Progress!

After fighting with several incompatible and near-simultaneous critical updates to Windoze 7, Java, Firefox, AVG, and Flash for the last few days, I've finally beaten my computer into submission and am working again. Having completed countless CHKDSK/-F, disk defrags, system restores, uninstalled programs, and registry cleanings, the rules are almost finalized, all the graphics (save the cover) are complete, and two of the five scenarios depicting the boarding actions aboard the EPS Prometheus (no relation to the film) are finalized, with the other three undergoing some additional playtesting.  It's looking like the second week of August will see this game finalized and released.

in the meantime, another preview of one of the scenario map layouts - the engine room and close environs:

Another Preview

I thought I'd preview the map/tile layout for one of the scenarios in the upcoming boarding combat game. This scenario features attacking forces fighting their way from one of the target ship's landing bays into the small storage rooms just off the bay (left side of image), with the objective of 'liberating' a specific piece of cargo, then attempting to escape with said cargo. The defenders start in the pilot's briefing room and/or locker room (right side of image) and will do their utmost to box in the defenders and keep them from getting off the ship. One of the difficulties the attacker faces is that he doesn't know which storage room contains the correct cargo load he needs to liberate - never mind possibly getting caught in a crossfire trying to get back to their vessel.

All map tiles use 1" square spaces for movement/combat measurements (for a sense of scale, the four small storage rooms are 4"x4" tiles). While the game will include around 20 unique rooms and about a dozen corridor and elevator tiles, the game can easily be adapted to player-created maps or commercially available RPG starship deck plans for nearly infinite map and scenario variations.

25% Off Sale and More!

As part of Wargame Vault's Summer Offensive Sale, all Legionnaire Games PDF titles are on sale for 25% off the normal rate through July 16th @10am EST! Check them out here:
http://www.wargamevault.com/wgv_summersale.php?manufacturers_id=3519&filters=0_0_0_44363#selectpub

Additionally, we have a new game in the pipeline. Something a little different, as this will be my first dedicated board game, depicting man-to-man combat in starship boarding actions. The game will include a couple dozen map tiles to allow for various map layouts, several scenarios, and rules for creating your own actions.

The rules are simple (I'd be surprised if the final text runs more than 10-12 pages), the action is fast and decisive, and the graphics (thanks to Claudio and PaperMakeiT's Shuffler map-building application) are stunning! Below is a (work-in-progress) low-res breaching pod tile from the game:

Look for a release announcement around the end of July or early August. :)

Progress? Umm... what progress?

Instead of spending time working like mad on the various rules projects and army/fleet lists on my hard drive, I've been taking some time away from the computer to paint minis and do some non-research reading. Taking a break helps to mentally clarify some of the things that need to be done for the different projects - and gives me some extra forces to use on the seemingly rare occasions that I get to sit at a gaming table for a few hours. I'm in the middle of finishing a few squads of Makat troops and a third platoon of Federal troops from ACP games. Once those are done, I'll be ready to do a few vehicles to accompany the Federal forces - provided Khurasan releases their Federal Army medium tanks and heavy APC in the near future (and maybe throw in a couple of SPAR mechs - not really thematic for the army, but I like 'em enough to shoehorn them in anyway...).

That doesn't mean that I've done nothing in relation to new gaming material. Some work was finished for my original setting - roughly 10 pages of short fiction and other background materials have been finalized, with another estimated 20-30 pages of fluff to go. Additional work has also been completed on SLPLv2  - some of the shorter rules have been written up, and I have more free time this weekend to complete a bit more. Some of them may be posted as additional experimental rules in the near future.

I did take an afternoon yesterday to run a demo game of SLPL at the local hobby shop for three players, two of whom helped in playtesting the SL tactical series a few years back. There was some head-scratching at first, but they started to get a feel for it after the second turn. I guess that's what happens when you go from primarily playing science fantasy games to a game with a more 'realistic' feel to its combat mechanisms - charging through or standing around in the open is not advised. ;)

I'm delaying work on the SLPO WWII module for a bit - I need to be motivated to work on a particular project. As I'm just not currently in the mood to shuffle through reams of data for creating some of the units and TO&E for this project, it'd be best to delay work on it to avoid making stupid mistakes or releasing a sub-par final product. But, being slightly daft (ok, very daft... stop chuckling in the back, there...) and prone to fits of workaholism, this could change at any moment and I could end up with a final version in short order. We'll see what happens in the next week or two...

