Feeling the Need….The Need for Speed!

Gotta love that box art!

Yesterday evening I had the absolute pleasure of the company of the esteemed David Manley - he, the writer of many naval rulesets and much else besides as well as being a thoroughly decent fellow. The conversation ranged back and forth over subjects too numerous to mention as both food and drink were consumed. As has become something of a tradition on these occasional meet ups, there was an exchange of goodies. 

Heading towards Mr Manley - as something of a belated birthday present - was a copy of Brassey’s Naval Annual for 1913, the David and Charles reprint edition which he was suitably delighted with. The book was from my own collection and I suspect that regular readers of the this blog will be rather surprised to see me parting with such a title, given my interest in matters naval. It is an excellent book but it is rather more technical than I am comfortable with and in any event, I have pretty much all the information contained therein from other, more digestible sources. Given that David is a Professor of Naval Architecture by day, such tomes are very much more to his taste than mine!

By way of a complete surprise he presented me with copy of the board game you see above - and boy oh boy was I pleased with this!

The customary ‘back of the box’ shot. A game very much of its time in many ways - charts and tables galore - but a most welcome addition to the collection.

Gamers of a certain vintage will remember the old SPI game Air War, designed by David Isby. This was a really good game of jet age aerial combat but required a big investment of both time and commitment to play. The rules were quite challenging and the frustration factor for newcomers was very high meaning that unless you were really keen on the subject matter the game was never going to work for you. For all of that though, there was a hardcore of gamers that persevered with it and so some cracking aerial battles were fought and enjoyed.

Around 1985/6 Avalon Hill release Flight Leader, a game designed by Captain Gary Morgan, a U.S.A.F. Fighter pilot and developed by none other than S. Craig Taylor Jr of Air Force and Mustangs fame (and many others besides). I remember owning a copy of this back in the day but cannot for the life of me remember actually playing it! Thanks to Mr Manley I hope to rectify this omission shortly - all the counters are punched so hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. A further bonus is that the game rates as ‘High’ on the solitaire suitability index on the back of the box. 

Once again, many thanks to Mr Manley for another splendid evening and for a really welcome surprise!

From the Shelf of Shame….

A solitary SE5a flying somewhere in France. Note the Dawn Patrol gaming map that uses squares rather than hexes.

Aside from fighting a Portable Wargame style battle using my block armies - a full report will feature in a further post - I also managed, at long last, to send some time on my WW1 aerial ‘flying counter’ project. If you recall, I decided to take the aircraft counters from the old TSR RPG Dawn Patrol and put them on a flying stand to give the impression of flight. I am happy with how the idea looks but the process required to amount the counters on MDF bases for durability is a tedious one, involving as it does significant amounts of cutting and filing.

The source of the counters. Although designed as a role playing game Dawn Patrol also includes a standalone tactical aerial game.

The ‘cutting mat that was on the shelf of shame’ with the counters - the mounted allied types are at the top of the picture, north of the super glue. Next to the scalpel are the next 36 counters for the Germans and Austrians.

I had previously gotten as far as mounting all the allied counters but had not done so for the Germans and Austrians. Well, this afternoon I took the plunge and started on them! Thus far I have only tackled 12 of the 48 counters but, most importantly, I have made a start.

The first dozen counters for the Germans and Austrians. Only 36 more to go.

Once the Central Powers are suitably mounted I can then paint the edges and undersides in the appropriate shade of sky blue and then satin varnish them for protection. The only counter currently ready for action is a solitary SE5a but no matter, he will soon be joined by heaps of other friendly types and some suitable opposition.

One thing that did cross my mind whilst I was busy gluing, cutting and filing, was that a WW1 version of Angels 20/Bandits High would certainly be doable and indeed, in many respects would be better suited than for WW2, especially for late WW2 ‘power’ aircraft.

Looks like the gaping hole of another rabbit hole has just opened….

The Best of the Season

I will go s far as to say that the above has been my best find of the year as far as our local boot sale goes!

