The Squad Hammer Core book has just been updated to the ORC edition. 

This is both a regular update, adding in and clarifying a bunch of material in the rulebook (putting it just past 50 pages compared to the original 30ish) but it also puts the rules under the ORC license (originally created by Paizo).

This allows you to create your own derivative works using any material in the Squad Hammer rulebook. Derivative works must themselves use the ORC license though any product identity you create is not required to. Please follow the links in the rulebook for details. 

Squad Hammer has always been a game "for the people" and now that is as literal as it can be. 

If you are an existing player, all you have to do is download the new rulebook. It couldn't be easier. 

I suppose this is the first change to Fivecore skirmish, but the version just uploaded features the removal of the Squad Morale mechanic.

I'll be honest, it never quite fit right with me. First, I suspect that the normal combat rules and Shock dice already does everything that it needs to do, and secondly the "roll to lose the game" approach is not that great.

I'll also be double honest, when I have played I usually leave it out. 

This does not mean there will not be something to replace it, but I'll be having a think about it. It does mean a couple of table entries have to be redone, they are currently marked with XX so iuf you roll one of them, just reroll or make something up :)

Today we delve into an older title: The cold war platoon level rules No End in Sight https://www.wargamevault.com/product/135451/No-End-in-Sight-Cold-war-and-modern-platoon-combat 

No End in Sight (NEIS for short) does not have a standard "declare that this guy is now on reaction fire" approach. Instead any soldier that is not pinned down is on the look out and can conduct reaction fire.

When a unit is moving across ground that is in sight of un-pinned enemies, it happens by way of the Rush move. 

Let me illustrate using state of the art combat simulation graphics

We have here three Blue soldiers behind some bushes, who would dearly like to get over behind the corner of that building. 

The empty ground between the two locations is being observed by two Reds though. 

Its 3" to reach cover. So we roll 1D6 for each soldier Rushing and that is how far they can go.

Better for some than for others!

The 5s make it all the way across. The guy rolling a 2 however moves the 2 inches he rolled, then becomes pinned down and must roll to see if he got hit. 

The first two updates have happened though they are in a fairly similar vein:

Dreams of Dragons and FiveCore skirmish owners will both find a separate file in their drivethru/wargame vault library with the new version.

These will look a bit rough: All images have been removed (to be replaced later) and formatting is a bit harsh. For FiveCore I had to convert it from the original file format, which makes formatting a pain to work with, but I'm getting through it.

What will happen over the next number of weeks is that I will both be working through the original texts to clarify wordings and weak explanations plus catch any bugs I spot, but I will also start updating the rules to account for general experience. This is particularly with an eye towards improving things, making the games flow better and take a critical look to which options enhance the game versus make it more cluttered (particularly for Dreams of Dragons). 

Once things are taking shape you will also start seeing new material appearing though it may be a bit before I can get to that point. 

For Fivecore, I will also be taking a look at some of the old material that used to be available and seeing what can be brought into the main rules versus what stuff was superceded by the third edition rulebook.

Dreams of Dragons is currently not offered for sale, but will be made available again, once I am happier with the state of the game. 

If you have been on the fence about Fivecore, this is also a great time to jump in so you can help shape the future of the game. 

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/144009/FiveCore-3rd-edition-Skirmish-Gaming-Evolved 

After all, there must be a reason it has a near perfect rating on Wargame Vault :)

If you are a Fivecore player and want to support these endeavours, please consider contributing on Patreon. 

As part of the "Mark 3 Weasel" plans, I am looking at updating a range of older titles from the back catalogue.

This includes things like No End in Sight, Fivecore skirmish, Trench Hammer and more.

These updates will focus on both adding a few new features, fixing some awkward wordings and generally cleaning up the text. Some games will probably see changes that might qualify as a new edition, others will be mostly polish.

There are two big challenges up front. The first is to get the documents into the format I currently work with (Apple Pages). I originally used LibreOffice for most things, but it seems that most implementations do not have the option to output to Pages and Pages doesn't play that nice with .odt files. However, I realised if you export to the Microsoft office format, then you can carry things over.

Its not perfect, in particular document styles tend to be a right mess, but it is workable.

For a few titles however, the original documents appear to have been lost so there I have to basically try to extract the text from the PDF copies. This is considerably more work, but is at least doable.

Part of this process will include stripping out old images, since they are well overdue for replacement and a facelift. 

So the hope is that I can get these up and running over the next few months and then start having them scheduled in for regular updates. 

Id like to do all this as a free upgrade, but nothing truly is free right? So if you want to help support this process, please consider swinging by patreon.com/nordicweasel and throwing in a few bucks a month. 

Today we are going to look at Clash on the Fringe and specifically how combat resolution works. 

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/425983/Clash-on-the-Fringe-Revised-Edition 

All references are to the revised edition but the original should work more or less the same.

Let us take a squad of 6 soldiers. They are decently armed with assault rifles (range 8"/25", Penetration 1, 1"x3" and a squad automatic weapon (SAW) (Range 4"/35", Penetration 1, 2"x4" and the Heavy and Suppression traits).

