New YouTube video: The Artillery Museum in St Petersburg, Russia (3 of 3)

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

It lasts approximately six minutes.

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

Return to Madasahatta ... or somewhere nearby (2)

Eric Knowles' Madasahatta Campaign served as a model for my own colonial imagi-nation setup. It featured three countries:

British Dammallia

Named by Sir Archibald Creep, the first European explorer to set foot there. It is reputed that the name resulted from Sir Archibald's Portuguese cartographer and man-servant mis-hearing his master's comments about the county; ‘There's damn all 'ere!’.

The Colony is administered for the Crown by the Colonial Office in London, and there is a Colonial Governor resident in the capital, Port Albert, but the main power lies with the British Afro-Asian Colonial Company which owns the rights to almost everything.

German Mankanika

Named by Doctor Franz Mattengloss, the first European explorer to set foot there.

The Colony is administered for the Imperial German Government by the Colonial Ministry in Berlin, and there is a Colonial Governor in the Capital, Port Wilhelm.

The Sultanate of Marizbar

It is ruled by the Sultan of Marzibar, who owes titular allegiance to the Sublime Porte, but who rules Marzibar as a despot. Marzibar is an island that is eight miles long by two miles wide on which are situated several small villages and a town, Marzibar City. The latter was called the ‘Venice of Africa’ by Arab explorers and traders during the 17th Century; it has also been described as ‘the worst, pestilential hell-hole on the coast of Africa’ by Sir Archibald Creep.

I have used these Madasahatta-like colonies as a background for several mini-campaigns and one-off battles in the past ... and methinks that I ought to do so again!

AI-generated YouTube thumbnails

I recently watched a podcast that discussed the growing use of AI by some YouTube creators. One of the people involved in the discussion mentioned that they had evidence that some of their content had been copied without their permission and then reworked using AI before being uploaded. The plagiariser then earned income from the ripped off work thanks to the YouTube algorithm.

Another topic that was mentioned was the use of AI to create the thumbnails that creators upload to YouTube to attract viewers ... and that they all tended to look the same.

I decided to see what sort of job ChatGPT would do if I asked it to design a thumbnail for my most recent YouTube video. The thumbnail I created using the opening image of my video looked like this ...

... and ChatGPT's design looked like this:

I must admit that the end result is quite impressive ... but I'm not sure if I'll be asking ChatGPT to design my YouTube thumbnails in the future.

Return to Madasahatta ... or somewhere nearby (1)

I recently had a conversation with my old friend David Crook about the Madasahatta Campaign that we both took part in many years ago. In particular, we talked about how the late Eric Knowles used figures from his huge collection to create the various armies that were fielded during the land campaign as well as the naval battles we fought using Eric's extensive 1/1200th-scale fleets of warships dating from the 1880s to the 1910s.

This set me thinking, and I have spent some time since reading the book I wrote about the campaign. The PDF edition of the book included a colour map of Madasahatta that I drew:

At the outbreak of the campaign, the various forces deployed on the island were as follows:

Garrison of New Surrey (The British Colony)

• Port Victoria
• 3rd Battalion, Connaught Rangers (less 1 Company) [3 Infantry Units]
• 47th Mountain Battery (2 x 12pdr. Guns) [1 Mountain Artillery Unit]
• Rumbletum’s Kraal
• 1 Company, 3rd Battalion, Connaught Rangers [1 Infantry Unit]
• Clinkajeer's Kraal
• 1 Squadron, Bengal Lancers [1 Cavalry Unit]
• Fort Chupatty
• HQ and 2 Companies, 1st Battalion, Ludhiana Sikhs [2 Infantry Units]
• Fort George
• 2 Companies, 1st Battalion, Ludhiana Sikhs [2 Infantry Units]

Garrison of Hansaland (The German Colony)

