Chop Sockey Kung Fu Miniature Wargame Rules test game --"We wuz just funnin' the China Man!" -After Action Report

Greetings. Hello there boys and girls. Well over a year or two ago, I began working on writing "Chop Sockey!!," a set of rules for kung fu comic or movie style wargames. The results are promising. A friend and I play tested them once, and then, like so many other things, along came the pandemic and that put an end to shared playtesting.

Alas! 

Having finished writing my book on Trump (yes, this is a plug, Feel free to buy it. Link below) and anxious to begin work on a new project, I pulled out the rules and gave them a test run playing solo. 

Basic scenario concept was to have a group of innocents being mistreated by bad people and some heroes need to come, intervene, and give them a chance to escape. 

Looking for suitable bad guys, I chose my recently painted "steam punky" Dead Rabbits gang. 

Now for the good guys, I realized that while I had suitable civilian figures, I had no rules for civilians, at least not yet.. (They shall be written soon and will be finished by next solo game.  I promise. The stats for civilians will give them very low, combat ability but high saves. This way, they don't really add much to combat but they do stay around long enough to be rescued.) 

For the good guys, I chose suitable Chinese Boxer rebellion or Taiping Uprising figures, creating a group of generic mobs of ten men with spears, swords, and muskets. I faced them off against each other at one corner of a four by four card table. I then put two suitable kung fu heroes at the farthest corner of the table. 

I called the scenario "We wuz just funnin' the Chinaman!" as an homeage to the classic 1970s TV show Kung Fu which chronicles the adventures of Kwai-Chiang Kane, a half breed Shaolin monk who wondered the old American west. An interesting show that shaped American images of kung fu and the martial arts in its early days, a common event in the series was that Kane would wonder into a western town. Soon after the local, inbred white trash with bad teeth would begin hassling him because he was Chinese and did not really fit in in that neighborhood, and go further and further with their hassling. Kane would inevitablly lecture them with Chinese philosophy (or the 1970s AmericanTV version of Chinese philosophy --think fortune cookie philosophy), that would fail, they would then attack him, and he would kick in half a dozen peoples teeth, leaving them on the ground whining "But we wuz just funnin' the Chinaman, and he done kicked our teeth all in!" 

Alas, good stuff. If you've never seen the show, your education is lacking something. 

Anyway, that's sort of what I was going for here. My results were mixed. 

Game Forces

The Dead Rabbits -a particular colorful group of White Trash and Irish Trash, no less

Unit One: Seven Dead Rabbits

            Classified as "Warriors" -each unit consists of a standard bearer with a Dead Rabbit on a pole and five men with clubs or swords and one with a firearm

Unit Two: Seven Dead Rabbits 

            Also classified as "Warriors" and equipped identically to the first unit although one was actually a woman and not a man -not that this makes any difference in these rules. It does, however, add color to the table top. 

Liam Angus McGutstab O'Heaney

            A widely feared drunken berserker. He was classified as a hero but given no chi points (He may conceivably have great chi. No one actually knows as he's simply too drunk and uncouth to know how to use it anyway if he does. I am, by the way, very proud of the figure. He's a conversion from, of all things, a Gaul gladiator, and I'm quite proud of him. See my old posts on the subject.) 

Ook Ook O'Brien

            A gorilla in a top hat. He escaped from the circus and was taken in by the Dead Rabbits. They were eager to have him, because they needed some better educated, more sophisticated, better travelled members and, being as he was widely travelled with the circus, he met the bill and filled the void.  

    Ook Ook is classified in the rules as a gorilla. Yes, there are rules for gorillas and other animals and I was hoping to try them out. Besides, it is a rule of thumb among wargamers, if you have a figure of gorilla in a top hat, put that figure in a game almost any chance you can. 

 The Good Hearted Chinese 

Three units of ten Chinese tong members classified as "fighters" armed with swords, spears and a few muskets. Each had a standard bearer. 

Two Kung Fu heroes at the far end of the table. These were unarmed but each had four points of "chi." 

Victory Conditions

The Chinese must escape off the far corner of the board with two thirds of their forces intact. 

Turn One

To determine which side went first a simple pair of dice were rolled for each side. The Dead Rabbits won. 

The turn sequence involves moving the units on a side, one by one, and then taking each unit through the entire turn sequence. 

Since the Dead Rabbits had four "units" -two seven man gangs, the gorilla, and the drunken berserker hero- this would mean four units would move through their sequence.

