Wargames Illustrated 277 (at a glance)

This issue has got some offbeat material for some favorite periods, and I really like it. Highlights include the Russian offensive into Hungary (Flames of War/late war), the Haitian Revolution (late 18th Century), and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland (late 12th Century). We also get a little taste of hilarious sci-fi gaming with Howard Whitehouse's "Eat Hitler" mix of Nazis and dinosaurs. The magazine also debuts a new feature - Quick Fire Scenarios. 

I'll go into a little more detail in a future post, but I will leave you with a few thoughts. I like interesting articles that explore different perspectives of any given (and maybe even well-worn) military period and offer new gaming ideas in the bargain. All the major highlights noted above will let you put some new use to miniature troops that normally march across the field in other places (or even other times - and I'm not just talking about the sci-fi game).

Spooky Adventures: Tammeraut's Fate

Every now and then, I think it's fun to really bring some horror elements to a role-playing game. I don't think this is necessarily an easy thing to do. I mean, a lot of the mundane monsters in a fantasy RPG would seem rather scary to me - but they are so common and the heroes are...well, heroes. I think a lot of it comes to writing style and game design - if the adventure can hold back some mystery and grab the characters (literally) unexpectedly, then you got something. 

One of the best D&D adventures I've run as a GM was Greg A. Vaughan's "Tammeraut's Fate" from Dungeon # 106. The author took a classic horror film idea - stranded on an island and under siege by zombies - and really made something that resonates. 
It did not seem like a tired cliche or dull or anything less than a suspenseful series of scary encounters. It was kind of fun to do a little give and take on pushing the adventure - the player characters need to drive a bit, otherwise they rightly feel that they are only reacting to situations - BUT - I think they got a kick out of knowing that the situation was out of control while they investigated the island's hermitage. It was tense and they knew they were up against some dark forces even before the sea zombies showed up. As a GM, these are the kind of moments you work towards - when the players are scrambling, using desperate imagination and tactics to get their characters out the other side of the adventure.



This gem from 2004 can be found as a hard copy or PDF from Paizo here.

Early Imperial Romans and Small Battles

I have recently added Dr. Phil Hendry's wargames website to my blog lists. I can't even begin to tell you about the all the Roman-related articles and wargame army projects you will find there.

Besides his website, you find a number of his articles on the Warlord Games website. His most recent piece there makes a GREAT argument for playing small scale Roman battles that may have little do with with standard wargame army lists and popular conceptions. Check out the 'Vindolanda Strength Return' article here. If you do a search on Dr. Hendry on the Warlord site, you get quite a few results here. 

I have thought a long time about exploring small battles and skirmish games in the Early Imperial Period. More than anything else, I believe my efforts would have to start with a core force of auxiliaries. So for today's visual candy, I am posting the box cover to Warlord Game's Plastic Imperial Roman Auxiliaries. 

L5R: Empire at War Scorpions Score!

I tried out my new Scorpion deck from the recent Empire at War release for AEG's Legend of the Five Rings card game. The deck did not do too bad - and all I used was what came in the starter. Considering I have played as well as I do when I have constructed a deck - well, that probably says something about my skill and how good the cards were.


Of course, there were lots of cool synergies to be had, and they actually seemed to fit well with my regular Scorpion "deck of tweaking," which uses a lot of samurai/Bitter Lies kensai and ninjas. Take a look at the Fortress of Blackened Sight stronghold at the right - now that's a good card for the multi-weapon kensai personalities for sure. 

And did you notice the Limited Action ability? That worked great for me. If you pair this up with an Artificer (or three) , you have the ability to really go through those Fate cards. Nothing like getting the weapons or sneaky ninja action cards when you can use them.


Another potential synergy was a ninja actor personality that could replace a non-Unique dead personality. The ninja actor is absolutely dirt cheap too. If you haven't found someone you need to replace, you can play some of your favorite ninja action cards off of the character. I hesitated to attach any weapons, afraid of losing them, but then I realized that a number of weapons in the deck could easily transfer to another character. That's a good combo.

