New YouTube video: The Artillery Museum in St Petersburg, Russia (1 of 3)

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

It lasts approximately three and three-quarter minutes.

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

Two more 'Dominion of ...' books of rules have been published

Steve Parker has published two more 'Dominion of ...' books of rules, DOMINION OF MARLBOROUGH AND PETER THE GREAT ...

and DOMINION OF PATRIOTS AND REDCOATS.

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The DOMINION OF MARLBOROUGH AND PETER THE GREAT rules cover the main battles of the War of the Spanish Succession and the Great Northern War .

There are seven different types of unit:

• Line Infantry: These are infantry that fight in close formation and rely on firepower and bayonets to destroy enemy units.
• Pikemen and Claymores: Infantry that are trained or prefer to fight hand-to-hand (e.g. Russian pikemen and Claymore-armed Highlanders).
• Gå-på Infantry: Swedish Infantry who normally fired at very short range before charging their opponents.
• Dragoons: Mounted troops armed with carbines who normally dismount and fight in skirmish order.
• Pistoliers: Cavalry who still used the caracole formation who preferred to engage the enemy with their pistols.
• Sabres: Cavalry who were armed with swords and who charged their opponents, sometimes after firing at them with their pistols (e.g. British, Dutch, Russian, and Swedish Cavalry
• Artillery: It includes all artillery.

The book includes Army Lists for twenty-four battles:

• Monmouth’s Rebellion
• Battle of Sedgemoor (6th July 1685)
• Nine Years’ War
• Battle of Walcourt (25th August 1689)
• Battle of Fleurus (1st July 1690)
• Battle of Steenkerque (3rd August 1692)
• Battle of Neerwinden (29th July 1693)
• Williamite War in Ireland
• Battle of the Boyne (1st July 1690)
• War of the Spanish Succession
• Battle of Chiari (1st September 1701)
• Battle of Luzzara (15th August 1702)
• Battle of Schellenberg (2nd July 1704)
• Battle of Blenheim (13th August 1704)
• Battle of Elixheim (18th July 1705)
• Battle of Ramillies (23rd May 1706)
• Battle of Turin (7th September 1706)
• Battle of Almanza (25th April 1707)
• Battle of Oudenarde (11th July 1708)
• Battle of Malplaquet (11th September 1709)
• Battle of Villaviciosa (10th December 1710)
• Battle of Denain (24th July 1712)
• Great Northern War
• Battle of Narva (30th November 1700)
• Battle of Düna (19th July 1701)
• Battle of Kliszów (9th July 1702)
• Battle of Holowczyn (14th July 1708)
• Battle of Poltava (28th June 1709)
• Jacobite Rebellion 1715
• Battle of Sheriffmuir (13th November 1715)

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The DOMINION OF PATRIOTS AND REDCOATS rules cover the main battles of the American War of Independence/American Revolutionary War.

There are six different types of unit:

• Line Infantry: These are infantry that fight in close formation and rely on firepower to destroy enemy units (e.g. Early British Infantry, American Continental Army infantry, Militia in close formation, French Infantry units.)
• Skirmishers: These are infantry or cavalry who fight in a dispersed formation and rely on firepower or missile weapons to destroy enemy units at a distance (e.g. British and French Light Infantry, Militia fighting in skirmish order, dismounted Dragoons, Native Americans firing from cover).
• Bayonets: These are infantry units that fire a volley and then charge their opponents (e.g. British and Hessian Regular Infantry).
• Tomahawks: Native American and First nation warriors who prefer to fight in hand-to-hand combat.
• Cavalry: These are mounted troops who rely on charging their opponents as opposed to dismounting and shooting.
• Artillery: It includes all artillery.

Examples of units include:

• Trained militia armed with muskets and fighting in close formation – Line Infantry (cost 2 points).
• Militia armed with muskets, fighting in a dispersed formation, and using cover – Skirmishers (cost 2 points).

The book includes Army Lists for twenty-four battles:

• Lexington and Concord (1775)
• Bunker Hill (1775)
• Quebec (1775)
• Long Island (1776)
• White Plains (1776)
• Fort Washington (1776)
• Trenton (1776)
• Princeton (1777)
• Oriskany (1777)
• Bennington (1777)
• Brandywine (1777)
• First Saratoga (1777)
• Germantown (1777)
• Second Saratoga (1777)
• Monmouth (1778)
• Stono Ferry (1779)
• Newtown (1779)
• Savannah (1779)
• Camden (1780)
• King’s Mountain (1780)
• Cowpens (1781)
• Guilford Courthouse (1781)
• Eutaw Springs (1781)
• Siege of Yorktown (1781).

