A visit to our storage unit yields a lot of useful surprises (3)

The contents of the third REALLY USEFUL BOX I brought home from the storage unit included:

Minifig American World War I infantry figures painted by Nick Huband.

Four Arab warbands and five Arab gunners. The figures were manufactured by Essex Miniatures and were painted for a currently-defunct Colonial imagi-nation project .

The senior commanders of the Marzibarian armed forces and two units of the Sultan of Marizibar's Guard.. These are all Essex Miniatures figures.

Two units of the Marzibarian Zouaves and some members of the Marzibarain Artillery and Navy. These are all Essex Miniatures figures

I started work on the nineteenth century colonial imagi-nations project that involved British Dammallia, German Mankanika, and the Sultanate of Marzibar over ten years ago, but over time it got relegated to storage ... which – on reflection – might have been a rather silly decision.

A visit to our storage unit yields a lot of useful surprises (2)

The contents of the second REALLY USEFUL BOX I brought home from the storage unit included:

Four scratch-built coastal defence guns and three scratch-built Vickers Six-ton tanks. The latter were built using the hulls of Airfix Universal Carriers.

Three Minifig American Civil War gunners (painted up as Confederates), two Peter Laing Miniatures cannons, and ten painted Peter Laing Miniatures World War I figures (nine infantry and a Vickers machine gun and crewman.

A whole gun park of Peter Laing Miniatures World War I artillery pieces! Six German and nine Russian field guns.

More Peter Laing Miniatures artillery pieces ... and two Essex Miniatures guns, a field gun and a Gatling machine gun.

Eight Peter Laing Miniatures artillery limbers.

Thirty-one painted Peter Laing Miniatures draught horses!

Lots of stuff that I can use with my Belle Époque project!

A visit to our storage unit yields a lot of useful surprises (1)

In the run up to Christmas, Sue and I paid a visit to our storage unit to collect some bits and pieces we thought that we might need.

Whilst we were there, I found several REALLY USEFUL BOXES full of 15mm figures and equipment and brought them home. The contents of the first box included:

The original toy soldiers used to develop the first version of the Portable Wargame rules. They were originally painted and based for the Wargame Development's participation Matrix Game, SAVE GORDON!

Peter Pig World War II British infantry. These were painted and based by Nick Huband for use in a Wargame Development participation game.

Painted Egyptian/Sudanese troops.

The Battle of Scrobbesburh: The rules

In the recent wargame I fought with Richard Watson, I used a set of rules that were heavily based on Donald Featherstone's Ancient rules.

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FEATHERSTONE-STYLE VIKING & ANGLO-SAXON WARGAME RULES

1. SCALES AND UNITS

•  Ground scale: 1" = 20 yards.
• Time scale: 1 turn = 5 to10 minutes.
• Units:
• Huscarls: 12 to 16 figures.
• Fyrd/Bondi: 16 to 20 figures.
• Archers: 8 to12 figures.
• Skirmishers: 6 to 8 figures.

2. TURN SEQUENCE

1. Movement.
2. Missile Fire.
3. Melee (Both sides take part).
4. Morale.
5. Repeat for other side.

3. MOVEMENT

•  Armoured Infantry: 4”.
• Shieldwall Infantry: 3" (Cannot charge).
• Unarmoured Infantry: 6".
• Archers/Skirmishers: 8".
• Cavalry: 10".
• Routing units: 10”.
• Charge: +2” (Must roll 3 or more on a D6).

4. MISSILE FIRE

• 1D6 per 2 firing figures.
• Archery Short Range (6”): Score of 5 or 6 hits.
• Archery Long Range (12”): Score of 6 hits.
• Spear (3”): Score of 6 hits.
• -1 against shieldwall.
• 1 hit removes 1 figure.

5. MELEE

• 1D6 per 3 figures.
• Modifiers:
• +2 Huscarls.
• +1 Shieldwall (in defence).
• +1 Charge.
• +1 Uphill.
• +2 Flank/Rear.
• -1 Disordered.
• Score of 5 or 6 hits.
• Every 2 hits = 1 casualty.
• Loser tests morale.

6. SHIELDWALL RULES

• Movement: 3".
• +1 defence.
• Missile fire against it: -1.
• Breaks if flanked, loses melee, or takes 25% casualties.

