"Pen in one hand, a sword in the other"

The latest addition to the library by Roger Crowley who is fast becoming one of my favourite historical writers.

The title of this post is how Roger Crowley described the Portuguese acquisition of an empire based around the Indian Ocean. I will not offer any explanation as to why - you will need to read the book - but it sums up the overall impact they had as a result of their exploration and travels across the Indian Ocean and into East Asia. I purchased the above (and yes, there is also an Osprey title that is on the 'to get' list) for background to the El Dorado collection I have now taken delivery of. Whilst the idea of Aztecs and Tlaxcalans has a certain appeal - what I would call the traditional Conquistador approach - I am fast coming to the conclusion that figures I have would be better off as Portuguese, simply because the opposition is far more diverse. I shall enjoy reading this and indeed, may even acquire a digital version.

A selection of figures from the Foundry El Dorado range

The El Dorado range by Wargames Foundry is quite delightful and the selection I have is pretty much complete for what I would need. All I need to do is to think about the opposition and so I hope that Crowley's book will help with my decision. 

The Weekly Sitrep....Number 39

The Minifigs Sitrep

Not quite "Eleven miles in this disastrous heat" (you can a point if you know what film that is from) but after a week of stifling temperatures and the associated lethargy it was a relief to finally be able to get back to the much cooler man cave at the weekend.

I had a number of things to tend to and am happy to say that I made a reasonable amount of progress.

To begin with the 30mm Spencer Smith ACW figures are now off their multiple bases and as soon as the remainder are available I will be able to rebase them all ready for action. I also had a check on my scratch building supplies in readiness for making the ships to accompany them and have identified a couple of shortfalls which I need to address - nothing major but I am glad I spotted it sooner rather than later.

I was also able to start the packing exercise for the Minifigs Seven Years War collection before it heads off to its new home. This is a big undertaking even allowing for the fact that half of it has already gone. I was also able to list and photograph all of the Minifigs Marlburians and so I thought it might be of interest to share the list with you.

Eric routinely mixed figures in his units and also used horses from other manufacturers on occasion. He was also fond of command groups and often converted junior officers and NCOs to the extent that a typical infantry unit (averaging anything from twelve to forty eight figures) would often field a command group comprising a quarter of the units overall strength. Cavalry units were not quite so bad and he often used three or four figures with a total strength of anything between twelve or twenty four figures. Very early on in the process I agreed with Bill that units were not to be broken up although this has proven necessary with things like gun crews. Eric liked large gun crews and so these would range from three figures at the battalion gun level through to twelve or even more figures for siege artillery.

The list of Marlburian figures uses the unit identifications that Eric employed although for convenience I have lumped gun crews together. It is worth pointing out that this list is probably around half the size of the Seven Years War collection and I hope it will give you some idea of the scale of the undertaking. I have often spoken about x number of crates but this list will show a part of what I have been dealing with.

France

1. Hussar Regiment Rattsky - 18 mounted
2. Hussar Regiment Versailles - 18 mounted
3. Infantry Regiment Soissonais - 28 foot
4. Infantry Regiment Touraine - 28 foot
5. Engineers - 13 foot

Holland

6. Gunners - 53 foot
7. Engineers - 12 foot

Denmark

8. Infantry Regiment Prins Georgs - 37 foot
9. Infantry Regiment Prins Karls - 37 foot
10. Greandiers - 34 foot
11. Gunners - 27 foot
12. Grenadiers (British) - 44 foot
13. Garde du Corps - 16 mounted

Austria

14. Infantry Regiment Moltke - 35 foot
15. Infantry Regiment Hech und Deutschmeister - 35 foot
16. Infantry Regiment Arenberg - 35 foot
17. Infantry Regiment Merci - 35 foot
18. Grenadiers - 24 foot
19. Infantry in Greatcoats - 38 foot
20. Gunners - 28 foot

Spain

21. Grenadiers - 35 foot

Brandenburg Prussia

22 Garde du Corps - 18 mounted

Bavaria

23. Cuirassiers Haraucourt - 18 mounted
24. Cuirassiers Beavau - 18 mounted

Turkey

25. Sipahis of the Porte - 36 mounted
26. Tartar Horse Archers - 18 mounted
27. Janissary Shot - 25 foot
28. Janissary Command and Pike - 53 foot
29. Gunners - 32 foot
30. Command - 21 foot
31. Engineers - 32 foot
32. Tartar light horse - 14 mounted
33. Tartar light horse - 15 mounted
34. Jezzailachies (line Infantry) - 52 foot

