Dear Diary - a rolling 4 months of comment
Proofing the 1066 game
Everything is on hold while I enter some intensive activity of proofreading the Dragon Ships & Iron Knights game.
Part of this includes getting each battle to the table, so that set-ups, counter mix and play aids can be stress tested.
Yesterday I went through the Hastings rulebook and map and managed to get the game on the table last night. Everything went fine and the things that needed to be picked up were.
The pre-production copy comes with a gloss finish, so the light edges on the counter here are caused by reflected light that the camera lens picks up, though oddly the eye doesn't! The production copies will be matte.
One of the changes for the new edition is that 'Disorder' status is shown on the flip side of the counter, rather than being a separate marker, so now the only markers used in the game are Rout markers. This makes counter management easier as the stacking level is just one unit per hex, so it effectively removes and shuffling of counters around, units are just flipped over.
I have put some replay and observational notes up at BoardGameGeek at the below link.
Today I will be proofing the Hastings historical and design notes and then moving onto the Stamford Bridge game.
Link
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3661216/hello-from-the-designer-and-production-team
Updated Rules
These are my own homebrew Napoleonic rules and by now they must be the most expensive set of rules on the planet!
Every few months, at £12 a go, I get a new set sent to me from a print on demand company, as the previous set gets amended and filled with red pen.
The last version was November 2025 and these will be February 2026, so I got just over 3 months out of them - about average!
Several of the amendments have fallen from moments arising in the recent games that I have been playing of the 1809 campaign game.
That should be a pure white border on the front cover, but my camera white balance was 'off' and it has gone for a blue tint - how very independent!
How long before the red pen strikes again and the margins on the pages fill with indecipherable notes? .... my bet is one game :-)
Though I am enthusiastic about the idea, I know from previous ‘proper’ design work and the current proofing that I am doing with 1066, just how many hours are needed to be poured into such things. It is a two edged sword because while concentrating intensely on one design, many other things get squeezed out and so keeping a balance of ‘hobby first’ is important, but of all the things that I would like to do, a Napolenic battle with EaQB would be at the top of that list.
1066 Battles - Boardgame
Not so much out of the box, as hot off the printers press! I have just received a prototype copy of Dragon Ships & Iron Knights, to be published by Legion Games.
This boxed game contains the three battles of 1066, Gate Fulford, Stamford Bridge and Hastings.
The Heritage of the package is that I self produced Stamford Bridge and Hastings as a desk Top Published effort back in 2000 / 2001. In 2016, Revolution Games picked up the titles and published them as two separate games under the ‘Invasion 1066’ banner.
Legion Games are about to publish a game called ‘1066 Year of Destiny’ designed by Geoff Noble, which is a strategic covering of the tumultuous events of that year. Randy Lein at Legion Games wanted to publish a second game covering the tactical battles of 1066 to compliment Geoff’s strategic design.
The decision was taken to use my two games for the tactical side of things and that Geoff Noble would design the third battle of that year (Gate Fulford) using the same game engine, so that all three games could be presented in a single package and here we are!
I have taken possession of the tactical game prototype to do a thorough final proof read before publication and I must say the component quality is excellent and if you don’t mind me saying, it is just a lovely thing to see your own efforts given this look.
The box is 1½” deep. We get three maps, one for each battle, each measuring 17” x 22” (so half maps) and they are printed onto card. The hex sizes are 1” side to side to accommodate the big counters.
Each of the battles gets its own rulebook printed on heavy paper with a sheen and in two column print format. The Stamford Bridge and Hasting booklets are 12 pages long and the Gate Fulford is set at 8 pages. All three booklets have the same standard rules presented in the first four and a half pages (i.e. the game engine is exactly the same across all three games), the rest of the booklets are exclusive to their relative game and include set-ups, special rules, history and design notes.
The counters are lovely (by Ken Demyen as are the maps). You get two sheets of ¾” counters depicting units, leaders and rout markers. Some of the counters are shared across more than one battle.
Rounding out the package are three single sided, full colour, player aid sheets (again the work of Ken) on nice weighty card with a sheen to them. The first identifies all of the counter types and shows what the values on the units mean. The second has the charts for close combat, missile fire, reorganization and feigned cavalry attacks, there are also some illustrated examples on there such as charge arcs. The third card holds the terrain charts, movement allowances and the morale groupings that the system uses and again, there are a couple of illustrated examples on there.
So the next job now is to proof read and further play the games to stress test the charts and set-up information etc and make sure that they are right.
I will get some of that play test stuff out so that anyone interested can have a closer look at game parts and system etc.
This is fantastic news of the upcoming 1066 package. Hex and counter sizes sound magnificent and somewhere down the line I shall be buying a copy.
Life here is falling into a new pattern, with good progress.
