Some thoughts about a late nineteenth century version of The Portable Colonial Wargame

Over the past few days, I have been thinking about how I might modify the rules in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME so that they can be used with the Army Lists from FUNNY LITTLE WARS.

One aspect that immediately struck me was the need to introduce more Unit Quality classifications so that they reflected the great variance in the quality of units that players were likely to field. At the moment I am experimenting with five classifications, these being:

• Elite: The pick of the regular army. These are guard units who are very well trained and equipped with the most up-to-date weapons available.
• Regular: Full-time, regular soldiers who are well trained and equipment with the most up-to-date weapons available.
• Trained/Reserve: Short-term recruits in conscripted armies or part-time volunteer soldiers or former regular soldiers who are trained and equipped with reasonably up-to-date weaponry.
• Poorly Trained/Militia: Recently conscripted soldiers or local volunteer soldiers who have minimal training and who weapons are probably obsolete.
• Untrained: Untrained soldiers who have been forcibly recruited and given little or no training. Their weaponry will probably be obsolete.

The introduction of these changes requires a new version of the chart in the RESOLVING HITS ON UNITS section of the rules.

When I first began thinking about using the FUNNY LITTLE WARS army lists with my PORTABLE WARGAME RULES, I used the example of the British Army (called Army Red in the first book). By adding the new Unit Quality classifications (and making a minor adjustment or two in order to include Reserve units and to remove the Brigade Headquarters), the army list now looks like this:

• Divisional Staff Group (Commander: 6 SPs)
• An Infantry Brigade comprising:
• A Guard Infantry Battalion (Elite, 4 SPs)
• A Regular Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• A Regular Light Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• A Reserve Infantry Battalion (Reserve, 4 SPs)
• A Cavalry Brigade comprising:
• A Heavy/Guard Cavalry Regiment (Elite, 3 SPs)
• A Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment (Reserve, 3 SPs)
• Horse Artillery (Elite, 2 SPs)
• Engineers (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Field Artillery OR Garrison Artillery (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Army Service Corps (Regular, 1 SP)
• Total Strength Points = 37 SPs
• Exhaustion Point reached after the loss of 13 SPs

This would be a compact but high-quality army (ten units, three of which are Elite) to field on a tabletop battlefield, and for some of the other armies listed in the FUNNY LITTLE WARS book, the ORBATs, Unit Quality classifications allocated, and SPs will look quite different.

Some new books

It was my birthday earlier this month, and my old friend Tony Hawkins sent me a book as a present. The book is entitled HARRIER 809: BRITAIN'S LEGENDARY JUMP JET AND THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE FALKLANDS WAR, and I have been reading it over the past week.

As the tile implies, it tells the story of the Harrier's part in the fighting and ultimate victory in the Falklands Conflict, particulalrly from the point of view of 809 Naval Air Squadron, which was specially reformed, trained, and sent south with the Task Force to supplement the existing two Harrier Naval Air Squadons, 800 NAS and 801 NAS. The new squardon was formed by Lieutenant Commander Tim Gedge, and was transported south on the ill-fated Atlantic Conveyor. Luckily they were offloaded before the Atlantic Conveyor was hit and seriously damaged 25th May 1982 by two Argentine air-launched AM39 Exocet missiles, and the aircraft and crews were split between HMS Invicible and HMS Hermes.

My other new book is OPERATION BARBAROSSA AND THE EASTERN FRONT 1941. The publishers (Pen & Sword Books) had it on special offer, and as I thought that it might be of help when I revive my Eastern Front/Great patriotic War project, I bought a copy.

It is an illustrated history of the first few months of the campaign, and contains many photographs that I have never seen before. I might now have bought the book if it had not been on sale, but I am very glad that I did as I think that it will be a very useful source of ideas and inspiration.

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HARRIER 809: BRITAIN'S LEGENDARY JUMP JET AND THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE FALKLANDS WAR was written by Rowland White and published in 2020 by Bantam Press (ISBN 978 1 787 63158 8).

OPERATION BARBAROSSA AND THE EASTERN FRONT 1941 was written and compiled by Michael Olive and Robert Edwards and published in 2012 by Pen & Sword Books (ISBN 978 1 848 84867 2).

