So off to Mr Google's wonderful translator. The first was something rather plain - Gorlovka Steel Works which worked out to: "Горловка Ϻеталлургический Завод". That seems simple enough. But making a sign that just says that would be.... boring. So back to Google to find something suitably officious. With that attempt, I came up with this.
Завод Детского Питания - Baby Food Plant
and
Государственный Индустриальный Завод - State Industrial Plant
For example, in Troops, Weapons and Tactics, to trigger an action, you have a card in the deck for that. I use a blank card that when it turns up 'x' number of times, an event will occur (reinforcements, troops are allowed to withdraw from a defensive position without penalty or any number of things). With Chain of Command, this is still doable. One just has to be more creative. Using a count of the number of Full Chain of Command dice that get generated is one option.
The advantage of the Dice activation is that the game moves much faster. Even my bumbling first attempts worked themselves out quite quickly.
He is focusing on the Late/Post WWI time period. The veterans of the Great War are few and far between and the British Army in India is not the same as the Men who fought across France and Belgium. The Afghan's are a colorful collection of troops with a wide assortment of weapons. He is sorely tempting me to look at a new period. Anyway, check out http://waziristanonafancy.blogspot.com if you have a spare minute. You will not regret it.
I set up the table to have a small river with a ford and a village beyond it. The Italians were storming their way across the ford with a rifle section while two LMG teams were providing cover fire. There are a few casualties among the charging Italians. In the village are two squads of Soviets and a MMG team behind a fence. The MMG team has suffered a few casualties but I am not sure you can even see the casualty markers behind the fence. Now, on to the pictures.
I tried to crop the picture down to just the main action. The shot is over the shoulders of the attacking Italians as they head towards the MMG location.
Here is a shot of one of the Russian Squads as it rushes towards the sound of the guns.
Here is a different angle of the Soviet MMG Team. You can just make out one of the casualty figures there. Plus some brave Socialist cows standing before the enemy. Is including livestock a good idea in these pictures?
This is similar to one of the above images but cropped differently.
Just a generic picture of the town before miniatures were inserted. Is a generic terrain shot like this useful?
I need help with this as I don't have a good eye for what makes a great picture. I have a Cannon Rebel digital camera. I set the fStop to 9.0 and the ISO to 1600 for these pictures. I read about these things on Trouble at the Mill's blog but really don't understand them other than it lets in more light and light is good. Would pictures like this be interesting to anyone purchasing a scenario supplement (provided they were related to the scenarios of course)?
On less happy news, the varnish is all dry on my house and I am not sure I am happy with it. It came across as very dark. It does have kind of a not maintained look about it.
Still, things are moving. I hope to finish the Matt Varnish of the one building tonight. I may even finish off some more fence pieces. I have five left of that order to do.
As for avoiding maps, well I have four left to finish. I managed to start one of those 4 today. Not sure if I am going to get it finished today.
This guy has one of the more interesting prize draws that I have seen so far.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6mmgaming/sets/72157634314749954/with/9129518221/
I still can't take very good photos with my phone. I will try to get my wife's camera and a tripod later.
But I also have a warehouse from GameCraft miniatures. It is a nice model. I asked and they recommended priming it with an automotive primer to keep the MDF from warping. Not having any on hand, I grabbed a can of spray model airplane dope. The primer was "aluminum" color. I am not really sure what to do with painting it. I have painted the roof a gray color and a dirty white for the walls. This one I am no where near finished with. I actually need some help figuring this out.
Anyway, Things are moving right along.
I have 8 maps left to redo for the book. Once that is done, its time for a photo shoot. We will see how it goes.
Now here is one of my MS Paint attempts that I originally had in the book. It is actually one of the better efforts.
That map has gone to the rubbish heap to be replaced by...
The maps are further described in the text.
"The terrain is dominated by a large hill that covers much of the table. The slope of the hill is gentle enough to be accessible by foot or vehicle without significant movement penalty. The top right corner and bottom left corner are the only lower areas. The road cuts across the table from top right to bottom left. The road has been soaked by recent storms and each unit must make a bog check on moving. Do this by rolling 1d6 for each squad sized force. On a roll of a 6, one of the motorcycles has become bogged. The fields are wheat and sunflower fields with small paths separating the fields. The wheat fields have been harvested while the sunflower fields have not. There are scattered haystacks throughout the wheat fields. These may be driven down by motorcycles but not by trucks. Troops in the fields are treated as harder to spot than those on the road."
The new map breaks up the table into 1' x 1' squares giving a 6' by 4' table.
Is there something that I should add to these? Is there more to the description that someone would need to set this table up? ***Update 7/10/2013 ****
Here is another update following the feedback I have received so far.
http://www.blmablog.com/2013/07/blmas-millionth-pageview-givaway.html
The kit comes flat with all the pieces laying together. There are two large doors for a loading bay. The smaller, human sized doors are not included.
The first step was to clue the main part of the building together. That was relatively easy. I used a wood glue but I later received an e-mail from Game Craft that said Super Glue would have worked just fine. That is good to note for the future. Next was to get the roof together at the correct angle. I glued some scrap wood cut into a triangle between the two roof halves so I would be able to have a removable roof for games.
The kit does not come with interior walls. These will have to be fashioned myself. I was trying to figure out what to do for this. I guess I need some sort of office area and then the open factory floor area.
Next step is priming the building. Game Craft recommends an automotive primer to prevent warping. I will see what I have availible and get some work done on it tonight. I hope to have at least the outside painted this week.
Well there are six campaigns.
Campaign 1 - The battle for Two Rivers August 10-12. This has five scenarios for company level rules (IABSM in particular but could be done with FOW or Crossfire).
Campaign 2 - With the Vikings at Kiluskino and Verhnieprovsk August 18 - 21st. These are five scenarios for platoon level rules (Chain of Command or Troops, Weapons and Tactics but would work with Bolt Action or Arc of Fire).
Campaign 3 - Petrikovka Campaign September 1941. There are six scenarios that are a combination of platoon and company level scenarios.
Campaign 4 - The Donets Campaign October 13th - 31st. Another six scenarios at either the platoon or company size.
Campaign 5 - Gorlovko November 1 - 5th. A mere 4 scenarios covering the seizure of this industrial town. Mostly Company level scenarios in urban/suburban terrain.
Campaign 6 - Nikitovka November 6 - 12. Four more scenarios covering this tragic campaign that found the 80th Roma trapped behind enemy lines and the heroic effort to break it out.
That is a total of 30 scenarios featuring the Italian units of the Corpo Spedzione Italiano in Russia (CSIR) as they advance over 1400 kilometers across the Ukraine in the Fall of 1941.
The scenarios are still being play tested and this time they will include photographs of games in play. Also the scenario maps are being beautified as my initial efforts with MS Paint look like my four year old drew them. So far, this is going better than I thought.
At this point, the book is 150 pages. Once some graphic work is done, that will grow it a little bit.