A Wargaming Odyssey
This is a long running and continuing journey around a collection of ideas, projects, games, models and a variety of wargaming related themes from my own imagination and from others. As I have been described as having the attention span of a forgetful goldfish you can rest assured the resulting subject matter will be diverse and (usually) entertaining! "He lived in a frenzy of enthusiasm — but nothing lasted for long with him".
Sunday, 16 February 2025
More on Red Alert
Wednesday, 12 February 2025
”Red Alert!” - Space Fleet Battles, Command and Colours Style
Sunday, 9 February 2025
Reaching for the Sky
Thirty flying bases - one being used - and a couple of counters.
I spent some time today entrenched in the man cave and actually doing something constructive which, given my recent prolonged bout of lethargy, was most welcome!
The task for today was not the one I should have been tackling but hey ho, progress is progress in whatever direction you take it, so instead of the ironclads I settled on making bases for my ‘using-board-game-counters-instead-of- models’ aerial project. It felt marvellous doing something constructive and with not one, but two added bonuses.
The first task was to assemble thirty bases comprising a 1” 3mm thick MDF square with a 3mm hole in the centre, a 2” length of 3mm thick bamboo skewer and a 7mm square dice frame. Easy enough although I needed to run a rat tailed file through the base hole to widen it ever so slightly. This was easy enough to do although it did take longer than I expected. It was at this stage that ‘miracle number 1’ (if you know you know!) occurred.
Extra bits and pieces that will go into the scratch building coffers. The small centre pieces are ideal for gun mounts whilst the ‘sprue’ can be used for gunwales etc - all really handy so nothing is wasted!
A number of the 1” bases still had the central piece in place - these are hugely useful for scratch building so I made sure I very carefully pressed these out and bagged them up. The dice frames needed cutting out and guess what? The ‘sprue’ they are attached to is also really handing for scratch building and given that I had over ordered these, it means that I have a good supply of 2mm high by 1mm thick ‘edging’ - very useful for ship gunwales etc.
The original point of this exercise was to mount the counters from Dawn Patrol (although lovely looking are printed on very thin card) on 3mm thick 1” MDF bases that could in turn be placed on a flying base to add a little visual appeal to a 2D game. Me being me meant that I was never going be satisfied with using this for a single system and so various others have now been added to the mix - including WW2.
Axis and Allies: Angels 20 is a lot of fun to play and uses 15mm aircraft mounted on a ball and socket joint to indicate left and right banking and nose up/down for climbing or diving. I was mulling over how best to represent this in my ‘brave-new-cardboard counter-and-MDF-world’ when I realised that simplicity is the key. Take a look at the pictures below.
Thursday, 6 February 2025
At Last the Circle is Now Complete
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
More On Aerial Bases
Sunday, 2 February 2025
It’s all about that base, ‘bout that base…..
Another view
Following on from the Dawn Patrol acquisition and the perplexing problem of the very thin aircraft counters, I spent some time messing about with my MDF ‘mountain’ (I like to be different - most gamers have lead or plastic mountains….) and came up with the following. It was very simple to do - I simply took two 1” square bases and drilled a hole in both, into which a 2” piece of bamboo skewer was placed.
The counters will be glued to the top of the base but these will not be permanently fixed to the flight stand as I will only need a couple of dozen or so of them. All the counters will be mounted though.
I will paint the edge of the counter and its base, along with the skewer in a sky blue whilst the ground base can be painted green and textured.
Now I know this is not a model but using such a base certainly adds to the visual appeal - one could really go to town with varying heights etc but for me this is just fine. I could also do something similar for Mustangs although these is a minor problem in that the counters are double sided. In that case perhaps fixing a ‘lip’ around the top base into which the counter is placed may be a viable option.
In either case an order to Warbases will be needed!
Saturday, 1 February 2025
Close In Counters of the First, Second and Third Kind
Following on from my post of yesterday I have spent some more time reading through Dawn Patrol and examining the components. These are of high quality although the counters, whilst looking nice, are a little on the flimsy side. There is a good variety of types represented - certainly more than adequate for my purposes - and to be frank, I am now sold on the idea of using these rather than models.
To begin with I will certainly mount the counters - I have a supply of 1” square 3mm thick MDF bases which can be used - and indeed, I have an idea about fashioning flying bases in some fashion in order to raise the counters off the map. I need to think about his further but I can certainly experiment in the meantime.
The rules are rather good in a 1982 kind of way - meaning tables aplenty but all are quite clear. I was intrigued by the notion of using squares for an aerial game but the well written rulebook, complete with plenty of examples of how to fly a cardboard bi/tri/monoplane certainly explains away any concerns I may have had. I need to take the charts and tables apart and cut out the manoeuvre/tailing cards - somewhat surprisingly the role playing part of the game is detailed on the cards rather than being in the main body of the rules - before I can use the game so there will be an element of setting up before it is table ready.
Not the usual depiction of the Western front during the Great War - I would have preferred to see trench lines etc but no matter.
The only thing I am a little undecided on is the map. It is nice enough but in my mind’s eye I envisaged something more akin to No man’s land with some countryside around the edges. I shall get this laminated and yes, unsurprisingly I have plans beyond WW1 aerial for this.
In closing
We are never too old to learn and so looking at aerial games using squares has certainly given me much to think about. The Dawn Patrol system in respect of flying could, with some work it must be said, be adapted for use with WW2 types. The key adjustment would be speed etc as for WW1 one square equals ten miles per hour which is all well and good for the period but would be a touch problematic for the much higher speeds of WW2. Something to think about anyway - like I need another project but hey, ho, that’s how I go!