Bigshot – An Attempt at Fast Play Blackpowder

So as a follow up to my Blackpowder Skirmish rules Deathshot I’m attempting to put together some bigger scale Blackpowder rules I’m calling Bigshot. I’m initially using simple wooden blocks, although the humble block does have a certain appeal, not only in aesthetics, as I can repurpose these units as Moderns, Pike and Shot, Medieval, […]

When are enough rules enough? Part 4 – The Big Battle

So my quest for bigger, quicker and simpler games of Deathzap is somewhat over. I compiled my previous posts into a ruleset and played a big game: three platoons of infantry and a tank on each side, a total of 151 minis in play! I did make one pretty huge change to the rules before […]

when are enough rules enough? Part 3 – activations and Morale

In the continuing quest for simple but satisfying wargame rules, I’ve thought up the following for turn sequence, activations and morale and they’re all here together because I’ve integrated them. ACTIVATIONS During a player’s turn they can activate each of their units once. To activate a unit they roll a 2D6, if the unit is: […]

When are enough rules enough? Part 2 – Shooting and melee

After some comment reading and further playtesting, I’ve settled on the following rules for both shooting and melee in this much simplified version of Deathzap, the idea is to be able to take into account the various Sci-fi troop types without getting bogged down: SHOOTING WEAPON RANGE SHOTS Rifle 24” 1 Repeater 12” 2 Medium […]

When are enough rules enough? Shooting

With recent hype around possible changes to Warhammer 40k with 10th edition on the horizon I’ve been thinking a lot about Deathzap. Namely, what do I want from it as a ruleset? The early forms of it were simple and streamlined rulesets primarily designed for quick and deadly games, mostly to inspire me to write […]

Mechanics Lab – Super Simple Skirmish Rules

Tinkering with rules is what I do. I suppose its part of the hobby you really can take with you, in a boring or slow moment at work when you haven’t got anyone to talk to you can theorise about combat systems, probabilities and hopefully think up new and unique mechanics. Having played a good […]

The Forest vs The Bobbies

Our forces are as follows: The Bobbies: 1 Inspector – Gunslinger, 15 Might 1 Detective – Gunner, 15 Might 1 Headsman – Berserker, 15 Might 1 Sarge – Soldier, 15 Might 2 Bobbies with Rifles – Soldier, 10 Might 2 Bobbies – Warrior, 10 Might The Forest – 1 Witan – Monster, 32 Might 4 […]

SUPER SIMPLE SKIRMISH RULES REVISITED AND The Clockwork Empire vs The Family

In the interest of spending less money on this hobby, I often find myself returning to old projects. This week I looked back at my Monochrome minis and the Super Simple Skirmish game, to see if I could simplify it further and add even more strategic depth. I think I’ve managed that. WARBANDS, FIGHTERS AND […]

MECHANICS LAB: SNOWBALL SKIRMISHES

First let’s get the necessary admin out of the way: Hobby Spend: £152.88 I’ve been buying up a lot of plastic figures from Oathmark, Frostgrave and Fireforge Games for a fantasy skirmish project. Painted: £303.50 My aim for lent is £0 spent on hobby, but we’ll see how that goes. I haven’t fully taken stock […]

mechanics lab: polygonal dice

It’s been an odd week, one of those weeks where I experience a bit of creativity overload, many new ventures, many new projects, almost none of them the Global Warfare rules I’m supposed to be working on. One such venture this week was a simple skirmish system using polygonal dice to do all of the […]

How do you fight a global war?

