A little later than originally planned, Episode 57 of the Man Battlestations Podcast is here! This time, Greg and Andy are joined by Eric “EasyE” Farrington, a game designer with an upcoming naval combat game being published by Osprey. In a wide-ranging interview, Eric shares his insights and thoughts on game design as well as some details on his new game!
Greetings! This is one of those posts that I occasionally make that isn’t explicitly about naval gaming per se. Instead, the topic at hand, point systems, is more of a general wargame/game design type of discussion. However, I promise that I’ll eventually come back around to relating the discussion to naval gaming, so bear with me.
What are Points?
In the interest of level-setting and defining some terms, I figure it would be good to start with a brief discussion of just what a points system is and how it is used. In this context, I’m defining a points system as a series of values assigned to a given model or unit within a wargaming ruleset. Typically, these values are directly proportional to how potent a unit is on the tabletop; battleships are generally much more “expensive” in terms of points than a destroyer is, for example.
Why Are Points a Thing?
Points are part and parcel to miniature wargaming simply due to the way that miniature wargames tend to be played; as one-on-one contests of skill and luck between two opponents. In that construct, the ideal is to have a situation where neither player has an advantage over their opponent due to factors outside of their control, such as the rules and stats for their models. Instead, each player steps up to the table with an equal chance of victory. Now, before I go to much further, I know that this is only one way of looking at gaming, and that there are plenty of ways to play asymmetric scenarios and such, but I don’t think it’s such a controversial statement to say that such modes of play are more the exception than the rule across the entirety of the hobby.
So, if we accept that most of the time most players prefer to engage in what we might call a “fair” fight, that suggests that there has to be some way of levelling the playing field. How do you ensure that the fleet/army/what-have-you that you are bringing to the table is going to stack up evenly to whatever your opponent is bringing to the table? That is where points come in. Assuming that the game designers have valuated the models in the game well, you can expect to have a reasonable chance against your opponent if you both bring forces whose combined totals add up to and equal amount. To go back to my earlier example of battleships and destroyers, if I bring 100 points of battleships and my opponent brings 100 points of destroyers, then it should be a “fair” fight.
Advantages of Points
The fact that points systems are so ubiquitous across the miniature gaming hobby suggests that they have great utility. So just what do they bring to a game? Well, the big thing that permit is a certain portability to the game. By that, I mean that a player can take his miniatures, rule book, templates, dice, and other gaming implements, put them in a bag, roll down to their FLGS, and find a game with someone they may or may not have met before, let alone pre-arranged a game with. By simply agreeing to a generic scenario played at a chosen point value, the players can get to moving models and rolling dice in fairly short order, secure in the knowledge that they are playing on reasonably even terms. Points values also give even organizers the opportunity to run tournaments and other competitive events. And while these events can be fun and engaging to participate in, the real advantage of these events is that they tend to elevate the visibility of a game system, and draw in more players.
Disadvantages of Points
Of course, the downside of points values is that getting things perfectly balanced is a notoriously challenging task, and it’s rare that any game system ever achieves a state that is widely acclaimed as “Balanced.” Instead, most games undergo a constant iterative process where imbalances are gradually identified and corrected over time with updates and errata. This process naturally consumes time and effort on the part of a game studio that might have otherwise been dedicated to developing brand-new content for their game. It also means that the reputation of most game studios is going to be at least partly reliant upon how well they are able to implement balance via their points systems, and by how quickly they address problems that are identified by players.
Points as an Abstraction
To a degree, implementing points into any wargaming system is something of a way of artificially brining order to chaos, in that war is chaos, and war is what we as gamers are attempting to represent on the table. As such, all points systems are an abstraction. As I see it this is not an advantage or disadvantage, but it does mean that points systems can lend a sense of artificiality to the proceedings, and that may not be desirable if the game in question is historical in nature. Indeed, I’ve seen that exact complaint from some gamers when they hear that a new historical rule set is including points values.
Flawed but Useful
I see point values as a useful tool and something that definitely has a place in game design. As with all tools, point systems aren’t inherently good or bad. However, they can be used in good and bad ways. That is something that I want to investigate in more detail in the future, but for now I want to make good on the promise I made earlier in the post to somehow relate these ramblings back to naval gaming. To wit, Warcradle Studios just recently made major updates to their Dystopian Wars ORBATs, to inlcude point adjustments. This is a great (and free) example of how this process plays out in real time, and is worth a look!
