Escorts for the IJNS Fuso

I found some suitable escorts for my 1:122th-scale model of IJNS Fuso on eBay, placed my bid, and won. As a result, I am now the proud owner of some metal models of the light cruiser IJNS Yubari, and the destroyers IJNS Shimakaze, and IJNS Asagiri.

The IJNS Yubari was a one-off experimental light cruiser that was commissioned in July 1923. She weighed just over 3,500 tons and could reach a speed of just under 35 knots. When built, her armament consisted of two twin and two single-mounted 5.5-inch (14cms) guns, a single 3-inch (76mm) anti-aircraft gun, two twin 24-inch (61cm) torpedo tubes, and 48 mines.

Lieutenant Commander Kikuo Fujimoto designed Yūbari under the direction of the very influential and innovative naval architect Captain Yuzuru Hiraga. Fujimoto incorporated the armoured belt and deck into the ship's strength structure, thus removing the need for the hull to include structural members to support the armour. As a result, the Yubari was able to carry the same armament as the earlier Sendai-class light cruisers on a displacement that weighed 40% less. This design philosophy was later adopted for future Japanese cruiser designs.

The destroyer IJNS Shimakaze was also a one-off experimental vessel that was commissioned in May 1943. She was intended to be the lead ship for a new class of destroyers but none of these were ever built. Shimakaze was almost was heavy as Yubari (she weighed 3,300 tons) and had a maximum speed of just under 41 knots. When built, her armament comprised three twin 5-inch (127mm) guns, two triple 1-inch (25mm) automatic anti-aircraft guns, two single 0.52-inch (13.2mm) anti-aircraft machine guns, three quintuple 24-inch (61cm) torpedo tubes, and 8 depth charges.

The IJN Asagiri was one of the twenty-four-strong Fubuki-class destroyers that entered service between 1928 and 1933. She was a member of the second batch that was built (the Type II [Ayanami]), was commissioned in June 1930, and weighed just over 2,000 tons. Her top speed was 38 knots and her armament comprised (when built) three twin 5-inch (127mm) guns, a number of 1-inch (25mm) and 0.52-inch (13.2mm) anti-aircraft guns, three triple 24-inch torpedo tubes, and 36 depth charges.

Unbuilt Post-war Battleships

As a follow-up to my recent YouTube video about United States' War Plan Orange, I have created a further video about the battleships and battlecruisers that were designed during and after World War I but never built or completed as designed.

The ships that I have included are:

• Japanese Navy
• Tosa-class battleships
• Amagi-class battlecruisers
• Kii-class battleships
• Royal Navy
• N3-class battleships
• G3-class battlecruisers
• United States Navy
• South Dakota-class battleships
• Lexington-class battlecruisers

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

Mea culpa ... or "What a mistake-a to make-a!" (2)

Regular blog reader Ed M pointed out that I called MS PAINT (!!!) MS Draw in yesterday's blog post.

Mea culpa! My only excuse is that I was so excited by the results of the visit by the Occupational Therapists that I managed to get myself well and truly mixed up when it came to the name of the drawing program I was using.

The downside of this mistake is that I now have to go back and revise some elements of the video I have been working on as I used the wrong name several times during it. However, this will give me the opportunity to make some improvements ... so it's not all bad news.

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'What a mistake-a to make-a!' is the catchphrase of Capitano Alberto Bertorelli, one of the characters in the long-running BBC TV comedy programme 'ALLO 'ALLO! I have used it before as the title of a blog post back in October 2009 and it struck me as being rather appropriate for yesterday's blunder on my part.

Capitano Alberto Bertorelli (seen above wearing the uniform of an officer in the Bersaglieri) with Private Helga Geerhart (Kim Hartman), Lieutenant Hubert Gruber, (Guy Siner) and General Leopold von Flockenstuffen (Ken Morley). In this photograph he is being played by Gavin Richards. In later episodes the character was portrayed by the later Roger Kitter.

A busy few days

The last few days have been rather busy, hence my lack of blog posts.

