Crazy Thoughts

Last weekend, I had some crazy wargame ideas that led me down a couple of rabbit holes.

Space Campaign

It started in a very innocuous manner; I was just clearing up some books from my coffee table. I caught a glimpse of one out of the corner of my eye. For a second, I thought it was one of my Ace of Aces booklets. 

It wasn't, but I got a hankering for some air combat. Then I started thinking about a new campaign. Then I remembered that Voidfighter had a bunch of scenarios. Then I started thinking about a space combat campaign. Then I remembered that I have no starfighter counters. And that's where I am now.

Fantasy Wargame

I'm not exactly sure how I went down this path. I guess I was thinking of games to play with my fantasy LARP group when the weather is too bad for sparring.

I'd like a game that fits in a small space, perhaps 2 ft square, and can be played in an hour or so. Fantasy theme, naturally. Perhaps use counters instead of miniatures.

A number of ideas ran through my head - HoTT (expensive!), Battlelore (also expensive and OOP I think), The Portable Wargame (need to tweak the ancients version for fantasy). I also looked into Fantastic Battles (looks like it uses individually based figures unfortunately) and a couple of other games. Right now, I'm still pondering options.

Like many of my manias, I think these will fade away soon without any progress.

Bathtub Baseball

Spurred by the success of my bathtub baseball experiment, I decided to try a short league. After some consideration, I chose to resurrect the Roaring 20s Baseball League.

The Teams

Here are the 8 teams of the league.

• 1929 Chicago Cubs (98 wins, National League champions)
• 1920 Cleveland Indians (98 wins, World Series champions)
• 1923 New York Giants (95 wins, National League champions)
• 1927 New York Yankees (110 wins, World Series champions)
• 1929 Philadelphia Athletics (104 wins, World Series champions)
• 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates (95 wins, World Series champions)
• 1928 St. Louis Cardinals (95 wins, National League champions)
• 1925 Washington Senators (96 wins, American League champions)

The Schedule

Like last year's initial schedule, I plan to play two games (home and away) vs. every other team. However, I plan to keep the American League and National League teams separate. This means each team will play 6 games, 2 against every other team in its league. League champions will meet for a 3-game World Series.

There will be 3 "weeks" of games, with 8 games a week. I'm not sure how long it will take me to play a "week" but once I do I will post the results.

A Sampler

Games are underway. Here is a little taste.

Chicago Cubs 5 - New York Giants 4

Chi    1-0-1-0-1-2

NY    1-1-0-0-1-1

The Giants jumped out to a 2-1 lead but Charlie Grimm ties the score late. The game goes into extra innings. Both sides score a run in the 10th. Then in the 11th, Hack Wilson (Chi) drives in 2 runs. The Giants get a solo home run in the bottom of the inning, but then the Cubs bullpen shuts the door.

Bull Run

I planned on doing a Civil War battle over my holiday, so here it is. I decided to forego my Florida campaign and instead start playing scenarios from Dominion of the Blue and Grey.

The first scenario is First Bull Run.

The Union attack succeeds on the right.

And center.

Stalemate on the left.

McDowell rallies the Union infantry. However, Stonewall Jackson (left) and Jeb Stuart (center) smash the Union line.

Jackson then overruns the Union artillery.

The Confederate reinforcements (left) arrive by train. But they are disorganized, and get swept away.

This leaves the Confederate flank open. The Union takes the opportunity and routs Stuart.

With that, the path to Richmond is open. Well, that was a short war.

Bathtub 1925 World Series

I'm working on my own rules for very quick play dice baseball games. I have the general concept sketched out and was ready to test it. Initially, I did a couple of quick test games using made-up teams. It showed promise but lacked a little drama because individual players did not have a role. Inspired by Fast Inning Baseball, I added a rule where star players can affect the game. I was ready for a test but I wanted to use real teams. I decided to "bathtub" the 1925 World Series with a best of 3 games series.

The Series

The 1925 World Series featured the National League champions Pittsburgh Pirates vs. the American League and defending World Series champions Washington Senators.

Game 1

Pittsburgh 5 - Washington 3

Pitt        0-1-0-4

Wash    1-0-0-2

This shows the bathtubbed box score. I do not play all 9 innings. Instead, I play early, middle, late, and 9th innings.