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The DOMINION OF MARLBOROUGH AND PETER THE GREAT and DOMINION OF PATRIOTS AND REDCOATS rules were written by Steve Parker and published in 2025 by Orc Publishing. They can be bought in PDF format from Wargame Vault for $5.90/£4.40.

Two new additions to the 'Dominion of ...' rules

Recently, Steve Parker sent me a copy of his latest additions to the 'Dominion of ...' rules, DOMINION OF THE CLAYMORE, TOMAHAWK AND TALWAR rules ...

and DOMINION OF FREDERICK THE GREAT rules.

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The DOMINION OF THE CLAYMORE, TOMAHAWK AND TALWAR rules covers the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, the French-Indian Wars in North America, the Anglo-Cherokee War, Pontiac's Rebellion, and the battles that were fought in India and in the West Indies.

The rules are very similar to those in the earlier DOMINION OF THE SPEAR AND BAYONET rules but have been modified so that they can be used for the wars that took place outside mainland Europe during the middle third of the eighteenth century.

There are five different types of unit:

• Line Infantry: These are infantry that fight in close formation and rely on firepower to destroy enemy units. They are normally armed with muskets
• Ambushers: These are infantry or cavalry that attack enemy units by ambushing them.
• Skirmishers: These are infantry or cavalry who fight in a dispersed formation and rely on firepower or missile weapons to destroy enemy units at a distance.
• Melee Units: These are infantry units that are armed with spears (Spearmen), bayonets (Bayonets) heavy swords (Claymores), fighting axes (Tomahawks) or cavalry. It includes all troops that prefer to fight the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.
• Artillery: It includes all artillery.

Examples of units include:

• Trained militia armed with muskets and fighting in close formation – Line Infantry (cost 2 points).
• Militia armed with muskets, fighting in s dispersed formation, and using cover – Skirmishers (cost 2 points).
• Starving British infantry in a fort – fortified Line Infantry (cost 3 points).
• Jacobite Highlanders armed with muskets and claymores– elite Claymores (cost 3 points).
• British Highlander infantry – elite Bayonets (cost 3 points).
• Best European infantry firing volleys – elite disciplined Line Infantry (cost 4 points).

The book includes Army Lists for twenty-four battles:

• Prestonpans (1745)
• Inverurie (1745),
• Falkirk Muir (1746)
• Littleferry (1746)
• Culloden (1746)
• Arni (1751)
• Jumonville Glen (1754)
• Fort Necessity (Great Meadows) (1754)
• Monongahela (Braddock’s defeat) (1755)
• Bloody Morning Scout (1755)
• Lake George (1755)
• Plassey (1757)
• Carillon (Fort Ticonderoga) (1758)
• Condore (1758)
• Plains of Abraham (1759)
• Wandiwash (1760)
• Sainte-Foy (Quebec) (1760)
• Echoee Pass (1760)
• Third Panipat (1761)
• Martinique (1762)
• Siege of Havana (1762)
• Bloody Run (1763)
• Bushy Run (1763)
• Buxar (1764)

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DOMINION OF FREDERICK THE GREAT rules cover the main battles of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War that were fought on mainland Europe. It is a development of the DOMINION OF THE SPEAR rules and includes a number of rule changes as well as some period-specific new rules.

There are four different types of unit plus an optional type of unit:

• Line Infantry: These are infantry that fight in close formation and armed with muskets.
• Skirmishers: These are light infantry who fight in a dispersed formation and use cover.
• Cavalry: Includes heavy cavalry (e.g. Cuirassiers and Dragoons). Light cavalry (e.g. Hussars) are assumed to be part of the cavalry units used in these rules.
• Artillery: It includes all artillery.
• Optional Light Cavalry: Includes Hussars and Cossacks as separate units in some of the smaller battles.

Examples of units include:

• Austrian infantry in line and armed with muskets – Line Infantry (cost 2 points).
• Austrian infantry behind defences – fortified Line Infantry (cost 3 points).
• Mixed cavalry Cuirassiers and Hussars – Cavalry (cost 2 points).
• Prussian infantry – elite Line Infantry (cost 3 points).
• Tenacious Russian infantry – disciplined Line Infantry (cost 3 points).
• Prussian infantry flank marching before a battle – elite disciplined Line Infantry (cost 4 points).

