A mystery and interesting hobby news

First up, things might be quiet here in terms of me posting recent painting, there is a good reason: I've a new mystery project. All will be revealed when the painting is nearly finished. In the meantime here are some hints:

-it's a skirmish game using an intriguing new ruleset.

-it will be a narrative campaign (Samulus, Gharak, I hope to play through it with both of you at least)

-it was inspired by a recent issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine

-half the work is already done with minis I've already got and painted.

-the minis are primarily from one of my favourite manufacturers.

-of the minis I've bought, most are also useful to another period I often play (bonus value for money)

Any guesses from my more attentive readers?

Hopefully not as much of a headache as this causes


Anyway, I will still beaver away at my more public projects and post them up as and when I get stuff finished.

In hobby-related news, Tamsin highlighted controversial announcements by two relatively big players in the historical Wargames market - Battlefront and Slitherine. The former seem to be getting a GW-esque superiority complex and are banning the use of non-Battlefront miniatures at all official Flames of War tournaments. While it doesn't affect me directly, I think this is one step too far to . I wonder what the backlash will be. I did have some respect for what FOW did in terms of making WWII more accessible, but can't quite understand their logic to preserve market share amongst what is by-all-accounts a relatively small number of tournament gamers.

Next up, Slitherine, (publishers of Field of Glory which I've eyed up a few times times) have announced that the long-awaited second version of their ancients and medieval rules will be digital-only, with no option to print a PDF. While I can see it plays to their strengths as a digital publisher and it could improve the rules and balance through easy application of updates, it has caused quite a stir. While I do generally applaud innovation, there are clear issues of portability (not everyone owns a tablet or small laptop) which might seriously damage the prospects of V.2 being used as widespread tournament rules. I myself prefer hardcopy rules if possible, I've got Gruntz only in soft copy and must say it is a bit of a pain to navigate even when gaming at home. What do you think?