I've tested JUGULA! The next gladiators game

I had promised it , you have it. Tonight's post will be about Studio Tomahawk's forthcoming game, Jugula. Just so you know, the guys from Studio Tomahawk have commited Mousquets and Tomahawks, and Saga. Therefore they have a solid background in novelty about gaming.

Je vous l'avais promis, et je vous satisfais. Le post de ce soir est a propos du jeu a venir de Studio Tomahawk, Jugula. Pour info, est-il besoin de le preciser, ce sont les gars qui ont commis Mousquets et Tomahawks, ainsi que Saga. Bref, du lourd, et du solide question nouveaute dans les systemes de jeu.

Of Adder, Romans and Impetus

I'm back, you lunatic freakazoids!How dare you think I could have been useless? And now, thanks to my shiny costume, I will submit you all. Baldrick, have you changed your thong?









What? Three days of week-end and no post? Well, to be honest, I can't really go near the computer on the week-ends and besides, both my wife and daughter were sick... So, no real blogging for me. But then, things were looking better yesterday evening, so I managed to go the club to participate in a game of Impetus. Interesting rules, and quite complementary to Art de la Guerre: they're both fun and fast ( though AdlG might be faster), and Impetus is brutal and chaotic, whereas AdlG seems more manoeuvre oriented. So, complementary rulesets, yay.

Did I do anything part from this last week-end? I certainly did. I finished, at last painting the Roman cavalry, and started prepping the fortifications for the camp, from Baueda.
And yes, thanks to your support, Blackadder is back!

Hop, trois jours sans vraiment blogger. Il faut dire que je ne peux vraiment m'apporcher de l'ordi le week-end, et mes femmes etaient malades, alors... La situation etait toutefois meilleure hier soir, donc j'ai pu m'esquiver vers le club pour participer a une partie d'Impetus. Les regles sont interessantes et elles sont complementaire avec Art de la Guerre car le but recherche n'est pas le meme. Impetus me parait plus brutal et chaotique (dans le sens chaos de la bataille), et recompense l'attaquant, tandis qu'ADG est plus axe sur la manoeuvre pour obtenir la meilleure situation possible d'engagement. Bref, deux bons systemes selon moi.

Dans le meme temps, j'ai fait un peu de peinture, et j'ai donc enfin termine les cavaliers romains et j'ai commence le camp. Courage, l'armee romaine est quasiment finie. Et grace au plebiscite, Blackadder est de retour.

Back to Nappy

Should we give him a pardon, Milord? Hmm we could, but we're the Church. We'll sell it for some shiny coins.

A few posts ago, I posted a first review of FOG-Nappy. Well, to be honest, it wasn't as much a review as a simple observation from a game played by my fellow gamers. It sounded horrible. But I discovered a real review yesterday, made by John de Terre Neuve here.  I must say I'm impressed by the amount of work he put to write this down, including a batrep as well, describing the mechanisms. His review is very thorough and well written, worth a look if you want my opinion. What are now my conclusions? Well, apparently the rules are still too wordy, but seem to be interesting, at least much more interesting than during the game I watched. In fact, you have to unlearn what you have learned during your FOG experience, to misquote Master Yoda. Still, will I buy them? I don't know. I like points based game because they allow quick/ unplanned and balanced games, I like Nappy too, and I'm craving to play some Poles or Late Prussians, but I've too many projects on the workbench, and I prefer waiting a bit, to see if these rules are good or not.

Now, jacket's on, I'm on my way to the club, I'll play a game of Hail Ceasar for Salute. Tata.

You are wise, young one, even though a strange accent you have.

Il y a peu, j'avais poste mes premieres impressions sur FOG Napo, qui, reconnaissons-le, n'etaient pas elogieuses. Depuis, j'ai decouvert ce blog avec une analyse en detail, et partie test en meme temps. Mon opinion a depuis pas mal change. En fait, il faut avant tout se detacher de son experience precedente de FOG. A priori il y a beaucoup de differences, et c'est cela qui est perturbant. Son post m'a-t-il donne envie de jouer Napo? Apres tout, je me suis lance dans le wargame pour le Premier Empire... Si j'ai envie de jouer des Polonais ou des Prussiens 1813, je prefere attendre, avoir du recul, voir si la regle fonctionne vraiment bien. Et puis, j'ai beaucoup de projets sur le feu, a commence par une competition de peinture pour SAGA. Pas vrai Vincent?

Allez zou. Je file au club, y'a une partie de Hail Ceasar pour une demo Salute.

In the FOG- a spectator view about FOG napoleonic

You know Baldrick, as a great philosopher said, Gordon to be more precise, there must be some great rules hidden beneath this... Baldrick, stop chasing that rat, I'm not that hungry!

Ok, instead of painting, I went to the club, partly to chat and drink, yes, my pub night is on Thursday, not Friday, sorry people, and also partly to watch a game of the newly published Osprey rules system: FOG Napoleonic. Erm, what can I say... I've been extremey impressed... by the... Erm... Ok, to be honest, and I'll quote Gordon again, "these rules have set a new standard for badly written rules" Enough said I suppose. It might be good, but honestly, I was there for about 2h30 and all they achieved was three turns, including one assault. Yes, I'm impressed. Yes, they were discovering the rules, but they had already read them and have some previous FOG experience, so they should have been in a rather known gaming area, shouldn't they?  From the little I could see, it seems to be "PIP-based but we're not saying it is PIP based", and the tests seem to be easier to pass. Cavalry go around squares and arty can evade. That's all I could remember...