Platoon Leader print edition available now!

The print edition of Strike Legion: Platoon Leader ($29.95 with PDF/$24.95 book
only) is ready and available for immediate shipment:

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/102081/Strike-Legion%3A-Platoon-Leader

In addition to the book containing a very good game (and one of our fastest
sellers to date), it's also the best-looking book we've produced to date. If you
have the PDF of this one, you'll have an idea of what I mean - and the print
edition looks even better!

Two new Platoon Leader army lists have also been posted to the company website's Downloads page, for ACP Games' Federal and Makat figure lines: http://www.legionnairegames.com/Downloads.html

More army lists to follow soon - then it's time to update and add some new fleet lists for TFZ... ;)

Slow week...

Well, I only got to one new army list (EuroFeds for SLPO) this week. I needed a break from number-crunching, so I used some of my spare time to get some painting in. The first Corsair squad is under-way (base-coated to my satisfaction; need to figure the remainder of the color scheme for completion). in the meantime, a few hasty pics of the recently-finished Kra'Vak will have to suffice as an update for the week:

...and more...

Posted a few new army lists over the weekend (2 for SL Tactical, 3 for SLPO), and have 3-5 more in various stages of completion. I want to finish those before diving into the remainder of the first WWII supplement for SLPO for which I have German and Russian data cards statted out but haven't calculated PV; still need Polish and Hungarians at minimum; would like to also include Rumanians, Finns, and Italians. Each will add about a week's time to the development/finalization of the project, but I think the delay will be worth the extra effort. Also still looking at scenarios; CG will probably be Kursk South (or maybe both North and South as a multi-sector SLPO game...).

I also took part of the long weekend to catch up on some of my personal painting projects. I've spent most of the time reserved for painting miniatures on pieces for inclusion in various book projects over the last two years. I managed to finally finish the 6mm GZG Kra'Vak force I bought a little over a year ago - 4 SHV tanks, 18 heavy tanks, 12 light tanks, 8 APC, 16 stands of infantry, 4 VTOL and 4 fighters. There are also three vehicles that Jon at GZG included as freebies (which I think are heavy APC) that are no longer listed in the GZG web store. Shame, as three of anything just isn't enough. :)

I've organized the rest of my Progenitors (Plasmablast - Marios, drop me a line if you're reading this!) for painting, a few of which are pictured in SL: Skunk Works; winter camo scheme - looks great but takes some extra work to make it look that way. Those will get some attention after I finish assembling and painting the Earthdoom stuff I received from Khurasan Miniatures today - 16 Corsair suits and 4 squads of Intruders. Stats for SLPL are already available for these, and this project has me a bit excited - I've wanted to see by-the-book SST gaming figures for a very long time (some 36 years or so, since I first read the book in grade school), and these are the best iterations I've seen. The Corsair suits would also be perfect for representing Felix/The Engine for some character-driven gaming.

I also spent some time working on map tile layouts for TFZ: Sector Command. I think the format I've worked up will fit the game quite well. Planning on having multiple combat systems for this game: one that allows players to play the game as a map-based, hex 'n counter style game without minis, and a second system that's similar to SLPO, but am still unsure of the overall battle scale. I'm leaning towards having variable task forces based around capital ships with entire systems in play at one time. Challenging to make the subject into an interesting game at this scale, but there are also some intriguing possibilities to be explored.

There will be some extras for the TFZ tactical system to tie-in with this 4x-style game, and rules (that I'm sure no one with a career and/or family - or anyone in their right mind - LOL) to use TFZv1/v2 rules for resolving battles, and SL/SLPO for planetary invasions. Lots of little loose ends to tie up with this end of the project, including creating tech trees to replace the static TL categories and allow players to develop different technologies at different rates.

Well, enough of my blabbering. Another post when I have more concrete results in the form of additional army lists (sometime this weekend, I'd wager).