Jim is an old friend of mine from Barrow-in-Furnace in England,whose main job is actually a farmer. Jim has always had a shall we call it a unique way of writing his rulesets.
"I dont know how Jim's brain works" pretty much sums up all of his works, and yet i have nearly all of them. I set up a campaign using one of his campaign systems then got halfway through and there was a major shift in the how to, fortunately id recorded all of my rolls and results, just had a lot of erasing to do.
An interesting review, pulling together a couple of themes that are overlooked. Magic artefacts just being applied technology for instance. You are clearly creative in the way you bend rules to fit your situational needs (Wileys space rules for cars!! as an example). It is refreshing to listen to. A swagger stick was/is basically a small cane carried by officer ranks to show their authority. Cavalry officers tended to carry riding crops. I've dealt with a few creative types in the UK who have developed their own rulesets. The issue they have is that they just drop their thoughts on a piece of paper, I'm pretty sure they are all of the same mindset. They mostly have great and unique ideas. The real point of difference comes when they have good editors/ co collaborators who can organise and sift their desire into a cohesive set of rules, that us normal people can follow. My working hypothesis is that because they often self publish and number of pages becomes an issue, they seek brevity over clarity. For me, good wargaming ruleset examples are 5 Parsecs/ Leagues/ clicks, One hour skirmish, "of Song and blade" games. A recent example I've come across that I find opaque is Wargaming World Solo rules. I'm sure there is a good set of rules in there but it's not logical to me. It jumps all over the place and I just can't be bothered to organise it in my head when I can get one hour skirmish or 5 men in Normandy out and just play. Sometimes I think authors just dive into detail before a framework has been set. If you constantly have to jump around a ruleset I, personally, think the author has got something wrong. I much prefer self contained sections. Well written and organised rulesets are a godsend and I prefer well written simplified rules to more accurate overly complicated rulesets but I'm happy for everyone to find their own happy place and that we respect our differences.
Of all of Jim's rules - I own a few now - this one is probably the worst in terms of structure, it is almost as if he was having a brainstorm session and wrote down things as they came to him. Be warned bad structure is a feature of amost of his rulesets That said there are some nuggets to be sifted from the book My advice read the whole thing through once and then take a notepad and go through it again and carefully create your own QRS and maybe extended playsheet. I tend to buy the PDF and play around editing it to something more to my taste Overall, this is a good ruleset for what it wants to do, think Spanish Civil War, the Irish uprising or perhaps the fictional a Very British Civil War. It might also work for a steampunk/low tech sci fi skirmish setting. My take is that as usual Jim provides a framework/sandbox for you to flesh out with your own ideas
Looks like "Diamonds Are A Boy's Best Friend" could be used as a framework for the movie "The Wild Geese". It would a two part game with the mercs first breaking their target out of the prison and then making their way to a jungle airport. The movie is about a group of Western mercs hired to go into an African country to rescue a tribal leader. After they are betrayed they must make their way across country, fighting or dodging government forces all the way, to an airport where they hope to grab a plane out of the country. It had an amazing cast with Richard Burton, Robert Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Kruger.
I remember news reports during the summer of 2020 that used language similar to this book to describe the strategies of the black-clad noodle arms. Weird.
Oh damn just about to head off as this popped up on me damn the first min and I going to have to check out this creator ha thanks again as always will watch the rest when I get back home later. To much good stuff online ahh!!
This movie, reminds me, that I have a lot of metal figurines of African freedom fighters/terrorists, unpainted and without basing. Could this be a proper rules for fights in Mogadishu in 1993, when armed militias fought against Rangers and Delta Force?
Jim is an old friend of mine from Barrow-in-Furnace in England,whose main job is actually a farmer. Jim has always had a shall we call it a unique way of writing his rulesets.
@@semperatis A farmer you say?
That explains so much, and I mean that as a compliment.
"England and America are two countries separated by the same language."
@@timberry4709 Alas America has forgotten a lot of the naunces prevalent in the original English.
"I dont know how Jim's brain works" pretty much sums up all of his works, and yet i have nearly all of them. I set up a campaign using one of his campaign systems then got halfway through and there was a major shift in the how to, fortunately id recorded all of my rolls and results, just had a lot of erasing to do.
An interesting review, pulling together a couple of themes that are overlooked. Magic artefacts just being applied technology for instance. You are clearly creative in the way you bend rules to fit your situational needs (Wileys space rules for cars!! as an example). It is refreshing to listen to.