Firstly, I have begun work on a YouTube video that will explain how I create my maps using MS Draw. (Other drawing programs are available ... but I'm a bit of a dinosaur who prefers to use a program that I have been utilising for years.) This is actually taking me more time that I expected as it will be a step-by-step guide ... but with a bit of luck, the methodology that I use will be understandable and transferable.

Secondly – and probably more importantly – I have been visited by a pair of Occupational Therapists who have assessed my current mobility situation and who are going to produce a plan that should help me to increase my mobility. They were very encouraging, and left me feeling that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Colonial Wargaming website

Until the middle of 2009 I had a website devoted to Colonial Wargaming, but at the time trying to blog and keep the website updated proved a bit too demanding and so, with great reluctance, I wound it up. I did try to replace it with a Colonial Wargaming blog ... but time pressure led to that becoming moribund as well.

I was recently going through my computer files and found that I had saved the whole website. This set me thinking about resurrecting it in some way as there were some resources on the original website that modern Colonial wargamers might find useful and I would like to be able to share them online; the question is, how?

I don't particularly want to rewrite all or most of the html code I used to create the original website, but I think that I might have to if I do create a new website. A better alternative would be to find some way of converting my existing files so that I can upload them simply, quickly, and easily to the new website, but I suspect that is not a realistic prospect.

A potential alternative might be to use my currently moribund Colonial Wargaming blog.

Whatever I decide to do, this will be no small task ... but I think that it will be worth doing, even if it takes me some time.

Fuso-class battleships

The IJNS Fuso was the name-ship of the two-ship Fuso-class battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. (The two ships were named IJNS Fuso and IJNS Yamashiro.) As such, they were the first dreadnought battleships with a homogenous main armament designed and built in Japan*, and were based on the British-designed Kongo-class battlecruisers.

The name-ship of the Kongo-class was built in Britain by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness and her three sisterships were built in Japan with British assistance. As a result, the designers of the Fuso-class based their design on that of the Kongo-class, and this becomes very apparent when one compares the two designs.

A side view of a Kongo-class battlecruiser.

A side view of a Fuso-class battleship.

The similarity between the two designs becomes even more obvious when one lays a side view of each design over the over.

A side view of a Fuso-class battleship overlaid over a side view of a Kongo-class battlecruiser.

A side view of a Kongo-class battlecruiser over a side view of a Fuso-class battleship.

It immediately becomes apparent how closely the two designs are to each other. The positions of the forward two superimposed turrets, bridge and foremast are very similar, as is the position of the aft-most turret and superstructure around the mainmast. The third turret on the Kong-class is also almost in exactly the same position as the fourth turret on the Fuso-class.

The obvious conclusion one can draw is that the Japanese designers took the basic design of the Kongo-class battlecruisers, reduced the size of the space required for the boilers and engines, and filled that freed-up space with two extra twin 14-inch gun turrets.

The following is a comparison of the two classes' characteristics as built, with the Kongo-class data being first and the Fuso-class data being shown in italics:

• Displacement: 26,952 tons/29,326 tons
• Dimensions:
• Length: 214.58m (704ft)/202.7m (665ft)
• Beam: 28.04m (92ft)/20.7m (94ft 2in)
• Draft: 8.22m (27ft)/8.7m (28ft 7in)
• Propulsion: 36 × Yarrow or Kanpon boilers providing steam to 2 sets of Parson or Brown-Curtis turbines (64,000 shp) driving four propellers/24 x Miyahara boilers providing steam to 2 sets of Brown-Curtis turbines (40,000 shp) driving four propellers)
• Speed: 27.5 knots/23 knots
• Range: 8,000 nautical miles at 14 knots/8,000 nautical miles at 14 knots
• Complement: 1,193/1,193
• Armament: 4 × twin 356 mm guns (Vickers 14-inch/45 gun);16 × single 152mm (6-inch) guns: 4 × single 76mm (3-inch) anti-aircraft guns; 8 × 533 mm (21-inch) torpedo tubes/6 × twin 356 mm guns (Vickers 14-inch/45 gun);16 × single 152mm (6-inch) guns: 5 × single 76mm (3-inch)anti-aircraft guns; 6 × 533 mm (21-inch) torpedo tube
• Armour:
• Waterline Belt: 203 to 76mm (8 to 3 inches)/305 to 102mm (12 to 4 inches)
• Deck: 25mm (1 inch)/51mm (2 inches)
• Gun turrets: 229 to 254 mm (9 to 10 inches)/279mm (11 inches)
• Barbettes: 254 to 76 mm (10 to 3 inches)/305mm (12 inches)
• Conning tower: 229 mm (9 inches)/351mm (13.8 inches)