• Festung Teufel
• 2 Companies, 1st Battalion Askari Infanterie [2 Infantry Units]
• 1 gun (1 x 88mm Howitzer)
• Hansaland Kolonial Artillerie [½ Mountain Artillery Unit]
• Festung Askari
• 2 Companies, 1st Battalion Askari Infanterie [2 Infantry Units]
• 1 gun (1 x 88mm Howitzer), Hansaland Kolonial Artillerie [½ Mountain Artillery Unit]
• Festung Amelia
• 1 Company, 12th Marine Battalion [1 Infantry Unit]
• Seemanstadt
• 12th Marine Battalion (less 1 Company) [3 Infantry Units]
• Bluchershafen
• 10th Wurttemburg Artillerie Batterie (2 x105mm Guns) [1 Field Artillery Unit]

Garrison of the Arab Concession (The Arab/Turkish Colony)

• Port Maleesh
• 1 Battalion, State Guard (4 Infantry Units]
• 1 Battery, Artillery (2 x 88mn Howitzers) [1 Mountain Artillery Unit]

Whoppituppas Tribal Forces (The local native tribes)

• Hornikraal
• Royal Bodyguard [4 Infantry Units]
• The Elephant Regiment [4 Infantry Units]
• Militini's Kraal
• The Lion Regiment [4 Infantry Units]
• Gindrinka's Kraal
• The Leopard Regiment [4 Infantry Units]

In theory, it would not be too difficult to reproduce these forces using 28mm, 15mm, or even 10mm figures ... and it is something that I have considered doing several times over the years.

Eric was a great enthusiast for puns, and this becomes clear when one looks at names he chose for the (fictional) people - and tribes - who were involved in events on Madasahatta:

• Sir Charles Buckpasser-Cleverly Bt.
• Governor of the British Colony of New Surrey
• Ambitious, able, snobbish, but not a soldier.
• Major General Sir Harry Hopeful
• British Military Commander
• Brave, unimaginative, dogged.
• Father Ignatius Stoppit S.J.
• Stern, fervent, Jesuit missionary. Utterly opposed to drinking, wenching, raiding, cattle stealing, cannibalism, pontoon, solo and other savage amusements. Despite advice to the contrary, he has insisted on establishing a mission station in Whoppituppa country, near to their capital, Hornikraal.
• General Freiherr Wilhelm von Boozy, Iron Cross (First Class)
• Governor and Military Commander of the German Colony of Hansaland
• Old Junker family, stiff necked Prussian. Always wears full dress uniform. Cruel and proud, veteran of the Franco-Prussian War. Able tactician. Hates German Colonies, any overseas service, British, Africans and French (in that order). Is a darn sight too friendly with ...
• Jakob Geltmeister
• Local representative of the German trading company HANSA OST AFRIKA. Greedy, gluttonous, sottish. Renowned for his complete lack of either moral or business scruples. Derives considerable profit from shady deals with Makmi Anoffah.
• Makmi Anoffah
• Unscrupulous Levantine trader known to be trading with the Whoppituppas, dealing in slaves, gold, guns, ivory, Daz, Mars Bars, and other dangerous goods. He is supported by an Arab band led by the ...
• Wazir Aminitago
• An Arab Emir noted for organising lightning raids and ambushes and then disappearing as swiftly and suddenly as he came.
• The Firkawi
• A tribe of southern Madasahatta. Fishermen and cattle herders. Their Paramount Chief is Rumbletum. There are two subordinate chiefs, Boosoobi and Clinkajeer. The Firkawi are not very brave. They are employed by the British as porters, guides, askaris, etc. Famous for their inability to navigate off tracks in the bush.
• The Whoppituppas
• Large fierce inland warrior tribe of Bantu stock. Famed for their savage fighting spirit and untiring virility. They are led by their great war-chief King Gottawhippetindali, the bravest and most lecherous of them all. There are two sub-chiefs, Gindrinka and Militini, the two eldest of the King's ninety-seven surviving sons.
• The Bairasses
• A very poor downtrodden tribe of Kaffir stock living in Hansaland. Heavily oppressed and exploited by the Germans, who use them as porters, miners, askaris, etc., at a standard rate of one Reichsmark per decade and a daily food ration of as much sauerkraut as they can hold between finger and thumb. Their Headman is Chief Ardup who spends his time trying to please the Germans, the Whoppituppas, and the Arabs all at once and wondering where the next meal is coming from. The Bairasses expect a short life and a sticky finish and are rarely disappointed.
• The Dodgilot
• A tribe of nomads living in the unexplored Bush country of North Madasahatta. They are very elusive, hostile to all other men, and are led by a very fat, indolent chieftain called King Stukinakarsi. After one or two border clashes, the Germans have decided to leave them well alone and get on with the profitable pastimes of gold mining and Bairass whacking.
• The British have never met them, doubt whether they exist, and consider that they are a figment of German propaganda designed to keep British gold prospectors out of Hansaland.

