Friday 24 December 2021

The 2021 Christmas Wargame Gazette (45 pages)




This years gazette from the Battlefields & Warriors blog is now ready. 

The link below will give 45 pages of wargame content. If you are looking for a little wargaming distraction over the Christmas period difficult, when the internet is typically quiet, there will hopefully be something here for you.

It is a PDF held in my DropBox account (thank you DropBox). It will invite you to join DropBox, but if you wish, you can just close down the invitation window and click ‘download’. 

LINK 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vsmcgt52rxon6z6/Christmas%202021%20Gazette.pdf?dl=0



58 comments:

  1. Fake-equine proceedings! alone make this well worth the price of admission! The engaging and entertaining content is much appreciated. Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

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    1. Good Morning and thank you, Good to know it downloads okay - my first concern gone!. Yes, Sir. Giles Gubbins has some potential as a future character:-)

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  2. Happy Holidays, Norm: looking forward to curling up in a quiet moment and enjoying this year's Gazette!

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    1. Happy Holidays Ed, enjoy your 'quiet moment' .... quality time! :-)

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  3. Happy Christmas and New Year Norm. Have downloaded and will look at when I can. Thanks so much for this as it definitely is an enjoyable thing to tuck into once the festivities die down.

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    1. Hi Shaun, Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year. Look forward to seeing your posts on the re-vamped rules playing out in 2022.

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  4. Go to download and Merry Christmas!

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    1. Merry Christmas Michael, you figure painting is in a league of its own, thank you for always very generous with your comments and encouragement to others.

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  5. Wow Norm, you have really outdone yourself! I am not a figures guy, but we have similar boardgaming tastes so I am enjoying this gazette.

    I see you started your Napoleonic campaign with my Salamanca 20, and what a close fought battle it was! I too had a great year with Flying Pig’s OST, and Vae Victis’ Cedar Mountain 1862 was a surprise hit for me.

    I’ve been swamped designing South Mountain (Blind Swords) for Revolution, but did take a break to play the latest S&T 30YWB (Lutter 1626) and enjoyed it a bunch; I think you would like it.

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  6. Hi Steve, I think 'you like the games that I like' is a common theme to building up a blog identity and readership.

    I am increasingly appreciating smaller, shorter clever games and also like games that loosen player control, like with the Blind Swords system you mention.

    I am the first to wake this morning so am just taking this time out to get some bits done. I know that Mrs. wargamer has got me Antietam from White Dog Games, another 4 page rule book game that I think will be the sort of thing that becomes a reliable friend in 2022.

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  7. Thank you for a fine looking Christmas diversion, read half a dozen pages in the early hours off to dip in again.

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    1. Hi Phil, have a great day and enjoy your moments that you can catch for a read.

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  8. A very merry Christmas Norm I will delve into you gazette later on 😀

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  9. Happy Christmas Matt, have a great day.

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  10. Thank you, Norm. Always an entertaining read for the holiday season.

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  11. A perfect Christmas gift Norm so thank you. I had a flick through earlier with my first coffee and got drawn into reading through the Battlescale Hex article which is a great piece. I'm saving the rest for later and if things get too noisy here later I'll retire to the peace of the bedroom for a quiet read :) Merry Christmas Norm and thanks for a great blog.

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    1. Merry Christmas Lee, thanks for supporting the blog, Likewise, I enjoy reading about your journeys and meanderings through wargame projects.

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  12. Thanks once gain for putting this together for us all to read on or over the Xmas period. I've spent an enjoyable hour or so reading this through in one sitting, as I've gone down with a cold and the weather is as miserable as sin outside! This has proved a fine tonic to cheer me up and given me plenty of ideas and inspiration for the coming year.

    Your blog has and continues to be a pleasure to read, whether it be on board games, figures or rules. I look forward to more of the same in 2022 and I hope you have a great Xmas and a Happy New Year! Here's hoping for a better 2022 for all of us.

