As usual, my manias can get triggered by the most inconsequential of events.
My latest was triggered by this picture.
I was working on another project (a dungeon crawl, which I will post about in the new year), when I rummaged up a box. I glanced at the cover - Micro Battle Skirmish. It wasn't even this picture but it reminded me of this one, which was the original MBS cover. This triggered a desire for some Revolutionary War skirmishing.
Rules?
I started looking for rules. Naturally, I plan to experiment with my old Micro Battle skirmish rules. But I could use some help, specifically for campaigns and scenarios. Is there anything that will help me?
I'm looking at a number of rules sets or expansions. Here are a few under consideration:
Long Rifle - a successor to THW's BPB. It's for the French & Indian War, but I'm sure I could make it work for the Revolution.
I'm still hunting around and welcome suggestions.
"Figure" Basing?
This is another consideration. Obviously I'll be using counters. But do I want one figure on a counter or do I want a small group per counter (still 1 "figure" = 1 man)? The latter might work for a big skirmish, a la Rebels and Patriots.
Current Status
Right now, I lean towards 1 figure per counter. I'm thinking about 4 heroes (Americans, of course) vs. hordes of natives, mercenary Hessians, and dastardly British. 😉
I would need to make counters. I may just make some generic skirmish counters.
We'll see how long this mania lasts. It may dissipate in a few days.
This was my big trend of the year. I discovered Dominion of the Spear in early January and never looked back. I purchased and gamed with many of the other titles in the series. This has become my default set of rules.
The originator
Sports
I got into sports gaming.
This summer, I did a tournament using major league teams from 1922 using Fast Inning Baseball.
Recently, I used Fast Drive Football to play the 2025 college football playoffs and have started a league using my own fast play football rules.
Prognostications
Traditionally, I begin the year with prognostications for my gaming in the upcoming year. How did I do for 2025?
Micro Dungeon - I expected to finalize my quick play dungeon crawl / fantasy adventures rules. I abandoned them in January. WRONG
More Killian - I planned to continue the adventures of Ser Killian, my main Micro Dungeon character. I played one adventure then dropped him. WRONG
More GADD - Not a stretch here, and I did jump between many eras, as detailed above. BUT, I settled on a single series of rules - Dominion of. We'll call this HALF WRONG.
Counter Consolidation - I wanted to consolidate all my counters into a single box. It didn't happen; in fact I went the other direction. WRONG
I am halfway through my WWM Football League's first season.
Current Standings
Here are the standings (the teams are listed alphabetically)
New York is opening up a good lead in the East while Dallas and Denver are in a close race in the West division.
Notable Games
Here are some notable games so far.
In week 2, Seattle and Dallas played to a 10-10 tie, with each team missing a field goal. In WWMFL overtimes, each team gets a chance to score. In this game, the teams traded 2 touchdowns, Then Dallas held the Seals to a field goal and score a touchdown for a 31-27 win.
Seattle is involved in another overtime game in week 4. Washington scores first then the Seals respond with 2 touchdowns to lead 14-7 at half. The Warriors score early in the 3rd quarter to tie it up. Seattle goes ahead with a field goal at the end of the 3rd. Washington ties the score in the 4th. In OT, Seattle holds Washington to a field goal then wins it with a TD. Final score 24-20.
A number of close games in week 5.
Dallas holds on to a 37-34 win vs. Chicago
Down 7-0 at half, Seattle scores 13 points in the 3rd quarter then holds on for a 13-10 win.
Dallas scores a TD in the 4th to squeeze by Washington 14-13.
I had a lot of fun with the Fast Drive Football college football playoff. I want to keep playing some football.
However, I decided not to use FDF. It's a good game, but games take a little longer than I want. And the instant result rules are too quick. Therefore, I chose to try creating my own rules.
The Rules
FDF works well, but each side gets a lot of possessions, many of which don't result in scores. To speed things up, I created rules where each side gets fewer possessions but score more often. I assume that there are more non-scoring possessions but the game skips over them.
In general, here is what I came up with.
Each team starts with 1 possession per quarter.
Roll a D6 to find the result of that possession: 1-2 no score, 3-4 field goal attempt, 5-6 touchdown
If the roll is even, the team will get another possession in the quarter, up to a max of 3 possessions.
It requires a roll of 3 or more to make a field goal.