The IJNS Yamashiro as built.

If the Washington Treaty had not been signed in 1922, it is likely that the Fuso-class would have been declared obsolete in the late 1920s and scrapped. However, it was decided to retain and modernise them, and this involved:

• Replacing their boilers (They now had 6 Kanpon boilers, which enabled the removal of the forward funnel).
• Replacing their engines (They now had 4 sets of Kanpon turbines (75,000 shp) which gave them a speed of 24.7 knots).
• Replacing the existing anti-aircraft guns with 4 x twin 127mm (5-inch) anti-aircraft guns.
• Removing the two 152mm (6-inch) guns closest to the bows.
• Increasing the deck armour to 114mm (4.5 inches).
• Their forward superstructures were enlarged with multiple platforms added to their tripod foremasts and additional space provided for two of the new twin 127mm (5-inch) anti-aircraft guns. The extended bridgework evolved into what was probably the most extreme example of a so-called pagoda mast.
• Their rear superstructures were rebuilt to accommodate mounts for two of the new twin 127mm (5-inch) anti-aircraft guns and additional fire-control directors.
• The hulls were given anti-torpedo bulges. This increased their beam to 31.1m (108ft 7in).and compensated for the increased topweight.
• The hulls were lengthened at the stern by 7.62m (25ft), which helped to offset the increase in beam.
• They were fitted with a catapult and collapsible crane so that they could operate three floatplanes.

The IJNS Fuso after her modernisation.

Despite these improvements, by 1941 the two ships were no longer regarded as suitable for frontline service. Their short-range anti-aircraft armament was increased during the war, and by 1944 they carried ninety-six 25mm (1-inch) automatic anti-aircraft guns. They spent much of the early part of the war at anchor in Hiroshima Bay acting as training ships, although they were involved as distant support during the Pearl Harbour attack and then operations against the Aleutian Islands.

The Fuso-class battleships at anchor.

As Japanese losses mounted, the two ships took on more active roles. In September 1944 they took Japanese Army reinforcements to Brunei before being assigned to Operation Shō-Gō., the attack on the United States Navy ships supporting the landings at Leyte They formed part of Admiral Nishimura's Southern Force and took part in the Battle of the Surigao Strait.

After coming under attack by nearly thirty aircraft from the USS Enterprise, during which both ships were damaged, they saw off a night-time attack by United States Navy PT Boats.

At 3.09am on 25th October 1944 the IJNS Fuso was hit by one or two torpedoes that were probably fired by the US destroyer USS Melvin. She immediately began to sink, and by 03.50 she had gone down, surrounded by a field of burning oil. Only ten of her crew survived.

At 3.52 the IJNS Yamashiro came under fire from Admiral Oldendorf's Task Group 77.2. She was repeatedly hit by 6-inch, 8-ich, 14-inch, and 16-inch shells during an engagement that lasted only eighteen minutes. She was set ablaze and suffered from one or more internal explosions. She was also hit by a torpedo that damaged her close to her starboard engine room. She then suffered a further four to six torpedo hits, and between 4.09am and 4.21sm she turned over sank. Like her sister, only ten of her crew survived.

