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Monday 30 September 2024

The Conference of Wargamers (COW) 2025

Next year's Conference of Wargamers (COW) will be held at Missenden Abbey from late afternoon on the 11th July 20205 until mid-afternoon on Sunday 13th July.

Bookings are now open, BUT ARE RESTRICTED TO CURRENT MEMBERS OF WARGAME DEVELOPMENTS FOR THE NEXT 30 DAYS, after which non-members will be welcome to book. No bookings will be taken after 25th March 2025, and this is also the deadline for the full payment of the attendance fee.

The cost is £360.00 for full residential* attendees and £210.00 for non-residential# attendees, and includes membership of Wargame Developments for the 2025-2026 subscription year. This runs from August to August.

A deposit of £100.00 is required to secure a place at the conference, and this can be paid by bank transfer, cheque, or PayPal. The full details can be found on the Wargame Developments website.

Parking onsite is free but all cars MUST be registered at Reception upon arrival at Missenden Abbey. Failure to do so could result in a financial penalty being imposed.


* Those attending on a full residential basis will be allocated an en suite study bedroom and will have a meal on Friday evening, breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as tea and coffee on Saturday, and breakfast, lunch, tea, and coffee on Sunday.

# Those attending on a non-residential basis will have a meal on Friday evening, breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as tea and coffee on Saturday, and breakfast, lunch, tea, and coffee on Sunday.

Sunday 29 September 2024

Is HMDS Tordenskjold the real HMS Thunder Child?

One of the most memorable moments in H G Wells’ book WAR OF THE WORLDS is when the HMS Thunder Child defends a ship that is leaving England for the European mainland from an attack by several Martian tripods. In the book she is described as a ‘ram’ … but at the time the Royal Navy only had a single ship of that type in service. It was HMS Polyphemus and she had been built in 1881.

In the book – which was published in full in 1898 – H G Wells writes the following:

About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad, very low in the water, almost ... like a water-logged ship. … It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child ...

This certainly resembles a description of HMS Polyphemus …

HMS Polyphemus.
A plan view of HMS Polyphemus.
HMS Polyphemus in action during an exercise, breaking through a defence boom at Bantry Bay.

… but the ship actually destroys a tripod with its gun … and the Polyphemus's largest gun was a 1-inch multi-barrelled, quick-firing Nordenfelt gun which would have done very little damage to a tripod.

A 1-inch Nordenfelt multi-barrelled, quick-firing gun.

However, there was a torpedo ram in existence at the time that does resemble the description, the Danish warship HMDS Tordenskjold (which translates as Thunder Shield).

A model of HMDS Tordenskjold.
A plan view of HMDS Tordenskjold.
A port side view of HMDS Tordenskjold.
A starboard side view of HMDS Tordenskjold.
A starboard side view of HMDS Tordenskjold.

She was armed with a 14-inch gun, four 4.7-inch guns, four 37mm/1.5-inch quick-firing, multi-barrel, revolving Hotchkiss guns, a 15-inch torpedo tube in the bow, and three 13.8-inch torpedo tubes. The Tordenskjold was built between 1879 and 1882 and withdrawn from service and scrapped in 1908.


The Tordenskjold's main gun was a Krupp-manufactured 35.5cm Mantel Ring Kanone L/25. It was one of seven built for Denmark, the other six being used to arm coastal defence fortresses at Copenhagen.

A 35.5cm Mantel Ring Kanone L/25 on a test mounting at Krupp's artillery range at Meppen.

The gun's characteristics were as follows:

  • Barrel calibre: 35.5cm (14-inch)
  • Barrel length: 8.88m (34ft 11.5inches)
  • Bore length: 7.77m (30ft 0.5inches)
  • Barrel weight: 52,000kg (51.17tons)
  • Breech: Horizontal sliding wedge
  • Muzzle velocity: 496m/sec (1,627 ft/sec)
  • Shells:
    • 525kg (1157lbs) (containing a 12.6kg (27.7lbs) explosive charge)
    • 525kg (1157lbs) (containing a 6kg (13.2lbs) explosive charge)
    • 444kg (979lbs) (containing a 23.4kg (51.6lbs) explosive charge)

It is interesting to note that the Royal Navy's nearest equivalent gun to the 35.5cm Mantel Ring Kanone L/25 was the Breech Loading (BL) 13.5-inch Mk I L/30 naval gun (AKA 'the 67-ton gun'). It and the following (and similar) BL 13.5-inch Mk II, III, and IV guns were used to arm four of the Admiral-class battleships, the two Trafalgar-class battleships, and the eight Royal Sovereign-class battleships. A single Mk III gun was also mounted on a disappearing carriage and emplaced as a coast defence gun at Penlee Battery, Plymouth.

