First of all, a big thank you to all players who have supported MeG and given feedback. It was a challenge to launch a set of rules in a cottage industry manner. I am delighted that so many of you have been enjoying the game and its freshness. I have just about broken even which is not bad for something that was enthusiasm for the hobby.
The most important thing to me in wargaming is fun and community, and using these to grow the hobby. I think we are in a position to do that now with MeG and other colour system games.
Here following is a little more information on the partnership with PSC. Without such a partnership progress would be limited by my lack of time and lack of skills in areas such as production and distribution. In Will and his team I have found kindred enthusiasts with skills that complement my own. I can now focus on rule development and community building.
The feedback from players has allowed us to optimise the rules, lists and points together in just three years – when most rules are far from it after decades. I know some people have found the concept of annual refinements frustrating, but the end result was worth it in my view. No other ruleset has got close to the balance we have achieved. We have the best army feel I have ever seen in my 40 years of gaming and more viable armies as well. We should be proud of this and tell people about the benefits of a job well done.
I have no more ideas and new ideas from players have largely dried up during 2019. It is therefore the perfect moment to make a few final tweaks, lock it down and give it a big marketing push. The PSC partnership will do this fantastically.
Once printed by PSC the rules have to remain stable. So we now have what we all want: an optimised and stable set of rules with market visibility where we can develop the international player communities with confidence. It also gives us the stable base on which to create PDF translations for different markets.
I hope you will all play your part in helping to grow MeG in its second phase of existence. We have strong player communities in the UK, Greece, USA, Australia, France, Belgium and South Africa. We may have one of the largest international gatherings of the last decade at the IWC Brussels in Jan 2020 (8 Greeks and 12 Brits planning on attending). Pacto and Magna are already being played (we do 28mm Pacto in RSA). Once the Compendium is out we can bring new players into Ancients, and existing players into MeG with relatively small armies.
To support development I am creating two official roles in each country – the Ambassador and Calendar King. Ray Duggins and Robin Spence have picked up these roles for the UK and I hope some of the pioneers will be keen to do so in other countries.
Rule materials will move from TWZ to www.mortemetgloriam.com, which will be the site to go to for all things MeG. Going forward every ruleset will have its own dedicated branding, website and forum.
A range of MeG figure sets is being made using a new plastic technology that has blown me away with its quality. The first ones will be out for Salute 2020 covering Huns, Goths and Imperial Romans. The box sets will give you all the figures and bases for a Pacto army in one economical box set. We should have about a dozen sets out by the end of 2020. I doubt anyone will be able to tell the difference between my plastic and metal ones.
We are going to make it easy to make a MeG game look stunning. We are putting a big drive into the look with an entire set of battlemats and terrain mats along with discs, cards and accessories that will blend into the tabletop.
Salute will feature us with a participation game called The End of Attila, where a few thousand people can see how great the game can look, and how easily they can pick up being a MeG general. We will have the game running in Pacto and Maximus at the same time, showing off the fast small game and the big battle game together.
The rules, figures and accessories will be promoted to several thousand wargamers and dozens of retailers by PSC, and featured in a lot of their marketing. In short, MeG will become visible and known by the masses rather than within the community we have built by word of mouth.
The World Championship will be PSC sponsored and is scheduled for June 27/28 at Battlefield Hobbies new premises in Daventry. I hope to see many of you there.
For Spartans, TWZ will remain as a PSC retailer and stock the rules and accessories. The 20% discount on rules and accessories will still exist, and you can claim this by going to TWZ and buying from there. We will attach a Spartan code to your account.
As regards free army lists, I have ensured in the agreement that all MeG lists will remain on-line for free. So there is no change to the commitment we made a few years ago.
We will do army list books but in a different way, by having books that cover the most prominent armies of the great generals, with more history, ready-made armies and some ready-made battle refights to play. Richard Jeffrey-Cook has agreed to work on the first of these for the classical period. It should be a fantastic book.
In summary, we have finished building some very strong foundations now we can push MeG (and other games using the colour system) forward as something more in-keeping with its appeal. I am looking forward to a decade and more of playing and enjoying the game.
My vision of having a set of rules with a common core where switching between periods is easy is also within reach. When I can move between Ancient, Napoleonics, WW2 and Renaissance with ease I will be delighted – I like them all.
While most of my event gaming will be MeG, my development time will now switch to WW2 with a 1-1 mass skirmish game called Men of Steel and the WiC 39-45 battle rules. If you like WW2 come and join in the testing. I will also be working on ReG with Alasdair.
Finally I recently I developed a game using the colour system called Invasion Earth (Martian invasion set in Victorian times), and this is deliberately pitched to give people an easy entry to wargaming and a way to migrate from Sci-Fi to historical gaming. We need only gather a small percentage of modellers and Sci-Fi enthusiasts into historical gaming to grow our player base significantly. Give it a try – it’s a lot of fun.
To growing the hobby and having fun along the way,