There are also four Optional Rules. These include:

• Optional Alternative Activation
• Optional Unreliable Troops
• Optional Light Cavalry (see above)
• Optional Weather

The book includes Army Lists for twenty-four battles:

• Mollwitz (1741)
• Chotusitz (1742)
• Dettingen (1743)
• Madonna dell’ Olmo (Cuneo) (1744)
• Fontenoy (1745)
• Hohenfriedberg (1745)
• Soor (1745)
• Kesselsdorf (1745)
• Lobositz (1756)
• Prague (1757)
• Kolin (1757)
• Hastenbeck (1757)
• Gross-Jägersdorf (1757)
• Rossbach (1757)
• Leuthen (1757)
• Zorndorf (1758)
• Hochkirch (1758)
• Güstow (Tornow) (1758)
• Minden (1759)
• Kunersdorf (1759)
• Liegnitz (1760)
• Torgau (1760)
• Burkersdorf (1762)
• Freiberg (1762)

This period of history is one that appeals to many wargamers who like to create their own imagi-nation armies similar to those used by Brigadier Peter Young, James Lawford, and Charles Grant. To meet this need, the book contains rules that can be used to generate imagi-nation armies.

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The DOMINION OF THE CLAYMORE, TOMAHAWK AND TALWAR and DOMINION OF FREDERICK THE GREAT rules were written by Steve Parker and published in 2025 by Orc Publishing. They can be bought in PDF format from Wargame Vault for £4.40.

Other people's Portable Wargames

It is some time since I managed to put together a selection of other people's PORTABLE WARGAMEs ... and there are some stunning and inspiring examples out there that need to be better know,

Emeritus Professor Charles Esdaile

The first picture shows an action between Romans and Caledones, ...

... the second one between Romans and Sarmatians, ...

... and the third one between French and British forces in Canada in 1759.

The battlefields are sheets of green-coloured foam card, and the scenery and figures were copied from the Junior-General site.

Mike Lewis

Mike Lewis put on a demonstration of the rules at the Cavalier wargame show using his wonderful 54mm glossy toy soldiers and MDF terrain ... including the marvelous Fort Pippin!

Larry Casey

Larry has been fighting a campaign set in Sicily and southwestern tip of Italy since the end of January.

He based his campaign on Mark Cordone's HOPLITE 3 x 3 Portable Wargame system. To date he has fought a battle near Syracuse, ...

... the Battle of Zancle, ...

... a naval battle off Gela, ...

... the Battle of Akragas, ...

... the Battle of Cumae, ...

... the Battle of Heraclea, ...

... and the Battle of Katane.

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Please note that the photographs shown above are © Emeritus Professor Charles Esdaile, Mike Lewis, and Larry Casey.

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 Third Portable Wargame Compendium: Another progress report

The current draft has been proofread by the incomparable Arthur Harman, and it is already ninety-three pages long. It is worth noting that the First Compendium had 108 pages and the Second Compendium had 132 pages.

At present, the Contents looks like this:

I know that there are at least two more contributions in the pipeline, and I hope that the Compendium will be ready for publication somewhat earlier than I expected.

The Third Portable Wargame Compendium: A further progress report

Since last Friday I have been working on the next issue of the PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM, and its draft is already ninety pages long ... and I know of at least two more articles that are being written for inclusion in this issue.

To date, Mark Cordone has contributed articles about:

• Adapting the PORTABLE ANCIENT WARGAME rules from DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME for use in the Medieval period.
• His BIG BATTLES, SMALL ARMIES rules.
• A framework for narrative campaigns.
• Developing the 6 x 6 PORTABLE WARGAME.

Archduke Piccolo's contribution relates the story of his BYZANTIAD campaign and includes an excellent campaign map and campaign system as well as two well-illustrated campaign reports.

I will write further progress reports as and when I can.

The Third Portable Wargame Compendium: A progress report

I spent quite a lot of Saturday working on the Third Portable Wargame Compendium, and to date it now has three articles.

One of these was written by me and re-examines six wargame scenarios that were included in three of the first wargame books that bought ... H G Wells’s LITTLE WARS, Brigadier Peter Young and Lieutenant Colonel James P Lawford’s CHARGE! OR HOW TO PLAY WAR GAMES, and Donald Featherstone’s WAR GAMES. I have drawn suitable square and hex gridded maps for each scenario and included both the original Orders of Battle and suitable PORTABLE WARGAME Orders of Battle.

