After a welcome lie-in this morning I hoped to spend the day either 'pushing lead' or a paintbrush, No such luck. Rear brake drum on the Landie was solid. Had to jack her up, take the wheel off, do a good impression of a wheel tapper and shunter, then slap it all back together. Success and massivebut short-lived brownie points with the Dropship Bunny.

Just cleared the grease off my hands when Maff called. His Critical Mass Games 'Blockheads' arrived earlier in the week and we had discussed their potential to become Weird World War Two German power troops or robotic infantry invented by Nazi science. This led on naturally to using Alien Squad Leader v0.2 (ASqL2) for WWW2 and, hey, eureka moment - why not WW2!

We both have middling to large Flames of War armies that are just taking up shelf space - ASqL2 allows us to do WW2 gaming in a controllable and fun way but most importantly, get those models back on the table. As we'd already decided that desert and jungle terrain were going to be our focus this year - let's start then with the Desert Rats vs Mr Rommel's DAK!

Now before you start going "Shock, horrror, where's the armour penetration charts?" If you think with a broad brush and have a slick, fun game as your objective, the vehicle categories within ASql2 should work as is and we're never afraid to tweak if necessary.

We've also been chatting over the past month about downsizing our respective AK47 Republic armies as well. This is in line with our recent "pizza base" gaming concept - so again, why not keep the Political Charts but otherwise use ASqL2? Maff (MasterChef) is the king of minimalist wargamin, and you can tell I've been on a streamlining and efficiencies kick at work this week can't you....... with my final Lean Six Sigma Ninja exam coming this Wednesday.

Korea. ASqL2 also for Korea! I can't justify doing the Korean War in a big way just now - but it made it to my "bucket list" last year, and Jon's Chinese Peoples "Volunteer" miniatures make this delightfully possible in 15mm. The collateral benefit is a Pentomic era US Army for fighting alien grey or Martian tripod invasions. The Khurasan Chinese 'burp' gunners might also make decent Sci Fi workers militia or rebels on one of the background planets in Tomorrows War.

I'm not saying that we are having a clean sweep across the board and giving up other rulesets altogether. I still love playing Crossfire, IABSM, Force of Force. The fact is, we enjoy ASqL2. It's fun, unpretentious and provides a focus for mid-week, pick up and play, beer and pretzel gaming.

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What's the difference between the Protolene troops types as far as the miniatures themselves are concerned?

• The Scouts are in light armour and have rifles and heavy weapons.
• The Hunters are in heavy armour and likewise have rifles and heavy weapons.
  
• The Predators have heavy armour, pistols and in some instances power claws.

My own plans for using the Protolenes are

• Protolene 'army' (both regulars and rebels)
  
• Sci Fi Egyptian subject 'army'
• Merc scouts in Human forces
• Allied/subject race in a combined Felid/Protolene 'army'
  
• Individual characters, Mercs, Pirates & Bounty Hounters in character skirmish games.

Cheers
Mark
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OK Marines, Master Chef here - with a glowing commendation to hand out.

It had come to my attention (Radio 4 listeners can read that in Mitch Benn's voice if they like) that Alien Squad Leader had been revamped. OK, Chief Hannam had been muttering "ASQL 2" like some deranged Buddhist mantra and so, when thursday afternoon in work turned into "Hell O'Clock" I rang up 15mm.co.uk in their Highland Lair and ordered a copy. Apparently, I'd missed the post run for the day but he'd see if he could drop it off in the post on the way home. Come saturday morning at chez chef and postie drops off one copy of ASQL v2.0 - with a note inviting me to enjoy the rules and they'd be charging the credit card later - so not only had they posted it out ultra pronto, they'd done so in preference to getting payment.

Now, I know that it is a commonly held belief, supported by strong evidence, that if you even think of buying GZG stuff, Jon has it in the post for you but I have to applaud 15mm.co.uk here - much as it is at odds with the gruff, uncaring persona that I cultivate. But this is really good stuff by a manufacturer with some nice figures and in the plethora of new shiny stuff by groovy new firms - it was the old Laserburn stuff, the TTM range that was all we had for a long time. That range held the line for a long time and we shouldnt forget that.

So, well done 15mm.co.uk, good work, Marine!

Right that's it; get off my deck or give me 50 NOW!

Master Chef
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When Space 1889 first hit the shelves at the tail end of the 80's, I was living in New Jersey where I shared an apartment with a theatre director and sometime actress. We met in London over Vodka shots at Break For The Border. She was a typically theatrical type, so you can imagine the dramas and emotional rollercoaster ride. Made more 'interesting' that she was somewhat pissed at having been in the same drama class as Rebecca DeMornay, but not done quite so well on the big screen, and not been quite so blonde!

I remember buying Sky Galleons of Mars from The Compleat Strategist in New York, on East 33rd. I had a strong affinity with the shop through The Courier, which was THE BEST wargames' magazine for many, many years in my humble opinion.....

Sky Galleons was a blast to play! Lot's of fun! There's just that something about Peter Pig's 15mm Sudan range naval crew figures (packs 60 & 61) that make me want to scratchbuild my own 15mm aerial Gunboats.


As if I don't have enough projects on the go......tempting though, definitely one for the back-burner. Where this rambling trip down memory lane going, is to say that I picked up a couple of 'Specials' from the Too Fat Lardies this week. You can't fail to love these 'Specials', with their self-effacing humour and eclectic mix of down to earth wargaming articles.

Of particular note to Sci Fi gamers is the 2008 Summer Special which contains Bag the Jedi- a fun variant for the Lardies superb WW2 aerial combat game Bag the Hun!

Best read for me, was the 2008 Christmas Special. What piqued my interest here was twofold - They Don’t Like it Up ‘Em! Sudan rules in the Gilder manner. Expect more regarding VSF games on the blog as a result. Also, A Damnably Close Run Thing - Scott Dallimore's Indian Mutiny variant for the Lardies' acclaimed Sharp Practice Napoleonic/Black Powder skirmish game. There's something about the Mutiny that makes me think of Victorian Mars more so than the late Victorian 'Gunboats down the Nile' period. It occured to me that this could be a good, racuously fun 'skirmish' game option with only a few tweaks.

Before I hare off at a tangent with other rule systems, I'm going to make sure my VSF armies are ready to take the field first and foremost with ALIEN SQUAD LEADER (ASQL)2.0. Which, when all is said and done, is a fun set of rules that's tactically challenging without being demanding to learn, memorise or play. The 'Victorian Imperial' army template in edition 2.0 opens up ASQL to VSF.

Definitely more VSF and traditional Space Opera games with ASQL in the coming months.

Cheers
Mark
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