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* Technically, the Kawachi-class battleships (IJNS Kawachi and IJNS Settsu) were the first dreadnought battleships designed and built in Japan, but their main armament was not uniform as they were armed with four 50-calibre 12-inch and eight 45-calibre 12-inch main guns in six turrets.

These turrets were arranged in a hexagonal layout, with a pair of 50-calibre 12-inch guns in fore and aft turrets and a pair of 45-calibre 12-inc guns in each of two turrets on both side of the ship.

A general arrangement drawing of the Kawachi-class battleships.

Interestingly, they were originally designed to have a uniform armament of twelve 45-calibre 12-inch guns, but when it was announced that the Royal Navy had introduced 50-calibre 12-inch guns into service, the Japanese Navy decided to do the same ... but were unable to afford to fit more that four per ship, hence the mixture of guns on these ships.

A purely nostalgic purchase

The Japanese battleship Fuso has a special place in my wargaming heart, and when I saw a 1:1200th-scale model made by Superior was on sale on eBay I just had to make a bid.

Amazingly, my bid won … and I am now the proud owner of the model.

So, why is the Fuso so important to me?

The answer is very simple. Whilst taking part in Eric Knowles’ famous Madasahatta Campaign, I commanded her during a battle with a force of German pre-dreadnoughts and cruisers … and my shooting was incredible. We were using a cut down version of Fletcher Pratt’s Naval War Game rules and my range estimation was phenomenal … and very deadly!

After the battle, I wrote a report about it in the campaign’s newspaper (THE BUNGLER) and I have reproduced it below.

FURIOUS FUSO!

by Our Correspondent

The Japanese Squadron, which is commanded by Vice Admiral Iama Quitageza, has already made its mark upon the course of the War in this area. The Squadron, which consists of the dreadnought battleship FUSO, the cruisers NISSHIN and SOYA, and two destroyers, was on its way to the Island when it intercepted the combined might of the German and Turkish Navies in this area.

The Enemy fleet consisted of the battleships KAISER FREDERICK III (which had only recently arrived in this area), HEIREDDIN BARBAROSSA, TORGUD REIS, and MUIN-I-ZAFFAR, the cruisers REGENSBERG and DRESDEN, the gunboat MUCHE, and the patrolship ILTIS, and is thought to have been commanded by the German Admiral Hans Off.

As soon as both sides came into view of one another both fleets opened fire, and the Japanese opening salvoes caused considerable damage. This can be seen by the examination of the gunnery log of the Japanese flagship FUSO –

'1st Salvo – Enemy cruiser (later known to be the REGENSBERG) disabled.

2nd Salvo – German battleship KAISER FREDERICK III sunk (it is thought that at least one of the FUSO's shells penetrated the armour on the aft 12-inch magazine and this caused the KAISER FREDERICK III to blow up).

3rd Salvo – Near hits on enemy cruiser.

4th Salvo – Further near hits on enemy units.

5th Salvo – Enemy cruiser (known to be the DRESDEN) sunk as a result of 9 simultaneous hits.

6th Salvo – MUIN-I-ZAFFAR hit and sunk by several direct hits from 14-inch shells.

7th Salvo – Turkish battleship HEIREDDIN BARBAROSSA badly damaged by several direct hits and near misses.

8th Salvo – HEIREDDIN BARBAROSSA sunk by further hits by 14-inch shells.

9th Salvo – TORGUD REIS explodes as a result of several direct hits from the guns of the FUSO, NISSHIN and SOYA.'

As can be seen from the above extract the Japanese shooting during the battle was excellent, and this is a result of the training the Japanese Navy has had at the hands of a British Naval Mission, and we remind our readers that many of the Japanese ships in service at the moment are either British built or designed.

During this battle I managed to hit and sink a modern enemy light cruiser and four pre-dreadnoughts of dubious and variable quality, and to damage a further enemy light cruiser. Not a bad result from nine salvos (i.e. 108 rounds) of 14-inch shells!

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The model of the Fuso is actually how she appeared after she was rebuilt during the 1930s, but owning a model of her was more important to me than not having one in my small collection of 1:1200th-scale model ships.

