Yesterday I actually managed to get into my toy/wargame room for the fist time in nearly six months ... and it looks like this:
It was also great to look at the view across London that I can see from the window of my toy/wargame room.
The room needs a bit of tidying up ... and once that is done, the fun can begin!
As members of the Portable Wargame Facebook page will know, old friend Nick Huband has devised a variant of the PORTABLE WARGAME rules for refighting battles from H G Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS and has already been playtesting them.
The might of the British Army take on two Martian War Machines.
The Martian War Machines.
After my recent blog post about HDMS Tordenskjold being the possible source of the design of Wells' HMS Thunder Child, Nick has sent me some photos of the models he has for refighting the battle between the Martians and HMS Thunder Child, and these are shown below:
The Royal Navy begins its attack on the Martian War Machines.
A paddle steamer full of civilians attempts to get past the Martian War Machines.
HMS Polyphemus ... or is it HMS Thunder Child?.
A Cyclops-class Coastal Defence Ironclad ... or is it HMS Thunder Child?
A closeup of a Martian War Machine..
I understand that Nick is now looking for a suitable model of HDMS Tordenskjold to add to his collection ... and perhaps she will be the definitive HMS Thunder Child!
Please note that photographs featured above are © Nick Huband.
Yesterday, for the first time in twenty-five weeks, I managed to go up to the first and second floors of our house ... thanks to a newly-installed stairlift!
After getting quotes from the largest manufacturers of stairlifts in the UK, we eventually chose a model that would reach right to the top of our house on a single, continuous rail. It automatically charges its electric batteries and stops when it reaches the first floor landing, both going up and coming down. It then needs to be 'told' to either go up to the top floor or down to the ground floor, which it does faster than I was able to before I broke my leg! It even comes with remote controls so that it can be sent up or down without me having to sit on it.
I now have far more freedom than I had even just a week ago, and although it is still going to be some time before things return to anything like normal, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and the distance to emerge seems to be getting shorter.
It been quite a while coming ... but at last, Chris Kemp's NOT QUITE MECHANISED: TABLETOP OPERATIONAL WARGAMING 1914-1945 is now on sale!
These were the first proper operational-level wargame rules that I ever used, and they had a significant impact on my wargaming ideas at the time and ever since. They were also the inspiration for what became Tim Gow's MEGABLITZ operational-level wargame rules, ...
... and although both use very different game mechanisms, they are – in my humble opinion – both excellent sets of rules. (See here for a more detailed background to the development of the latter.)
I've known Chris Kemp since we both attended the first ever Conference of Wargamers (COW) back in 1980, and he began developing what became NOT QUITE MECHANISED in the years afterwards. I am lucky enough to own a copy of the first draft of the rules and was able to take part in several of the developmental play-test battles that have taken place in the interim.
As originally drafted, they did not use a grid but over recent years Chris has adapted the rules so that they do ... and there is no doubt that this has had a major impact on their playability.
The book is divided into twenty sections:
Unusually for a set of wargame rules, Chris' rules include logistics and medical units, the latter being able to remove hit markers from units they are in contact with during the reorganisation phase of each turn, assuming – of course – that the unit is not under fire or involved in combat at the time.
Chris Kemp's blog - which is (not surprisingly) entitled NOT QUITE MECHANISED - has a host of battle reports and other goodies including numerous ORBATs. The most recent of these is called 'Building Rubbish Germans' and is the ORBAT for a Corps Scale German M1944 Infantry Division.
A Corps Scale German M1944 Infantry Division ... but lacking its schnelle Batallion, Pioniere and horses.
I cannot recommend this book too highly ... and even if you don't use the rules, I hope that you will find it as inspirational and informative as I have.
NOT QUITE MECHANISED: TABLETOP OPERATIONAL WARGAMING 1914-1945 was written by Chris Kemp and published in 2024 by Not Quite Mechanised Publications (ISBN 978 1 4452 7312 9).
Please note that photograph featured above is © Chris Kemp.
After uploading the recent blog post that outlined Maudlin Jack Tar's ideas for developing the Hare & Hounds board, I have spent some time thinking about ways in which I could take them forward.
My first thoughts were to create a simple spreadsheet that would randomly determine which small squares in each of the larger squares would contain hills, woods, impassable hills, and built-up areas. I created a simple Excel spreadsheet that looked like this:
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
I then typed the following instruction in each of the cells:
RANDOMBETWEEN(0,9)
This generated a random number between 0 and 9 in each cell, thus:
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
Using Maudlin Jack Tar's terrain matrix ...
... and the simple rules that:
The resulting version of the Hare & Hounds board looked like this:
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
I then removed any of the connectors between large squares that terminated in a small square that contained an impassable hill. (There were actually only two.) The resulting Hare & Hounds board looked like this:
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
The left-hand country looks like this ...
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
...and the right-hand country looks like this:
Please click on the image to enlarge it.
As more time become available over the next few days, I hope to look at further ways in which this concept could be developed.