"Brink of Battle - Historical Skirmish Rules Release!" Topic

Hi everyone,

I will be releasing my skirmish rules March 19th, worldwide.

You can read a product description here: PDF link

It retails for $29.95 USD USD. If you have questions, please ask.

Thanks for looking!

Faust

Getting a ? from Adobe when I click on the link.

Brief description from link is a good start.

Id like to see a little more. How they play and so forth.

Im willing to give them a chance.

Reminds me of the Crunchy Frog rules which tried this same thing several years back. I too would want to see more before my cash get plunked down.

Could you tell us a bit about the rule book. How many pages? Is it full color? Who will be stocking it?

I am really impressed that you can cover so wide a time span with one set of rules. Can you give us an idea how you achieved this?

Thanks

Great questions. Let me take 'em one at a time.

Anatoli's Game Room will host the first review/after action report. His reviews are, imo, top notch. I just mailed his copy from the US today, so it'll probably be a couple weeks before that's up. He said he will post on his blog, TMP, LAF, & Steve Dean forums as well.

Rulebook is 139 pages, color cover, black & white interior.

It is not a rule set written to sell miniatures, and it doesn't endorse or promote any line of models. As such it doesn't have ads or fluff, just rules and well illustrated diagrams.

It will be for sale online from my website and lulu store. I will send plenty of notification when that is ready. It goes on sale March 19th.

For those in California, it will premier with full demo tables at ConQuest Sacramento on March 17th & 18th. It will also be carried by The Launch Pad comics & games in Lodi California.

That's the list of what's. Next post is the how's.

The greatest value to my rules is that it plays like 3 different games in one. Each different Period holds true to the styles of fighting available at the time. The players are responsible for keeping each other historically accurate, not the rules. (I know better than to throw my rules between to arguing historical gamers! :) )

A skirmish between Romans and Gauls plays out like it would historically; lot's of hand to hand fighting, with a sprinkle of thrown weapons or bow fire tipping the scales.

A fight between Forlorn Hope's in the Thirty Years' War will play much like it occurred; unreliable firearms clouding the field with smoke, and occasionally wasting targets outright. Push of pike and hand to hand come to the fore, while musketeers spend time reloading.

SEAL Team 6 assualting a compound in the modern era will end much as it does in real life; not much hand combat because people die at distance far more often.

Regardless of the critics who may espouse that you can't have a system that represents multiple historical conflicts without losing the 'feel' of that type of fighting, it can be done.

Ater all, the same human parameters and laws of physics applied to ancient as well as modern times. The only difference between fighting men of all periods is their methods, equipment, and experience.

At the man to man level, this becomes an easier task because individual differences between warriors matter. At a much larger scale, averages play a more distinct role.

So, you pick a specific year from history, say 1500AD. You pick a place, say Italy. You and your opponent build your forces based on what was historically available to your chosen soldiers. In this case, let's say one of you picks German Landsknecht and the other French Gendarmes. You both choose what type of Force Organization you will each use, whether Elite, Standard, or Horde. This gives you the minimums and maximums that you have to choose between three types of models: Commander, Veterans, & Troopers.

You purchase your models, and their Ratings, Traits, & Gear then proceed to Mission selection.

You can either play one off games, or do a campaign that gives your models injuries and experience that can improve or alter their abilities.

I hope that answers a few of the more 'how did you do that' type questions. If you have others, please ask.

Thanks,
Faust

Got the link that time. Sounds intriguing.

The author talked about some of his concepts here:

TMP link

No idea if anything changed.

Thanks,

John

Hey John! Thanks for that link. In changing the name I keep forgetting about some of the previous SFC posts I made!

:)

Core design concepts haven't changed. The rules are cleaner and tighter than they were a year ago. And I'm confident that anyone looking to play at the small skirmish level that gives this a fair shake will be greatly satisfied.

Best regards,
Bob

John said this in another thread….
We need a lite version to get a feel for the mechanics…
I buy lots and lots of rules…some i never play..
But i do get a sense of the mechanics and if it appeals to me i than purchase them…
I like to support new ideas and those doing it mostly on their own….
But i need a feel for the mechanics in the game…
Thank You.

