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As some of you will be aware, I've been thinking long and hard about how Command Level 2 sits within the Infinite Dark concept. I've wavered back and forth around whether to ditch it completely, or whether to blister it off into a supplement, or whether to build rules for it into the core game as they currently stand.
At the moment, I favour a mix of the latter two options. So I'm going to share with you some of my tentative th...
2021-01-26 09:01:00 +0000 UTC
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If you're interested in following this Patreon for a behind-the-scenes look at how a small business in wargames gets off the ground (or doesn't, as the case may turn out to be) then this is an article for you.
If you're only here for the rules and game content, you can move along.
Last November I committed to a series of adverts in Miniature Wargames magazine on an experimental basis. I had a little leeway in my budget and thought it would be interesting to see what...
2021-01-25 09:06:14 +0000 UTC
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This week has another game design discussion (monologue, let's be hones) in which I talk about the role that art plays in inspiring, guiding, communicating and supporting a game through development and into the market and the hands of its players.
I hope to see some of you guys this afternoon on the livestream, when I'm going to be taking a look at some spaceship miniatures from Iliada Game Studio, Strato Minis and Brigade Models. 1400-1500 UK time on the Precinct Omega Facebook p...
2021-01-23 12:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Still not final. We've got posing and artifact work still to do, before we get to printing. And I'm trying to make sure he isn't holding the barrel of his carbine.
Thought you'd like a peek.
2021-01-21 11:31:17 +0000 UTC
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Seeing as Dave was nice enough to ask, for those who don't buy Miniature Wargames, here are pictures of the adverts. The one without the "Gold" badge ran in January and February's editions. The one with the badge will run in March's.
Mark Bigney is a patron (hi, Mark!), but I ripped his quote straight from an episode of his podcast, So Very Wrong About Games, which I hear...
2021-01-19 10:54:16 +0000 UTC
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I am thrilled to report that Horizon Wars: Zero Dark has broken through into the Gold Bestsellers list on Wargame Vault!
This is a big deal for me and, although I'd love to credit the quality of the rules and the book (and those things, obviously, play their part) it is really a testament t...
2021-01-19 09:39:40 +0000 UTC
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Nothing adds to that feeling of a space battle like the presence of some asteroids or even a planet or moon. In practice, in a setting with long-distance scanners and smart weapons, such things can't be used to obstruct line of sight, but their sheer mass distorts space-time, which will have an effect upon the ability of weapons to accurately strike targets within their gravity well - but also make it harder for those within the well to escape it!
While you are learning t...
2021-01-17 12:00:02 +0000 UTC
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After yesterday's hacking rules were posted for testing, I thought it would be good for folks to have a solo mission which included the rules as an optional component.
Your fleet has been ambushed in transit by an overwhelming force, with no option but to flee through the nearest jump-gate. However, the next secure jump-gate is ancient and unpredictable, forcing you to stop and fight your pursuers until it can be found and activated.
Objective
...
2021-01-16 12:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Following the excellent suggestion that hacking ought to feature in Infinite Dark as it does in the other Horizon Wars games, I originally posted these rules to the Discord for Defence Mech patrons to comment on. My thanks to those who sent me private feedback on the idea. I've taken that into account and made some adjustments that are included in the draft rules below.
A vessel may add the ability to hack opposing ships by taking the EW Suite<...
2021-01-15 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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This week the news looks at:
Ares Games
Slave2Gaming
Para Bellum Wargames
The discussion this week is about the game design metagame - the factors that a commercial game designer needs to think about (in my opin...
2021-01-15 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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I'll be livestreaming again, today, from 1400 to 1500 UK time, as always.
This week, I've cleared by gaming table for a special event - because my Acid House Terrain Kickstarter reward arrived today. I've opened it just enough to check it's all there, and I'll be opening it again and assembling and setting it out live.
Do come and join me if you have the chance, or check out the video on the Precinct ...
2021-01-15 10:40:20 +0000 UTC
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Just FYI. For various reasons - some COVID related, some just, y'know, life - we're a couple of weeks behind schedule, now. But that's fine because I'm not committed to anything and always assumed there would be slippage at this point. And having done my homework, it makes sense to push the project back a couple of months anyway.
One of the big factors in a Kickstarter's successful funding is effectively building up interest and excitement before it launches. Mos...
2021-01-14 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Get 'em while they last!
These are the ships that appeared in my recent battle reports. They tend to go out of stock quickly and only come back in sporadically, so I recommend getting them now if you want them.
2021-01-13 15:24:46 +0000 UTC
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OK, so I've attached a PDF for a draft dashboard. It's split in two between the vessel and the pilot, with a dotted line so you can cut it up if you want to move pilots between vessels in a campaign.
I realize that one thing I've missed out is a Command Level tag for the vessel, so assume that I'll add one as this evolves.
On the left-hand side you have the power pool, with a pool ...
2021-01-13 10:00:02 +0000 UTC
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I'm sketching out the cover art for Horizon Wars: Infinite Dark ready to brief the artist. My plan is to evoke the three Command Levels, so we'll have a picture of the captain of a large vessel, flanked by the pilot of a fighter and by a "grizzled frontier explorer" type to represent CL2. In the foreground, we'll have a hologram projection of a vessel of some sort (probably one inspired by one of 2021-01-12 09:17:34 +0000 UTC
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So, the thing is...
At Command Level 3, once you come to a halt as a MAS1/POW1 vessel, it's really hard to turn around and get moving again.
I had, with tremendous forethought and no appreciation for its significance, angled the stranded vessel facing away from my jump-gate and its exit point. So now I would need to spend several turns getting it to come about far enough to head for safety.
