The Portable Belle Époque Wargame rules: Grading generals and activating units

I have been slowly working on the draft of my Portable Belle Epoque Wargame rules ... and have adapted a previously designed grading system for each side's generals and a playing card activation mechanism.

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Grading generals

In these rules, generals are a player’s tabletop alter ego. However, if we want them to perform realistically during a wargame, they should not be regarded as being infallible super-heroes and should have some limits placed on what they can do each turn. This can be done by:

• Grading each general as either good, average, or poor.
• Placing restrictions on the number of units they can activate each turn.

To determine a general’s grading, two D6 dice are thrown and the combined dice score determines the general’s grading.

This grading helps to determine how many units they can activate each turn.

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How many units can a general activate each turn?

Before the battle begins, each side is allocated a playing card colour (i.e. red or black). The number of units they command is totaled, divided by 2, and rounded up. This gives the median value of the playing cards that commander will be allocated. The median value of the playing cards is then adjusted according to the general’s competence:

• Good: Increase the median value of the playing cards by 1.
• Average: No adjustment is made to the median value of the playing cards.
• Poor: Reduce the median value of the playing cards by 1.

The players extract the red and black playing cards from two packs of playing cards and place them in separate piles.

The red general removes the red playing cards that have their modified median playing card value from their pile plus the red playing cards that have their modified median playing card value plus 1 and minus 1.

The black general removes the black playing cards that have their modified median playing card value from their pile plus the black playing cards that have their modified median playing card value plus 1 and minus 1.

Example 1

A red general commands a force of 9 units and has been allocated a grading of good. They therefore have a basic median value of playing card of 5 (9 ÷ 2 = 4.5, which when rounded up equals 5). Their modified median playing card value is 6 (5 + 1), and they select from the pile of red playing cards the 5, 6, and 7 of Hearts and Diamonds. The rest of the red playing cards are discarded

The red general's activation cards.

Example 2

A black general commands a force of 11 units and has been allocated a grading of poor. They therefore have a basic median value of playing card of 6 (11 ÷ 2 = 5.5, which when rounded up equals 6). Their modified median playing card value is 5 (6 – 1), and they select from the pile of black playing cards the 4, 5, and 6 of Clubs and Spades. The rest of the black playing cards are discarded.

The black general's activation cards.

The red and black activation cards are combined together along with two Jokers to form the pack of activation cards. The pack is then shuffled and placed face down.

At the start of the battle, the top card of the activation pack is turned over, and the colour and value of that card determines which side activates its units and how many of them can be activated. Once all the units that side can activate have been activated, the playing card is discarded and placed face up next to the pack of activation cards.

The next card of the activation pack is then turned over, and the colour and value of that card determines which side activates its units and how many of them can be activated. Once all the units that side can activate have been activated, the playing card is discarded and placed face up next to the pack of activation cards.

This process continues until a Joker is turned over, at which point the discarded activation cards are returned to the pack of activation cards and the whole pack is re-shuffled, and the process begins again.

During the turn sequence, the artillery and machine gun fire phases take place before a side activates its other units. Both sides can activate their artillery and machine gun units each time one of their side’s activation cards is turned over. If they do this, these count as one of that side’s unit activations.

Example 3

A side can activate 6 units. It chooses to activate an artillery unit and a machine gun unit during the artillery and machine gun fire phases. Once these phases have taken place, that side can then activate 4 other units.

It may well be that one side can have a run of activation cards, but this is part of the randomness generated by this mechanism. Experience shows that over time this apparent unfairness tends to even itself out.

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I have also added a YouTube video that covers these mechanisms to the Wargaming Miscellany channel.

It can be found here.

An army in a box

Some years ago, I visited the late Stuart Asquith at his home in the Cotswolds. When he retired and moved there, he did something that now makes a lot of sense to me; he created the 'army in a box' concept. He had a special cabinet constructed and allocated a draw in each to an army. Once that army had filled the draw, no further units or figures were added to it.

My Belle Époque collection is currently stored in an eleven-draw Really Useful Boxes tower unit. Its draws are slightly larger than A4 in size and have a removable sheet of magnetic sheet fixed to a thin sheet of plywood in their bottom.

