A Different Kind of Naval Gaming

The box art….

….and the contents on the back.

I own a variety of naval boardgames, most of which of the ship to ship nature and take place on a gridded playing area - usually hexes but occasionally squares. I also own a couple of strategic level naval games where one is deploying squadrons and fleets etc but with a tactical option when things get up close and personal. These all work perfectly well and I am content to play them when the opportunity permits - which means that most have not seen the light of day for years! At least I still have them though, and that is the main thing, despite being sorely tempted to dispose of some of them on the odd occasion.

Anyways, things have moved along in recent years with the growth of games designed to be played solo and focussing on the decisions that an individual ship’s commander needs to make. And so I acquired a copy of the Compass Games Schnell Boots: Scourge of the English Channel. In this, one takes command of two to four S Boats and conducts a series of operations in the English Channel during 1943/44 in the hope of successfully sinking enemy ships and gaining promotion but in reality hoping to survive a full year. All the missions are at night and encounters can range from single vessels (pretty unlikely) up to convoys with varying levels of escort or even enemy torpedo and gun boats. Aircraft also feature to really add some additional fun, at least if you are the Allies that is. It looks a lot of fun and so I am hoping it will encourage me to finally get my coastal collection painted and on the table. Of particular interest though, was the choice of vessel you get to command. It is either an S100 type S boat or the rather impressively named Projekt B Tragflugelboot - a turbojet powered hydrofoil!

I had never seen nor heard of this piece of bonkers naval engineering so naturally I have asked Mr Manley if he could create a 1:600th 3D printed version!

Believe it or not, there was also a submersible version of this planned. The idea was that it submerged and sit on the surface until an approaching enemy convoy was detected. It would then surface, launch its attack and could then shoot off at speeds in excess of fifty knots! It was nothing if not inventive but this variant never made it off the drawing board.

The second naval game - the Kaiser’s Pirates - is based on commerce raiding during the Great War and uses no map. The game is card based and although designed for two or more players does have a full solo version. The great thing about this type of game is that the table footprint is very compact.

The basic premise of this game is all about sinking merchant ships and avoiding being sunk by enemy AMCs or warships. Fuel is always an issue and so the raiders have to be mindful of this as well attempting to stay as anonymous as possible. Action cards dictate the ebb and flow of the action and points are awarded for the ships sunk - either raiders or merchantmen. I am a huge fan of the subject matter and commerce raiding, in whatever form it takes, has given me many great games over the years. I shall look forward to this one with relish!

A Naval Wargaming Odyssey

From the two titles at the top of the picture to the two at the bottom - my indebtedness to both Bob Cordery and David Manley is immense!

Work on what will be the final iteration of The Portable Ironclads Wargame is well underway. As a reminder this volume will contain the tidied up rules, greatly expanded ship specifications, an updated bibliography, three new battle report and a few surprises. In truth it is probably the book I wanted to write initially but we are where we are.

Whilst sorting through the bits and pieces needed for the new book I was reminded of just how I got to where I got to. I readily admit to ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ in that much of the Portable Ironclads Wargame had its origins in the works of both Messrs Cordery and Manley. All I did was take the best parts of each and shoehorn the result into something resembling a set of ironclad era rules. Are they perfect? Of course not - no set of rules is - but I cannot help but be proud of the effort!

There are things I would do differently if I was embarking on a similar exercise and indeed, the paused book for Pen and Sword represents an evolution of sorts of the Portable Ironclads Wargame. It is half the fun though, embarking on a journey and seeing where it takes you.

The Portable Ironclads Wargame: Definitive Edition polishes the rules and rounds out the period of 1860 to 1880 or so. As mentioned previously, the ACW will feature, the War of the Pacific and a personal indulgence in the shape of the Anglo Turkish War of 1883. I am really looking forward to completing this book and I hope that Portable Ironclad Wargamers will enjoy as much as I will.

Silent Death And Voidfighter

One side of the sprue….

….and the other. All the models have holes to secure a flying base to although they do not come with them. I have a fair selection of flying bases in stock so may not need to acquire more. I shall take a look later and see what the state of my supply looks like!

Much of what I am about to write in this post is uncertain and so should any readers know otherwise then please let me know!

Back in the 1980s I used to play a boardgame called Silent Death, produced by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). The game was a ship to ship star fighter combat game using game specific models. As I recall, the original edition came with twelve metal models of the fighters used in the game - one of each type - which were also available separately. An ‘unleaded’ version was produced, presumably to save costs, which included counters rather than the models. Eventually, a set of plastic versions of the original twelve fighters was produced and, to cut a long story short, these were eventually acquired by EM4 Miniatures, who continue to produce them to this day.

Silent Death spawned a plethora of expansions introducing new ships and alien races, along with campaign settings etc. I played the initial release quite a few times ‘back in the day’ but in my opinion, rather like the original Star Fleet Battles, it became too unwieldy for my taste and with a perceived need that one had to acquire everything produced to stay up to speed with it. Eventually I gave up on it which in retrospect was a shame as it was a cracking game and provided many exciting deep space tussles.