The first Dead Rabbit gang charged at the middle of the Chinese units. 

Being Warriors they had automatic activation and since they were charging they got double movement. Thus they moved ahead 8 inches, made contact with a group of Chinese seven or less inches away, and hand to hand fighting broke out.   

The attackers were classified as warriors and got 2 dice per figure or 14 dice total. 

The defenders were classified as fighters and got 1 dice each or 10 dice total. 

The dice were rolled and the Dead Rabbits inflicted 6 hits on the Chines tong members. The Chinese rolled their saving dice and only one of the six saved. Of the five hit, dice were rolled for the hit resul and three were wounded and two were dead. 

In that melee the Chinese caused three hits on the Dead Rabbits, killing two and wounding one. 

The second unit of Dead Rabbits charged the nearest unit of Chinese tong members and inflicted 7 hits. 

The hero and the gorilla were blocked from charging any of the other Chinese due to having the two melees taking place in front of them so they just advanced at normal speed and took up a position in support of the brawling gangs. 

Nevertheless, after the first turn, it was very obvious that the Chinese side was definitely way outclassed. Classifying all the forces on one side as "warriors," a designation intended for elite soldiers and their tribal or feudal equivalents, was a mistake. It had produced a very lop-sided battle. (Of course, I have thoughts on how to modify this in the future.) 

Chinese Phase of the First Turn

The Chinese side had five "units." These were the two heroes far to the rear and the three 10 man units of Tong fighters, two of which had taken heavy casualties already and were greatly weakened. 

Since the victory condition for the Chinese were to get as many figures to safety as possible, the untouched unit of Tong fighters decided to flee at double speed. In hindsight, I'm not sure this was a good idea, but, as they say, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

One of the heroes decided to charge into combat and to use lots of Chi to speed his entry. A normal charge or running move for a hero is 8 inches. For each point of Chi used, a hero can add 4 inches to his move. Using three points, he moved a total of 20 inches (8 + 12) and charged into combat with one of the Dead Rabbit gangs. He decided to go for broke and use his remaining chi point to add to his combat effectivness. 

Alas! Despite some heavy modifiers for that turn -the result of him using his chi- one hero versus seven warriors is a fight where the seven warriors have a strong advantage. A couple warriors left took hits and left the game but this meant that there were still five of them and one hero with no chi points, all alone against them and their nearby friends. 

The other hero saved his chi and moved 8 inches towards the center of the action. 

The remnants of the badly mauled units attempted to flee, but due to their wounds were not able. (If a character has a wound, he must consult a chart and pass a dice roll before perform actions such as fighting or moving. While a character can have multiple wounds, he must pass a dice roll for each and every wound or he cannot perform that action. The characters rolled badly and could not flee.)   

Turn Two -- Dead Rabbits Phase 

The two units of Dead Rabbits pursued or attacked the two units of Chinese tong members and the hero who supported them. They inflicted some more casualities but not enough to change the flow of the battle. 

The gorilla and the hero still found themselves waiting in support, watching, ready, but still not actually doing anything. 

Turn Two --Chinese Phase 

There were three units of tong fighters. 

One was undamaged but had chosen to flee. This was intended to increase the forces chances of meeting the victory conditions. In hindsight this might have been a bad idea, as the Dead Rabbits had already achieved their victory conditions, and it had become obvious that the scenario was probably quite unbalanced. 

The two Chinese heroes found themselves touching bases and formed a unit. This allowed them to activate and move together, as well as pool their dice in combat. 

Alas, when they entered combat, they found themselves outclassed by the large number of Dead Rabbits they were facing. Not only did they inflict little damage on the Dead Rabbits but one fo the heroes took hits and missed his saves and was killed and removed from the game. This left just one hero, one unwounded tong fighter, and several wounded tong fighters faced off against an overwhelming force of enemy warriors supported by a hero and a gorilla in a top hat.

Turn Three -FLEEEEE!!!

Seeing no other real option, the tong fighters fled the table. 

 

ANALYSIS

As a game, not terribly successful, but as a game testing or rule testing session a lot was learned about balancing scenarios. Several rules were tweaked afterwards. Others were added.  

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MINIATURE WARGAMING -Laserburn AAR -Who wants a broken anti-grav tank anyway? Well, everyone, that's who!

Science fiction miniature gaming is much more than Warhammer 40K. And while I have still not found the perfect set of rules, I haven't even tried all I own.