The other two articles were written by Arthur Harman and are entitled:

• Ideas for developing the Portable Napoleonic Big Battle or Fast Play 3 x 3 Portable Wargame Rules
• A simple English Civil War campaign system for Portable Pike and Shot

I have several other articles in the pipeline and hope to publish the latest Compendium by September.

Wargames Illustrated Issue 428 August 2023

I happened to be in the Bluewater branch of WHSmith when I saw this month's issue of WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED. I had a flick through it and several articles caught my eye, so I bought a copy.

The articles that caught my eye were:

• Loose Files and American Scramble by Andy Callan
• Returning To Old Favourites: One Person's Passion - Collecting Old School Armies by Rick Priestley
• Fashoda Showdown by Nick Buxey
• Citadel to Perry Minis, via Foundry, and interview with the Perry twins
• Making an Acacia Tree by Matt Parkes
• Thane Tostig by Daniel Mersey

I've known Andy Callan for forty-three years, and I know that any rules that he has written will be worth reading, even if they relate to a period of wargaming that I don't wargame.

As a bit of an 'old school' wargamer, Rick Priestley's article - and especially many of the photographs of good old Minifigs figures - really struck a chord ... and it was interesting to see that in an age of super-detailed figure sculptures and shaded figures, how good they looked!

The Fashoda Showdown article looked at what might have happened if the British and French had come to blows on the banks of the Upper Nile. It's a 'what if?' I've thought about refighting myself, and this article certainly made me think about actually doing so at some time.

The interview with Alan and Michael Perry was interesting and informative, and showed how their careers and their sculpting has developed over the years.

The acacia tree has a special place in the hearts of all Freemasons, so this article was a 'must read' ...

Thane Tostig was the brainchild of my old friend, the late Eric Knowles, ...

... and his son William ... although we always called him Bill! It was a fantasy game that featured figures by the legendary Barry Minot, and although I never played any of the games Eric staged, I can well remember seeing the figures being cast in the basement of his shop - the New Model Army - in Manor Park, east London. Daniel Mersey's article does contain a few errors (for example, Eric and Bill were father and son and not brothers!) but it was great to see that Thane Tostig has not been forgotten!

(I devoted a whole appendix to ‘The Quest of Thane Tostig’ or ‘The Quest of Thane Tostig for the Magic Sword Blooddrinker’ in the book I compiled about the Madasahatta Campaign. It included a list of all the figures that Eric planned to release.)

Martinstaat 1744: A detailed wargame campaign set in a fictitious world

Like a lot of wargamers that enjoy wargaming with imagi-nations, I’ve been waiting for Henry Hyde’s latest book with bated breath. I decided to wait until it was available in hardback, and my copy was delivered on Thursday.

MARTINSTAAT 1744: A DETAILED WARGAME CAMPAIGN SET IN A FICTITIOUS WORLD is exactly as described in its title. It has 104 full-colour pages and is absolutely choker-block full of maps and illustrations that complement the text. The book is divided into the following chapters and sections:

• A Word About Illustrations
• Introduction
• What Are Imagi-Nations?
• Martinstaat 1744: The Background
• The Campaign Background
• Campaign Rules Used Specifically for 1744
• The Opposing Forces for 1744
• Prunkland’s Armed Forces in 1744
• The Faltenian Army
• My 1744 Planning Notes
• The 1744 Campaign in Detail
• Week 1:1st-7th February 1744
• Week 2: 8th-14th February 1744
• Week 3: 15th-21st February 1744
• Week 4: 22nd-28th February 1744
• Week 5: 1st-7th March 1744
• Week 6: 8th-14thMarch 1744
• Week 7: 15th-21st March 1744
• Week 8: 22nd-28thMarch 1744
• Week 9: 29th March-4th April 1744
• Crossing the Steinwasser at W31
• Situation
• Week 10: 5th-11th April 1744
• Week 11: 12th-25th April 1744
• Week 12: 19th-25th April 1744
• Week 13: 26th April-2nd May 1744
• Week 14: 3rd-9th May 1744
• Week 15: 10th-16th May 1744
• Thoughts About the 1744 Campaign
• A Few More Detailed Hexes
• More About the Opposing Forces
• The Cost of Raising an Army
• Economics, Infrastructure and Supply Rules from the 1742 Campaign
• Additional Economics, Infrastructure and Supply Rules and Amendments from the 1743 Campaign
• Additional Notes Found
• A Partial Atlas
• Afterword: Guy's Perspective

Reading this book gave me an immense amount of fun ... and lots of ideas for my own campaigns!

