant tbf), but what can you do? Although built around Warhammer, it should be workable for any wargame that uses points and has scenarios - you may just need to find a suitable way to replicate the massacre/major victory/minor victory/draw distinction WHFB makes. My experience has been that it's played pretty quickly and produced plausible, fun results. (Rules which didn't do this were smoothed out over time). There's a bit of a death-spiral, but it's not so quick that people can't make a comeback...

Somehow I have only painted (i.e. finished painting) THREE THINGS (minis, I painted some actual paintings too) in Autumn (i.e. September-November). The first of those was mostly done in August, too, and the last was done entirely on November 31st. I'm slow, what can I say, but at least I make up for it in quality   the number of games played  with the models  imagination I guess. 1: A Dark and Rainy Night Upon the Bay... (32mm, presumably Ricardo Andreis, Bestiarium Miniatures) Beneath lowering skies, a light can be seen far away. Surely, it is some safe harbour? (It is not). I don't have a name or much of a story for this guy. He was inspired by my love of the coasts of pretty much all of the western UK, from Cornwall up to the Hebrides (and the Orkneys can be included too) but especially around Morecambe Bay, a place which is very much not ideal for wreckers but with some deeper water would have had a lovely landscape for them. He's a wrecker, clearly, with his little l...

If you're at all interested in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, you've probably been pointed to this before, possibly by somebody currently in the process of losing a game to you: Dr. Luke Blaxill, wargamer, historian and (thereby) unknowing instigator of the most entertaining late essay of my first year at uni, describes Stillman as something of a 'grail knight' or cloistered monastic figure, somebody to be respected for their commitment but not necessarily somebody to be - or who can be - emulated. I'll let you watch the video rather than spoiling the conclusions - it's a solid analysis of the points, well worth it. If you'd like to know more about Stillman and his work, I can't add much to this  article . 1 Watching Dr. Blaxill's video got me thinking though - I certainly can respect the dedication of the analogous religious ascetics without believing the same things as them, and I can draw inspiration from that dedication in pursuing my own convictions...