The pirate settlement

The settlement seen from a different angle

Having recently completed a large batch of wargaming scenery for science fiction gaming, and being interested in the classic skirmish rules LASERBURN, I decided to put the scenery on the table and do some solo gaming. (I write in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown.)

Laserburn was first published and copyrighted in 1980. I somehow have acquired two copies, both badly battered and showing their age, but do not ever recall actually playing a game.

Being a skirmish game, I chose two sides. One side was five "Judges," as in the classic British comic "Judge Dredd." Some came from the old Games Workshop Judge Dredd line, others from the newer Warlord Games Judge Dredd range. (The metal Warlord Games line from circa 2014-ish, not the newer resin line from that company.) The Judges are basically hardcore super-cops of the future who enforce the law and punish law-breakers.  I'd considered classifying them as "Heroes" but decided "elite soldiers" was a more appropriate category. They were designated as carrying laser pistols and wearing light armor.

The other force was seven figures designated as "hardened space pirates." These came from a few different companies and ranges, including early GW Warhammer 40k space pirates, a RAFM post-holocaust range, a couple that I believe came from Grenadier Traveller line, and one guy with a mohawk and a laser gun who I could not identify. They were designated as wearing flak armor and carrying either laser rifles or laser pistols depending on the casting and how the figures themselves were equipped.


The scenario involved the judges trying to recover a broken anti-grav tank that the pirates had somehow acquired and were planning to repair. The anti-grav tank came from the Epicast WH 40K line and is some sort of Eldar design. I admit I forget exactly which model but the tank still exists in the WH 40K universe but now looks totally different. I had decided that the weapons could not fire and while the judges could fly it away no one else could make it move. (The judges had brought the keys to the vehicle.)

The Pirate lair with their salvaged grav-tank under repair

Another view

From Left to right, pirate thug (GW early WH40K), repair technician (RAFM), and pirate leader (RAFM).

Four space pirates

Because I have a long thin table, and also because I wanted to keep things interesting, I had the judges approach from two different ends of the table, with the basic plan being to divide the defenders and hopefully capture the grav-tank. 

And thus I began the game. Figures move their entire move one by one depending on their initiative, the higher the initiative the earlier they move. Initiative can change during the game depending on things like wounds and loads carried, and so on. In theory, as the figures move one by one, there is no reason one side would move all their figures before the other, but in this game, as the forces were chosen to be simple, all the judges had identical initiative ratings and each was higher than the pirates, who in their turn had identical initiative scores. While optional rules do allow for varying these a bit using dice to modify a base score, for simplicity I just stuck with the basic ratings, straight out of the book. 

I soon discovered the rules are, indeed, very primitive by modern standards in some areas and one of them is movement. One tabletop centimeter equals one real life meter. Figures walk 10cm a turn or run 30cm a turn Walking and "diving" (undefined) are other options. There are no rules for fatigue or terrain effects on movement that I could find in the 48 page little book. (There is a supplement, which I own, but I made no attempt to consult it. Perhaps they are there. One step at a time. One rulebook at a time. Learn the rules little by little.) 

Seeing no disadvantage to doing so, I had the judges run one by one from the edge of the table either as far as they could go or to the farthest piece of substantial terrain. 

On both sides of the table, groups of pirates reacted, moving towards the oncoming judges and seeking cover. 

Having mentioned that Laserburn has no terrain or fatigue rules, what it does focus on is detailed shooting rules. Therefore when shots began being exchanged, things became detailed. They also became very arithmetic heavy. 

Semi-automatic weapons, which to me included all the laser weapons in the game, are allowed three shots each turn, although I confess I had misunderstood the rules and only allowed them two shots per turn.  As this misunderstanding of the rules was applied uniformly it probably did not affect the outcome but it did slow things down a bit. Besides, it was a solo game so who's going to become upset?          +++++                                             Chances of hitting are determined using a formula, arriving at a number that is a base chance to hit, and then rolling percentile dice. There are multiple factors.                        +++                                                  Therefore a judge, as an "elite soldier," starts with a base chance of hitting of 130 percent change of hitting. Range is quite important, and if a laser pistol is fired at 18 meters range, 18 cm on the table, the percent chance is reduce 3 percent for each meter or 54%, making the chance of hitting 76%. Additional modifiers are applied for semi-automatic fire ( -6% per shot) and if the target or firer have moved. If the target is behind cover, there is also a modifier. If the firer has a serious and/or light wound, each wound also reduces the chances of hitting the target. If one does arithmetic easily, it's not a big thing, but as some players are not comfortable with that or find arithmetic intimidating, this system is not for everyone.                                      +++                                                                   If a hit is scored, three more dice rolls are required. One is for location on the target's body. The second is for armor penetration. The third is only rolled if a wound penetrates armor and is to determine the effect of the hit. Possible effects are instantaneous death, a serious wound, a light wound, or blindness. 

