A Different New Project

 The Portable Colonial Wargame project never really got off the ground.  I didn't get units printed before we left LA and it took a long time to get the 3D printer set up at the new house, parenting/work really took off, and I had a lot of designing to do before playing (and still didn't have a real-life opponent).  I had several uniform/head combinations for European forces, but didn't get any terrain,the sword-bearing, or non-uniformed troops done. 

Before leaving LA, I made a quick mock-up of pieces for Two Hour Wargame's Charioteer, which I got printed and primed just in time to move.  I painted them roughly and played a few games.  It plays really well, but of course I wanted to make some tweaks.  The first significant tweak is changing it from chariot racing in the Roman Empire to American Stock Car Racing.  It is just a more approachable theme for the people I'm more likely to play with.  

I also feel a need to tweak some of the mechanics.  The key engine is picking up several dice and determining successes based on a 4+.  Any bonuses earned are implemented by giving the player another dice to roll.  Since each dice has a 50% chance of success, calculating how many dice a player needs to roll to defeat an AI opponent is very easy.  I found myself calculating odds instead of just trying to play.  I do a lot of math work at work and want to be able to turn off that part of my brain while playing so I need to do something to address the ease of calculating results.  I've set upon converting the primary mechanic from buckets of dice to 2D6 with a minimum of modifiers.  I think I've kept the intent of Charioteer, albeit with a more modern feel and hopefully lower dice count and more unpredictability.  

Charioteer's AI will require some minor modifications to suit stock car racing.  This involves fleshing out the AI to let it consider how much damage it has sustained and its relative strength compared to it opponent before spending a majority of its bonus on a foregone conclusion or throwing most of its fortunes in hopeless situations.  This will allow it to be more aggressive when it sees an advantage, but preserve itself to limp back to the pits if necessary.

I have also been designing simple models to play with.  Below are some mockups.  They paint fairly quickly, but the pillars around the windshield are a little tricky and making any sort of design other than the roof and body being different is beyond my skill.  I cannot seem to get a straight line to save my life.  Luckily for me, numbers will be provided via my wife's Cricut machine.