Cheap Game Table Mat Work in Progress

 As I mentioned in my previous post, I am switching gears after suffering painting burn out. It is time to actually play games rather than just paint hoards of figures. The few battles that I have had were on unnaturally colors tables. As cool as those neoprene, giant mouse pads are, they are way too expensive for me. I'd go with felt, but I found that the width dimensions are short and I am no good at sewing. I found these plastic backed table cloths at Walmart for about $5. They are textured but slick. I tested a spot with craft acrylic paint and it sticks and does not seem crack when gently folded.

I started with a big bottle of leaf green craft paint that I had from a previous attempt to make a mat. Unfortunately, I ran out before I was completely done with this one. Guess what? They don't make leaf green anymore. I got the closest thing I could find plus a darker green for a little variation. 

I'm using a wadded up paper towel to apply the paint and rubbing it on. I figured that if I use a brush the paint layer may be too thick and it might be subject to cracking. The paper towel seems to waste some paint but puts down a very thin layer that I go over again when dried. If the decorative pattern peaks through a little, its no big deal.

I'm almost done with it. When its finished, I will make another one in blue for naval games.

Painting in progress. Objects other than the
craft paint bottles holds the table cloth down while I paint.

Homemade Game Tokens

Being burned out on the fantasy stuff, I turned my attention back to my imagiNation campaigns and started to take stock in where I'm at for those. I really need some sort of markers or tokens to denote the status of vehicles and units. I know a lot of people use different color beads, but for some things, I think the marker needs to have either something written on it or a clear symbol of what it represents. A long time ago, I had bought some blank wooden dice to use as markers, but they are too big. So, I turned to these 3/8" steel circular discs I got off of Amazon.com for basing really small 1/600 miniatures like jeeps or small MANPAD or ATGM teams. I really have not used that many, so I thought they'd look like a good size for both 1/300 and 1/600 miniatures. I have a whole mess of small washers, they they seem a bit too large. Here's my test run of them.

I glued them onto a piece of paper. They look like those old dot candies that were stuck on paper! Once dried on one side, I cut them out and glued the other side down on paper.

I then painted both sides and lettered them. For my first batch, I made targeting markers. The green with black number is the unit firing. The corresponding red with white number is the firing unit's intended target. I tried making it fancy with the cross hair design around the number. 

On the back of every target marker, I painted yellow and wrote "hit" on it to indicated if it is hit (I'll bet you didn't see that explanation coming). I'm still deciding if I should write down the firing unit's number below hit. It might be useful if I have different weapons shooting at the same time. 

For all the tokens, I hit them with a clear spray to seal them. I can't decide what put on the back of the firing unit. I also plan to make some that indicate being pinned or suppressed.

Trying Out ChatGPT

 

Being in higher education, the big issue is emerging is students using AI to write papers, and other nefarious activities that amount to plagiarism and cheating. In our annual pre-fall semester faculty meeting, we had a guest speaker who talked about these things. 

So, I went online and signed up for the free version of ChatGPT, which is the online AI that is source of all these issues. I goofed around with it. For example, I asked the AI to generate a teaching philosophy for a small liberal arts biology professor. You have make sure you word things the right way, which is sort of trial and error. The first time around, it thought I was teaching philosophy of science. The second time around, it produced a short teaching statement that wasn't bad. It was very flowery and somewhat full of it. Any of my colleagues who know me, would know that was not me. BUT, it did hit all the points that one would expect. It would not take too much tweaking for an applicant to use to for a college job posting.

Then I used it for gaming purposes. First, I ask it to generate a small scenario for a modern game. This is what I got:

Sure, here's an example of a small battle scenario for modern wargames using miniatures:

Scenario:

A small Special Forces team has been tasked with destroying an enemy communications outpost deep in enemy territory. The team must navigate through a dense jungle to reach the outpost and destroy it while fending off any enemy forces they encounter.

Setup:

The battlefield is a 4' x 4' table with a dense jungle terrain in the center. The communications outpost is located in a clearing on the opposite side of the table from the Special Forces team's starting position. The enemy forces consist of a squad of infantry and a light armored vehicle guarding the outpost.