Our soldiers are typical Regulars (Discipline 5, Morale 5, Training 5) and are shooting up some opposing infantry. The enemy is wearing light armor (giving them Speed 5 and Survival 5).

Step 1 - Range

Our squad has been given an Engage order which allows them to shoot at the target. Some orders limit you to only shooting at close range, but in this case it does not. Each weapon has two ranges: The first is the Assault range, the second is the Aim range. 

Our targets are 12" away so it is at Aim range for both weapon types. 

Two quirks are worth noting: First a stationary fire can extend their Aim range by their Training score. Second weapons can shoot beyond their Aim range, to the edge of the table, but the fire is at a big penalty.

Step 2 - Areas of effect

Automatic weapons in Clash use a template. In this case the assault rifles place a template that is 1" wide and 3" deep, while the SAW is 2" wide and 4" deep. You get to roll to hit every target under the template. Don't bunch up!

For simplicity here, we assume the enemies are spread out in a skirmish line and each of our rifles only get to cover one target.

Step 3 - Roll to hit

To hit anything roll a D10 and get equal or below our Training score (5 in this case). Modifiers apply for ranges and cover and a few other things. We roll the dice and end up with 3 hits. 

Step 4 - Heads down?

Each hit die that is a natural 10 causes the target to go Heads Down (meaning they are taking cover and trying not to die).

Step 5 - Survival

For each hit, we roll the D10 again and add the Penetration of the weapon. if we get above the Survival score of the target, they are gone. If it is equal or below, they go Heads Down. (having bullets deflect off your armour is rather disconcerting). 

What is the benefit of the SAW? Well, for one it has a larger area of effect, but it also has the Suppression trait which means 9s and 10s cause Heads Down status, so not only is it a deadly weapon if the enemy is bunched up, it also is quite effective at forcing them to the ground.

So in conclusion

This is just a quick overview of how combat works with basic infantry. Of course all kinds of specific details apply to grenades and when shooting at vehicles etc. 

Greetings gamers. 

As I have alluded to, Nordic Weasel Games is entering what somewhat dramatically could be called the third era with a range of projects being planned.

These include both updates of older titles (including Company Command, No End in Sight and Usurper) and picking back up some projects that have been sitting for sometime (like Five Klicks and Leipzig).

Some of these updates will be a bit more work since they were originally done in OpenOffice format which is not the easiest thing to transition over to Pages which I use now, so they will be a bit more work.

It also includes a lot of exciting and brand new projects like post-post-apocalypse-scifi, more historical warfare, a journaling game, spaceships and more. I would also like NWG to revisit roleplaying games in the coming year or two.

In addition to all of this, I would also like to change the usual approach away from selling expansions and towards more regular updates.

Imagine if we do a new game and instead of having to buy expansions to get new scenarios, units etc. the game just got updated every so often with new stuff so there is always something fun to check in on. Additionally it would just be fitted right into the rulebook (or scenario book or whatever it comes with). 

Other changes will include more open access to games much earlier in the development process and creating a more formal playtester program, which has already begun.

All of this takes time and time is money (or so I am reminded when it’s time to pay my mortgage each month). 

The answer to all this is Patreon. 

So that is where you come in. If you would like to be part of this journey, please consider supporting me at https://www.patreon.com/nordicweasel 

In addition to helping all of this come together, at 5 dollars a month you get 2 or more playable game items each month including new and preview material for Parsecs and Leagues and snapshots of upcoming titles. 

At 10 dollars a month, you also get freebies every so often. This has included things like copies of Rogue Hammer but going forward it will also include snapshots of other titles that are getting regular updates. 

If this is not in the cards, a dollar a month will still help quite a lot. 

You can also subscribe for a year, which will give you a small discount and frees both of us from having to worry about it. 

There are tiers above 10 dollars for folks who want to go above and beyond. Currently there are not rewards tied to that, but I will think of some things. 

There are three goals I would like to hit. 

The first is a consistent 1000 dollars a month. We are incredibly close to that. 

The second would be reaching 1500 dollars. If we can get to this point, I will up the freebie snapshots of rule sets to be more frequent: Every other month for 5 dollar supporters, every month for 10 dollar supporters.

If we could blow it out of the water at 2000 dollars, I can commit that the process going forward for anything published through NWG will rely on live updates and no items sold separately unless they are truly massive (like doing a brand new campaign setting for a game). 

Basically this is the stage where I can do what I feel could be really cool: Where players are invested into a game that just keeps getting better and even if you take a break for a while, once you come back there would be a bunch of cool new things to play with.

And while I suspect we won’t hit it, if we somehow reached 3000, that would be the point where we could probably just make everything Pay What You Want up front or something. We can tackle that if it ever gets there.

So if you want to be part of the journey, this is your chance to do so. 

Once again, patreon.com/nordicweasel 

If you cannot do Patreon for some reason, but got inspired, you can also throw money into the hat through Paypal directly at nordicweaselgames@icloud.com 

Someone requested this, so a look at how you can do random units in History Dad.

