The Portable Ironclads Wargame - Revised and Expanded

 “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”. One can usually rely on Winston Churchill for an appropriate quote!

It is hard to believe that it is nearly a year since the Portable Ironclad Wargame was published! Aside from being dead chuffed with getting into print I am also hugely grateful to everyone that has purchased a copy - rather more than I expected for sure! 

For most of this year I have been occasionally scratching about working on the follow up volume, provisionally titled: Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame. The ideas are all in place and much of this has been drafted and could be polished into something usable relatively easily BUT, and it is a big but, I am now no longer convinced that this would work as I envisaged. 

The Portable Ironclads Wargames works well and I am happy with the scale and scope of the rules. For sure there are certain parts where my meaning may be a little unclear - show me a set of rules where this is not the case and I will be properly impressed - and there is the occasional error but by and large it works as intended. As mentioned previously, there was much left out in the way of optional rules and more significantly, the use of a square grid as well as hexagonal. Developing the Portable Ironclad Wargame would have addressed all these points. 

There is one fly in the ointment though, a burr under the saddle, a speed bump, call it what you will. 

I am now of the opinion that rather than drafting a volume that merely adds to the existing one I would be better served by revising and expanding the original title. This would have the advantage of having everything in one place - especially important in respect of the rules - as well all the other ‘good stuff’ - the after action reports, the ship specifications, modelling ideas etc. I believe that this will be a far better approach than merely bolting on a volume of optional rules, expanded ship specifications and anther after action report.

So this is now what I am going to do.

For gamers that have purchased the original volume this news will make little difference as presumably they would have looked to acquire the Developing title when ready - assuming that  the first book ‘floated their (ironclad) boat’ that is. The revised and expanded edition will be in effect the Portable Ironclad Wargame as I always intended it to be.

As a taster the revised and expanded edition will include the following:

Updated rules to include a couple of minor changes from the original version, optional rules, the use of a square grid as well as a hexagonal one, expanded ship specifications to include the War in the Pacific, another after action report (possibly two), more modelling ideas and an updated bibliography.

I am not going to rush this - in any event my domestic situation currently leaves me with little time for much in the way of creative effort - and so I am working towards publication at the latter end of next year, possibly earlier depending on how things come together.

As ever I will post on the blog any significant updates or milestones as and when they occur.