After several attempts at publishing Battlesystem as a mass battle warfare game, TSR produced a different man-to-man version as Battlesystem Skirmishes by Bruce Nesmith (1991). This book was again illustrated with photos of Ral Partha miniatures, and legendary gamemaster Duke Seifried provided much of the terrain.
The cover's tag line "The miniatures game for everyone!" probably was a response to many RPG players' reluctance to take on a project of painting more than one character at a time. I remember experienced painters at this time being astonished that anyone could paint as many as 6 or 12 similar figures for a game, much less 100s as pictured in the earlier Battlesystem rules.
Nord Jarl for Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings
My girlfriend wanted to get into this game, so I grabbed the Nords and she grabbed the Spires. I'm still building most of the kits, but I wanted to get this guy painted up
Bruciato Frameworks is an old and proud artisan workshop that has dabbled in candlemaking and the arcane to various degrees throughout the years. Currently a contractor for Grimscythe & Sons funerary and revival services, and in the hands of Felix Bruciato. Felix acts most of the time as but a humble candlemaker, but as a powerful pyromancer, he nonetheless understands the worth of good firepower.
Felix Bruciato and his underlings for @kabewski's #Flak Arcana. I do not have the budget and the time to kitbash minis, but I really wanted to play this game, so now I'm stretching the miniature agnosticism to its limits.
Above seen are Felix Bruciato himself; a wax golem, who, it has been pointed out to me, does not look like wax at all; two reinterpretations of the flamer unit; and a less-than-lively rifleman (there is no perfect way to make a lego bayonet).
I'm currently trying to hook my brother and girlfriend, so that I can actually play these guys and work out if my buil even works. But regardless, I'm really proud of the concept. It's a twist on a twist in relation to the rules, and I wouldn't mind remaking Felix in a TTRPG, if I ever get the chance.
Just how many hit points does God have, anyway? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Michael Monaco about his new book excavating the history of Fantasy Wargaming called The Highest Level of All. The game is a very idiosyncratic RPG created in the late ‘70s in the UK. I’ve talked about this game before, both in a previous episode of the podcast and in a post a million years ago — this is one of the RPGs from the early days that’s interested in “realistic” simulation. It has a reputation for being unplayable (which Mike dispels) and for having silly things like stat blocks for the Virgin Mary. But it is also a deeply intriguing game, partly because it was one of the first to hit shelves in mainstream bookstores, partly because it’s primary creator Bruce Galloway died not long after its publication. We try to get to the bottom of Fantasy Wargaming’s unusual, but enduring appeal!
Coming soon from Creative Emporium: the epic 'Rust Town', a full modular terrain system for tabletop gaming. Follow us on Instagram: @creative_emporium_scotland We are two sculptors and wargame terrain designers based in the Scottish Highlands, and 'Rust Town' is our first project
This is mainly for @knightoflodis, just so they know what they’re getting into for Oathmark, but also for anyone else who wants to know.
Now, one of the things with Oathmark is that it supports two types of gameplay, like virtually all other wargames: simple pitched games to an agreed points value, or a campaign where you go about building your kingdom against another player.
Pitched battles are clear and to the point: you and an opponent agree to a set points value for your armies and then you play using that army. Short, simple and easy.
The campaign where you go about building your kingdom is much different.
Using that sheet as above, you build your kingdom expanding outwards from the centre region of your kingdom to the borderlands. Since Oathmark is a game where you can have multiple races fighting in your army, you can have a very heterogeneous kingdom, with your capital being a Dwarf City in Region 1 (the core) surrounded by Dwarf terrain in Region 2, but then you’ll have cities for Human Iron Mines, Elf Forests and Goblin Smithies in Region 3 and so on as you go along (It’s slightly complicated but explained better in the rulebook)
Now, for the campaign, this is important because each terrain you choose to add to your kingdom allows you to add more and different units to your army from each of the races and also some ‘unaligned’ units, units that can go with any army not just in their main lists. Each faction does have its own unique terrain list to choose from.
So, let’s go on with the lists. These are just the ones from the main rulebook. There is a list for the Undead in the supplemental book, Oathmark: Oathbreakers, but I haven’t got that one yet, so we’ll leave them aside for now. I also will be making a note of which terrains grant you which units too. A lot of units do end up being repeated through each list while some have ones unique to their own, including the monsters you can have to fight alongside you.
Following a thing from the rulebook, any unit marked with a * means you can only have that unit if your capital is this piece of terrain, and as a rule, you can only have 1 general in your army.
