End of the Year and All That….

Not gonna lie - seeing these two on the shelf and available to purchase is a real pleasure! I have said before that the whole writing process and all the associated model making, testing and research I really enjoyed!

First of all a very Happy New Year to one and all - let us hope that it will be a peaceful one. When I say ‘peaceful’ I am using this to cover a personally stress-free 2026 along with a wider no global escalations or newsworthy unpleasantness!

From my perspective the current year has been mixed. The serious stuff concerned Laurel’s health - not her ongoing disability (wearing though that is) - as she managed to swerve not one but two cancer scares. Both of these involved numerous hospital visits - 21 appointments in all - and nervously waiting on phone calls. Both situations ended on a positive note for which we are all eternally grateful. I had my own run in with a hospital when I managed to half fall out of the loft. My right arm (which was by far the most painful) is now fully recovered but my left elbow is still niggling - nothing serious though, for which I am heartily relieved. The year ended with my seasonal chesty/throaty thing which is still lingering but nowhere near as wearing as previously. Not to be outdone our daughter Holly managed to suffer a small break in her ankle the day before her birthday (15/12) meaning the use of crutches and a boot. She is mobile now though. 

Looking forward to giving this a spin - the production standard is very high and the artwork is gorgeous!

It also uses a combination of blocks and cards….

The library of the Reconquista!

A view from the Alhambra

One of the many buildings - this was the palace of a lesser member of the nobility

Looking up!

A typical Moorish style gate and tower

On a more upbeat note Laurel and I had a two week break in Andalusia way back in June. We stayed at the same place as we did last year - near Alcaucin, about fifty minutes from Malaga. It was wonderful with the highlight being a visit to the famous Alhambra Palace. This was a long term wish of mine and it certainly did not disappoint! It was hugely inspiring and the period of the Reconquista is certainly one that appeals from a gaming perspective - not sure in what way yet though. We are going back for another visit in June next year as the hotel is fully set up for people with mobility challenges and we can fly from our local airport so the journey is relatively stress free.

Anyways, enough of the day-to-date stuff!

This year I have not been able to attend a single wargames show! For a variety of reasons - usually calendar clashes - this has been quite a disappointing turn of events but I aim to rectify this sorry state of affairs in 2026! 

The biggest gaming news of the year for me was the publication of Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame: The American Civil War in June. A lot of work went into this - Bob Cordery did his writing and editorial stuff and both Messrs Fox and Huband, along with Messrs Slater and Kightly, combined to contribute to an epic battle for the grand finale of the book. It was a tremendous effort and I am truly grateful to them all for their help and assistance.

Captain Nathan Hubbard USN, officer commanding, U.S.S. Manhattan aka Nick Huband

Captain Noah “Redeye” Fox, officer commanding, C.S.S. Atlanta aka Neil Fox

Work on the new book is progressing well. For the most part the rules are ready and have been tested a couple of times with a third game to take place in the next couple of weeks. The ship specs and charts for the Russo Japanese War (specifically the Tsushima WoFun collection) are complete and so I am now turning my attention to the American Civil War for the Ironclads portion of the book. The biggest challenge with this is pinning down firing arcs but I have this ‘dialled in’ for the rules - it is just for the ships I need to worry.

There have been a fair number of acquisitions this year - gifted and otherwise. For the former I (re)took delivery of the Axis and Allies WW2 collection - much of this originally came from Bob Cordery and Archduke Piccolo with a small dollop of stuff from yours truly. I have a full set of the hexed gaming mats that came with the starter sets which I had laminated and these have been used many times with my block armies. I had an idea about using the A and A kit with Memoir ‘44 - certainly there is enough of it. The Redoubtable Mr Fox added to my 15mm pile (the Axis and Allies kit being the same scale) when he offered me his bits and pieces from the Tanks game from GF9 Games. These will also be destined for some kind of Memoir ‘44/Portable Wargame ‘mash up’ in due course

Basing experiments with Zulu Wars British infantry

The 15mm Mike’s Models Colonial collection was the big acquisition of the year and so I now have everything I need to tackle the Zulu War and much else besides. I am still planning what to do with this collection in terms of painting/organising/basing etc so it is a bit of a slow burner. In the short term though, I have been thinking about a pair of Portable Wargame forces to go with the Royal Navy and Turkish ironclads I have under construction. This would have the advantage of being relatively easy to organise as many of the figures for this are already painted. Something to think about.