For the most part the boot sale season is drawing to a close as the weather turns and the days get shorter. Laurel and I headed off to our usual location, suitably dressed for a chilly Sunday morning, and arrived as a fairly sparse boot sale with the stalls spread out very generously over the hard standing of the park and ride that hosts it. The omens did not look encouraging so I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to score the book you see above in pretty good condition for the princely sum of £2!

Aside from some minor rubbing to the dust jacket and the bottom boards and some slight ‘sunning’ to the spine, the book is is great shape and is a most welcome addition to the WW1 naval section of my library. I have a copy on my Kindle and had been after a hardback version for sometime - not as a matter of any great urgency though as the secondhand prices seemed rather steep as a rule - so this was a great score.

A quick dive through the contents should show exactly why I am pleased to have secured a copy, especially at the price - when first printed it was £45 - and so the picture below shows what I mean.

A fairly comprehensive overview of the naval war

The final picture is of the details page - ISBN and so forth (or should that be Seaforth?). It has only taken me twelve years to get a copy!

I have scored some pretty useful titles over the past few weeks but I have to say that this is by far and away the best of the lot. Really pleased with it and I am sure it is going to be well thumbed over the next few months!

Thoughts on The Other Partizan….Part 2

A rather eclectic selection but each satisfies a particular requirement in the collection. Needless to say there are cunning plans afoot….

After the rather modest selection of hastily taken photographs that featured in my previous post, I wanted to finish up the Partizan review with the inevitable ‘show haul’ picture as well as a copious amount of name dropping and overall thoughts on the day.

The Haul

I have resigned myself to only painting figures for skirmish level games, for me this means 28mm and forces of around a dozen or so figures a side. I have the Napoleonic Peninsula skirmish set up pretty much organised for painting - I merely need some 95th Rifles and a couple of buildings - and the Crusades ‘Templars and Assassins’ project just needs the figures (I have a few ideas about this but for now it is still checking it what is available). I wanted something WW2 SAS/Commando/French Resistance based so the two sets from the 0200 range absolutely fitted the bill, especially as I own a set of the SAS Rogue Regiment boardgame that is crying out for figures to be used with it. The SAS book you see, although primarily focussed on the desert is part one of the Paddy Mayne trilogy so, in the the interests of completeness (I have the final volume of this series - SAS Daggers Drawn) and for the princely sum of £3.50 I snapped it up. The middle volume is currently en route from eBay and covers the operations in Italy.

Travel Battle has seen something of a resurgence recently and after taking part in a game at the club a couple of weeks back I decide to grab a copy so as to give it a second chance. Yup, I have owned this previously but at the time it was never going to get the attention it deserved. My world is a very different place these days so this has a lot more potential than when I last owned it!

Warriors of Athena covers small scale skirmishes in the age of Greek Mythology, a genre I find very hard to resist! I blame it on seeing Jason and the Argonauts at a young age, closely followed by the 1980s version of Clash of the Titans - I have yet to see the remake. Now I know that Foundry have a large range of figures for this but North Star will have some suitable plastics available in due course - at least for the heroes and their companions - and certainly obtaining the almost obligatory Skeleton warriors would be easy enough.

The final part of the haul was an unexpected gift courtesy of Ray Rousell of Don’t Throw a 1 fame (and, by extension, Big Lee Hadley of Big Lee’s Miniature Adventures renown as they are two of the authors) in the shape of a copy of 1812 The Retreat from Moscow - A Battle Chronicle Wargame. These rules are almost a role playing game designed as a wargame in that the premise is that one has to survive the rigours of the Retreat - either playing solo or collaboratively. It looks really interesting and the potential for using the system for games featuring other retreats is substantial. As a nice touch Ray has finally found a use for all those wagons he acquired from yours truly that were part of Eric Knowles’s collection. 

