Thank you for NUTS!

[menidas]

Edit: Urgh, first post on the forum and I immediately mess up and post this in the announcement section rather than here… well, here I go again:

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I hope this kind of post is okay here, but I just wanted to express my thanks for what NUTS! has made me do and enjoy for the last couple of weeks.

Up until recently wargaming was a long past (but very fond) memory of mine. Through a rather random coincidence I stumbled across a solo review of NUTS and immediately fell in love with the idea and general concept. However, I wouldn’t allow myself to start my first game ill-prepared and so my preparations went into overdrive. I started building a downscaled & modular 15mm wargaming board, printed and painted minis and read the rules over and over again. I‘ve also probably seen all of the NUTS YouTube content that is available and thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay reviews.

And I still haven’t played my first game yet…

But I feel like that almost doesn’t matter to me right now. The hype, my prep-work and all the miniature painting got me back into a hobby I thought I‘d lost. So thank you Ed and the THW team for fuelling my passion again!

I‘ll be sure to write a quick review once I’ve actually played my first game (soon). For now I’m waiting for a few terrain pieces to be finished and will ponder whether to get the Compendium ahead of my first game or not…

photo of my WIP board

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Thanks for posting. Here's a few hints when learning the game. Sub out a 4-man team instead of a squad until you get the hang of things. Ask questions as we have answers. What edition do you have? 4th? That has the optional smoother rule sin the back. If you don't have it let me know.

[menidas]

Apr 14, 2024 21:47:15 GMT Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy said:

Thanks for posting. Here's a few hints when learning the game. Sub out a 4-man team instead of a squad until you get the hang of things. Ask questions as we have answers. What edition do you have? 4th? That has the optional smoother rule sin the back. If you don't have it let me know.

Thanks for your reply. I‘ll give it a go with a 4-man team then. I‘m sure there‘ll be questions along the way, so thanks for the offer!

I recently bought the 4th edition of the website, yes. Would you say I need the compendium for a more immersive campaign? I‘d also like to start my campaign on the eastern front in 1941 and was wondering, if the compendium includes troop tables for that time period? Or does it need the the eastern front campaign book for that?

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

For detail on the eastern front, the campaign book. Compendium does have lots of options for campaigns. Give NUTS a go and see what you think about more detailed campaigns.

[easyeight]

Apr 15, 2024 12:24:32 GMT menidas said:

Apr 14, 2024 21:47:15 GMT Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy said:

Thanks for posting. Here's a few hints when learning the game. Sub out a 4-man team instead of a squad until you get the hang of things. Ask questions as we have answers. What edition do you have? 4th? That has the optional smoother rule sin the back. If you don't have it let me know.

Thanks for your reply. I‘ll give it a go with a 4-man team then. I‘m sure there‘ll be questions along the way, so thanks for the offer!

I recently bought the 4th edition of the website, yes. Would you say I need the compendium for a more immersive campaign? I‘d also like to start my campaign on the eastern front in 1941 and was wondering, if the compendium includes troop tables for that time period? Or does it need the the eastern front campaign book for that?

Hi, I would recommend the NUTS Eastern Front Campaign book, it's very comprehensive, and there's also the NUTS Stalingrad scenario book as well. NUTS is designed with core rules, and then optional rules you can add to enhance your game play. For example, the "Chocolate & Cigarettes" rules add small scale actions and a roleplaying element to your games where you can interact with civilians, go on "R&R" and so on. The Compendium is also a great resource that includes a variety of rules -- like Cavalry, Ski troops, Paratrooper landings, more types of terrain and weather effects, Urban combat and fighting in sewers, privation, shell shock, and so on. 

So once you are comfortable with the core rules it's easy to add the optional rules to your games.

[easyeight]

I started building a downscaled & modular 15mm wargaming board, printed and painted minis and read the rules over and over again. I‘ve also probably seen all of the NUTS YouTube content that is available and thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay reviews.

I'm really interested in how you did your game board, it looks great! Did you 3D print it all at home, and how has that been for you?

[menidas]

Apr 16, 2024 16:12:36 GMT easyeight said:

I started building a downscaled & modular 15mm wargaming board, printed and painted minis and read the rules over and over again. I‘ve also probably seen all of the NUTS YouTube content that is available and thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay reviews.

I'm really interested in how you did your game board, it looks great! Did you 3D print it all at home, and how has that been for you?

Thanks, I’m equally surprised and happy with how it turned out myself. It’s all constructed out of XPS foam glued onto 15x15cm (6“ by 6“) base boards laser-cut out of MDF. The farm buildings are my own designs laser-cut out of 3mm MDF boards as well. The remaining scatter terrain is constructed out of a wild mix of household items (toilet paper for the river…), all made possible by an assortment of YouTube tutorials. 

The only 3d printed elements are the miniatures and the tree armatures (for stability).

While I’m still constructing a number of additional tiles (marshes, river tiles and such) right now, I’ll follow your advice and give the core ruleset a first try today. I’ll keep it small and simple as Ed suggested. Wish me luck

[easyeight]

Your terrain looks fantastic, thanks for sharing! What kind of 3D printer do you have?

[menidas]

Apr 16, 2024 18:33:17 GMT easyeight said:

Your terrain looks fantastic, thanks for sharing! What kind of 3D printer do you have?

I’m using a resin printer for the miniatures and a filament/PLA printer for the terrain/structures. Both are from Anycubic.

On a different note: I’ve finished my first patrol mission yesterday. I’m quite certain I’ve made a few mistakes along the way and was quite hung up on some of the tables, but I really enjoyed the experience. It was a costly excercise for my half-squad, but in the end I was able to turn the game around.

I’ll post an AAR some time soon and also half a few questions I’d probably need some input on.

[easyeight]

Looking forward to it!

[korvessa]

I am working my way through my first campaign as well: Blood upon the Risers, which as you might guess is US Airborne in Normandy
(I have a special affinity for US Airborne operations as my dad fought in Normandy with the 82nd - he the tall one on on the right in my Avatar)
I made it through the first three scenarios and learned so much via experience, not to mention Q&A here and on Facebook, I decided to reboot.
So I guess what I am saying is, "Just dive in and have fun."
It's a blast.
By the way, both of my playthroughs have been completely different, there is enough unknown and unpredictability for good do-overs.
That's part of the charm of the system

[menidas]

By now I’m two games into my campaign with the third one already set up, waiting to be played.

And already I have to say: What a great experience! The amount of emergent storytelling and unpredictability is exactly what I was hoping for.

On my first patrol pretty much everything went wrong initially. NCO shot on first contact? Sure! Caught out of cover by an enemy SMG? Of course!

But a lucky reinforcement roll and a flanking manoeuvre later, things got better.

I made a few rule mistakes here and there and switched to the “old” shooting rules half way through the game (they seem more immersive to me than die Q&E rules) but I suppose that’s alright.

Still playing with the idea of a proper AAR, we’ll see.

[easyeight]

I haven't played this D-Day campaign for a while, but you can see AARs and videos here: leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=139754.0

[korvessa]

Nice looking game. Love the terrain.
Can I ask 2 quick question?
1) What figure manufacturer are you using?
2) When you fired the panzerfaust at the infantry, what size blast circle did you use?

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

I'd use 5" blast circle.