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".
Thursday, 3 April 2025
“No Sailor but a Fool attacks a Fortress!….Again!
Sunday, 30 March 2025
DTPIW: Once More Unto the Breach....And all that!
Not exactly the forces that will be action soon but there are similarities. The Mobile Bay Confederate ships the CSS Tennessee leading followed by the CSS Selma flanked by the CSS Morgan and Gaines.
This coming Wednesday evening will see another run out of The Portable Ironclads Wargame at the club - and it promises to be a doozy! There will some ships in action that have never graced the table top but more importantly, some new players will be taking part for the first time.
It will also be a relatively large action - around a dozen models all told - with a fort and minefields to contend with, at least for the Union that is.
I have also finalised a QRS for use with The Portable Ironclads Wargame which will be road tested as part of the game. I cannot claim that it has been a wholly individual exercise - a number of significant contributions have come from various quarters - as many suggestions have been made in getting it to where it is now. They know who they are and have my grateful thanks.
There will be an after action report but for now it is sufficient to relate that the game is the final act of the trilogy of battles that started with Gridded Naval Wargames by Bob Cordery, set along the 'great father of waters' the mighty Missenhitti river.
Thursday, 27 March 2025
Command and Colours: Medieval(?)
Sunday, 23 March 2025
DTPIW: A Big Chunk of Progress
Thursday, 20 March 2025
More on Fighters of the Pacific
Saturday, 15 March 2025
A Mixed Bag of Goodies
Thursday, 13 March 2025
The Second Day of Hampton Roads
Sadly no picture of the ram attack but the positions above are after it was resolved. Sadly the Confederate gunnery dice did not take to ramming and so no damage was inflicted on the USS Monitor. Once she was underway the CSS Virginia was heading directly back to base. The USS Monitor wisely broke off the action.
Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Duel of the Ironclads - Hampton Roads
Monday, 10 March 2025
Addressing Gettysburg
If you only ever acquired one book on the battle of Gettysburg I reckon that Mr Adkin’s title would be at the front of the queue! I have his titles on Waterloo and Trafalgar and they are quite simply outstanding (the Western Front title is on my ‘to get’ list). The board game is a truly unique experience - for the reason why, read on!
Aside from the naval perspective, my interest in the American Civil War has been at best, erratic. It has been one of those periods of history that has always seemed like a good idea but has never really ignited the enthusiasm. Back in the day I had some truly horrible experiences with a number of rule sets that really turned me off the period. In fact it was only due the launch of the board game Battle Cry - which itself has a number of issues - that I made a modest attempt to revisit the period.
The strangest thing though, is that whilst my interest tends to head towards the Western theatre, I have a fondness for the Gettysburg campaign. Along with Waterloo, I reckon that several rain forests have been expended in print over the years for this iconic battle between the States. To keep things simple I have acquired two titles on the battle specifically - the one you see above by Mark Adkin and another currently en route from the US of A. Naturally I have seen the film of the battle which I enjoyed enormously - the soundtrack grated though!
I plan to rebuild my ACW library in a measured way with some selective ‘high mileage’ titles (those that punch above their weight in terms of coverage and detail etc) but am not planning on embarking on a huge involvement in the period. A Battle Cry level will suffice although not with the game of that name.
So where is all this leading?
Every so often a game appears that really shakes things up in terms of how a particular period or battle is gamed. The Guns of Gettysburg is such a game. Take a look at the below and think to yourself - “that is right up Mr Crook’s street!”
Sunday, 9 March 2025
The Genesis of an Idea
Thursday, 6 March 2025
Turning the Tide in a Timely Fashion
A useful title using previously restricted or classified naval reports found in the library of the Britannia Royal Naval College. Part of a series that includes operations in Norway in 1940, hunting the German raiders, the Bismarck chase, hunting the Tirpitz and Matapan
It never ceases to amaze me how wargaming synchronicity has played a not inconsiderable part in my enjoyment of our hobby. I could site numerous examples of this from over the years but will instead confine myself to the latest one.
In my last post I briefly described Fighters of the Pacific - a new board game covering plane to plane combat in the South Pacific in 1942. The emphasise is on Carrier Operations and whilst the rules are simple, there is a great degree of subtlety in the mechanics and they ooze the all-important period ‘feel’.
I have gamed carrier operations in the South Pacific many times using Flat Top, CV and now via the Smithsonian Avalon Hill games Midway and Guadalcanal. I also played an awful lot of Dauntless - the Air Force Pacific version - so it is fair to say that I have ‘form’ with the period.
My library is quite modest concerning the Pacific campaigns but in three fell swoops this has changed for the better!
