Ish

Have you considered integrating something like OpenLock clips into the design?

From the classic Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay first edition. Might not be as pretty as the full color modern maps, but they're a closer match to historical designs.

This really should have a gate or turnpike on on end of the bridge.

All men are created equal, some more equally than others.

That last city has a very Tenochtitlan-vibe to it.

For best results, read these descriptions in the voice of Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

The old Chaos Marine tank upgrade sprue, circa third edition, had some gargoyle-style gun barrel attachments. The shorter of those might be perfect for this.

I like how understated the cult iconography is. Makes it look like actual captured, err, liberated military hardware.

Unless "it" is crossing the finish line to win a race. Because, by definition...

The main purpose of heraldry was identification. When everyone is wearing a helmet, covered in mud, and in a big swirling mêlée, you don't have time to try to puzzle out exactly what the hell they have drawn on their shield. The rule of tincture basically forces you into using either high contrast colors or high contrast shapes*, this makes them very easy to see from a distance and is aesthetically pleasing as an added bonus. Here's a illustration of heraldic field divisions very similar to the one I use to teach basic heraldry concepts to new SCA people. Back when I had a Bretonnian army, I used this for all of the shields for my peasant infantry and Knights Errant. Replace the blue with any color** of your choosing, replace the white with a different color (and on those last three pick a third color for the red). These combinations are always legal no matter what colors you chose because none of these have anything "on top" of anything else. They are also relatively simple geometric patterns that are easy to paint on tiny toy soldiers' shields. * You can have metals next to metals/colors next to colors, just not like "on top" like. It's harder to describe in text than it is to demonstrate visually. See your guy with the quartered green and blue shield? That's legal. The colors are "next to" each other, not "on top" of each other. ** If you want to keep things really accurate, limit yourself to the colors used in the medieval period: red, black, blue, green, and purple; and the metals yellow/gold and silver/white. Bold, strong, and rich colors were the order of the day. Both due to limitations on paint-making technology and for easy identification. The British flag is Blue, White, and Red not ultramarine, eggshell, and carmine.

Unless I'm very wrong, I think all I'd need is the Starter Army set, which is a bunch of plastic Tommy Atkins in their European theater uniforms, a plastic Cromwell, and some field artillery. Add to that the Dad's Army set of special characters. The tank and the heavy guns wouldn't fit in with the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon, the generic infantry would be perfect... and all for about $200 USD. On the other hand, I still have a Orc army, a Space Marine army, an Anglo-Saxon army, and a Viking army that need my attention. Plus I don't really have any time to actually play. C'est la vive.

I’m just a massive fanboy for the British military. A game’s rules could say that one player only gets a single Tommy with a half-loaded Lee-Enfeild, a rusty bayonet, and scurvy; and the other player gets an entire Waffen SS regiment... I’d still pick the British. Although, the prospect of playing Dad’s Army is also very appealing. No starter set bundle deal and more expensive miniatures, but it would give me an excuse to shout “They don’t like it up ‘em! No, sir, they don’t like it up ‘em!”

Not that I have the time to pick-up another game, but out of curiosity (and an unhealthy addiction for buying models) what’s the “default” point value for a game of Bolt Action? Kinda tempted to add some British paras to my stack of painting projects.

Of course, the pedantic in me feels I should mention that heraldric rules did change over the centuries and that just like any other complicated system, there were exceptions. Depending on the century and the location, you get various changes in the rules. Different cultures had their own quirks too and students of heraldry can often pick out British, French, German, and Russian or wherever with just a glance. But for the most part, the rule of tincture is the closest thing that heraldry has to a rule that is obeyed as close to universally as you can get. Heck, even “heraldry” systems that had no contact with Europe at all, such as the mon of medieval Samurai clans followed the rule. The only well known break with the rule of tincture were the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291) who famously used a golden cross on a white field... But, well, they were the kings of the most important chunk of real estate on Earth. Tincture is pretty easy to explain. Everyone has drawn with a yellow crayon on a white sheet of paper at some point in childhood, right? You just can’t see it, especially at a distance. Now, these are all just toy soldiers for a fantasy game, so you don’t need to worry too much about historical systems — although I’m a nerd for this stuff, most people don’t care. But the rule of tincture is the one rule you should pay attention to.

