My 1:100th-scale 'air force'

When I decided to begin work on rationalising my World War II Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War collection, I realised that the model aircraft I had were in a variety of incompatible scales. After some soul-searching I came to the conclusions that:

• 1:144th-scale would be the best scale to chose ... but were a bit flimsy and
• 1:72nd-scale were a bit too big, even though they were easy to obtain and compatible with my 20mm figures and vehicles.

As a result, I decided to use 1:100th-scale model aircraft, many of which I already had, having previously collected aircraft from the Axis & Allies Miniatures 'Angels 20' and 'Bandits High' ranges. In addition, I had also managed to add some 1:100th-scale diecast aircraft from various sets produced in Europe.

My collection currently includes the following aircraft:

German

• 9 x Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters (A&A)
• 1 x Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fighter (A&A)
• 3 x Messerschmitt Bf-110 heavy fighters (A&A)
• 1 x Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber (diecast)
• 1 x Heinkel He-111 bomber (diecast)
• 1 x Fieseler Fi-156 liaison aircraft (diecast)

Italian

• 2 x Macchi C.200 Saetta fighters (A&A)

Russian

• 3 x Polikarpov I-16 fighters (A&A)
• 1 x Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 fighter​s (diecast)
• 1 x Lavochkin La-7 fighter (diecast)
• 3 x Yakovlev Yak-1 fighters (A&A)
• 3 x Yakovlev Yak-3 fighters (diecast)
• 1 x Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter (diecast)
• 4 x Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik ground attack aircraft (1 x A&A, 3 x diecast)

United States

• 1 x Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk fighter (A&A)
• 1 x North American P-51 Mustang fighter (A&A)
• 1 x Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter (A&A)

United Kingdom

• 11 x Hawker Hurricane fighters (A&A)
• 1 x Hawker Typhoon fighter (A&A)
• 8 x Supermarine Spitfire fighters (A&A)

Japanese

• 1 x Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter (A&A)

French

• 1 x Dewoitine D.520 fighter (A&A)

I may not need all of them for my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project, but I do not see any reason to get rid of the surplus aircraft models at present ... just in case I even want to try my hand at island-hoping in the Pacific, refighting battles of the North African campaign, or refighting the Battle of Britain.

More book PDFs are now available

Yesterday I managed to add three more titles to the list of book PDFs that are available to buy from Wargames Vault.

The books are:

The Portable Wargame

Developing the Portable Wargame

Gridded Naval Wargames

The PDFs are US Letter size rather than A5 size, and the text and illustrations have been adjusted to to make the best of the increased page size.

An idea worth pursuing ... has been pursued

Although I didn’t get as much positive feedback as I had hoped, I have decided to publish PDF editions of the following books at the prices shown:

• THE PORTABLE WARGAME (£2.49)
• DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME (£2.49)
• GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAMES (£3.49)
• WHEN EMPIRES CLASHED! (£1.99)
• HEXBLITZ (£2.49)

They are now on sale via Lulu.com, and can be found on my author's page.

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I am considering publishing LA ULTIMA CRUZADA and THE MADASAHATTA CAMPAIGN in PDF format, but whether or not I do will depend upon how well the above sell.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: More air combat

Since April, a number of very interesting battle reports using the air combat rules from DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME have been featured on the Heretical Wargaming blog. The battle reports can be found using the following links:

• Portable Air Wargame – Galland's First Kills
• Portable Air Wargame – Battle Escort (Mission One)
• Portable Air Wargame – Battle Escort Mission 2
• Portable Air Wargame – One Against Many (Missions One & Two)
• Portable Air Wargame – Low Altitude Dogfight (Mission Two)
• Portable Air Wargaming Over the Pacific – Recce Over Palembang
• Portable Air Wargaming Over The Pacific – Fight Two
• Portable Air Wargame in the Pacific – Fighter Sweep

As before, the new battle reports contain some very interesting changes that have taken the original air combat rules in DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME book and turned them into a stand-alone set of air combat rules.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Heretical Wargaming.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: Air combat

Two more air battles using the air combat rules from DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME were recently featured on the Heretical Wargaming blog.