Special Forces team:

1 team leader with a rifle

2 soldiers with assault rifles

1 soldier with a light machine gun

1 soldier with a grenade launcher

Enemy forces:

1 squad leader with a rifle

4 soldiers with assault rifles

1 soldier with a rocket launcher

1 light armored vehicle armed with a machine gun

Objectives:

Special Forces team: Reach the communications outpost and destroy it.

Enemy forces: Defend the communications outpost and eliminate the Special Forces team.

Gameplay:

The game begins with the Special Forces team entering the table from their starting position on one edge. The enemy forces are deployed around the communications outpost on the opposite edge. The Special Forces team must navigate through the jungle while avoiding detection by the enemy forces. If they come into contact with the enemy forces, they must fight their way through to reach the outpost.

The Special Forces team has a limited number of actions each turn, which can be used for movement, shooting, or other actions like setting up an ambush or throwing a grenade. The enemy forces will react to the Special Forces team's movements and try to eliminate them. If the Special Forces team reaches the outpost, they must set explosives and defend the location until they detonate.

The game ends when either the Special Forces team successfully destroys the communications outpost or the enemy forces eliminate the Special Forces team.

I then asked it to generate some rules for this game:

Certainly! Here's a simplified set of rules for the miniature wargame scenario I described:

Movement:

Each miniature can move up to a certain distance (e.g., 6 inches) per turn.

Difficult terrain, like the dense jungle, may require players to roll dice to determine if a miniature successfully moves through it.

Shooting:

Each miniature has a specific range for their weapons (e.g., rifles have a range of 12 inches).

Roll a dice to hit: On a roll of 4, 5, or 6, the shot hits.

Roll for damage: If the shot hits, roll another dice to determine damage (e.g., on a roll of 4, 5, or 6, the target is eliminated).

Special Actions:

Ambush: A miniature can set up an ambush during its turn. If an enemy miniature enters the line of sight within a specific range (e.g., 8 inches), the ambushing miniature can immediately take a shot.

Explosives:

To destroy the communications outpost, a Special Forces miniature must reach it and spend a turn to plant explosives.

After planting explosives, the Special Forces team must defend the outpost for a certain number of turns before the explosives can be detonated.

Roll a dice to determine if the explosives are successfully detonated on the designated turn.

Reaction:

Enemy forces react to the movement and actions of the Special Forces team during the enemy turn.

Roll a dice to determine the effectiveness of enemy reactions.

Victory Conditions:

Special Forces team wins if they successfully destroy the communications outpost.

Enemy forces win if they eliminate all members of the Special Forces team.

Optional Rules:

Cover: Miniatures in cover receive a bonus to their defense rolls.

Morale: Roll a dice when a miniature is attacked or witnesses a comrade being eliminated. On a specific roll, the miniature may become shaken, affecting its actions.

Line of Sight: Miniatures cannot shoot through solid obstacles, and line of sight is blocked by terrain and obstacles.

Remember, these rules are just a starting point, and you can customize and expand upon them to suit your preferences and create a more detailed and complex gaming experience.

Very simple and not particularly original. This makes sense because its taking information out there in the web and coming up with a very basic set of rules based on collating highlights of whatever it found based on the parameters given..

Finally, I asked ChatGPT to generate a set of rules for fantasy wargames. I did not specify if this was at skirmish level or mass armies level:

Absolutely! Here's a basic set of rules for a fantasy-themed miniature wargame:

Movement:

Each miniature has a movement value (e.g., 6 inches) representing how far it can move during its turn.

Different terrain types may affect movement (e.g., difficult terrain requiring a dice roll to successfully move through).

Combat:

Roll a dice to hit: On a roll of 4, 5, or 6, the attack hits.

Roll for damage: If the attack hits, roll another dice to determine damage (e.g., on a roll of 4, 5, or 6, the target takes damage).

Melee combat: Miniatures engaged in close combat both roll to hit simultaneously.

Magic:

Spellcasting miniatures have access to a list of spells with different effects.

Each spell has a casting value that must be rolled equal to or higher on a dice to successfully cast.

Spells can deal damage, buff friendly miniatures, debuff enemies, or have other special effects.

Ranged Attacks:

Miniatures with ranged weapons have a specific range (e.g., bows have a range of 12 inches).

Different ranged weapons may have varying strengths and effects.

Special Abilities:

Different miniatures may have special abilities that affect gameplay (e.g., flying, stealth, regeneration).