I was recently introduced to Voidfighter - the Osprey game of star fighter combat - and enjoyed this so much that decided that raising a couple of forces to use with it would be fun. I did not want to spend a fortune on models and sadly do not have the time to scratch build any - which I have done in the past - due to other commitments.

With what can only be described as a stunning example of synchronicity, I came across an EM4 advert in which they were having a bit of a sale. Sure enough, the plastic Silent Death models were still available and on offer - five sprues, each of twelve models for £22. A couple of clicks later and they were duly ordered! 

They arrived this morning and I am really pleased with them. Considering the age of the moulds they are still pretty crisp and sufficiently detailed for a nice paint job although a couple of the models have the odd ‘sink hole’ - nothing that a small spot of filler could not put right though. Having five of each type means that there is a degree of redundancy in the set as I routinely use flights of two or four. Perhaps some kitbashing may be in order to make some unique models.

In respect of representing larger ships - the rules allow for ships up to corvette size - I have a fair amount of starships from the Command and Colours game Red Alert that have been lurking in a box for sometime. These are of a larger scale - fleet level battles - but could telescope down readily enough. In the Red Alert range there is a nice logistics pack of transports that could serve as targets so there is plenty of potential.

As cheeky little side projects go, this one is definitely doable with minimal effort.

Even for me…. ;-)

“It Never Snows in September”

At long last! Been after this for an age and I expect it to be really handy when I revisit the campaign again - it will certainly help to correctly identify some of the units used in the Memoir 44 scenario pack for Operation Market Garden.

At long last I have managed to acquire a copy of Robert J. Kershaw’s outstanding book on Operation Market Garden from the German perspective: It Never Snows in September. I have owned a copy of this that was in pretty poor shape and so was keen to replace it with a decent hardback version. Needless to say, copies of this vintage seemed to be getting progressively more expensive so I was fortunate to land this for a little over a tenner.

There is a heap of really useful information in this book, particularly around orders of battle given the somewhat understandably chaotic nature of German organisation at the time. 

Years ago, clutching a copy of Victory Games ‘Hells Highway’ and Frank Chadwick’s Command Decision, the late Mick Vince, Steve Letch and myself fought through the early stages of the campaign and Kershaw’s book was invaluable for the German side. On that particular campaign the Allies were successful! 

It would be good to revisit it as the last time I fought it was in 2013!

New Rules and Decals

The rulebook and play sheet

The back cover. Apologies for the reflective glare but in my defence the cover is really glossy!

It is always a pleasure having things dropping through the letterbox that are not bills or other officialdom! So it was this morning that I had two items arrive - a copy of  Des Darkin’s new ACW rules and a sheet of decals for my planned repaint of the four Wildcat fighters into Fleet Air Arm Martlets. 

The rules are not what I would usually look at - there is more detail than I tend to look at these days - but I was rather intrigued by some of the mechanics used, along with the focus on command decisions and the inherent friction therein. I have only had a cursory look through and so cannot go into much detail - I will do in a later post - but first impressions are very positive. Plenty of full colour inspirational eye candy is present - largely wasted on me it must be said - but I have an alternative cunning plan as to how I would use the rules. I shall be looking to use my block armies rather than figures. Heresy I know but hey ho, what the hell and all that!

The rules can be purchased from www.shedowargames.co.uk  and they are well supported with videos etc as well as dedicated Facebook group. As mentioned, I shall post a more detailed review in due course.

Enough for four aircraft so I will need to be careful applying these! Luckily these are pretty straightforward looking (famous last words?).

The decals were produced by Sieben Schwaben Spiele in deepest Bavaria. Again, there is also a Facebook group where it is possible to see other examples of the range of decals they produce. The sheet you see was originally sized at 1:200th but a quick request via messenger secured a rescaled version at 1:100th, for use with my Axis and Allies Angels 20 collection, specifically the aforementioned Wildcats/Martlets. The sheet cost eight euros with two euros for shipping which I thought was pretty reasonable.

Although they are designed for 888 squadron Fleet Air Arm, the style of numerals is suitable for other squadrons as well. I shall have a look and see what I can come up with. Repainting the Wildcat into a Fleet Air Arm scheme should be easy enough, even for me, so I shall look forward to tackling this in due course.

All in all then, a pretty good start to the week and I also have a few other bits and pieces en route.

To Infinity and Beyond….

Starfighters R Us! Registers very highly on the fun factor and with bags of potential!

Yesterday evening at the club saw your truly taking command of a Z95 Headhunter - a single seat ‘snub’ fighter - along with one other and taking on a pair of TIE Fighters in an asteroid field (naturally). The rules in use were Voidfighter published by Osprey and the models, including the asteroids and the star field gaming cloth were from the collection of the esteemed Mr Fox. I should mention that he has a substantial collection of models from the Star Wars based X Wing game and so these provided the mounts we used.

