The next Portable Wargame Compendium: Another progress report

Since my last update, I’ve been able to make quite a lot of work on the next PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM. The contents now includes:

• Belle Époque Portable Wargame rules. (Bob Cordery)
• A wargaming club campaign - for soloists! (Arthur Harman)
• The Peninsular War: A simple campaign system that can be used with several different fast-play wargame rules. (Mark Cordone)
• Napoleon at Bay: A complete wargame campaign in a box covering 1814 and 1815. (Mark Cordone)
• Alexander the Brief: Alexander the Great's campaign against Persia with Dominion of the Spear (Matin Rapier)
• Dominion of Generals: A variant of the DOMINION OF … rules that includes rules that enable generals to influence the course of a battle. (Mark Cordone)
• Dominion of Petards and Culverins siege rules (Arthur Harman)
• Adding player's personal experience to the 'Dominion of ...' or to Portable Wargames (Arthur Harman)
• Portable Wargame and Coffeebreak wargames compared (Arthur Harman)
• Coffeebreak at Hook's Farm (Arthur Harman)
• Coffeebreak Blasthof Heath (Arthur Harman)

I know that several other contributors are writing articles for the next issue, and I hope that it is going to be published in time for Christmas.

Nugget 385

I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer (Macaulay Scott Printing Company of Welling, Kent) this morning and I intend to post it out to members of Wargame Developments as soon as I can.

I will send the PDF copy to the Wargame Developments webmaster as soon as I can so that members can read this issue of THE NUGGET online.

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IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the THIRD issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2026-2027 subscription year.

If you have not yet subscribed for the 2026-2027 subscription year, please request a PayPal invoice from the Treasurer or follow the instructions on how to pay by bank transfer using the information on the relevant page of the website.

HMS Dreadnought

HMS Dreadnought was designed by Sir Edward Reed, the Director of Naval Construction. She was originally going to be named Fury, and the design was an enlarged and improved version of the earlier Devastation-class of ironclad turrets ships. She was was laid down in Pembroke Dockyard on 10th September 1870, launched on 8th March 1875, and completed on 15th February 1879.

On completion, HMS Dreadnought was placed in reserve until 1884 when she was finally commissioned so that she could serve with the Mediterranean Fleet. She remained there for ten years before returning to the UK, where she underwent a refit at Chatham Dockyard.

This was followed by a period as coast guard ship at Bantry Bay, Ireland, that started in March 1895 and lasted until March 1897. She then moved to Devonport, where she became a depot ship. In 1900 she was partially re-armed and re-classified as a 2nd-class battleship, and took part in the fleet manoeuvres in 1900 and 1901. In June 1902, she was refitted again to prepare her for service as a tender.

On 16th August 1902, Dreadnought took part in the Fleet Review that was held to mark the coronation of King Edward VII. Immediately afterwards, she returned to Devonport to become the tender to HMS Defiance, the Royal Navy's torpedo school ship. She was decommissioned in 1905 and sold to Thomas W Ward for scrapping in 1908, and this was completed by early 1909.

Her characteristics were as follows:

• Displacement: 10,886 tons
• Dimensions:
• Length: 343ft (105m)
• Beam: 63ft (19.5m)
• Draught: 26ft 6in (8.1m)
• Propulsion: 12 x coal-fired cylindrical boilers providing steam to 2 x 3-cylinder Humphry & Tennant vertical compound-expansion steam engines, each driving a propellor
• Speed: 14 knots
• Complement: 369
• Armament:
• 2 x twin 12.5-inch (343mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns
• 10 x single 1-inch Nordenfelt quick-firing multi-barrelled guns (fitted in 1884; removed in 1894)
• 6 x single 6-pounder Hotchkiss quick-firing guns (fitted in 1894)
• 10 x single 3-pounder Hotchkiss quick-firing guns (fitted in 1894)
• Armour:
• Belt: 8-inches to 14-inches (203mm to 356mm)
• Bulkheads: 13-inches (356 mm to 406mm
• Turrets: 14-inches (330mm)
• Conning tower: 6-inches to 14-inches (152mm to 356mm)
• Deck: 2.5-inches to 3-inches (68mm to 76mm)

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month

Today marks the one hundred and seventh anniversary of the Armistice that ended the fighting on the Western Front.

