Exactly what I want!

Earlier this week my old friend Nick Huband sent me a couple of documents that were extremely helpful.

One contained an article from the June 1976 issue of BATTLE magazine about 'Wargaming for Beginners'. It was written by Tony Bath and included several photographs of Joseph Morschauser wargaming on his gridded tabletop with 54mm and 25mm figures.

The second was a copy of an article from the August 2018 issue of MODEL BOATS magazine. The article described how Ashley Needham had constructed a model pre-dreadnought battleship based on the tinplate one manufactured between 1928 and 1981 by Sutcliffe Pressings Limited. It was named Valiant and is exactly the sort of model warship that I need for my Belle Époque project.

Ashley Needham's model of the tinplate battleship Valiant sailing at high speed.

© Model Boats Magazine

Now that I have a photograph on which to base my own models on, I hope to start work on building several as soon as I have completed work on my simple naval wargame rules and play testing Joseph Morschauser's FRONTIER wargame rules.

COW acquisitions

Although there are no trade stands or an official 'bring and buy' at COW (the Conference of Wargamers) attendees do bring stuff to the conference to sell, give away, or swop. This year I did rather well and acquired quite a few items.

I obtained two books published as part of the 'History of Wargaming' Project from John Curry. They were MORE WARGAMING PIONEERS: ANCIENT AND WORLD WAR II BATTLE AND SKIRMISH RULES BY TONY BATH, LIONEL TARR AND MICHAEL KORNS: EARLY WARGAMES VOL. 4 (ISBN 978 1 291 19817 1) and DONALD FEATHERSTONE'S WARGAMING COMMANDO OPERATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON WARGAMING: LOST TALES VOLUME 2 (ISBN 978 1 291 39891 5).


MORE WARGAMING PIONEERS: ANCIENT AND WORLD WAR II BATTLE AND SKIRMISH RULES BY TONY BATH, LIONEL TARR AND MICHAEL KORNS: EARLY WARGAMES VOL. 4

This book is split into a foreword, three main sections, and an appendix:

• Foreword
• Lionel Tarr’s Modern Wargaming Rules for 1939-1945
• INTRODUCTION
• ANALYSIS OF THE LIONEL TARR GAME
• RETASOL TARR’S SOLO WARGAMING CAMPAIGN
• WARGAMING STALINGRAD
• THE LIONEL TARR PERISCOPE
• THE SPACE SIZE CONTINUUM BY CARL REAVLEY
• THE BATTLE OF HOMARD 1956, AN EARLY EXAMPLE OF A BATTLE REPORT BY CARL REAVLEY
• THE BATTLE OF WAL, A SECOND EXAMPLE OF AN EARLY BATTLE REPORT BY CARL REAVLEY
• War Games of the Middle Ages and Ancient Times by Tony Bath
• Modern War in Miniature (1966)
• PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
• PART TWO: THE RULES FOR THE PERIOD 1939 TO 1945
• EQUIPMENT
• SIMULATION CHARTS
• Appendix: An early Portuguese Wargamer – Backyard Wars of the 1920s

DONALD FEATHERSTONE'S WARGAMING COMMANDO OPERATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON WARGAMING: LOST TALES VOLUME 2

This book is split into a foreword, an introduction, three parts, a list of the books written by Donald Featherstone, and an appendix.

• Foreword by Stuart Asquith
• Introduction by John Curry
• Part 1: Introduction to the British Commandos
• THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE
• CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE COMMANDOS
• CHAPTER 2: TRAINING THE COMMANDOS
• CHAPTER 3: EQUIPMENT
• CHAPTER 4: OPERATION CAULDRON (1942)
• CHAPTER 5: THE ASSAULT ON FLUSHING (1944)
• CHAPTER 6: BRITISH LESSONS FROM COMMANDO OPERATIONS
• Part 2: Rules and Scenarios for Commando Operations
• CHAPTER 7: MEMORIES OF AN EARLY COMMANDO WARGAME
• CHAPTER 8: THE FIRST MEGA GAME
• CHAPTER 9: THE CLASSIC COMMANDO SCENARIO: THE RAID ON ST NAZAIRE
• CHAPTER 10: FIBUA RULES
• CHAPTER 11: WORLD WAR II WARFARE RULES
• Part 3: Reflections
• CHAPTER 12: DONALD FEATHERSTONE ON WAR (1939-45)
• CHAPTER 13: DONALD FEATHERSTONE’S YEAR (1962)
• CHAPTER 14: DONALD FEATHERSTONE ON WARGAMING (1927-2010)
• CHAPTER 15: DONALD FEATHERSTONE ON VISITING BATTLEFIELDS
• CHAPTER 16: DONALD FEATHERSTONE IN THE MEDIA
• CHAPTER 17: DONALD FEATHERSTONE ON THE LATE PADDY GRIFFITH
• CHAPTER 18: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A WARGAMER
• Wargaming and Military History Books by Donald Featherstone
• Appendix

I also acquired some Minitanks from Tim Gow and John Armatys with the intention that they will form part of the forces that will be fielded in my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War Campaign project.

I also bought some 15mm-scale Napoleonic infantry and cavalry ... because they took my fancy!

This is a pathetic reason to buy some figures ... but having done so I am now awaiting Richard Brook's soon-to-be-made-available Napoleonic wargames rules. These are designed to be used with 15mm-scale figures ... so it might not be such a stupid purchase after all.

Tony Bath's gridded wargame

My cold/'man flu' persists and I have spent most of the day sneezing, coughing, and generally feeling less than 100%. My day was, however, enlivened by an email from Mike Taber that brought to my attention a very recent blog entry on his Table Top Talk blog ... about Tony Bath's CHESSBOARD WAR.

To say that I found this interesting is an understatement, and I am going to add it to my growing collection of wargame rules that use a grid. I particularly liked the simplicity of the rules and suspect that they will produce a fast wargame that has subtle nuances when played. It certainly made me realise that in developing my PORTABLE WARGAME: ANCIENTS rules I am following in some very distinguished footsteps.