Aly Morrison RIP

By now I am sure that most readers of this blog and the wargaming world in general - both historical and fantasy gamers alike - will be aware of the untimely death of Aly Morrison. 

Aly was a cornerstone of the pioneering days of Games Workshop and had only recently retired after umpteen years ‘on the firm’. I do not know the specifics of his career but suspect a trawl through the net or Facebook will fill in the pertinent details of his life and achievements.

My first dealings with him on a personal level went back to around 2021, when I was disposing of elements of the Napoleonic part of the collection of Eric Knowles. I remember thinking at the time “Aly Morrison? I know that name”. Curiosity got the better of me and after several parcels had been sent to him I asked for his phone number for a chat.

It was the beginning of a long distance relationship of phone calls, text message and emails - along with comments on our respective blogs. He was a wonderful chap to talk to - funny, knowledgable and with the unique capacity to make you feel that you that he was fully engaged in whatever you were wittering on about. He often joked about my ‘Wargaming Butterfly’ - a trait he happily embraced, with a vast range of subjects as potential Wargame projects at various stages of progress (or lack of). He was incredibly encouraging and enthusiastic about the Portable Ironclads Wargames - promoting him to follow another butterfly to Tumbling Dice for a selection of 1:2400th scale ironclads - and gave me many modelling tips during my various builds.

He would often joke about his dice rolling luck - usually bad - and would enthusiastically mention any occasional successes he enjoyed.

His historical gaming tastes were many and varied and his knowledge of figure ranges and designers seemed to be almost encyclopaedic - his own invaluable contributions to the hobby he would talk about if prompted but for the most part he was far more engaged in the here and now.

We swapped photos of projects ongoing and ideas for new ones and I recall that he was especially pleased with a selection of naval books that had come into his possession. He even wanted to try at some point to build some models in a similar style to my own which I took as being very high praise indeed.

I had planned to meet him in person for the first time at the Other Partizan a few weeks ago but we missed one another. I mentioned in my Other Partizan post that unless you had nailed down a time and place to meet someone the chance of casually bumping into them was next to nil due to the amount of people there. A schoolboy error on my part and it proved to be a depressingly poignant one.

I have, as a result of this error, learned a painful and valuable lesson.

We messaged shortly after the Other Partizan and once again the jokes flew about butterflies - both his and mine - although he did mention that he had only stayed briefly. I knew he was ill as he had touched on it a couple of times during our calls but never once did he complain about his situation although I suspect he may have been putting on a brave face on occasion - at least that is how I read it. 

I do not profess to have known Aly in great detail but the short time that I did was a wonderful experience. His humour, enthusiasm, artistic skill, knowledge and his engaging personality will be missed, not only by me but also by his legions of fans and admirers from across the globe.

My deep and sincere condolences go out to his family and many, many friends and for sure, the wargaming world is a much poorer place for his passing. 

A wise man once said “What we do in life echoes in eternity’ - Aly’s legacy will do just that.

RIP Aly Morrison.

Flights of Fancy

The latest additions to the Angels 20/Bandits High collection. From left to right: top row - two each of Typhoon, Spitfire 9 and Yak 1, middle row - two each of Zeros, Oscars and, joy of joy, Stukas. Bottom row - two each of FW190A, Me109F and Me109G.

This morning saw the arrival of a selection of reinforcements for my Axis and Allies Angels 20/Bandits High collection from the US of A. There are eighteen models in total and the only new types are the pair of JU87 Stukas. These will be handy for the RAF to use as target practice! The collection is now in a very healthy condition although still with a few holes that will need filling in due course. As it currently stands I now own the following:

4 x Spitfire 1 - used for the Battle of Britain

4 x Spitfire 9 - used for raider purposes or as escorts for Typhoons

8 x Hurricane 1 - two of these are planned to be painted in Soviet Union colours, I am unsure about another two and the remaining four will be in Battle of Britain plumage

6 x Me109E - two of these will be painted in an Eastern Front scheme whilst the other four are for the Battle of Britain

4 x Me110 - two of these will also be used for the Eastern Front whilst the other two will be for the Battle of Britain

4 x Me109F - destined for the Eastern Front

4 x Me109G - defence of the Reich

8 x FW190A - four of these will be used on the Channel Front whilst the other four are for the defence of the Reich

2 x FW190D - defence of the Reich

2 x P38 - daylight bomber escort

4 x P51B/C - daylight bomber escort

8 x Wildcat - four for the Pacific and four to be repainted into FAA Martlets

2 x P39 - early Pacific

2 x P40 - early Pacific

2 x Sturmovik - Eastern front

4 x Yak 1 - Eastern front

4 x Oscar - Pacific

4 x Zero - Pacific

2 x Zero “Hamp” - Pacific

4 x Tony - Pacific

I do not own any French or Italian aircraft - perhaps a later project - and there are still a few holes to fill in this part of the collection. I would like to pairs of the following types - La5, P39N and P40 lend-lease for the USSR and a pair of P51Ds.