This is a book for wargamers by an extremely talented wargamer, writer, illustrator, and cartographer, and I think that all wargamers should buy a copy. It might not be set in a period that you wargame (and I certainly don't wargame eighteenth century conflicts, even imagi-nation ones!) but you will gain so much from this book that it will repay its cost many times over.

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MARTINSTAAT 1744: A DETAILED WARGAME CAMPAIGN SET IN A FICTITIOUS WORLD was written and illustrated by Henry Hyde and published in 2023 by Gladius Publications (ISBN 979-8-8532-4500-6).

The Portable Wargame Compendium: A short progress report

Although I am still struggling to concentrate, I have made some progress on putting the PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM together.

I have had a contribution from Martin Rapier that describes the 1st Punic War campaign he fought using the FP3X3PW rules as well as a copy of David Barnes' eighteenth-century rules that are based on the Brigade-level rules from the PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME.

I am still hoping to get the book published by the end of April, but this very much depends upon how much time I can spend putting the book together.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: Mark Cordone's terrain and his refight of the Battle of Aspern Essling

I was very surprised to realise that I had not shared any battle reports et al from the PORTABLE WARGAME Facebook page since April! This is very remiss of me as there has been so much being shared by the members that it is sometimes difficult to keep up with the latest news.

Over recent weeks, one member (Mark Cordone) has been writing about the terrain squares he has been creating.

These include some that have example of interesting semi-flat/2.5D buildings fixed to them.

This type of model building has the advantage of showing where there is a built-up area without taking up so much space on the terrain square that it is difficult to put figures in the square.

He has also put together are pair of armies to refight the Battle of Aspern Essling, using a scale of one base equals a division/brigade of infantry or cavalry or a hundred guns. The first army he prepared was the Austrian one, ...

Mark's simple but very effective morale/exhaustion and turn trackers can be seen in the foreground.

... followed by the French one.

Having prepared his terrain and his armies, Mark has now refought the Battle of Aspern Essling ...

The position of the Austrian army during the early morning.

The position of the French army during the early morning.

The positions of the two armies by the late afternoon. The morale/exhaustion and turn tackers make it very easy for players to keep track of the current situation on the tabletop.

... using an interesting variant of the PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME rules.

• The changes he has made can be summarised as follow:
• One base equals a division/brigade or about 100 guns.
• Units are destroyed after two hits.
• When infantry attack they must either shoot or attack with the bayonet.
• If shooting, the combat results are simultaneous, but the unit that initiated the combat can not advance to occupy a vacated square as a result of combat.
• If attacking with the bayonet, the defender (infantry or artillery) shoots first, then the attacker goes after the effects of the defenders shooting are resolved. Infantry attacking with the bayonet can advance and occupy squares vacated as a result of combat.
• Infantry can only attack cavalry by shooting.
• If infantry are supported by cavalry in the same square or vice versa, they get a +2 bonus instead of +1.
• If infantry or cavalry are supported by artillery in the same square, the artillery always get to shoot in combat, but provides no modifier.

For the purposes of this battle:

• The Austrian grenadier units were graded as Elite and the rest of the army's units were graded as Regular
• The French guard infantry & cavalry and the cuirassier units were graded as Elite and the rest of the army's units were graded as Regular.

These changes make it possible for players to fight large Napoleonic battles on a small tabletop ... and have given me some food for thought as to the possibility of creating a set of Napoleonic (or even American Civil War) army-level rules.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Mark Cordone

Amateur Armies: Militias and Volunteers in War and Peace, 1797-1961

Many years ago, I bought and read THE DEFENDERS: A HISTORY OF THE BRITISH VOLUNTEER by Geoffrey Cousins (published in 1968 by Frederick Muller Limited).

I was intrigued by the history of the British Rifle Volunteer movement of the Victorian era, so when I saw Stephen Cullen’s AMATEUR ARMIES: MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS IN WAR AND PEACE, 1797-1961, I decided to buy a copy.

I was not disappointed by my choice.

