Opening Post; The remit

Why another gaming blog? There are hundreds if not thousands of them and some of them are very good, so why another?

Firstly a wide spectrum, but many niches is my answer. There are many blogs that cover the latest Fantasy Flight or Rio Grande board game, and there are plenty that will review Pazio's latest Pathfinder tome. In this blog I will over old school rpgs,, indie rpgs, retro clones, hex and counter war games, board games from Avalon Hill or SPI's heydays, and anything else weird or interesting I find. I will cover some newer items but I will try to create a left field emphasis.
Secondly analysis. I like writing analytical pieces and will attempt to draw out why a game does or doesn't work for me, or how it compares to similar items in the genre.

How often will I post?

Depends, I will try to maintain once per month, I might manage twice weekly at some points.

Whats with the name?

I cycle through a fair few handles on internet forums, The Great Lestrade (of Sherlock Holmes fame) is one I've recently started using and seemed suitable for this blog ( i will incompetently investigate old or less known games).

Will you discuss anything other games?

I will probably do what most people do with their blogs and occasionally mention films or books I've read or even mini review them, but this definitely isn't the main purpose of the blog. I will keep the blog free of political or social commentary.

What about video games?

Loads of people already cover them far better than i can, even in their more niche areas, i might occasionally comment on a video game but it will probably be Dwarf Fortress or a Roguelike.

You say old school rpgs, will you post any original content?

I intend to. I write most of my own material so i will post maps, tables, plot hooks etc from time to time.

Why does your grammar suck?
I am dyslexic so sometimes my spelling or grammatical abilities might fail.

Comments

Quick Looks: Cimean War Battles - Tchernaya River

A quick one today I traded off Across the Narva by Revolution Games (should post something on this) for an oldish (2000) copy of an S&T magazine. The mag came with two battles reprinted from the 1978 Quad game on the Crimean War. The full Quad also contained Inkerman and Balaklava, this magazine version just has Tchernaya River and Alma. Initial setup Early SPI games (and actually GDW and AH come to think of it) of the 70s tend to have lots of rules you already know. I go, U go, movement, fire, melee, rally, and most of the rules are standard. Command and control rules and friction of war arrived a lot later. To couter this I have added a simple house rule. For each division (units are brigates and regiments, about 2-8 per division) roll. On a 1 in 6 movement is halved unless the unit can charge, in which case it must charge the nearest enemy. A simple easy to apply rule for generating those light brigade charges. You could also easily convert this to a chit pull game by...

Quick Looks; Red Star / White Eagle

I generally hate it when people describe designs or ideas in games as dated, because many of the most innovative games are older than I am. Equally it implies there is something innately good about new designs, which I don't think there is. Dune is arguably the best multiplayer 'war' boardgame and the 70s basic DnD is in my view still the best RPG. I wasn't born until the late 80s and didn't discover these things to the mid 2000s so this isn't nostalgia doing my thinking, its just that some old ideas are better than new ones, despite our apparent 'progress'. Back when Roger B MacGowan did cool art house covers But having said all this Red Star / White Eagle is a dated game design. And this matters if you are looking at popping £70 on a new reprint of it from Compass Games. I am a wary cheapskate so I picked up a second hand copy with a trashed box of ebay for £20. It was worth it, but only just. Poles have just been creamed on the south we...

Jena Campaign - Debrief - Lessons learned.

On the last Saturday of this past June I enjoyed one of the best learning experiences I have had in wargaming to put a positive spin on it. The day did not start well in character as General von Ruchel I arrived to the field 3 hours late having boarded the wrong train. When I arrived I discovered that my colleagues had spread our forces in a long thin line between the Fulda gap and Gera with no reserve. Control's game map The Jena campaign megagame, designed by Rupert Clamp was devised as a double blind map game. Each side of 10-15 players wrote orders for each division ordering it about a large map of central Germany. When battle was joined a divisional commander collected his regimental level counters and played a simple face to face tactical game. A step up the chain of command it was the army commanders (generals) role to devise the overall strategy for then the divisional/corps commanders and their chiefs of staff teams to implement. Or if you were on the Pruss...

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