Those are the basic rules. I also wanted to account for differences in team quality. I settled on three categories, offense, defense, and kicking, rated as superior, average, or inferior.
For a team's first possession of a half, roll 2D6 and determine the results as follows:
If the offensive rating > defensive rating, use the highest roll.
If the offensive rating < defensive rating, use the lowest roll.
If there is a 2 degree difference (for example, superior offense vs. inferior defense), roll 2D6 for the first possession of each quarter.
Sample Game
Here is a sample game for team A vs. team B.
First Quarter
Team A scores first with a field goal. Team A leads 3-0.
Team B drives but misses a field goal. Not surprising due to an inferior kicker.
Second Quarter
Team A scores a touchdown. 10-0.
Team B misses a field goal.
Third Quarter
Team B actually kicks a field goal! They're down 10-3
Team A gets a TD. They lead 17-3
Team B gets a TD. 17-10
Then they miss another FG. That's 9 points missed!
Fourth Quarter
Both teams miss field goals.
Team A then ices the game with a TD. 24-10.
This game took only about 5 minutes to play.
The WWM Football League
Now that I have rules, I decided to build a league and play a season.
Key features:
Eight team league with two 4-team divisions
Each team plays 10 total games - two each vs. division rivals and one each vs. the teams in the other division
Division champions will play in a championship game
I asked Chat GPT to generate helmets for the 8 teams. Here they are
Continuing with my version of the college football playoff using Fast Drive Football.
Previously, I ran a play-in game for ND and Miami. Now we move on to the first round.
Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M
After defeating Miami in a play-in game, Notre Dame takes on Texas A&M.
They met earlier this year, with A&M squeaking by with a 1 point victory.
First Quarter
A&M returns a punt for a TD. 7-0.
ND responds with a TD pass. 7-7.
Second Quarter
ND starts the quarter with a TD pass. 14-7 ND.
ND intercepts a pass, then drives for another TD (pass). 21-7 ND.
ND fumbles. A&M recovers and gets a TD (pass) 21-14 ND.
Third Quarter
A&M gets a field goal. 21-17 ND.
ND responds with a TD pass. 28-17 ND.
Fourth Quarter
The teams trade field goals. 31-20 ND.
ND fumbles. A&M drives for the score. They add a 2-point conversion. 31-28 ND.
ND strikes quickly with another TD pass. 38-28 ND.
A&M gets a 4th down conversion to keep its drive alive, but runs out of time.
Final score: ND 38 - Texas A&M 28
Other Games
Because I wanted to get to ND's next challenge, I did not use the full-blown FDF for the remaining games. Instead, I used the Quick Results table in the Commissioner's Expansion (on the FDF downloads page)
Disappointed that my team, Notre Dame, did not make the College Football Playoff, I decided to hold my own playoff. I will be using Fast Drive Football.
I spent some time last week calculating the 2025 college football ratings. I'm ready to go.
Play-In Game 1
Miami (Fla) got a bid over Notre Dame. These two teams played in week 1, with Miami securing a 3-point victory. That got them the playoff nod.
But are these teams the same as week 1? Let's find out. I'm giving ND a chance to play their way into the playoff. Because Miami is ranked above ND, I'll let them have home-field advantage.
Quarter 1
MIA takes the opening drive all the way for a TD. 7-0.
Three straight turnovers. Still 7-0.
MIA starts in great field position but only manages a field goal. 10-0.
ND takes the next possession for a TD. 10-7 MIA
Quarter 2
MIA scores but ND runs back the ensuing kickoff. 17-14.
MIA scores but ND runs back the ensuing kickoff. No, that's not an accidental duplication. 24-21.
MIA scores but ND responds with a field goal. 31-24.
Finally some defense. ND forces MIA to punt. ND gets a great return, setting themselves up in excellent field position.
ND scores to end the half. 31-31.
Quarter 3
ND and MIA trade TDs. 38-38.
Then two punts.
ND has the ball and is moving.
Quarter 4
ND scores, holds MIA, and scores again! 52-38.
MIA and ND trade punts.
MIA punches it in for a TD. 52-45.
MIA forces a punt and gets an exciting return. They start in great field position.
As they drive for the tying touchdown, they FUMBLE. ND recovers and wins the game!
Notre Dame takes Miami's spot in the playoff! Next up is Texas A&M.