Greg and Andy are joined by returning guest Andy B. to discuss Battlefleet Gothic, the classic space combat game set in the Warhammer 40k universe! During the round table, Andy and Andy B. share their thoughts on a number of aspects surrounding the game and its community. Later, they give the game the full MBS review treatment!
It’s time for Episode 55 of the Man Battlestations Podcast! This time around, Greg and Andy are joined by Hendrik Jan Seijmonsbergen, the author of the WW II naval game, Naval War! Later, Greg and Andy are joined by returning guest Rob to do a short tribute to the late, great James D. Hornfischer, author of such outstanding books as Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Later, they discuss Rob’s Battle of Samar scenario that was recently printed in Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy magazine. Make sure to check out the links for this episode, there are a lot of great things in there!
Hello! This is going to be something of a long-delayed introduction to a project that I discussed on Episode 54 of the MBS Podcast. Since about 2019 I’ve been working on collecting and painting a modern naval force to use with such games as Rory Crabb’s Naval Command. In this post, I’m going to talk about what I’ve collected so far, why I’ve selected the scales and models that I have, and what some of my future plans are. This post is intended to be the first in a series, an I hope to use future installments to further discuss scale selection, model procurement, lessons learned, and such.
Ship Scale
Due to several factors, I’ve settled upon 1/2400 scale for my ships. The first factor to consider is availability; when I was looking around the internet, I was able to find most if not all of the major ship designs I was looking for in 1/2400. Other scales I looked at, including 1/3000, 1/4800, and 1/6000, all seemed to have significant holes in the available order of battle. In addition, 1/2400 seemed to offer a nice balance between keeping the overall size of the miniature down, while still allowing a very nice level of detail. And finally, I must admit that I’m very much a big fan of GHQ’s WWI, WWII, and Modern-era naval miniatures in this scale!
Aircraft Scale
This is an area where I’m still a bit undecided. I’ve recently procured some 1/600 scale Pico-armor aircraft, and they have a nice size and level of detail. However, all of the aircraft I’ve procured thus far have been “tactical” aircraft; ie, fighters and small drones. Model size might be an issue when we start talking about things like a P-8 Poseidon. Thank’s to James O’keefe’s great post here on the blog, I’ve also been turned on to the possibility of using 1/1200 scale aircraft, which would solve that problem with the larger aircraft overtaking the ships in terms of physical size and table presence.
Project Thus Far
My collection and painting efforts have mostly been focused on US Navy ships. I’ve now got a sizeable force put together, including 1 CVN, 1 LHD, 1 CG, 1 Zumwalt-class DDG, 4 Arleigh Burke-class DDGs (2 Flight Is and 2 Flight IIAs), 4 LCS (2 of each type), and a T-AKE replenishment ship. In addition to that, I’ve also collected small Russian, Chinese, and Iranian forces, focused on a handful of smaller surface combatants for each. These are mostly to act as opposition forces for the basic scenarios I’ve been starting out with. Here is a picture gallery of what I’ve gotten done so far:
UNS
Russians
Iranians
T-AKE
Zumwalt
PLAN DDGs
Modern Naval Force
Future Plans and Next Steps
Overall, there are several further objectives I’d like to move towards with this project:
A sizeable number of merchant ships of various types (about a dozen or so)
A collection of modern-era terrain pieces, including oil rigs, islands, buoys, coastal defense radars, coastal missile launchers, etc.
Expanded surface/sub-surface/air forces for China and Russia
A variety of military aircraft models (vice 2D counters) for the major powers
My immediate next steps are to start working on my aircraft collection and the merchant ships. My goal is to have some of each done by the end of 2021!
It’s the dog days of Summer, and Greg and Andy are back with another hot episode! First up, they interview Rory Crabb, the designer of Naval Command and other games. Then, they discuss Andy’s modern naval miniatures project, including he pros and cons of scale selection and what pieces are needed to play a variety of scenarios.
DISCLAIMER: The information in this post is intended to assist former customers of the now-defunct Corsec Engineering with constructing stands and model adapters that are compatible with the Omni-Stand system for their own personal use. I make no claims to any ownership to the Omni-Stand system or related products.
Years ago, probably close to a decade now, I found out about the Omni-Stand system from Corsec Engineering. This system provided exactly what I was looking for in a flying stand system for both my space miniature games and for games with aircraft models, such as Dystopian Wars; it provided a rock-solid and secure stand for my models, but could also be detached from the model and disassembled to lay completely flat when not in use. This was a critical consideration for me, as I am often taking my games “on the road” to game stores, conventions, and the like. However, in 2019 Corsec’s founder, Jonathan Bowen, announced that he was going to be shutting down production of the Omni-Stand, and in 2020 he tragically passed away. While I was lucky enough to have a decent supply of Omni-Stands and model adapters, I knew that sooner or later I would start running low, and so I’ve been researching ways to come up with my own replacements that are also compatible. Here is what I came up with!