Fighters of the Pacific

Fighters of Europe 

Fighters of the Pacific and of Europe I am really looking forward to gaming with - there is a huge amount of potential with this system and as per usual I have already been thinking ‘outside the box’ at looking at other rules etc. Having both the full kickstarter sets with the stretch goal add-one makes a huge difference and as I have mentioned previously, the accompanying neoprene gaming mats will be very useful indeed!

Boardgames and books have been added to the collection with a good number heading out in the opposite

direction. The library is due an extensive cull - mainly because there are books contained therein that are unlikely to lead into any serious gaming and I am mindful of the need to keep the collection on a tight rein. The following are a random selection of some of the books and games that have found their way into my collection this year. I should also mention the refreshed version of Memoir ‘44 which will certainly be getting some use in the new year!

I am hoping that next year that I can get more games in, more shows in and to actually get some projects off the ground and to a gaming state. We shall see.

In the meantime though, a Happy New Year and here’s hoping that 2026 is a better one.

Belated Seasons Greetings!

What a haul! Certainly enough to provide me with plenty of inspiration!

Well Christmas Day came and went with a rush - so much so that by the time I had thought about writing a blog post the food induced coma had set in, aided by some very nice I.P.A and a lovely Rioja with dinner….

So a belated merry Christmas one and all! On the plus side though, I am now able to post about the Christmas haul and boy oh boy, I did really well!

The Battle of Tsushima needs no introduction - this is a relatively compact account but a welcome addition to my Russo Japanese war collection. The Kaiser’s Cruisers is a comprehensive overview of the development of German cruisers up to the end of the Great War and will be useful for the final phase of my new book.

The Persian book goes with the Greek volume I acquired last year. I am rather fond of this series as I like the way the troops are depicted by re-enactors rather than traditional artwork. I have a soft spot for the Greek and Persian wars - Hoplites, Immortals and of course, galleys - although this is a long term project for sure, at least the land side is anyway.

Assassins and Templars tackles the activities of both these famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view!) protagonist during the period of the Crusades. Again, this is another period I have aspirations about gaming at some point. A recent edition of the magazine Wargames Illustrated contained a derivative set of rules from the ‘Never Mind the Ruckus’ stable covering the skirmish level combat of the Crusades between the Assassins and the Templars. The big advantage is that only a few figures are needed which should suit a notoriously reluctant painter such as myself….

The final book is the latest Portable Wargame compendium and it is a real treat - especially with the high naval content! The four compendiums are fast becoming constant sources of inspiration and so Bob deserves a big thank you for compiling these - as does everyone else for contributing and to my eternal shame I have yet to do so!

Perhaps next year!

Bloody April, 1917….

Bit of a grail game this one - WW1 in the air above France in 1917. Operational in scope but with a tactical element for combat resolution.

The rear of the box. The counters have been carefully inched and sorted - which is just as well as there are rather a lot of them! 

I have always enjoyed WW1 aerial games but for the most part these have been ‘plane vs plane’ tactical games. Richthofen's War, Wings, Aces High and Dawn Patrol have all featured (the latter I am still making the ‘flying bases’ for) but aside from tackling the occasional campaign style game I have never gamed WW1 in the air from the operational perspective. 

A closer view of the campaign area….

…. And the components in the box

Bloody April by GMT Games will address this as it is firmly in the mission planning and execution school of wargame. Counters represent anything from one to six aircraft, individual counters for named and famous pilots as well as for things like observation balloons and ‘Archie’. Wind and weather feature and missions are plotted on a map with the counters deployed once identified. There are numerous mission types - artillery cooperation, balloon busting, patrol and others - and these are driven by the scenario. 

The Eagle of Lille expansion. 

This is quite a ‘rule heavy’ game which will take some careful reading before getting to the table but it is something I am hugely excited to crack on with. Also included with the game is an unpunched copy of the Eagle of Lille expansion which covers the infamous ‘Fokker Scourge’ earlier in the war. This is not a period of WW1 air combat I am particularly familiar with as most of the games I have played have tended to be late 1917 to 1918.

I did take a look at the Tumbling Dice 1:600th aircraft range but am undecided about going down that particular rabbit hole although they do look very nice with some work. The all round good chap and project meister extraordinaire - Jim Jackaman -  has produced some lovely examples of WW1 aircraft which can be seen on his blog using the Tumbling Dice range and are well worth a look.

Two excellent books - Marked for Death I have in hardback and it is a cracking read

I have a few books on WW1 in the air and the two above are great reads. I have a copy of Marked for Death in hardback but the chap I got Bloody April from included the paperback version in with the game - a much appreciated gesture!

