Two years later and Atalantes rises from the ocean, born anew.

 It has been two years. The last post here was October 2024 and it ended with me promising photos. Well… clearly that didn’t happen.

Let me start where that left off, because I said in the second post that I don't like going back to edit, and I still don't. What follows is the catch-up, in four parts, one a week. This one is about where the two years went and what I decided at the end of them.

What happened to the Napoleonic campaign?

It did not start.

The 69th Foot were painted, the 69ième were painted, the Bourbonaise got their coats, and the first campaign, Sharp Practice on land and Black Seas at sea, never got as far as a first turn. Too many obstacles, as always.

Look at what I was promising myself in 2024. Bourbon French against Imperial French in 1807. The Ninth Legion sailing to Atalantes instead of vanishing in Caledonia. Russians against English in 1811 on plains where Europe's alliances don't reach. Every one of those needs the same things underneath it: a map with places on it, a history that says why anyone is there, a record of what has happened so far, and some way of working out what happens next when nobody is at the table. And before any of that, I had said I needed to start at 180 BC and work forward through AD 800, the 1630s and the 1750s to get to 1789 at all.

What I actually had was a borrowed map, a Copilot history I had called trash in print, and a notebook. The gap between the two was the obstacle, and it was not one more weekend's painting.

The figures did get painted though. That part of the hobby never stops. I will put a force in each of these posts, starting with the Tribal pre-Columbians below, because that is where the story has ended up.

The mounted warriors of the First Nations Atalanteans, with two totem poles.

The warband of Guards-the-bones on foot: Guards-the-bones in the tall feather headdress, the kneeling warriors, and the camp around its fire. Heroes behind, and his Warband behind them. Ready for the first battle of Alpha Campaign 1-1.

The gap

So what did I do with the two years? Mostly, I learned AI.

Properly, I mean, not the "ask Copilot for a blog post and laugh at the unit types" way of that last post. Although that post was not wrong about the method, and it is still the method: give it something, see what comes back, throw out the trash, keep the rest, change the prompt so it does not do that again.

In my day job I am basically an AI wrangler now, so while a steep learning curve, not as steep as hitting a cliff face. We all had GPT 3, 3.5 and 4 then Copilot, then for Atalantes I tried GitHub Copilot for actual building, not just prose, and it was nowhere near good enough for what I wanted. So I went to Claude, which is what I use at work, and moving to Claude Code was the best move ever. It is the most robust of the lot. That is the one I stuck with, and the one that has done the building since.

The thing I came to understand in those two years is that the obstacles that stopped the Napoleonic campaign were not painting obstacles or time obstacles. The obstacles were the kind of work that an assistant or a software dev team can do, if the assistant is good enough or you have the money for the software dev team and you are prepared to check everything they do. By the middle of 2026 I was ready to try again. My own Claude Subscription, my own plans, my own distilled desires. 

This time the map is mine.

In September 2026 I sat down in Wonderdraft and drew a new continent.

Not the 2024 one. That was another designer's map, used with their blessing, and the only thing it shares with the current map is that both were made in Wonderdraft. 

This one I drew myself, in two goes: the main island first, then three more large islands around it. I am still no cartographer. But I didn’t have to be. I drew the outline of the map landforms. Then started the geomorphology AI work. Step 1, place the island/s in the Atlantic. Step 2 AI.

What the AI work has done since is take my outline and enhance it, the coastline, the relief, the rivers, into something I would not be embarrassed to print at a decent size. Part 2 is about the map and the world, so I will stop here and just say that the shape is mine and the mountains are code.

The decision

AHere is the thing I decided, and it is the reason this blog is back.

I was never going to build the campaign setting I have wanted for thirty years by hand. Not the map, not two thousand years of history, not the tools that move armies about and work out who can see whom. I could pay someone to build it. I did the sums on that later, out of curiosity: for what now exists, a low-cost Australian development house would have wanted somewhere between $1.1 million and $1.9 million, or about $580,000 to $1 million from the cheapest kind of shop, the kind that hands the work offshore, with a team of seven taking ten to eighteen months. It is an estimate from the amount of work produced and the usual rules of thumb, not a quote, and the lower figure is the safer one. I will write that up properly in a later post, with how it was worked out, because the method matters more than the number.

What it actually cost was a monthly AI subscription, a few dollars of web hosting, and thirty-one days from the first commit to the end of the first development cycle.

So AI-built just became the best choice. Not the cheapest way to do it. The only way it was ever going to get done.