People 

I touched briefly on some of the people I met up with in my last post but it would be remiss of me to not mention saying hello to veteran wargamers Andy Callan and Henry Hyde. I also bumped into Mark Flanagan which is always a pleasure. I saw in the distance John Armatys - at the time knee-deep in the Wargames Development game of 633 squadron - and also Graham Evans aka Trebian. I would have loved to have said hello but sadly time was against me.

Overview

Despite only being there for around four hours I enjoyed the show. Some of the games were quite incredible to look at and I was rather pleased to see that many of these looked quite possible for club night games. For sure there were a few games that fell dangerously close to falling into the diorama category but that is not meant in a disparaging way. I was quite taken by the age group of the attendees which augurs well for the hobby going forwards as new and younger blood should always be welcome. I can’t help thinking that the trade was a little uneven. There were some traders that seemed to take up a lot of room but what seemed to be little in the way of buying customers. The catering inside was wholly inadequate once the doors opened although outside had a few stalls. 

In truth I found the whole thing to be worth attending but it was quite overwhelming in terms of the crush of humanity present. I managed to get run over by a chap on a mobility scooter - I am quite used to this as the Memsahib is still getting used to her new model - which did little to ease my by then weary feet. There was little space to sit down and recharge one’s batteries before commencing a further perambulation which, for those of us that are either mobility challenged or someway beyond the first flush of youth, was a bit of a disadvantage. That is just me being me I guess.

This was my second visit to the Other Partizan and, if truth be told, although as mentioned I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I doubt very much if I shall be going again. A five hour round trip for a four hour visit, two of which were among the thundering herd, is a little on the wearing side for me so I reckon I shall stick with Tonbridge and hope that some other shows will return closer to home and, more importantly, on a Sunday!

Thoughts on The Other Partizan….Part 1

Don’t be fooled by the modestly unassuming entrance - this is a BIG show! I actually took this picture on my way back to the car for the journey home - my own arrival was via one of the ‘tradesman’s entrances’ located just to the left of the white tent.

At a little after 6am yesterday morning, I climbed, bleary-eyed it must be said, into the car for the 140 mile journey to Newark for The Other Partizan. It takes a little under two and half hours to get there from Maison Crook so the plan to get there at around 8:30 to help my old friend Dave Lanchester set up his secondhand military bookstall. This would mean a full hour or so to have a look around before the doors opened to the public.

 I was somewhat surprised at the volume of traffic I encountered en route but was still able to do the journey some four minutes under the predicted time as ordained by the sat nav. A small but satisfying triumph!

By way of some background I am only able to attend wargaming events on a Sunday due to Laurel having hydrotherapy on a Saturday. I can only usually be away from base for a few hours - the children step in to be around when I am not - so the plan was to leave t head home around midday. It was a tight schedule but I am used to this now.

The show itself is quite magnificent but packed to the rafters with enthusiasts, significantly of all ages so it was good to see younger types getting involved. I had a list of people I wanted to see - in this I was only partly successful with notable exclusions being Messrs Barnes of The Ragged Soldier fame and Morrison  of Aly’s Toy Soldiers renown - but I was able to chat with Martin Murray of Warbases which was very handy in respect of the forthcoming ship building. He showed me the new range of pre-coloured MDF Mediterranean MDF buildings which looked really good. I shall take a look at these in more detail as I need some buildings for my planned Napoleonic Peninsula skirmish set up. Mention of the Peninsula leads me quite nicely into the first game I was keen to see. I apologise in advance for the quality of the pictures - these were taken on my phone  - and the fact that the coverage of the show is very sketchy. It is a challenging environment for taking pictures once the place is packed so mine are mostly from a quick run around before the fun commenced.

My old gaming friend Chris Hardman was running a Sharpe Practice game set in the Peninsula in 28mm. 

The rather tongue in cheek order of battle for both sides.

The forces of occupation….

….and of the resistance. In truth the lines between the two sides were often blurred!