The Rules of the Game and 15….

 The Rules of the Game is a truly wonderful book about how the Royal Navy arrived at where it did in order to fight at Jutland. I have owned a paperback version of this but really wanted a reasonably priced hardback version - 700 pages is a lot to ask of a paperback! For the other title in the picture, read on….

I am feeling particularly unwell as the seasonal chesty cough/sore throat/head full of cotton wool thing has kicked in with a vengeance! However, trooper that I am, I have managed to get a substantial amount of work done on the book and have rested the creative genes to tackle a little, shall we say, side hustle…

The big news though, is that I have been able to secure copies of not one, but two ‘grail books’ - and with a bonus!

So what does the mysteriously enigmatic ‘15’ mean then? Take a look at the picture below then, and all will be revealed….

Small War and Skirmishes 1902 to 1918 by Edwin Herbert - the first of two volumes with the second covering the period 1919 to 1935. Aside from the ‘Colonial’ style conflicts the book also looks at the sideshows of the Great War. I am really pleased to have this in my collection - especially as it is signed by the author and the late Ian Heath and is listed as copy number 15 from when it was published!

The Rules of the Game is a superb book and in my opinion essential reading if one wants to understand the how and why the Royal Navy ‘did what it did’ during the Great War. 

This is a brief post as the need for a hot lemon and honey has assumed greater importance - I will also throw in some paracetamol for good measure!

Ship Charts and Firing Arcs

The ‘Mark 2’ version of a ship record chart (actually more like mark 8!). I am a lot happier with this version as it is far ‘leaner’ and user friendly. The ship details are at the top whilst the bottom covers the weapons fit. 

 I mentioned in my previous post that I had been busy beavering away on the rules for the new book and so you can now see a couple of examples of what I have been up to.

The ship record chart I am rather pleased with as it is a lot tidier and far more obvious as to what is what. Having said that I have just spotted something that will need amending - the arcs of fire for the turrets do not account for port and starboard fire. The chart also reflects a rule change that I have incorporated. Essentially secondary guns get one box per two barrels whilst tertiary guns get one per three barrels. This was incorporated to help to equalise the hits between the hull (flotation) and the weaponry. I have also incorporated a very simple hit location table. In a nutshell, for each hit a ship suffers the owning player rolls a D6. A roll of 1 to 3 is a flotation hit, 4 is a tertiary, 3 is a secondary and a 6 is main guns or torpedoes. If a ship does not carry any of the weaponry listed then the hit is classed as flotation.

The beginnings of a firing arc diagram. I created this rather crude diagram using MS Excel. It was a royal pain to do so and worst of all, when you try and add it into Word you can see where the lines do not quite line up (the bold lines are where this occurs). This diagram illustrates the arc for forward firing guns.

I was rather pleased with the above until I tried adding it to a Word document. It looked horrible so the above is very much a work in progress. In the Portable Ironclads Wargame I used models and my hexed playing mat for the arcs but I was keen to add them as a diagram this time. I shall continue to experiment with this - I reckon that I just need to check out a couple of You Tube tutorials to get this bedded down. Aside from diagrams it will also allow me to draw battle maps on a hex grid which will be very useful indeed - way beyond naval games!

Risings and Rebellions 1919 to 1939

The follow up volume to Small Wars and Skirmishes 1902 to 1918

Definitely some very entertaining looking campaigns to look at and all very Portable Wargameable !

 It was a pretty lean November as far as blog posts went. No particular reason for this other I have been beavering away on the rules for the new book. I think they are now there or thereabouts and so I am arranging a further test game next which will be the largest action fought with them so far. It should be fun!

In the meantime though, I have been able to pick up a few items on the acquisition list, all of which will find their way onto the blog in due course but today I shall focus on just one of them.

The ‘tribal’ block armies - originally designed for Zulus (predominantly brown) and Afghan/Mahdist/Arab types.

There is an abundance of ‘small wars’ in this book and the preceding volume (which I am awaiting delivery of) so for me, there is certainly plenty of mileage. Couple with my earlier acquisition of Colonial Armies of Africa 1850 to 1918 by Peter Abbott, I reckon that I have more than sufficient for needs in terms of inspiration. I am leaning towards using the block armies again - they have been sitting patiently in their storage boxes for way too long - but I am conscious of the fact that they may need a little upgrading. Again, nothing major, just a few minor additions. This option of course means that I can get into action far sooner than painting figures!