These abilities add strategic depth and unique tactics to the game.

Morale:

Miniatures may have a morale value that affects their ability to withstand certain conditions.

Failing a morale check may cause a miniature to flee or be temporarily incapacitated.

Terrain:

Terrain pieces like forests, hills, and buildings provide cover and may grant bonuses to defense rolls.

Victory Conditions:

Set specific objectives for victory (e.g., control a certain area, defeat the enemy leader).

The game ends when a victory condition is met.

Optional Rules:

Heroes and Leaders: Special miniatures with unique abilities that can influence the battlefield and rally troops.

Summoning: Casters can summon additional creatures to the battlefield.

Area-of-Effect Spells: Spells that affect an area, damaging or hindering all miniatures within it.

Campaign Play: Extend the game into a campaign where armies can gain experience, level up, and acquire new abilities.

Feel free to modify and expand these rules to suit the fantasy theme of your wargame. The goal is to create an engaging and balanced gameplay experience that captures the excitement of fantasy battles.

This one seems even more basic and very vague in details. It is more of an outline or template for what could make a set of rules. It also seems like it starts out with a little more detailed rule mechanics, but then seems to quickly "punt" as we say in the US (American football reference) and give superficial criteria for the various aspects of the rules. It is more of a "here are some suggestions for what a set of rules should have for this genre, now you fill in the blanks." As I said above, I didn't give it that much instructions. It only works with what you ask it to do.

It was an interesting exercise in using AI to produce things related to wargames. I think it does work a little better for scenarios. However, I don't think that at least in the near future, it will replace the creativity and problem solving skills of the human mind.

Another stab at basing aircraft

 I got these clear acrylic bases from Litko by way of Amazon. It was a little tricky making the rod perpendicular to the base in all directions for some of the stands, but I think I managed to pull it off. Instead of magnets, I cut tiny squares of steel bases and glued them on top. It gives a strong hold but not so much as to pull the magnets off of either the plane or the base. Plus, I don't have to worry about polarization. The hexagon bases will be perfect for the AirWar: C21 rules. I've been re-reading them and I think I now understand some things I was fuzzy on in the past.

Odds and Ends

 The "restoration" of my house is going at a snail's pace. Still no floor. The guy who is going to fix some of the cabinets is supposed to show up tomorrow. Meanwhile, I've been trying to do a million things at once. Most of it related to the college application process for my daugher. 

Oddly enough, I've had a little time to do some painting. As I might have said before, I'm trying to reduce the pile of lead. This is mainly in the fantasy/medieval category but I've done some painting on my 3mm modern figures. Additionally, I have been making a bunch of very crude ship counters representing various modern ships for the naval portion of the Bovatopia campaign. This way I can test out various rule sets. I might extend this heresy to earlier eras. 

Just a few pictures here:

Essex 15mm Swabian Swordsman:

Why is he included, unpainted? I ordered three packs of these guys and out of the three packs, I only got one figure of this pose. Very annoying. This isn't the first time this has happen lately with Essex. Shame on you Essex!

Demonworld (now Ral Partha Europe) Beastmen command:

These guys have been waiting to be painted for probably well over 20 years! Not sure why I never got to them because I've painted a bunch of the armored rank & file. The tree in the background was also made recently. It took a lot longer to make than I expected.

Recent purchase: Hexplorer magnetic hexes:

Found this company on Facebook called Headless Hydra Press. They make small, magnetic-backed hexes called Hexplorer Mag Tiles for RPG campaigns. They measure about 1.5" face to face. They are very thin. Thinner than those little calendar magnets that you get from your insurance agent to put on your refrigerator. I got two ocean packs for playing hex-based naval battles. They would work well for 1/6000 ships, or slightly larger if you don't mind the overhang. You get 30 for $13, which isn't a bad deal. I will probably order another pack or two. It would be nice if they were a little thicker, but I can't complain about the price. I just need to figure out what to mount them on.