When the website goes live on March 19th there will be examples of play, diagrams, and other info that will give you what you're looking for.

Anatoli's Game Room will have the first online review & battle report, and that will really give you the best overall idea.

As we go forward, there will also be video clips on the website that will show different elements in progress.

For now I'm wrapped up painting Fallschirmjager, US Infantry, TYW Protestant Cavalrymen, Imperialist Foot, and Romans & Gauls for our demo tables at ConQuest Sacramento.

You'll also find photos of those games on the website after.

Thanks for your feedback.

Excellent.

Looking forward to it.

Got word from Anatoli that he received his copy of the book. I won't be long now until we have his review/after action report.

Stay tuned!

Looking forward to seeing the review. I agree that I really have to see some kind of review or (as Mooseheadd suggested) a "lite" version of the basic rules before I can bring myself to plunking down $29.95 USD. But good luck with it! I hope it turns out well for you. If it works, it could solve some of my questions about "How would you game X period".

Yeah, I completely agree about the price point. It's too much cash to spend on an unknown product. The idea IS interesting! But I'd have been way more likely to seriously consider purchasing at 15-20 dollars OR with some detailed info about the mechanics. A review can be good. But frankly, long term you need something on the website to explain things in detail.

Thanks,

John

After Anatoli's review and the website goes live, it will have an example of an entire turn of play. Additionally, I will be spotlighting in separate articles key features many of you have listed.

I don't expect you to run out and buy something sight unseen. :) So don't worry, you will have plenty of information over the next 3-5 weeks.

We will also see another review from a Solo wargamer's standpoint from Terrement. Between the two reviews, supporting examples on the website, and additional battle reports, you should have plenty of information to base a sound decision upon.

:)

Thanks for the feedback; I do listen to it!

Hi! Here is a post by Anatoli on the Lead Adventure Forum that gives a first impression of my game link

Should see a battle report next week!

Hi everyone. Anatoli posted his review here TMP link

Most of your questions are answered in his full write up. His first battle report will be posted today or tomorrow!

Our website it live at brinkofbattle.com

Just to let you know, we have added the Reference Playsheet for Brink of Battle at our website brinkofbattle.com in the Resources section.

You can see a number of important items on there, such as turn sequence, full list of Standard & Combat Action, as well as the cribsheet for Firearms of all 3 periods.

Got a chance to observe Brink being demonstrated at Conquest Sac today – I think I'm going to like this set. I've got to read the rules, and fiddle around with things, but it seems like it's fairly interesting.

Wayne (since that's the name I go by in person.)

Thanks Wayne! My Demo Team guys had a great time showing you the rules.

We're having a blast a ConQuest Sac! We're there all day today, so we'll see you then.

Didn't get to see much of the demos – though they looked great – and didn't get to read through the rules but after talking with "Faust" about them, in person – he seems a pretty good guy, I did buy them. Looking to use them for Three Musketeers (once Blue Moon release their 18 mm range) and with a Robin Hood set up (from Splintered Lights figures – still to buy). And, mind you, I'm not really into one to one skirmish but I figure the rules were worth it just for ideas if nothing else. Seemed like their two demo tables were pretty busy all day Saturday and for the few minutes I was there on Sunday morning (too tired to do much on Sunday after running our giant pirate game on Saturday)

I have decided I need a few "light weight" options in my collection. Will let you know what I think of the rules once I get a chance to dig into them.

Best of luck on selling the rule set. Apparently did good business during the con.

Thanks for your kind words. We had a great time and got to meet lots of nice people.

The Pirates of the Carob Bean game looked awesome! We were bummed we had to skip it, but we had our hands full with our demos as well.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the rules. If you have any questions, please post them to the Official Brink of Battle thread on the LAF here link

Thanks!

Have bought the rules after reading Anatolis reviews. Looking forward to trying them out. Will focus on SAS/LRDG raids in North Africa during WWII.

Thanks for your business Soledad!

Be sure to email me with any questions you have at commander@brinkofbattle.com

Thanks,

Bob