© Really Useful Boxes.

I have recently discovered a problem with this storage ... it isn't very easy to lift the whole army out in one go. I then remembered Stuart's 'army in a box' and thought to myself that if I could find a suitable box that would fit into the draw, it could serve two purposes:

1. To enable me to lift an entire army out of the draw in one go and
2. To place a physical limit on the size of each of my Belle Époque armies.

Luckily, I had a number of A4-sized Weston Boxes close at hand, ...

© Weston Boxes.

... and I am now in the process of transferring each army into its new box ... which fits nicely into one of the draws in the Really Useful Boxes tower unit.

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PS. Some of the smaller armies fit into A5-sized Weston Boxes ... of which I also have a few available!

The Timeless Traveller: This week’s update

No update of last week's action from our gamemaster, Paolo. Instead, here is my take on what took place:

The group started the session in Elandra’s ransacked room. Whilst we tried to support Elandra – who was distraught – and to investigate the crime scene, the ship’s guards kept getting in our way, which led to a confrontation with the Nordian, the Head of Security. Ragnar (the Berserker) told him that his guards were useless and the security system aboard the ship didn’t protect the passengers. The others in the group were equally vocal … and in the end we were all assigned guards to keep us under surveillance.

Whilst the rest of us left for the infirmary, Bumble (the Stormshifter) escorted Elandra to the ship’s temple. At the infirmary, we acquired a greased pig for Vale (the Shepherd) which we took to the casino. Ragnar announced that we were going to set up a pig speed contest and called for bets to be placed. The group was showered with bets – including one for 500 Gold Pieces from Caldor the Dwarf – and then Vale attempted to set fire to the pig! Before he could, he was seized by the guards who dragged him away. (He was taken to the ship’s barracks, where he was incarcerated in a cell next to another prisoner … who turned out to be the talkative guard the group had met outside Thinkertop’s room.)

The pig rushed across the casino, overturning at least one of the gaming tables and tipping piles of gold pieces onto the floor. Ragnar and Menkare (the Shadowmancer) grabbed as much gold as they could, and the former asked a servant for a pair of heavy-duty seaman’s socks … into which he put the gold he had picked up. During the fracas, Callista (the Hunter) and Johnny-Baptiste (the Cheat) sneaked out of the casino and went back to their rooms … accompanied by a guard!

Meanwhile, Bumble kept watch over Elandra and Vale – who had been stripped of all his possessions – was attacked by the talkative now-ex-guard (whose name was John). Ragnar then arrived at the barracks, where he was confronted by the Head of Security and fired from his undercover job. He then went to the cells, where he had a confrontation with John … and the latter threw the contents of his slop bucket over Ragnar. In response, Ragnar told John that he would not forget what had happened and that he should expect retribution.

Soon afterwards, Menkare went to the dining room, where he attracted everyone’s attention and announced that the ship’s guards were useless and that they were incapable of protecting anyone. Many to those present left immediately, leaving a few elderly passengers and the twins in the room.

At this point, all hell let loose! Several hooded men could be seen outside and then there was an explosion, which breached the room’s wall and knocked the Silamane twins over. The hooded men then rushed in … just as Ragnar, Callista, and Johnny-Baptiste arrived.

Whilst some of the hooded men set about killing anyone who was close to them, one grabbed one of the twins, grabbed an amulet from around her neck, and then slit her throat! Fighting was taking place across the dining room. Ragnar took on two men, hitting them with his improvised weapons, two socks full of gold coins! Callista was wounded before seizing a spear that had been dropped by a dead guard and stabbed one of the hooded men. At the same time, Johnny-Baptiste threw his concealed ricocheting dagger at another, killing him with a strike to the heart.

The fight in the dining room.

Ragnar then attacked the hooded man who had taken the amulet, and despite being seriously injured, killed him. The rest of the hooded men then began to leave. Ragnar then handed the amulet to Callista, who – with Menkare – was escorting the uninjured twin to the infirmary. Whilst he was doing this, Menkare intercepted one of the hooded men who was attempting to leave the room. He tripped him up and seized the man’s dropped sword and stabbed him with it. As he died, the man pulled open his robe, revealing a metal chest piece with a vibrant gem in its centre. Menkare, who speaks Abyssal, heard the man mutter a warning in that language.