A swagger stick was/is basically a small cane carried by officer ranks to show their authority. Cavalry officers tended to carry riding crops.
I've dealt with a few creative types in the UK who have developed their own rulesets. The issue they have is that they just drop their thoughts on a piece of paper, I'm pretty sure they are all of the same mindset. They mostly have great and unique ideas. The real point of difference comes when they have good editors/ co collaborators who can organise and sift their desire into a cohesive set of rules, that us normal people can follow. My working hypothesis is that because they often self publish and number of pages becomes an issue, they seek brevity over clarity.
For me, good wargaming ruleset examples are 5 Parsecs/ Leagues/ clicks, One hour skirmish, "of Song and blade" games. A recent example I've come across that I find opaque is Wargaming World Solo rules. I'm sure there is a good set of rules in there but it's not logical to me. It jumps all over the place and I just can't be bothered to organise it in my head when I can get one hour skirmish or 5 men in Normandy out and just play. Sometimes I think authors just dive into detail before a framework has been set. If you constantly have to jump around a ruleset I, personally, think the author has got something wrong. I much prefer self contained sections. Well written and organised rulesets are a godsend and I prefer well written simplified rules to more accurate overly complicated rulesets but I'm happy for everyone to find their own happy place and that we respect our differences.
Of all of Jim's rules - I own a few now - this one is probably the worst in terms of structure, it is almost as if he was having a brainstorm session and wrote down things as they came to him. Be warned bad structure is a feature of amost of his rulesets
That said there are some nuggets to be sifted from the book
My advice read the whole thing through once and then take a notepad and go through it again and carefully create your own QRS and maybe extended playsheet. I tend to buy the PDF and play around editing it to something more to my taste
Overall, this is a good ruleset for what it wants to do, think Spanish Civil War, the Irish uprising or perhaps the fictional a Very British Civil War. It might also work for a steampunk/low tech sci fi skirmish setting.
My take is that as usual Jim provides a framework/sandbox for you to flesh out with your own ideas
Looks like "Diamonds Are A Boy's Best Friend" could be used as a framework for the movie "The Wild Geese". It would a two part game with the mercs first breaking their target out of the prison and then making their way to a jungle airport.
The movie is about a group of Western mercs hired to go into an African country to rescue a tribal leader. After they are betrayed they must make their way across country, fighting or dodging government forces all the way, to an airport where they hope to grab a plane out of the country. It had an amazing cast with Richard Burton, Robert Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Kruger.
@@timberry4709 Such a great bro film. That scene on the bridge, getting strafed with nowhere to go, is great cinema.
I'm glad I listened to this. The rules seem like they're to tackle aspects of war not typically covered by other rules.
Jim Webster is quite chaotic, but one of the few truly inventive rules writers. Wally Simon level of creativity in his books
I remember news reports during the summer of 2020 that used language similar to this book to describe the strategies of the black-clad noodle arms. Weird.
Oh yes, those totally friendly and not a threat to "out democracy" fiery by most peaceful riots.
The media mechanic could be used in Mexican revolution as the film crews that followed poncho villa
Man I can only imagine a world like that. Lucky it couldn't happen irl!
You’re so silly! It would never ever happen!
Oh damn just about to head off as this popped up on me damn the first min and I going to have to check out this creator ha thanks again as always will watch the rest when I get back home later. To much good stuff online ahh!!
yep, he has a ton of books out, he also wrote for miniature wargames magazine iirc
24:00 - - Yeah, it's Andy Ngo.
@@timberry4709 That's the guy!
Or one of the new crop wandering the streets of small town Ohio with a microphone.
Interesting. Looks like someone pushed the “safe space” button and got the YT kommissars to delete my first post.
Thanks guys!
Having read a few homegrown rule sets from the UK, bizarre book layout is not uncommon.
It's all the beef we've eaten 😂
"A Gates Of Toledo situation"
Toledo, OH?
Spicy!
I love it.
im curious how this compares to the Riot game you played years ago.
@@anthonymears8539 This one units are single figs lumped in squads based, the other one is really more platoon based in scale.
This movie, reminds me, that I have a lot of metal figurines of African freedom fighters/terrorists, unpainted and without basing. Could this be a proper rules for fights in Mogadishu in 1993, when armed militias fought against Rangers and Delta Force?
Absolutely. Air power, neglected in my scenario, falls under the game's rules for wizardry.