Campaign 10 AM and 11 AM
The next couple of hours have brought quite a bit of action, with engagements on the slopes, in the village and at the lower bridge.
The direction of the campaign is becoming established and the advantages of timescale in linked games and campaigns more obvious, as it may now take units a few hours to get the orders they need and for them to then move to new locations.
There is some good detail of events over on the Battlefields & Warriors blog.
LINK
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-bridges-pursuit-of-vi-korps-10-am.html
Play continues .... but at some cost!
Enthused by the ongoing campaign, I have continued to play as other parts of the battlefield open up and a couple more Admin special rules have been needed, but all of that will be in the next major campaign update blog post, which I hope will be completed in a couple of days.
I stand up to game with figures at a table that is 40" high, but the extra hours that have been going into this have really aggravated my back and legs, so I have needed to slow down to have more shorter sessions spread further apart, perhaps doing just 1 or 2 game turns at a time.
Even so, the campaign has seen some important events, so I think the next big post will be interesting.
In the wings, I have a couple of boardgames getting jacked up and as I take breaks from the figures table, it gives an opportunity to brush up on the rules.
Firstly I plan to return to GMT's Great Battles of the Ancient World series, starting with the SPQR set (2nd Punic Wars), using the 'Simple GBoH' set of rules. I am fairly familiar with these, so breaking back into the system should be quite straightforward.
Secondly, I am looking at Didier Rouy's 'La Bataille de '?' Series, currently being published by Legion Games. This is a new series to me, but the rules are not as complex as I initially thought they might be, as many of the procedures (and the visuals) seem familiar to a figure gamer.
The 'La bataille de Hanau' game is considered a primer, so it seems sensible to start with that one.
So the current plan for February, considering we are already one week into it, is to proceed with the campaign game until it reached a natural conclusion, to complete the 28mm Austrian Regiment that I currently have on painting corks and to follow up with a pair of 28mm Austrian 6 pdr cannon and crew. Finally to get games of both SPQR and La Bataille de Hanau to the table.
Sleeping and eating regularly come in a little further down the 'to-do' list :-)
Fighting for the village
The 8 and 9 AM turns in the campaign have now been played through and a report posted to the Warriors & Battlefield Blog (link below).
We get a couple of actions being fought one at the village itself and the other below it, amongst the vineyards.
I am really liking that everything that goes on in each fight feels like it is important because of the tie-in to whatever else is going on in the campaign.
The post also outlines a couple of admin features that I am using to make the campaign run smoothly and to enhance the solo aspect of play.
W&B Blog Link;
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-village-comes-under-pressure.html
More - more - more
There has been some more campaigning and it has provided some good gaming. It is being written up and will be posted 0500 GMT, tomorrow, all things being equal.
I am taking a few days' break from it now, as a sore back from standing and generally getting excited! is kicking in.
Attention is being turned to a couple of boardgames that I fancy looking at next so the tedious job of punching and clipping counters is underway, plus of course reading the rules without nodding off - joy!
On the figures painting front, I am still chipping away at the next Napoleonic Austrian infantry unit for the Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge (ends March 21st) ....... however, the campaign has urgently demanded a couple of mounted Austrian colonels, so they have been pulled from the stash and given a burst of love and attention!
I was saving these and some artillery types to paint as the final submission to the painting challenge, as a reward to myself for just painting white-uniformed rank and file for several weeks, but of necessity, they have jumped the queue and fine chaps they are too, but can they do their job? We shall see :-)
The first set back
The 7 AM turn in the ‘Pursuit of IV Korps’ campaign has now been played out and a record of events has been posted to the Battlefields & Warrior Blog (link below).
The French are relying on a fast and aggressive advance to unhinge the Austrian defence.
What is the state of readiness and commitment of Austrian forces to their rearguard positions?
Information LINK;
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/7-am-pursuit-of-vi-korps.html
Into the Whirlpool
Our face-to-face game last night covered The fighting at Rose's Wheatfield 2nd July 1863 (Gettysburg) is the first installment of the tattered flags series. Designed by Hermann Luttmann and published by Blue Panther.
We are given a taste of tactical fighting. Brigades are on the table and they are formed by their constituent regiments, which themselves will be represented by 2 - 4 counters.
The counters are oblong and the map has a grid of points that allows the units to set up and move in a style that, visually at least is very reminiscent of a miniatures game and the designer has produced a system that nicely replicates the free form of a figures game i.e. the grid is much less obvious to play.
For my money, in the goal of getting a figures style game, play felt a bit process heavy and mathsy, more obvious perhaps in the evening when tiredness kicks in.
It does move along at a fair old place and no doubt system familiarity over several playings would help. The system is 2D10 based (so D100 on application) and can be quite swingy over the results range.
Overall I felt the game was a brave stab at the unusual (but welcome) mix of boardgame with a figures feel, but ultimately I thought that at times it was getting in its own way.
