The Personal Portable Wargame

Remember this? The four double sided maps I have (courtesy of Archduke Piccolo with eternal thanks!) from this series are now laminated so no more ‘paper fold’ ridge lines! These are going to see a fair amount of use over the coming months.

With the plan being to focus on the revised and expanded edition of the Portable Ironclads Wargame you could be forgiven for thinking that I have been distracted away from it already - not so! I should perhaps qualify this though, hence the title of this post.

I think it is fair to say that the Portable Wargame is a popular, well established and supported system that has an ever growing band of devotees that seem to bend and stretch the core mechanics in many different and unimaginable directions! I have said so before and will continue to do so that it is testimony to Bob’s original design that it seems to be able to withstand any amount of tinkering without breaking! In short, it is a tool to be used as required by the individual player or players depending on how they wish to.

I am a huge fan of the system in its various iterations and so plan to make use of it over the course of the coming year with the block armies once again taking to the field. The only limit I have set myself is that I shall only be using the maps I have recently had laminated (the picture above is one of them) and that the armies will be quite small - ranging from 6 to 9 blocks a side. Sadly I do not have any desert style maps so will have to forego these for the time being. No matter - there is more than enough variety in the verdant parts of the globe for me to enjoy!

The decision to use such a small playing area was driven largely by practicality in that I wanted to be able to fight a battle on my lap, rather on a tray on my lap. The map just about fits on a tray (at least the ones we have) but works better on the lid of a 32 litre plastic storage box which has the advantage of being able to take the associated paraphernalia required to fight a battle, dice, notepad, pencils etc.

The big advantage of this is that I can sit on the sofa whilst gaming rather than heading for the man cave to do so. I am also hoping to be able to play any of the solo board games I have in a similar way.

So, a mini portable wargame is the plan - all I need to do now is to plan some games!

The Portable Ironclads Wargame - Revised and Expanded Edition….Part 1

C.S.S. Selma and Louis(iana)….Pictured here mainly as I rather like these two models! The model of the Louisiana has a rather long story leading up to how you see it now - she was one of my very first models and has been modified several times. I have a couple of spare frames (as seen on the Selma) that I have found a couple of uses for so expect to see another model duly equipped!

After a year of tinkering, fiddling about, musing, jotting down ideas and then discarding them I am now at last in the position of being able to start the work in pulling together all the strands of what will be The Portable Ironclads Wargame - Revised and Expanded Edition. This is going to be my main project for the year with everything else being dropped in as and when required - this is the reason I have been squirrelling away various solo boardgames - things that will not need much in terms of effort to get to the table. I have a goodly selection to mess around with and with plenty of variety so I will be able to indulge as and when. In fact over the Christmas break I quietly set about getting counters punched and trimmed, cards sleeved and shelf space allotted. It was all very therapeutic for sure.

Right then, so what will this new edition look like?

To begin with the core rules from the original title will be largely unchanged and those changes that have been made are really more about interpretation and clarification than anything else. For the most part the extra rules are very much at the players discretion - they can be used or not. There will be a full set of rule adaptations for use on a square grid as well as hexagonal - squares were always my preferred choice - and as mentioned, a number of extra rules that can be dropped in as required to suit the players preferences. 

The ship specs for the ACW will be greatly expanded and a few errors corrected. I will also be including specs for use with the War in the Pacific and possibly something extra by way of a surprise.

Work in progress. The masts are not fixed in place and this is the same seven models that have sat on the tray for around three months now….time to do something about that methinks! Note the hull at the top of the picture - destined to be something rather essential if refighting Mobile Bay…

Naturally the ship yards will be busy to cater for all this - I still have a number of ACW ships in various stages of construction sitting on my shelf of shame - and fortunately the number of models required for the War in the Pacific or the ‘surprise’ are relatively few in number.

If I am completely honest then it is fair to say that last year I found it difficult to build up a head of steam for this. Various ‘real life’ issues - nothing catastrophic but certainly time consuming and definitely energy sapping - wreaked havoc with any thoughts of schedules or an organised approach. So what is different now?

Well, a lot of the work required exists in one form or another and so knitting it all into a coherent whole is definitely achievable. Now that I have a chance to review everything it is in pretty good shape and a good foundation to push on from. 

The plan now is to formalise the chapter headings - I always find this to be a useful exercise as it serves to focus the mind - and then proceed to work through them. From a practical perspective there will be playing surfaces to be organised, models to be built and battles to be fought, along with the all-important pictures.

I am really keen to push on with this now - the creative juices are at last simmering nicely!

Wish me luck…. ;-)

New Year’s Eve and New Year Ideas

Old school rules in hardback from John Curry’s History of Wargaming project, the latest naval title from the prolific Angus Konstam and a study of the redcoats of Queen Victoria from Ian Knight

HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL!

It has been a busy old Christmas break and at last 2024 is upon us. Christmas was very kind to me in terms of the ‘haul’ - aside from the books you see above there were also a number of choice comestibles including not one but two litre bottles of Bombay Sapphire gin - as yet unopened I might add!

I also picked up a copy of a book from a local indoor market - £7.99 down from £24.99 so even the memsahib was impressed! 

The Old West Skirmish rules were the original Western gunfight rules and I remember fighting many a close fought and desperate action with them. I even remember converting various 54mm figures to use with them. Great fun for sure and larger scales definitely work well for skirmish games in my opinion. 

The Convoy is real ‘Cruel Sea’ territory and a thrilling account of how ASW was painfully perfected with frontline experience. A sobering account of the full cost of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Warriors in Scarlet covered the experiences of the Victorian soldier whilst red coated and in building and defending the empire. Ian Knight needs little introduction and so this will be a book to savour - with nary a project coming out of it!

I can resist anything except temptation…..

On a brief run into the local village market I happened to pick a copy of the book you see above for the princely sum of £7.99 instead of the RRP of £24.99. Chock full of information and colour plates this has given me a definite dilemma in respect of my Battle of Britain Angels 20 project. I have sufficient models to be able to cater for ths although would need to add the Italians. Something to think about for the new year then.

End of the Year Stuff

It has been a challenging year for sure and so I am looking at 2024 with a certain degree of trepidation but for all that, a degree of optimism - probably misplaced but hope springs eternal and all that! My main focus for the year will be the Revised and Expanded Portable Ironclads Wargame and all the bits that go with it - models and scenery mainly. I hope to get a few other bits done but we shall see how things plan out.

In the meantime though, I hope that 2024 proves to be a good one and that all your projects roll on and into fruition at some point.

We can but hope!

On a Wing and a Prayer

Naturally the Blue Max and Aces High will be required viewing for research purposes….I may even look at Dawn Patrol

The back of the box

Phew! It has been an insanely busy week or so since my last post - work and the domestic round being the guilty parties - so I figured it would be a good time to rectify this regrettable oversight!

With the Christmas break fast approaching - I now off until the second of January - I am determined to fit in some gaming ‘me’ time at some point. This usually means not a lot but I have organised some quick wins that should be achievable. To start with I have some ACW ships to finish as well as a few to start building - luckily these are for the most part simple gunboats and so should not take too long.

Given that much of my gaming these days tends to be solo it is probably surprising that I have not really gone for any dedicated solo boardgames. This is changing though and I suspect that a few others will appear within the collection over time. Western Front Ace is exactly what it says on the lid in that you start off as a new pilot in 1916 and then attempt to stay alive, complete missions, shoot down enemy aircraft, stay alive, gain prestige, promotion and awards, did I mention stay alive? The game is quite brutal and in this sense represents the usually very short lifespan of a Great War Scout (fighter) pilot rather well, some may say rather too well! There are all the usual types represented and one can campaign as one of the historic aces if desired. I am looking forward to this - the game was acquired secondhand but was barely punched and in fact the previous owner only flew twice.

I have a WW2 updated equivalent of the classic Avalon Hill game B17 - Queen of the Skies called Target for Today (there is also an RAF themed version called Target for Tonight) which expands the bombers available to include the B24 which should be fun to do. Although the game is designed with the 8th Air Force in mind it also covers the 15th and so missions over Italy and the Balkans etc will feature - along with Romanian IAR Fighters. Again, this will keep me busy.

I have some reading to catch up on and have a feeling that some books may feature for Christmas but that will feature in a later post.

One Year Ago….

One year ago - I was (and still am) dead chuffed to have gotten this into print!

The contents.

The year since the Portable Ironclads Wargame was published has flown by! I would like to thank everybody that has acquired a copy and hope that you have enjoyed the book and have even gotten some games in using the rules. If it served to push undecided gamers over the edge into gaming the period then even better!

The book is not without its faults and time and hindsight has a great way of making one look at something with a fresher pair of eyes. Thankfully the problems are not massive although I must confess that I have winced at some of the language used - there was much bloviation for sure! Some of the explanations in the rules could use a little tidying up as well. There is a lesson to be learned here in that what I had written occasionally did not tally with what I thought I had meant!

I had always planned to produce a follow up volume and that is still the plan although it has changed shape slightly. Rather than being a volume consisting merely of optional rules and updated ship specs I have taken the opportunity to rebadge it as a fully revised and expanded version. I thought long and hard about this but my reasoning is quite simple. It is easier to write it this way and will enable me to iron out any remaining wrinkles from the Portable Ironclads Wargame in a tidier manner and without having to go back and forth between volumes. In truth this revised and expanded edition is, upon reflection, what the original title should have been.

So what will be in the new book? Without going into too much detail I plan to include the following:

The rules - tidied up from the first edition and including all the planned optional rules - there will be explanations about these as well as I believe it is important to understand the whys and wherefores. This section will also include the use of a square grid as well as the original hexagonal version.

Expanded ship specifications for the ACW and including those for the War in the Pacific.

A couple of battle reports.

There is something else I am thinking about but have yet to finalise the details…..

A lot of the groundwork for this has been prepared so now the long and laborious task of getting numerous scribbled notes and partially drafted chapters into some kind of order can continue in earnest. There is also the small matter of some further models to be made and of testing a few bits and pieces.

To those that joined me on the first step in this endeavour I will say only this - many thanks and get ready for the next phase!

A Laminated Alternative

The first side - the mats are referred to as Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog

And the reverse. These mats came originally from that all round good chap the legendary Archduke Piccolo to whom I extend my grateful thanks (and apologies it has taken me so long to get around to laminating them!

I am not a fan of paper gaming mats or board game maps printed on thin card. I realise that the latter is usually designed to get the game underway ‘straight from the box’ and that the maps in a board game are an essential part of the game itself. In my experience neither option tends to last well with repeated folding and the inevitable wear along the folds being the main reasons. Years ago I had a set of gaming mats from Axis Allies: War at Sea and also the land based version laminated. This helps to preserve the playing area at the minor inconvenience of them being unable to be folded again. That is not a problem for me as I keep them on my gaming table under a piece similarly sized plywood. They are ‘shiny’ but I can live with that - along with having to secure multiple sheets when required using blue tack or similar - they can slid around if you are not careful so I usually deploy them on top of a cloth which stops any unwanted movement. As an alternative to using a printed gaming mat the biggest single advantage is of course cost. With this in mind I decided to revisit laminating as an option as I have various bits and pieces that could work using this method.

Earlier this week then,  I dropped off a further four Axis and Allies mats - these feature smaller hexes than my original versions - along with with four Axis and Allies: Angels 20 mats (actually two of these are from Bandits High) and a couple of quick reference sheets that are larger than A4. The Axis and Allies mats - these are from the collectible WW2 game - are double sided so there are eight battlefields with even more if they are combined. The hex size - 2” across the flat sides - would only take a single block from my block armies so I would probably opt to use the ‘2 hit and gone’ option from the Portable Wargame, failing that the counters from the travel version of the game Othello which would enable me to use ‘full strength point strength points’ (the usual 4, 3 or 2 standard). These maps are certainly very usable for small scale actions with perhaps half a dozen or so units a side. In fact a single mat would fit on a tray (just about with the ones we have at home - the lid of a 32 litre plastic storage box works just as well!) so a truly ‘trayble’ top wargame.

A nondescript piece of north European real estate - the hexes are 11cm across the flat sides

And an equally nondescript Pacific island

The aerial maps feature two sets each of two sheets. The first pair, from Angels 20, feature an aerial view of a fairly anonymous piece of real estate - representing ‘somewhere in Southern England’ - whilst those from Bandits High feature an island . This is intended for the Pacific but would be equally usable anywhere really.

The mats do slid around a little but as mentioned, placing them on a cloth tends to keep them in place. To join sections I would probably see some file strips or even, and I have done this before, small pieces of blue tack or similar.