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    1. Hi Steve, Happy Christmas and New Year and thanks for supporting the blog. I have sympathies with your cold, I went down with a corker 4 days ago and it has given me a right drubbing. I am very optimistic for 2022 and a revived show scene.

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  13. Thank you, Norm! Plenty there to think about…

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    1. Hi Rob, something for everyone I hope.

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    2. Small space wargames brought me to this blog originally, but I do have a somewhat neglected collection of board wargames as well. One of my resolutions for next year is to keep up with and comment on blogs more regularly…

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    3. Sounds like we have a similar wargaming perspective. A good deal of my 2022 plans involve the ‘small space’ game, so hopefully my blog will stay relevant to you.

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  14. Thank you, Norm, you have established a fantastic Xmas tradition!
    Wishing you and yours a very Happy Xmas!

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  15. Hi David, Happy Christmas, thanks for the thumbs up.

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  16. Merry Christmas, Norm!

    Once again, your Christmas Day Gazette is jam-packed with interesting content. Many of your Christmas touches and reflections hit home and worthy of individual posts themselves. How do I pick out one or even two of your entries to provide commentary and thoughts? I cannot! There is simply too much going on in your annual compendium. I read one entry and think, "I have something to say on this" then read the next and think the very same! After that, I choose to simply read and enjoy. I cannot say more than, "well-done again"!

    As a sad note on your Bosworth project and books, Mike Ingram passed away two weeks ago.

    Thank you for another enjoyable year of reading your blog.

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  17. Hi Jonathan, thanks for the kind words. The gazette does seem to capture a moment in time for me. Yes, sad to hear the news on Mike Ingram.

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  18. Merry Christmas Norm! Your Gazette is a gem and I look forward to reading it with the attention it deserves. Cheers, Michael

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    1. Hi Michael, Happy Christmas, thank you for dropping by.

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  19. Still reading the gazette. Brilliant. Public service blogging. Thanks Norm!

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  20. Hi JB, Thank you. I think we both have new horizons to explore in 2022.

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  21. Merry Christmas Norm. A great read indeed! Always read the blog, I don’t comment as often as I should I know! Keep at it and many thanks.
    Dave

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    1. Happy Christmas Dave, glad you liked the read and thanks for your continued support of the blog, Cheers Norm.

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  22. Merry Christmas Norm! Thank you for all the superb content in the gazette and throughout the year in the blog and on the Commanders site. Enjoying the hex-based version of TAM as a boardgame. Wishing you all the best for the new year.

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    1. Happy Christmas Paul and all the best for the New Year, thanks for the thumbs up and for also supporting the Commanders site, which as you know has always been an ‘on-off’ thing with me due to low audience. I think you may the first person that I have heard of who is using the boardgame version of TaM (which I donated to the Consimworld membership drive some years ago) :-)

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  23. Merry Christmas, Norm! Outstanding Gazette this year. Even if Steve W met a cruel fate at the hands of the dreaded " 'Rex"!!!

    I've broken away from the festivities at my family's house to read this year's Gazette. Thank you for your treasure trove of thoughtful and thought-provoking posts, batreps, and hobby posts, Norm. As always a huge source of inspiration for a time strapped gamer like me :) looking forward to 2022.

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  24. Happy Christmas Steve, yes, the Rex thing ….. that was a surprise, even to me!

    Thanks for supporting the blog and in particular for the support that your blog has unstintingly given to some of my home brew rules. I feel like 2022 holds a lot of promise.

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    1. Hi Ray, you just need some coffee to fortify and you will be good to go.

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  26. Now that’s a real welcome addition to the stocking Norm!

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  27. Hi Mike, it’s a pleasure.

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  28. Thankyou, finally a moment on boxing day to myself, my kind of "stuff" and see this via LAF. much appreciated, reading it over my coffee now- here's to you !

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  29. Thanks for dropping by and for taking the time to read the gazette. A coffee moment seems the perfect way to enjoy this sort of thing. Cheers to you too.