The gun was also sold to the Italians and used to arm the three Re Umberto-class battleships.


A slightly edited version of the battle between the Thunder Child and the Martians follows:

Big iron upperworks rose out of this headlong structure, and from that twin funnels projected and spat a smoking blast shot with fire. It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping.

The Thunder Child fired no gun, but simply drove full speed towards them. It was probably her not firing that enabled her to get so near the enemy as she did. They did not know what to make of her. One shell, and they would have sent her to the bottom forthwith with the Heat-Ray.

She was steaming at such a pace that in a minute she seemed halfway between the steamboat and the Martians – a diminishing black bulk against the receding horizontal expanse of the Essex coast. 

Suddenly the foremost Martian lowered his tube and discharged a canister of the black gas at the ironclad. It hit her larboard side and glanced off in an inky jet that rolled away to seaward, an unfolding torrent of Black Smoke, from which the ironclad drove clear. To the watchers from the steamer, low in the water and with the sun in their eyes, it seemed as though she were already among the Martians.

A flicker of flame went up through the rising steam, and then the Martian reeled and staggered. In another moment he was cut down, and a great body of water and steam shot high in the air. The guns of the Thunder Child sounded through the reek, going off one after the other, and one shot splashed the water high close by the steamer, ricocheted towards the other flying ships to the north, and smashed a smack to matchwood.

She was alive still; the steering gear, it seems, was intact and her engines working. She headed straight for a second Martian, and was within a hundred yards of him when the Heat-Ray came to bear. Then with a violent thud, a blinding flash, her decks, her funnels, leaped upward. The Martian staggered with the violence of her explosion, and in another moment the flaming wreckage, still driving forward with the impetus of its pace, had struck him and crumpled him up like a thing of cardboard.

Saturday 28 September 2024

Nugget 365

The latest issue of THE NUGGET has been collected from the printer (Macaulay Scott Printing Company of Welling, Kent) and is currently being put in stamped and addressed envelopes so that it can be posted out to members.

I have sent the PDF copy to the webmaster and members should soon be able to read this issue of THE NUGGET online in the very near future.


IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the second issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2024-2025 subscription year.

If you wish to subscribe for the 2024-2025 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.

Friday 27 September 2024

A revised YouTube video: Batterie Lothringen, Noirmont Point, Jersey

I have just uploaded a revised version of my YouTube video about Batterie Lothringen to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel.

It is entitled BATTERIE LOTHRINGEN, lasts just over ten minutes, and tells the story of one of the German World War II coastal defence batteries built on Jersey in the Channel Islands.

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

Thursday 26 September 2024

What if the battleship Dante Aligiheri had not been scrapped and had been reconstructed instead?

After my recent blog post about the San Giorgio-class cruisers and the battleship Dante Aligiheri, I began wondering what might have happened if the latter had not been scrapped and had been reconstructed by the Italian Navy.

When the Italians decided to reconstruct and modernise the Conte di Cavour-class battleships (which were only a couple of years newer than the Dante Aligiheri), they:

  • Added a new bow section.
  • Removed two of the four propeller shafts.
  • Replaced the existing Parsons turbines (rated at 32,800shp) with Belluzzo geared steam turbines rated at 75,000 shp.
  • Replaced the original twenty water-tube boilers with eight Yarrow boilers.
  • Bored out the existing 12-inch guns so that they were now 12.6-inch calibre.
  • Removed all the existing secondary guns and replaced them with twelve 4.7-inch guns in six twin-gun turrets, eight 4-inch anti-aircraft guns in twin turrets, and twelve Breda 37mm light anti-aircraft guns in six twin-gun mountings.
  • The existing armour was increased and the underwater protection was replaced by the Pugliese system that comprised of a large cylinder (usually surrounded by fuel oil or water) that was intended to absorb any blast from an exploding torpedo warhead.
  • The existing superstructure was also removed and replaced with one that incorporated a fire tower atop a completely remodelled bridge and new streamline funnels with caps.