I rather fancy a modest desert set up but the choice of aircraft available from the official ranges is a little thin. I guess 3D printed options maybe a good shout and indeed, that very nice gentlemen Mr David Manley has been dipping his toes into 1:100th scale aircraft and recently sent me a brace of Boulton Paul Defiants and a pair of Westland Whirlwinds. I am sure there are others to be found if one is prepared to look long and hard enough.

The map from TSR’s Dawn Patrol. Hardly “No-mans Land” - nary a trench to be seen!

Winding the clock back from WW2 to WW1 I am happy to announce that all the German and Austrian aircraft counters from Dawn Patrol have now been mounted on 3mm thick 25mm squares. All that remains from this stage of the project is the thirteen assorted AA counters as well as a pair of observation balloons - one for each side. Once these have been mounted I can then look to edge the aircraft and balloon counters in sky blue with green for the AA and balloon bases. 

A lone SE5/5A on patrol. Note the dice frame used for a D6 to denote the altitude level from 1 to 6.

I mentioned previously about using Angels 20 as the basis for a set of rules for the Great War. I have had a bit of a think about this and have come u with a better idea, thanks to the esteemed Mr Huband. He had developed a very simple Portable Wargame style game for the infamous “Fokker Scourge”. After having taken a look at what he had produced for this I reckoned that with a little tweak here and there, a set covering the latter stages of the Great War should be straightforward enough to tackle. So, with his blessing, that is what I am looking at doing.

Defrosting the Eisbar….

Something wicked this way comes….

And so it was that yesterday evening at the club, yours truly ran an Angels 20 game based on the interception of V1 Flying Bombs over Southern England during the second half of 1944. The scenario was loosely based on the version found in the rulebook for Air Force, designed to introduce new pilots to the game and to provide something different for the more seasoned aerial gamer.

There was a minor snag at the outset in that hexes of the esteemed Mr Fox’s gaming mat are orientated in a different way to how the Air Force scenario maps are. In a nutshell, if entering the board from one of the short edges, instead of flying straight down the full length of the table one had to fly at a sixty degree angle. Initially I did not think this would be a problem and indeed, had I thought it through correctly it would not have been but, in the spirit of somewhat misplaced enthusiastic improvisation, I opted to allow the V1s (three of them, one entering on turn one and the other two entering based on a successful D6 roll) to enter at the same point and flying from corner to corner.

As designed the three interceptors - a Spitfire 14, a Tempest V and a P51 Mustang - could enter on either long side at least half the playing area away from the V1 entry point (or edge, as originally intended).

What I should have done at this point was to adjust the interceptor entry points because as it now stood, the Spitfire 14 was a lot closer to the first V1 than it should have been given the the flying bomb was entering from the corner. The P51 was on the same side as the Spitfire but further up the table whilst the Tempest was on the opposite side.

This all sounds rather nit-picking but even allowing for this faux pas on my part the game turned out to be enormous fun and will certainly be fine tuned and even seen as a potential show game!

I am unable to give a turn by turn commentary of how the game played out but I will describe the action from the perspective of each aircraft.

Spitfire 14

The first V1 appeared at level two and so the Spitfire, piloted by Mr Fox, immediately dived to manoeuvre so as to gain a firing position. The V1 had other ideas as it sped away across the table but by good fortune, the second V1 appeared with Mr Fox in a perfect position to fire - in fact it was almost two perfect as here is always a chance that blowing up a V1 at close range could inflict serious damage on the attacking aircraft. The V1 exploded under a hail of cannon fire and the resulting explosion inflicted a point of damage on Mr Fox’s aerial steed. One down.

Scratch one V1

P51 Mustang

The Mustang (piloted by Nigel - the third member of the “3 Ns” club) sped off in pursuit of the first V1 and executed a perfect Immelmann after having overshot the target to face the flying bomb head on. Unfortunately it was too high to get a shot in and given that it was virtually on the opposite edge of the playing area the V1 was deemed to be in good position to escape. All now rested on the Tempest, piloted by (and painted and owned by) Mr Huband.

