Arriba Espana!: A positive response to an idea

I normally like to answer every comment made to one of my blog posts, but for reasons that will become clear, I was otherwise occupied yesterday. As a result, I was unable to do so ... so today's blog post is by way of a reply.

Firstly, thanks for all the very positive responses to my idea to republish my original ARRIBA ESPANA! rules with the addition of a set of PORTABLE SPANISH CIVIL WAR WARGAME rules. These will follow the basic design of previous PORTABLE WARGAME rules, but with a few extra bits to make them specifically for wargaming the Spanish Civil War. These extra bits will borrow quite heavily from elements of the original ARRIBA ESPANA! rules and provide readers with a vision of how my wargame designs have evolved and developed over the years.

Secondly, by deciding to pursue this project, it will mean that work on other projects will have to go on hold for a short while. I will be continuing to work on my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project, but work on the PORTABLE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR WARGAME book will progress somewhat slower, as will work on the SIMPLE TERRAIN GENERATOR book.

For the first time since my operation, I'm really feeling enthusiastic about a wargame project ... and this has helped to raise my spirits even more. Perhaps I should rename the book from ARRIBA ESPANA! ('Spain, arise!') to ARRIBA BOB!

Arriba Espana!: An idea

I have had an idea ... and for once, I don’t think that it is a duff one!

I had pretty well finished revamping ARRIBA ESPANA! for republication, and then I thought ‘why don’t I add a simple set of PORTABLE SPANISH CIVIL WAR WARGAME rules to the book?’ This will not only bring it right up to date with regards to my current wargame design concepts, but also gives readers the opportunity to see how it has changed and developed over the years.

Am I deluding myself, or is this a good idea?

Arthur Harman's 'The Last Word'

A few months ago (and just before I went into hospital for the surgical procedure to remove the cancerous part of my colon), I was asked by John Treadway (the editor of MINATURE WARGAMES) to write a single page article for the 'The Last Word' section of the magazine. In the hope that this was not going to be prophetic, I did as requested and my contribution was duly published.

This month, the honour of writing the 'The Last Word' fell to my old friend and regular blog reader, Arthur Harman. I have known Arthur for more than forty years, and I have always valued his opinion and ideas. I therefore read his 'The Last Word' with great interest.

I agree with almost everything that he wrote. In fact, reading it I almost felt as if I had written it because our views are very similar. The fact that I get an honourable mention in the article (along with Donald Featherstone, Terry Wise, HG Wells, Brigadier Peter Young, Lieutenant Colonel James Lawford, Bill Leeson, and Ross Macfarlane ... a truly worthy group of wargamers!), made it an even more enjoyable read.

I thoroughly recommend my regular blog readers to read this article ... and I think that a lot of you will agree with Arthur's point of view.

Warship 2021

I have been collecting the WARSHIP annual ever since it was first published in 1977. It started life as a quarterly publication but became an annual in 1989.

This issue was edited by John Jordan, and contains the following article:

• Editorial
• Stalin's Super Battleships: The Sovetskii Soiuz class by Stephen McLaughlin
• The IJN Submarines of the I 15 class by Kathrin Milanovich
• The Development of the Small Cruiser in the Imperial German Navy (Part II) by Dirk Nottelmann
• The Italian Aircraft Carrier Aquila by Michele Cosetino
• The 'Stealth' Frigates of the La Fayette class by Jean Moulin and John Jordan
• From Greyhounds to Sheepdogs: Home Fleet Destroyers at the Turning Point of the Battle of the Atlantic, Mach-May 1943 by Michael Whitby
• The Battleship Carnot by Philippe Caresse
• HMY Victoria and Albert (III) by Ian Sturton
• Postwar Sonar Systems in the Royal Navy by Peter Marland
• Chitose and Chiyoda by Hans Lengerer
• T 53 Duperré by John Jordan
• Warship Notes
• Refugee Battleship: The final years of General Alekseev, 1921-1936 by Sergei Vinogradov, translated by Stephen McLaughlin
• Paris on the Tamar: The Second World War career of the French Battleship Paris by Aidan Dodson
• The attack on the cruiser Leipzig on 26 March 1945 by Andrei Latkin and Sergei Trubitsyn
• SMS Leitha: The former Austro-Hungarian river monitor preserved in Budapest by Aidan Dodson
• A's and A's
• Reviews
• Warship Gallery
• The Trials of U-889 by John Jordan

As usual, there is lots to get my teeth into, and I am looking forward to reading each of the articles, particularly those about the Aquila and the Carnot.

