Wargaming A Re-Think/Planning for Isolation Games.

I've been having a bit of a re-think regarding what I need to be painting, playing and why. For reasons that I will not delve into again and as things stand re: Sars Cov 2, I am unable to get to the club or any shows for the foreseeable future. This has come as quite a blow to me as we I value my club gaming deeply and another year of not being able to get to a show is almost unthinkable. Unfortunately this is my reality for now and something that I have to come to terms with. I suspect that I am not alone in this(?).

I suspect that I am a bit late on the question of how to play games safely during the pandemic. There has certainly been a lot of virtual games played via Zoom etc. I can honestly say that if I had realised that I would not be in a position to be out and about at the club hows again, I would have jumped into that early on. However naively it seems, I honestly thought that being double vaccinated would have enabled me to be out and about again.

I have spent over a week tidying/wading through the studio space (just to give you some idea of how big the job is) and I now have room to put up my 6' x 4' table. Originally the plan was to expand the table size but for now this is what I have and the surface I have to play on.

So, where does that leave the painting? The three armies that will continue to command my attention and they are, of course, my Anglo Danes and Early Byzantines and Enemies mainly for Swordpoint from Gripping Beast (other "Ancients" sets will hopefully be played- the units are based as to make them as ubiquitous to as many rules sets as possible). 6th CE Byzantium and 11th CE England are my main areas of interest and where my passions reside at present. This is unlikely to change in the long term.

Anglo Danish Unit:

Early Byzantine Unit:

But what of being able to play games? As indicated I cannot go out to the club safely so I am going to have to do a rethink of what periods, which rules and what terrain I am going to concentrate my time upon.

Thus far my thinking lies something along these lines....

I wanted to find a set of rules for the Sudan of which I already have a the beginnings of reasonably sized collection. I have a copy of A Good Dusting, Sands of the Sudan and the Black Powder Supplement Blood on the Nile but all of these rules appear to me to play better on a larger sized table. The first meaningful set of rules for my current needs I discovered two years ago via a demo game the Iron Brigade(?) were exhibiting on a Wargames Illustrated YouTube video Kevin Calder's Up the Nile rules at The Other Partizan(7:15 in- see image above). And later another YouTube WI Up the Nile review of the rules quickly made up my mind to order a copy. I was quite enamoured by the idea of the rules centering on attrition; no base removal until the unit was "dead" etc. I ordered a copy of the rules from the publisher, the ubiquitous Dave Ryan at Caliver Books read them through once and was surprised to find that I picked up all the basic concepts quite easily! Anyone who knows me will know that my brain is a bit of a sieve when it comes to digesting wargames rules so this was a major tick in the box for me! The game can easily be played on a 6' x 4' table which was ideal.

I have has a copy of the first edition of Death in a Dark Continent for about a decade now and again, these are rules that can easily be played on a 6' x 4' table. during my five year wargames hiatus Death in a Dark Continent had been tidied up and released in hardback book by North Star so this is another natural choice for me. I have no miniatures however, what wargamer worth their salt does not like to indulge in the  pleasure of scrolling through page on the net choosing miniatures?!?

I also have an eye on getting into playing Congo from Studio Tomahawk and will be basing the miniatures I am using for Death in a Dark Continent on sabot bases so they are fit for more then one purpose. I have had a copy for years and they have never been played!

Same thing re: basing for The Men Who Would Be Kings. A ruleset that I am very familiar with. It's a  very adaptable set and can brought forward and back in time with ease.

I am also thinking of Infamy, Infamy! using Late or Middle Imperial Romans and their Germanic foes and also have a very keen eye on the Italian Wars Rich and Nick from the TooFatLardies on Twitter currently have in a playtest stage. I still have an eye on using Furioso for larger battles but as explained above, this is something I am going to have to keep in the shelf for the future.

I am also finally going have to take serious look at putting some terrain tiles together. I have a couple of gaming mats which will do for now. However, given that I am stuck at home and have most of the material needed to make some terrain boards I feel like I have no excuse to at least have a go at them. This is something that I will be turning my had to at a later date, I need to get the miniatures painted up to get the projects off the ground.

I would love to hear from anyone who finds themselves in similar circumstances or perhaps those who just play solo games on a limited (6' x 4') space and what solutions you have managed. I have an email form on the right hand side of the blog should you prefer not to leave a comment and get in touch in a more private fashion.

In summary, at least temporarily, things are going to be scaled down and a few new adventures begun.