Third Portable Wargame Compendium: The final article has arrived

The final article for the next Portable Wargame Compendium has arrived and I spent yesterday adding it to the draft text. I will be sending off for proofreading later today and once any errors have been rectified, I start the publication process.,

The Third Compendium is going to include the following articles:

• Modifications to the Ancients rules in Developing the Portable Wargame for fighting medieval battles
• Constantinople Beleaguered ... a PW3x3RW campaign idea
• A simple English Civil War campaign system for Portable Pike and Shot
• Simple English Civil War 8 x 8 Campaign Rules
• Some suggested improvements to the Brigade-level Portable Napoleonic Wargame Rules
• Developing the Napoleonic Brigade-level Portable Wargame
• Ideas for developing the Portable Napoleonic Big Battle or FP3x3PW Rules
• Wargaming the Flagstaff War – New Zealand 1845 – 1846
• Towards a Portable Gettysburg
• Sham-Battle and the Portable Wargame: Melding two concepts to produce a set of mini-campaign rules
• Some well-known scenarios revisited
• Big Battles, Small Armies
• A simple framework for narrative campaigns
• 6 x 6 Portable Wargames

This looks as if it is going to be between 130 and 140 pages long ... and I hope that it will be published by the end of August.

War Plan Orange

The annual Conference of Wargamers (COW) took place last weekend, and I created a video for a session about the United States' War Plan Orange (i.e. its plan for a future war with Japan).

I have now uploaded it to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel and it can be seen here.

The Reina Victoria Eugenia/Republica/Navarra and HMS Adelaide: A tale of two similar light cruisers

Between 1909 and 1922 the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navies commissioned a total of twenty-one light cruisers that were grouped together at the Town-class. In fact, the group comprised five separate sub-classes, each of which was a development of the predecessor:

• Bristol-class (5 ships, all Royal Navy)
• Weymouth-class (4 ships, all Royal Navy)
• Chatham-class (6 ships, 3 Royal Navy and 3 Royal Australian Navy)
• Birmingham-class (4 ships, 3 Royal Navy and 1 Royal Australian Navy)
• Birkenhead-class (2 ships, originally built for the Greek Navy but taken over Royal Navy after the outbreak of World War I).

The ships saw a lot of active service during the war, but those that survived were retained in service after it. With the exception of HMAS Adelaide, they were scrapped between 1921 and 1936.

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In the run up to World War I, the Spanish Navy decided to have a new light cruiser built, and the design of the Town-class light cruisers formed the basis of the ship that was initially named Reina Victoria Eugenia. The choice of Town-class was hardly surprising as she was built by Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval in Ferrol, a company that was jointly owned by John Brown and Vickers-Armstrong, both of which built ships of the Town-class. Reina Victoria Eugenia was visually different in one significant way from the Town-class; thanks to her steam boilers being arranged three boiler rooms, she only had three funnels rather than the Town-class's four.

The Reina Victoria Eugenia (later Republica) as built.

Due to wartime shortages, the Reina Victoria Eugenia was not completed and commissioned until 1923, by which time she was already obsolete. After being commissioned, she served as the squadron flagship during the Rif War and was renamed Republica after the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931.

On completion, her characteristics were as follows:

• Displacement: 6,348 tons (full load)
• Dimensions:
• Length: 462ft (141m)
• Beam: 50ft (15m)
• Draught: 15ft 9in (4.80m)
• Propulsion:2 shafts, Parsons-type geared turbines, 12 Yarrow-type coal-fired boilers, 25,500 ihp
• Speed: 25.5 knots
• Range: 4,500 nautical miles at 15 knots
• Complement: 404
• Armament: 
• 9 × 152mm (6.0-inch) Vickers-Carraca guns in single mountings
• 4 × 47mm (1.9-inch) guns
• 4 × 21-inch (533mm) 2 x 2 torpedo tubes (deck mounted)
• Armour: Belt:3 - 2-inch; Deck: 3-inch deck; Conning tower: 6-inch

By 1936 Republica was in need of a major refit, and she was out of commission and in dock in Cadiz when the Spanish Civil War started. She was seized by the Nationalists, renamed Navarra, and reconstructed. This involved her having her old coal-fired boilers replaced by eight new oil-fired ones, a new tower bridge superstructure added, one funnel was removed, and six of her 6-inch guns were moved to the centre line, with three of her previous guns being removed). In addition, four German 88 mm AA guns were fitted and her torpedo tubes were removed.

