The last few days have been dominated by work on the Society of Ancient's incentive game for 2012. After a layoff of too many months for a variety of (mainly personal) reasons we got back to play testing on Thursday evening.
For those of you who missed the announcement this year's game is "Call it Qids", a simple refight of the battle of Qadesh or Kadesh or Qids or however you want to spell it. The design is by Ian Lowell who has written a lot on the battle and Hittites and Egyptians in Slingshot over the years, but I think everyone in our group has put in their two pen'north into the design. I'm project managing the process, which means I get to do the counter design (you can see Ramesses on the left, -he's a stand up counter, unlike all the others in the game, and is about 1" tall when assembled), write up the rules and produce the booklet and chase anyone else who should be doing stuff. Ian is working on the map and writing a brief historical article as well as sourcing some of the graphics we need.
The game plays in about an hour depending on how it goes and seems to us to be a lot of fun. The production is a little simpler than last year's, with its double sided map and the cut out castle. Alas times are hard, so we've had to be careful with what we put in the pack, but you still get an A4 rules booklet, a sheet of counters and an A2 map board. I think we've put a quality game and product together which hopefully everybody will play and enjoy at least once. Here's a mock up of the cover, - all b&w this year, but we may be able to spice it up a bit before final production.
Happy to answer any questions from both members and non-members.
For those of you who missed the announcement this year's game is "Call it Qids", a simple refight of the battle of Qadesh or Kadesh or Qids or however you want to spell it. The design is by Ian Lowell who has written a lot on the battle and Hittites and Egyptians in Slingshot over the years, but I think everyone in our group has put in their two pen'north into the design. I'm project managing the process, which means I get to do the counter design (you can see Ramesses on the left, -he's a stand up counter, unlike all the others in the game, and is about 1" tall when assembled), write up the rules and produce the booklet and chase anyone else who should be doing stuff. Ian is working on the map and writing a brief historical article as well as sourcing some of the graphics we need.
Happy to answer any questions from both members and non-members.
The game looks interesting. Thanks for your efforts. As an SOA member I appreciate the perks that come along w/ membership.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Don
Don,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support. I know there's a degree of ambivalence in the membership about the games and some of the committee members when I first joined were of the view that the incentive game was a distraction. another view is that we could spend the money spent on the game on making Slingshot bigger.
Personally I think that an organisation that promotes Ancient Wargaming should publish games otherwise our remit looks pretty small. I also feel that other publications should be produced other than Slingshot. Some of the multipart academic articles that I've seen over the last few years would have looked good as one off pamphlets.
So, glad you're looking forward to the game! Enjoy it - it isn't a "perk" it's part of the prviligies you get for being a member of one of the best wargaming societies in the world.
Trebian
PS Any member can suggest a project to the committee, so people who have ideas for the 2013 incentive should be thinking about how to put them together and present them to the committee.
Personally, I would financially support other publication ventures. I can certainly support a vehicle from Ian R-L geared towards a Hittite campaign pamphlet given my interests in Biblical wargaming. Put a bug in his ear for me :-)
ReplyDeleteThe success of Dr. Phil Sabin's "Lost Battles" is an example of a system nurtured through various, past SOA publications to some extent.
Regards,
Don
Well, you're getting a big slug of IRL in this game, and he wrote all those bits for Slingshot last year, so you may be unlucky getting anything else in the near future!
ReplyDeleteLost Battles is a great example, - without Legion & Strategos I/II it would never have been written.
I joined in the playtest session of CiQ last night - it looks very good and plays quite nicely. I think people will enjoy this game.
ReplyDeleteGood effort by the design/production team
Phil