Carry on Qidding

After another successful playtest on Thursday evening I've been getting on with more work on the Society of Ancients' incentive game for 2012, "Call it Qids". Well, not just me. The game designer Ian Russell Lowell has been working hard on the map as well.

Baccus chariots taken with 7mm extension ring

I think we have a final version of the rules, pretty much, although there's lots of extra bits and pieces you can always add to give players options once they're satisfied with the game as originally designed.

Baccus Egyptian infantry

The intention was always to do a version of the game to be played on the Society's stand in 2012, so I've started work on that. Actually all that means for the moment is that I've gone out and bought some plywood as a base board and some edging strip. The game will be played with Mr Peter Berry's excellent 6mm figures from Baccus, although this will entail me rebasing the figures as the game doesn't exactly use DBx basing.

Baccus Sherden bodyguard

In order to make the point that Ramesses was a larger-than-life personality and in deference to the reliefs in the Egyptian temples that show him towering over everybody I want to use a 20mm or 28mm Pharaoh figure. Ideally I want a really nice one, but I don't want to pay over the odds for it either. Actually what I want is the figure on foot either armed with a bow as seen on the reliefs or with a mace as usually shown on the temple pylons. So, if anyone can recommend such a figure I'd be grateful (of course any figure manufacturers who follow this blog and want to send me one for free are welcome to do so).

Finally the game had one of its toughest tests last night. I playtested it with Mrs Trebian. We played it twice, alternating sides. The result was two wins for the Hittites, one marginal (when I played them) and one crushing (when they were led by Mrs T). Both games lasted 30-40 minutes each.

This was a valuable exercise as although Mrs T plays board games she doesn't wargame and she doesn't know anything much about bronze age warfare (except what she picked up from visiting Egypt, living with me and reading about Ancient Egypt. Okay she probably knows lots). What this means is she will try things that wargamers don't think of and asks the obvious questions we all overlook. She may also have hit upon the optimum strategy on her second outing on the board, despite the Sherden bodyguard standing instead of routing for the first time ever. It also confirmed what I've been thinking for a while. The first few moves are pretty slow and fairly one sided so you need to get past those for the game to work as the second half has lots more going on. Still, very pleased with the progress, and optimistic about hitting production target dates for both the giveaway and show game.

If anyone has any questions, just ask away.