This is the end...

...of the year, that is.  So ends ODGW's first year as a limited liability corporation, and I have no idea what effect that will have on my taxes.  My first and safest guess is that it will be adverse.  The IRS is a cruel master.  ODGW ends the year in better condition than we started, thanks to a gaming public interested in what we have to offer.  Our oldest game is being updated and sprouting an offshoot, Meine Truppen.  Our naval games, GQIII and Fleet Action Imminent, still maintain a solid following, and will have new products added this year.  We have additional products planned for all our titles.  2010 looks to be a promising year.

For those who are interested, stay tuned here and at odgw.com for announcements of our latest products and games.  With all the stuff we have percolating, there will be lots to look at.

I wish everyone a prosperous and safe new year.

Battle of Lake George

Looks like a fine scenario for American Battlelines.

Now the real work begins

I have literally a ton of unmade paper terrain buildings and fixtures that need to be constructed.  It is time to dig into these and put them together.  The 10mm are for a friend's playtest and development group for his miniatures game.  The 6mm are for my chosen scale, microarmor in WWII, and 10mm everywhere else, though I may be tempted by 15mm's for the War of the Roses project.  So much to work toward now, what with a group that is willing to try out new systems and help me out with playtesting.  The Battlelines system has to jell relatively quickly, so that I can open up space for the GQIII project final work, and the Meine Truppen rules, which are going off in directions that no one planned for.  It is all keeping me busy.

The March of the Little Lead Soldiers

Music by Gabriel Pierné.  Merry Christmas.

Unbased figures

There are 10mm armies waiting to fight the ECW and AWI.  All of them crying out for basing.  Somehow I cannot decide on a scheme which will satisfy my allegiance to several rules sets at once.  Despite my ODGW connection, I do play other rules, and currently, but not permanently, we do not have an ECW set. And just yesterday some more English Civil War guys just showed up.  Time to get to work.

A French Vauban Fortress

Excellent virtual tour of a French Vauban fortress.

Too much combat?

A recent poster on our playtest site indicated that Mein Panzer and Mein Truppen have excessive dice rolls, and that it takes too much time to resolve combat.  Well now, this is something which occurs when you have a lot of units on the battlefield uncovered and shooting at each other, especially if there are units which have rates of fire of two or more and have Bonus rolls due to being Veteran or Elites.  Our group is as guilty as the next for having too many forces on the battlefield.  When you get up around five or six units per player, you are asking a lot.  It is better to max out around four or five, especially if there are combined arms in action.  For infantry in Mein Panzer, that is two platoons.  In Mein Truppen, it is one.

I am going to start posting some of the very numerous scenarios I have collected over the years to the Download Library for use by MP players.  I hope that some will find them entertaining.  Many of them contain specific rules for incorporating MP.

No price increase

I spoke too soon.  It looks like there will be no price increase on ODGW products coming with the new year.  So stand down from frantic shopping mode, if you were in that mode to begin with.  ODGW continues to have great value for its games, which are very comprehensive treatments of the eras they cover.

Price increase

Printing costs have increased, and so will our prices, effective very soon.  Anyone wishing to purchase a game at the old price should do so within the next few weeks, as I expect we will put the new prices into effect on the first of the year.

San Diego road trip

Travelled south to San Diego to host a Mein Panzer engagement yesterday.  My standard training scenario, "Is That You, Sacha?", has small amounts of artillery (mortars), infantry, and light AFV's, which makes it perfect for novices spooling up on the rules.  It pits an American Armored Cav battlegroup against a German Panzer Recon group.  After playing it, most gamers are ready for more involved units and tactics.  Each time I have run it, there has been a dramatically different outcome.  This time the "Amis" won, using a long range gunnery duel with the AFV's to decide the issue.  The infantry in the centrally located town failed to make contact with each other, and did not factor in the fight.  I believe both sides had a good time, which bodes well for more games in the future.