Operation Coffeyville

Nearly five years on, I've still got my little Norman force and its simple early medieval village with cabbage patch and vacant pig pen.  There's still work to do, but it has been a fun project and one I plan to keep working on, if not with my full attention.

While I enjoyed SAGA for the most part, the rules struck me as being patchy and built more on exceptions than rules.  The turn phases were byzantine and kept us going back to the rulebook constantly.

Luckily, there's a new version of SAGA on the shelves and supposedly it fixes a lot of the first one's sins.  While I would really like to pick up a copy, I've been dragging my feet on doing so.  The new rulebook is only £10, which is great, but the necessary "Age of Vikings" supplement is another "£30.  It's not that I can't splash out nearly $50 on a new ruleset, but damn if there aren't a lot of other shinies out there competing for my very limited hobby spend.

And that brings me to the most recent direction, or as I'm calling Operation Coffeyville after a disastrous event in the annals of rapid bank withdrawals.

While sourcing reasonably priced structures for my Norman settlement, I came across 4Ground and it's outstanding range of MDF kits.  Most of the dark age kits failed to wow me (except the astounding great hall, but that would have been a missed car payment), their growing old west line was stunning.  Bright facades and working batwing doors added to their appeal.

Then there are the figures.  While Artisan and Crusader do some nice models, American manufacturer Knuckleduster has been churning out a huge range of computer-sculpted westerners.  The entire line-up is beautiful and without equal in gaming.

As my previous posted hinted, I've been kicking around ideas for Western gaming for a bit.  In the last few years I've painted a half dozen cowboy figures and picked up a few building kits.

So there it is.  Another project on the table, but not really a project in sense of the SAGA one.  This time it's less structured and lacking a timeline.  While doing this, I do intend to continue my slow development of my SAGA force and scenery.