The book not only covers the history of militias in various nations, but also the failed French invasion of Fishguard in 1797, the development and popularity of the Victorian Rife Volunteer movement, the various left and right-wing political militias that took part in the Spanish Civil War, and the role played by the Cuban Militia in Castro’s post-revolution Cuba. The latter includes the defeat of the Bay of Pigs invasion, a topic of particular interest to me.

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AMATEUR ARMIES: MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS IN WAR AND PEACE, 1797-1961 was written by Stephen M Cullen and published in 2020 by Pen & Sword Military (ISBN 978 1 52673443 3).

America's Forgotten Wars: From Lord Dunmore to the Philippines

I already own several of Ian Hernon's books about colonial history, and when I saw that he had recently written a new addition to the series, I had to buy a copy.

The books I already own include:

• MASSACRE AND RETRIBUTION: FORGOTTEN COLONIAL WARS OF THE 19TH CENTURY
• THE SAVAGE EMPIRE: FORGOTTEN WARS OF THE 19TH CENTURY
• BLOOD IN THE SAND: MORE FORGOTTEN WARS OF THE 19TH CENTURY
• BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN WARS: COLONIAL CAMPAIGNS OF THE 19TH CENTURY
• THE SWORD AND THE SKETCH BOOK: A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF QUEEN VICTORIA'S WARS

His latest book is entitled AMERICA'S FORGOTTEN WARS: FROM LORD DUNMORE TO THE PHILIPPINES and covers the period between 1774 and 1902.

It follows a similar pattern to his earlier books, and includes short chapters on each of the following:

• Lord Dunmore's War (1774) and Native Americans in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
• Little Turtle's War (1785-1795)
• Shay's Rebellion (1786-1787) and the Whiskey Rebellion (1791-1794)
• The Quasi War (1798-1800)
• The Barbary Wars (1801-1805 and 1815)
• The German Coast Rebellion (1811)
• Aegean Sea Anti-piracy Operations (1825-1828)
• Sumatra Operations (1832 and 1838)
• The Pork and Beans War (1838-1839) and the Pig War (1859-1872)
• More Pirates and 'Savages' (1838-1842)
• The Exploring Expedition (1838-1842)
• Ivory Coast (1842)
• Fiji Expedition (1849 and 1859)
• Cortina Wars, Texas (1859-1861)
• The Shinmiyangyo Korean Expedition (1871)
• The Modoc War (1872-1873)
• The Samoan Crisis (1887-1889)
• The Spanish-American War (1898)
• The Philippines War (1899-1902)

I knew a quite a bit about some of the wars covered in the book, I had heard of several that I did not know much about, and there are some that were completely new to me!

From what I have read so far, this is a book that will give Colonial wargamers all sorts of inspiration for odd little campaigns they can fight. In most cases, the armies are small and would not be too dificult to reproduce ... especially if one were to use a suitably adapted version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

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AMERICA'S FORGOTTEN WARS: FROM LORD DUNMORE TO THE PHILIPPINES was written by Ian Hernon and published in 2021 by Amberley Publishing (ISBN 978 1 4456 9530 3).

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: The Battle of Rahden

It is some time since I featured other people's PORTABLE WARGAME battle reports on my blog, but David in Suffolk's recent pair of linked battle reports about the Battle of Rahden are worth brining to the attention of a wider group of wargamers.

David's blog is called THE RAGGED SOLDIER and you can find a link to it on the sidebar of this blog. The first of his two battle reports is entitled 'Last Stand - or Great Escape?' and saw an Austrian force being attacked by a Prussian force, with the latter expecting reinforcements to arrive after battle was joined.

The second part is called 'The End of the Affair', and saw the Austrians being given a bit of a drubbing by their opponents.

I won't spoil the enjoyment of my regular blog readers by giving any more information about the battle, but I thoroughly recommend that they read these two battle reports and enjoy them as much as I did.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © David in Suffolk.

Colonel de Peyster and the Royal Dumfries Volunteers

The Royal Dumfries Volunteers was raised on 31sy January 1795 at the Dumfries Court House. Colonel de Peyster was elected Major Commandant of the Corps by its members, and his wife provided the unit with its flag. The colonel also ordered one hundred Birmingham-made muskets to arm the unit.

By 21st March, the Volunteers had mustered enough members for a second company to be formed (this was the company that Rabbie Burns served in), and it was commanded by Lieutenant Wellwood Maxwell. All the Volunteers provided their own uniforms and agreed to serve without pay during the war with France ... although they did limit the area in which they would serve to a radius of five miles from Dumfries.

