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Wednesday 6 May 2020

Other people’s Portable Wargames

I am having great difficulty keeping up with the deluge of PORTABLE WARGAME battles being fought and ideas that people are coming up with. It is almost as if the the current pandemic and resultant lockdown has given PW users the impetus (and time) to really get to grips with the rules ... and they are not afraid to push the envelope!

Archduke Piccolo has fought an Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War battle, which he has featured on his blog in four blog entries (here, here, here, and here).







Barry Carter has fought a battle from the War of 1812, ...


... created a wonderful terrain board, ...


... and fought a battle against slavers in a jungle set up on a vinyl chessboard.


Jeff Butler has also created a squared terrain board ...


... as well as a hexed terrain system.



Martin Smith has been fighting a battle set during the 1866 Austrian-Prussian War ...



... and Alan Saunders has continued his series of English Civil War battles.



Finally, Stephen Smith has been using the squared grid terrain boards from the TRAVEL BATTLE game and 6mm figures to develop a Napoleonic skirmish game.


(Mike Taber of Table Top Talk is also working on a skirmish variant of the rules.)

I understand that there have been some more PORTABLE WARGAME battle reports posted over the last 48 hours, but I have not yet managed to read them all. As I wrote at the beginning of this blog entry, at the moment I'm having trouble keeping up with everything that is happening on the PORTABLE WARGAME front!

Please note that the photographs featured above are © Archduke Piccolo, Barry Carter, Jeff Butler, Martin Smith, Alan Saunders, and Stephen Smith.

14 comments:

  1. Some really great ideas for battle boards, there. Probably my favourite is the jungle terrain - not overdone, yet still looks like thick country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Archduke Piccolo,

      Until I saw the jungle terrain set up on a vinyl chessboard, I’d have thought that it would have been difficult terrain to recreate on the tabletop ... but this example show how effectively it can be done without overcrowding the board.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Adversity can bring out the most innovative sides of people. Nice to see.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Service Ration Distribution (Hobby),

      That certainly seems to have been the case with PW users!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. Hi Bob,
    You must be over the moon with all the PORTABLE WARGAMES being played by many enthusiasts- and they are all different in look and ingenious how each has solved the Grid System. Cheers. KEV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kev Robertson (Kev),

      As I’ve commented before, it is very satisfying and just a little humbling to see how much pleasure people are getting from my rules.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. I saw Mr Smith's PWG in my Instagram feed, your influence is spreading!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. Pavone,

      I had no idea that PW was featured on Instagram! Thanks for letting me know that it has been.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  5. Fantastic diversity of games and lots of ideas to "borrow"!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maudlin Jack Tar,

      The ingenuity of other wargamers never ceases to amaze me!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  6. All are very nice. I especially like the terrain board by Mr. Piccolo as it looks like it could be used in a multitude of scenarios/battles. I need to find me a simple hex/square grid like that so I can get started on some home made TPW projects.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gridiron,

      If you look through Archduke Piccolo’s past blog posts, you should find a description of how he created his hexed tabletop.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
    2. Gridiron:
      I wrote up this 'tutorial' about 3 years ago.
      http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2017/03/portable-wargames-and-drawing-hexes.html
      The hex board that has featured in many of my war games since, I drew up from a bare board in - well I finished 24 hours after I started, but 21 of those 24 hours were spent doing something else. Here's the link to the board 'construction'.
      http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2017/11/marking-up-hex-grid-game-board.html

      Delete
    3. Archduke Piccolo,

      Thanks for providing the links. I’m sure that Gridiron (and other regular blog readers) will find them useful.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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