We sail the ocean blue ...

During the lulls in my somewhat busy week, I have been giving some thought to the naval wargame that I want to design and take to the next Conference of Wargamers (COW2016). So far I have come to the following conclusions:

1. The rules will use my 'new' Hexon II blue hexed terrain tiles
2. The model ships will all be designed and built so that each one will to fit within a single Hexon II terrain tile (i.e. they will be no longer than 4-inches/10cm)
3. The game will have rules based upon either my MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) or my PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME rules
4. The mechanisms will be modified to enable the rules to be used for simple one-on-one, face-to-face battles as well as ones involving several players per side

Not a long 'shopping' list of requirements, but one that I need to spend some time working on and play-testing.

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There are no prizes for working out where the title of this blog entry comes from ... it is from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We're sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.

When the balls whistle free
O'er the bright blue sea,
We stand to our guns all day;
When at anchor we ride
On the Portsmouth tide,
We have plenty of time for play.

Ahoy! Ahoy!
The balls whistle free
Ahoy! Ahoy!
Over the bright blue sea,
We stand to our guns, to our guns all day.

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We're sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.
Our saucy ship's a beauty,
We're attentive to our duty,
We're sober men and true,
We sail the ocean blue

Contemplating my naval

Before anyone decided to write a comment about the face that the title of this blog entry should read 'Contemplating my navel', the 'mistake' is deliberate.

The fact that I now own enough Hexon II blue hexes to cover an area of approximately 9' x 4' has yet again turned my thoughts towards naval wargaming. Now over the years I have done quite a bit of naval wargaming, and have done my bit to help to popularise both Fred Jane's Naval War Game and Fletcher Pratt's Naval War Game. I have also designed quite a few of my own naval wargames, including MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) and THE PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME.

Until recently the naval wargames that I have fought using my Hexon II hexed terrain have tended to be quite small affairs (one or two ships per side) ...

... but now I can begin to think about somewhat larger battles.

With this in mind I looked back at some of the battles I fought on my Heroscape blue terrain tiles using MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) ...

It is 1914 ... and the Greek and Turkish fleets approach each other.

Whilst the Turkish cruiser chases its Greek counterpart, the two Turkish battleships close on their Greek opponents.

... and I have decided that this is the sort of action I could set up and fight. Now all I have to do is to build some suitable model ships.

The Portable Naval Wargame

As promised I have managed to reformat both my original MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) rules and the 1860 to 1870 variant of the rules so that they have a commong format with my existing PORTABLE WARGAME rules. I have also renamed the rules, and they are now called:

• The PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME: PRE-DREADNOUGHT rules and
• The PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME: 1860 to 1870 rules.

Both are available for download from THE PORTABLE WARGAME WEBSITE (click here for the PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME: PRE-DREADNOUGHT rules and here for the PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME: 1860 to 1870 rules) and from Google Documents (click here and here respectively).

The Turret Ram Huascar

Portable Wargame news

Whilst I have been away on my latest cruise, the PORTABLE WARGAME has continued to go from strength to strength.

Steven Page (who writes the blog 'Adventures in Portable Wargaming') has been using a slightly tweaked version of the 'Modern' rules to refight several actions in North Africa, including:

• Kasserine Pass and
• Tigers in Tunisia.

At the same time Kaptain Kobold has not only produced a specific American Civil War version of the '19th Century' rules entitled MIGHTY MEAN-FOWT FIGHTS but has also used these rules to fight several battles including:

• Salem Church, May 1863
• Prairie Grove, December 1862 (after first fighting the battle using Richard Borg's BATTLE CRY rules)
• Pickett's Mill, May 1864

David Crook (of 'A Wargaming Odyssey' fame) has also been busy and refought The Charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba, October 1917 as well as an after D-Day action in Northern France that he has entitled Breaking the Panzers, France 1944.

So what have I been doing whilst all this 'action' was taking place? The answer is simple; no wargaming BUT I have 'converted' my version of my existing MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA rules that cover the late nineteenth century into a similar format to that used in the PORTABLE WARGAME and renamed them the PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME rules.

With a bit of luck I should be able to make these 'new' rules available online later today.

He has done it again! Now there is an electronic version of Memoir of Battle at Sea!

Peter Maller has done it again! Inspired by my MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) rules and the work done by Steve Page on his Old Admirals blog, Peter has produced an electronic version of MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) that uses a hexed grid.

He has even made it possible for players to identify individual ships by name ...

... and to add their details to them.

A fuller explanation of how the game works can be found on his Three by Two Tactics blog and the game itself can be access via his Portable Wargame: Electronic Version website.