Tempest

As the first V1 sped across the table, Mr Huband decided that he would attempt to ‘tip the wing’ of the flying bomb. He successfully caught up with the V1 and carefully positioned his aircraft alongside. The D6 rolls were sadly short by one point! Had the game continued with the models being moved back up the table there is no doubt that either the P51 or the Tempest would have destroyed the target. Meanwhile though, back with Mr Fox and the Spitfire 14….

Fly tipping is usually frowned upon but in this case….

Spitfire 14

The third and final V1 entered and so Mr Fox lined up for a head on shot, this time at range 2 so the chance of any potential blast damage would be reduced. Mr “my dice hate me” Fox opened fire, rolling 8D6 with the results you see in the picture below. “KABOOM!!” The V1 was unceremoniously splashed to the four winds and with the bonus of nary a scratch on his aircraft as a result of the potential damage roll.

The second V1 is destroyed….

….and that is how! In game terms that is 11 hits (two for each 6 and one for the 5) against a target that is destroyed by 4!

When the game was called it was deemed to be a draw in that two of the three V1s were shot down but one still got through. 

Thoughts on the Game

No question about it, this was a lot of fun and surprisingly challenging. In designing the scenario I made use of AI - suitably fact checked - and learned some quite surprising things. Of the three aircraft used without a doubt the Tempest was best suited to deal with the V1 threat in terms of speed due to its low level performance and the power of its Napier Sabre power plant - the Griffin engined Spitfire came a close second with the P51, designed as it was for use as a high altitude bomber escort, bringing up the rear. Ideally the latter two aircraft needed to lose altitude to gain speed so as to overhaul the V1, travelling at 400mph or 4 hexes a turn.

AI suggested that giving the aircraft a high-speed of 5 against the 4 of the V1 would prove to be a fair reflection of the relative speeds based on the Angels 20 system. That felt about right so high speed ratings for the aircraft were modified accordingly. In a nutshell the aircraft had a straight line speed advantage of one hex over the V1. This meant that aircraft manoeuvring had to be carefully thought out. 

Aside from the issue around the gaming mat hex orientation - my fault entirely, I should have checked beforehand - the game ran splendidly and was enjoyed by all. I shall definitely develop it further and am waiting on the delivery of a Gloster Meteor to complete the range of aircraft available.

My thanks to Mr Fox for providing the mat, the P51 and the Spitfire and to Mr Huband for the Tempest and the two V1s - he now has a third to paint up - and to Nigel for his aerial acrobatics in the Mustang! It was a great game!

V1s, Bi-Planes and the Special Boat Service

A nice addition to my WW2 special forces library.

Another boot sale on Sunday - I think we may be on slightly borrowed time with these, as the weather descends into winter - and I was fortunate to be able to score a copy of the above for the princely sum of 50p! A useful addition to my SAS Rogue Regiment/0200 Hours set up - Cockleshell Heroes here we come!

The Bi-Plane part of the title refers to my current basing exercise of the aircraft counters from Dawn Patrol. I have reached the halfway point (24 out of 48) of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians and should have the remainder ready for the sky blue edging by the weekend. I have also typed out the aircraft specs from the game to use as a reference for an idea I am currently working on. I want to prepare a WW1 version of Angels 20. In truth I am surprised that as far as I know this has not been attempted before. I have had some chats with AI that have been encouraging so I will see where this goes. More details will be in a later, dedicated post.

Finally, and on the subject of Angels 20, I have prepared a scenario for Wednesday evening at the club that involves V1s, a Hawker Tempest, a Spitfire 14 and a P51 Mustang. It is loosely based on a similar scenario found in the rulebook for Air Force, the Battleline/Avalon Hill board game. An after action report may well follow but at a minimum there will be pictures.

Feeling the Need….The Need for Speed!

Gotta love that box art!

Yesterday evening I had the absolute pleasure of the company of the esteemed David Manley - he, the writer of many naval rulesets and much else besides as well as being a thoroughly decent fellow. The conversation ranged back and forth over subjects too numerous to mention as both food and drink were consumed. As has become something of a tradition on these occasional meet ups, there was an exchange of goodies. 

Heading towards Mr Manley - as something of a belated birthday present - was a copy of Brassey’s Naval Annual for 1913, the David and Charles reprint edition which he was suitably delighted with. The book was from my own collection and I suspect that regular readers of the this blog will be rather surprised to see me parting with such a title, given my interest in matters naval. It is an excellent book but it is rather more technical than I am comfortable with and in any event, I have pretty much all the information contained therein from other, more digestible sources. Given that David is a Professor of Naval Architecture by day, such tomes are very much more to his taste than mine!