Trying to get Funny Little Wars back into print

Since my blog post of yesterday, several people have showed an interest to getting hold of printed copies of Paul Wright's FUNNY LITTLE WARS: A GENTLEMAN'S PREOCCUPATION and LITTLE CAMPAIGNS: RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF WAR GAME CAMPAIGNS IN MINIATURE, but as I stated then, they appears to be out of print.

Patrick Wilson of The Virtual Armchair General has since been in touch with me about these two books. TVAG published them back in 2013, but once the print run was exhausted, Patrick passed all the files back over the the author. TVAG does still sell PDF copies of the rules, and can be contacted here. They do not, however, have any printed copies left.

Patrick suggested that we might be able to encourage the author to republish the books in printed format, and to the end I have sent an email to Paul Wright offering whatever assistance I can. It seems to me that one of the 'print on demand' services that are now available (e.g. Lulu.com and Amazon's KDP) would be ideal, as they require little or no direct upfront outlay, and it would mean that the books would remain in print for the foreseeable future. I have not as yet had a reply to my email, but if I have any positive news, I will certainly write a blog post about it.

Funny Little Wars armies

Back in 2013, Paul Wright published FUNNY LITTLE WARS: A GENTLEMAN'S PREOCCUPATION ...

... and LITTLE CAMPAIGNS: RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF WAR GAME CAMPAIGNS IN MINIATURE ...

... to commemorate the publication of H G Wells's LITTLE WARS in 1913.

Having had the opportunity to take part in some of Paul Wright's lawn battles using these rules, these two volumes occupy a special place on my bookshelves ... and it was whilst idly glancing through them again recently that I realised that they may provide an answer to my ongoing imagi-nations project.

In order to give the armies used by players a national flavour, each is based around the sort of army fielded by the major nations during the early part of the twentieth century ... BUT each is named by colour rather than nationality. So, for example, the British Army listed in the first book is called Army Red, and comprises:

• Divisional Staff Group
• An Infantry Brigade comprising:
• Brigade Headquarters
• A Guard Infantry Battalion
• Two Infantry Battalions
• A Light Infantry Battalion
• A Cavalry Brigade comprising:
• Brigade Headquarters
• A Heavy/Guard Cavalry Regiment
• A Light Cavalry Regiment
• Horse Artillery
• Engineers
• Field Artillery OR Garrison Artillery
• Army Service Corps

It would be very simple to reproduce such an 'army' to use with my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

Looking at the other armies listed in the book, we find:

• Army Purple (the Belgians)
• Army Horizon Blue (the French)
• Army Black (the Germans)
• Army White (the Austro-Hungarians)
• Army Red/White/Blue (the Americans)
• Army Cerise (the Japanese)
• Army Dark Green (the Russians)
• Army Light Green (a Balkan army)
• Army Red/Gold (the Spanish)
• Army Red/White (the Swiss)
• Army Red/White/Green (the Italians)
• Army Red/Yellow/Blue (the Scandinavians)
• Ruritania (fictional, based on the writings of Anthony Hope)
• Grand Duchy of Gerolstein (fictional, based on the setting of Jacques Offenbach's opéra bouffe)

Whilst the all follow the same basic Order of Battle as Army Red, each has particular differences that reflect the 'national' natures of the army they are based on. For example, Army Horizon Blue includes Chasseur a Pied and Zouaves and Army Red/White/Blue has two rather than one Infantry Brigade.

The companion volume expands the list of armies, and includes:

• Army White/Red (the Danes): the army list is incomplete as Army White/Red features in the book's short 'Herring War' scenario
• Army Blue/Red/Blue (the Norwegians): the army list is incomplete as Army Blue/Red/Blue features in the book's short 'Herring War' scenario
• Army Khaki (the Turks)
• Army Saffron (the British Indian Army)
• Army Orange (the South African Republics)
• A generic Naval Brigade
• Army Primrose (the Chinese)
• Army Primrose/Blue (the Chinese ... but after being 'Westernised')
• Army Primrose/Black (a Chinese Warlord)

In addition to the campaign rules and additional army lists, LITTLE CAMPAIGNS: RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF WAR GAME CAMPAIGNS IN MINIATURE includes two copies of a hexed campaign map and counters ...

... and a 'copy' of the ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS that tells the story of the 'Herring War'.