Sadly I did not get any pictures but the game ended with both TIE fighters being vaporised, in part due to some truly outrageous dice rolling by myself rather than any apparent tactical nous. For the record the Z95s scored a TIE each. Despite being a small fight - as much to introduce new players (myself and Mr Huband) as for the scenario itself - it was a lot of fun and I can easily see this becoming a club staple. As an aside I have actually owned the rules for a while now but this was my first run out with them. It will most definitely not be the last though!

Aside from the obvious Star Wars angle the potential for other Sci Fi backgrounds is obvious. Battlestar Galactica being one as well as a whole host of other fictional universes. For my own part I rather like the idea of something pulp based - Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers being prime contenders - or even something VSF related. 

The rules themselves are designed for fighters only with a corvette sized vessel being the largest that could be deployed. It is a very theatrical set, as befits the genre, and play fairly rattles along. I shall enjoy playing around with this so there is yet another distraction when I should be looking at ironclads!

Despite being rocket powered and called Komet the Me163 never made it into space - this was the star field cloth over which the Star Wars game was fought.

The talented Mr Huband brought along the latest addition to his Axis and Allies Angels 20 collection - a resin and metal 15mm scale Me163 Komet. Before anyone asks yes, we have stats for one of these and again, yes - it is pretty fast! Mr Huband did a lovely paint job on this and I will look forward to seeing it in action, assuming the pilot hasn’t melted due to fuel leak….

A Small Piece of the Crusades

A selection of rules for varying levels of medieval mayhem

As far as the ‘middle ages’ are concerned my only interest has ever been the Crusades - and for far longer than I care to remember! Seriously though, aside from a detour via the ‘period’ of Robin Hood my interest in Western Europe during the period has been non-existent. Spain in the period of El CID and the later campaigns of the Reconquista are definitely on the radar, perhaps with the rise of the Ottoman Turks, but for now it is firmly Crusades based. 

As usual, any likelihood of me painting armies for the period is slim to none but that is not to say that I will not dabble in some fashion. I rather like the scale of Lion Rampant and in truth, forces for the Crusades using these rules would be as big a commitment in terms of painting figures as I would like to undertake. However, courtesy of a supplement in an edition of Wargames Illustrated called Assassins and Templars - released around the excellent book of the same name by the eminent Crusades historian Steve Tibble - I now have the opportunity to raise even smaller forces than needed for Lion Rampant. 

Steve Tibble’s excellent study of both the Assassins and the Templars and the Lion Rampant Crusades supplement - really useful!

Assassins and Templers - a Ruckus game - uses forces of up to around a dozen figures a side which is ideal or the reluctant or disinterested figures painter. I am quite happy fighting actions at this level using 28mm figures and so have been thinking about what I would need when along came Pillage, published by Victrix.

Pillage are designed around small scale raids, primarily set during the Viking era but are readily usable beyond this and in other theatres. I am rather taken with these and despite the inevitable glossy hardback book approach the rules themselves look pretty entertaining in an old school kind of way. There is also a useful painting guide and some ideas for making one’s own scenery. I did chuckle at this as there are instructions on making a simple cottage style building using coffee stirrers….

So what does all this mean then? Well, I am not averse to painting up a couple of dozen or so figures for each side so I suspect that acquiring the appropriate figures would be an idea. It is possible to buy individual sprues of most plastic figure ranges so some careful research should point me in the right direction. At first glance I rather like the look of Fireforge - mainly as the figures do not appear to require as much in the way of assembly - but there are plenty of others from Victrix and Gripping Beast. 

We shall see but for now it is back to the ironclads….

A Tale of Books, The Battle of the River Plate and of Coffee Stirrers….

Jane’s Fighting Ships needs little introduction and this is the compilation WW2 volume. Fighting Ships of WW1 and WW2 is a hardback compilation from the old Purnell range of A4 sized 64 page paperbacks - a pocket money standby from my youth! Naval guns is essentially a picture book snapshotting various types of artillery across five centuries. There are some great pictures, accompanied by some useful, albeit brief background to the weapons depicted. Finally, a selection of accounts of the most famous Royal Navy actions, again over the centuries.

As many of you may know, there are a vast number of ‘buying and selling’ groups on Facebook. I belong to a number of specialist types - specialist as in special interest - as well as a few geographically local versions. Very occasionally, among the sofas to be disposed of or sets of golf clubs looking for a new home, something turns up that catches the eye. In this case it was a selection of naval books - 12 in all - that a lady was disposing of, all for £5! After an exchange of messages the deal was struck and so I drove over to her house after hydrotherapy yesterday to complete the transaction.