The Volunteers stood down in 1802, once the invasion crisis was over.

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Arent Schuyler de Peyster was born in New York on 27th June 1736, and joined the British Army in 1755. He served as an Ensign in the 50th Regiment of Foot (which had been raised in 1748 by William Shirley, the Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay) before transferring to the 51st Regiment of Foot. The latter regiment had been raised Lieutenant General Robert Napier specifically for service in America, and at one point three members of de Peyster’s extended family were serving in its ranks.

During the Seven Years' War, he served in upper colonial New York, where he gained extensive experience at frontier warfare. During the fighting he was captured and sent to France as a prisoner, where he was eventually exchanged. He joined the 8th Regiment of Foot in 1757 on his return to England, and soon afterwards his regiment was sent to Germany. Three years later it moved to Scotland, and it was there that he met and married Rebecca Blair, daughter of Robert Blair, later provost of Dumfries.

In 1768 the 8th Regiment of Foot was sent to Quebec, and by 1774 de Peyster had been promoted several times, and was serving as commandant of Fort Michilimackinac, which is in present-day Mackinaw, Michigan. He stayed there until 1779.

When the American War of Independence broke out in 1775, he recruited a number of Native Americans from the Great Lakes area, and many of them served under General John Burgoyne in New York. For his efforts, de Peyster was promotion to the rank of Major. On leaving Fort Michilimackinac, Major de Peyster was placed in command of Detroit, where he was able to recruit the previously hostile local Native Americans to the British cause. As a result, the American militia from Pennsylvania and Kentucky that were sent to capture Detroit were unable to do so as they lacked local support.

In November 1783, de Peyster was promoted to become a Lieutenant Colonel, and sent to assume command of Fort Niagara, which was situated where the Niagara River joined Lake Ontario. After the war had ended in 1785, de Peyster and his regiment returned to England, where he eventually became the regiment's Colonel in October 1793.

He retired in 1794 due to ill health, and moved to Dumfries, where he and his wife settled down at Mavis Grove, a nearby country estate. He died there on 26th November 1822 as a consequence of an accident, and he was buried in St Michael's Churchyard ... the same churchyard where Rabbie Burns was interred.

Rabbie Burns ... the soldier

Whilst doing my research for my forthcoming talk about Rabbie Burns, I discovered that he had joined the Royal Dumfries Volunteers when it was created in 1795.

He even wrote the words for a song (THE DUMFRIES VOLUNTEERS, sung to the tune PUSH ABOUT THE JORUM) about the regiment:

Does haughty Gaul invasion threat,

Then let the loons beware, Sir,

There's wooden walls upon our seas,

And volunteers on shore, Sir.

The Nith shall run to Corsincon,

And Criffel sink in Solway,

Ere we permit a foreign foe

On British ground to rally!

O let us not, like snarling tykes,

In wrangling be divided;

Till slap come in an unco loon

And wi' a rung decide it.

Be Britan still to Britain true,

Amang oursels united;

For never but by British hands

Maun British wrangs be righted!

The kettle o' the kirk and state,

Perhaps a clout may fail in't;

But deil a foreign tinkler loon

Shall ever ca' a nail in't.

Our fathers' bluid the kettle bought,

And wha wad dare to spoil it;

By heaven! the sacrilegious dog

Shall fuel be to boil it.

The wretch that wad a tyrant own,

And the wretch his true-born brother,

Who would set the mob aboon the throne,

May they be damned together!

Who will not sing, "God save the King,"

Shall hang as high's the steeple;

But while we sing, "God save the King,"

We'll ne'er forget the people.

The regiment is thought to have worn a red jacket with yellow facings or a blue jacket with red facings, and a crested helmet. (The sources are unclear as to the colour of the jacket and facings.)

Because he was a serving volunteer at the time of his death, Burns was given a military funeral. Besides members of the Royal Dumfries Volunteers, the band of the Cinque Ports Cavalry were present, and played the DEAD MARCH by Handel. In addition, members of the Angusshire Fencibles formed a guard-of-honour, and fired three volleys over his grave.

Some of my WoFun figures

I finally managed to base some of my new WoFun figures to see how they looked. I used a pre-cut, four-part 8 x 8 grid of 50mm squares that Warbases made for me some time ago as a tabletop on which to display the figures.