Option 1- Random support units

This option works well if you start with a standard platoon and want to add a few extra units to back them up. 

This is a simple roll of a D6 twice with the units being quite open ended. Let's say I have a British infantry platoon as my core (an easy choice since that happens to be what I am painting right now).

I decide to roll up two random support units for a game. The first roll is a 3 and 5 resulting in a tank, tank destroyer or assault gun. The second roll is a pair of 6s giving me off map support.

Now the exact choice is up to me. I suggest in the book that you actually cycle your collection so the first time you roll a tank, pick whatever you might like. Then the next time you roll a tank in a future game, pick a different tank in your collection until you have gone through them all. In this case, the only thing I have at hand is a Sherman so a Sherman it is. Off map support should be scaled to the force in question. For a platoon, its probably just a couple 3" mortars. 

Option 2 - Random platoons

If you want to randomise the platoon itself, you can also do that. Lets say for this game, I want a random German foe. The first roll determines the number of squads and what strength they are at. There are three tables depending on manpower. Germans in 44 are probably short on manpower so we will use that table. I roll a 5 so they get 2 full squads and 1 reduced squad. 

If this was an attack/defend scenario the defender would roll twice and pick the lower roll while the attacker rolls twice and picks the higher. 

This can also be done with tank platoons which will tell you the class and number. On some results a platoon of rare or breakdown prone tanks must make do with one vehicle less. (For a sample roll, I get a 5 meaning heavy/infantry tanks. For Germans that presumably means its Tiger time. The platoon size roll gives me 3 vehicles, but since Tigers would certainly fit the rare moniker, they would only get 2).

We also want to randomise the quality and morale of the Germans. You can roll per squad. To keep it simple I just roll for the platoon. We are going to say these Germans are second rate troops but holding the line. A 6 and a 5 gives me Veteran squads with a 4+ Morale. 

That may sound funny if they were supposed to be second rate, but that is a measure of the overall formation they are part of. Pick through a battalion of Volksgrenadier and we can find a handful of squads that have plenty of veterans (or veteran NCOs more likely), just like an elite unit will have some inexperienced rookies. 

I get questions about whether I will do all kinds of things (Spaceships? Probably! Historical naval battles? Maybe! Giant robots? Probably no...wait I did do that one!)

So I thought i would take a moment to outline some things that I most likely will not do as a game topic.

These are generally things I either have no interest in personally or things that I have spent enough time on in the past to have "done my bit".

Of course never say never but if something is on this list, odds are it is not going to happen. And of course work for hire is a separate thing, at that point you are writing what the employer pays you to write.

Superheroes. 

Colonial warfare.

Insurgency warfare.

Steampunk.

"Weird war". (ww1 or ww2 with fantasy elements).

Most historical periods before circa the American Revolution, with the occasional exception.

Anything related to the OSR.

Anything with Romans.

Any more 40K-adjacent stuff.

Zombies.

NWG playtester program

Traditionally testing has been a pretty ad-hoc affair and has worked differently with each project, as my whims have suggested. This then is me formalising how playtesting will work going forward. 

Essentially I am establishing a group of Martens (if you don’t know what a marten is, it is a weasel-like critter, look them up, they are adorable. Also it is just a fun word).

What does a Marten do?

*You would get access to various projects I am working on. Some will be very early stages (and not yet playable), some are proofs of concept, some will be playable with basic features and some will be close to final development.

*Your activities can include reading feedback (looking for errors, unclear explanations etc.), “vibes” feedback (does this seem fun? Cool? Etc.) and playtest feedback (setting up and playing a game). 

You will then report to me regularly in email (or another) format with your thoughts and findings. 

*The ideal Marten is curious about new games, excited about new ideas and adaptable. 

Some caveats

*There is no guarantee that a project will come to completion.

*I am not looking for “idea guys” and game design is not a voting booth. 

All suggestions will be considered, but in the end, I take the decisions on what goes in the book. In the event you want to contribute actively to writing a particular game, we would discuss that and set up a proper co-author situation with revenue splitting.

*You are not required to provide feedback on everything, though you are required to be active. Obviously this is not a job, but you should be able to spend a couple hours every week or two. 

*You need to be able to work with limited instructions. Unfinished games have many components in place, but you may have to work around missing features such as improvising a stat profile for a figure or creating a simple scenario.

*Even if you do not play a particular style of game (historical, scifi, fantasy) you should be able to at least provide reading feedback. You can playtest things you do not currently have suitable figures for as well.

*Please note that while this will include access to early Parsecs and Leagues material at times, much of the material will not be for those games.

*Most projects can be discussed freely, but some cannot. I will advise for each. 

Final notes

*Martens will be credited by name in any game they contributed feedback for. 

*You may keep all pre-release PDFs provided.

*If you provided feedback on at least 2 playtest games, you receive a complimentary PDF copy of the final game. 

*If you provided feedback in other ways, you receive 50% off the final PDF.  

So what do I do?

If you are interested, please email me at nordicweaselgames@icloud.com