One of the standout games for me was The Battle of Minden - fought using a tweaked version of Honours of War. Many years ago I took part in a refight of Minden using 25mm Minifigs that was organised by the late Eric Knowles and featured Messrs Hardman and Fox amongst others. I took these pictures mainly for him as I am sure it will bring memories of that day all those years ago.

The following are a selection of pictures taken from around the table and with no contextual input! One thing of note that as befitted a serious 18th century wargame, all the participants wore Tricorn hats. Something Eric would have embraced wholeheartedly!

A lot of the figures are by Fife and Drum with a mixture of Front Rank and Foundry I believe, with some other odds and ends added for good measure. It was spectacular looking and it certainly rolled back the years for me in terms of battles fought.

The rest of the pictures I took were of things that caught my eye and not in any ordered way. The show is like that as each game seemed to have a series of vignettes if you could find them. I missed taking pictures of the game that got best of show - Hastings 1066 using Peter Dennis Paperboys. I saw it and it looked quite incredible - I did hear someone quip about ‘what would happen if the wind picked up?’ Luckily it didn’t!

Some Age of Sail action using The Full Nelson

The landings at Iwo Jima - depicted above is Mt. Suribachi.

Based loosely on Rorke’s Drift and featuring both 3D and 2D figures - it worked surprisingly well!

The Lardies What a Tanker! Germans versus French in 1940

A bad day for the 7th cavalry!

Going forth with Mimi and Toutou - and the African Queen!

So that was all the pictures I took at the show - I offer no apologies for the somewhat sparse coverage of the many excellent looking games on display. It was a real showcase for the hobby.

In Part 2 I will go over the haul as well as detailing the names of the good and the great I met, those I saw but did not meet and my overall impressions of the day.

It was a lot of fun but I am still aching in places I forgot I had!

A Splendid Piece of News

My planned book of naval wargames for Pen and Sword is back on! 

In a nutshell, following the departure of the commissioning editor at the end of September (I was aware that this going to happen around the beginning of August) I put the manuscript into a holding pattern until I could speak to whoever was picking the title up. The reason for this is that I did not want to draft a whole chunk of manuscript that may not have been required. The half I had written was the main part of the text - the rules and associated explanatory chapters, along with two thirds of the ship specifications - whilst the second half was originally planned to contain the battle reports - the fun stuff.

Fast forward to earlier this week, I had a call with the Marketing Director at Pen and Sword who has taken up a portion of the former editor’s list of titles currently being prepared.

We had a long chat about the book and not only is he keen to publish it but also, he is quite happy for me to write it how I choose. This ‘creative freedom’ (all sounds very ‘art house’) is an absolute godsend as it means I can include exactly what I want and how I want to write it. 

In the short term it means that work on the definitive version of The Portable Ironclads Wargame will be pushed back until after the Pen and Sword title has been completed.

I need to revisit some of the existing text to incorporate some changes but this should not take long to do. I can then suggest a deadline to work towards for submitting the manuscript and start making the designs for the ships I shall be using.

I am really delighted with this news as the book will now have a renewed focus on the size of action the rules are intended for.

Best get cracking then! ;-)

An Unexpected Reunion

The soft-back, slip-cased edition of the old Salamander Publishing large format ACW trilogy

As is customary for a Sunday morning during the summer (and early Autumn) months, Laurel and I headed out to our usual boot sale for a bargain hunt. For the first time since I cannot remember when, Laurel did not buy a thing whereas yours truly picked up a number of items, the only one of interest you would have seen is in the picture above!

I have owned all three of the above in hardback but they left the collection years ago, probably during one of my periodic ‘downers’ on the period. They are essentially picture heavy ‘coffee table’ style books but are worth having all the same. In many ways they are a similar offering to the Time Life ACW series - which I also own, all 28 volumes thereof - but with more colour present. I am still undecided about the land aspects of the ACW as being something I want to pursue gaming-wise although Des Darkin’s recent set of rules has certainly given me something to think about.