If a similar reconstruction had been applied to the Dante Aligiheri, she may have ended up looking something like this:

My version of the reconstructed Dante Aligiheri would have had a new bow, new boilers and engines, improved protection (both armour and underwater protection), new bridgework, new funnels, and an armament of twelve 12.6-inch guns (with increased elevation) in four triple turrets, eight 4.7-inch guns in four twin turrets, and thirty-six Breda 37mm light anti-aircraft guns in eighteen twin mountings. I would also have expected her top speed to have increased from 22 knots to 25 knots due to her increased engine power.

As reconstructed, this 'new' ship would have been a useful addition to the Italian Navy, especially if she had been deployed to protect the Italian colony in Somaliland. From there, she could have ranged far and wide across the Indian Ocean, and in time of war she could have threatened any enemy nation's trade to south Asia and the Far East. She could have beaten off any likely opponent's cruisers with relative ease and would have required the deployment of at least one aircraft carrier and two or three battleships to hunt her down.

Wednesday 25 September 2024

A new YouTube video: Batterie Lothringen, Noirmont Point, Jersey

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

It is entitled BATTERIE LOTHRINGEN, lasts just under ten minutes, and tells the story of one of the German World War II coastal defence batteries built on Jersey in the Channel Islands.

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


PS. Since I uploaded this video I have noticed a couple of errors (e.g. Batterie Lotheringen being referred to as Batterie Moltke on a couple of slides, some missing background music etc.). I hope to upload a corrected video at some point.

Tuesday 24 September 2024

Hare & Hounds: Maudlin Jack Tar's suggestions

One of my regular blog readers is Maudlin Jack Tar*, and he recently sent me some ideas that he has had for the development of the Hare & Hounds board for use as a mini-campaign aid.

His design for the board looked like this:

Please click on the image to enlarge it.

He pre-set the terrain for each large square using the following method:

  • Roll 2D10 dice, one for woods and one for hills for each Large square.
  • The score indicates which small square is populated (e.g. D10 die roll score for woods = 3; D10 die roll score for hills = 7).

The D10 die roll score determines which type of terrain goes in each small square. For example, Woods = 3 and Hills = 7 would produce the following terrain:

  • If both dice roll the same number no scenery is placed.
  • If the die roll is a 10, no scenery of that type is placed.
  • If there is a town in the centre of the large square and a 5 is rolled, no scenery of that type is placed.

He has also produced a set of campaign rules to go with his version of the Hare & Hounds board, and I understand that he intends to use them with a forthcoming Ancient mini-campaign.

Frankly, his thinking is already way ahead of my own as far as terrain generation is concerned, and I will be using Maudlin Jack Tar's version as a starting point for my own development of the Hare & Hounds board.


* Maudlin Jack Tar's blog is entitled PROJECTS AND PROCRASTINATION and I cannot recommend it too highly.

Monday 23 September 2024

Nugget 365

On Saturday the editor of THE NUGGET sent me the original of the latest issue. I sent it to the printer (Macauley Scott Printing Company, Welling, Kent) on Sunday and I hope that I will be able to arrange for it to be collected later this week. I will then post it out to members of Wargame Developments as soon afterwards as I am able to.


IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the second issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2024-2025 subscription year.

If you wish to subscribe for the 2024-2025 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.

Saturday 21 September 2024

Something built

Back in August I bought a Faller kit to assemble. It has the code number B-924 and is named 'Old-town block'. The box looks like this:

The model contained sufficient parts to build several buildings ...

... but being the sort of modeller that I am, I 'mixed and matched' bits from several of the buildings (and some embossed plastic sheets from Wills Kits*) and ended up with a total of eleven buildings and a section of town wall. The end results looked like this:

I still have some bits and pieces left over, and intend to put them to one side in the hope that I can use them if and when I buy another Faller (or similar) kit.