This was the first time we had used the Nimble combat system ... and is it not ony easy to use but also produces some exciting results.

Nugget 380

I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer (Macaulay Scott Printing Company of Welling, Kent) yesterday, and I hope to post it out (with a copy of the newly-printed and correctly laid out Nugget 378) to members of Wargame Developments as soon as I can.

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 eighth issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2025-2026 subscription year.

If you wish to subscribe for the 2025-2026 subscription year and have not yet done so, please request a PayPal invoice or the bank transfer information from the Treasurer or follow the instructions on the relevant page of the website.

Nugget 380

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

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IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the eighth issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2025-2026 subscription year.

If you wish to subscribe for the 2025-2026 subscription year and have not yet done so, please request a PayPal invoice or the bank transfer information from the Treasurer or follow the instructions on the relevant page of the website.

Galen's Got Parkinsons

Sometimes the YouTube algorithm throws up something really interesting, and last week it suggested that I might find a channel entitled GALEN'S GOT PARKINSONS of interest. I did ... and found a wonderfully eccentric set of videos that I have thoroughly enjoyed watching!

The channel is described as follows:

I started wargaming in the 1960's and love it more than anything. I believe that it is the most amazing and fulfilling hobby. Now I have Parkinson's and things are slowly getting worse, I'll try to share the ups (and downs) of tackling the various fun challenges that I, and others, face. First played D&D in 1978 with 'The Tomb of Horrors' then 'The Giant' trilogy. I bought D&D by accident which is why I tried 'The Tomb' first ... what a mistake that was and I've been making them ever since!

He started wargaming not long after I did, and I have considerable empathy for a fellow long-time wargamer who has an medical condition that isn't going to get better. He still enjoys historical wargaming but is also a very active D&D player with some wonderful Fantasy armies, some of which have been created from original Minifig 'Lord of the Rings' figures.

I find Galen's enthusiasm for his hobby very infectious ... and even Sue has enjoyed watching some of his videos.

A selection of Galen's most recent video output.

Please support GALEN'S GOT PARKINSONS by looking at – and even subscribing – to his YouTube channel.

Galen's video playlist. The Heroes of Gaming one was of particular interest to me.

A potential solution quite literally hit me!

I recently visited our storage unit to look for several wargaming items I needed. Thanks to the light in the unit not working and my torch battery giving up the ghost after a couple of minutes, I didn't find everything that I wanted.

However, one of the things that I did bring home was a small box containing some plastic bits and pieces I think that I may be able to use for my current Belle Époque project. When I got the box up to my toy/wargame room, I went to put it on top of one of the bookcases, and in doing so, I dislodged a copy of MEMOIR '44 ... which fell off and hit me on the head!

Once I had got over the initial shock and began to pick up all the bits that had fallen out of the box, I realised that I had in my hand the game's playing board ... which is a foldable hexed board that has a grid of 9 x 13 hexes that measure approximately 5.25cm from face to face! My immediate thought was this size of hex should certainly work with my Belle Époque armies and has the big advantage of being eminently portable!

The next thing to do was to see what examples of my based figures looked like on the board, and the results are shown below:

The army of the Baggari of Sahel fighting troops of the Zubian Army.

Another view of the army of the Baggari of Sahel fighting troops of the Zubian Army.

This simple experiment shows that this is certainly a workable solution, especially as I already own several different versions of this board.

Just when I thought that I had made a decision, this 'accident' has made me think again.

The Timeless Traveller: This week's update

First, an update of last week's action, as written by our gamemaster, Paolo:

The group spent most of their time in the casino where they met Caldor, a dwarf who was winning a suspicious amount of money. Ragnar was only stopped from splitting him in half by the fact he didn't have his axe. He approached the dwarf and tried to warn him off, eventually stealing a 'nuffling', a creature used in the game.