The condition of the set is first class. They do not look like they have been read and the only very minor issue is some very light fading to the slipcase. When I say light I mean very light and barely noticeable.

The set was not something I was looking for but for £2 it was an easy decision to make and in truth, I am pleased to welcome these back into the collection.

If only they were the hardback editions….

 

Carrier Battles - In with the new

From the VUCA stable - carrier battles in the Pacific, a subject of great interest to me and has given me some of my best games over the years.

The back of the box.

One of the counter sheets - this is for the Royal Navy and also for the Royal Australian Navy so the Indian Ocean may well see some action!

For me, my love of aircraft carrier battles began with Flat Top, followed by CV, Midway (the 1964 version), Midway (the Smithsonian edition) and Guadalcanal. These are the games that are currently in my collection although I also have tried a few others. All of the above named games have given me many enjoyable and tense games over the years, Flat Top and CV especially.

The WW2 naval shelf - my four additional copies of Flat Top are stored elsewhere.

One of the key elements of a carrier based game is the whole ‘Find, Fix and Strike’ process (with a nod to Mr Manley for using the name of his excellent WW2 rules, available as ever, from the Wargames Vault under his Long Face Game label) and both Flat Top and CV use a plot map. This is a lot of fun and places a premium on accurate record keeping as well as a good knowledge of the rules. All of this takes time and, to be honest, dedication. Games such as Flat Top, excellent though it is, are not particularly fashionable these days, in my opinion that is, so I am not expecting a horde of people getting in touch to have a game!

Task Force - Carrier Battles in the Pacific, published by VUCA Simulations, is the latest addition to my collection of carrier games and for a variety of reasons, may well be, for me at least, the most effective way I can indulge my passion for air strikes and naval surface actions!

The game is quite simply beautiful to look at and as with The Far Seas, the overall production quality is off the charts. The rule book is surprisingly modest - 19 pages in all - and there are 11 scenarios of increasing complexity. I like the idea of this as it effectively layers the rules so that one is not overwhelmed from the outset. The scenarios are as follows:

1. Attack on Pearl Harbour

2. Sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse

3. Battle of Java Sea

4. Carrier vs Carrier (fictional)

5. Battle of the Coral Sea

6. Battle of Midway

7. Battle of the Eastern Solomons

8. Combined Fleet vs Pacific Fleet (fictional)

9. Indian Ocean Raid (fictional)

10. The Battles of Santa Cruz Islands and Second Naval battle of Guadalcanal

11. Solomon Islands (custom scenario)

Certainly I did not expect to see Force Z featuring, nor the Java sea action but they are most welcome additions! Naturally there is the facility to design one’s own scenarios which will be very useful and I have already thought about adapting some of the Flat Top versions. 

In many ways the acquisition of Task Force represents a bit of a change of direction in respect of gaming carrier operations. It will be far easier to persuade someone to have a go rather than inflicting the air and sea majesty that is Flat Top on an unsuspecting gamer!

Well, maybe later, once they have cut their teeth on Task Force!

Getting Your Kicks When Aged 66….

From the top, a bottle of Gordon’s Gin acquired from the duty free shop at Malaga airport this year (so I knew about this!), two very appreciated books along with some Spanish lager from my son (no pictures of the latter as it was consumed yesterday!) and a very useful set of Vallejo paints for RAF day fighters 1941 to 45. Really pleased with the latter as I have a number of Axis and Allies aircraft to repaint for the period.

Well another revolution of the sun has occurred and so today I celebrated my 66th birthday. It has been a quiet, family affair and as I write this the roast beef for dinner is fast approaching readiness! As is customary I wanted to share the details of the prezzie haul and so the picture above shows the key elements of interest, unless of course you wanted to see me modelling my new dressing gown….

Laurel and I spent a pleasant couple of hours this afternoon at a nearby nature reserve, feeding the wildlife and taking in the air. How very rock and roll….

It has been a quite lovely day.