For what it's worth, I'm not a huge fan of collectible card games. I like this game for all the fantasy roleplaying atmosphere it brings to the table. The Celestial Edition relaunch from last year seems to have really gone some way to making casual play very enjoyable, which I thought was one of the game's original strengths back in the mid-90s. Everyone likes cool cards, and even a serious non-competitor like myself can easily land a few nice ones without having to go to ebay. I don't think my Scorpion starter deck was unique, either. It seems like most starter decks have had some hitting power in them without requiring a lot of boosters, but this one really went over the top.

Pathfinder Bestiary: Petrification & Dragons

I recently launched a Pathfinder RPG campaign. I highly recommend the game if you liked D&D 3.5 - I know that some folks consider it D&D 3.75. I still catch myself calling it Dungeons & Dragons. 

In my first post, I mentioned that I had purchased the game's Bestiary as a PDF. I liked it so much, that I had to get my hands on an actual hard copy through the local gaming store. I don't bring the laptop to the gaming table too much and I tire of printing stuff, especially if I just need a quick flip reference. 

Paizo really got the Bestiary right. I expected some measure of revision of flavor, but was unsure how the mechanics would get tweaked. I am leisurely studying the tome, so I'm sure I'll have more discoveries that haven't leaped out at me. Here's one thing that already put the monster catalog over the top for me: petrification attacks.

The D&D game has had several monsters capable of turning our heroes into stone since its earliest days in the 1970s: basilisk, cockatrice, gorgon, and medusa come readily to mind. They do it variously by gaze, breath, or bite. As the game has evolved, the variety focused primarily on the attack method, although the save mechanic changed with the D&D 3rd Edition (ie. some monster petrification attacks were harder to resist than others). 

Pathfinder Bestiary has spiced this dynamic even more. A failed saving throw might not immediately result in petrification with most of the previously mentioned monsters, except for the medusa - and that's just the way it ought to be. The designers added some interesting ways to overcome the petrifying process in some cases as well.  

I can also say they got the dragons right too. Their powers seem very intuitive and I catch myself thinking how awesome they seem - again. One of the best things that ever happened to the game was when TSR restructured and boosted the power of dragons in 2nd Edition. In my opinion, they have made another great leap with Pathfinder. 

Kudos to Paizo for doing such a great job with the monsters we love to battle.

Updating Blog

I've added some new gadgets to the blog. Finally, there is a search button - not sure why I waited. Also, I have a popular posts section - quite frankly, for my own amusement. I am surprised by some of the items that currently rank as the most-viewed posts. 

Next week I will probably drop a few lines about L5R's new Empire at War expansion. I picked up a clan deck for the Scorpions and was quite pleased at all the cool stuff I found in it. There's some gaming goodness about Paizo's Pathfinder RPG 'Bestiary' I want to share as well.

Of course, expect more on Black Powder this fall.

Black Powder & Battle Cry

I have  strayed somewhat from my beloved Ancients and Dark Ages periods. One ruleset that I anxious to get more experience with is Warlord Games' Black Powder. 

I probably don't have to say a whole lot here about this ruleset - it's not like it hasn't been one of the biggest events of wargaming in recent years. It's got Rick Priestley and awesome production values. There's plenty of in-depth reviews to be found. This isn't one of them.


I don't have the resources (time, money, patience) to collect a bunch - or even a few - 18th/19th Century armies to play this game in the way it is magnificently described and illustrated in the rulebook. However,  I am going to give them a tryout using some nice hexboard terrain (probably from Battle Cry and Memoir '44) and some relevant 1/72 scale plastic figures.

While I'm going to start with the American Civil War, I'm going to take a look at some other wars. Right now the East India Company (especially 18th Century), the Seminole Wars, the American War of Independence, and late 19th Century colonials are of interest. For anyone interested in exploring the world of the soft plastic soldiers, I have included Plastic Soldier Review in the links section. I'll post some (very brief) battle reports, orders of battle, and that kind of thing on the blog once we get started. 


Oh yeah - Warlord Games offer some free Black Powder PDF downloads of a Quick Ref Sheet, Army Roster, and FAQs, which may be found on the Black Powder gaming page.

Awesome Scenario/Game Designer Article in WI 276

John Desch's "Polishing That Old Gem" from WI 276 (the Chariots issue) is absolutely awesome. The article takes us step by step - from figures to command & control to combat rules - on how the author translated the historical accounts of the Franco-Prussian War into games of Fire & Fury, and then converted them to Black Powder. He gives a ton of specifics and offers great guiding principles. Also, I think the material demonstrates Black Powder's versatility - it's got some fantastic templates regarding morale, drill, and combat that you can use to tweak your game to match the historical narrative you want to tell on the tabletop.

