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Sunday 28 May 2017

Developing The Portable Wargame: Almost there!

I have finally finished writing and illustrating the DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME, and it is now being proof-read prior to publication. It is currently 128 pages long and contains three full sets of rules and 82 illustrations.

The contents remain pretty well as they were in my last update, and looks like this:
  • Introduction
    • Acknowledgements
  • Pinning and Unpinning Units
  • The Two Kills Option
  • Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
    • Army Lists: Some generic examples
    • Army Lists: A pair of historically-based examples
    • Balanced Forces: The 40 SPs per side method
    • Balance Forces: The randomly-generated number of SPs per side method
    • Unbalance Forces: The randomly-generated number of SPs per side method
    • Elite, Average, and Poor quality units
    • Fortifications, fieldworks, and prepared defences
  • Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
  • A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
  • Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
  • Army Lists for The Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
    • Tactical Formations
  • The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
  • A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
  • Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
  • Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
    • Types of Aircraft
    • Aircraft Arcs-of Fire
    • Turning
  • Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
  • The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
  • Simple Mini-Campaigns
    • An example of a mini-campaign: 'Long live the Revolution!'
  • Scenarios
  • Bibliography
  • Endnotes
To give a bit of flavour of what the new book will contain, here are a few of the illustrations I have used, with their original captions:

Figure 27: The same wedge formation as that shown immediately above, but on a hexed grid. The wedge formation is the one of the tactical formations that is easier to reproduce on a hexed grid rather than a squared grid.
Figure 29: The same Barbarian army in wedge formation as that shown immediately above, but on a hexed grid.
Figure 47: Let battle commence! The War Elephant unit has moved into contact with an enemy Heavy Infantry unit.
Figure 67: An example of a point-to-point campaign map of the Waterloo Campaign (1815). The forces involved move from one point to another.
Figure 75: The leader of the Revolutionaries prepares to fight to the last surrounded by his loyal troops.
Figure 82: A hexed grid version of the original Sittingbad map, modified to represent Sittingrad during the Rusland Civil War.
With luck the book should be ready for publication at some time during June or early July.

16 comments:

  1. Bob,
    You are putting in a fine effort- hoping this edition will be as successful as your previous book. All the best. KEV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kev Robertson,

      I'm doing my best ... and if it sells even half as well as the first book, I will be more than happy.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Very good news. The photographs of the Ancients look enticing - can't wait to try the published version!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barry Carter,

      With luck you'll be able to buy a copy in the very near future.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. Ahh, Rusland civil war, that explains the extra defensive fieldworks!

    Looks good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ross Mac,

      The extra defences were added to make the scenario more balanced.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Stephen Briddon,

      I'm afraid that you are going to have to wait just a little bit longer!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  5. Looking forward to this. Great work Bob!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peter Douglas,

      I hope that you aren't disappointed!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  6. Enjoying reading the last one so great news about this coming through the pipe line :-)

    One question I do have is how do the pictures and graphics look on a kindle? I took the book version as I was unsure but if they are ok I'll order both types in future...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ADB,

      I am very pleased to read that you enjoyed my PORTABLE WARGAME book, and hope that you enjoy the next one as much.

      The images from the first book look all right on my Kindle, but I suspect that they may look different depending upon which Kindle you own and use.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  7. This is looking very promising indeed! I quite like the 'point-to-point' concept for campaigns. It makes it very clear where there is and is not a contact and a likely battle. I had such a scheme for a game in which several played each threw 3 dice for a town (Red-White-Blue, say) which became their capital, with the next towns along each exit road forming their initial kingdom.

    Unfortunately, it was one of those ideas that never did reach its full flowering...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Archduke Piccolo,

      Cheers!

      The 'point-to-point' type of map has the advantage of being simple yet effective, with the distances between points being set by the terrain between them. More difficult the terrain, the shorter the distance etc.

      Your Red-White-Blue idea sounds ideal for setting up a mini-campaign between imagi-nations ... and might well be worth pursuing at some time in the future.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  8. Mr. Cordery,

    Maybe this isn't the best place to ask, but I'm not sure how else to reach you. I'm reading online the first draft of your When Empires Clash gridded rules, planning to experiment with them on a large chessboard with some based colonial units I've recently picked up. The rules look good and understandable, except for the concept of recoiling. When you state that a unit forced to recoil must move backwards UNTIL it is one space away from an enemy, does that mean that if it is already more than one space away from any enemy, it doesn't have to move?
    Thanks,
    Jennifer Burdoo
    Miami, Florida, USA

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jennifer,

      Firstly, I have no problem answering questions that are sent to me, regardless of the relevance they might have to a particular blog entry I have written. I'm always pleased to hear from fellow wargamers!

      Secondly, thanks for using my rules. I hope that you are enjoying using them.

      Thirdly, you are spot on about the recoiling rules. If a unit is already more than a grid area away from an enemy unit when it is supposed to recoil, it stays where it is. (I know that some players still move units in this situation back a grid area, but it is not compulsory to do so.)

      I hope that my comment clarifies matter.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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