I knew in advance that a couple of titles I already owned but playing forward would be easy enough. The books you see in the picture above are the ones I am keeping, three are destined for a local charity ship whilst the others are for playing forward, so to speak. I was a little embarrassed at the low cost of the haul but the lady was adamant that £5 was sufficient. Interestingly enough, she told me that the books had belonged to a great uncle that had died a few years ago in a nearby care home. He had served during WW2 aboard HMS Ajax and saw action at the Battle of the River Plate. Apparently he had some memorabilia from the ship but when he died no one knew what happened to it - it was in his room at the care home. You never know who or what pieces of history can be found more of less on one’s doorstep!

I use a lot of these but very seldom venture anywhere that you can get them from - Starbucks, Costas, Cafe Nero or even McDonalds! Very useful for the scratch builder.

Laurel and I headed to our local boot sale this morning and once again the pickings for yours truly were pretty thin but I did manage to score a bag of 1,000 wooden coffee stirrers for the princely sum of £1. That should keep the shipyards bust for quite some time to come!

Turrets and Other Bits

The first of five boxes worth of laser cut MDF bits and pieces used in my warship models

As part of my return to scratch building ironclad warships, I decided to carry out a modest reorganisation of my supply of the laser cut MDF pieces I use for the models. This would serve two purposes. Firstly, I would be able to see if there were any pieces that needed restocking and secondly, so that I could tidy up the five boxes full of bits and pieces.

The box you see above now contains all of my turret pieces, as well as the two key components I use for assembling masts.

A selection of masted ships - you can see where the fighting tops are used to help strengthen the masts.

A selection of turreted monitors and the U.S.S. Keokuk (top left).

I have turrets available in four sizes - 1”, 20mm, 15mm and 1/2” - and I am quite sure that it must drive poor Mr Murray at Warbases to distraction as I quite happily mix metric and imperial measurements for the pieces I require!

For the turrets, the central layer with the gun embrasures is 3mm thick. For the layers above and below this I usually use 3mm but have a selection of 2mm thick pieces to use if required. As mentioned previously, using the 2mm thick ‘lid’ means that the gun embrasures appear to be higher from the deck. An illusion to be sure, but a welcome one. 

The mast ‘fighting tops’ are all 3mm thick and whilst circular it would be simple enough to get some rectangular versions cut. From what I have seen of ships over the ironclad period the fighting tops seem to be mostly circular so that is what I have gone with by default. On my models their function is to provide a ‘sleeve’ of sorts to the joins in the masts. They provide an extra surface on which to apply glue, thereby making the join really strong. The full circles with a central hole are used for ships that are running with a cut down sailing rig.

I was pleased to have sorted this particular box out as it gives me a much clearer idea of what I have and what I need going forwards. Once turret designs move away from being circular I will need to order some other shapes but the basic three layer assembly technique will still work for them - I will definitely use the 2mm ‘lid’ though!

The Look of the Thing or Size DOES Matter!

An oldie but a goodie! Taken from the climatic Battle of Static Bay as described in Developing The Portable Ironclads Wargame: The American Civil War. A floating battery, extemporised gunboats, an old navy style sloop and a selection of ironclads. Oh, and plenty of damage markers!

My collection of simple scratch built model warships for the ACW has given me much satisfaction; both from the modelling perspective and from seeing them in action. The whole process of turning a couple of pictures of a chosen ship into a physical approximation is a lot of fun and I have enjoyed it enormously. Although my construction technique has remained largely the same throughout,  I have incorporated a few subtle changes into the overall design process and it is these changes I wanted to write about in this post.

The most significant change I have adopted has been one of size. Although the models are not exact scale replicas in terms of overall dimensions, I am now ensuring that relative size differentials are noticeable. This will be readily apparent with the batch of models I am currently working on for the Royal Navy and the Ottoman Turks. There are no hard and fast rules for this as my models tend to be built ‘by eye’ rather than detailed measurements. My use of a standard hull shape - akin to that of a slab-sided barge - is probably the closest I get to any degree of regularity!

A typical turret. In this case one of the half inch version that were deemed to be too small for the current batch of models. There are three layers of 3mm thick MDF although I am looking at using a 2mm think lid which will bring the gun embrasures closer to the top of the turret.

I have also applied this technique to the construction of turrets. Fortunately, over the period that the Portable Ironclads Wargame covers, turrets tended to be circular and with guns that required muzzle loading so were run into the turret to do so. All of my turrets are built in the same way - three layers of MDF, each of (usually) 3mm thickness - with the middle layer of the ‘sandwich’ having two (usually,  although I have do have some singles available) cut out indentations to represent the gun embrasures. All of my turrets do not have any gun barrels exposed, thereby avoiding having to add them! Once I move onto the later periods I will not be able to get away with this but luckily, the technique I designed would work enough by simply seating the gun barrels in the indentations before ‘putting the lid on’, so to speak.