Re-reading these two books has given me lots of material and ideas to think about!

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FUNNY LITTLE WARS: A GENTLEMAN'S PREOCCUPATION and LITTLE CAMPAIGNS: RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF WAR GAME CAMPAIGNS IN MINIATURE were written by Paul Wright and published in 2013 by The (Virtual) Armchair General. Both books appear to be out of print at present.

Nugget 333

The editor sent me the latest issue of THE NUGGET last weekend, and I have just uploaded the PDF version to the Wargame Developments website. It can be downloaded and read online using the password that was sent to all members when they resubscribed.

This issue will only be available as a download until the current lockdown has been eased. At that point a printed copy will be produced and sent out to full members. In the interim, a copy of the PDF version will also be sent as an email attachment to all members later today.

In addition to the current issue of THE NUGGET, a COLOUR SUPPLEMENT has also been uploaded to the Wargame Developments website ...

... as well as a free game entitled DONALD TRUMP VS. DONALD TRUMP. This game was written by Russell King, and only requires a copy of the download and some D6 dice to play.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the sixth issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2020-2021 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 333

The editor of THE NUGGET sent the latest issue to me yesterday, and I hope to send a PDF copy to all members of Wargame Developments as soon as I can.

This issue will be accompanied by a Colour Supplement and a separate game by Russell King that members will be able to download and play.

Once the current lockdown is over, paper copies of both this issue and the previous issue will be printed and sent to full members of Wargame Developments.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports

Recently, there have been a flurry of interesting PORTABLE WARGAME battle reports published on the Portable Wargame Facebook page.

Ion Dowman's Sengoku-period Portable Pike & Shot Wargame

This featured some innovative use of figures etc., that Ion had to hand. These included:

• The terrain board from MEMOIR '44, with additional terrain pieces (e.g. woods, walls and castle).
• Figures from the SHOGUN board game.
• Mounted Samurai figures manufactured by 'Zvezda' that had been given a black undercoat, white drybrush and red details.
• Souvenir cannons from the Tower of London.

Martin Smith's modern African imagi-nation conflict between the Zuid Veldt Republik (ZVR) and the People’s Liberation Army of Nambola (PLAN)

The battle features the use of bases from PRODUCTS FOR WARGAMERS, which allows the players to remove SPs as they are lost.

Gary Sheffield's Corps-level Napoleonic Portable Wargame

This battle was fought out on a 24 x 14 squared grid, which Gary states 'allowed some manoeuvre, and to some extent did away with ’edge of the world’ syndrome'.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Ion Dowman, Martin Smith, and Gary Sheffield.

Some more figures for one of my existing Portable Wargame armies

I found some unbased pre-painted figures to add to the existing PORTABLE WARGAME army that I featured in my last blog post, and I have just finished gluing them to their bases.

Once the glue has set, I will paint the edge of the bases to seal them, and then I can begin adding natural-coloured cork flock to the bases.

The additional figures include five bases of Lancers (without their lances, which I am still looking for), two bases of red coated cavalry (which I think started life as mounted officers, but which will 'do' for heavy cavalry), three extra bases on infantry, and a supply column/pack horse base.

An example of one of my existing Portable Wargame armies ... plus a warship!

Before my order of MDF bases arrives from Warbases, I wanted to review one of my existing PORTABLE WARGAME armies. I chose the British Colonial one that I have been using for some years.

These figures were purchased ready-painted many years ago from Miliart, and were originally based to be used with SCWaRes (Simple Colonial Wargames Rules) and then WHEN EMPIRES CLASH! Since then, they’ve been used to develop my PORTABLE WARGAME rules, and are featured in my PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME books.

The are enough figures for two small PORTABLE WARGAME armies (or even one large one) ... although the addition of some cavalry would make the collection slightly more rounded. Luckily, during my recent review of my collections, I found some unbased cavalry figures which will fill that gap very nicely.

In the background is one of the ship models I built to provide fire support for my nineteenth century armies. She has had several names and featured in numerous wargames, including one one in GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAMES that was also featured on the book's cover.

Warbases

Having given the matter some thought, I have decided to base (or re-base) several of my small 15mm late nineteenth/early twentieth century armies so that I can use them with my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

Over recent years, I have used 3mm-thick MDF bases for my figures, and have found Warbases to be a very reliable supplier of laser-cut bases. I have therefore ordered a selection of 40mm-wide bases from them, and fully expect that they will be delivered in the near future. Once they have arrived, I will begin my latest project.