How it works, in a paragraph

I talk to one AI session, which I call the Conductor. It holds the whole programme, of work. When I say go, it writes a precise job for a separate worker session: what to build, which files it may touch, how it proves it worked. The worker does that one job, commits its work and reports back. The Conductor reads every change before anything is kept, and brings me the decisions. Most of my decisions are a choice between options it has set out, and quite often I take the one it recommends. Some I don't. I design, I decide, I check. I have defined the model to use and the effort the worker gives, and then Conductor starts it, lets it run, monitors what it outputs and reports back. Again a more in depth look in a later post.

The honest bit

It is not magic and it is not free of mistakes. On 4 October a one-character slip in the website's build file went live in one step and took the site down for about eighty minutes, with a damaged backup for company. Workers take shortcuts their briefs forbid, and say so in their reports, which is better than not saying so. Running several things at once ran the machine out of memory more than once. Each of those produced a rule: work lands on a development branch and the live site moves only on my word; every job carries an exact list of what it may do; one big test run at a time. The rules are the real product of the first month, as much as the code.

In that month, 1 October to 1 November, the count was 682 separate tasks handed to workers, 2,370 saved changes across six projects, and about 218,000 lines of software and tests. I have not read every one of those lines. I have read every report. And I was on holiday on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean from 5OCT to 24OCT and did all the interactions via my iPad.

What came out of September

The order of work was the one from the 2024 posts, just with help: first the map, then the structures that hold the setting, then the tools that do things with it. The map went into code on 21 September. The World Chronicle, the single record of everything that has happened in Atalantes, started on the 24th. The first rule set was chosen on the 26th. The Conductor took over on 1 October, and the first campaign was approved on the 4th. It was a very early release, it wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t something I’d do again.

The idea is the same as it was in the first post: a campaign world for historical war games, any period, where the battles have a reason and an outcome that matters to the next one. Same continent, same plan of starting at 180 BC and working forward. What changed is that the setting is now software, with a map, a chronicle, and a site where a campaign runs, and AI sessions do the drafting and the building to my direction.

Why not Napoleonic

One more thing before I stop, because it is the question anyone who read the 2024 posts will ask. The first campaign is not Napoleonic. It is tribal, set in the summer of 131 BC, fought with Tribal, the skirmish rules from Mana Press.

Partly that is the history: it starts at 180 BC, so the first campaign starts where the history starts. Mostly it is simpler than that. I had played a couple of games of Tribal, a friend was interested, and Napoleonic games are hard to find locally. I built the New Recruit force files for Tribal, which got me talking to Ara Harwood, the designer from Mana Press. So it just worked. There may be a post on the Tribal New Recruit files at some point.

Leaders and champions of the warband.

A chief in a horned feather headdress, beside one of the totems.

In a future post I’ll go through the whole why, and how a turn is played. Next post, is the map and the world.

The camp: hide frames, drying racks and the totems.

Here are some screen grabs of the current build:

The campaign site as it stands today, address redacted.

And a 3D Render of the Islands

An AI Blog Post

So IRL I work in the IT.

AI is pretty hip and hot right now, and I can't go a day without a vendor, or a colleague talking to me about AI this or AI that.

I am pretty much a cool-aid drinking convert to the alter of AI makes things easier. But it still takes effort to get it to work right.

AI is in my view one of the enabling techs for this Atalantes Project.

I can build a prompt, provide some information then ask for some content and then modify it until it is what I want.

As an example I ran some AI and then had it summarise the "story so far" as a blog post. I am going to post it here then keep commenting:

The Birth of Atalantes: A Journey Through Time and Conflict

As the creator of the Atalantes campaign setting, I am thrilled to share the rich tapestry of history, conflict, and unity that defines this alternate world. Atalantes is a land where the echoes of ancient battles and the whispers of alliances shape the destinies of its people. This blog post delves into the early history of Atalantes, highlighting the arrival of various factions, their struggles, and their eventual unity.

The Arrival of the Tribes (180 BC - 150 BC)

In 180 BC, the North American Tribes, including the Wabanaki Confederacy, Haudenosaunee, and Oceti Sakowin, arrived in Atalantes. They settled in the fertile valleys and along the rivers, living in harmony with nature. Initial conflicts over territory and resources eventually gave way to trade routes and a period of relative peace.

The Celts’ Arrival (150 BC - 100 BC)

The Celts arrived from Europe in 150 BC, bringing advanced metalworking and agricultural techniques. They settled in the western regions of Atalantes and engaged in trade with the North American Tribes. While tensions occasionally flared, diplomacy and intermarriage often resolved conflicts.

The Picts’ Arrival (100 BC - 50 BC)

Known for their fierce warrior culture, the Picts arrived in 100 BC and settled in the northern regions. They formed alliances with both the Celts and the North American Tribes, recognizing the benefits of cooperation against common threats. Skirmishes occurred as the Picts expanded their territory, but these were often short-lived.