As part of the current build, I ordered some turrets sized at half an inch across. Whilst these are useful, it soon became obvious that they were slightly too small for the planned models. My usual size of 20mm across, of which I have a prodigious quantity, was very slightly too large so a quick rethink and a cheeky order to Martin at Warbases and I now have a number of turret pieces to the same design but measuring 15mm across. They look just right, and that is the main thing. As an aside, when I first started building the ACW collection I ordered turrets that are 1” wide - and this proved to be be too large, hence the use of 20mm as the size of choice.

In terms of the ‘Look of the Thing’ then I can happily say that in terms of anything approaching  scale etc, my ACW collection is all over the place! To be accurate, I should say that the relative size differential between types is probably far greater in the ACW collection than that of the current build as I was less concerned with this initially. Being used solely on a grid it does not really matter too much about this anyway and besides, using a model that has some physical presence on the tabletop is far more visually satisfying in my opinion then using something that is on the small size.

A case in point was the WW1 Lake Tanganyika collection, built to go with the hexed version of David Manley’s excellent Steamer Wars rules. My models of Mimi and Toutou were around 3cm long whilst the Graf Von Goetzen was about 10cm. Strictly speaking the two Royal Navy motor boats should have been smaller than this but when modelled in true scale (I am talking about 1:600th here) they are tiny. On the tabletop though, my ‘out of scale’ models looked just fine and I can live with the abstraction!

I guess the point I am trying to make is that although my models are not to scale and are designed to be very basic looking, I am mindful of the look of the thing, hence my moving towards ensuring that relative size differences are obvious. Although they are primarily gaming pieces - pretty robust ones at that - I would be less than honest if I did not say that I continue to be rather pleased with how they look when in action and also just how much I enjoy building them.

And that is the whole point of the exercise methinks!

The Portable Ironclads Wargame: Definitive Edition

What a winning combination of useful titles with which to base a project around! Methinks these will be rather well-thumbed by the time the models are ready!

For a variety of reasons, my planned book for Pen and Sword is now in a bit of a temporary holding pattern so I have taken the opportunity to look at something else. The Portable Ironclads Wargame: Definitive Edition, is going to be the title that completes the trilogy started with the Portable Ironclads Wargame. Essentially it will compromise the best bits from the two existing volumes with a chunk of new stuff. There will be an updated bibliography, the final version of the rules (no real changes here, just a tidy up), additional ship specifications and not one but three battle reports.

The ACW will feature, along with the War in the Pacific and for the alternative history entry, the Anglo Turkish War of 1883. All the models used will be my own scratch builds and I am toying with the idea of including some building instructions - a ‘how to’ if you like - for making one’s own models.

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of material than can be used straight off the bat from the two previous volumes but it is worth emphasising that this final version will contain sufficient new material to make it a worthwhile acquisition, this is especially important if you already have the two previous volumes!

The box of Royal Navy and Ottoman Turkish ironclads already under construction

In the short term my main focus will be shipbuilding - at this stage the two dozen or so RN and Turkish Ironclads - and so I will need to scope out the ships for the War in the Pacific. Luckily I have a couple of very handy references for this and guess what? I already have the ensigns!

Ironclads and a Boot Sale

The box shape caught my eye and word games are popular in Maison Crook so I picked this up for £1. There are 100 hexagonal tiles each measuring 25mm across the flat sides and are 5mm thick. The letters are on one side only. The gaming potential of these very useful tiles is obvious - more so as they also fit one side of my double sided blue hexed cloth as that also has hexes that are 25mm across the flat sides. 

Bit of a quick post this one - mainly because my next post will be a a bigger one!

Laurel and I headed out to our usual Sunday boot sale for the first time since before we went on holiday. With her newly diagnosed gallstones issue it was touch and go if we were going to be out and about at all but she felt comfortable enough to try it out (which is not saying a great deal as she is still suffering from the after effects of her gallstone attack of two weeks ago). It was worth it as some fresh air did us both good, along with a couple of bargains to add the cherry on top.

The game above will provide a change from Scrabble (Laurel and I have the scores kept from over 15 years of play - she is winning by around 6 games overall!) and the components will be useful from a wargames perspective. All in all £1 well invested methinks!

The Really Useful Box full of MDF. As you can see, the hulls are coming along nicely - the layers that are painted brick red will be used for the RN lower hulls at waterline level. The white ‘boot topping’ will be added to the main hull before the final assembly. I find it easier painting layers rather than lines!

For a variety of reasons, most of which will feature in the next post, I have moved the Turkish and Royal Navy ironclads back into the production queue - at the head of the list! I need to have a sort out of the bits and pieces you see in the box and also I need to order some new custom turret assemblies from Warbases as the ones I ordered for HMS Devastation and the two Turkish monitors are two small by a couple of mm. Once I have tidied them up and have the new turrets the first rider f business will be to finish the hulls and then it will be mast building. LOTS of mast building!

El Camisa Llamativa*

The box art featuring a suitably desperate band of Guerillas looking to spoil the patrolling Frenchmen’s day - rather like the World Cup semi-final!

The back of the box showing some quite superbly painted figures - rest assured that mine will not look anything like that!