* I bought the following embossed plastic card from Wills Kits:

  • Wood Planking

  • Plain Tiles

  • Fancy Tiles

Friday 20 September 2024

A new YouTube video: Batterie Moltke, Les Landes, Jersey

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

It is entitled BATTERIE MOLTKE, lasts just over nine minutes, and tells the story of one of the German World War II coastal defence batteries built on Jersey in the Channel Islands.

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

Thursday 19 September 2024

The San Giorgio-class cruisers and the battleship Dante Aligiheri

Between 1905 and 1911 the Italian Navy built two San Giorgio-class armoured cruisers. They were named the San Giorgio and the San Marco, and both were active during the Italo-Turkish War and First World War. By the end of the latter, both ships were nearing obsolescence as the armoured cruiser had been replaced in most of the larger navies by battlecruisers.

San Marco in 1910.
San Marco in 1910.

Both ships were well-armed, having a main armament of four 10-inch guns in twin turrets, supplemented by eight 7.5-inch guns in twin turrets arranged in two turrets on each beam amidships, and eighteen single 3-inch guns mounted in five casemates along each side and eight on the superstructure.

The San Marco spent part of 1924 sailing to and from South America with Crown Prince Umberto aboard, after which she supported operations in Italian Somaliland in 1925 and 1926. From 1931 to 1935 the ship was disarmed and converted into a radio-controlled target ship, and she was still acting in this role when she was seized by the German in 1943. She sank in the harbour of La Spezia when the war ended, and by 1949 she had been raised and scrapped.

After the First World War, the San Giorgio served in the Far East. By 1930 she had returned to Italy and was being used as a training ship. In 1936 she was deployed to protect Italian interests in Spain during the early stages of the Civil War, but in 1937 she was reconstructed at La Spezia so that she could serve as a training ship for naval cadets. The reconstruction saw her boilers reduced in number and converted to oil firing, her two pairs of funnels trunked together, and her 3-inch guns were removed and replaced by four (later five) twin-mounted 4-inch guns. This armament was latter supplemented by a number of light anti-aircraft guns (six Breda 37mm (1.5-inch) 54-cal. guns, a dozen 20mm (0.79-inch) Breda Model 35 autocannon and four 13.2mm (0.52-inch) Breda Model 31 machine guns in twin mountings.

San Giorgio after her reconstruction.
San Giorgio after her reconstruction.

In May 1940 San Giorgio was sent to Tobruk to act as a floating anti-aircraft battery. It was at this point that the additional twin 4-inch guns were mounted on the ship's forecastle and her light anti-aircraft gun armament was increased by five more twin 13.2mm (0.52-inch) machine gun mountings. San Giorgio was scuttled in Tobruk harbour on 22nd January 1941. Her wreck was raised in 1952, but sank whilst under tow back to Italy.

The Dante Aligiheri* was the first dreadnought battleship built for the Italian Navy. She was designed by Rear Admiral Engineer Edoardo Masdea (the Chief Constructor of the Italian Navy) who based her design on the ideas proposed by General Vittorio Cuniberti. She was built by Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia (near Naples) and her construction took from June 1909 until January 1913.

Dante Aligiheri in 1913.
Dante Algliheri in 1914.

Her main armament comprised twelve 12-inch guns mounted in four triple turrets, all of which were along the ships centreline. These were supplemented by twenty 4.7-inch guns which were mounted in four twin turrets and twelve single casemated mountings, and thirteen single 3-inch guns, most of which were mounted on the tops of the main turrets.

Dante Aligiheri in 1920.

She served mainly in the Adriatic and Ionian Sea during the First World War, and after the war she remained in service until she was stricken as a cost-cutting exercise in July 1928.


* She was named after the fourteenth century Italian poet Dante Aligiheri. He is usually known in the English-speaking world just as Dante and is famous for being the author of the 'Divine Comedy' (Divina Commedia) as well as numerous other major works. I understand that this battleship is the only one to have ever been named after a poet.