7. MORALE

• Test when losing melee, taking losses, or seeing routs.
• Rolls 2D6 + modifiers:
• +2 Huscarls.
• +1 Leader within 6”.
• +1 In shieldwall.
• -1 Fyrd.
• -1 At half strength.
• Results:
• Score is 10+: No effect.
• Score is 7 to 9: Unit cannot move next turn.
• Score is 6 or less: Unit routs and leaves the battlefield at 10” per turn.
• Rallying: Leader must join the unit and rolls 2D6.
• Results:
• Score is 8 or more: Unit rallies but cannot move next turn.
• Score is 7 or less: Unit cannot be rallied and continues to rout.

8. LEADERS

• +1 morale within 6"
• +1 melee if attached.
• Risk if unit loses melee by 3 hits. Rolls a D6:
• Results:
• Score is 1: Slain.
• Score is 2: Wounded and loses all bonuses.
• Score is 3 or more: Unharmed.

9. TERRAIN

• Woods: most troops disordered.
• Rough: -2" movement; no shieldwall can enter.
• Hills: +1 to defenders.

10. OPTIONAL RULES

• Berserkers:
• Move 8".
• +2 melee on first round.
• Rout if they lose melee.
• Fyrd:
• Morale –1.
• Need leader to charge.

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It is worth noting that the battle was fought on a pair of Chessex Megamat 1" reversible blue-green squares vinyl mats. These measured 34½" x 48" and we set them up side-by-side, giving us a tabletop that was just under 6' x 4'. Using a grid meant that we didn't have to measure any distances during the game, which considerably speeded up play.

Nine million hits!

9,000,000 hits!

This blog's hit counter hit eight million back in early October this year, having reached seven million in July. The sudden increase between July and October seems to have been due to web bots as other wargame bloggers also noticed this phenomenon affecting their hit counters. I was therefore surprised to see that my blog's hit counter has just passed nine million hits!

When I started blogging back in 2008, I never expected to reach more than a few thousand hits ... but it appears that my random thoughts have found an audience, and it is that audience - my regular blog readers - that I want to say a big THANK YOU to. Without your interest and comments, I doubt that I would ever have continued to blog after the first month or so.

Here's to reaching ten million hits!

The Battle of Scrobbesburh: Some more photographs

My opponent in my recent wargame – Richard Watson – also took some photographs and has shared them with me.

The Anglo-Saxons.

The Vikings.

The Viking skirmishers seize the hill.

The Anglo-Saxons archers capture the hill from the Viking skirmishers.

The Anglo-Saxon shieldwall is attacked by the Vikings.

The Anglo-Saxon right wing falls back.

The Anglo-Saxon shieldwall turns to counter a Viking attempt to outflank it.

The end of the battle ... and the Anglo-Saxons are the victors!

Please note that all the photographs featured above are © Richard Watson.

The Barnegat-class small seaplane tenders

I recently featured a photograph of a 1/1200th-scale model of a Barnegat-class small seaplane tender. It spurred me to do some research into the class ... and it turned out to be an interesting task.

The US Navy originally ordered forty-one Barnegat-class ships and thirty-five of them were built. Of these, thirty were completed as small seaplane tenders, four were used as motor torpedo boat/patrol torpedo boat tenders, and one was fitted with a catapult and used as a catapult training ship.

USS Casco (AVP-12).

After the end of World War II they were surplus to the US Navy’s requirements, but as they had been constructed to a high standard, they had a lot of potential life remaining. As a result, after they had been decommissioned, they were repurposed. Eighteen became US Coastguard cutters (the Casco-class), others became survey ships, and three were sold into Greek merchant service where they became passenger vessels. By the time the last of the class was decommissioned in 1993, ships of the class had served in the navies of the United States, Ethiopia, Greece, Italy, Norway, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

USCGC Bering Strait (WAVP-382).