As before, the battle reports contained some very interesting suggestions as to how the original rules in my DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME book could be improved and turned into a stand-alone set of air combat rules.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Heretical Wargaming.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: The Battle of Dorking and some interesting air combats

Chris Ager (a fellow member of Wargame Developments) posted an image of the Victorian Military Society/Continental Wars Society's BATTLE OF DORKING wargame in action at HAMMERHEAD 2019 on the WD Facebook page.

The VMS/Continental Wars Society staged an earlier re-fight of this battle at their October 2018 seminar about invasion literature.

At the same time, three air battles using the air combat rules from DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME were featured on the Heretical Wargaming blog.

The battle reports formed part of an excellent review of my very basic air combat rules as well as some interesting suggestions as to how they could be improved.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Chris Ager and Heretical Wargaming.

Developing The Portable Wargame: The book is finally ready to go!

The printed proof copies of the book have been thoroughly read by myself and Arthur Harman, and the remaining errors have hopefully been detected and corrected. As a result the book is now finally ready to go.

I have released all the versions for what Lulu.com call 'General Access' (i.e. people will be able to order copies directly from Lulu.com), and it should then be available for sale with Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc., within a couple of weeks.

Developing The Portable Wargame: The printed proof copies have arrived!

The printed proof copies of DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME have arrived, and once a few final checks have been made I can proceed to full publication in the very near future ... which will probably now be early July.

The book has 128 pages and contains 82 illustrations that include black and white photographs, explanatory diagrams, and maps. The contents are as follows:

• Introduction
• Pinning and Unpinning Units
• The Two Kills Option
• Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
• Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
• A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Army Lists for The Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
• A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
• Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
• Simple Mini-Campaigns
• Scenarios
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

When the book is finally published, the various versions will be priced as follows:

• Ebook version: £2.99
• Paperback version: £6.49
• Hardback version: £15.99

This is slightly more that the cost of THE PORTABLE WARGAME and reflects the fact that it has 16% more pages.

Developing The Portable Wargame: Almost there!

I have finally finished writing and illustrating the DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME, and it is now being proof-read prior to publication. It is currently 128 pages long and contains three full sets of rules and 82 illustrations.

The contents remain pretty well as they were in my last update, and looks like this:

• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Pinning and Unpinning Units
• The Two Kills Option
• Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
• Army Lists: Some generic examples
• Army Lists: A pair of historically-based examples
• Balanced Forces: The 40 SPs per side method
• Balance Forces: The randomly-generated number of SPs per side method
• Unbalance Forces: The randomly-generated number of SPs per side method
• Elite, Average, and Poor quality units
• Fortifications, fieldworks, and prepared defences
• Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
• A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Army Lists for The Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
• Tactical Formations
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
• A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
• Types of Aircraft
• Aircraft Arcs-of Fire
• Turning
• Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
• Simple Mini-Campaigns
• An example of a mini-campaign: 'Long live the Revolution!'
• Scenarios
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

To give a bit of flavour of what the new book will contain, here are a few of the illustrations I have used, with their original captions:

Figure 27: The same wedge formation as that shown immediately above, but on a hexed grid. The wedge formation is the one of the tactical formations that is easier to reproduce on a hexed grid rather than a squared grid.

Figure 29: The same Barbarian army in wedge formation as that shown immediately above, but on a hexed grid.

Figure 47: Let battle commence! The War Elephant unit has moved into contact with an enemy Heavy Infantry unit.

Figure 67: An example of a point-to-point campaign map of the Waterloo Campaign (1815). The forces involved move from one point to another.

Figure 75: The leader of the Revolutionaries prepares to fight to the last surrounded by his loyal troops.