Among other things, I've been building this for tomorrow's annual Bristol TN/VA Christmas parade: 

Normally, Ivan's Boy Scout troop marches in the parade carrying a HUGE American flag. It spans the entirety of main street. It's pain to carry, plus I am not sure why for a Christmas parade. I have no issues when we carry it in the Veterans' Day parade, or the 4th of July parade, but not for Christmas. This year, the troop leader who owns the flag won't be making it to the parade (pretty much no one complained about not carrying the mega-flag), so the leaders decided for the scouts to build little cars that you wear to look like the pinewood derby cars. They said to make them simple. So, naturally, I went far beyond what I should have. Hot glue gun is now my best friend! It is almost done and I will post the final product in a future post. BTW, do you notice the lovely floor?

Blank Dice

I've always like warships of the pre-dreadnought age. When I was in elementary school, I read all I could about the Spanish-American war. I had a great-grandfather who was in the Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War. My favorite piece in Monopoly still is the battleship. There is something about those ship designs...

As I said in my previous post, Bob Cordrey modified his naval rules to use conventional 6-sided dice. Silly me, I didn't know this until I ordered some blank dice. Oh well. Now I have a whole mess of blank dice.

I bought them from Blank Dice. Its a UK company. They have a whole mess of different colors. I have since found that I could get them from a whole bunch of other places on line, including Amazon.com, but hey, this company was recommended on TMP. The prices didn't seem to be too bad, but I'll be honest, I don't remember how much I paid. They shipped pretty fast, too. Not EM-4 Miniatures fast, where they have packed up and shipped out your order before you even know what you wanted, but still pretty fast.

Blank 6D's from bBlankdice.uk.co

They are indented to insert stickers. They don't sell the the stickers but have free pdf templates that I assume are properly sized.

Size comparison with US Quarter

 They seem to have a proper heft to them. You know what I mean...the difference between the crappy dice set you got in the D&D starter set in the 70s, and a pair of dice you use for craps at a casino. That was one of the things I was worried about. I thought they might be very light.

What am I going to do with them? I have not decided yet. My daughter has already asked me what I have planned for them, so I better think of something quick!

I want to thank my friend Karin at the college where I teach for taking the pictures for me with her camera phone.

OMG, This is Fantastic!

I've been tinkering with the idea playing some games of Bob Cordrey's The Portable Naval Wargame, formally known as Memoir of Battle at Sea. Had I paid more attention to his updates, I would not have ordered the blank dice originally needed for these rules. He made some minor changes that included using standard dice rather than color-coded dice. Based on my read of them, they are a simple (but not simplistic) set of rules that emphasizes playability and a fast game, but seems to have a good degree of flavor for pre-dreadnought and dreadnought naval battles.  I have not been able to give them a try (big surprise there), until now....

...anyway, from Bob's site, I found that another site, Three by Two Tactics, has taken his game and made a virtual board game for it (see here). Its not an online game.  You do need to have the rules handy, but it allows you to run games and test the rules without investing in physical miniatures. Plus you can play it anywhere...like in your office...when you are trying to grade final exams.

Bob's rules are free, and its free to run the game board. Another plus is that it runs on Macs as well as PCs. That's a big plus for me! Give them a try.

Now, back to grading (cue "Volga Boatmen").

Progressing Along

 Having more-or-less chosen Fist Full of TOWs 3rd Edition as the rules to fight my fictional 2nd Chalupastan War, I wanted to make my life and/or an opposing player's life easier when playing the game. I am in the process of making stat cards for easy reference. Its been a slow process, but I am close to done for at least the first battle. Here is a sample of a FFT3 stat card:

 I am printing these out and gluing them onto index cards. I thought about using a photo of the miniature for each card, but its being printed out on a B & W laser printer. I use a few photos for vehicles that I can't find profiles for, but I don't feel like taking a lot of pictures just for these cards (more like I don't have the time).

In other news, I have had almost no time to do much painting or terrain construction. I started working on a 1/300 scale outdoor market, but lately, my mother-in-law has been going to bed earlier than usual, so I have no access to my workbench.  Also, I've got a whole mess of South African Mambas that are awaiting to be primed and painted. I am counting on Thanksgiving break to get more done.

Computer-Moderated Gaming

I started working on my annual PDP (Professional Development Program). It’s a long and dull report on what wonderful things I’ve done over the school year and what I hope to accomplish during the upcoming school year…my thoughts, hopes and dreams for a brighter academic future. Or at least the future my want me to have. Naturally, my attention wandered to the internet, where I read a short post on the Solo Nexus blog concerning gaming apps. That got me wondering once again, why haven’t computer-moderated games ever took off? There seems to be only a handful companies that make them, and there is relatively few postings on the Computer Moderated Rules message board on The Miniatures Page. Fort purposes of discussion, I am using TMP’s definition that is: any software that aids miniature wargaming. I am not including rules that are in PDF format.

