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Orcs in the Hills
Issue 1 - Online Edition Return to the Contents Page
Go Back to the Last Article - Continue on to the Next Article Flintloque News and Reviews from the Winter of 1995 Confidential Despatches aims to provide you with up to date and early news of forthcoming Valon based releases and anything else we hope is of interest. Whilst we hope to be as accurate as possible obviously plans change and we won't get it right all of the time...
Big news on the Flintloque front is that following the Deadloque supplement (which should be out now), the next thing on your shopping list should be Grapeshotte.
Grapeshotte will contain rules for introducing artillery into the Flintloque environment and cover such related nasty things such as booby traps and storming defended breaches! Very bloody and great fun... AA hope to have this out by April 1996.
Miniatures wise, Alternative intend to include horse drawn artillery in with the rules, though exactly whose has yet to be thrashed out. The Rumour Machine TM has hinted that the Dwarf artillery will be towed by pigs rather than horses!
Talking of miniatures the list is seemingly endless:
Originally here was a long list of miniatures and prices, I have removed this as 15 years after the fact it's not that relevant.
AA are also looking at the possibility of releasing various Guerrilla types including Bog Orcs and River Pirates armed with muskets and assorted hand weapons...
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The Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers are intending to run a Deadloque participation game at Britain's Premier Wargames event - Salute.
Salute 96 will be held on Saturday 20th April 1996 at Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8.
The game will be set during the retreat of the Elven Army through the Witch Kingdoms and players will be invited to take the part of Elven sections struggling to rejoin the main body as the hordes of Undead pile down on them.
Expect lots of tense action as the elves try to beat off wave after wave of zombie attacks as wolves, Undead Cossacks and Skeletal Lancers all under GM control add to the confusion - should be good, so make it a date.
It is quite possible that the SFSFW will be using a cut down "large battle" version of Flintloque in order to accommodate the increased number of figures (see below).
Alternative Armies hope to be at the event although thier presence has yet to be confirmed.
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Empire, the mass battle High Napoleonique Black Powder rules promised in both Flintloque and The Duel are scheduled for a September '96 release. Empire will recreate the Divisional leve battles in Valon and will employ the Battalions as it's basic unit (using a figure scale of 1:20ish).
The average game (if there is such a beast) would see a round three battalions of line infantry, skirmishers, a cavalry squadron or two and an artillery battery on each side, though the rules will be able to handle smaller and larger forces.
However Mac at AA is concerned that gamers with large forces of about sixty plus figures may need something as a stopgap, as they may be finding detail in Flintloque unwieldy with this number of figures a side.
Hopefully the enclosed quick play sheet (loose) will have gone some way to making larger games a bit easier, but even so it is still only designed for big Section level games, not Company level ones.
The question is, as Mac sees it, is there a need for a Company level game as an interim? And if so exactly what format should it take? A Company product, a supplement to a Company product or maybe even something published in here?
Steve has already got the framework for such a game designed (having used it as the basis for Flintloque itself!) all we need to know is would you like it, and if so how? Drop us a line and tell us.
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Hopefully you have found the Quick Play Sheet of use, a little more use than the five pages of Quick Reference Sheets included in the Rulebook!
The Sheet has been designed so that you cam keep an easier eye on exactly what figures are doing, such a s loading thier musket etc. The details recorded here are not intended to replace the Unit Roster which is used from game to game, but to make record keeping during a game easier.
You will need to note down details particular to your troops prior to the game, such a s movement, unit status modifiers and weapons being used, but this shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes before the game to do...
*** Flintloque gamers will be pleased to know that Mac and Alternative are so pleased with Flintloque and the response its had from the gaming public that (unlike certain other companies...), they intend to keep developing it for as long as it takes! Deadloque, Grapeshotte and Empire are just the start and the next few years will see many more Valon miniatures and much more gaming material being released.
Obviously a lot of what is being considered is still only in the ideas stage and cannot yet be revealed (if only because AA don't want to get your hopes up for something that may not appear for a couple of years!). Suffice to say that the world of Valon will expand in many new directions before it is in any way fully exploited and you will also see many new races (as well as some innovative reworkings of more standard fantasy ones).
Whatever comes of the future development you will read it here first and also, Orcs in the Hills intends to be at the forefront of this development and allow you the gamer to have the influence of your ideas. So please get involved and remember, you ain't seen nothing yet...
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Orcs in the Hills 2 will be out on the 21st March 1996. Subscription details are on page one. Articles should include rules for providing the Dwarves with steam powered machines of war (well, the Landwehr are so crap...), a conjectural map of south east Valon including the lands of Albion, Krautia, Al-Garvey etc, a look at Dark Elf Mercenaries plus much, much more (as they say in the adverts)...
Readers contributions in any form for Orcs in the Hills are welcome, be they scenarios, background ideas, rules additions or modifications, letters, figure ideas, artwork, battle reports or whatever. We would like to get a lively letters page running soon as well, so please put pen to paper (or keyboard). Orcs in the Hills
Issue 1 - Online Edition Return to the Contents Page
Go Back to the Last Article - Continue on to the Next Article Webmaster's Notes The above article is reprinted exactly as it was in the first issue of Orcs in the Hills magazine, it was published in the Winter of 1995 by Wessex Games. It is included here with permission from the author. |