Obviously, this system is a bit time consuming and requires record keeping. 

When the hardened space pirates returned fire, they began with a base chance of hitting of 100 percent. 

The rules also include a detailed hand to hand combat system although no hand to hand combat occurred in this game. Therefore I did not get the chance to try it out. Next game, I'll have to make a point of putting combatants without missile weapons on both sides and see what happens. 

At this end of the table, shots were fired back and forth. Soon one of the space pirates took a serious wound to the body. In these rules, serious wounds are, for lack of a better word, "serious." The combatant became unconscious immediately. Each turn thereafter he remained unconscious unless he rolled a six on a regular dice. As his initiative was now lower, the roll to regain consciousness was done at the end of each turn after the other combatants on his side had been activated and moved.

Again, as the rules date from 1980, at times they show their age. The contents seem a bit disorganized and specific rules are sometimes hard to find. Other times rules or rules clarifications that one would expect in a contemporary set of rules simply aren't there. Therefore, it seemed to me that when a combatant regains consciousness, the first thing he or she must do, presumably, is rise from lying down to standing which takes a third of a turn. 

At one end of the table, two judges exchanged shots with two pirates. All had laser pistols, but armor and base chances of hitting were different.

At the end of the table, two pirates with laser rifles tried to take positions to intercept the three oncoming judges while the other laser rifle armed guard and the repair technician and pirate leader, each. While the judges had an advantage in terms of higher ratings and better armor, the fact that the pirates at this end of the table had heavier weaponry seemed to balance things out well.

Well, three out of the five anyway. The pirate leader and the pirate repair technician did not have any missile weapons at all, and therefore did very little throughout the scenario. In hindsight, the scenario could have been much improved if their role in things had been better conceived before hand. Without any missile weapons they couldn't join in any of the firefights so they didn't do much there. Although they did have melee weapons, one a sword and the other a cane (big stick? club? baton?), they were clearly not tough enough or numerous enough to be intended to be used in the scenario as missile troops. Looking back at things, the scenario would have been much improved if the leader and the repair technician had actually been given a chance to do what he eponymously was supposed to do, repair the anti-grav tank!  Tension and enjoyment could have been much improved if the repair technician were given a small chance (perhaps 2% as a starting point ) of repairing all or part of the systems on the anti-grav tank on the first turn and had the chance increase each turn perhaps by adding 2% each turn or even increase the chance exponentially (i.e. go from 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32 to 64% ) . Perhaps a chart that randomly determines which grav-tank system begins to function first (movement, force screen, secondary weapons, main weapons, etc.) or, alternatively and, I think, preferably, to have them activate in a given sequence with the chance of making them working going back down to 2% each time one activates as the repair technician goes back to his starting point again. Alas!! Missed opportunities! Next time. Next time.

In the end, as the judges converged from two directions on the five remaining pirates, shots were exchanged for a couple turns. The results were two judges seriously wounded and one dead and two o he space pirates dead or seriously wounded.

At this point, the morale rules kicked in and became relevant. Once again, the rules began to show their age. The Laserburn morale rules take up take up half a page, half of page 18 to be specific. Not only that, in this half page they also lump up in the rules for unit organization. Basically, figures must be designated as part of a unit or else as a one man unit. If a unit takes serious casualties, in other words equal to half or more its members dead or seriously wounded, it becomes "shaken." This is automatic and there are no dice involved. Shaken units will not advance on the enemy. As the rules say nothing about whether they could fire or not, I assumed they could and the firing continued although the movement stopped.

[After reading these rules again, it became clear that I did not follow the unit rules properly. I'm not sure if this was a bad thing in a skirmish game with five figures versus seven figures, but, for the record, I should have grouped the figures into units more carefully.]

Eventually the last laser armed space pirate took a serious wound to the body and dropped. Although the leader and the repair technician were still conscious, they were unable to advance on the enemy and the enemy was unable to advance on them. The game ended in a draw.