I strongly suspect that much of the above is no longer acceptable to members of the general public as they reflect the somewhat different views at the time ... but back then we didn't know better.

New YouTube video: The Artillery Museum in St Petersburg, Russia (2 of 3)

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

It lasts approximately six minutes.

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

A Fleet Torn Asunder

As my regular blog readers will know, I have had an abiding interest in the Spainsh Civil War ever since I went to Spain on a package holiday in the 1960s. Over the years, I collected many books on the subject and this led to me writing several sets of Spanish Civil War wargame rules (including íARRIBA ESPAÑA!) and eventually a source book about the war ... LA ULTIMA CRUZADA.

One aspect of the war that is rarely covered is the role of the Republican and Nationalist navies ... and yet, it was much more significant than many people realise because so much of the material used by both sides arrived by sea. If one side had been able to achieve superiority at sea early in the war, they would have been able to strangle their opponent's ability to fight, and the war would have ended almost as soon as it started. As it was, neither side was able to maintain a full blockade of the other's coastline until the end of the wat in April 1939.

Any book that covers the naval aspects of the Spanish Civil War is bound to attract my attention, and when I heard that the doyen of UK naval wargame designers – Professor David Manley - was about to publish one, I looked forward to acquiring a copy. Luckily, he knew that I might be interested and arranged for a copy to be sent to me when it was published.

A FLEET TORN ASUNDER ...

... is split into the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. A Fleet Torn Asunder
3. Spanish Civil War Scenarios
4. Scenario 1: “The Strait Must Be Crossed” – July–August 1936
5. Scenario 2: “Cape Espartel” – 29 September 1936
6. Scenario 3: “The Torpedo in Cartagena” – 22 November 1936
7. Scenario 4: “The Battle of Cape Machichaco” – 5 March 1937
8. Scenario 5: “The Deutschland Incident” – 29 May 1937
9. Scenario 6: “The Neutrality Patrols” – 1937–1938
10. Scenario 7: “The Final Sortie” – March 1939
11. Spanish Civil War Campaign System
12. Orders Of Battle
13. Fleet Fragmentation Mini-Game
14. Air Orders Of Battle
15. Spanish Civil War Ship and Aircraft Data Tables
16. Active Ports

The first two sections give the reader a brief but very informative explanation of the course of the maritime war, including the actions of the so-called neutrals and the role of air power. The scenarios cover all the major naval actions that took place, and the campaign system is easy to understand and includes an excellent campaign map and the option to include a simple land campaign as well.

The ship and aircraft data tables are designed to be used with David Manley's FIND, FIX AND STRIKE naval wargame rules and cover all the ships and aircraft – including those of Germany, Italy, the USSR, the UK, and France – that one could possibly envisage using!

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in the naval aspects of the Spanish Civil War. It is worth the price just for the scenarios ... as is the campaign system! If I was grading out of ten, it would get a ten star!

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A FLEET TORN ASUNDER was written by Professor David Manley and published in 2026 by Long Face Games. It is available as a watermarked PDF from Wargame Vault and costs £8.00/$10.87.

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Writing this review has given me an excuse to republish some photographs of the Navarra, ...

... a World War One-era light cruiser that was extensively modernised in Cadiz and joined the Nationalist fleet just before the end of the Spanish Civil War.

Nugget 383

I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer (Macaulay Scott Printing Company of Welling, Kent) on Saturday and intend to post it out to members of Wargame Developments later today.

I will send the PDF copy to the 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 FIRST 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: The Artillery Museum in St Petersburg, Russia (1 of 3)

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

It lasts approximately three and three-quarter minutes.