The Gauls’ Arrival (50 BC - AD 10)

The Gauls arrived in 50 BC, bringing a strong military tradition and a hierarchical society. They settled in the central regions of Atalantes and integrated with the existing cultures. Their arrival led to a power struggle, but their military prowess and strategic alliances helped them establish a dominant position.

Key Locations and Strategic Insights

• Valley of Echoes: Controlled by the Wabanaki Confederacy, this fertile valley is strategically important due to its abundant resources and natural defenses.
• Ironwood Forest: Inhabited by the Haudenosaunee, this dense forest offers excellent cover and ambush opportunities.
• Bison Plains: Roamed by the Oceti Sakowin, these vast plains provide a strategic advantage for their cavalry units.
• Stone Circle: A sacred site for the Celts, offering a strong defensive position and spiritual significance.
• Northern Highlands: Controlled by the Picts, this rugged terrain provides natural fortifications and a vantage point for monitoring enemy movements.
• Central Stronghold: The fortified settlements of the Gauls, serving as a hub for trade and military operations.

Unique Unit Types and Capabilities

• Wabanaki Canoe Warriors: Skilled in navigating waterways, these units can launch surprise attacks and quickly retreat.
• Haudenosaunee Longhouse Defenders: Experts in defending fortified positions, with strong defensive capabilities.
• Oceti Sakowin Cavalry: Highly mobile and effective in hit-and-run tactics, excelling in open plains.
• Celtic Druids: Providing magical support and healing, enhancing the combat effectiveness of allied units.
• Pictish Berserkers: Fearsome warriors with high attack power, excelling in close combat.
• Gallic Legionnaires: Well-trained and disciplined infantry, capable of holding the line and executing complex maneuvers.

Engaging Narratives

• The Battle of the Valley of Echoes: A pivotal conflict where the Wabanaki Confederacy defends their homeland against a coalition of Celts and Gauls.
• The Siege of Ironwood Forest: The Haudenosaunee’s strategic defense against a Pictish invasion, showcasing their mastery of guerrilla tactics.
• The Plains War: A series of skirmishes between the Oceti Sakowin and the Gauls, highlighting the mobility and resilience of the Oceti Sakowin cavalry.
• The Alliance of the Stone Circle: A diplomatic gathering where the Celts, Picts, and North American Tribes form a united front against the Gauls’ expansion.

Conclusion

The early history of Atalantes is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of its people. Through conflict and cooperation, they forged a land rich in culture, strategy, and adventure. As we continue to explore the world of Atalantes, we honor the legacy of our ancestors and the bonds that hold us together. Join us in this epic journey and may the spirit of unity guide us in the battles to come.

I wrote a prompt, then fed it and some dates and arrivals, the general location of Atalantes and nothing more into Copilot, then got it to produce some history, then I took that history and asked Copilot to write a blog post.

Some of it is trash for what I want, like the unit type stuff, some of the locations don't match the map, and I didn't give much information on the where of things. And some of it will likely make it into production.

I can change the locations with some editing, ignore the unit specialisation or anything else or use it to prompt something out of my own head.

The point of this post is to demonstrate how with a bit of information, and some Prompt Engineering I can have an AI assistant do all the hard work of starting things off, I can quickly work out what I don't like, then either delete it, change it or modify the prompt so it doesn't produce that type thing again in the future.

I can even use it to get Icons to put on the Map for capital settlements.

They still need work and are literally just the result of simple AI prompts:

A Stonefort for the Gauls.

A Celtic round house

Nomadic Tribe

Settled Tribe

These need work and need to be formatted and put into a form that Wonderdraft can use them, but that is just nerdery, I can do that, what I can do is draw, or work out how to put the right things together. I can however right an AI prompt like this one:

simple black and white line art icon of a typical Celtic home in 80BC, 50x50 pixels

So that I hope outlines some of the methodology behind the creation process. Nothing will take away the work of putting things on a map, in Wonderdraft, or ensuring that things work with whatever rules system I am aiming for, but the use of AI to augment my thinking, and to do a lot of the early framing of things, and also the art creation is fairly amazing. To me at least.

My Hobbies and the fevered pitch of a relentlessly restless mind

 Generally, my brain doesn’t stop doing things, solving problems, inventing problems, playing games, whatever, there is just always something happening in here.

Clearly, I spend 40-50 hours a week working, which pays for all the other hours of the week when I am hobbying or reluctantly sleeping.

