Return to Andreivia and Arc of Fire

I've managed to persuade a few of my regular drinking buddies to try wargaming for the first time. The plan at present is to have a go at a simple game in a couple of weekends' time. I don't expect to convert any of them to the hobby but it would be nice if they had a frame of reference for our "What are you doing this weekend?" conversations.

I gave them a choice of four games including 4th century Romans vs Picts, 15th century Burgundians and Swiss, and a rerun of my Port Gibson ACW game. In the end, though, they chose an early twentieth century adventure; in fact a return to Andreivia with a scenario I wrote to run about 12 months ago but that fell though the cracks for some reason.

The game will involve a rogue Turkish officer who has gained control of some experimental poison gas shells. Certainly British and possibly Andreivian forces will be attempting to take the gas shells off his hands. Arc of Fire will be the rules in use.

I don't need to build any additional units or terrain for the game but I have today improved the paint-job on this Raventhorpe white metal Laffly armoured car...

Don't go blowing the image up to look at the detail. It's not a great job but pin-washing and dry brushing have lifted it a little.

One reason for including Arc of Fire among the options was that it's a set of rules I can run with my eyes closed. I could consider dropping unit modes and random events from the rules for this game for simplicity. However, to me they are such important factors in making the game a fun narrative experience. 

In fact I'm adding another complication for this one. Certain units, such as the British Mark V tank, have special rules. For the Mark V the rule is:

Poorly Designed:

If subject to red-then-black, make a Tac roll. If failed, the crew immediately abandon the vehicle leaving the hatches open to ventilate out hot air and fumes. Note that they may leave the tank moving and walk alongside it. They may not return to the vehicle for the remainder of this game turn.

The reference to "red-then-black" reflects a new approach I'm trying here. The Mark V tank will normally activate like any other unit. However, if its card comes up immediately after the Red Joker is drawn and the Black Joker has previously been drawn this turn (i.e. the combination of cards that does not trigger a Random Event) the Poorly Designed special rule takes effect.

The idea is to have a trigger that doesn't come up often and that can be used to demonstrate the peculiarities of this particular unit. The Mark V's engine-cooling radiator was inside the fighting compartment and this was a known problem!

That's the rules position, then. I'll post something about the game itself on the Andreivian Tales blog shortly.