After her refit, her armaments was as follows:

• 6 × 152 mm (6.0-inch) Vickers-Carraca guns in single mountings
• 4 × 88mm (3.5-inch) Flak 18 anti-aircraft guns
• 2 × 40mm (1.6-inch) 2-pounder pom-pom guns
• 4 x 20mm (0.8-inch) automatic Isotta Fraschini/Breda guns in twin mountings

The Navarra during her reconstruction.

The Navarra after her reconstruction.

A bow view of the Navarra after her reconstruction.

A stern view of the Navarra after her reconstruction.

The Navarra saw little active service during the latter stages of the Spanish Civil War, and after the war she was mainly used as a training ship. She was finally withdrawn from service and scrapped in 1956.

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HMAS Adelaide was the Royal Australian Navy's sole member of the Birmingham-class. She was laid down in 1915 at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard, but due to wartime shortages of skilled men and materials as well as design modifications that took into account the lessons learned during World War I, she was not completed until 1922.

HMAS Adelaide as completed.

HMAS Adelaide as completed.

On completion her characteristics were as follows:

• Displacement: 5,560 tons (full load)
• Dimensions:
• Length: 455ft (138.8m)
• Beam: 49ft (14.9m)
• Draught: 19ft (5.70m)
• Propulsion:2 shafts, Parsons geared turbines, 12 mixed oil and coal-fired boilers, 25,000 ihp
• Speed: 25 knots
• Complement: 483
• Armament:
• 9 × 152mm (6.0-inch) guns in single mountings
• 1 x 76mm (3-inch) anti-aircraft gun
• 4 × 47mm (1.9-inch) 3-pounder saluting guns
• 10 x machine guns
• 2 × 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)
• 2 x depth charge chutes
• Armour: Belt:3-inch

HMAS Adelaide had an active career for the time of her first commissioning until she was placed in reserve in 1928. She was brought forward for refitting and modernisation in 1938. This involved her having two boilers and a funnel removed, her remaining boilers converted to oil-firing only, and the removal of one 6-inch gun, her 3-inch anti-aircraft gun, and her torpedo tubes. Three 4-icnh anti-aircraft guns were added to her armament. She was laid up in 1939 and her crew was sent to the UK to take over HMAS Perth.

HMAS Adelaide after her major refit.

HMAS Adelaide after her final refit.

Just before World War II broke out, HMAS Adelaide was recommissioned. She was used mainly for convoy escort and protection duties, initially in Australian waters and later in the Indian Ocean. She was refitted in Sydney between May and July 1942 and her anti-aircraft armament was enhanced by the addition of six 20mm Oerlikon guns. A further refit took place between June and September 1943, during which a further 6-inch gun and a 4-inch anti-aircraft gun were removed and four depth change throwers were installed.

HMAS Adelaide was initially decommissioned in February 1945 and then recommissioned in May that year as a tender to HMAS Penguin. She was finally decommissioned in May 1946 and sold for scrapping in January 1949.

A Portable Wargame mini-campaign game board: A YouTube video

One of the best wargame purchases I have ever made was to buy Hexon II hexagonal terrain boards. I bought enough to easily cover my extended wargame table. (It is actually two IKEA extending tables. When they are not extended, each is 3' x 2' (90mm x 60mm), so normally I can use an area that is 3' x 4' (90mm x 120mm), but when they are both extended, I have a tabletop that is either 3' x 8' (90mm x 240mm) or 6' x 4' (180mm x 120mm).)