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WARSHIP 2021 was edited by John Jordan and published in 2021 by Osprey Publishing (ISBN 978 1 4728 4779 9).

Arriba Espana!

After yesterday’s news that a copy of my 1989 book, ARRIVA ESPANA!, was being sold online by Oxfam for £22.00, I decided to see if I could find the original text file of the book. It took a bit of time, but I found it on one of my backup drives. I saved it onto my PC and read through it ... and was pleasantly pleased to find that it was better than I remember.

I am giving serious thought to republishing ARRIBA ESPANA! in the near future. I think that it needs some minor revisions (e.g, improved layout, revised organisation charts), but these should not take too long to do. I have two other books in the pipeline, and this could be seen as one job too many, but I find that swapping between projects can help me to maintain enthusiasm for them. I am also currently working to painting some vehicles for my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project and doing this will fit nicely in the breaks whilst I am waiting for paint to dry.

How much?!

A few days ago, one of my regular blog readers sent me a link to the Oxfam online shop. They had a second-hand copy of ARRIBA ESPANA!, a book I wrote back in 1989, on sale for £22.00!

I was gobsmacked! I could not believe that a second-hand copy of one of my earliest books would be worth much more than a pound ... and certainly not twenty-two of them!

Perhaps I have missed a trick and should seriously consider re-publishing these rules. It is certainly something I need to consider, especially as it would be relatively quick and easy to do.

The right jacket ... but no trousers!

A few days ago, I mention that I had to buy a new suit. After an online search, I found exactly what I wanted on sale from Marks & Spencer at a price that seemed very reasonable. A quick check of their stock levels in the various nearby M&S stores showed that none of them had what I wanted in stock. (Isn't it wonderful that it is possible to do this and avoid having to drive around the local area to visit stores, only to discover that they have not got what you want in store.)

I ordered the suit online and was told that it would be available to collect from a nearby store of my choosing on Wednesday. It was at this point that I jokingly remarked to Sue that I hoped that both the jacket and trousers were coming from the same warehouse, as there was always the possibility of the suit arriving as two separate items.

I should not have tempted fate!

A text message arrived on Wednesday morning informing me that the jacket would be available to collect from the designated store after midday ... but that the trousers were still on their way to the store.

I had to wait until late Thursday morning before I received another text message, this time informing me that the trousers had arrived in store. I collected the suit just after midday, and when I got home and tried it on, it fitted. Interestingly, the jacket and trousers had come from the same warehouse at the same time, but for some reason known only to Marks & Spencer, the trousers had not been put on the same delivery truck.

My first 3D printed vehicle

Last weekend, I decided that I would like to see just how good 3D printing is ... so I ordered a 1/76th-scale model of a 15cm sIG 33 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II (Sf) from Butlers Printed Models. It cost me £7.70 (plus postage and packing), and it arrived yesterday.

Having unpacked the model from the box it arrived in, I was most impressed by the crispness of the detail, and the following photographs show just how good the printed model is.

There are some very faint lines and/or steps visible if you look really closely at the tops and sides of the models, but it will require not more (and probably less) cleaning up that a resin or metal model would have. I suspect that once the model has been painted, these tiny anomalies will no longer be visible unless the model is studied at very close range!

The underneath of the models does show the lines where the printhead has laid down the resin ...

... but as this is the side of the model that will not be visible when it is in use on the tabletop, I do not find this to be a problem.

If this is the sort of quality of model that 3D printing can produce, I will certainly buy further models if and when I think I need to fill a gap in my collection. It has also made me give serious thought as to the possibility of buying my own 3D printer at some time in the future.

The Wrong Trousers

Yesterday morning I was sent an invitation to attend a Masonic meeting in just under a fortnight's time, my first since the COVID-19 pandemic struck. I was on the verge of accepting the invitation when my wife asked me if I had tried on my suit or my Morning Dress since I had had my operation in December. I had not ... and when I did, I discovered that the trousers no longer fit!