'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.’

‘When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.’

‘We will remember them.’

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This year we attended a special event at Shrewsbury House (our local community centre) on Friday 6th November. It was put on by the Shooters Hill Drama Collective and was entitled ECHOES OF THE GREAT WAR. It was an evening of dramatic readings, poetry and performance that brought to life the voices and stories of those who lived, worked and fought during the First World War. All profits from the sale of tickets were donated to the military charity Blesma.

On Sunday 8th December, we attended the Service of Remembrance at St George's Garrison Church, Woolwich. It was conducted by the Reverend Dr Adam Scott, a retired Army chaplain

There were over 150 people present, including representatives of the Army's Woolwich Station, the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, the local MP (Matthew Pennycook), the local Royal Greenwich Council (including the Deputy Mayor, Raja Zeeshan), the local Gurkha and Nepali community, the Metropolitan Police, the London Fire Brigade, the local Army Cadets, and the local branch of the Royal British Legion.

It was a very moving service, made all the more so by the personal tributes paid to Major Pat Porteous VC (1918 to 2000), Fusilier Donal Meade (1985 to 2005), and Captain Phillip Muldowney (2001 to 2026), all of whom had a conection with Woolwich and Plumstead.

Another British ironclads in 1/1200th-scale

I managed to find another 1/1200th-scale ironclads on sale on eBay ... and could not resist buying it!

I am now the proud owner of models of HMS Dreadnought.

This brings the size of my collection of ironclads to nine models ... and I hope to add more as and when I can.

Nugget 385

The editor sent me the latest issue of THE NUGGET on Sunday, and I sent it to the printer (Macauley Scott Printing Company, Welling, Kent) this morning. I hope to collect it and post it out to members of Wargame Developments by next weekend.

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IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the THIRD issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2026-2027 subscription year.

If you have not yet subscribed for the 2026-2027 subscription year, please request a PayPal invoice from the Treasurer or follow the instructions on how to pay by bank transfer using the information on the relevant page of the website.

New YouTube video: Aggressor, Krasnovia, and OPFOR

I have just uploaded a new YouTube video to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel.

The video covers the use by the United States Army of a number of imaginary opponents for training purposes during the period from the Second World War to the present day.

It lasts approximately eighteen and a half minutes.

The video can be found here on the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel.

'The Shop'

From the back of our house, we can clearly see the buildings that housed the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

The Royal Military Academy in Woolwich was set up in 1741 by the Board of Ordnance inside the Woolwich Arsenal. Its remit was to provide specialist professional military training for aspiring Royal Artillery and Royal Engineer officers. It was initially housed in a converted workshop, and this is why it came to be known as 'The Shop'.

(Incidentally, this nickname is the origin of the expression 'not talking shop', as officers were actively dissuaded from talking about their profession in the regimental mess. Therefore, a Royal Artillery or Royal Engineer officer who mentioned something that referred to his professional work in a mess – rather than social events, sport, or hunting – would be told to 'stop taking 'Shop''.)

A special building was constructed to house the Academy ...

... and a set of Cadet Barracks followed in 1751 when the officer cadets were formed into the Company of Gentleman Cadets under the command of one – later - two – captain-lieutenants.

(Incidentally, one of my wife's ancestors served as the Fife Major to the Company of Gentleman Cadets whilst they were based inside the Arsenal and was responsible for providing the music for the weekly parade and the administration of any sentence of corporal punishment that was handed down to a cadet!)

The Napoleonic Wars saw an increase in the number of cadets passing through the Academy, and in 1806 it moved to new buildings on the southern side of Woolwich Common. These were designed by William Wyatt, and the Academy remained there until it closed on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. The Academy was merged with the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1947 to form the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

'With you, I will letter it ...'