I was most pleased with the piece - if you couldn't guess - and plan to use Desch's advice when I tackle some upcoming projects. Highly recommended article for anyone who loves to work up scenarios and run games for other players.

Coming Soon: Wargames Illustrated Does Chariots

I'm eagerly awaiting my copy of WI 276 with its chariot-era theme. Now I don't collect chariot armies, but I have enjoyed a biblical period game or two in the past. Mostly, I just want to learn a little more about the period and how it translates onto the table. There are plenty of cool periods that I rarely get to experience, and this is one that deserves more coverage.

Here's a link to the WI website preview. One thing that jumps out is that Jim Graham is doing the intro piece on the chariots theme. Jim did a great job with the Greeks a few issues back and I expect even old hands at chariot gaming will discover something new. 


Another thing that intrigues me is the modeling article on constructing chariots. I'm hoping this will involve a little bit of balsa wood. After researching chariots from later periods (ie. Classical Antiquity), I think gamers could do with some more variety than might be found in manufacturer offerings - especially in the 25mm/28mm scale. I'm hoping we see some widely applicable tips here. 

UPDATE (Sept 25)
I received my copy the other day and have been working my way through the articles after the usual skimming of the entire issue. Jim Graham does a top-notch job on several chariot articles. Some good modeling advice on the chariot construction using a manufacturer kit and Paul Davies really scores with a how-to article on field defenses.  

D&D 3rd Edition Epiphanies: Kobolds, Charisma, and Sorcerers

It just occurred to me that me that it's the 10th anniversary of the launch of D&D 3rd Edition (the core rulebooks - Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual - were released between August and October 2000). For a year I had been grooving on the interesting revamps of a game that I dearly loved, eagerly reading the preview tidbits published in Dragon magazine. The d20 mechanic - "one rule to rule them all" - replaced pretty much every system and gave the game a universal structure for just about everything - combat, saving throws, and skill checks. The concept was simple - roll high.

There was a lot more done to the game than that, some of it seemingly cosmetic, some of it simply interesting evolutions all their own or derived from the flow of the literally game-changing d20 system. Spell systems took a big change and even monsters became codified by type. It was revolutionary in many ways.


For me, the it comes down to kobolds, Charisma, and sorcerers. These items embody the core concepts of how the game had changed for the better in my mind. I suppose I should explain...

The 3rd edition of the game actually made Charisma a useful ability to have. It played a stronger role in certain classes - especially the sorcerer, bard, and paladin - but also the cleric. For too long it was the dump ability for too many players - the place to put a low score. It did not readily lend itself to quantifiable benefits - especially in combat. With 3e, Charisma powered a lot of  skills and, er, powers.

The sorcerer was a new alternate to the studious wizard, an arcane spellcaster who based his powers on Charisma instead of Intelligence. For years I had read articles and letters to the editor that wanted an alternate magic system in place. In some ways, this was a good answer to that kind of thinking. As far as that goes, the bard received some much-needed focus that put the class squarely in the spellcaster realm; it used a spell acquisition system very similar to the one used by the sorcerer.


And, finally, there's the lowly kobold, who might happen to be a sorcerer! The kobolds in past editions were such weenies that even 1st-level heroes didn't have much problem with them. Now the little nuisances could be quite nasty, especially with leaders and champions that had class levels like any player character. 

That's it for game design appreciation class today!

Hollow's Last Hope Hits High Marks - And It's FREE!

Paizo gave D&D (and future Pathfinder) players a really great introductory adventure with module D0: Hollow's Last Hope, their offering for Free RPG Day 2007. In fact, this great item is still free as a PDF. 


It's got the right mix of altruistic, monetary, and magic rewards. It engages players with  doses of combat and skill challenges. The foes are varied and interesting - hobgoblin hunter, a guardian cauldron, and tricky worg are just the highlights - and I almost forgot the creepy tatzelwyrm! It's also got both wilderness and dungeon settings - enough to get everyone's feet wet. Honestly, it gives new players a taste of what the best fantasy RPG games are about, 
kind of in the way that CS Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle gently brought their readers into contact with strange new worlds that would soon prove much, much more scary and exciting.