What next?

Thanks to the lighter-weight dressing that I’m now wearing, I can get up to my toy/wargame room and home office without too much trouble. As a result, I’ve been able to sort out the mess I left on my work table when I went into hospital in December and to have a look at the various collections that I have.

The latter took me some time, and at the end I was left wondering what project I ought to work on next. My Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project had stalled in the run up to my operation, and will require quite a lot of work to get to the next stage. I also realised that I still have quite a substantial number of 25/28mm pre-painted Del Prado Napoleonic figures to renovate, varnish, and base ... and that I have several small 15mm late nineteenth/early twentieth century armies that need to be based (or rebased) so that I can use them with my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

As well as the above, I also rediscovered the warships and merchant ships I built when I was play-testing the pre-dreadnought rules for my GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAME book. Some of the models have suffered minor damage whilst in storage, but it would not take much effort to repair them.

So what should I do next? (This is a rhetorical question, by the way!) I’m very tempted to see if there is some way to combine my pre-dreadnought ship model and 15mm figure collections into a single imagi-nations project. This would be a relatively small-scale project that I could easily breakdown into bite sized ‘chunks’, and would fit in nicely with my gradual recovery from surgery.

Stalingrad 1942-43 (1): The German Advance to the Volga

Although my Operation Barbarossa project might be stalled at the moment, I am still continuing to buy books and other stuff that might prove useful, and the recent publication of STALINGRAD 1942-43 (1): THE GERMAN ADVANCE TO THE VOLGA attracted my attention and so bought a copy.

The book is split into nine chapters and an index:

• Origins of the Campaign
• Chronology
• Opposing Commanders
• German
• Soviet
• Opposing Forces
• German
• Soviet
• Order of Battle, 28 June 1942
• Opposing Plans
• German
• Soviet
• The Campaign
• Blau Phase 1, 28th June to 15th July 1942
• Clearing the Donbass, 16th to 31st July 1942
• Across the Don, 1st to 22nd August 1942
• To the Volga, 23rd August to 3rd September 1942
• The vital flanks
• Analysis
• The Battlefield Today
• Further Reading
• Table of ranks
• Index

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STALINGRAD 1942-43 (1): THE GERMAN ADVANCE TO THE VOLGA was written by Robert Forczyk and illustrated by Steve Noon. It was published in 2021 by Osprey Publishing (ISBN 978 1 4728 4265 7).

‘Gosh, Mr. Cordery is getting a lot of traction in this issue!’

The title of this blog post is a quote by John Treadaway in his capacity as the editor of the latest issue (March 2021: Issue 455) of MINIATURE WARGAMES ... and having bought and read a copy, I can understand why!

Starting from the front, the first bit of traction I get is in Arthur Harman’s excellent article entitled HOOKE’S CASTLE: A SCENARIO FOR THE SIEGE RULES IN THE PORTABLE PIKE & SHOT WARGAME. The second mention I get is in Charles Kirke’s VIRTUAL WARGAME: REAL FIGURES: GRIDS, COVID & GAMING. Charles and his group of wargamers have used my PORTABLE WARGAMES rules as a starting point for their own distanced battles.

In the RECCE section, Chris Jarvis has written a very balanced review of my latest book, THE PORTABLE PIKE & SHOT WARGAME ... and the LAST WORD article was written by me! (This was the last thing I wrote before I went into hospital in December, and I must admit to having a bit of trepidation writing something entitled LAST WORD ... just in case that it was!)

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MINIATURE WARGAMES is published by Warners Group Publications PLC, and costs £5.99.

Mike Lewis’s Portable Napoleonic Wargame amendments

Further to his recent battle report, Mike Lewis has made his amendments to my PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME rules available on his blog, LITTLE WARS REVISITED.

Interestingly, as mentioned in an earlier blog post, Gary Sheffield is currently play-testing his own variant of the Corps-level rules in the book prior to starting a refight of Napoleon’s 1812 Invasion of Russia campaign.

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Please note that the photograph featured above is © Mike Lewis.