Kiki Cuyler breaks a 1-1 tie with a grand slam in the 9th. The Senators' comeback attempt fails. Stan Coveleski takes the loss.

Game 2

Washington 7 - Pittsburgh 6

Wash    2-2-1-2

Pitt        2-1-2-1

Goose Goslin (Wash) and Pie Traynor (Pitt) trade homers early. Goslin drives in 2 runs in the middle innings. Pittsburgh ties it up on a 2-run homer late. In the 9th, Washington rallies for 2 runs. This time, the Pirates' comeback attempt fails. Walter Johnson gets the win.

Game 3

Washington 6 - Pittsburgh 5

Pitt        2-0-1-2-0

Wash    3-0-1-1-1

The Senators get a 3-run homer early. Pittsburgh scores 2 in the 9th to take the lead. Washington ties it up in the bottom of the 9th, then scores a run in extra innings. They win the game and the series!

Evaluation

How did my rules work?

• Very fast play, but still gave an interesting narrative
• Much less chart flipping than Fast Inning Baseball
• Perhaps a bit too much scoring, but not totally unrealistic
• I liked how star players get a nod. However, there were crucial moments where I did not roll a star player. In these cases, the result is a generic player. I'd love to give credit to the person who knocked in the series-winning run. Thinking about using FIB's player finder.

Halfway to Nowhere

I am at the halfway point of my vacation and I have done nothing.

OK, that's not really true. It just feels that way because I have not played any games worth posting. 

What I haven't done

As my vacation began, I had a few game-related items on my to-do list.

• A Memorial Day Civil War battle
• The next expedition into the Caves of Chaos
• The next mini campaign in my Twelve Foes of Rome series

What have I done?

As I mentioned, it's not really true that I've done nothing. I made some progress in other areas.

• Completed some yard work
• Worked on a couple of shields
• Dabbled with some baseball rules

Shield Work

Here they are so far. I cut everything out; I just need to glue everything and then add covers.

I experimented with a design change. I used to use PVC pipe for my handles. Being round, they had a tendency to twist. This time, I'm using square dowels. They should not twist. I used a Dremel to round the edges for the handhold.

Baseball

I've had a hankering for baseball, but I haven't been feeling Fast Inning Baseball, which was my jam last year. I've been hunting around for alternatives, but found nothing that  I like.

Now, I'm dabbling with some ideas of my own. The key concept is to resolve an inning using an opposed die roll (inspired by DBA).

We Remember

May God bless those who gave their all for our country.

Kobold Caves

My Keep on the Borderlands Campaign

The continuing adventures of Aldric the fighter, Corvin the mystic, Rook the rogue, and Lothariel the elven pathfinder

After exploring the region around the Keep, our heroes discover the caves. They rest for a night without incident. The next morning, they begin their delve.

Notes:

• As I mentioned last time, I'm not going to do a full blown narrative. Instead, I'm just publishing my notes.
• I'll be making a number of changes to the caves to make them more interesting for my solo play:
• While I'll use the general creature in each cave, I may add or swap out ancillary encounters.
• I'm not using the maps from the published module. I often don't even map in solo play; I'll just have a series of encounters leading to the big boss. If I do map, I won't stick to the originals.

Our heroes enter the cave. It spirals downward into the bowels of the earth, with passages randomly leading out from the main tunnel.

Here are the party's encounters:

• Kobold miners – A hits. A and R hit. The rest flee
• Pit trap! A and R fall in. Bandage R
• More miners – L gets hit. Wipe them out. L recovers.
• Fire beetles – R gets hit. C and A stomp them. C heals R.
• Kobold guards – wipe them out in 1 turn!
• Kobold priests – A fried. C heals A. A, R, and L get hit. L and R hit. R takes out high priest. A, R, and L recover.
• Salamander – A, R, and C take heat damage. R hits. C’s luck negates a hit. A, R, and L hit and kill it.

Note: In my mind, the kobolds tunneled down until they met the salamander, which they worshiped as a god. I nerfed the salamander's stats to make it a suitable boss for a party of 1st level characters.

Image created by Chat GPT

The party loots the cave, retraces its steps, and returns to the Keep.

Note: I'm not keeping track of treasure, but I added the "looting" part just for narrative purposes.