Poland

35. Cuirassiers - 14 mounted
36. Cuirassiers - 15 mounted
37. Ukrainian Cossacks - 14 mounted, 11 foot
38. Lisowski Cossacks - 14 mounted
39. Militia - 33 foot
40. Gunners - 18 foot
41. Frontier Irregulars - 22 foot

It is perhaps worth pointing out that what is listed above is merely the Minifigs component of the respective forces mentioned. The additional units making up the respective forces consisted of Foundry, Essex, Dixon, Hinchliffe and even the odd Higgins/Hinton Hunt. With the possible exception of the Turks (even they would need artillery) all of the above would need to have additional units added to get them up to fighting strength if one was going down the historical route but as the basis for an imagi-nation set up this little lot would form a cracking starting point.

To save you reaching for the calculator the above adds up to the following:

Foot: 877
Mounted: 246

There is around another 100 or so foot and 10 or so mounted so you may as well say 1,000 foot and 260 mounted.

However you dress it up it there is a lot of metal there!

The above collection is currently being reviewed by a potential buyer but in the meantime should anyone be interested in any of the above please contact me.

"Conquistador, your stallion stands...."

Great book, great TV series but why do I get the feeling that this is not going to end well.....?

My capacity for being sucked into yet another project is legendary. Very occasionally I even manage to make one of them stick in some fashion although usually after the initial rush of enthusiasm has been exhausted, practicality rears its ugly head and this the current 'in thing' inevitably falls by the wayside. There should be a law against wargames fly tipping in this manner methinks!

I mentioned in the last Sitrep about my acquisition of a selection of Foundry Pirates and figures from their El Dorado range. My initial thoughts concerning the latter eventually settled on using them as Portuguese on the basis that the variety of opposition had greater variety than that facing the Spanish version. Conquistadors all for sure but with the Portuguese you could number Africans, Indians, Arabs, East Asians, Chinese and Japanese amongst their opponents rather than the more usual range of Central and South American types (Brazil is a separate issue - at least for my purposes).

This is not a period I know very much about although I was reminded of the excellent BBC TV series some years ago called Conquistadors by the well known historian Michael Wood. Before I had settled on the Portuguese I figured it would be good idea to track down a copy of the book of the series as a good introduction to the whole Conquistador phenomena and its place in the overall scheme of things. I duly picked up a copy for a giveaway price and I am pretty sure you can guess the rest....

The source of the El Dorado figures also has a number of Tlaxcallans and Aztec figures - unpainted - for disposal that initially I was going to leave. However, my ice cream like resolve has melted faster than the England cricket team's first innings against Ireland and so I am looking at the aforementioned Aztecs and Tlaxcallans.


I must be mad and I am hoping that this temporary brain storm will soon pass but just when I am getting a handle on things so the above book beckons me onward with its siren call.

An old wargaming friend, sadly no longer with us, raised an Aztec army using Naismith figures in 25mm (this would have the early to mid 1980s) to use under WRG 6th edition. As I recall it was lethal in action but looked to my eyes as being incredibly difficult to paint well. there was also rather a lot of figures involved!

These days, with the whole Portable Wargame/Rampant series of rules being my gaming of choice raising such forces are, for me in any event, far more achievable in theory.

I am still thinking about the opposition for the Conquistador types but the traditional New World option is very tempting. However, whichever direction I opt to source the opposition from - the West or the East - I need to carry out rather more in the way of research before committing myself!

The Weekly Sitrep....Number 38

Holly, our daughter, Laurel and I on the occasion of Holly's graduation. Pimms for the ladies  whilst yours truly supped on a very nice summer ale, the name of which escapes me.

It has been a busy and eventful week for a number of reasons. The main news was the graduation of our daughter, Holly. he has just completed a four year combined honours degree in art and psychology at the University of Reading, gaining a 2:1 (and a vast amount of student loan as well....) as reward for her efforts. For a variety of reasons (other than being her dad of course!) I am properly proud of her and what she has overcome along the way and achieved and am not ashamed to admit it was a teary eyed and proud dad that watched her take part in the graduation ceremony! It was a wonderful day and even the best efforts of the M25 (over three hours each way - it normally takes just under two) and the morning rain could not dampen our spirits.