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

Another progress report about my Portable Belle Époque Wargame rules (4)

In response to the third blog post in this series, Mark Condone – a very regular blog reader and contributor to the PORTABLE WARGAME FACEBOOK PAGE and the PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIA – made a very helpful comment about the Timescale rules I had written.

He made the point that the length of the day varies from season to season, and in light of his comment, I have 'borrowed' his ideas.

• During winter, the game day is divided into five daytime turns and a night turn.
• Each turn represents the time taken for two activation cards (one for each side) to be turned over and the relevant activations to take place.
• Dawn (8.00am to 10.00am)
• Morning (10.00am to Midday)
• Noon (Midday to 2.00pm)
• Afternoon (2.00pm to 4.00pm)
• Evening (4.00pm to 6.00pm)
• Night (6.00pm to 8.00am)

• During spring and autumn, the game day is divided into seven daytime turns and a night turn.
• Each turn represents the time taken for two activation cards (one for each side) to be turned over and the relevant activations to take place.
• Dawn (6.00am to 8.00am)
• Early Morning (8.00am to 10.00am
• Late Morning (10.00am to Midday)
• Noon (Midday to 2.00pm)
• Early Afternoon (2.00pm to 4.00pm)
• Late Afternoon (4.00pm to 6.00pm)
• Evening (6.00pm to 8.00pm)
• Night (8.00pm to 6.00am)

• During summer, the game day is divided into nine daytime turns and a night turn.
• Each turn represents the time taken for two activation cards (one for each side) to be turned over and the relevant activations to take place.
• Early Dawn (4.00am to 6.00am)
• Late Dawn (6.00am to 8.00am)
• Early Morning (8.00am to 10.00am
• Late Morning (10.00am to Midday)
• Noon (Midday to 2.00pm)
• Early Afternoon (2.00pm to 4.00pm)
• Late Afternoon (4.00pm to 6.00pm)
• Early Evening (6.00pm to 8.00pm)
• Late Evening (8.00pm to 10.00pm)
• Night (10.00pm to 4.00am)

Mark also suggested a very simple way for players to randomise the start of a battle.

• To determine the start time of a battle, a D6 die is rolled:
• Die score = 1, 2, or 3: The battle starts at dawn.
• Die score = 4 or 5: The battle starts the turn after dawn.
• Die score = 6: The battle starts the second turn after dawn.
• If the battle is an encounter battle, a D6 die is rolled:
• Die score = 1: The battle starts at dawn.
• Die score = 2 or 3: The battle starts the turn after dawn.
• Die score = 4, 5, or 6: The battle starts the second turn after dawn.
• The second day of a battle starts at dawn unless bad weather delays the start, in which case the start time is randomised.

Psychogeography and wargaming: Some more thoughts

Caveat: Whilst I know a reasonable amount about wargaming, I am a complete novice when it comes to psychogeography … so if I’ve have misunderstood aspects of the latter, please will my regular blog readers bear this in mind when it comes to any comments they might wish to make. I always welcome constructive and informed criticism … but not the other sort!

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I became interested in psychogeography because I had watched John Rogers’s YouTube videos, listened to him discussing psychogeography with Ian Sinclair, and discovered that Guy Debord had been both an early advocate of psychogeography as well as being a wargame designer.

At first, I could not see any other links between psychogeography and wargaming … and then began to look at how the former looks at maps and terrain. Guy Debord was a Situationist, and one of their approaches involved what is known as dérive, which can best be defined as being an unplanned journey through a landscape. I suspect that wargamers would consider what they do to be the opposite of this; in other words, they plan their journeys through the landscape.

So, it seems that psychogeographers and wargamers look at landscape in diametrically opposed ways … but do they?

When a wargamer looks at the terrain they a going to fight a battle on, the rules they are likely to use will include penalties or bonuses that relate to that terrain. For example:

• Hills: Give units on them better visibility of the surrounding terrain and a bonus if they must defend it.
• Forests and woods: Provide cover to units in them but reduce the mobility of units moving through them.
• Rivers: Are obstacles to movement.
• Roads: Increase the mobility of units moving along them.
• Built-up areas: May be an objective that must be retained or captured as well as providing cover to units in them.
• Railways: Provide strategic mobility and act as supply routes.

