We Are Where We Are….Closer!

From a previous action fought on a square grid. The CSS Morgan, covered with hit markers and with the three sinking markers of doom….

Work on DTPIW at last has a finishing line in sight! All of the key components are in place and the final touches will follow shortly. There will inevitably be some amendments and tweaks before going to print but the core stuff is all there. It has been a decidedly clunky process getting to where it is now this time around! The Portable Ironclads Wargame is a self-contained book and is structured in a relatively sensible and, dare I say it, logical way. I have tried to do the same with the Developing title but it has in may cases felt like herding cats as ideas have come and gone and add-ons have popped up to muddy the waters (quite appropriately in the case of the Mississippi!).

I think that the key thing for me has been to get clear in my mind exactly what this book is and more importantly, what it is not - and to be honest, this has given me much food for thought.

I can say definitively though, that it is most certainly not a second edition! In many ways it is like a special edition DVD/Blu-ray - you know the ones that include the additional and deleted scenes, ‘bloopers’ and sundry other bits and pieces. 

In many ways this book has been more difficult to get organised than the original, mainly because I have chopped and changed my mind about much of the content - usually with no apparent rhyme or reason. There has also been a veritable smorgasbord of real world stuff to contend with - stuff that puts pushing models ships around and agonising over firing arcs etc into their proper perspective.

Anyway, it is now at last and finally on the right track in terms of what I wanted to do and so I am looking forward to wrapping things up and getting it out there.

In no particular order then, the contents include the following:

Alternative firing methods

Alternative movement and manoeuvring ideas

Alternative initiative ideas

Using a square grid

Using a single hex/square grid

Expanded ACW ship specifications

Expanded bibliography

And of course, a battle report!

This book will not be the end of the Portable Ironclads Wargame, nor will it be the end of my ACW project. I have some more models to build and so my original estimate of ‘around a dozen or so generic models’ will have increased tenfold - at a minimum!

It has been an epic journey so far and one that I have enjoyed far more than I would have ever expected - I have also stuck with it for far longer than I would have expected!