I’m still giving some thought to the free mini-games for the next catalogue, but meanwhile another project has suggested itself to me. I was de-junking my home office when I found an old book I forgot I had even bought: a copy of the 1914 reprint of the Manual of Field Engineering 1911. It seems it belonged to a Regimental Sergeant Major T.A. Mellor of the Royal Engineers. Anyway, reading through it (to put off doing any more tidying and sorting) it struck me what a lot of great information there is in it for anyone planning a game that needs to be informed about the sort of defences or field work that could be completed at short notice.
Obviously the book is written from the perspective of the British Army at the start of the 20th Century, but it would be reasonable to assume other nations had similar capabilities, and the manual remained in use well into the inter-war years. Plus, the basic tools of axes, spades and picks haven’t changed much over the centuries, so you could extrapolate a lot of the information back to the Middle Ages if you wanted.
You could use the information to work out what sort of cover an infantry battalion could create during a war game turn, to create a realistic defence post for a skirmish game or even to work out how long the characters will take unearthing that ancient eldritch artefact in a RPG.
The book’s condition isn’t great, but I’ll scan the best illustrations and summarise the most useful information into one concise resource. More news when it’s nearing completion!
Good question! A while back I got an email from the nice people at Tiny Battle Publishing, a new company just launching its first titles. They had heard of 1871: The Battle of Dorking and were interested in buying the rights to it. I must admit I was torn. On the one hand, I’m very proud of Dorking: it’s true to the story that inspired it and I still love playing it. It is easily my best selling wargame and it’s been great to have it as part of the Draken Games portfolio. On the other hand, sales have dwindled over the years and it would be great to see a nicely produced physical version of the game, finished with the sort of production values I’ll just never be able to manage.
So after some deliberation I am bidding a fond farewell to the game. I am also retiring the free expansion 1871: Last Stand at Surbiton.
The new game will be called Dorking 1875: The German Conquest of Britain. Why the name change? Well, firstly to make it clear it’s a different version of the game. I’ve been working with the TBP people to update the rules. No changes to the game mechanics, but the format is quite different. And… ahem… the date? Well it turned out that while the battle is usually associated with the date of Chesney’s original story (1871), if you check the dates he gives in that story, it must actually be set in 1875. Oops. Well, at least that is rectified now!
I’ll post an update when TBP launch the re-vamped Dorking. Meanwhile, why not check out their website?
Ok here’s something that looks really intriguing, and I’m glad to be doing my bit to support it: BrigadeCon offers all the fun of a physical convention, only from the comfort of your home! Yep, it’s an entirely online event. Draken Games are happy to be one of the con’s sponsors, and a lucky few attendees will get the chance to win a copy of Argor FRPG.
Just click on the image below to visit their site. The event takes place on 15th November.
I’ve added some of my favourite game-related links to this site as a separate page. The one called ‘Links’, obviously. Check them out, there’s some good stuff!
I’ve been made aware of a Youtube channel run by a past Draken Games customer that is aimed at those who want to hone their skills in the arcane craft of Games Mastery. As you can probably tell from the ‘RPG resources’ section, producing stuff that helps GMs is close to my heart, so I can definitely recommend that you go and have a look at BeABetterGameMaster.
Sale time! Wargamevault.com are running a 25% discount sale throught to July 8th and we’re part of it! So, for a bargain on our wargame products, just go here.
We’ve opened an account at slideshare.net, which allows us to share documents and presentations with you for free. At the moment we’ve just got our latest catalogue there, but in future the plan is to put some presentations there showing play-throughs of our games.
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