When Johnny Baptiste (the Cheat) saw the fixed game, they considered stabbing the animal involved in the game but was talked down by the group. Bumble (the Stormshifter) attempted to plant the nuffling on Caldor to frame him, but the guards didn't seem to care, later revealing that the dwarf acquires the nufflings for the boat

Munch (the Songweaver) joined in the game with Caldor, betting on the same numbers as the dwarf and making a lot of money, though he did vomit onto the table in the process. (The money is later revealed to only work on the ship and is not real gold.)

The group later went to the Great Hall to see Thinkertop. Johnny Baptiste used the opportunity to look for things to steal whilst Bumble saw Thinkertop's hoverboard and has set himself the goal of acquiring one. Whilst this was going on, Munch looked in the crowd for Umber the black-market dealer, eventually being conned by him and buying rope off him for 50 gold pieces.

The group then went to Elandra's room to see if she had any answers to the mysteries surrounding the ship etc. Once she sat down, she read to them for four hours from a book written in Abyssal. When Johnny Baptiste and Munch left, Bumble stayed but lay on her bed.

While Johnny Baptiste and Munch were leaving, they saw a group of darkly-dressed people suspiciously hiding something in an open room. Once the door was closed, Munch used his rope to tie the door shut, trapping them in.

During last Wednesday's session:

The group – less Bumble – were joined by a new member ... Callista, an Elvish Hunter. We then returned to Elandra's room to retrieve Bumble, where she informed us that she had been given permission to undertake some magic later that day as part of her quest to find a 'lost' temple. (At this point, the Shepherd 'acquired' a live chicken which he told everyone he needed for religious reasons. He later acquired a second chicken ... but more of that later!)

Bumble, who was now awake, went and retrieved his rope, thus releasing the people he had trapped earlier in the voyage.

As two of our group had magical powers (the Shepherd and the Shadowmancer) that they were currently banned from exercising, they asked Elandra to take them to the person who could give them permission to use their magical powers in order to help her. She did ... and it turned out to the the entrance of a small castle located in yet another of the ship's numerous large rooms. After some negotiation, they were granted permission to perform ten minutes of magic later that day.

The group then went to lunch ... which was a meal of Cockatrice in Mushroom Sauce, prepared by the well-know chef, the Great Albert. (He was so well-known that none of us had heard of him!) Cockatrice is a dangerous meat to eat as too much can cause one to turn to stone ... so we all avoided eating much of it!

A cockatrice. Basically, it is a two-legged dragon with a chicken's head. It is well-known for having a deadly stare, which is said to turn its victims into stone. It is also said to have poisonous breath that can kill instantly.

During the meal, Thinkertop appeared, standing on golden disk that floated some distance above the floor. He welcomed everyone to his celebration and hoped that we all enjoyed the meal. We did not ... but used the opportunity to 'borrow' cutlery as we thought that it might be useful as weaponry.

The group then went up on deck to see where Elandra would be performing her magic. The ship's captain – Captain Albert Morningstar – welcomed all of us except Bumble. Bumble had previously interfered with the ship's navigation system when he went to see the captain earlier in the voyage, and on this occasion two guards were summoned to keep an eye on him whilst he was on deck. After a brief talk with the captain, we left the ship's upper deck.

We all then went to the ship's garden, where we were immediately struck by the presence of a large statue of a goddess. The inscription informed us that she was Mykiki, the Goddess of Wild Nature and the Mother of the Forest Spirits ... but our Hunter was struck by the resemblance the statue had to a female version of her own god, Herne the Hunter.

Low, melodic singing could be heard coming from further into the garden, and it turned out to be the Silamane Twins singing a song in Elvish ... but not a version of Elvish that our Hunter could understand. They greeted us warmly and explained that they were singing to the spirits of the garden. They then left, and on further investigation we discovered a balcony in the garden that overlooked the sea.

As we stood on the balcony, the Shepherd threw the second live chicken that he had acquired out of the ship ... and after travelling about ten metres, it hit some sort of invisible barrier and disappeared. Our Cheat then threw a piece of chalk that she had brought aboard with her ... and this passed through where the barrier should have been and dropped into the water with a splash. This seemed to prove that anything sourced on the ship was probably just an illusion or only had existence within the immediate confines of the ship.