The book you see above was acquired yesterday in the most surprising of circumstances. Laurel and I headed into the village (Rayleigh, where we live) to an antique valuation event at the local community hall. She had some gold jewellery that she wanted to dispose of wanted to get an idea of its value. After having done that we then ventured into the high street - Wednesday is the Rayleigh market so it was pretty busy - to see what a couple of jewellers had to say about the value. All this seems very mundane but for one significant detail. It was the first time that Laurel had been in Rayleigh high street since her surgery over three years ago. She is a not a fan of crowds - especially in her powered chair - but she coped admirably with crossing roads and negotiating some quite confined spaces. One of these was the Rayleigh indoor market which has within a magazine and discounted book stall. There was not much I was interested in but the title depicted above caught my eye and for - wait for it - £2.99 I immediately snapped it up!
The book is quite dry, using as it does official reports and such, but for all that it is really useful for planning scenarios for either naval or aerial actions. I am now actively looking out for the others in the series.
With grateful thanks to Mr Kightly - extremely timely for sure!
The second piece of synchronicity came about as a result of a gaming friend having a clear out of stuff - which I had offered to help with. The three Osprey titles you see are all penned by Mark Stille who leads me quite nicely into the third piece of synchronicity - one of my Christmas presents.
The final member of my Pacific library - the author has also penned a title on Leyte Gulf although my interest in the theatre is primarily 1942
So there you have it - a selection of relevant titles covering both the naval and the aerial side and which will stand me in good stead for Fighters of the Pacific, Flat Top, CV, Midway and Guadalcanal.
Once again my thanks to Mr Kightly for his most generous gift of the hugely useful Osprey titles!
Monday, 3 March 2025
Fighters of the Pacific
The aircraft counters. The US get 18 Wildcats, 22 Dauntless and 10 Devastators whilst the Japanese have 17 Zeros, 18 Vals and 12 Kates.
Sunday, 2 March 2025
Quick Reference Sheets? Hmmm....
Hexagonal Firing Arcs - Take 2.... (Appearing on a QRS near you very shortly....)
One of the things that came out of the game last Wednesday was a request for a Quick Reference Sheet (QRS) for the Portable Ironclads Wargame. In truth I had always planned to produce one but never really got around to it.
Guess what I have been doing for the last few days?
Yup, a Quick Reference Sheet - except that at the moment it is anything but!
The rules section of The Portable Ironclads Wargame runs from page 37 to page 42. Six pages in all although the firing arc diagram adds another so call it seven.
My QRS currently stands at eight sides of A4.....
I should qualify this by pointing out that one A4 sheet has the new firing arc and examples of how a ship turns off the bow or the stern, another A4 sheet contains the charts and tables so the actual rules themselves are on two sheets of A4 - only the first of which would be essential, containing as it does the most important stuff.
The rules sheets refer to the rule numbers in the book as well as the associated table/diagram which in turn are referenced back to the appropriate rules so navigating the four sheets of A4 should present little difficulty.
Ideally I would have liked to have gotten the whole thing onto two sheets of A4 but short of using a 'bible print' font size - not very kind on old wargaming eyes - I cannot see how much I can cut it down by. Having said that the rules now read far more economically in this format. Once I have finished them I plan to make use of them at the next club game to iron out any wrinkles and make any amendments they may be necessary. After that they will be uploaded to the Gridded Naval Wargame and Portable Wargame Facebook groups.
A long overdue task, but a welcome one!
Thursday, 27 February 2025
Action along the Winnebago River
The Prologue….And it came to pass….
Yesterday evening saw the Portable Ironclads Wargame getting a run out at the club. The main purpose of the action was to try out the square grid but more importantly, to prepare Messrs Fox and Huband for more challenging games ahead.
The scenario was deliberately simple and with but two ships a side. For the Union, under the command of Mr Huband, the river monitor USS Ozark and the double ended gunboat the USS Agawam whilst that ‘Will ‘O the Wisp of the bounding main’, Mr Fox took command of the ironclad the CSS Missouri and the CSS Gaines. The action was short and sharp as the pictures will show.
With the Rebel fleet down to the ironclad the CSS Missouri - now with the two Union vessels across her line of retreat - the action came to an end.
The game was brief but enjoyable although a couple of areas of confusion arose. To begin with the use of squares and positioning of ships within got a little scrambled. When moving orthogonally a ship sits squarely across the two squares - on the centreline if you prefer. When operating diagonally a ship would sit on the central spot formed by the two squares touching at a single corner. In the heat of the action this got a little muddled but to be honest it made little difference to the overall outcome.
Squares and dots aside the general consensus was that the rules would benefit immeasurably from a quick reference sheet. Guilty as charged with that omission - it is something that I always intended doing but never quite got around to doing so. I have started work on one and it will be uploaded on the Gridded Naval Wargame facebook group file section.
All in all though, I was pleased at how it went and it was a good work out to exorcise any gremlins before we move up to more challenging and complex actions.
Once again my sincere thanks to Messrs Fox and Huband for their time and carefully considered input.
Cheers chaps!