Ten weeks on

It is now ten weeks since I had my colostomy, and nine weeks since I left hospital. I had hoped that by now I would be fully recovered ... but I still have some way to go. My wound still requires regular dressing changes as has not yet closed and is still producing quite large amounts of exudate.

Yesterday, this led to me paying a visit to my GP, who was concerned enough about the state of my wound to make an immediate referral to University Hospital, Lewisham. As a result, I spent most of Tuesday afternoon and the early evening in the Accident & Emergency Department and the Ambulatory Care/Surgery Assessment Unit.

After I was triaged in the A&E Department, I had a blood test. I was then transferred to the Ambulatory Care/Surgical Assessment Unit, where I was eventually seen by one of the surgeons who operated on me in December. She probed the wound, took a swab for analysis, and conducted a very thorough examination before having the wound redressed. She then prescribed a short course of antibiotics which she felt would ensure that any minor infection that I might have would be dealt with.

The dressing is no longer as bulky as it was when I first returned home, but I still have to exercise care when doing anything even vaguely physical as it can cause leakage. One byproduct of this is the difficulty I have climbing the steep stairs up to the top floor of our house ... which is where my toy/wargame room is located. I can make the climb with care and if I go up slowly, one tread at a time. This is both tiring and tiresome, and as I require both hands to support myself as I go up and down, I cannot carry anything large or heavy to and from the top floor.

Whilst this was inconvenient when I first returned home, it is now beginning to restrict what I want to do, and I am growing increasingly impatient ... which is not helping my recovery! I could do more writing, but I actually want to be able to set up a wargame (or two) to try out some of my ideas.

I know that things will eventually get better, but I’ve never been a particularly patient patient ... and I’m fast becoming a very, very impatient one!

Other people’s Portable Wargame battle reports: 54mm Napoleonic battle

Hot on the heels of Gary Sheffield's recent PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME battle report, Mike Lewis has included a battle report on his blog in which he describes a recent wargame he fought using his own modification of the rules. What makes this battle report even more interesting than normal was the fact that he used 54mm figures. As the following photographs show, the results looked pretty spectacular.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Mike Lewis.

The importance of critical friends: The joy (and usefulness) of running a session at VCOW

Yesterday, Gary Sheffield and I ran a session at VCOW2021 entitled LOCKDOWN AND THE PORTABLE WARGAME. The first part of the session was a PowerPoint display and talk by me that explained the origins of the rules, the basic structure used, and the game mechanisms (including the rationale behind them) that I chose to incorporate.

The second (and longer) part of the session was a battle fought remotely by six players divided into two side (Bluvia and Grevia) which was umpired by Gary with my assistance. He adjudicated the moves and the combat, and I recorded each unit’s position (using the Movement Record Sheet), ...

... the individual unit’s Strength Points, and each sides cumulative loses (using the Casualty Record Sheet and Exhaustion Point track).

The feedback during and after the battle was very positive, and yet again showed why COW (and VCOW) is such a useful place to test a set of wargame rules. In this case, this was the first time I had been involved in a PORTABLE WARGAME with three players per side, and it certainly threw up several points that I need to address. One of these is the Close Combat system, and everyone seemed to feel that there was a need to move to a ‘high score is good result, and low score is a bad result’ system. I also discovered that quite a few players preferred to throw for the effect of the Close Combat on their opponent’s unit rather than on their own.

COW (and now VCOW) has always been a place where a wargame designer could be assured of feedback from critical friends. In other words, it is somewhere where one's work can be subjected to constructive and useful criticism that is designed to help a designer to improve their rules. Amongst mainstream wargamers it would appear that anyone can criticise somebody else’s rules in a negative way, but it takes a particular type of wargamer who can make useful criticisms and helpful suggestions. Luckily for me, COW and VCOW attract that sort of attendee, and I value their input.

Other people’s Portable Wargame battle reports: A Napoleonic Corps-level battle on the road to Smolensk

This battle was set up by Gary Sheffield, and fought out remotely by four members of a wargame club.

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The Battle of Dva Kholma took place on 14th August 1812, and saw a Russian rear-guard trying to hold up a French Corps advancing on Smolensk.

A major attack on a hill occupied by the Pavlovski Grenadiers (who were supported by Cuirassiers and Cossacks) was repulsed, and this gave the main part of the Russian army time to concentrate around Smolensk. Having held up the French advance, the Russian rearguard was then able to fall back in good order.