Figure 82: A hexed grid version of the original Sittingbad map, modified to represent Sittingrad during the Rusland Civil War.

With luck the book should be ready for publication at some time during June or early July.

Developing The Portable Wargame: Latest update

Thanks to the feedback I have had from my small team of play-testers and proof-readers, work on DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME continues apace, and with luck it should be ready for publication by the end of this month. Final checking and the need to finish one chapter – for which I have to borrow some figures – are the only things that I can foresee that will hold up this process.

At present the contents look like this:

• Introduction
• Pinning and Unpinning Units
• The Two Kills Option
• Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
• Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
• A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Army Lists for The Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
• A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
• Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
• Simple Mini-Campaigns
• Scenarios
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

Developing The Portable Wargame: A progress report

Despite lots of diversions, I have been continuing to work on DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME. At present it contains the following chapters and sections:

• Introduction
• Pinning and Unpinning Units
• The Two Kills Option
• Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
• Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
• A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Examples of generic Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
• A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
• Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
• A Simple Mini-Campaign
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

The rules have been or are currently being play-tested, and with luck the text of the book should be finished by the end of the month. It will then have to be error checked and proof-read, and once that is done, it will be published.

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Sales of THE PORTABLE WARGAME continue to be healthy, and according to the latest sales figures, a total of 423 copies have been sold in the various formats available:

• 183 eBooks
• 51 Hardbacks
• 189 Paperbacks

The book has now sold in at least fourteen countries (the figures for the EU are not split down by country), including Zambia! This is not at all bad considering that the only publicity the books has had is by blog (mine and various other people's), purchaser reviews on Amazon, and related topics raised on TMP (The Miniatures Page). The book has yet to be reviewed in one of the glossy wargame magazines, and one wonders whether or not it will be. (Copies have been sent to reviewers, and I know that at least one review has been written, but none have yet been published.)

Developing The Portable Wargame: Another update

I have been beavering away over the past few days, and have finally finished drafting and play-testing the Air Combat rules.

They are somewhat different from the way they started out, and now include six aircraft types:

• Reconnaissance Aircraft
• Single-seater Fighters
• Two-seater Fighters
• Ground Attack Aircraft
• Light Bombers
• Medium Bombers

A 1:100th scale Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures: Angels 20 Messerschmidtt Bf 109 'flying' across the tabletop on a flying stand.

I am also making slow progress on the re-drafting of my PORTABLE WARGAME: ANCIENTS rules. They are currently being play-tested by a number of wargamers who have considerably more experience with the period than I have, and their feedback is both stimulating and thought-provoking. I suspect that this is going to be the hardest part of the book for me to both write and to finish ... but I hope that the end result will be worth waiting for.

One section of the book that I have almost finished is the mini-campaign section. I have extolled the virtues of mini-campaigns and have included a simple mini-campaign that I have developed from one that I first created ten years ago. It is about a revolution and uses a linear campaign track on which the players (representing the Revolutionaries and the Government) move backwards and forwards depending upon how successful they are.

Developing The Portable Wargame: An update

Despite a number of necessary diversions over the past few days (e.g. having the gas boiler services, taking my wife to the dentist etc.), I have been labouring away at my next book, DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME.

At present the book contains three sets of rules. They are:

• PORTABLE WARGAME: ANCIENTS rules
• DEVELOPED PORTABLE WARGAME RULES: EARLY AND MID TWENTIETH CENTURY (These are a revised and expanded version on the rules in my first book, and are aimed at players who want to fight battles on larger tabletops and/or who want a bit more detail.)
• PORTABLE WARGAME: AIR COMBAT rules (These are designed to be a stand-alone set of simple air combat rules that will work with the both versions of my PORTABLE WARGAME RULES: EARLY AND MID TWENTIETH CENTURY rules.)

I do not intend to provide full blow-by-blow battle reports for each set of rules in this book, but I will include illustrative examples of the various mechanisms.

I will keep regular blog readers aware of the progress I make on this book as and when it happens.