When space in my toy/wargame room became tight and it was difficult to extend my tables (can a wargamer ever have enough storage space?), I looked around for some way that I could wargame on a much smaller terrain board but still use my Hexon II terrain board. In the end, I opted to buy a 3' x 2' (90mm x 60mm) magnetic white board which – after a small amount of modification – could accommodate a 6 x 8 hex grid of Hexon II terrain boards.

Since then I have used it to fight all sorts of wargames, most of which were part of mini-campaigns. As I have found this so useful, I decided to create a short YouTube video to share its usefulness with my fellow Portable Wargamers and YouTube followers.

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

Book sales

It's a very long time since I bothered to look at my total book sales, but just before I added the latest one (A GALLIMAUFRY OF COLONIAL WARGAMES) to the list published by Eglinton Books, I did so. The results are shown below:

Click on the image to enlarge it.

I must admit that I was very surprised to see just how many books had been sold since I started out on my second career as a writer and self-publisher in September 2014. So, in slightly less than ten years I have written and/or published nineteen wargaming or wargame-related books. That averages out at about one every six months, which I think isn't too bad an output for such a niche area of self-publishing.

COW2024

The annual Conference of Wargamers (COW) will be taking place over the next three days, and I should have been going to it. However, my ongoing medical problems made this impossible and for only the third time since it began in 1980 (forty-four years ago!), I will be missing the conference.

I had planned to help another member of Wargame Developments to present a session about the United States' War Plan Orange (i.e. its plan for a future war with Japan) and I produced a PowerPoint presentation to that end. As I will not be going to the conference, I have converted this presentation into a video and will be uploading it to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel in due course.

Two hundred YouTube channel subscribers!

Yesterday the Wargaming Miscellany channel on YouTube reached a milestone that I never expected to achieve ... the number of subscribers passed two hundred!

I only set up the channel on 17th May, and never expected to achieve more than a dozen or so subscribers. To reach two hundred is absolutely gob smacking and a real surprise ... and it will encourage me to carry on making my videos.

Thanks to all my regular blog readers who have also subscribed to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel, and to those of you who haven't yet paid it a visit or thought about subscribing, please do so.

A Gallimaufry of Colonial Wargames

Some time ago I published a collection of my older colonial wargame rules in PDF format with Wargame Vault. The collection was entitled A GALLIMAUFRY OF COLONIAL WARGAMES and it sold moderately well.

Since then I've had several requests for printed and bound copies of the rules and as a result, I have now published the book in hardback, softback, and Kindle editions, priced at £17.50, £10.00, and £5.00 respectively.

Included in the book are the following rules:

• Bundock and Bayonet Colonial Wargames Rules
• Part 1: The Basic Rules
• Part 2: The Additional and Optional Rules
• ‘Eres to you Fuzzy Wuzzy: Fighting Colonial battles in the Sudan
• Hordes of Dervishes
• Heroes of Victoria’s Empire (HoVE)
• Colonial Rules for Heroscape™ terrain
• Restless Natives
• Redcoats & Dervishes
• SCWaRes: Simple Colonial Wargame Rules
• Appendix 1: Heroic Leadership Cards for Heroes of Victoria’s Empire (HoVE)
• Appendix 2: Special Event Cards for Restless Natives
• Appendix 3: Heroic Leadership Cards for Restless Natives

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Note 1: A gallimaufry is defined as being ‘a confused jumble or medley of things’, hence the title of this book.

Note 2: Please note that some of the rule mechanisms and scenarios contained in this book have been reused in my later books, but they are included for completeness.

Note 3: I originally intended to publish this book in February 2024 ... but then I broke my leg and its publication was shelved (i.e I forgot about it!).