 *The Loud Shirt or an approximation thereof! Mr Fox suggested something like this as suitable name for the leader of my planned band of Guerillas - for some reason one of my holiday shirts made him think of this although I can’t understand why….

Loud shirt? Moi? I thought it was quite understated in a sartorially elegant kind of way….

I mentioned in a previous post about my return from Andalusia and of my fondness for the place - we have already booked to go back there next year - with its wonderful scenery and history. I also mentioned that, additionally inspired by rereading The Gun and Death to the French by C.S. Forester, I had in mind a 28mm skirmish based set up using Perry Miniatures. 

Well the deed has been done and so now I am the proud owner of not one but two boxes of the Skirmish in a box set, featuring sprues from the Spanish Infantry, Guerillas, French line and Elite box sets. There are 65 figures in all - 38 Spanish and 27 French - but the set is designed to be able kit bash all manner of Napoleonic types from the theatre. The figures are beautifully sculpted and there is a huge amount of potential for fielding all manner of types suitable for the theatre. A very useful extra in the box are three coloured painting guides, one each for the Spanish Infantry, the Guerillas/Militia and the French. 

The three painting guides. I was really pleased with these as my Napoleonic library is bereft of anything related to the uniforms of the Peninsular War.

The rules of choice to accompany this latest bout of insanity are a variant of the popular Rebels and Patriots set by Dan Mersey and Michael Leck and published by Osprey. These are based on the hugely popular ‘Rampant’ series and are aimed at the large skirmish level as opposed to the more usual man to man types. Mr Fox provided me with the Napoleonic variant of Rebels and Patriots which he has used extensively with his own collection. That is all the recommendation I need!

From the pen of the renowned Napoleonic author, Charles Esdaile. If you recall he wrote a book called Wargaming Waterloo in which yours truly featured as a footnote! 

I have a copy of Nick Lipscombe’s Wellington’s Eastern Front which covers the other operations of the War in the Peninsula. I really wanted something that was more specific to Andalusia and so came across the book you see above. A quick trawl of eBay got me a copy and a quick email to the esteemed Mr Esdaile drew my attention to another book of his - Fighting Napoleon: Guerillas, Bandits and Adventurers.  Needless to say, a copy of this is now en route!

The area of Andalusia from roughly Alacaucin to the coast has a long tradition of banditry and smuggling that stretched beyond the Napoleonic Wars and indeed, featured in Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra, written some years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. There is a huge amount of potential for actions involving bands of Guerillas fighting the invaders or amongst themselves, for raids, ambushes and all manner of small scale mayhem. 

I have hankered after a small scale, off the beaten track kind of 28mm set up for some time now - various ideas have come and gone with monotonous regularity - so reckon that fighting black powder skirmishes in the part of the world that I have come to really enjoy was a no-brainer.

“Meurte a los franceses!” As they said, back in the day!

A Review Reviewed….

Whilst not perfect I still have a soft spot for this, my first book - written in collaboration with Bob Cordery.

On the glorious 1st of June (no, not that one….) I received the following review on Amazon for the Portable Ironclads Wargame from a chap called Adam in the US of A.

“To the writers: Do better! There are plenty of 3D artists make some 3D STL files call me.

The book is okay. They don’t give any blueprints to make those ships that they have there. There are no measurements, and there is no PDF file attached, so it’s a little disappointing. I have a friend who has a 3D printer who has some of those files available, but I thought it would give me the directions to make my own ships, and it does not.”

Now when I read this my first reaction was one of mild amusement. The book was never intended to be a textbook of how to make model ships for wargames, mainly because my models are deliberately simple in construction and are designed as gaming pieces first and foremost. I also thought that the pictures alone, along with the chapter dedicated to modelling hints and tips would give the aspiring ACW naval wargamer enough basic information to enable them to ‘have a go’. Given the basic simplicity of my models it seemed fairly pointless giving detailed construction notes or plans because virtually all of my models are ‘based upon’ rather than museum quality pieces.

Whilst it would be flattering to see someone launch a range of 3D printed versions of my models what would be the point? There are far better models available within the physical and 3D printed space (with a nod to David Manley at this point!) which would cost as much to print as one of my own. Indeed, the closest my models have come to being commercially available was via Warbases and, as yet, this has never come to anything tangible.

I am disappointed with the review, simply because it seems as though ‘Adam’ has rather missed the point of the book - it is an old school ‘here are some ideas that you can go away and experiment with and find your own path’ style of wargames book where the reader is actively encouraged to do their own research and by extension, make up their own mind about the period. Mine is most definitely not the last word on the subject and was never intended to be so. The same applies to the models I built and used.

I am more than happy to read constructive criticism of the content therein but being criticised for something that is not included, was never intended to be, is a little on the irritating side, especially when one is unable to challenge the comment made.

Am I being overly sensitive? Initially I thought that maybe I was but after having considered the comments made I believe that I am right to be, how shall I put it? Vexed. 