In order to try to stop it taking massive amounts of incoming fire fro...
2021-01-09 16:15:01 +0000 UTC
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Last time I shared a pre-beta version of Infinite Dark with you lot, I took the time to export it to Affinity Publisher and made it looks all pretty and stuff.
But, frankly, the time it takes to re-build all of the tables isn't worth the candle. And this updated version has more tables and formatting stuff that would take me all day, so this comes with zero bells and whistles, but lots of new rules.
Patch Notes 0.0.2
- Red Fleet rules!
2021-01-09 09:01:00 +0000 UTC
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I spend an hour mostly talking about dice. I spend as little time as possible looking at the numbers and probability curves (but have to spend some time talking about them) and then go on to talk about how those apply, how dice can strip agency from players and how to avoid that happening. I also do a big breakdown of what you can do with playing cards and why, sometimes, you shouldn't.
I touch upon a lot of games, including 2021-01-08 12:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The Uranian fleet commander received urgent notice that a civilian pleasure cruiser, the UMV Celeste, had suffered a SLAP-transition failure, dropping it at the edge of Vultic territory. The Vultists would hold the passengers captive and random them for obscene sums of the Uranian patrol couldn't rescue the ship first.
In this mission, I had to get to the stranded vessel, board it and get it moving back to the jump point before the Red Fleet could close on and destroy it.
<...
2021-01-08 09:01:01 +0000 UTC
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I thought you guys would like this. I'm still playing with the exact rules, but I think I've found a way to include mechs in the CL1 game and make them interesting.
Basically, I was working on the rules for docking and boarding actions etc, and was just writing how CL1 vessels could do this, when I had a picture of a mech punching an X-Wing in my head.
So now mechs are fighters that can "dock with" (grab hold of) enemy vessels and "shoot" (punch) them. You can even upg...
2021-01-06 09:01:00 +0000 UTC
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I'm into that phase of play-testing, now, which seeks to explore the edge cases of the rules. You know the sort of thing.
However, one thing I'm exploring is the size of fleets that the game practically accommodates and I'm pleased to say that, by and large, the game scales extremely well. But there is one down side, which occurs pretty quickly (from about four vessels upwards) and gets worse, which is keeping track of which vessels have activated.
I've brainstormed my optio...
2021-01-05 10:35:22 +0000 UTC
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I'm back at work now and, having dealt with most of the tedious bureaucracy of running a business this morning, I took a few hours this afternoon to flesh out rules for torpedoes and for what I'm calling skirmishers.
Skirmishers are fighter squadrons at CL3, drones at CL1 and... probably individual fighters or drone squadrons at CL2 (CL2 is always tricky).
Basically these, when launched (with a bonus action), fly straight towards a designated target. Torpedoes are faster and...
2021-01-04 17:54:10 +0000 UTC
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In this episode, I do a round-up of news from 2020, looking at Asmodee Games's handling of Fantasy Flight, new edition releases of flagship games from GW and Corvus Belli, the end of a flagship game at Steamforged Games, big money still struggling to make an impact at 2021-01-02 12:00:02 +0000 UTC
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After seeing all the hype about Cyberpunk 2077, and also watching the Tabletop Minions video about wargaming cyberpunk, I thought the subject deserved a deeper analysis of the challenges involved in designing tabletop cyberpunk experiences.
I also take the opportunity to wax just a little bit philosophical about the year we've all had, and why I think there's reason, on this day of all days, to be optimistic about the ...
2020-12-25 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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With designs for the Kickstarter miniatures coming along nicely, I thought I'd start to anticipate hitting some stretch goals and begin sketching out the other heroes, upgrades and villains I want to include if we're sufficiently successful.
This is my preliminary concept for Marquin the EWOp. And yes, that's a ballistic poncho they are wearing.
UPDATE: Added the inked version of Marquin, and Lox, the Doc.
2020-12-21 12:00:02 +0000 UTC
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In between other projects, I've been working on a serialized novel, called Soldier First. Basically, I was trying to write relevant fiction for Horizon Wars and consistently failing. So I decided that I needed an unrelated fiction-writing project that I wasn't so invested in to practice various things. 30,000 words later, I thought I might have something.
I still plan to write a load more Zero Dark fiction and have a good outline for a novel....
2020-12-18 19:01:26 +0000 UTC
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Bernard's back!
This week's episode is a longer one, stretching out to just shy of an hour, but I was absolutely stoked to welcome Tomas Rawlings of Auroch Digital (and a patron), who brought me news of emerging devices for hybrid tabletop/digital gaming that I found absolutely fascinating, and it was terrific to get Tomas's insight into how these could transform our tabletop experience...
2020-12-18 11:56:21 +0000 UTC
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As promised, here it is!
These really are just the basic rules (hence why it's only 7 pages long), with a few chunks missing or still in testing (marked in red). But most of what's here has been checked, mathematically and tested on the tabletop to make sure it's not just silly-broken. All the same, the areas where I'd particularly like some feedback are noted at the end of the document. All the same, I'm open to absolutely anything you want to say about these rules. &...
2020-12-17 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Yep, I'm back online. My own, dear laptop has lurched its way back to life and I have sooooo much work to catch up on.
First step is boring, admin work. I have to run payroll and reconcile a whole load of invoices. I also have to upload the podcast, add new photos to the Precinct Omega shop and order new stationery. Yawn, yawn.
But I'll be back at Infinite Dark very soon and have an early draft for you guys to see by the end of the week.
Those who've offered to join m...
2020-12-14 13:10:09 +0000 UTC
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The new charger cable is so close now, I can practically taste it!
2020-12-14 09:49:18 +0000 UTC
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