Some additions...

I have added a few blog links over on the sidebar... Most of these are for blogs that deal with 18th century gaming activities. I am using them to gain ideas for how my MBT troops and armies should look, as they are very similar to the armies of the Wars of Spanish Succession, Seven Years War and other conflicts of that century.

Thoughts on rules, part 1

Part of the run-up to getting anything done with this project is finding appropriate rules for each gaming subset. There are a multitude of wargaming rules out there to pick from. Pick from, meaning that I am going to find a ruleset and most likely modify it to suit the specific needs of gaming in the Half Continent; I do not intend to write my own.

I think that the mass battles ruleset will be the easiest to start, as the system will be used for Imagi-nation battles at first. Caution must be used, however, as the system must be malleable enough to accept the alchemical and the fantastical additions that will be needed. I do find myself asking if I should use a fantasy system, such as Fantasy Rules! and modify it towards a more historical feel, or find a historical system and plug in some mods for scourges, lahzars, monsters, etc. The fantasy system will have the fantastical feel built right in, but the historical rules will have the proper framework for what I see to be the underlying structure of the battles I want to create... decisions, decisions. In either case, I am looking at having the battalion, roughly 300 to 500 troops strong, become the smallest independent unit on the mass-battle tabletop.

As for skirmish rules, I think that something in the Song of Blades & Heroes family will work - simple, fast, and detailed enough for bring the flavor of the myriad of different types of people and monsters out. The finding of suitable minis will be the key point for skirmish battles however.

Naval battles might be based on a suitably simple system for galley battles, or even (more likely) American Civil War ironclads, although the ships involved would dwarf anything found in history prior to 1875! More on that aspect later...

So it begins...

I am starting off this blog because I am becoming just a bit interested in the setting of the Monster Blood Tattoo series as authored by DM Cornish. The setting is a wonderful blend of the fantastic, with monsters and alchemy and heroes and villains, with a good-sized helping of late 17th century/early 18th century 'historical' avenues.

Recently, I read the first book of the series, Foundling, and I am about to start the second, Lamplighter. Not only are these books fun to read, the author has provided a gold-mine of extra info on the setting in the Explicarium at the end of each book. The background info in the Explicarium is going to be very useful as I attempt to bring the Half-Continent to the tabletop.

Of course, no manufacturer of miniatures out there makes specific minis for this setting (yet???) but I believe that it will not be too hard to find proxies that, with some small bit of modification and tinkering, will look the part.

This project will have three parts:

1. A skirmish game, using 28mm or so minis.

2. A mass-battle game, using 15mm or maybe 10mm minis.

3. A naval combat game.

Of the three, #2 might be the easiest as the details that make troops of the Half-Continent different from their historical counterparts will be minimal and could perhaps be represented by a cunning stroke of the paintbrush. The skirmish game might be the most fun, but will require some work to alter existing minis to look the part. And the naval game will require building the ships from scratch as they are very different from the sailing ships of the 18th century.

All of this will be detailed here on this humble blog!