I feel better for having gotten that off my chest - probably more than I should!

A Chinese Takeaway

A most timely and useful addition to the library

My old friend, the redoubtable Mr Fox, is an exceedingly fine fellow! At the flea market held at the recent Broadside wargame show he spotted a book that he knew would be of interest to me and so promptly acquired the same! I finally took delivery of it last night at the club - and am hugely grateful that he spotted it for me!

Given that I have changed the pre-dreadnought battle for the book from the Russo Japanese War to that of the earlier Sino Japanese conflict, the acquisition of this book could not have been more timely. The change of conflict has also meant that the manuscript, due for submission by the end of August has now been pushed back until the end of the year.

I need to buy the models for Yalu River and then paint them, along with those for the Falklands. Fortunately I already have those for the latter from the Tumbling Dice Age of Battleships 1:2400th range. Yalu River will be fought using 1:1200th scale models.

I am satisfied that the rules work well enough for the Ironclad and the Pre-Dreadnought periods so it is only the dreadnoughts that need testing. Whilst I currently do not have anything table ready for this period I know that Mr Fox does so I shall broach the subject with him when next we meet (or, as is more likely, over the phone or email!).

Back From the ‘Land of the Vandals’

Your truly, complete with a glass of the local speciality

Virtually the same view but without me in it!

Another view from the dining area terrace….

….and another….

….and another!

A view from the pool area.

In the wee small hours of this morning - around 1:15am -  Laurel and I arrived home from our two week sojourn in the hills and mountains of Andalusia. It was our third visit to the same place and we have already booked to visit again next year. The reasons for this are very simple. 

1. We can fly from out local airport (20 minutes away)

2. The location (near Alcaucin, around fifty minutes from Malaga airport) is ideally suited to explore the area - around 90 minutes from Granada and the Alhambra Palace and two hours from Cordoba with much else besides closer to home.

3. The hotel is specifically designed to cater for guests with health and or mobility issues and only has five rooms, so it is very quiet.

4. The views across the valley where the hotel is located are simply stunning.

5. The owners, Adrian and Hannah, have been running the place for some twenty years and are outstanding hosts. Adrian is a walking ‘Google’ when it comes to local history and Hannah’s culinary expertise makes everyday an edible adventure!

6. Laurel is able to navigate the entire place very easily and is able to make extensive use of the pool!

We spent most of the time by the pool although did venture out on three days. We visited a local market, spent a lovely day wandering about in Malaga itself and wrapped the holiday up with a scenic tour of the immediate area with a stop for a wonderful lunch at a hotel.

Malaga cathedral….

….and again….

….and again….

….and again….

….and again!

The Roman amphitheatre and the Moorish fort above.

I have a feeling this may be the answer but I am still unsure about the question!

As a result of Laurel’s mobility issues following her spinal surgery in 2022, she currently has two hydrotherapy session a week that we pay for. Having access to a pool for two weeks meant that she was able to tackle her aquatic exercises twice a day which, whilst it will not improve her situation, does give her a much needed ‘lift’ as well as maintaining her current level of mobility. 

The pool - note the ‘Roman’ style steps and two handrails.

The old, run down place overlooking the pool area is also owned by Adrian and Hannah and is due to be renovated by their son in due course.

For my own part using the pool was a lot of fun and so our daily routine in the temperatures encountered of two sessions, one in the morning and one late in the afternoon, was hugely refreshing.

I took with me a fully loaded Kindle and a copy of Hugh Thomas’s The Spanish Civil War to read. Sadly the latter, whilst interesting, was not really conducive to reading around the pool in 34 degree plus heat - it does require careful reading to capture the full picture - and so was parked for a more temperate climate! The titles on the Kindle that I did read were as follows:

The Gun and Death to the French! By C.S. Forester and Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving. I thoroughly enjoyed all three, so much so, that I am now looking at Spanish Guerillas during the Peninsular War and am now reading Wellington’s Eastern Front by Nick Lipscombe which covers the campaigns on the East Coast of Spain from 1810 to 1814. 

The whole area from Alcaucin to the coast was a hotbed of banditry and smuggling - Contrabandistas they were known as - and although I am looking into any Napoleonic potential via Lipscombe’s book, Washington Irving, writing around 1832, has lots to tell about gangs of outlaws and smugglers in the region. This is very much in black powder skirmish territory and as luck would have it the Perrys have produced a box of 28mm Guerillas which would very much fit the bill. Something to think about BUT - on with the serious business of the new book and a deadline to meet!

The Jutland Enigma

Something from Google Jutland related!

It just goes to show that you are never too old to learn something new! Way back in 2016, I spent a significant amount of time on planning a refight of the Battle of Jutland using 1:2400th scale models. The plan at the time was to use a version of the Avalon Hill game of the same name and it was there, along with the huge amount of destroyers and cruisers required, that I came to an ignominious grinding halt.