28mm Jacobite Rebellion

I decided to select sample infantry units for both sides. The Hanoverians included single base examples of infantry in blue, white, and yellow facings, whilst the Jacobites included single bases of the Royal Ecossais, Lowland, and Highland infantry.

18mm American Civil War

These should have been mounted on smaller bases (I used the same size as I had for the 28mm figures shown above), but the large bases allowed me to spread the figures out more.

This time I based four bases of Confederate infantry and four bases of Union infantry.

Whereas the smaller figures did not look out of place on the 8 x 8 grid, the large ones looked a little too large. That said, I think that with a bit of planning, I could easily refight the Battle of Culloden on the 8 x 8 grid using my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

WoFun figures

As I explained in a recent blog post, I bought some WoFun (World of Fun) printed plexiglass figures just before I went into hospital. They were delivered whilst I was in hospital, and I have only just had the opportunity to properly look inside the two boxes that were delivered.

What I discovered was incredible. Before I placed my order for the 18mm American Civil War collection, I had been in contact with the Lucian (the driving force behind WoFun), and he said that he would send me some samples of his larger figures with my order. In fact, the samples more than filled a single box, and some had been put into the same box as the ACW figures.

The 28mm samples included:

• Jacobite Rebellion
• 48 Jacobite Highlander infantry
• 44 Jacobite Highlanders infantry marching
• 48 Jacobite Lowland infantry
• 46 Jacobite Royal Ecossais infantry
• 3 Jacobite mounted leaders
• 46 Hanoverian infantry (blue facings)
• 46 Hanoverian infantry (white facings)
• 46 Hanoverian infantry (yellow facings)
• 27 Hanoverian Dragoons (+ 3 spare horses)
• 12 Hanoverian gunners (+ 2 draught horses)
• 25 assorted casualties
• French and Indian War
• 20 French line infantry
• 20 French light infantry
• 19 French militia
• 8 French gunners (+ 2 guns)
• 3 French mounted commanders
• 5 French scouts
• 20 British line infantry
• 20 British light infantry
• 19 British militia
• 8 British gunners (+ 2 guns)
• 6 British scouts & assorted infanry
• 3 British mounted commanders
• 19 Iroquois infantry
• 10 Iroquois cavalry
• Wild West
• 19 Great Plains Indian Tribes infantry
• 10 Great Plains Indian Tribes cavalry
• Miscellaneous
• 4 guns

The 18mm American Civil War collection includes:

• Confederates
• 144 infantry
• 36 cavalry
• 40 gunners
• Union
• 144 infantry
• 36 cavalry
• 40 gunners
• Miscellaneous
• 16 Guns

I now have more than enough figures to try re-fighting some of the battles of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745/46 using my PORTABLE WARGAME rules as well as dipping my toe into the French and Indian Wars! Coming on top of the fact that I now have two sizable armies for the American Civil War, I have plenty of wargaming possibilities that I can pursue over the foreseeable future.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports

It is quite some time since I did a review of the battle reports that have been featured on the PORTABLE WARGAME Facebook page, and doing so reminded me just how inventive so many of the players are.

Paul Wisken has been using the TRAVEL BATTLE boards made by the Perry brothers with 3mm figures from his collection ...

... and the result is very impressive!

Gary Sheffield took the 'Seize and Hold!' scenario we fought online some weeks ago, and re-fought it with another wargamer ... but this time the location was changed from central Europe to the American Civil War.

He named the river crossing points ('Griffithville Bridge' and 'Paddy's Ford') in honour of the late Dr Paddy Griffith, a military historian and wargamer we both knew well.

Jon Freeman has produced a wonderful setup using Billy Bones paper figures and terrain ...

... which give the whole battle the look of a contemporary woodcut! In this case, the Parliamentarian forces were fighting the Royalists in the Battle of Bucklebroadwood near the hamlet of Luckett.

Finally, Barry Cater continues to use the rules to fight all sorts of unusual tabletop battles. In this instance, Croatian Ustaša units of the Black Legion were fighting Chetnik partisans in part of the former Yugoslavia.

I am sure that my regular blog readers (and especially the other users of the PORTABLE WARGAME series of wargame rules) will agree that these players had produced a very varied set of battle reports, all of which have interesting and innovative features.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Paul Wisken, Gary Sheffield, Jon Freeman, and Barry Carter.