The last of the Minifigs Seven Years War figures have found a new home and so will be heading off during the course of this week. The Marlburians are hopefully next but I need to finish sorting these out for listing and photographing. Then I can think about Eric's WW2 collection which should be arriving soon.

I have landed myself with a rather delicious dilemma. To cut a long story short I shall be taking delivery of a collection (unpainted naturally) of Foundry 28mm pirates and also some of their old El Dorado range of Conquistador types. The pirates are most welcome although it does mean that tackling the same in 15mm as originally intended will not now take place. I shall still be using the Peter Pig ships and possibly even the Pieces of Eight rules using a single 28mm figures in place of a base.

The El Dorado range would normally be associated with the Spanish (visions of painting hordes of Aztecs has been giving me sleepless nights!) but, being the typically unfashionable gamer that I am I have decided that if I ever get around to doing something with them they will instead be Portuguese. The main reason for this is that they went South and East whilst the Spanish went West meaning that the variety of opposition is rather more interesting. I am thinking something along the lines of Lion Rampant or the Pikeman's Lament for the rules but lets see where my thoughts and research take me.

As part of my piratical research I was able to acquire a modest selection of books from the all round good egg that is Tamsin Piper. Rather embarrassingly these books were the same ones I had disposed of in the other direction a few years ago - we had a chuckle about this when we met and put it down to the cyclical nature of gaming projects! Many thanks once again Tamsin for taking the time out to meet up.

Great fun - what I would call a 'Sunday afternoon' film

Although slightly earlier than the pirate period I am looking at I finally got around to watching the two classic Errol Flynn films: Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk. It is hard to believe that I have never seen these - at least I do not remember having done so - but at long last I now have. Alongside of watching these I am also reading the complete works of Rafael Sabatini as both of the films were based on his novels of the same name - the latter very loosely - this was real a shame in my opinion as the novel The Sea Hawk would make a great film in its own right. Sabatini of course also penned Scaramouche - "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad" - which is one of my favourite films starring Stewart Granger as Andre Moreau and featuring a quite thrilling sword fight ast its climax.

Work on the Last Crusade scenarios has moved along slowly but I am getting there. I am hoping to run the first action at some point next month so will keep you posted.

The Weekly Sitrep....Numbers 36 and 37

With apologies to any New Zealand readers....

First of all apologies for the delay in the last Sitrep - I was kind of caught up with the aftermath of COW as well as the ongoing sort out in the man cave and other 'stuff'.

First of all congratulations to both the England Cricket Team on their World Cup victory and also Lewis Hamilton for the British Grand Prix. The cricket was incredibly tense at the end and New Zealand were desperately unlucky to lose. I am sure I am not alone in wondering why watching any England  team in a final or a championship of some kind is so painful!

The final phases of the disposal of Eric's unpainted 25 mm late 17th and 18th century collection are well underway. The portion that will be listed on eBay has been crated up (there are four in all) and the rest of the Minifigs are set to one side. The Marlburians are in the process of being photographed and listed and the remaining Seven Years War figures are currently under consideration. I shall be tying up with Bill the arrangements for taking delivery of the 20 mm WW2 kit over the next week or so and so will also be drawing up lists and taking pictures in due course.

Work on the Last Crusade scenarios has begun and has thrown up a gentle reminder of two things I need to do. The first is to get the new command blocks ready - these are the quarter size blocks with a flag and a number for identification - and also to draft a play sheet for the appropriate set of Portable Wargame rules. On the subject of these I will be using those from Bob's original book and I want to use the rules as far as possible as they were written.

Whilst this is going on I have also been revisiting my Memoir '44 collection. I have a couple of mini campaigns downloaded from the net (actually more like a series of themed scenarios than a campaign per se) that are rather tempting and of course have the priceless advantage of being able to be set up easily enough.

The Pirates have been modified slightly in that I shall be looking at the naval side first of all and I will look to tackle the land aspects in a different way to how I intended originally. No details for the time being but I will post about this in due course.

Funnily enough the last three paragraphs in this post are all linked in quite a surprising and overlooked fashion. Some time ago I acquired a selection of 1:600th scale figures from Tumbling Dice - originally to use for generic 20th century armies with the troop uniforms being wither khaki, olive green or grey. I also purchased some of the vehicle that Tumbling Dice produce and supplemented these with some bits and pieces from Magister Militum - mainly WW1 tanks. The plan was to use these for Memoir '44, The Great War, the Portable Wargame and Sam Mustafa's Rommel.