Hollow's Last Hope serves as a prelude to the D1: Crown of the Kobold King. It's hardly necessary to enjoy the Crown, but the monastery illustration and map feature in Hollow's Last Hope might come in handy for some extra encounters.



You can go to Paizo.com and download this free PDF on this page.

New Forest Flip-Mat from Paizo

I've mentioned Paizo's great two-sided tabletop accessories before (click on the just-added Flip-Mats label for more) - they are durable and have a great amount of utility. I have used their old forest flip-mat for years now - and will continue to do so after I purchase the newer version - but I know that the new one will look great with our RPG minis and monsters moving across them. The forest has got to be the quintessential terrain of any fantasy RPG I've played or ran - I mean, it's right on the way to the dungeons and caves, right? It's right up there with the cheerless meal by campfire and trying to sort out the night watch as far as fantasy gaming goes. 

Anyway - check out that meandering set of paths to the right! I don't think you could expect more curvy ambush spots in a cavern. 

Click here to see Paizo's description of the product and get a look at the sample sides. I could be wrong, but in the past, the sample sides of any flip-mats I've purchased had no detectable changes in graphics.

How to Explore A New Wargaming Period (or Revisit an Old Favorite)

I've talked about some epiphany moments in regards to fantasy role-playing games before on the blog. Today I thought it would be cool to mention something about diving into a new wargaming period with the right kind of spirit. 

Chris Scott's article, "The Sneak of the Sudan," found in Miniature Wargames #137 (October 1994) still makes me think to this day. I couldn't find a digital image of the cover, but I did find that they used part of the cover in a digital collection available here and pictured above. You don't have to be a fan of 19th Century colonials to appreciate the content - Mr. Scott sets a good example to follow.


One of the things that is right up front is the element of fun. It's obvious that the author and his chums are having a good time researching the period, collecting figures, playing the games, and creating/tweaking rules. Their efforts make a richer experience for all parties - they learn something and get into a friendly competition of out-sneaking the other. 


I love the way the guys go about building their forces. In addition to new figures and models, they hunt the bring & buy/flea markets at conventions to create hodgepodge armies of manufacturer ranges. Mr. Scott goes so far as to draft plastic toy camels into his army (adding supply bags and a paint jobs). He and his friend even make some conversions of just out-of-period artillery and boats - you get the idea. Their armies had a lot of character.


I don't know if they used a published set of rules or not, but they certainly felt free to add in scenario rules for fatigue, movement, etc to make the rules fit historical accounts. This is the right kind of attitude to have. If a historical game can't be played with the rules as written, then change them for that game. 


That's it for the inspirational soapbox today...

Wargames Illustrated #275

I think anyone expecting a standard treatment of the Age of Agincourt/Crecy with WI 275's English Bowman theme will be pleasantly surprised. They are one of those iconic warrior groups that have needed some refreshing coverage for medieval wargaming - and they get it here.

Neil Smith puts in the lion's share of articles on the subject. I enjoy Neil's style - he's got a knack for relating a historical narrative with some flair and humor. He does a great job of making Crecy a tough scenario (and not just for the French). Hindsight and mythology have kind of given us the impression it was a simple matter for the English bowmen to slaughter the mounted French knights; Neil gives players a way to bring something closer to the historical reality to the tabletop. 


John Bianchi gives readers a World War I article with "Disaster at Caporeto." The pages - and there's eight of them - are packed with info and a cool scenario. Furthermore, the WI website has more of John's supporting material here.  If you want to see some great tabletop pics of Scarab Miniatures' Austro-Hungarians and Italians, this one is also for you. Kudos also to the terrain set up on this article as well. 


Flames of War content continues the Blitzkrieg coverage, with a lot of highlights on French armored forces. I think this material may give readers pause if they think the fall of France in 1940 was inevitable and if they readily dismiss the ability and willpower of the French military. 


I've really only talked a little about this issue. Go the WI website to see a full summary of the articles here.

Star Frontiers

OK - I think I have found the perfect sci-fi RPG for Wargame Factory's Shock Troopers (see my post on these retro-futurist soldiers): Star Frontiers. 