Well done and thank you Peter! You have helped make the PORTABLE WARGAME and MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA truly accessible to all.

Really Useful Boxes

Over the past year or so I have been acquiring quite a number of storage boxes from the massive range manufactured by REALLY USEFUL BOXES. My particular favourite is the 4 litre-sized box, mainly because it will take A4-sized paper and card but also because two fifteen-compartment Hobby Trays will fit into it.

Each compartment in the Hobby Tray has enough space to accommodate at least one BATTLE CRY, MEMOIR '44, MEMOIR OF BATTLE, or MEMOIR OF MODERN BATTLE unit of 15mm or 20mm-scale infantry figures, and it is my plan to reorganise my collection so that I can get an 'army' into one or two 4 litre-sized boxes.

This is not as daft as it may sound. I understand that Stuart Asquith has been doing something along these lines for quite a few years ... and as I get older I feel the need to consolidate rather than expand my wargames collection, and this is one way in which I can do that.

Small Battleships

A big thanks goes to Jim Duncan, who very kindly sent me some small metal battleships so that I can use David Crook's version of MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) on my Heroscape™ water-tile terrain.

This means that I can now have a portable version of the game that I can take with me when I go away on holiday or when I am visiting another wargamer. All I have to do now is paint the ships ... and I would hope to be able to do that in the very near future.

Going off at a tangent

How often have I been happily working on a wargames project when suddenly I go off at a tangent?

The answer is very simple. Too many times ... and last night was one of them!

There I was, building the hull for my latest model ship, when the idea sprang into my head that I could build model ships that I could use to fight naval battles using David Crook's version of MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS) and that would look 'right' alongside my 15mm-scale* wargames figures. This thought then seemed to preoccupy me for the rest of the evening ... and part of the night ... until, in that stage just before one drifts off into sleep, I realised what I wanted the models to look like ... the battleship playing-piece from MONOPOLY!

My family used to own a very old MONOPOLY set, and it had a small metal battleship as one of the playing-pieces. As I child I wondered whether, if one were rich enough, one could buy enough MONOPOLY sets to field a small fleet of ships to fight battles with. (Ah! The innocence of youth!) This morning I trawled through the Internet and found a picture of one of those old battleship playing-pieces ... and it is exactly the sort of design I am looking to recreate.

It is not a perfect scale model of a battleship. It is a cartoon ... but it has the 'look' I want to achieve. The problem is that I am a good way through making a model ship to illustrate a 'How to ...' blog entry ... so what should I do?

Again, the answer is simple. Do both ... and that is what I am going to try to do over the next couple of days ... real life permitting!

* I know that there is not such 'scale' as 15mm. It refers to the notional height of the figure, but it is my 'shorthand' for that scale of wargames figure (1:100th-scale), and it is an expression that most wargamers understand even if it is not correct.

Another progress report

I have been quite busy again today working on my next 'How to ...' blog entry. This one explains how I build the larger model ships that I use with my figure games.

The process of making the models, taking photographs, and describing what I have done at each stage of the construction of the model takes a lot longer than I expected. I had hoped to have finished it today, but it looks more than likely that it will take until tomorrow or possibly even Wednesday.

In the meantime I have been working on one or two ideas for model ships that might work with both 15mm figures and David Crook's version of MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOBAS). I think that it is not an insuperable problem, but that it might require a bit of ingenuity on my part.

A revised MOBAS icon ... already!

In the light of Peter Douglas's comment to my very recent blog entry, I realised that by adding a fourth funnel to the Combat Dice icon I had designed for the Torpedo Boat/Destroyer, it was much easier to tell each type of ship apart!

Here is the new icon ...

Dice symbols for Memoir of Battle at Sea (MOBAS)

Having just completed new versions of MEMOIR OF MODERN BATTLE (MOMBAT) and MEMOIR OF BATTLE (MOB) it seemed logical - in the light of developmental work that David Crook is undertaking on the naval 'sibling' of these wargames rules - to think about revising my MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA (MOMBAS) wargames rules.

As these rules will also use Combat Dice, I needed to design some icons for the dice faces.

The Battleship, (to indicate a 'hit' on that type of ship) ...

... the Cruiser, (to indicate a 'hit' on that type of ship) ...

... the Torpedo Boat/Destroyer, (to indicate a 'hit' on that type of ship) ...

... the Explosion (for 'hits' on any type of ship), ...

... and the Shell Splash (to indicate a 'miss').

I hope to continue work on these rules over the next few days, but having designed these icons I feel that I am already well on the way with this project.