Increases in price

Very recently I became aware that some of the books that I publish via Lulu.com were costing more to print and distribute (and give Lulu.com a profit!) than the sale price. The books affected are:

• When Empires Clash! (Hardback and paperback editions)
• Hexblitz (Hardback and paperback editions)
• The Portable Wargame (Hardback edition)
• The Portable Colonial Wargame (Paperback edition)
• Developing the Portable Wargame (Hardback edition)
• The Portable Napoleonic Wargame (Hardback edition)
• Gridded Naval Wargames (Hardback and paperback editions)
• La Ultima Cruzada (Hardback and paperback editions)

As a result, these books seemed to be difficult to get hold of and needed to be what Lulu.com term 'revised'.

I have therefore had to increase the price of the books so that the sale price covers the cost of printing etc. I was very reluctant to do this, but I cannot see any alternative.

Another YouTube video: The essentials of the Portable Wargame

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

It is entitled THE ESSENTIALS OF THE PORTABLE WARGAME, lasts just over twenty minutes, and outlines the design philosophy I employed when I created these rules as well as the basic game mechanisms I used. Like my previous video, it is intended as an introduction to the rules.

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

The Third Portable Wargame Compendium: An update

Work has been continuing on the next Portable Wargame Compendium. I am awaiting two more articles (another about the Napoleonic Wars and one about re-fighting the Battle of Gettysburg), and once those have arrived, been added to the existing draft, and proofread, I will be beginning the publication process.

The Third Compendium currently includes the following articles:

• Modifications to the Ancients rules in Developing the Portable Wargame for fighting medieval battles
• Constantinople Beleaguered ... a PW3x3RW campaign idea
• A simple English Civil War campaign system for Portable Pike and Shot
• Simple English Civil War 8 x 8 Campaign Rules
• Some suggested improvements to the Brigade-level Portable Napoleonic Wargame Rules
• Ideas for developing the Portable Napoleonic Big Battle or FP3x3PW Rules
• Wargaming the Flagstaff War – New Zealand 1845 – 1846
• Sham-Battle and the Portable Wargame: Melding two concepts to produce a set of mini-campaign rules
• Some well-known scenarios revisited
• Big Battles, Small Armies
• A simple framework for narrative campaigns
• 6 x 6 Portable Wargames

This looks as if it is going to be the biggest compendium to date ... and I hope to publish it by the end of August.

The Guns of Toblerone

On Tuesday afternoon I watched THE GUNS OF NAVARONE on the Film 4 channel ... and it reminded me that ten years ago I took part in one of the most memorable wargames I have ever participated in.

Ian Drury's THE GUNS OF TOBLERONE was a role-playing game ... and the players threw themselves into the game with great gusto. The result was more Hollywood than reality ... but it was tremendous fun!

My role was a member of a special SOE (Special Operations Executive) team that was tasked with destroying a pair of heavy guns on the German-occupied island of Toblerone. The following photographs give a flavour of the game.

Ian Drury sets out the terrain.

The intrepid SOE team prepare to 'take off' in their 'borrowed' JU-52 ... humming the tune from 'Where Eagles Dare'! Trebian (near right) seems half asleep, Martin Rapier (near left) looks apprehensive, He was right to be as he the only Greek-speaker in the team ... but he was an academic who only spoke and read Ancient Greek! Tim Gow (in the green shirt) laughs in the face of danger ... and I am sat behind Tim with my arms crossed!

Gavascone, the main town and seaport of Toblerone.

The main objective: the Guns of Toblerone.

Another part of the objective: the Eagles Nest, headquarters of the German garrison on Toblerone.

The olive groves ... where dirty deeds might (or might not) have taken place!

The centre of Aghias Nikolaos, one of the main towns on Toblerone. Stavros' Bar was the rendezvous point for the SOE team to meet the leader of the local resistance group.

The bridge, over which the survivors made their escape. I seem to remember that a motorcycle was crashed during the process ... but I may be wrong.

The airfield ... where a JU-52 might just be waiting to land in order to pick up any survivors.

Trebian making a point to Martin Rapier ... but I cannot remember what it was.

As to our success ... well, my memory is that we achieved our objective, but that the cost was high.