During my wargaming career, which spans from about 1976 to Present, I’ve encountered computer-moderated gaming (CMG) twice. First, and probably the most extensive use, was at a small gaming convention at the University of Kansas back in 1997. Some Army officers from Fort Leavenworth (its more than just a federal prison, folks) came up with this really cool fantasy CMG and were beta-testing it at the convention. It worked for land, naval, and skirmish combat. Not only did it resolve combat, but kept track of units in terms of casualties and morale. I got to play the land massed battle and the naval battle games. They seemed to work really well. Even though I didn’t always get the results I wanted, it didn’t bother me that I didn’t get to roll any dice. The second time was while playing a game of Warhammer 40K. My opponent had an app on his iPhone that had all of the stats for various troop types. He was able to download those stats that we needed for the game, which sped up having to look for them in a book. He also had a dice rolling app, which didn't seem to be any speedier than physically rolling dice.

Over the years, I have toyed with the idea of making my own computer moderated game rules, but my programming knowledge is still stuck back in the days of Fortran and Basic, and I was never any good at it. I've tried to enlist my wife, who does those programming sorts of things, but she never seemed particularly enthusiastic about it. Recently, at a local bookstore, I saw a book in the computer section on how to make your own computer fantasy role-playing games using Visual Basic. It was aimed at teenagers. My problem is that I am a Mac person and there does not seem to be a lot of readily available (and free) languages out there for Macs.

I thought up of some possible reasons why CMG has never really caught on:

1. Rules designers and computer programmers* are not mutually inclusive.

2. It does take a lot of time to design and program* something. Development tools like Visual Basic probably speed things up a lot, but its still a lot of work. I imagine it would be like making a large database program.

3. Time is money. Paying someone to develop a computer program* would probably be too expensive for most rule designers. Revenues from the rules may not pay for the programmer.

4. Its probably much more difficult to edit or modify newer editions of a set of rules if they are a computer version rather than a written version.

Any thoughts on this? If you had a choice between a set of rules that were exclusively a computer application, or in a book, and both cost about the same, which would you pick?



*I know that we no longer use the term "programmer," and I know they are no longer called "computer programs," nor do we use the verb "to program," but the last time I took a computer science course was back in 1987 when terms like these where used. So shoot me, I'm techno-terminologically challenged!

A Second Try at a Home Made Hex Mat?

As I mentioned last week, I got my hex mat from Hotz Matt. I still have not had a chance to use it. I don't regret getting is, but I feel the need to triumph in making my own hex mat. My costly failed attempt using a pre-made hex template still nags me. As an update to the story, my daughter "borrowed" the 4' x 4' interlocking foam mats and built herself a stuffed animal storage box with them. In addition to my Hotz Matt, I wouldn't mind having a mat in black for starship combat.

Pahoota, over at his Solipsist Gaming blog site describes a clever technique for making a homemade hex mat. The boundaries of Pahoota's hexes are a little different. They consist of equilateral triangles with concave sides. These represent the points were three circles of equal diameter come together:

If you keep adding on more circles, what you will get are hex boundaries:

You get the idea.... For circles, I thought I would try using soda bottle caps. They are consistent in diameter and easy to get. The trick will be to make sure the three bottle caps line up properly so that you get an equilateral triangle. Playing around with some soda bottle caps, it is not easy to get them to line up just so.

Once again, another project to work on.

Hotz Mat

I got my order today from Hotz ArtWorks. I ordered a double-sided mat over a month ago. It finally arrived. I ordered their larger standard size, 6' x 4,' with the 1" hexes. My daughter and I unfolded it. Wow! Its a lot larger than I thought! One side is a European field pattern the other is an ocean pattern. At first, the ocean pattern didn't seem much different than the field pattern. But my daughter said that there was some blue green it. I guess I was expecting a deep blue, which probably isn't very realistic. I didn't have time to inspect it much beyond that, except to say that the lines that make up the hexes of the ocean side could be a little more distinct, but I will have to look at it in better light. I am really looking forward to gaming on it.