TSR made a much-improved attempt at sci-fi gaming with this product in 1982. I know there's lots of Gamma World fans out there - and the fact that Wizards of the Coast is giving the game the 4e treatment must say something about that. But at the time, Star Frontiers offered a much more controlled environment/rules system. Granted, it was set in space and not post-apocalyptic Earth - but that did not stop us from bringing those elements to the game.

I think the d20 Modern and its sci-fi supplements could offer some good ground rules as well. From my very limited review of those rules, they do seem a bit complicated to me (at least compared to 3rd Edition D&D). About the only drawback I can recall about Star Frontiers - beside the bad grenade rules which needed some common sense or an errata sheet to fix - is that character advancement seemed rather lackluster.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

With all the recent posts on fantasy and sci-fi gaming inspired by works of fiction, let's take a look a classic D&D module, S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The premise of the adventure was that the fantasy heroes explore what turns out to be a large chunk of an alien ship embedded in a mountain. The module makes the assumption that the characters are not familiar with concepts of beings from other worlds or space travel (beings from other planes of existence is a different matter). It encourages the gamemaster to describe the technological items (space suits, energy weapons, robots) with terminology of a medieval fantasy mindset. A really nice booklet of illustrations accompanied the adventure; if used well, it could set up an interesting dichotomy between the spoken description and the actual image. 


The spaceship had apparently been the source of monsters that troubled the local kingdoms; I believe a lot of the creatures had escaped or been ejected by the robotic janitors. The characters had to navigate security clearance doors, elevator shafts, and maybe radiation. There's all kinds of plant creatures and bizarre monsters. Of course, there's a mind flayer or two - can't remember, but I think they were dressed as normal space crewmen.


Does the adventure work? Well, for starters, it is massive. I think there's about six levels with plenty of rooms. I can't recall if there was anything driving an informed exploration of the ship. 
I think one thing the adventure has going for it in this sense is that the players might be willing to go through every single room on the off chance that they might find a treasured blaster or the like.

I haven't run this module since the early 80s, but I think I would have to make some changes to help keep the pace moving along.  It might be worth spreading the different levels around to form a decentralized complex that allowed partial exploration. Something like this would definitely fit in with fantasy worlds that emerged from a forgotten technological society. Alternately, I kind of like the idea that the characters are not ignorant of a lost technologically advanced past - and may even interact with its legacy from time to time.

Spinning Fantasy Settings: Go Ape! Again!

Picking up from the last post on taking inspiration from Marvel Comics' adaptations and original series of the Planet of the Apes movie franchise...  What else do we have that could work in fantasy or sci-fi roleplaying  games? 


Well, there's gorillas who embraced the (fantasy) Viking way of life and a pair of frontiersmen (Steely Dan and Gunpowder Julius) who sailed a riverboat and used muskets.

Then there's what amounts to secret societies of mutant scientists who create gorilla-cyborgs and giant tank-supported brains who relied on genetically engineered mutant drone servants. For the latter it would easy to see mindflayer elders or almost any of the mind-controlling aberrations of the D&D game in charge of cloned goblins with better attitudes towards duty. As for the previously mentioned cyborgs, would it be that difficult to use warforged or other sentient construct stats with cosmetic changes to bring them to the tabletop?


One of my favorite places was the Psychodrome. It was an alien-commanded mountain complex with elevation tubes and subways. I think it also served as a storehouse for military vehicles and weapons. The lone alien commander(?) reminded me of one of the monsters (wizards?) from Fritz Lieber's works. To top it off, "winged monkey demons" roamed the environs. I suppose a GM could go anyway they wanted to with this kind of thing - either as locale of forgotten super science or as a place powered by controlled elementals - and populated to suit the campaign.

Spinning Fantasy Settings: Go Ape!

Marvel Comics acquired the rights to publish adaptations  of the popular Planet of the Apes movies in the early 70s. The comic company slotted POTA for one of its black & white magazine titles, offering readers more mature and graphic content. The movie adaptations were good, but the original series that appeared in the magazine's 29(?) issue run were really imaginative. 