In conclusion, Laserburn is a set of rules that a lot of people clearly have had a lot of fine with. There's no reason people could not have fun with it today. It has a loyal following and can still be purchased new today ( see: https://www.alternative-armies.com/products/lbr01-laserburn-rulebook and please tell them who sent you.) Clearly, it has its fans.

 On the other hand, to say "Well, surely it contains everything one might need or expect in a set of rules," is just not true. If one were to play it a great deal, one would have to invent house rules for some situations to bring them up to modern expectations (for instance, terrain rules and rules that produce some randomization to the morale results) or find a way to arbitrate and settle disagreements among players. (Ideally, players should meet to have fun and be able to trust each other while working things out in a friendly and cooperative fashion. Of course, this does not always happen.) The heavy dependence on one's ability to do and feel comfortable with long strings of calculations of simple arithmetic makes these rules not for everyone, and could slow down the flow of play for many people.

Still, the solo game was fun, and I hope to use these again some day for a simple skirmish game in the future. They seem like a fun little set of rules if the scenario and setting are well designed and chosen for the rules.

AWI –what rules do you use? Part Two. Skirmish Rules --Old West Gunfight, Sharpe's Practice, and Donnybrook. 

My collection of American Revolutionary War Jaegers, German riflemen and some of the best light infantry of the war

What rules do you use for American War of Independence gaming? Personally, I'm a fan of the "different rules for different needs" school of thought. And with that in mind, it's nice to have a usable set of skirmish rules for the period. Of course, no one wants to do skirmish gaming ALL the time, but it is fun to do sometimes. It is a nice option to have. For this reason, I always base my figures individually, placing them on movement stands for larger scale battles.

There are many different skirmish rules suitable for the period, especially if you play games without rifles

. Many French and Indian War rules would work easily. I don't claim to be an expert on them and won't pretend to be.

I've also heard many good things about a set of rules called Sharpe's Practice.  While intended specifically for the Napoleonic era, they can he used for any conflict of the "horse and musket era and are intended to be played with about 30 to 120 figures per side, with each figure representing a single man (person?) usually but not always grouped in units. There are two editions, and word is that the second actually is an improvement over the first edition, rather than mere tinkering motivated by the desire to force players to buy a new edition of their favorite rules. Alas! I must confess, however, I have not read or played these rules. Some day I hope to invest in them, but at approximately 50$ for a set, I plan to wait a bit before doing so, at least until I get tired or need a change of pace from the rules I am currently using (Songs of Drums and Tomahawks, which will be covered in more depth in the next installment in these series.)

The newest Lulu.com edition

Moving forward in history, sometimes western gunfight rules, especially those that are intended to also cover the Alamo and Texas War of Independence period.   For instance, if one is a fan of the classic "Old West Gunfight Rules, by Mike Blake, Steve Curtis, and Ian Colwill, be assured that everything one could possibly want in a set of AWI one on one skirmish rules is included. On the other hand, it definitely needs to be mentioned that these rules while much loved are considered slow and clunky by today's standards. They are highly, highly detailed and games often move very, very slowly. Each turn of the game represents about a second or so of real time, and a figure running at a full speed sprint moves four yards per turn, or in game terms four centimeters or four inches depending on the ground and figure scale the players have chosen. If a character walks, then they move only one yard, AKA one inch or centimeter. Reloading a musket in these rules takes 18 turns and reloading a flintlock rifle takes 30 turns. While a classic and much loved set of rules that brings back fond memories to many older gamers, they are rarely played these days. When I have played them, normally movement is plotted several turns at  time with players interrupting the flow of things as necessary to resolve key events one turn, one slow, single turn at a time. Are they good rules? Classics, but classics that show their age. If nothing else, the level of detail is great for providing inspiration or usable statistics for other games as in one or another of the many editions, almost anything one could wish for was included some place in the rules, be it gatling guns, steamboats, buffalo stampedes, bowie knives, bullwhips, or pretty much anything else a gamer might wish. And while none of these might be needed for an AWI game, well, what if you want to include a rattlesnake, or a drunkard, or a mounted cavalryman with a lance, or a canoe? Well, they are all in here somewhere in some edition.

Today they have been reprinted  and can by ordered at lulu.com - I am proud to own this new copy, and keep it proudly in storage near my other two copies of these rules, the early one from Lou Zocchi Gamescience and the later one from Newbury Rules.

The Lou Zocchi edition from long ago.
A welcome alternative to Boot Hill, back
in the day.