That’s a genuine question by the way. As I embark on the Second Global War where House Baronor fight the Jendari Collective for planetary control, I’m not entirely sure how to fight that war. What at least has made sense to me so far is to play a risk like game, the pieces being representative […]

Rescue the Boss – A Simple Toy Soldier and Deathzap Battle Report (Sort of)

So analysis paralysis made me hold off on playing out this scenario for a while. I want something that plays well and is exciting, but I’m frankly lacking in experience when it comes to designing wargaming scenarios, but the table and terrain was sat waiting for a game so I just went for it. It […]

Evil Astrorangers vs The Skelebots – A Simple Toy Soldier Battle Report

Since everyone’s angry with Games Workshop and many have complaints about the rules getting even more bloated and complicated, why not play something simple just for fun? The Evil Astrorangers will all activate with D10s and roll D10s in melee combat, I’ll allow the champion to add 1 to his melee rolls too since he’s […]

Capture the Wautomata – A Simple Toy Soldier and Deathzap Battle Report

Based on ManofTin’s few broken down wagon battle reports I was inspired to try something similar. With the advent of The Second Gobal War on Jendar with The Jendari Collective once again facing off against House Baronor, both powers had to pull back from their various expansions and focus solely on the conflict at home. […]

Mortan’s Men vs The Void – A Playtest Battle Report

After the last battle report I was asked by Hexeres if smaller elite forces have an advantage in games of Deathzap since you get 3 victory points per destroyed unit. So a force with fewer better units will give away less points. So today amidst a headache and flu like symptoms (but not Covid as […]

A Deathzap Boxing Day Battle Report

I played a little 500 point game today on the same battlefield as my last post. In this instance it was Mortan’s Men facing off against the League of Zandor. This will be a rules rather than story battle report. I’ll try to explain in some detail what is going on. Mortan’s Men had: A […]

So what did I do in 2021?

One of the weird things about having a hobby blog is being able to look back over the year and see pretty much exactly what I’ve been up to in the year just gone. JANUARY I started the year with my 0 player duelling project. It was a fun distraction and got me revamping old […]

Deathshot returns

I wrote a little while back (2018) about a simple black powder skirmish set of rules I was hoping to use for fleshing out Jendar’s history. To save you finding them, the rules are here, with some adjustments from their original posting: Each skirmish force should have between 12 and 20 figures, all figures are […]

Infinite Battles – Another Irregular Project

One thing I’ve always wanted to have is a generic system that could be used for anything – fantasy, historical, sci-fi, anything. The idea is to keep the rules interesting enough that they give a good game while also allowing you to stat your own units to fit any genre or period. I’m calling it […]

DEATHZAP 3.2.1

The following are the current rules I’m playtesting for Deathzap 3, any questions don’t hesitate to ask! SETUP AND SCENARIO The game is played on a 60”’x30” board and the figures I use are 1/72 or 20mm. The board should be fairly dense with terrain, with a mix of soft and hard cover. You could […]

A Packaging Fortress

The worlds of Deathzap are pockmarked by defensive structures and fortifications, not just due to the number of wars humans have had in the past but also there are remains of structures built by the Korban the reptilian race that previously lived on the planet Jendar. I found one of these bits of packaging lying […]

Oltra Burns Again

In the interest of starting up some Deathzap 3 again I’ve been amassing forces. Representing the SynJen were my previously seen Rin Empire platoon, but to back them up I’ve added a platoon of Volkovian Knights and a Beam Tank: For the A.L.L I’ve actually only built Gnossian forces, again you’ve seen my Sector Army […]

North and South Cameria go to War!

Thinking I’d make use of the some of the figures seen in my last post I’ve embarked on a long intended project within the Deathzap universe, that being the Camerian Civil War. I’ve started by painting two simple skirmish forces of North and South Camerians using the old Airfix Afrika Korps and 8th Army. First […]

Even Superer Simpler Skirmish Rules! Now With Added Strategy!

A lot has happened to my Monochrome Minis game over the past two weeks. I think I’m now on the third iteration of the rules, I’m up to 8 painted warbands, my second gaming board and there’s a load of new terrain. As you can maybe tell from the image below I’ve upgraded to a […]

U-Skirm Battle Report: The Family vs The Scrots

Two forces line up on the dark plain hoping to gain territory, and shedding a little blood wouldn’t hurt. I had a simple scenario in mind. At the end of each turn a side gains 1 point per figure they have in the enemy deployment zone, plus they gain 1 point per kill. First side […]