Ottomans Vs Prussians...

white squares= command points

apparently, things went wrong for the Ottomans  
apparemment, tout ne s'est pas bien passe pour les Ottomans

Au lieu de peindre, hier soir, je suis passe au club, a la fois pour discuter et boire un verre, car pour moi les soirees pub ont lieu le jeudi et non le vendredi, et egalement pour voir une partie test de FOG- Napo, qui vient tout juste de sortir. Alors, certes les joueurs venaient de recevoir la regle, mais ils ont eu le temps de la lire, et ont une certaine experience a FOG. Donc a priori, ca devrait tourner... Pour etre honnete, au bout de 2h30, ils avaient joue a peu pres 2-3 tours, et fait une phase d'assaut... Gordon considere que la regle vient d'etablir le nouveau standard en matiere de mauvaise redaction, c'est dire... De ce que j'ai pu en voir, il y a un faux aspect points de commandement, les tests semblent plus faciles a realiser, et la cavalerie va ignorer et tourner autour des carres d'infanterie. A part ca...

On the fields of glory...

Living in the Uk might be a nightmare, sometines... Especially if you're a wargamer and you see lots of different games. So, after my trip to Warfare, and after watchng a couple of games, I was so weak I ordered a copy of FOG Renaissance and two companions books: War of religions and Trade and Treachery.

 A few yeas ago, I played Renaissance with Renaissance POW. They were ok, but the Renaissance period is not very popular in France. That's a shame. Now, why FOG? First, I like the look of the battles, the attrition seems ok to me (fast and deadly), and you can't do whatever you want to. So, I'll have a go. And many people at the club already have armies, so I'll be able to play.

Oui, chers compatriotes, j'ai craqué! Moi qui pensais ne jamais jouer à FOG, j'ai été faible. En fait, j'ai toujours aimé les guerres de la Renaissance, mais il y a peu de joueurs en France et c'est bien dommage. Pendant un temps, je jouais à Renaissance POW, qui me convenait. Mais après avoir regardé des parties de FOG renaissance, je dois dire que j'ai été vraiment tenté: une bonne attrition un feu dangereux, des unités qui ne peuvent vraiment faire ce qu'elles veulent... Bref, je pense que je vais vraiment plonger. A bientôt pour la peinture d'une nouvelle armée...



When Cold becomes Hot...

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a used, but in a very good condition, copy of Cold War commander. The rules are sold out, so I consider myself lucky to get hold of one set. 

I've always been interested by cold war potential conflicts, especially since I read one book... Red Storm rising, by Tom Clancy. Now out of date (the war is over), it is still very interesting, because of the starting point of the novel, an islamist attack in USSR, but I won't say where. Then you have a lot of chapters about air raids, night attacks, tank battles, navy battles... I really enjoyed the chapters about the war undersea. Full of action, only the end is disappointing.

Serais-je chanceux? J'ai réussi à mettre la main sur un exemplaire d'occasion de Cold War Commander, alors qu'il est maintenant épuisé. Les conflits de la guerre froide m'ont toujours plus ou moins tentés, et surtout depuis ma lecture de Red Storm rising, de Tom Clancy (Tempête rouge en Français). A partir d'une situation initiale malheureusement plausible (attentat islamiste en Union soviétique, le bouquin date d'avant 1991), la guerre froide devient chaude, très rapidement. On est facilement pris par le rythme de l'action, les batailles aériennes, sous-marines, terrestres, mais aussi spatiales, pour la quête du renseignement. Franchement un bon bouquin, mais vous pouvez zapper la fin un peu trop décevante.

An epic Saga about to begin

This is a good title for this post, for two reasons. First, I've finally received my copy of Saga, plus a Viking starter set, and... the dice set! Yay! I think I'm more than lucky because they're now out of stock...

So, what is the other reason? Well, I had ordered them before leaving to London, but they were sent to my former address in France after my departure... So, my parents had to get them, and then send them back to me... pheww. Anyway, I've already erad the rules and I like them. Plus, Two of the guys in my club are actually painting Normans and Saxons.. So, maybe in a few months, you'll see games set in 1066 Britain. For your information, My warlord will be called: Einhar Ragnarson. Ok, that's an easy one ^^

Salut à tous. Comme vous avez pu le constater, j'ai reçu mon exemplaire de Saga, avec un starter Viking et les dés spéciaux. J'ai beaucoup de chance sachant qu'ils sont en rupture de stock. Le truc c'est que je les avais commandés alors que j'étais encore en France. Mes parents ont dû récupérer le paquet, et me le renvoyer ensuite. Ce n'est donc que maintenant que je peux en profiter. Et je le ferai car deux gars de mon club se sont eux aussi lancés dans l'aventure avec des Normands et des Saxons. Alors, à bientôt pour les aventures d'Einhar Ragnarson.

Hail Saga!

Oh, how feeble I am. Simply by reading through my favourite blogs, I've finally succombed, and I ordered Hail Caesar. I just received it and what a lovely book. After a first read, I'm not surprised by the rules system, simply because I already played Warmaster Ancients. I think it may be my next favourite rulebook ^^

I also preordered Saga, from Studio Tomahawk. I never see it played, just heard of it... And the guys behind it are French and they're cool. So I went to their website and chose the special offer, with the book, the Viking deal and the dice ^^

 

Je suis faible, je le sais. J'ai commandé Hail Caesar de Rick Priestley, et je ne suis pas déçu, car déjà adepte du système Warmaster. Et pour ajouter à ma faiblesse, j'ai précommandé Saga chez Alex de Comitatus. J'en ai profité pour prendre le deal Viking avec les dés spéciaux.