Time for reflection … and consolidation

I have had plenty of time to think recently (there is not a lot to do when you are sitting in various hospital waiting areas waiting to take someone to the next medical test they have to undergo), and the events of the past week have made me realise that nothing lasts forever, and that I need to be a bit less like a butterfly – flitting from one thing to another – and a bit more like a worker bee, which gets things done.

I have therefore come up with a list of priorities that I will try to stick to over the next few years. They are (in no particular order):

• To develop my MEMOIR OF BATTLE and MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA wargames rules so that they cover the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (i.e. 1850 to 1950) … and to build up several armies (and navies) that I can use with them.
• To put together a 54mm army (or armies) to use with H G Wells’ LITTLE WARS and The Reverend Paul Wright’s FUNNY LITTLE WARS wargames rules.

• To take part in as many wargames as I can each year, with a target of playing an minimum of wargame per month.
• To complete the work necessary to set up a series of wargames campaigns that will involve Maldacia and Laurania (and possibly other small nations as well).

It will take time to achieve all of these objectives – and some of them may never, ever be achieved in full – but at least I will get some satisfaction from the fact that I have striven to achieve them.

More model warships: Centre Battery ships

Now that the snow has begun to melt, my wife 'discovered' lots of chores that needed doing now that it was possible to go outside ... such a shopping for all the things that we had begun to run short of (tea, Diet Coke, washing powder etc.).

As a result, I did not get a long enough time-slot to watch THE LAST SAMURAI as I had hoped ... but I did get enough time in between doing other things to do some modelling. Inspired by ANDEAN TRAGEDY: FIGHTING THE WAR OF THE PACIFIC, 1879 - 1884, I decided to build two model Centre Battery Ironclads. The idea was to create something that looked like – but were not exact models of – the Almirante Blanco Encalada and the Almirante Cochrane.

Plan and side view of the Almirante Cochrane. The Almirante Blanco Enclada was almost identical.

Almirante Cochrane

Almirante Blanco Encalada

I used the same basic methods I used to build my earlier Casemate Ironclads, but the superstructure was a bit more complex and was made up of quite a few small pieces of basswood that were cut, trimmed, and sanded before being glued together.

I am quite pleased with the results, and should I decide to re-fight some of the naval battles of The War of the Pacific using my MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA naval wargames rules, I have made a head start with the ship models I will need. In the meantime, constructing them has helped me to develop the methods I may need to employ when making future models.

All in all, not a bad day's work, even though I say it myself!

The War of the Pacific: Another project!?

Why, oh why, did I write

'These forces are quite small, and it would not be beyond the wit or resources of most wargamers to recreate both sides' military might in miniature'

in yesterday's blog entry, especially as I subsequently discovered that OUTPOST WARGAME SERVICES actually produce a range of 15mm figures for the War.?

I have rules for both the land and sea battles (MEMOIR OF BATTLE and MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA would be ideal) and a lot of data about the ships used by both sides. I also have the excellent uniform guide recently published by Caliver Books, so in theory there is nothing to stop me having a go ... except the cost.

That is something that I am going to have to think about ... but you never know, I might just find a way around that problem.

Morschauser revisited

For reasons that will probably become apparent over the next few weeks, I have been re-reading Joseph Morschauser’s book HOW TO PLAY WAR GAMES IN MINIATURE and the ‘Modern’ period wargames rules that I developed using his ideas.

In my opinion, the book still holds up well when compared to other wargames books, although it is only fair to point out that my own prejudices mean that I probably tend to follow a similar approach to wargames design to that used by Morschauser.

As I was re-reading my ‘Modern’ period wargames rules, I was struck by the thought that there are elements from Richard Borg’s BATTLE CRY/MEMOIR ’44 rules that could be incorporated into a developed version of my Morschauser-derived ‘Modern’ period wargames rules. This hybrid would be similar to – but not quite the same as – MEMOIR OF BATTLE. The latter is very firmly set in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century whereas the ‘Modern’ period wargames rules are set in the 1930s to early 1950s.

With my current MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA model Ironclad building programme on temporary ‘hold’ for the moment, thinking about the possible development of this hybrid set of wargames rules might just keep me occupied for the next few evenings.

How to … build a model Casemate Ironclad

I built both my prototype Casemate Ironclads from basswood and some other wooden bits and pieces that I bought from the local branch Hobbycraft. I find that basswood is better than balsa. It is a bit harder and heavier and therefore seems easier to work, especially when you are cutting and sanding it. In addition, its finer grain takes paint better than balsa.

