Scurge of the Solo Wargamer - Stat Lines Part 1 of N

Playing Solo wargames can be fun, the only problem is that most rulesets are not designed for solo gaming, and those that have a solo option to play often have their solo elements tacked on to a two player ruleset, there aren't really any wargames I know of that were built as a solo experience from the ground up.

So what's the main problem when it comes to solo gaming?

In my experience it's looking up statlines. I'm happy to play both sides when there's no decent engine to run an AI opponent the only problem is you don't have two minds to remember statlines. This creates a constant flicking from game to army list or game to the more convenient but still tedious unit card. The goal then is to create a game that either has no statlines - every body hits on a 4+, or whereby the stats are there but invisible. How is that possible?

I've wondered about using a card driven system. Where each unit has a card for each stat - move, shoot, melee etc. And when the card is drawn the unit can choose to act upon the card or save the card. When the unit acts upon the card the card has the stat written on it - '5+' for example - roll your D6, no need to look it up. The problem comes with armour, or defence values, because as 'passive' stats a character wouldn't have the card in the deck. What would you do if you drew your characters 'armour' card? Nothing, but maybe save it for an attack... and then if your character hadn't drawn their armour card would they die instantly from an attack? Another idea I had was to write the defence value of the character on the base, but that can mess with the aesthetics of a game, and annoyingly practically excludes a character improvement system... unless you're willing to keep painting over and painting new numbers on bases. Hit points then seem a likely system. A higher defence character simply has more hit points. This works well enough... but does have the added drawback of the need to keep track of hit points, which for me normally means dice cluttering up the play area.

Is there an easy solution? Is this even a problem, or is it just me? Stay tuned as I mull this one over and come back with a part 2.

My 15mm Miniatures So Far

As promised here are pics of my progress with my 15mm.co.uk order, I apologise for the yellowishness of the pics, I don't currently have a white light to hand.

 Here's a Gort style 'Robotic Servant', he was very easy to paint. I gave him an  once over with silver and ran a small amount of black wash around his ears, neck, belt and cuffs. I then picked out his visor with blue and attempted to paint a gem effect on it, which had limited success, but it works for me.

 Here's a Heavy Tracked Automata. I wanted my Automatons to be painted very quickly, so I went with black and dry brushed silver, only picking out the eyes with red.

 My Ghoulani are not in the traditional red and grey colour scheme. I went for a desert yellow uniform,  purple skin and red eyes.

 Each part of the Ghoulani are highlighted twice to really make them stand out. I struggled to highlight the elbows and knees which you'll notice have extra but tiny detail, so I ran a brown wash over them instead.

 The eyes were tough, I have extremely shaky hands, but the gem effect came out a darn sight better on them than on the Robotic Servant's visor.

Finally your standard Automaton, painted in exactly the same way as the Heavy Tracked Automaton.
Thanks for stopping by!
WGP

15mm Erin

My package from 15mm.co.uk arrived and I have been a busy boy painting, I'll be uploading pictures of my progress as soon as I find my camera. Until then, I was browsing Alternative Armies and 15mm thinking of all the dream projects I could start, my first Slaughterloo army, a regular fantasy army using AA fantasy miniatures, adding more to my Ion Age collection or finally collecting the entire Asgard sci fi range (which I have promised myself I will do one day). Then there's Erin, a game which I have been feasting my beady eyes on for a very long time, and I probably would buy it, if there wasn't so little about it online and I had so little money to put into war gaming. This made me think about scale, what if I could find some miniatures on 15mm that would work as proxies? Then I would be well away to playing Erin considering a 16 miniature warband could cost as little as £4.
The Milesians are your average human types. Fantastically at 15mm under their HOT range there is an existing range of Celtic Mythology humans so there's no problem fielding some 15mm Milesians.
The Formorians are a pretty unique looking brand of Orcs. So on 15mm I checked out the HOT Orcs all are pretty suitable but one set in particular that stood out to me were the 'Mountain Orcs' that have a very Formorian appearance.
Nemedians can be put together from the 'Minotaur Warband' from the Tabletop Fantasy range, a part from that I'd consider filling their ranks with the HOT Dogmen.
The Sidhe could be thrown together using the HOT Elves even though they don't quite have the right aesthetic. Your only other real option from 15mm would be to use the Celtic Myth humans we've already got down for the Milesians.
The Fir Bolg are the biggest issue you will face. There are a few options though, you could put together a warband from the models in the Historical Isarus range, or, if you wanted something a little different you could use the HOT undead. This is for no other reason than in the other game I know of that looks at the Celtic Invasion cycle 'Celtos' the Fir Bolg are undead. I am reluctant to use the undead though, because Formorian magic is capable of raising the dead, so I wouldn't want to commit them to another force.

Hopefully that gives you a little something to ponder, getting into Erin can be much cheaper.
Thanks for stopping by!
WGP