I’m thinking that the game probably needs a few plays to start to fully appreciate what the designer is going for. We did think that the scenario victory conditions were hard to achieve for the Confederates, which could be true, or could be that we hadn’t yet grasped the nuance of play.
The Pursuit of VI Korps begins
The Junction Jeopardy campaign by Henry Hyde is now up and running and I have played the 6 AM turn.
The game that will see the first shots fired (7 AM) turn is on the table, so hopefully a series of small engagements will soon start to define the campaign.
The nine little map panels are gorgeous things and I have had permission from henry Hyde to use them in the battle account while recognising his copyright.
Here I have glued them onto a sheet on foam board, so that small flags on pins can be moved around the campaign area. The who thing is rather joyful.
There is now a bit more urgency to get the Austrian unit currently on the painting corks, completed and marching into action.
LINK
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-pursuit-of-vi-korps-6am.html
An important buy
La Bataille de Hanau 1813
Quatre Batailles en Espagne 1809 - 13
Trois Batailles en Allemagne 1806 - 07
Designed by Didier Rouly and published by Legion Games, this series deals with napoleonic battles at a scale of regiments, 250 metres per hex and 30 minute turns.
What makes these a little different is not just that lower scale, but that the system uses counters that are double the usual width (oblong rather than square) so they offer up a visual of units being deployed in line. Flip them over and they show themselves being in column, so there is a strong figures feel of tactical formations at the heart of the engine.
As I quite like transferring moments captured in a boardgame to the tabletop for a figures game, that conversion will be smoother and more intuitive here.
The reason why I have jumped on the three games all at once is that they were published in 2020. There is a new game in the line-up (Wagram) due out shortly and that will likely renew wider interest in the series and one or more of the three older titles may sell out, weakening that sense of series that my collector's mind likes, so I am getting them now before the inevitable happens. They are still available at Second Chance Games (UK).
It does however leave me with the problem of having three different series of napoleonic games now. I can't service them all or at least I don't want to, so at least one series needs to go, if for no other reason than to part fund the purchase of these three new games.
One sticking point for me in my quest for 'the' napoleonic boardgame is that all napoleonic systems that I have dabbled with so far have one weakness (for me) and that is they tend towards the longer play times, which doesn't help our face to face sessions. However I think I will really like the tactical feel that these will deliver.
Of interest and as a total aside, I could likely use my figure rules with the boardgame, that would certainly speed things up!
JdG also takes too long to play, but does have a smaller footprint. I quite like the chit draw for activation - mostly! but I think the orders thing gets messy, with extra markers need on the map something simple like command range would have worked equally well and be easier to implement (like LofNB) . I do like the cavalry rules. I like that both Lof NB and JdG have a wide range of the popular battles and campaigns available. By contrast the new games I have bought do not! I think I will play Hanau before deciding which will go ……. Since it might be that it is in fact the new games that don’t stay ….. I hope not :-)
More information on the Junction Jeopardy campaign.
Quite a bit of work has gone on over the past couple of days getting the campaign ready for play and I have been able to put up a ‘part II’ description over on the Battlefields & Commanders blog that fully outlines the preparation that has gone into the campaign, including orders of battle,
objectives and special rules. We are just at the point when play can actually start and the first shots can be traded.
BLOG LINK
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/01/junction-jeopardy-campaign-part-ii.html
The life of Margaret Beaufort
Margaret Beaufort, Survivor Rebel, Kingmaker by Lauren Johnson and published by Head Zeus, £30.
I saw this in Waterstones just before Christmas and couldn’t make my mind up. Needless to say, when I went back for it, it had gone!
It was back on the shelves yesterday so I thought it worth a treat ... encouraged by Mrs. Wargamer, who picked up Eleanor by Alice Loxton (published by MacMillan).
I have always been interested in the machinations of Lord Stanley, he of the divided loyalty at the Battle of Bosworth 1485. Margaret Beaufort was his wife and responsible for encouraging Henry Tudor (to become Henry VII) to head a successful rebellion against King Richard III.
The battle of Bosworth happens halfway through the book, so the narrative is fixed on as much after that date as it is before and we get to see the flavour of he period, its politics and social constraints, through the eyes and actions of this extraordinary woman, instead of the usual narrative generated by the successive generations of the male nobility deciding things by battle.
The opening paragraph on the book sleeve says ‘Born into a century of conflict as the daughter of the Duke of Somerset and a descendant of Edward III, Margaret Beaufort was married at twelve, a mother and a widow at thirteen, and a player in one of the most violent chapters of English history’.
Seen through modern eyes, that just seems beyond comprehension and her journey of involvement with the levers of power and the fabric of noble/royal connection is no doubt going to bring some fascinating insight into what made the period tick.
In truth - it joins the stash of many things to read :-)