So, while I am a War Gamer, and that is my Hobby, I have a set of other hobbies that are complimentary or adjacent, mostly to keep my brain busy when I am not War Gaming, but also because as an IT Manager, it is nice to be able to make things that are real, rather than software, policy or decisions.

So, beyond the battlefield and my passion for tabletop games, I have added bookbinding, leatherworking, laser cutting, terrain building, 3D resin printing and miniature painting to allow me to create and customize as much of my gaming experience as I can and also to keep my brain busy. Each project, whether it’s crafting a personalized journal or designing terrain, is a labour of love that enhances my connection to the main hobby, but I also enjoy these other hobbies as well.

Wargaming

Napoleonic Era

Land: Engaging in 28mm Sharp Practice and 15mm other rules, I recreate the grand battles of the Napoleonic era.

Sea: Commanding fleets in the game Black Seas, I navigate the treacherous waters of historical naval warfare.

Modern Era

Land: Utilizing micro-scale models, I simulate modern land battles with intricate detail and strategy.

Warhammer: The Old World

Dwarfen Mountain Holds: With 2700 points of painted 28mm figures, my Dwarfen army stands ready to defend their mountain strongholds.

Tomb Kings of Khemri: My 4500 points of painted 28mm Tomb Kings bring the ancient undead to life on the battlefield.

Warhammer 40K

Tau Kill Team: A small but formidable force, my Tau Kill Team is ready for skirmishes and larger battles, and when the Historical 3D printing wanes I have a bunch of Tau to print to beef up this force.

BattleTech

Mercenary Company: From the pre-clan days, my mercenary company is a force to be reckoned with.

Clan Mechs: Currently in the process of being painted, these mechs will soon join the fray.

Tabletop Games

With countless games in boxes, my collection of tabletop games offers the opportunity of endless hours of entertainment and challenges.

Bookbinding

Journals: Crafting personalized journals is a passion of mine for rule sets, campaigns or art folios for my daughter and grand daughters.

Printed books to bind: I print and bind copies of PDF rules or other materials, creating durable and beautiful rulebooks, and lasting resources for the other hobbies.

Tools and Manuals: My collection of bookbinding tools and manuals is enough to  allow me to explore various techniques and styles.

Leatherworking

Journal Folios: Designing and crafting journal folios is a rewarding creative outlet.

Tools and Manuals: My leatherworking toolkit is well-stocked, enabling me to tackle a wide range of projects.

Laser Cutting and Engraving

MDF Bases, Dials, Markers, Tokens: Using an X Tool S1, I create custom bases, dials, markers, and tokens for my games, leather patterns and anything else I can think of, like game box inserts (which I just remembered).

Leather Cutting: Precision cutting of leather for various projects is made easy with my laser cutter. While I love the handcrafting getting the laser cutter to put the stitching holes exactly where I want them or cutting a curve on an edge exactly as I pictured it is very rewarding.

3D Resin Printing

Warhammer Figures: I have hundreds of 28mm Warhammer figures and tens of Warhammer 40K figures.

Historical Figures: My collection includes hundreds of 28mm historical figures for Napoleonic and Napoleonesque battles.

Future Projects: I plan to print ships for Black Seas, modern tanks and troops, and various other historical and fantasy figures.

Equipment: I use an Elegoo Mars 4 Max and an Elegoo Wash unit, and I tend to buy resin in bulk.

Foam Wire Cutter

Terrain Building: Creating realistic terrain for my games is a crucial part of my hobby.

How I Hobby

My goal is to play tabletop historical battles as part of a long-form war campaign. When I’m not actively gaming, I’m preparing for the next battle by:

• Printing Figures: Using my 3D resin printer to create detailed miniatures.
• Painting Figures: Bringing my miniatures to life with paint.
• Preparing Imagi-Nations: Crafting fictional nations and scenarios for my games.
• Prepping Rules: Printing and binding PDF rules using a process called imposition.
• Designing and Cutting Leather: Creating custom bindings for books, rules, or journals.
• Making Terrain: Building realistic terrain and table covers with textured tops.
• Gaming: Fantasy, Historical, Sci-Fi, Boardgame, PC.

I rotate between these activities based on my mood, available products, pieces and parts, motivation, and upcoming game needs. Whether I’m printing, painting, cutting, gluing, sewing, folding, binding, or gaming, each step enhances my tabletop experience and keeps my brain busy.

I have recently added this blog to the rota, it helps me to get my thoughts together, forces me to consider how I would explain what I am doing, gives me a reference to what I was thinking at the time and gives me another outlet to keep my brain busy and fend of sleep.

 

Well that figures

The previous grey pile of shame is now a white pile of shame, and the grey pile is slowly rebuilding itself.