By way of a complete surprise he presented me with copy of the board game you see above - and boy oh boy was I pleased with this!

The customary ‘back of the box’ shot. A game very much of its time in many ways - charts and tables galore - but a most welcome addition to the collection.

Gamers of a certain vintage will remember the old SPI game Air War, designed by David Isby. This was a really good game of jet age aerial combat but required a big investment of both time and commitment to play. The rules were quite challenging and the frustration factor for newcomers was very high meaning that unless you were really keen on the subject matter the game was never going to work for you. For all of that though, there was a hardcore of gamers that persevered with it and so some cracking aerial battles were fought and enjoyed.

Around 1985/6 Avalon Hill release Flight Leader, a game designed by Captain Gary Morgan, a U.S.A.F. Fighter pilot and developed by none other than S. Craig Taylor Jr of Air Force and Mustangs fame (and many others besides). I remember owning a copy of this back in the day but cannot for the life of me remember actually playing it! Thanks to Mr Manley I hope to rectify this omission shortly - all the counters are punched so hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. A further bonus is that the game rates as ‘High’ on the solitaire suitability index on the back of the box. 

Once again, many thanks to Mr Manley for another splendid evening and for a really welcome surprise!

From the Shelf of Shame….

A solitary SE5a flying somewhere in France. Note the Dawn Patrol gaming map that uses squares rather than hexes.

Aside from fighting a Portable Wargame style battle using my block armies - a full report will feature in a further post - I also managed, at long last, to send some time on my WW1 aerial ‘flying counter’ project. If you recall, I decided to take the aircraft counters from the old TSR RPG Dawn Patrol and put them on a flying stand to give the impression of flight. I am happy with how the idea looks but the process required to amount the counters on MDF bases for durability is a tedious one, involving as it does significant amounts of cutting and filing.

The source of the counters. Although designed as a role playing game Dawn Patrol also includes a standalone tactical aerial game.

The ‘cutting mat that was on the shelf of shame’ with the counters - the mounted allied types are at the top of the picture, north of the super glue. Next to the scalpel are the next 36 counters for the Germans and Austrians.

I had previously gotten as far as mounting all the allied counters but had not done so for the Germans and Austrians. Well, this afternoon I took the plunge and started on them! Thus far I have only tackled 12 of the 48 counters but, most importantly, I have made a start.

The first dozen counters for the Germans and Austrians. Only 36 more to go.

Once the Central Powers are suitably mounted I can then paint the edges and undersides in the appropriate shade of sky blue and then satin varnish them for protection. The only counter currently ready for action is a solitary SE5a but no matter, he will soon be joined by heaps of other friendly types and some suitable opposition.

One thing that did cross my mind whilst I was busy gluing, cutting and filing, was that a WW1 version of Angels 20/Bandits High would certainly be doable and indeed, in many respects would be better suited than for WW2, especially for late WW2 ‘power’ aircraft.

Looks like the gaping hole of another rabbit hole has just opened….

The Best of the Season

I will go s far as to say that the above has been my best find of the year as far as our local boot sale goes!

For the most part the boot sale season is drawing to a close as the weather turns and the days get shorter. Laurel and I headed off to our usual location, suitably dressed for a chilly Sunday morning, and arrived as a fairly sparse boot sale with the stalls spread out very generously over the hard standing of the park and ride that hosts it. The omens did not look encouraging so I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to score the book you see above in pretty good condition for the princely sum of £2!

Aside from some minor rubbing to the dust jacket and the bottom boards and some slight ‘sunning’ to the spine, the book is is great shape and is a most welcome addition to the WW1 naval section of my library. I have a copy on my Kindle and had been after a hardback version for sometime - not as a matter of any great urgency though as the secondhand prices seemed rather steep as a rule - so this was a great score.

A quick dive through the contents should show exactly why I am pleased to have secured a copy, especially at the price - when first printed it was £45 - and so the picture below shows what I mean.

A fairly comprehensive overview of the naval war

The final picture is of the details page - ISBN and so forth (or should that be Seaforth?). It has only taken me twelve years to get a copy!

I have scored some pretty useful titles over the past few weeks but I have to say that this is by far and away the best of the lot. Really pleased with it and I am sure it is going to be well thumbed over the next few months!