At this point we decided to go the ship's power source ... and when we asked the portal, we exited the garden from to take us there, it deposited us outside an ornate door that turned out to the Thinkertop's room! One of the two guards was reluctant to give us much information, but the other was more informative. However, before we could gain entrance to the room, one of the guards told us that there had been an incident elsewhere on the ship. We immediately left and asked the portal to take us there ... and it took us the Elandra's room!

It turned out that her room had been broken into and trashed. She was sitting in one corner of her room, cradling a single book and crying. Eventually we discovered that all her research had been stolen ... and Callista – the Hunter – noticed that there were the tracks of two intruders on the floor, and we set off in pursuit!

There was quite a lot of action this week ... and it looks as if the tempo will continue to build as the voyage of the Timeless Wanderer continues.

American Civil War campaign: The opening moves

I am playing the Confederate side in the campaign. and my troops occupy the western end of the island.

I have organised my force into a number of brigades and I located them in various nodal points on the western end of the map.

My orders were as follow:

• A brigade to advance from 03 (Selinatown) to 06 (on the coastal road between Selinatown and St Gela)
• A brigade to advance from 04 (Panorama Gulch) to 07 (Solastine)
• A brigade to advance from 06 (On the coastal road between Selinatown and St Gela) to 12 (On the coastal road between Seliantown and St Gela)
• A brigade to advance from 07 (Solastine) to 08 (Himeran)

Intelligence then reached me that the Union forces were reported to be at 15 (On the road from Zeke's Mill to Unitedville), 16 (On the road from Zeke's Mill to Unitedville), and 14 (Bank's Mill).

I response, I issued the following orders:

• A brigade to advance from 06 (on the coastal road between Selinatown and St Gela) to 12 (On the coastal road between Seliantown and St Gela)
• A brigade to advance from 07 (Solastine) to 08 (Himeran)
• A brigade to advance from 12 (On the coastal road between Seliantown and St Gela) to 11 (Triangle)
• A brigade to advance from 08 (Himeran) to 09 (Unitedville)

The Union response was to move troops along the northern road to Unitedville (and thus into contact with my brigade) and along the southern road to 13. In addition, reports have reached my HQ that a local, private militia organised by Mr Nathan T Banks to protect Banks's Mill has been fighting what he identifies as General Rosenkrantz's Central Brigade. He claims to have inflicted serious casualties on the Union troops ... but as he is an untrained militia commander, his assessment of the situation must be treated with caution.

The brigade that I had pushed forward towards Unitedville came into contact with a Union Cavalry Brigade that was supported by an Infantry Brigade (believed to be the Northern Infantry Brigade) and after briefly skirmishing with the Union force, withdrew to 08 (Himeran).

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This is the situation after the first two turns of the campaign ... and I am currently writing my orders for the next turn.

Cutting one's coat according to one's cloth

Regular blog readers might find some of what follows covers things that I have previously written about on my blog, but for completeness – and to help me to clarify my own thinking – I have written about how I arrived at the situation I find myself in today.

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When I retired in 2014, I had visions of spending loads of time wargaming and doing wargame-related activities ... interspersed – of course – with going on cruises, doing the usual round of household chores, and fitting in all the other things that normal life demands.

In anticipation of this, during the early years of the new century we spent quite a lot on money converting our house's loft into an home office, a shower room, and what became my toy/wargame room, and for the first years on my retirement I was able to use the latter almost every day.

Then real life made itself felt. A simple test showed signs of blood in my faeces, and on investigation it was discovered that I had a small cancerous polyp in my intestines. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic I went into hospital to have a minor keyhole surgical procedure to remove it. The operation did not go according to plan and I ended up with what turned out to be an irreversible colostomy.

Two years later, what I thought was a minor problem with my urinary system turned out to be prostate cancer ... and since then I've undergone chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. The cancer is still there, but it is under control and does not seem to be getting any worse.