The rules were a tweaked version of the Corps-level rules in THE PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME, and these changes were laid out in a recent blog post.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Gary Sheffield.

The French 75

When I realised that Osprey Publishing had recently published a book entitled THE FRENCH 75: THE 75mm M1897 FIELD GUN THAT REVOLUTIONIZED MODERN ARTILLERY, I bought a copy. It was delivered yesterday, and since then I have spent an enjoyable hour or so reading it.

I was particularly interested to read about how the field gun was developed and its use by so many different armies, in particularly the American and Polish armies. I understand that two guns have been renovated for use by the French Army as saluting guns.

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THE FRENCH 75: THE 75mm M1897 FIELD GUN THAT REVOLUTIONIZED MODERN ARTILLERY was written by Steven Zaloga and illustrated by Felipe Rodriguez, and published by Osprey Publishing in 2020 as part of the ‘New Vanguard’ series (No.288) (ISBN 978 1 4728 3930 5).

Captain (Hon. Colonel) Sir Thomas Moore (30th April 1920 to 2nd February 2021)

There is little I can add to the numerous posthumous comments that have already been made in the media with regard to the death of Captain Sir Thomas Moore yesterday. He did something fundamentally simple to say ‘Thank You’ to the NHS workers who were working so hard to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in doing so he encapsulated the feelings that so many people had at that time. He gained worldwide support for his fundraising efforts, and raised over £30,000,000.

Sir Tom represented what many people in the UK like to think of as being the best of what we are ... and filled a role that was much-needed at a time when so much of the news seemed to be full of doom and gloom. He made people feel positive. He seemed to be the sort of person one would want to know and be able to call father, grandfather, great grandfather, or friend.

Captain (Hon. Colonel) Sir Thomas Moore (30th April 1920 to 2nd February 2021)

REST IN PEACE

Portable Wargame scenario for VCOW2021

Yesterday I distributed the scenario for the battle that will form part of the VCOW session that Gary Sheffield and I will be running on Saturday afternoon.

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The Battle for Two Hills Farm: An incident from the ongoing Grevo-Bluvian War (187?)

The Grevo-Bluvian War has been rumbling on for many years, and neither side has managed to achieve total victory. The border between the two countries remains fluid, and every so often one side or the other will seek to occupy a farm, village, or geographical feature on the other side of the current border to gain an advantage of their enemy.

One location is Two Hills Farm (E5). It has changed hands many times, and sits between two hills that mark a natural boundary between the two warring countries. It would make an ideal border crossing … if both sides could ever agree to it!

The President of Grevo has ordered the Grevian army to seize Two Hills Farm, and to fortify it. To this end, the Commander of the army has put together a small all-arms division, led by General Hahn.

The division comprises:

• Grevian Guard Infantry (Elite, 4 SPs)
• 1st Grevian Line Infantry (Average, 4 SPs)
• 2nd Grevian Line Infantry (Average, 4 SPs)
• 3rd Grevian Line Infantry (Average, 4 SPs)
• The Grevian Light Horse (Average, 3 SPs)
• A Battery, Grevian Artillery (Average, 2 SPs)
• General Hahn (Average, 6 SPs)
• Total SPs = 27 SPs
• Exhaustion Point = Loss of 9 SPs

Bluvian spies got wind of this expedition, and within hours of this intelligence reaching the capital of Bluvia, the King ordered troops from his army to march on Two Hills Farm in order to stop the Grevians.

The Bluvian force was led by General Gooner, and comprised:

• Bluvian Guard Infantry (Elite, 4 SPs) 
• 1st Bluvian Line Infantry (Average, 4 SPs)
• 2nd Bluvian Line Infantry (Average, 4 SPs)
• 3rd Bluvian Line Infantry (Average, 4 SPs)
• The Bluvian Hussars (Average, 3 SPs)
• A Battery, Bluvian Artillery (Average, 2 SPs)
• General Gooner (Average, 6 SPs)
• Total SPs = 27 SPs
• Exhaustion Point = Loss of 9 SPs

The armies of both countries are small, professional, and equipped with the most modern weaponry available (i.e. breech loading rifles and carbines as well as steel breech loading cannons.