Afropia, Imagi-nations and what gaming dreams are...

...made of, I guess, or some sh%t like that...basically just trying to keep an idea going that started out as inspiration and getting minis on the table that now encompasses trying to get my historical themed gaming/painting mojo back in action...

 

Howdy folks, I hope all is well on your side, I suspect that the tides of fortune and highs vs. lows certainly is keeping many of us/you on our collective toes. I have to admit, since the first reports of the balloon going up, sh%t getting real, and Ukraine-Russia going hot I have had read a few blog posts on how this is challenging the historical and modern gaming hobby. And I gotta say, I feel some of that challenge...now, before anyone gets heavy or torqued in any reaction, I gotta say, I think I've been here before.

There was a time when I had zero interest in gaming current, modern, or even 'relatively' recent conflicts in any theatre and geographical location. Be it Africa, Middle East, or Europe, my flavour of historical gaming was fairly restrictive to the [not so] Great War and WW2. Given some of my experiences in the green..or blue suit, I guess...I wasn't too keen on modern and Africa was waaaaayyyyy out of the question. Having experienced 2nd hand some of the impacts/effects of the 90's conflicts, I couldn't see how I could approach these various battlespaces with less than solemn reverence. It took the effort of dealing with some of my inner demons, recognize my PTSD symptoms, and just try gaming with good folks...also having folks to game with that had gone through similar avoidance was beneficial. I have to recognize and acknowledge that it was Peter Pig and their AK-47 ruleset that helped me break that wall...and if you read my last Afropia post, I didn't even get to game it, but I did read the ruleset and that helped to reframe my reality with the gaming environment and still respect the non-fictional context around the various conflicts and regions.

 

And to be honest, I'm still not overly cool with current events, it really does depend on the ruleset, context, and treatment around the conflict

So I guess what I'm saying with the current conflict/war...I've been here before, and I can move forward again...it just takes some time and some good folks to game with. I have had Afropia on my mind quite a bit this past week and I do enjoy creating scenarios. So I will have to revisit some of my original thoughts from January and try to get moving on settings and scenario creation. We'll see how the progress goes.

If you're in a position to help out those affected by this war, good on you and good luck; if you're affected by this war, all the best to you and yours.

Cheers.

Rules for Imagi-Nations - Afropia?

 Hello folks,

One of my random thoughts on my end year 2021 post was the idea of moving forward with an 'imagi-nation' type setting to bring together some ideas I had on scenario creation, maximizing playibility, fielding more figures, and really just getting more games in. I know that with Duncan and Mike we have some ideas on SW Legion and the Nam...but I also wanted something that I could have where I could take as little as a dozen or so figures or as many as a couple of companies and have some enjoyable games.

As this is a longer term project and idea, I thought I would invest in some scoping activities and rulesets that could be feasible within these arcs of dice throwing. Now, I have to say I have always been entertained by some great blogs over the years and some have provided some great inspiration for getting to this point. As well, seeing some battle reports of various games and rulesets has also helped guide the research side of this as well. 

 

Most recently I re-opened my copy of "7 Days to the Rhine" and this looks promising to have some cold-war era kit with a more limited size of force. I think it holds the same promise as Force on Force Cold War and am really curious to try it out. In the scope that I'm looking at, I see it fitting in a scenario with standing armies going toe-to-toe who have the joy of being Superpower benefactors...or some variance there of...more to follow.

 

I have always been a big fan of Force on Force, and if you look through some of my posts from years back you will see some very enjoyable battle reports. This ruleset would allow me the minimalist approach to force size and there are some excellent companion books that can help scale everything from standing army modern fights to counter insurgency to peacemaking/keeping/building operations. So again, a very good ruleset to have as a reference point.

 

In similar vein to Force on Force (and Skirmish Sangin below), Contact Front is a modern ruleset focused on the Afghanistan experience and professional army vs. insurgent warfare. It does look pretty interesting, it is a little more manageable as the book is on the lighter side of pages, and looks like it is fairly open to scenario and force improvisation.

 

Skirmish Sangin from Dish Dash is one that I am not overly familiar with. I did have a chance about 3 years ago to get a game in and was pretty happy with the mechanics and gameplay. This set is focused primarily on Afghanistan and ISAF, however much to my delight they have also developed Skirmish AFRIKA with a reimagining of the African continent with enough similarity to be familiar, and enough reimagining for this to accommodate a variety of nation state models and histories. It does look fairly promising so I will be curious to see how I can adapt this.

In the African vein, Peter Pig are certainly no stranger to gaming. I recently picked up both old and 'new' version of their AK47 ruleset. I have to be honest, this is the ruleset that allowed me the headspace and comfort to start modern gaming and definitely the idea of gaming in Africa. Having served there back in the day, I had some misgivings about modern gaming. Now, while I had bought this set years ago, and enjoyed reading it immensely, I unfortunately never got around to gaming it. So looking at it again was critical to approaching my Imagi-Nation. In terms of scale, this does represent a bit of a miniatures 'investment' as it allows warlord and state actor armies, it has a base level of 5 units...so some investment in terms of grunts, etc. Although, I may have to see how I can adapt as I have read so many great battle reports that it is really enticing.

At this point, I'm pretty confident that my battlespace and geographical reference will be rather Afropia (Africa-Europe-Asia) focused...this lets me use the full range of terrain and figures that I have but I will have to scope and define this further.

I guess that's all I'm going to say about that...for now. 

Take care.