The Newbury Rules Edition, a two
volume set. Pretty much everything here is
in the Lulu.com edition

Donnybrook is another popular set of skirmish rules that, more or less, arguably, claim to cover this period. Okay, actually, they say they cover 1660-1760, but, again, if one leaves out rifles, then the rules can be used for AWI conflicts. Now . . . let me be clear here. I hate Donnybrook, hate it with a passion. These are absolutely not rules I wish to use, but I have used them to play an AWI game, and therefore include them here. Now the rules are beautifully packaged with lots of fluff, lots of pretty pictures, and lots of bells and whistles and brief descriptions of all kinds of real and imaginary groups and coalitions and special characters who can wander across the table and so on and so on. And, yes, a lot of people have a lot of fun with them, and, yes, if they are having fun and hurting no one who am I to suddenly pronounce that they are having fun the wrong way, but having said all that I must say, I really hate these rules.

The advertisements say: "Besides leading government troops into battle, you can choose mobs of armed peasants, murderous brigands, religious fanatics, sinister cultists, ferocious highlanders, or tribal natives. The book includes the rules, faction lists, weapons primer, random events, seven scenarios, a thrilling battle report, a period and theater guide, and a double sided playsheet. The finished book is 112 pages and contains more than 150 awesome photographs by Mr Hilton!" 

While these claims are true, they are padding, all padding. The rules are mostly very pretty, very brightly colored packaging wrapped around a very, very thin set of rules. Second, and this is my real complaint, they cannot accurately recreate the style of warfare of the period or recreate historical battles.

Some Iroquois marching down a road in a game of Songs of Drums and Tomahawks

First, unit sizes are determined by the quality of the unit, not by any actual historic number of troops present. Which means good luck trying to use the rules as written without modification to represent a historical battle.

Second, and more importantly, the rules do not allow one to use historical tactics and plans that would work in real life during the period depicted, do not work in these rules.

Therefore I remember in the game we played, I had a unit or two of Butler's Rangers and a couple more of Mohawk warriors and we were supposed to raid and attack a village somewhere in the Mohawk Valley of western or central New York. Each unit had a number of regular combatants. (I remember a minor verbal squabble with my opponent when he saw that my "indian shaman / spiritual leader" was a figure of a Catholic priest but he let it stand,)

An obvious strategy would be to march down the road, units in a column muskets loaded and ready to fire. The opponents was to more or less meet them and defend the village.

So, off I went, trying to move a group of three or so units down a road. Alas! Screeching halt. Units activate one by one in these rules. When a unit is activated it could choose between a few different actions, the two most common being move or fire. Which mean I could not march my units down the road in a column. They had to leap frog one over another, moving ahead as activated, the rules do allow units to pass through one another fortunately.

Inevitably one of my units got to the head of this strangely leap frogging group of units (I was reminded of the 1980s US standard infantry tactic of bounding overwatch where one unit advances while another covers it, then they reverse roles, and move forward, one after another. HOWEVER, this is NOT an eighteenth century style of combat.)

Now naturally, when the opponent's units got their chance, they opened fire on the nearest unit, the one closest to them on the road. Of course, I asked, "Can I return fire?" and was told that I could not do that until my unit was next activated. Which put me in the awkward position of having to decide whether to stop all movement down the road (the strange leap frogging movement) and leave them out of range or have the rear movements move up where they could then take fire but not return fire.

Which is an interesting dilemma but one that does not resemble eighteenth century warfare as I understand it at all. If I recall correctly the game ended with a pair of giant melees as my forces and his wound up in hand to hand combat. I forget who won, but if someone asks, tell them I did.

After the game, I whined and complained about how the rules did not resemble 18th C warfare at all and was told "that's because they are a skirmish game. And look at them, see the rules for Scotsmen in Panama and Satanic cults? Isn't that cool?" Yeah, whatever. People have told me over the years that sometimes I am too negative and when other people are having fun, I should not criticize what they are doing if it doesn't hurt anybody.

So, in conclusion, a lot of people think Donnybrook is fun, and when they are using it to have fun, they aren't hurting anybody.

There . . . wasn't that much nicer than reminding people with how much I hate these rules?

I'm a good boy, it seems. 

Donnybrook Rules, while not able to recreate historical combat,
they don't actually hurt anybody and some people like them even if they shouldn't

Another shot of my 28mm Jaeger collection

Next time, more on this set of rules.

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