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  30. Thanks Norm, really enjoyed reading that this morning! That was a really good magazine, no other way to describe it really. One question and one comment for you...

    The question is about WW2 tactical boardgames like Squad Leader. Do any of the non-SL/ASL systems have the breadth of coverage that SL/ASL did, especially in terms of French, Belgian, Dutch & Commonwealth stuff for Early War/Desert/Balkans/Malaya-Burma-NEI?

    The comment is to second your interest and concern in showcasing the simple games, the cheap games, the small games, the quick games and the old games as well as the new/big/shiny/expensive stuff. It is fine for the commercial side of the hobby to focus on those things...but it is equally fine for us gamers to pay attention to playing great games that don't require lots of 'resources' in whatever form (time/money/space/attention/modelling skill) those may take.

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  31. Thanks for the thumbs up on the read, I am glad it is getting read both read and appreciated.

    The very short answer to your tactical boardgame question is No! Some systems do creep into certain areas that you mention, such as Panzer by GMT has done France 1940 and has the Desert on pre-order. Old School Tactical has a Pacific module and expansion, but nobody comes close to the all encompassing order of battle of SL/ASL/ASLSK - mind you they have been going at it for 45 years, so we need to give the others a chance to catch up :-)

    I know with what I have coming down the pipe that in 2022 the blog will be looking at what we might term the more accessible end of gaming, with small games, easier games and repeat playings of old favourites, rather similar to your own approach with the relationship between armies Polemos rules and WRG rules.

    My own interests are diverse, so even with this ethos, there should be good interest for a wide audience. My main passion for the blog is that people see their own space and then look at something on the blog and feel moved enough to get a game to the table which they might not otherwise have done on that night.

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  32. Well you have outdone yourself Norm this year a veritable book ! You have covered a lot of ground and I hope to dip back in later. Firstly I didn’t realise I had been killed so quickly by the aliens ! Looking forward to the Napoleonics, needless to say I got a few more for the plastic pile. Some thought provoking ideas….I do hope I’m not one of those people flaunting, I suspect not as I am such a cheap skate. If only I could afford a full range of hovel buildings ! And of course the board games I’m going to have to revisit your recommendations 👍 thanks again for your efforts you have cheered a few of us wargamers up on a damp dark day 👍

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  33. Hi Matt. Thank you. Your stand against the fearsome Rex was heroic, but they were the masters of the day. I didn’t really have any blogs in mind, other than my own, when I opined on consumerism - I hope that article hasn’t offended anybody.

    My take from your 2021 blog is to raise my game in getting units across the painting table. I have too much to do to be at my ‘plodding’ rate. Yours and Jonathan’s output has got me to ‘plan’ a bit more for a more productive painting regime …… and there is a plan :-)

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  34. Thank you - a real pleasure. I have donated to the Wildlife Age Foundation.

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  35. Hi thanks for dropping by, that’s really nice to hear.

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  36. Great read, Norm, sorry it's taken a while! I'm chuffed to make it to engineer, even if we all got wiped out!
    Best Iain

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  37. Thanks Iain, yep, we nearly made it out ... just the last dice rolls that got us, isn't it always the way!

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  38. Thanks Gary, my Christmas included a napoleonic boardgame with just 4 pages of rules, covering the crisis at Placenoit 1815, which I think will interest you. It may make the blog sometime in January.

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  39. Awesome, thank you for taking the time to do this. Excellent holiday reading for the no opponent wargamer.

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  40. Thank you, it really is feedback like this that will have me put the effort into a next volume.

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  41. Hi Norm...not sure why I failed to comment earlier ---maybe i had too much to drink on Christmas day (if there is such a state,,,!). Great work on your Gazette - it obviously took a tremendous amount of effort and although I am sure you also got pleasure from putting it all together, your efforts have provided a great deal of pleasure to all your regular readers! I hope you have had a good New Year and I look forward to following your wargaming adventures in 2022!

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  42. Thanks Keith and all the best to you for the New Year.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment