Ticking Over (Sort of)

No details, no clues but part of the smorgasbord of randomness circulating in the cavernous expanse of my  imagination

 The past couple of weeks have flown by, mostly for all the wrong reasons, but here I am once again! The good news is that Laurel is finally in the system and so is waiting on her initial appointment with the neurologist. This should be by the end of the year. We can then plan next stages etc which will be great news for her and all of us. My brother in law is as well as can be expected under the circumstances but he remains in good sprits although West Ham United losing to Manchester United will not have cheered him up! We have had a further domestic situation to deal with on top of all this - I will not go into details for various reasons - so life at Maison Crook has not exactly been a barrel of laughs.

One must maintain an air of sang froid though, and muddle through, which is what we do.

Needless to say gaming activity has been at a minimum and in truth I have really been unenthusiastic about anything other than looking for stuff to dispose of. I did a little work on the remaining ACW ships but my heart was really not in it so I stepped back and left it alone. I have tackled a lot of reading though, that and thinking about stuff which is my usual default option when life gets in the way.

The slightly modified bases for the block armies are in the hands of Warbases which I am looking forward to receiving. I have some writing to catch up on - the ACW rules as well as an article for Battlefleet (the journal of the Naval Wargames Society) - as well as a few ideas that are circling around.

The biggest thought that has been occupying rather a lot of my time is not what I want to do, rather what I do not want to do. This is the opposite to how I would usually approach my gaming and rather surprisingly it seems to make rather more sense than focussing on what I want! There has been a lot of stuff identified that is now surplus to requirements.

In summary then, and not trying to be too bleak, things are likely to be low key for the foreseeable future although beneath the surface thoughts are being thought, schemes are being schemed and plans are being planned.

Not a great deal different from usual then….

Resistance is Futile? Not really!

Picked up cheaply from a boot sale sometime ago (20p as I recall) and a cracking read, full of ideas for skirmishes, almost at a role playing level in some cases. I MUST get a copy of the hardback version!

 I have always been interested in the exploits of the various resistance groups that operated against the Germans during WW2. The most obvious one, at least in the West, is of course the French resistance although naturally there are many more. Linked with this is of course the involvement of the men and women of the SOE. For the moment I shall confine myself to the operations that took place on the island of Crete following the German invasion that culminated in the capture of the German General Kriepe by Patrick Leigh Fermor and others and immortalised in the book (and film) Ill Met by Moonlight.

The book you see above traces the story of the secret war to make use of the various resistance groups assisted by operatives from SOE. It is story of high drama, stealth, derring-do and endurance. The stakes were high and the repercussions against civilians when an operation was successfully carried out were usually brutal. The whole of the Greek islands are an ideal stamping ground for raids and similar alongside the inserted agents - in many ways there are parallels with what Lawrence and company were doing in Arabia during the Great War - providing specialist support and expertise to the local resistance groups (who occasionally cooperated with one another, but not always).

From a a gaming perspective operations of this sort offer a wealth of potential. Everything from company level sweeps by the occupying forces, ambushes, raids and sabotage operations - all of which are eminently playable. They also have the inestimable advantage of not needing much in the way of material.

In many ways there are two types of operations to consider. There is the purely military type - think the Special Boat Squadron or Long Range Desert Group - and then there is the resistance style of action, with or without the support of the SOE.

Certainly something to think about and in terms of the material needed very achievable. Many of the figures would be easy enough to find although I do not know of anyone that makes Cretan irregulars foe WW2 - yet anyway!

Bank Holiday Bargain Book Bonanza

 In all their glory and looking for a new home (or two!)

This is the final post of the three mentioned yesterday - I will then be ‘going dark’ for a week or two. I would like to thank everyone that has sent their best wishes to Laurel and to my brother in law - in both cases they are vert much appreciated. I shall be responding and emailing in due course over the next couple of days. 

I will also be doing the same in respect of the latest Block related post - the comments received were very encouraging indeed and more than ever I know I have made the correct decision to ‘pimp’ them. 

On a practical note the titles below are currently up for disposal and to save hassle I am looking at a flat price of £7.50 per title excluding postage. I will consider deals so if anything takes your fancy then drop me a line at the usual roguejedi@btinternet.com to discuss in detail.

The War of the Three Gods - Peter Crawford

Armies and Enemies of the Crusades (2nd Ed.) - Ian Heath
God’s Warriors - Helen Nicholson/David Nicole
The Crusader Armies - Steve Tibble
Crusaders - Dan Jones
God’s War - Christopher Tyerman
Warrior’s of God - James Reston Jnr.
The Art of War in the Middle Ages - Volume 1 and 2 - Sir Charles Oman (note each volume has an inscription)
Matchlocks to Flintlocks - William Urban
Bayonets and Scimitars - William Urban
The ‘45 - Christopher Duffy
A Few Bloody Noses - Robert Harvey
Rebels and Redcoats - Hugh Bicheno
Death before Glory - Martin Howard
The Forgotten War against Napoleon - Gareth Glover
Wellington’s Eastern Front - Nick Lipscombe
Wellington in the Peninsula - Jac Weller
A Commanding Presence - Ian Robertson
Return of a King - William Dalrymple
Pathan Rising - Mark Simner
The Malakand Field Force - Winston Churchill 
Khyber - Charles Miller
The North West Frontier - Michael Barthorp
Our Friends beneath the Sands - Martin Windrow
Destination Dardanelles - Michael Wilson
The Wolf - Richard Guilliatt/Peter Hohnen
Allenby’s War - David Bullock
Pyramids and Fleshpots and From Gaza to Jerusalem - Stuart Hadaway
Palestine - Edward Erickson
The Defence and Fall of Greece - John Carr
Perilous Committments - Matthew Willingham
Operation Mercury - John Sadler
The First Burma Campaign - Col. E. Foucar
Midway: Dauntless Victory - Peter Smith
The Unforgettable Army - Michael Hickey
Guadalcanal - Adrian Stewart 
Dogfight - Toby Holmes
Aces of the Reich - Mike Spick
Operation Barbarossa - Robert Kirchubel
Stalingrad - Antony Beevor
Russia’s War - Richard Overy
Absolute War - Chris Bellamy
War of the Century - Laurence Rees

Once again many thanks for all the kind thoughts and best wishes etc - the wargaming fraternity never ceases to let me down in respect of its general bonhomie!

Block Changes or Why Didn’t I Think of This Before?

The three examples (best viewed ‘blown up’). The one on the right shows the constituent parts. The small triangle fits along the top edge (there is a triangle marked there) whilst the dice frame forms the edge of the pre cut square. I miscalculated this as I did not allow for the thickness of the frame itself as this should line up with the central recess. The thicker lower edge will have a strip of magnetic paper so that unit ids can be used.

In what seems like an age ago I mentioned about the plans I had to ‘pimp’ the block armies. Aside from the  ‘weapon’ counters (designed for the pre gunpowder and mechanised eras) I also looked at producing some movement trays that could be useful for games where a grid is not used. After some rather hasty designs were drafted and sent to those very nice people at Warbases, a small Jiffy bag arrived with some samples of what I was looking for.

Aside from a small error in the alignment of the dice square - easily rectified - these are just what I wanted. By using a combination of a dice frame and a reduced number of blocks (2 each for infantry and cavalry and a single for artillery) within the footprint of a movement tray I will not only have effectively doubled the size of the block army collection but I will also be able fight battles on a non-gridded basis. The small triangle along the leading edge of the base will be used to indicate the unit facing.

I plan to have two sets of these bases - one in green and one in a sand colour - and I am also planning one other design of base to complete the set up but for now I feeling pretty pleased with this latest iteration of the block armies. I am only peeved that I did nt think of this idea a lot sooner!

The Real World - the First of Three Posts

 It has been a trying couple of weeks and so the blog has suffered accordingly. This will be the first of three posts and then there will be a shortish interlude whilst certain things play out.

I am well although I have been under enormous pressure both at work and home. In the case of the latter my wife has at last found out what the cause of her chronic back pain (and associated loss of sleep as well as mobility issues) is. This has taken around five years to diagnose but at last we now know what the problem is and so the next step will be to decide what the treatment regime will be. The options are medication, medication and physio or medication, physio and surgery. The good news is that the middle option of the three is the more likely although we will not know until we see the Neurologist. In the meantime she is taking industrial quantities of painkillers but remains functional albeit not to the level she would prefer!

The other news concerns my brother in law (Laurel’s older brother). You may recall my mentioning him previously - he is an ex-paratrooper that served in Aden during the Radfan campaign - on his visits to the UK. He is a Canadian citizen now and lives in Vancouver. We also found out a few weeks ago that he has stage 4 Lung Cancer and is now receiving palliative care. For the record I should oint out hat he has never smoked in all his 76 years!

Gordie, Laurel’s brother, is quite a character, even in the face of what he going through. He remains his usual cheerful self although tires easily. West Ham United’s start to the season has given him much enjoyment and he was even able to visit his local pub (actually affiliated to the British legion) for a shandy to see his mates. I have enjoyed numerous visits to various UK military museums with him when he has been over here - usually with a beer or six - as well as his range of service anecdotes.

His sang froid is quite humbling. He said to me that he has had a great life and that he will fight to the end because as a paratrooper (he NEVER says ‘ex’) it is what he is trained to do - to fight against the odds and although these are stacked against him he will keep on giving it his all.

He has been told to get his affairs in order and the prognosis is anything up to a year. 

The news has hit hard and unfortunately the possibility of getting to Vancouver to see him will be very difficult given Laurel’s health situation as well as the Covid restrictions in place in Canada - these are due to be reduced for overseas travellers in a week or so.

Needless to say I am sure you can appreciate that anything hobby related - however welcome the distraction would be - has been absolutely minimal.

We are in regular contact with him which helps and as mentioned, he remains unflaggingly cheerful - I have nothing but the utmost respect for him.

We have come to terms with what will be happening - as well as we can - although I am sure you cab appreciate it has been a torrid time.

I mentioned that this will be the first of three posts - the next two are gaming related (thankfully) - and so the following will be far more usual in content!

Blocks and Bases

The initial design - note the facing triangle, the strip for a name label and the frame for a dice for recording strength points. Note the 'border' around where the block(s) fit.

One of my original blocks - the space will take two half blocks easily as they are slightly smaller than a full sized version due to the saw cut when they were chopped in half.

 I have had a bit of a rethink about the whole ‘tokens to indicate weapon types’ idea I mooted previously. I am not going to do it! A far easier idea would be to print off the appropriate symbols and mount them in turn on MDF bases - in this case 20mm diameter circular ones - which in turn would then be placed on the blocks forming the specific unit. This idea is how Command and Colours: Medieval indicates bow armed cavalry so if it is good enough for Richard Borg then who am I to argue?

This will be one half of what I am planning for the block armies with the other being something base related. 

Some time ago I mentioned one of the problems I have with the block armies in that it is not always obvious which way they are facing. When using a grid based system this is not really much of a problem but could be when using them on a normal table top. I had considered using some form of standard deployed at the front of the block(s) in question but despite my best efforts I could never really get it to work. I have settled on a solution though, which I hope will further increase the potential of my block armies. 

I am working on the design for a base for a single half block and one for a full sized (in this case that will usually be two half sized blocks) version. The bases are essentially movement trays but with a couple of differences. To begin with the two longer facing sides of the base (the blocks will be orientated with the long sides top and bottom) will be deeper than just the more usual ‘edged’ variety - 5mm deep along the top and 10mm at the bottom.. The top edge will have a laser cut MDF triangle fixed to the centre so that this will satisfy the facing requirement. On the rear edge I will have a dice frame positioned to one side leaving sufficient space for a strip of magnetic paper. The former will be to indicate the strength points of the unit whilst the latter can be used to hold a magnetic unit identity strip. All I would need to do would be to type out the name of the unit, print it out and stick to some magnetic paper which in turn will go onto the back of the base.

I would look to make two sets of bases - a green set and one in a sand colour and in terms of how they will be used the smaller base, holding a single half block, would be used for small detachments or similar - in the ‘modern’ era I would use this for infantry support weapons and such like - whereas the the larger base will be for a full sized unit.

To the purist the prospect of blocks on movement trays probably seems a little close to being a board game rather than a wargame but for me it represents something quite radical. By using these movement trays I will be able to consider using all manner of rules other than purely grid based ones.

The next step will be to get that very nice man at Warbases to work his magic!

Nautical Boot Sale Bargains

 Two welcome titles for the WW2 naval section of my library. The Tirpitz needs little introduction as to her life and eventual destruction at the hands of the RAF so this is a nice account of the Bismarck’s sister ship. Fraser of North Cape traces the life and career of the man responsible for the sinking of the Scharnhorst as well as taking command of the Far Eastern fleet in 1944.

It is fair to say that the pickings at our local boot sale have been rather slim of late but today I was able to help restore a degree of equilibrium with the acquisition of the two titles above. Each of these are hardback first editions in good condition - no inscriptions - and cost me the princely sum of £1 each.

WW2 naval is not a new project for me by any means and I have a few ideas in a long distance orbit kind of a way - mainly involving 1:1200th scale ships just to be different….

Something to ponder and also a good excuse to dust off my copy of General Quarters (part 1) as well coming bang up to date with Find, Fix and Strike by David Manley.