Now, these two cancers rather took the wind out of my wargaming sails, but I carried on as best I could. I found things a bit more difficult as I was spending lots of time either undergoing treatment or tests, but what time I was able to devote to my hobby was very enjoyable ... and then I broke my right leg, just above the ankle.

I had been experiencing problems with my legs for many years, but by 2024 they had become very weak and climbing the stairs to my toy/wargame room was sometimes very difficult. On the evening of 10th April, I stood up from a living room chair in order to go to bed, and as I walked forward, my right leg gave way and my fall broke my leg.

What followed was nearly three weeks in hospital and then twenty-two weeks confined to bed at home. For the first sixteen weeks, my axonal polyneuropathy – the cause of my weakness – had left me unable to walk, let alone climb the stairs up to my toy/wargame room. At the time, the prognosis was that I would probably be confined to a wheelchair and not walk again, but thanks to the Royal Greenwich Reablement Team and six weeks of intensive physiotherapy was not only able to stand again on my own two legs – with the aid of a walking frame and walking sticks – but actually begin to learn how to climb up a flight of stairs.

Twenty-five weeks after I had broken my leg, we had a stairlift installed, and on 2nd October I was able to use it to go up to bed the first time in nearly six months ... and a visit to my toy/wargame room soon followed.

It soon became apparent that it was very unlikely that I was going to be able to fulfill my dreams of wargaming as much as I had hoped when I retired. Just getting upstairs – even using the stairlift – was tedious and very restricting. If I went up there, I felt marooned ... and if I didn't go up, I felt cheated of the enjoyment I get from wargaming. This dilemma has hung around every since, and every attempt I have made to find a solution has not exactly been a failure but has proved unsatisfactory.

This is where I now find myself ... and until I can find a workable solution, I cannot seem to make significant progress. This is not to say that things have been in a state of limbo; I've been working on my Belle Époque project and I've been gaming on a regular basis at Dice on the Hill. I've also been playing around with a new version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules for use with my Belle Époque project and trying to devise a set of campaign maps for this project.

So, what do I need to do? I need to create a truly portable wargame that is light and small enough so that I can either bring downstairs and set it up on our dining table or that I can set up on the worktable in my toy/wargame room. I have the figures, I have the draft of a set of rules that might be suitable, and I have loads of Hexon II terrain ... but the latter is not as portable as I need.

I’ve been playing around with possible alternatives to the Hexon II … and I am giving serious consideration to using either a square gridded cloth or board. The choice of squares makes sense for several reasons:

• Late nineteenth century warfare tended to be linear in nature, and using a square grid reflects this.
• It is easy to mark up a cloth or board with a square grid.
• It harks back to games like Joseph Morschauser's FRONTIER and Dr. David Charles Ballinger Griffith’s POLEMOS.

At present I am looking at using 5cm x 5cm (2-inch x 2-inch) squares. I've used this size of grid square in the past (e.g. The Attack on Morobad) ...

The Attack on Morobad. It used a 12 x 12 grid of 5cm x 5cm (2-inch x 2-inch) squares on a sand-coloured felt cloth. The Great Wall of Morobad was homemade from wooden Jenga blocks mounted on 5cm x 5xm MDF squares and the palm trees were mounted on bases made from Fimo.

... and an 8 x 8 grid would be 40cm x 40cm (16-inches x 16-inches) and a 12 x 12 grid would be 60cm x 60cm (24-inches x 24-inches). Both of these would be ideal for my requirements.

Another advantage of using this size of grid square is that my existing Belle Époque collection is mounted on 4cm-wide MDF bases (Infantry on 4cm x 2cm, cavalry on 4cm x 3cm, and artillery on 4cm x 4cm bases) that fit inside this size of grid square. In addition, I will be able to mount terrain on 5cm x 5cm MDF squares (or multiples thereof), of which I have a plentiful supply.

This is the current state-of-play with regard to my plans to create a truly portable wargame that I can easily carry up and down stairs from my toy/wargame room or fit on my worktable. Now all I have to do is to get hold of a suitably-sized piece of felt material or board ... and then I can start being creative.