Random: Shiny New Chrome!

Real Life….. the bane of all wargamers.  Real life gets in the way of our little projects.  It sucks away our precious time from the painting table, research books, mathhammering, and the wargame table.  Other parts of our world encroach on our precious hobby and rip it away. 

I find my Real Life goes in somewhat predictable cycles.  The beginning and end of the years are more productive on the hobby front, while summer is the doldrums.  You might think it I because in the Summer I am too busy outside doing activities or yard work.  You would be wrong.  During the summer is when my work ramps up and drains me physically, mentally, and emotionally.  There are times when I don’t want to anything except stare at a wall or just go to sleep.  It is not unusual for me to work from the crack of dawn until the dead of night.  That leaves precious little time for make believe warfare.      

A quick glance at your calendar will reveal something important to you as one of my blog readers.  This IS the Summer time!  What does that mean for the blog then?  Don’t worry, I have pre-written some content to keep new material coming through the season.  In addition to the pre-posted material I have added a few new features to keep you entertained.     

Feature 1:

Some of you may recall some of my 2017 goals for my hobby time.  One of them was to create a message board for folks to help me playtest games, discuss my existing games, and just to drive interaction around Blood and Spectacles Publishing and the blog. 

Thanks to the magic of the internet, I have managed to achieve this goal!  Behold the new Blood and Spectacles message board!

http://bloodandspectacles.proboards.com/

Oh shiny!  You can find a link to the right in the Blood and Spectacles Resources section. 

I know message boards are a bit passé now.   I mean we can all communicate so much quicker and better via Social Media.  However, nothing archives information, posts, images, and projects  better.  As such I believe that a message board is a better venue for discussing, archiving, and sharing ideas better. 

I have pre-loaded the board with some topics and the like to get us all started and provide some guidelines for usage.  There are special sections for my Wargames Vault published games, the Work-In-Progress games, the games that are the Freewargames Wikia, and even a place to talk about non-Blood and Spectacle Publishing games too. 

My hope is that this little corner of the internet will attract a few fans of my older games like AquanauticaImperialis, fans of my newer games like Rampant Stars, and even people who play the games that I review on the blog. 

Feature 2:

The more astute among you have probably noticed the Work-in-Progress section of the Blog.  There I house the games that have the core rules in development, but are ready to be played.  They usually need things like the missions, campaigns, or lists tweaked.  However, the core rules are ready to be used until I get them polished and published. 

When a game gets published or completed, it moves from the Work-In-Progress section to the Free Games section. 

For most of this year, the only game sitting there has been Turf War, a campaign game of gangsters trying to control territory and defeat rivals.  That game is badly in need of me to write some thematic scenarios.  However, I have lacked inspiration and left it to sit. 

Well, Turf War has been joined by another game.  Heirs to Empire has joined its ranks.  The core rules are now posted for you to try.  That includes covering the 4Ms, army lists, and some sample armies.  They are ready for you to try out.  I still plan on adding some basic history, scenarios, designer notes, and a campaign mode.  I always want a campaign mode, and the Wars of the Diadochi are well-suited for that style of play. 

Final Thoughts

Now, you can easily combine our two new features into 1 Super Feature!  Try out the Work-in-Progress games and then you can go to the message board and let me know how they play.  You can give me some feedback, suggestions, or just lavish me with praise. 

So, as we head through the doldrums of summer for my Hobby Time, hopefully I will provide you with enough entertainment for the months ahead.  We will have a weekly battle report, you have the message board, and you have the basics of Heirs to Empire.  I will also be adding the occasional twist here and there when I can. 

For example, I have the next game of the Balkan Uprising for Castles in the Sky sitting on my game table to be played right now.  That will get posted once played and written up.  Soon….. soon….. or maybe November?