Did I get it right seventeen years ago? Or are my Mid-twentieth Century Portable Wargame rules better?

I began blogging on 18th September 2008 ... almost seventeen years ago.

My second blog post on this blog was about the recent republication of Donald Featherstone's WAR GAMES book by John Curry's 'History of Wargaming' Project and it inspired me to incorporate ideas and mechanisms from both Donald Featherstone’s and Lionel Tarr’s rules into my existing World War II rules, RED FLAGS AND IRON CROSSES. The resulting rules were named RED FLAGS AND IRON CROSSES – TARRED AND FEATHERSTONED, and John Curry incorporated them into the 'History of Wargaming' Project reprint of Donald Featherstone's WARGAMING AIRBORNE OPERATIONS. (The rules were slighty renamed TARRED AND FEATHERED at Donald Featherstone's request.

During my recent review of the wargaming rules that have influenced my World War II wargaming, I revisited RED FLAGS AND IRON CROSSES and RED FLAGS AND IRON CROSSES – TARRED AND FEATHERSTONED ... and then the battle reports I wrote about my playtests.

On reflection, this is the sort of wargame that I envisaged fighting using my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection when I began this blog ... so I suppose that I might have got things right seventeen years ago ... and just 'forgotten' that I had!

On the other hand, the battles I fought using my mid-twentieth-century version of the PORTABLE WARGAME were also great fun, and perhaps the rules are better designed. I’m not sure … but I hope to have fun thinking about (and possibly experimenting with) which of these two to choose for my future Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War wargaming.