Play-In Game 2
The last spot in the playoff came down to two conference winners - James Madison and Duke. JM was ranked higher and got the spot. Could Duke (my brother's team) pull off an upset and make my playoff? Let's find out.
Quarter 1
JM gets 2 field goals. 6-0.
Duke takes the lead on a TD run. 7-6.
JM gets another field goal. 9-7 JM. Still, it's close.
Quarter 2
JM scores 3 touchdowns. 30-7 JM. Ouch.
Second Half
It's all JM with 3 more TDs.
Final score: JM 51 - Duke 7. No upset in this game.
Note: I did not have the army lists handy so I just rolled randomly to determine the forces. The Crusaders have a slight advantage (12 points vs 11).
The Battle
King Guy's vanguard approaches the town and runs into Saladin's troops on picket duty. The spears advance. The horse archers on the right unwisely charge and get cut down.
The horse archers in the center are smarter. Their volleys rout the Crusader spears.
But then the knights charge from the reserve and scatter the horse archers.
Horse archers on the left rout the crossbowmen.
The knights do more damage.
Then flank and destroy the bows.
The remaining horse archers fall back on Saladin's camp. Saladin must abandon the siege of Rashur and prepare to meet the Crusader army. Meanwhile, Guy brings up the rest of his force. A climatic battle is in the offing.
GAME NOTES
This was a surprisingly LOOOOOONG game. You may have noticed that there is only 1 defeated unit in each picture. That's because in each turn there was at least one sector where no one hit. And I didn't take pictures of the many turns where no one hit at all! I didn't count but there must have been at least 10 turns in this game. Contrast this with my silly Thanksgiving game, which ended after a mere 2 turns.
After last week's musings about my dungeon crawl rules, I decided to put Kilian's story on hiatus.
Killian (left) with Haiden his squire, Nashad the man-at-arms, and Martin his priest. I imagine Haiden as a bit older, but otherwise Chat GPT did a good job.
.
Killian's Story
Killian's story ended nicely when I completed the Dragon of Icespire Keep module. He defeated the titular dragon, built a church in Phandelin, and brought peace to the region.
I enjoyed the climax so much I decided to continue with the sequel module, Storm Lord's Wrath (SLW). I played the first adventure then stopped.
A New Strategy
I have some ideas for tweaks to my Micro Dungeon rules. I think it will be best to test them with new characters. But first, I wanted to finish SLW.
Problems Arise
Last weekend, I pulled up SLW and began prepping the remaining adventures. This involves translating D&D encounters into my rules. Sometimes, I need to add encounters because the published adventures are pretty slim and also include social encounters, which I drop.
As I worked through the module, I encountered some problems.
Multiple main quests - in SLW, you face the minions of TWO evil priests. Couldn't they just focus on one? I considered dropping one main quest and just completing the other. That would give me some closure.
Stupid side quests - there are some side quests that have no bearing whatsoever on the main story. I want to finish Killian's story quickly, therefore I won't bother with these.
The Big Bosses aren't here - this is the big issue. The confrontations with the evil priests aren't in this module. There are two more modules! I did not realize this when I bought SLW. I thought it would be like Dragon of Icespire Keep, in which the main quest is completely in the module. But no, they want to string me along. I am not buying another modern D&D module.
Because of these problems, especially the last one, I'm done with SLW.
What Next for Killian?
I'm leaving Killian at the start of a story. I feel like I need closure. Perhaps I will create my own story where he fights one of the evil priests.
BUT, that is a bit of work. I think I will put Killian on hiatus and start new characters.
A few years ago, I did a mini Pearl Harbor campaign using my Micro Battle air combat rules. It's on my old blog so I decided to start fresh, with a slightly different scenario,
The Dogfight
It is the morning of December 7th, 1941. Lt. William Crow and Lt. Rex Raven, based at Hickam Field, get the alarm. Enemy forces inbound! They scramble for their P-40s and take off.
They engage 3 Val dive bombers (gray) escorted by a Zero (red)
The Zero gets on Crowe's (Green 1) tail. He takes damage. Meanwhile, Raven gets behind the Vals (left).
Raven damages a Val. It breaks off its attack.
Crowe manages to slip the Zero. He and Raven get behind two Vals. Rat-tat-tat. BOOM!