First Step: Figuring Out the Threads
The place where I started was figuring out what sized threads were used for the stands. To aid me in that, I took one of my Omni-Stand posts to my local Home Depot. In the hardware aisle, there is a “thread checker,” a small display that allows you to check thread sizes on bolts and nuts you bring with you. From there, I was able to determine that the thread size used is #6-32. I picked up a small package of hex nuts in this size, as they can be used as adapters by gluing them to bases or to the underside of a model. However, I was more interested in trying to find how the bases, with their metal adapters which were imbedded into the acrylic, were made.
Second Step: Thermal Inserts
What I discovered is that there is a whole industry dedicated to providing threaded inserts that are designed to allow for sturdy threaded connections between pieces of acyrlic or other soft plastic materials. The basic process for installing one of these insertes is to drill a hole in the material, heat up the metal insert, and then press it into the acrylic. The plastic melts as the metal part is pushed into it, and when it cools it hardens around the insert and locks it securely in place. This short YouTube video shows an example of this process:
Now that I had a good feel for the basic method being used, I ordered a batch of inserts with the correct threads off of Amazon.
Step 3: The Prototype
Once my inserts arrived, I started experimenting. I have a large stock of the old standard acrylic flight stands that Spartan included with their models, as I never used them (in favor of adapting my models to the Omni-Stand system). So, I started off by taking a few bases, drilling a few different holes, and then attempting to press my inserts into them. Through a little trial and error, I was able to figure out that I needed a 3/16″ hole for the particular adapters I purchased. It’s important to note, however, that if I end up getting a different kind of insert down the road I might very well need to go with a different sized hole to ensure a good fit. To insert them into my bases, I used a soldering iron set at 15W to apply pressure to the insert. The iron gradually heats up the insert, which then softens the acrylic enough to allow the insert to melt into it. This video is a bit longer, but shows this process in a bit more detail. Of note, while there are special soldering iron tips available for this task, I was able to use a standard pointed tip in mine with no trouble.
Step 4: First Application
Top Left: “Raw” acrylic base with no insert. Top Right: Acrylic based with insert installed. Bottom: An original Omni-stand base.
My first implementation of these methods was for a batch of bases for the game A Billion Suns. This game uses some rather unique firing arcs; a forward 45 degree arc, and a forward 180 degree arc. Since all of my existing bases had 90 degree arcs on them, this felt like a logical place to start. I sourced the acrylic bases from Litko Aerosystems, which were able to etch the firing arcs into 40x40x3mm square bases, as well as laser-cut the 3/16″ hole into the center for me. Once I received the bases, it was a fairly easy matter to insert the adapters into the holes. Having had the chance to use them in a game, now, I am please to report that they worked quite well!
This is the quick sketch I made to provide to Litko for my custom order.
Side Note: Model Adapters
For many users of the Omni-Stand, the biggest long-term concern is less having correct bases for a game as it is having sufficient quantities of adapters to attach to models (which will then allow them to thread onto the stands). Here, there are lots of options. For me personally, I purchased a number of Corsec’s magnetic adapters, so I tend to use rare-earth magnets to attach my smaller ships to their stands instead of threaded adapters. Failing in that, just about any threaded #6-32 hardware can work. The hex nuts I got from Home Depot, for example, will do the job just fine. An alternative would be these self-clinching nuts that I found on Amazon.
Conclusion
After a few months of off-again and on-again work, I am reasonably happy that I’ve found a satisfactory solution to the “Omni-Stand Problem;” that is to say, of the issue of having bought into the Omni-Stand system over the years and now being faced with the inability to obtain more stands and adapters when my existing stock is depleted. By sharing this information here, my goal is to help other folks who bought into Corsec’s outstanding product over the last decade to also find ways to keep their existing stand collections and perhaps eventually add on to them.
Once again, Greg and Andy are joined by Rob as they talk about all things naval wargaming for Episode 51 of the Man Battlestations Podcast! This episode features not one, but two great reviews. First up, our hosts discuss the new board game Devil Boats from Compass Games, which highlights PT boat combat in the Pacific. After that, they dig into Victory At Sea, the great new WWII fleet combat game from Warlord Games.
Andy (aka Ruckdog) is back with the second video in the DW 3.0 Captain’s Academy series! This video discusses how movement is handled in the new Dystopian Wars.