The following description explains how I built my third Casemate Ironclad.

Stage 1: The hull
The hull is 10cm long and was cut from a length of ¼-inch thick by 2-inch wide basswood.

This was then trimmed down to 4cm wide and the basic shape of the hull was marked out on the wood in pencil.

The surplus wood was trimmed away with a razor saw and sharp modelling knife ...

... and then the hull was smoothed into shape using fine sandpaper.

Stage 2: The Casemate
The bottom half of the casemate was made from four lengths of 1cm by 1cm basswood strip. The corners were cut at a ninety degree angle so that they fitted together. These were then carefully glued into place, and the glue allowed to dry.

The upper part of the casemate was made from four lengths of ½cm by ½cm basswood strip. The two longer strips (each 4cm long) were glued in place to form the ends of the casemate, and the two short strips (each 1½cm long) were glued so that firing slits were formed in the side of the casemate.

Once the glue was dry, the roof of the casemate (a 4cm by 4cm piece of ⅛-inch thick basswood) was glued into place.

Stage 3: The Funnel/Smoke Stack
This was made from a 1cm by 1cm piece of ⅛-inch thick basswood (the base of the funnel/smoke stack), a short length of matchstick, and two wooden spools.

The end of the match was gently pushed into a hole drilled into the basswood base …

… and the first wooden spool was dropped down the matchstick and glued onto the base.

The second spool was then glued onto the first, and the finished funnel was set aside to dry.

Stage 4: Final Assembly
All that remained was to glue the funnel/smokestack in place on top of the casemate, and to add a pilothouse (made from a 2cm long piece of 1cm by 1cm basswood strip) onto the front of the casemate.

Once the glue had thoroughly dried, a final check was made to remove any glue that had seeped out during the construction process and to sand down anything that was protruding where it should not … and the model was ready for painting.

Simple model ironclads: The second prototype

The second prototype was constructed using the same methods as the first ... but certain changes were made that ensured that the end result was much closer to what I had originally planned.

The first change was to make the hull slightly thinner. The first prototype was 5cm wide; the second was 4cm. This made the whole model appear longer, which enhanced its appearance. Secondly, the strips of basswood used to construct the casemate were also thinner than those used on the first prototype, which reduced the overall height of the casemate, which also improved the model's appearance. Finally, the funnel (or smoke stack) was constructed from several wooden spools that were glued end-to-end. The result was both thinner (and more in keeping with the size of the model) and it had the characteristic 'bands' around the funnel that were a common feature on ships of the period.

The second prototype looks much better than the first prototype, and any subsequent casemate ironclads that I build for MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA will follow the same basic design.

Simple model ironclads: The first prototype

Well, I have just finished assembling my as yet unpainted prototype ... and although it has not turned out quite how I expected, it certainly proves that the concept is worth pursuing.

The finished prototype 'at sea' on some Hexon II sea hexes. The 15mm-scale figure gives some idea how big (or small) the model is ... and proves that the casemate is probably too tall, and the funnel both too thick and too far forward. The prototype will probably end up as a self-propelled floating battery!

The basswood I used for the hull was wider than on the original plan, which has made the ship appear shorter and fatter than expected. Likewise, the casemate (which is also made from strips of basswood) is taller than on the original drawing, and the funnel has ended up too thick and too far forward. She is a bit of a dog's breakfast ... but she will pass muster as a prototype, and I already have ideas about how to improve the design.

A busy day ... but I have begun to build the first prototype model ironclad!

I have been very busy at work today, and when I got home I found quite a few 'small' jobs that needed doing; for example, checking my company's annual accounts and making my VAT return for the last Quarter!

As a result I did not manage to sit down to begin building my first prototype ironclad until after 9.30pm ... but I can report that despite the lack of time I have managed to make the model's hull.

In the end I opted to use a 2-inch/50mm wide piece of basswood, which is almost as light as balsa but not as soft. This makes it slightly more difficult to work but the tighter grain makes the finished article much better.

Once I had made the rough shape using a sharp modelling knife and razor saw, it only took a few minutes to round off the sharp corners with a sanding stick ... and I am rather pleased with the results.

With a bit of luck I should be able to begin work on the model's superstructure tomorrow, and finish the whole thing by the weekend.

Simple model ironclads: Improved designs

By making the designs 2cm longer, the resulting models should look a little less cramped and a little more balanced.

Both the longer Casemate Ironclad ...

... and Double-Turret Ironclad have additional deck space that could be used to carry troops or supplies during a riverine campaign.

Now all I have to do is to decide what materials to use – wood or plastic – to build my prototypes.