The class’s characteristics were:

• Displacement: 2,040 tons standard/2,551 tons full load
• Dimensions:
• Length:  310ft 9in (94.72m)
• Beam: 41ft 1in (12.52m)
• Draught: 12ft 5in (3.78m)
• Propulsion:  2 x diesel engines (6,000 to 6,080 hp) driving two propellers
• Speed: 20 knots
• Range 6,000 nautical miles at 12 knots
• Complement: 215 (ship's company); 367 (including aviation unit); 138 (Coastguard personnel)
• Armament:
• As designed: 2 × 5-inch (127mm) (2 x 1) guns
• Assigned in 1942; 4 × 5-inch (127mm) (4 x 1) guns; 8 × 20mm (8 x 1) anti-aircraft guns; 2 × depth charge racks
• By 1944: Either 2 × 5-inch (127mm) (2 x 1) guns; 4 × 20 (4 x 1) mm anti-aircraft guns or 1 × 5-inch (127mm) gun; 8 × 40mm (1 x 4 & 2 x 2 ) anti-aircraft guns; 6 × 20mm (6 x 1) anti-aircraft guns
• As a Coastguard cutter: 1 × 5-inch (127mm) gun; 1 x Mk.10 (Hedgehog) anti-submarine projector

Constructing even more model buildings

I have continued to build more HO/15mm-scale Faller model buildings ... and they look like this:

The next step is to fix the buildings to MDF bases ... and then I can begin painting them.

The Battle of Scrobbesburh

Last Wesdnesday my usual game at Dice on the Hill was cancelled and I was therefore able to fight a 'proper' wargame with Richard Warson, who is usually the duty manager at Shrewsbury House on Wednesday evenings.

Richard has a large collection of 28mm Anglo-Saxon and Viking figures and so we chose to fight a wargame using them. He provided the figures and the terrain and I provided the rules ... which were heavily based on the Ancient rules in Donald Featherstone's book WAR GAMES.

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The Battle of Scrobbesburh

The local Anglo-Saxons thane had revived news that a large band of Vikings had landed nearby and so he gathered together the troops available to him and set off to intercepts the invaders. His force included his own household troops, two bands of local militia or Fyrd, a small group of archers, and an even smaller group of lightly armed skirmishers.

The Anglo-Saxons.

The Vikings - who were led by Ragnar Shortbeard - comprised three groups of Bondi and a small band of skirmishers. They had already laid waste a couple of small farms and were on their way towards their next target when they saw the Anglo-Saxon force coming towards them. Both side formed battle lines and prepared to fight!

The Vikings.

The battlefield at Scrobbesburh. The Vikings were on the left and the Anglo-Saxons were on the right.

The Vikings sent their skirmishers forward to seize the right-hand hill before the Anglo-Saxons reached it. Whilst they were doing this, the remainder of their force advanced in line towards the oncoming line of Anglo-Saxon troops.

The Viking skirmishers reached the right-hand hill just before the Anglo-Saxons did ... but they were somewhat isolated and the Anglo-Saxons were already closer to it than the main body of the Vikings were.

Anglo-Saxon skirmishers and archers moved towards the hill and threatened the Viking skirmishers.

The Viking skirmishers came under very effective attack by the Anglo-Saxon archers. At the same time, the Vikings began to advance en echelon towards the main body of Anglo-Saxon troops.

Further very effective Anglo-Saxon archery caused the morale of the Viking skirmishers to break and they fled. At the same time, the Anglo-Saxons formed a shieldwall and the main body of the Viking force continued to advance en echelon towards the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall.

Anglo-Saxon archers moved onto the hill whilst the Vikings prepared to assault the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall.

The left-hand group of Vikings smashed into the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd opposite them, and smashed their way through the shieldwall, causing the Fyrd's morale to collapse. The Anglo-Saxon right was now gone!

However, before the Vikings could exploit this advantage, the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall pivoted so that their right flank was no longer threatened. At the same time, the Anglo-Saxon skirmishers advanced onto the hill and threatened the Viking right wing.

The Vikings attacked the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall ... and it proved too strong! The left- and right-hand groups of Viking suffer significant casualties and when their morale failed, they fled. Whilst this was happening, the central Viking group continued to fight the Anglo-Saxon thane's household troops.

With most of his force already fleeing, Ragnar Shortbeard urged his remaining troops to break through the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall ... but it proved too strong a nut to crack, and as casualties mounted, their morale cracked and they joined the other fleeing Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons had won the Battle of Scrobbesburh!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable wargame and Richard and I hope to fight another in the very near future.

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Note: The choice of the name Scrobbesburh is a nod to the venue where this wargame took place, Shrewsbury House. The Anglo-Saxon name for Shrewsbury was Scrobbesburh.

A new YouTube video: The Battle of Britain, 1985

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

It lasts approximately fourteen minutes.

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