Try as I might, I was unable to unlock how the ship specs from the game were arrived at. I tried all manner of calculations in an attempt to reverse engineer the numbers involved - gunnery and flotation factors being the main offenders - but for some reason was never able to 'crack the code'. 

Until now.

There is a substantial amount of fan made material for the game available from back issues of the Avalon Hill General and the Boardgamer magazine and it was whilst trawling through all this lot that several things just seemed to click into place. 

This is going to sound a little strange but this news will mean that I will need to check over and amend where needed the ships specifications quoted in the original game. Some obvious production errors had already been identified - incorrect counter images, wrong flotation values and similar - but armed with the aforementioned additional fan made stuff I will be able to make the game into the version I really wanted it to be. It will also mean that expanding the system beyond the North Sea - there are already Baltic and Mediterranean variants available - to a common system will be a straightforward process. 

And before anybody asks this ‘mini project of sorts’ does have a degree of relevance for the Great War portion of the new book so it is time well spent but you will have to wait to see why!

In Praise of Joy and Forgetfulness….

An oldie but definitely a goodie!

In many ways I have that well known Bon vivant, wit and raconteur Conrad Kinch of Joy and Forgetfulness fame to thank for the inspiration for this post and so it is in his honour this is dedicated to.

It is June once again, and so inevitably the looming spectre of the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo taps me on the shoulder and reminds me of games and Napoleonic projects of years gone by. I have mentioned ad nauseam of my fondness and long term interest in the 1815 campaign, beginning with my first painted army of Airfix figures and Bruce Quarrie’s rules - the orange Airfix magazine guide version - and followed by a 15mm collection and a set of rules called Le Petit Empereur and more recently the 28mm Del Prado collection. All of these have sadly gone and so my Napoleonic adventures are now limited to boardgames. I flirted with the Command and Colours system but for a variety of reasons it never really pressed all the buttons for me. There is however, one game that most emphatically does - Napoleon by Columbia Games.

The map “Charleroi. By God that man does war Honour!”

The game itself was originally produced by Jedko in the early 1970s and was then picked up by Avalon Hill. From them it went to Columbia Games and was launched in the early 1990s as a 3rd edition. Subsequently to that a 4th edition appeared and currently a 5th edition is under development. 

The game uses blocks for the units and as is customary with Columbia games, the blocks are set up so that your opponent can only see the back and not the side with the current strength or indeed, the types of unit itself, infantry, cavalry or artillery. The units use step reduction to record combat losses and this is shown by rotating the block so that the correct strength point is at the top of the unit. Strengths range from 4 to 2 steps, depending on the formation type. Movement is on a point to point basis - the points being villages - and if both sides descend on the same village the units involved are deployed on a battle board for the tactical phase. I have played this many times and it is a wonderful game with the fog of war and with both sides operating under asymmetric pressure - the French needing to get to Brussels whilst keeping the allies apart, the allies needing to join together to defeat the Corsican ogre.

The tactical battle board

I owned the 3rd edition but disposed of it when the 4th came out. This was a mistake as far as I was concerned as the 4th edition reduced the units in the game by merging some formations so as not to crowd the map. I could never get as enthusiastic with the 4th edition and so when the chance can me up to get a copy of the 3rd I leapt at it! 

The respective orders of battle featuring unit strength points. Note that the units are nominally divisional sized.

Some years ago, before the Portable Napoleonic Wargame came out, I had it in mind to refight the battle using the block armies and based on the order of battle used in the 3rd edition. I drew up the order of battle and recorded the number of hit boxes per division sized unit based on the strength points from the game. The idea was to use the game as the scenario generator and then fight the resulting battles using my block armies on the tabletop. It was with this in mind I commissioned Warbases to make some movement trays for the block armies.

As an aside I fought the battle itself using the long departed Del Prado collection and a square grid based version of Waterloo A La Carte! The original version used an 8 hex by 6 grid whilst my squared version used a chessboard. It was huge fun despite being rather cramped as the figures were a little on the large size for a 60mm square.

Thanks to the reminder about Waterloo from the esteemed Mr Kinch, I have added the whole Waterloo with blocks project back into the pile of things to do at some point. Certainly using the block armies with movement trays (these will have the appropriate formation names on them for identification purposes) and 3D terrain will certainly look rather splendid in a Kriegspiel kind of way.

Yes I know there are far better books on the subject than these venerable stalwarts, but to a callow youth of twelve years old they were the gateway into a lifelong hobby. I would never part with either!

It also means that I will have to watch Waterloo again, as well as rereading a couple of my favourite books on the subject. How we suffer for our hobby eh?

The Waterloo campaign has given me much joy over the years - admittedly probably longer ago than I would like - and so it would be easy to overlook or even forget the fun to be had attempting to outdo Napoleon or Wellington. One thing is certain though, I am grateful to Mr Kinch for putting me back in touch with roots so to speak.

He really is a super fellow.