Let us start with the painted, based and table ready figures:

A unit of British Light Infantry, the Light Company 69th Regiment of Foot, a Light Company Leader and a mounted Regimental Leader.

Next we have the painted and ready to be based troops:

The Light Unit is joined several more Light Units for a total of 18 figures with 2 leaders (2 units of 8, or 3 units of 6 in skirmish formation), then a line of leaders, officers, sergeants, a colour party and a mounted officer or two.

Behind them are 5 units of 8 Battalion Company Units of Line Infantry and 5 Shock marker toppers.

I've been holding off basing them until the French are done at least.

Speaking of the French:

The painted French are the Leaders, Colour Party, 2 Voltigeur Company units of 8 and a Grenadier Company unit of 8.

Then the in progress begins:

4 Fusilier Company units of 8, several more leaders on foot, a drummer, and 3 mounted leaders for the Regiment.

Then the waiting to be started queue:

A unit of 8 British Light Dragoons with Musician and Leader.

3 units of 6 Rifles skirmishers and two leaders from the 5/60th, plus another two Battalion Company units of 8, and 2 British foot artillery 9 pounders, one firing and one loading.

 A unit of 8 Chasseurs a Cheval, Musician, Leader and some alternate uniformed for as yet unknown purposes.

3 units of 6 skirmishers of the Marins de la Garde, some leaders, on foot and mounted, 2 more units of Fusiliers some extra Voltiguers and 2 Artillery pieces from the French.

And finally, from the Force in Being to the Force in Waiting, the grey warriors:

5 Fusilier units of 8, a colour part and musicians and 5 leaders from a Seven Years Way/American War of Independence French range who will play the "Bourbonaise" a holder over from the Ancien Regime in Atalantes that resisted the revolution and remained in power.

I have printed but not yet based, light units, and grenadier units, as well as their 'elites' being some Chasseurs a Pied whose name will emerge when I invent it.

To fill them out will be a unit of Scouting Cav, perhaps a Cuirassier set and certainly some artillery.

That completes the Napoleonesque Atalantean forces so far. I am working in various 3D sculpting tools to see if I can kludge together some Romans from 1750, and then I will also be filling out some Wakanabi Confederation, Haukenosaunee and other Tribal themed nations land forces.

Additionally a local wargamer has expressed a notion of Japanese on Atalantes, and while it wasn't my thought, I am keen to have as much input into Atalantes as possible so I am researching a whole bunch of Boshin figures that I hope to use.

To foreshadow the next post and to force me to collect my thoughts on it I will go over the various and many hobbies and sub hobbies that I am bouncing between for Atalantes and related gaming.

So where did this all come from?

I thought I should start at the beginning.

There will be some repeat of what I’ve said previously, firstly since I don’t want to continue to edit these posts and secondly I am trying to get it all sorted in my own mind.

Atalantes a beginning

The goal of Atalantes is to create a campaign world for historical war games, or even fantasy war games. I have been contemplating how to do this since I started war gaming over 30 years ago.

It seems to me most War Games are more accurately described as battle games. The stimulus for the game is to play a game (nothing wrong with that, it is a hobby of gaming wars after all), and the outcome generally makes no impact on any other battles (again nothing wrong with that). 

I've always wanted to have a reason to fight and a reason for the battle to end, for the winners and the losers.  It is hard to imagine soldiers, companies of men, battalions and larger units fight to the death to the last man and without thinking about what happens next.

So, for 30 odd years I have wanted to play games that had a reason for the foes to be there, beyond me wanting to play and for there to be an impact beyond my win-loss ratio (it would certainly be heavily weighted to the loss side). 

But I do not have the skills to create a place that could work (I am no cartographer), or the knowledge to string together a coherent story that hangs it all together. But even if I did, I couldn't sculpt figures for the inevitable mashups of technology and uniforms that could be needed.

Then time passed, my wargaming continued and my dream of a Campaign Setting expanded and developed. I role played and I enjoyed the efforts that authors and artists went to, to create a place and a story filled land that I and others could play in and on and enjoy. Building on what was to enjoy what could be.

Enter Wonderdraft (there are lots of others but I like this one), Copilot AI (it uses ChatGPT and comes with my MS365 subscription) and 3D printing (this is the one I have had for a year and a bit), and suddenly all my excuses evaporate, and it was time to put pixels to paper and start a place where anything can happen at any time for my wargames, my friends, and eventually I decided that I could put this out into the web for others to maybe use as well.

So, over the next posts I will be world crafting, building maps, populating the continent of Atalantes and setting things up so I can play games in that place that impact the outcomes of the wars on Atalantes.