The figures are quite large and are around 4 mm all which fits in rather nicely with the Peter Pig Pirate ships - certainly for the land side if needed. I have not decided on this as I would still prefer to use 15 mm for land actions but they do offer a nice alternative.

As ever, much to ponder....

The Last Crusade Scenarios

As mentioned previously this rule book is a veritable goldmine of information and ideas

As the dust from COW slowly settles I am now in a position to get back to what passes for normality in my wargaming world. I have a lot of things to do - mainly administrative in nature - and of course there is also the ongoing disposal of Eric's collection to consider but I would say that I feel properly enthused following my weekend away. Being surrounded by like-minded souls, albeit briefly, does wonders for one's spirit and I am now looking forward to the rest of the year with renewed vigour.

One of the things I have been doing is reading through the above set of rules that came from the bring and buy at COW and I have to say that my interest in the theatre in question has been properly reignited! In truth I cannot see myself using the rules as such - although they are not as complex as I first thought - but the information and ideas contained within its pages is invaluable.

Aside from the extensive orders of battle for Palestine, Gallipoli, Caucasus, Mesopotamia, East Africa and Arabia there are also a number of theatre specific scenarios. These are as follows:

1. Tank Redoubt, Second Gaza, Palestine, 19th April 1917

2. "The Lighthorsemen", Beersheba, Palestine, 31 October 1917

3. Gun Ridge, ANZAC Landings, Gallipoli, 25th April 1915 (ANZAC Day)

4. Second Krithia, Gallipol, 6 - 8th May 1915

5. Sarikamis, Enver's Offensive, Caucasus, 31st December 1914

6. Battle in the Garden of Eden, Qurna, Mesopotamia, 7th December 1914

7. Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia, 22nd November 1915

8. Salaita Hill, German East africa, 12th February 1916

9. Kisaki, German East Africa, 7th September 1916

10. Tafila, Arab Revolt, Palestine, 25th January 1918

All of the above feature maps, orders of battle and scenario specific rules along with the victory conditions. Mulling them over I have come to the decision  that here is my gaming schedule for the rest of the year as it would be great fun to turn them into something Portable Wargame based using the block armies. It would be relatively straightforward to organise each one and as the entire theatre is something I am really interested in I will certainly enjoy the process. 

The Plan

I will be fighting these scenarios in the order above and on a 12 x 8 3" square grid (I have two boards this size - one green and one sand coloured). I will be using Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame for the rules. The block armies will be used and for identification purposes and so I will need to get the command blocks with flags and numbers ready in the first instance. I will use all the scenario specific orders of battle and victory conditions and the maps after having adjusted them to a grid. I have even set up a folder on the blog called "The Last Crusade" to store the after action reports in. I am also go to get all these games in by the end of the year!

Best I crack on then....

(Trying to get) Out of Africa....

A few years I was given a small pile of books by Bob Cordery following one of his reorganisation exercises. I am confident he is not the only gamer that does this and indeed, I seem to be doing so - and 'churning' my collection overall - every few months or so! Anyway, the book you see promptly joined the East African section of my Great War library and quietly waited until I got around to reading it.

A quite remarkable tome and a wonderful story to boot. Quoting the mantra of COW and Wargame Developments in general "There's a game in that!"

The East African campaign during the Great War is a fascinating story of which the Konigsberg forms a significant part - even after she had been sunk. Her crew and main guns (10 x 4.1") were salvaged and deployed by the Germans both in the field in support of Von Lettow-Vorbeck and as fortress artillery in defence of their colony. Could she have gotten away? I have no doubt she could have gotten to open water but given that she was undermanned, in poor shape mechanically and chronically short of coal as well as being outgunned would probably not have lasted very long.

Her story and ultimate fate are the main contents of this book and the author draws on many accounts from various participants to round out the story. There are numerous contemporary pictures and plenty of technical detail as well accounts of the short but interesting life of the ship up to when she sought sanctuary in the pestilential and crocodile infested Rufiji Delta.

Her final battle in the Rufiji Delta would certainly make for an interesting game in my opinion and so I shall look into this in a little more detail to see how far it will float.

As an aside I should point out that the entire East African campaign was the main inspiration for the famous Madasahatta campaign organised by Eric Knowles.