They mixed in all kinds of literary genres and technological/cultural perspectives that took the stories out of the context of the world as it it existed in the first two movies. And this brings me to the fantasy and sci-fi gaming inspiration. I think if I was going to play something like Gamma World or give a sci-fi theme to a fantasy game, I could do worse than bring such interesting elements as appeared in the back-up magazine series such as 'Terror on the Planet of the Apes' and 'Future Chronicles'.

One of the neatest concepts they had was a city-ship dominated by apes in Renaissance dress and technology (I'd guess at least 500 apes). Orangutans and gorillas vied for power, each served by chimpanzee serfs. Of course, a large human population existed below the wooden stories to power the massive juggernaut by oars. While the city-ship came to end through a civil war between the gorillas and orangutans (arranged by the machinations of the human Slinker), the 'Future Chonicles' adventures continued on the high seas. The storyline visited a cosmopolitan ship graveyard state and an encounter with a Nemo "cleanse the sea type" of guy (see the pulp-flavored cover to the right; it doesn't quite evoke the actual taste of the stories). As for the series' art - it was beautifully done by Tom Sutton. The Warhammer Fantasy artwork is very reminiscent of his style. 

So with the above notes, we have gigantic city ships, assassins, racial castes, and retro-futurist ideas ala Jules Verne. Offhand, I could easily see replacing the apes with the D&D goblinoid society of goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears. This sounds like a great encounter - or even an entire setting, especially if the floating city could assume something akin to a Casablanca- style of truce.

More on the Apes later.

Spinning Fantasy Settings: Gene Wolfe's New Sun in RPGs

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, written around 30 years ago, is a great source of inspiration for anyone wanting to run a fantasy RPG campaign. I suppose that technically the series was sci-fi with a heavy dose of mythical elements, but it really feels like fantasy reading even with the futuristic setting. For anyone not familiar with these classic books, they revolve around the tale of Severian, an exile from the Guild of Torturers, who ascends the imperial throne ("through the backdoor") of Earth far in the future - so far in the future that the sun is dying. He lives in a world of where time/space travel, energy weapons, and aliens are the dominion of the most powerful aristocracy, but the great masses live in something akin to pre-industrial technology. The first book is The Shadow of the Torturer, followed by The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch.

The books have a great atmosphere and the reader always gets the feeling their is so much more going on in the world, but it is beyond the character's perspective to quite understand or experience it. This overwhelming disconnect should play a pivotal role in many role-playing games set in some kind of medieval world. The world is big and considering the limitations of accurate information and communication, it should seem even bigger - and dangerous. Even the rulers should be limited in their ability to enforce their will throughout their realms. 

Of course, there's also things like beastmen soldiers who were genetic experiments and neanderthal types of ape men who would fit well in a game. Alien creatures could play a more prominent role as well - dopplegrangers, mindflayers, and other kinds of intelligent aberrations (as classified in the D&D game) wouldn't necessarily have to play behind the scenes in secret plots of conquest. I'm just tossing out a few ideas here, but with a few tweaks to origin stories and place in the game world, a game master could give a vibrant new feel on fantasy game standards. 

And yes - I do know that Gene Wolfe's New Sun setting received the RPG treatment back in the late 90s. I never read the rules, although I did see a write up about it on Wikipedia. I think the setting is best used as inspiration instead of trying to recreate it as written.

Sci-Fi Shock Troops

Shock Troops - box cover front

I don't have a great idea of what I would do with Wargames Factory's new plastic shock troops from their Alien Suns line, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to use them to explore some sci-fi gaming. Follow this link to one of their pages about the product and while you are there, check out the box's back cover for a few more ideas on how to assemble and paint these guys.

These troops look to me like retro-futuristic fascist troopers I have run across in British sci-fi - if not outright, then at least a good dose of flavoring. What comes to mind is Dr. Who's "Genesis of the Daleks" and 2000 AD's Rogue Trooper series (not so much the GIs, but the regulars).

In my mind, I see some RPG or tactical gaming inspired by Star Frontiers or Gamma World. These guys would be great for exploring the ruins of New York or London's underground. There's a lot D&D plastic monster minis that would be perfect for that kind of gaming as well - bullettes, ghouls, and illithids (mindflayers). The ratmen of Warhammer or Warhammer 40K would be a good addition as well. 

More on this if/when I make the leap and get me a box of these neat looking figures. If anyone has some plans or works-in-progress for WF's shock troops, please post a comment or links.