The waistbands of both my suit and my Morning Dress trousers sit exactly over my stoma, which means that it cannot do its job properly. The problem had not arisen before as I have been wearing jogging bottoms since the operation as I have had no occasion to wear anything vaguely formal. Luckily, I have been able to buy a new suit with a larger waistband online, and it should be available for me to collect this afternoon. In the meantime, I now have to go through my wardrobe and check if the rest of my trousers still fit! If they don’t, it looks as if I will be paying a few visits to the local gentleman's outfitters over the next week or so.

The Battle of Dva Kholma

Yesterday, for the first time in months, I took part in a wargame!

Thanks to the good offices of Gary Sheffield, I was able to take command of the Russian forces in an online battle that he organised. He has developed an advanced Corps-level set of Napoleonic rules based on the rules in THE PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME, and this battle gave me the opportunity to see them in action ... and mighty fine they are!

The rules place greater emphasis on Command and Control than the originals and are designed to be used on a much larger gridded surface. Yesterday's game was fought on a squared grid that was 14 grid areas x 14 grid areas (see map below), and the 'extra' space made it possible to field two large Corps per side and yet to still have plenty of room to manoeuvre the units.

I took on the role of General Lev Yashin, Commander of the Rear-Guard Corps of the Army of the West. I had the following units under my command:

• 1st Grenadier Division (Elite): 4 Brigades @ 3 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 2nd Line Infantry Division (Average): 4 Brigades @ 2 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 3rd Line Infantry Division (Average): 4 Brigades @ 2 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 4th Heavy Cavalry Division (Elite): 3 Brigades @ 3 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 5th Cossack Division (Poor): 3 Brigades @ 1 SP each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 6th Artillery Regiment: 3 Batteries @ 2 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• Total Strength: 70 SPs
• Exhaustion Point: 24 SPs

My opponent was General Thierry Henri (who bore a remarkable resemblance to Gary Sheffield!), Commander of the Advanced Guard of the Army of the Grand Army. He had the following units under his command:

• 1st Line Infantry Division (Average): 4 Brigades @ 2 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 2nd Light Infantry Division (Elite): 4 Brigades @ 3 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 3rd Parisian Municipal Guard Division (Average): 4 Brigades @ 2 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 4th Saxon Division (Poor): 4 Brigades @ 1 SP each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 5th Swiss Division (Average): 4 Brigades @ 2 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 6th Heavy Cavalry Division (Elite): 3 Brigades @ 3 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• 7th Artillery Regiment: 2 Batteries @ 2 SPs each + a subordinate commander (3 SPs)
• Total Strength: 80 SPs
• Exhaustion Point: 27 SPs

My orders were to delay the French advance for a day (15 turns) to allow the rest of the army to concentrate around Smolensk. The French orders were to push up the Smolensk road as quickly as possible to disrupt the chance of a Russian concentration. The stage was set for the Battle of Dva Kholma!

The battlefield

I concentrate most of my troops on and behind the larger hill (G3 to G5 & H3 to H5), but detached the Cossack Division, which I placed behind the smaller hill (I11 to I12 & J11 to J12). The French advanced up the road to Smolensk (A10 to N10).

The battle

Although neither of us kept detailed records of events, from my point of view the battle unfolded as I had hoped. My Cossacks were able to harass the advancing French units until the French were able to destroy them, having first skirmished with the French Heavy Cavalry in order to break out into the open country in the bottom right area of the map.

I menaced those French units that reached the uppermost end of the road with my elite units (1st Grenadier Division [which was under my personal command] and 4th Heavy Cavalry Division), thus halting the French advance. The French attempted to attack the troops I had positioned on and around the hill, but after some fierce fighting in the town (G6 & H6), they were no able to achieve their goal of driving my troops away.

By Turn 10, it was becoming apparent that the French advance was stalled, and by Turn 12 the battle was effectively over. The Russians had achieved their objective, and despite the loss of the Cossack Division, had inflicted great casualties than they had suffered.

A view of some of the French and Russian units in action.

The situation at the end of the battle.

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This was an excellent battle, well umpired by Gary, and which proved to my satisfaction that his changes to my original rules have considerably enhanced then without detracting from their simplicity. I look forward to crossing swords with him again in the near future!

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

For his version of events, please see his recent Facebook post on The Portable Wargame Facebook page.