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Friday 21 August 2020

Maudlin Jack Tar’s Shambattle campaign

Recently, Maudlin Jack Tar has been fighting an interesting campaign using the map from SHAMBATTLE (a wargame book published in 1929).

In the original rules, two countries - Bluvia and Redina - were separated by a river. Each of the countries had three cities, which were connected by roads. There were also two hills, two forests, and two marshes, and the border river was crossed by three bridges.


The opposing armies were equal in size, and comprised:
  • At 40 soldiers (infantry and cavalry)
  • 6 medical corps men
  • 1 cannon
  • 2 machine guns
  • 3 hospitals (of which 2 are field hospitals)
The troops were placed according to the following rules:
  • At least half of the soldiers were to be deployed in cities, with a third of these figures in each city
  • The permanent hospital had to be deployed at a fixed spot, but the field hospitals could be placed anywhere within the country’s territory
  • Each player chose a soldier to represent themselves
  • Each player secretly picked an enemy soldier who would act as a spy. The identity of the spy was written on a piece of paper, and this was placed in one of the cities near the border
Maudlin Jack Tar has taken the map, and altered slightly so that it now fits onto an 8 x 8 grid.


Each army comprises three divisions, each of which has three brigades. Initially, Bluvia and Redina each deployed a dividion to protect their respective capital cities whilst the others were mobilised close to the border.

To date, he has fought:
I have followed this campaign with great interest, partly because of its interesting use of original SHAMBATTLE map, and partly because he is using my PORTABLE WARGAME rules to fight the battles. It was an exciting campaign, and ended up with a decisive victory for one side ... which could well lead to further conflict in the future.

Please note that the second map featured above is © Maudlin Jack Tar.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Bob,
    I've been following Maudlin's Battles -particularly interested in his 1/72nd plastic Armies - some old AIRFIX included. Very compact gaming. Hope your cold is getting better. Cheers. KEV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kev Robertson (Kev),

      Reading Maudlin Jack Tar’s campaign and battle report has helped to raise my spirits during my rotten cold ... which I still cannot seem to shrug off.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Bob - thanks for the mention in dispatches!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maudlin Jack Tar,

      It was my pleasure ... and well deserved! I look forward to reading more of them in the future.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. For your readers interested in the rules for Shambattle, they can follow this link to a free version on the 'net:

    http://www.nirya.be/snv/shambattle/

    Looks like Phil Dutre had a hand in this!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. Pavone,

      Thanks for the link!

      From what I can remember, I suspect that you might be right about Phil Dutre’s involvement.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
    2. You're welcome, I enjoy finding this kind of thing anywhere. The game reminds me of one my friend and I played in a sandpit behind our school. We had never heard of Shambattle or even Little Wars but we came up with something very similar on our own. Instead of using toy cannons we shot at each other's men with rubber bands, using the classic "finger-rubber-band-gun" method.

      I've noticed the link I provided only offers the highest level of rules. If anyone is interested and you are willing to share the link, the full rules (original and revised) are available from this source:

      http://www.thortrains.net/milihistriot/books.html

      Full disclosure, I have no stake in sales from this site. I'm sharing it as a favor for anyone interested.

      Delete
    3. Mr. Pavone,

      I think that we all had our own ‘wargames’ when we were young. I was lucky enough to own several matchstick firing guns (a couple of Britains 25-pounders, a Crescent 25-pounder, and a Crescent 18-pounder) which provide my 54mm toy soldier armies with firepower.

      Thanks for the second link to the SHAMBATTLE rules ... and I’m sure that we all appreciate that you recommended the link for altruistic reasons.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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