Looks great, just one minor critique: the second shield from the left in the picture isn’t allowed under the rule of tincture. Gules a pale azure, or “a red field with a blue bar down the middle on it” for those of you that haven’t been obsessed by heraldry since age eight, just isn’t cricket. Wot, wot. To sum it up very briefly, you’re never supposed to put a color on a color or a metal on a metal. The heraldic metals are or (gold or yellow) and argent (silver or white). The colors are the other colors. You can put a thin line of gold/yellow/white/silver on either edge of the blue shield (this is called fimbriation if you want to sound fancy) to make it kosher.

Refueled is more of a “1.5 update” than it is a new edition of the game. If you already have the “blue book,” but don’t see yourself getting really into Gaslands and only playing it as an occasional “beer ’n’ pretzels” sideline, then I wouldn’t say you absolutely need the new book. If you don’t already have the “blue book,” obviously you might as well get the new one, because duh. In either case, the MSRP for Refueled is only $30.00 USD. That shouldn’t be too hard to fit into most folk’s hobby budget. Acrylic or wooden templates are nice, but you can just print card stock ones off the internet and get by; Proper skid dice are nice, but you can get by with standard D6’s; To-scale accessory bitz are nice, but you can just raid your 40k bitz box for guns and such... or go on Etsy and find dozens of people selling them. (3D printer owners can find files on Thingiverse.)

I'm in!

Once you’ve got a good primer layer down, you’re golden. Just be prepared to spend extra time on that step... My advice is to give it two or three thin coats of primer, then walk away for 24 hours. Come back after it’s had time to dry and “drink” and apply some specific spot touch ups.

You can usually find a 24-pack of store brand bottled water at Wal-Mart, Costco, or even 7-11 for under $10... Sometimes under $5! If I were organizing an event like this in the warmer months of the year, I’d probably make picking one up a standard part of event prep. Probably not such a big deal In February... The Guardian Games staff are all pretty on the ball and genuinely helpful people. I’m sure most of the locals coming will know what to do already and any out-of-towners who accidentally bring an outside beverage will get a “Hey, excuse me, but...” rather than a “EXTERMINATE THE HERETIC!”

Going solely by the fluff, a Battle Company of White Scars Space Marines will commonly be fielded with all six of its Tactical Squads mounted on Bikes with the extra Marines formed into ad hoc Attack Bike Squads, it’s two Assault Squads deploying via Thunderhawk with Jump Packs or in Rhinos, and it’s two Devastator Squads in Rhinos or Razorbacks. The Rule of Three means this cannot be fielded.

I just want to see White Scars and Ravenwing armies with lots of bike squads, Imperial Guard armies with loads of Leman Russ squadrons, and other thematic armies that the ‘Rule of Three’ squishes flat. It was a chainsaw instead of a scalpel.

Preventing people from furnishing alcohol to minors was one reason we were given in my DPSST course, the other was to prevent people from taking alcohol out for themselves. You’re allowed to drink in a bar, not your car or out in public, and there are indeed people who would pour a couple of shots into a water bottle and then leave the bar... Because people are dumb and alcohol makes dumb people even dumber. These laws also have to be written in a uniform way and applied equally to everyone. Every rule that Guardian Games has to comply with also applies to McMennamin’s, Red Robin, the Kit Kat Club, and the VFW Hall. A rule that makes a lot of sense in one venue might seem counterproductive or flat-out nonsensical in another. There’s a whole big section on “minor entertainers,” for example, that is meant to cover 17-20 year old strippers, but it’s also going to have to be applied to the 19 year old drummer in the bar band, because that’s how the law works. Bottomline, for people patronizing these places and not running them, is just comply with the posted rules or anything you’re asked to do by the staff. The OLCC comes down hard on any violations they catch and it came mean financial ruin for a small business. Wargaming is an expensive hobby to begin with, we should all be able to set aside $10 to buy bottled water from the store throughout the course of the day.