"Scrum in Miniature" Topic

Just wanted to drop a line letting folks know that I've decided to start a blog to share some of my battle reports, home-brewed skirmish scenarios, and my wife's photography of our games. Scrum in Miniature: A Field Marshal's Campaign Journal's first post went up a couple of days ago detailing my Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes game from last weekend.

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Any feedback appreciated! Thanks…

Joe

OK, feedback:

The layout is nice, and the minis look really good.

The photos are good; that's not easy since many people make them too dark or too light. I personally like the low angle, but I think some high angle shots will be needed to give some idea of where everyone is on the table.

I would rather see the stats, victory conditions, and special rules at the start, rather than the end, but I liked being able to see them. Lets me know what's going on "under the hood."

Here's how I thought the game went: It looks like a band of orcs and goblins spend a looong time getting to a bridge. The heroes rush to the bridge, but I don't have a sense of where they came from or if it was a close-run thing (it didn't look close in the photos). Goblin archers shoot, but I don't know if it had any effect. An elf got killed by orcs, there was some standing around, and then the orcs ran away. (I guess they got tired of standing around.)

Thus, My Main Issue: I would have liked fewer of the same type of photo, and more description of what was going on. I don't need back stories or a lot of extra fluff, but I think a little more description about what's going on would make a huge difference.

I tried writing a couple of AAR's on BGG, and I decided that you can either play or write, but it's a royal pain to do both well, so my hat's off to you. Good job overall.

Thanks! I think everything you say is spot on. I definitely put little time into recreating the action as it unfolded in the game, as a proper battle rep would require. In fact, the pictures aren't even in the proper order to do that! Like you said, it can take a tremendous amount of time to write up proper battle reports, so I opted to just provide some flavor of the game with the photos and an occasional caption. Definitely only have time for broad strokes, and not a play-by-play breakdown. Because I had bothered to work up the warbands myself and wrote down the special scenario rules for the other players, I decided I might as well include those in the blog, too.

Thanks for the candid and supportive feedback. If nothing else, hopefully folks will enjoy the evocative photos and glean some inspiration from them and my scenario notes for their own games.

Glad I didn't come across as a jerk. If you want to do a much shorter AAR, I'd suggest looking at some of the ones on TMP. A few people do really short AAR's, but there is a larger number that run "previews" in order to get you to check out their blog. Some of the preview ones are first rate, with 2-3 good pictures and a paragraph or two of story.

Just a comment.

I love the painting color scheme of your vintage GW orcs and goblins. Really unique and effective mix of green, brown, and yellow.

First off, your painting is great. The figures look wonderful. Love the look of the table as well.

I'd agree that a few more shots from a higher angle would help things. Many thanks for posting!

Thanks, Gone Fishing, and everybody else. Can't take credit for the painting…I commission that part of the process. I wish I had any talent in that area. But I do appreciate a beautifully painted miniature!

We managed to get another fun skirmish in this weekend. I cooked up a scenario titled the "The Homeless Fire Giants." Lots of photos and scenario notes at the link to my blog, Scrum in Miniature:

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That was really cool. Thanks for sharing. Gave me some ideas for later when I can get back to gaming again.