Both Vals go up in flames.
The Zero stays in the fight, targeting Crowe. Evasive maneuvers! The Zero misses.
Raven comes to the rescue and damages the Zero.
There is more circling and missed shots. Finally, the Zero, running out of fuel, abandons the fight.
Crowe and Val have saved Hickam Field!
What's Next?
I have one more scenario - protect the battleships! I haven't played it but will post it when I do.
In future years, I don't want to keep repeating Pearl Harbor scenarios. Maybe I'll designate December 7th as Air War in the Pacific day and do further battles (Coral Sea, Midway, etc.). Crowe and Raven will be the stars; I guess they'll transfer to the Navy.
I decided to start a Crusader-themed campaign for Dominion of.
Saladin sallies across the border into the Crusader States. His army (blue) consists of 2 units of Mameluks (elite horse archers), a unit of Turkoman horse archers, foot archers, and spears.
The Crusaders defend with crossbows (in the town), 2 units of knights, and 3 spears.
In the initial attack (not pictured because for some reason blogger is not uploading it), the Crusaders lose some knights and spears. Knights and spears fill in the gaps.
The reserve knights charge the Turkoman horse archers. A rain of arrows wipes them out.
Some of the Mameluks recklessly charge the town. The crossbowmen shoot them down. But Saladin's archers take out the spears on the right.
This opens up the Crusader flank. The archers hit the center spears.
The Crusader crossbowmen are bottled up in the town. Game over, Saladin has won. But for the sake of narrartive.
With time on my hands over the extended weekend, I found my thoughts turning to gaming. But not in any systematic way - just a bunch of random thoughts.
This random thought came courtesy of Bob Cordery, Arthur Harman, and Mark Cordone. Recently, Mr. Cordery and Mr. Harman edited and released the latest compendium for the Portable Wargame.
In it, Mr, Cordone provides an ancient naval variant of the Dominion of series. I decided to give it another run (this variant was initially posted on the Portable Wargame Facebook page. I previously posted about it).
I played a game of it, liked it, but did not like my current counters.
He is a picture from my August battle.
I don't know why I don't like the squares. They just seem bulkier.
Anyway, I decided to rectify the situation. I created two new types of counters: line abreast and line ahead.
I plan to use the line abreast for ancient warfare and line ahead for age of sail to modern. I have two fleets of each (red and green).
As you'll notice, I have 3 types of counters. Dominion of the Oar and Spear has 4 types of naval squadrons, plus a bonus for large ships. I may need some additional markers to indicate the types. I will likely designate the small ships as ambushers. I need to think about the rest of the markers.
I'm typing this on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I have nothing to do and nowhere to go (no Black Friday sales for me). I should be playing a game, but I feel like I'm getting tripped up.
Image created by ChatGPT
After months away from it, I suddenly have an urge to dungeon crawl. Yet I am reluctant to pull out my dungeon crawl rules.
What's wrong?
The Basic Concept?
No, I think my basic concept is sound. With my Micro Dungeon rules, the chance to hit is based on the relative combat skill, not what armor the target wears.
Think about this scenario. A level 1 fighter in plate armor vs an unarmored level 10 fighter. According to the BECMI attack tables, the level 1 fighter as a 55% chance of hitting the level 10, and the level 10 has the same odds of hitting the level 1.
At a glance, this is counterintuitive. The level 10 should be more capable of hitting the level 1. I am reminded of this scene.
I know there are other factors at work - getting through the armor and the level 10's higher hp. Still ...
In Micro Dungeon, I switched things around. The chance to hit depends on relative skill. The level 10 is far more likely to hit. I changed armor so it reduces damage rather than affecting the chance to hit. In general, I think it works.
But
So what went wrong? I'm not sure, it's been so long since I played Micro Dungeon. I think I may have had an issue that plagues D&D - power creep. My characters, now at 6th level, have enough hp that it takes a while to whittle them down, and that also applies to their enemies. Perhaps hp should not increase.
What Else?
I'd like Micro Dungeon to be easier to pick up and play. To do that, though, I need a complete list of monsters. I'd like to create an easy conversion from D&D to MD but I never got around to it.
So What Now?
Well, instead of playing games, I am revisiting my Micro Dungeon rules and pondering changes to make the game easier. Stay tuned for my thoughts.