It seems to me that for many, many years, people have talked and written in a wide variety of slang, shorthand, or jargon that is designed to exclude people who are not part of a particular circle, group, or clique.

First and foremost in my experience was Cockney rhyming slang, which my paternal family – who had lived in the East End of London for two generations – used regularly in everyday speech. I grew up knowing what 'apples', 'the frog', 'the rubber', 'the trouble', 'a ruby', and 'butchers'* meant ... and I was interested to note recently that the slang has continued to evolve. (I heard someone refer to their footwear as 'Angelas' ... which is the shortened version of 'Angela Rayners' or trainers!)

When I began working in a supermarket in the middle of the 1960s, I came across – and began using – shop back-slang. For example, 'feeb' was beef, 'tibbar' was rabbit, 'dlo' (pronounced de-low) was old, and 'krop' was pork. Even when I went to work in private banking and later education, I picked up and used the jargon that went with the job.

As I was working on the forthcoming PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM, I began thinking about the acronyms and jargon that we use in wargaming ... and here is a list of the acronyms that I have seen and/or used:

• 2HW: Two-Hour Wargames
• AAR: After Action Report
• ACW: American Civil War
• ADG: After Dinner Game
• AH: Avalon Hill
• ASL: Advanced Squad Leader
• BOGSAT: Bunch of Guys Sitting Around a Table
• CCG: Collectible Card Game
• COA: Course of Action
• CoW/COW: Conference of Wargamers
• CRT: Combat Results Table
• D (followed by a number): A die, with the number indicating the number of sides the die has (e.g. D6 is a die with six sides.
• DBA: De Bellis Antiquitatis
• DBx: Any rules based on the DBA system
• ECW: English Civil War
• GDW: Game Designer’s Workshop
• GW: Games Workshop
• HOTT: Hordes of the Things
• HYW: Hundred Years War
• LoS/LOS: Line-of-sight
• MG: Matrix Game
• MW: Miniature Wargames
• OHW: One-Hour Wargames
• PW: Portable Wargame
• RPG: Role-playing game
• SoA/SOA: Society of Ancients
• SPI: Simulations Publications, Inc
• SYW: Seven Years War
• THW: Two-Hour Wargames
• TTG: Tabletop Game/Table Top Games
• TYW: Thirty Years War
• WD: Wargame Developments
• WI: Wargames Illustrated
• WRG: Wargame Research Group
• WSS: Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy
• WWI/WW1: World War One
• WWII/WW2: World War Two
• ZOC: Zone of Control

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I am sure that there are loads more that I have missed.

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* For the benefit of those of my regular blog readers who are not au fait with Cockney rhyming slang. 'apples' = apples and pears = stairs, 'the frog' = frog and toad = road, 'the rubber' = rub-a-dub = pub, 'the trouble' = trouble and strife = wife, 'a ruby' = Ruby Murray = curry, and 'butchers' = butcher's hook = look.

The next Portable Wargame Compendium: A progress report

Thanks to a couple of previous contributors (Arthur Harman and Mark Cordone), I’ve been able to make quite a lot of work on the next PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM. So far, the contents includes:

• My Belle Époque Portable Wargame rules.
• A comparison between THE PORTABLE WARGAME rules and the recently published COFFEEBREAK wargame rules.
• HG Wells’ Hook’s Farm scenario adapted for use with the COFFEEBREAK wargame rules.
• Brigadier Peter Young's and Lieutenant-Colonel James Philip Lawford's Blasthof Heath scenario adapted for use with the COFFEEBREAK wargame rules.
• Napoleon at Bay: A complete wargame campaign in a box covering 1814 and 1815.
• The Peninsular War: A simple campaign system that can be used with several different fast-play wargame rules.
• Dominion of Generals: A variant of the DOMINION OF … rules that includes rules that enable generals to influence the course of a battle.

I have had several other contributors who have promised articles for the next issue… which I hope is going to be published in time for Christmas.