Applying psychogeography to these same features, questions arise that are not incompatible with wargaming. For example:

• Hills: Will a unit that occupies a hill for where they can see their hometown experience enhanced morale?
• Forests and woods: Are enemy units concealed therein, and therefore should they be avoided?
• Rivers: Is the small bridge over this river the only place for miles where an army can cross unhindered?
• Roads: Is this road sufficiently robust to allow heavy vehicles to use it?
• Built-up areas: A city contains a cathedral that is of great historical importance. Should it be defended – and thus exposed to the possibility of destruction – or should the city be declared ‘open’ in the hope that it will be preserved intact?
• Railways: Can our railway locomotives and rolling stock use this railway or is it the wrong gauge?

In other words, terrain has meaning as well as military characteristics.

It is important at this point to consider maps as interpretations of terrain and that they are not neutral objects. For example:

• A military map will emphasise road networks, hill gradients, and the location of bridges and settlements.
• A political map will emphasise local, regional, and national borders.
• A railway map will emphasise the rail routes that are available, the location of stations and depots, and interchanges between different rail networks.

Psychogeography challenges the idea that there is such a thing as a ‘correct’ map … and wargamers tend to do the same thing.

For example, if you give three players with different roles maps of the same country:

• The army commander will want a map that shows roads, rivers, the height of hills, bridges, and built-up areas.
• The railway logistician will want a map that shows railway routes, the location of sidings, depots, and workshops, and the gradient of railway lines.
• A local resistance commander will want a map that shows unused footpaths and the location of sympathetic villages, potential hiding places, police stations, and abandoned buildings.

They are geographically the same country but in wargame terms they are three completely different landscapes.

This appears – to me – to be close to psychogeographical thinking.

The Situationist dérive – which forms part of the thinking behind psychogeography – involves moving through a place without following a normal, predetermined route and seeing where the environment leads you.

There is an obvious wargaming equivalent to this … running a campaign or fighting a battle in terrain that is poorly surveyed … if it has been surveyed at all!

For example, a player might record the following the following in their campaign diary:

• Left the country’s capital by the northern road.
• The road was excellent as far as the provincial capital.
• Local people warned us about the nearby forest.
• The bridge across the main river appears weak and will need strengthening if we intend to use it as a major supply route.
• The country beyond the provincial capital feels increasingly hostile and villagers have refused to supply even basic foodstuffs.

In this instance, the player’s mental map of the terrain is developing alongside the physical map they are using. Some of the information they garner will be factual; some of it will be rumours; some will reflect prejudices; and some of it may simply be wrong.

Things are now beginning to resemble how historical commanders understood campaign geography, and one is drawn to the conclusion that campaign narratives naturally embrace psychogeography.

A long-running wargame campaign generates something similar without anyone consciously designing it. Locations become memorable because of a campaign event that occurred there. The physical terrain hasn’t changed … but its psychological geography has.

There is also an interesting link between psychogeography and nineteenth-century Kriegsspiel.

In a traditional Kriegsspiel, the umpires deliberately restrict what opposing commanders know. As a result, the players manipulate units on an incomplete map. They also receive reports and issue orders based upon incomplete information. Consequently, the commanders operate partly within an imagined landscape that is inside the commander’s head.

Psychogeography suggests that it might be able to take this further and create a psychogeographical campaign system where every important location has three characteristics:

• Physical value: what the terrain does.
• Perceived value: what a particular army believes about it.
• Emotional value: what previous events have caused it to mean.

After several campaign turns, the campaign map accumulates memory … and that is psychogeography emerging through play. It also suggests something potentially quite powerful: the campaign map itself could change according to what happens in the campaign without the physical geography changing at all.

I have seen this happen in several Matrix Games and RPG campaigns, and on reflection it would seem to me that many wargamers have been including psychogeography in their games without realising it.

These are my thoughts so far, and I would welcome comments on what I have written.