I have some other mats and maps that will receive similar treatment in due course and as a cheaper alternative to buying a bespoke cloth I reckon they tick a number of boxes. It also means that the mats or maps will last longer at the minor inconvenience of not be able to be folded.

Midway to Scratching an Itch

Perfect for a Sunday afternoon chasing aircraft carriers across the Pacific!

I have often waxed lyrical about Flat Top - the game of carrier battles in the Pacific during 1942 by my favourite game designer, the late S. Craig Taylor (of Air Force and Wooden Ships and Iron Men fame - again, some of my favourite games) - and although I have played it countless times in the past (marathon weekend sessions with an old gaming chum of mine) it is a game that needs dedication on the part of the players to get the best from it. It is complex but only because the subject matter of carrier operations is as the game mechanics are relatively straightforward - as long one is methodical in one’s record keeping that is! The original Battleline version did not cover Midway but when Avalon Hill updated it the ships for that operation were included although the scenario was not. The boardgame CV, by the same designer and published by Yaquinto, used a near identical rule system to Flat Top and was exclusively devoted to the Midway operation. Anyways, fast forward to early 1990s Avalon Hill produced the Smithsonian range of boardgames that were intended to be entry level offerings to encourage new gamers. Along with Mustangs (which I have and it is a peach of a game), Midway featured as well as Guadalcanal, with the latter covering much the same actions as Flat Top only in a simpler way. By a strange coincidence Mustangs, Midway and Guadalcanal are all designed by, yes you’ve guessed it - the late S. Craig Taylor!

If Mustangs and Midway are anything to go by then it seems as though Taylor had looked at his original designs and pared them back to capture the essence of the subject matter rather than slapping on infinite layers of complexity. I like to think that experience and evolution of gaming systems had honed his approach! His original games were detailed and required dedication to get them to work but the end result felt right - at least in terms of the all important flavour.

At the time the Smithsonian series of boardgames was launched in the early 1990s I was rather unfairly quite dismissive of them. Why would I need simpler version of games covering those areas I was interested in when I had enjoyed their more complex forebears? It was quite shortsighted of me at the time and given that I now prefer games that are simpler in execution was a situation that needed to be addressed - and so I am! The catalyst for this was undoubtedly my acquisition of Mustangs - only then did I realise that S. Craig Taylor was behind it as one can certainly see the Air Force influence in the game - so when I saw that he was also behind Midway and Guadalcanal I naturally had to get them. They are a simpler option to Flat Top and therefore more gamer and time friendly.

I was able to score the above game on evil bay for a very good price and have also managed to get hold of a copy of Guadalcanal for the same cost. At first glance through the rules it is really clear where they have been developed from. The one thing I was pleased to see is that there is rather more rounded combat system via the use of a battle board. It is stylised but works well enough and indeed, it has given me a number of ideas away from the Pacific.

The components are typical Avalon Hill quality with a pair of mounted search boards and a mounted battle board. Larger than usual counters are used for the main surface vessels with destroyers being represented by divisional or flotilla counters. All of the usual suspects for Midway are represented, both afloat and in the air so carrier strikes featuring Zeroes, Kates and Vals for the Japanese and Wildcats, Devastators and Dauntless dive bombers feature - along with a whole raft of patrol and recce types.

Search boards - the very definition of find, fix and strike!

The battle board. Really keen to give this a spin and yes, I am already thinking about uses for this away from the game!

Organisational charts for Task Forces and Air Groups etc - possibly a little on the small side but with a counter count of 199 all in it should not be too much of problem

The mechanics are simple - the idea is to first find your target and then hit it with whatever you are able to muster at the time and that is in range. Careful planning is needed because is you get it wrong your carefully prepared airstrike will hit empty space which then means it has to return and be rearmed etc. I am not sure to work this aspect as a solo exercise but will give it some thought. What I will be able to do though is to fight out the actual air strikes and even surface actions (more applicable to Guadalcanal really).

I cannot see myself tackling this with models at present - for one thing I would need way too many ships and then there is the aircraft to consider. However, as a quick fix for that Pacific itch it certainly ticks a lot of boxes. I am really looking forward to getting Guadalcanal though as the variety of naval operations to game has more to offer. For now though, Midway will be a great appetiser!