Colonial Wargaming website

Until the middle of 2009 I had a website devoted to Colonial Wargaming, but at the time trying to blog and keep the website updated proved a bit too demanding and so, with great reluctance, I wound it up. I did try to replace it with a Colonial Wargaming blog ... but time pressure led to that becoming moribund as well.

I was recently going through my computer files and found that I had saved the whole website. This set me thinking about resurrecting it in some way as there were some resources on the original website that modern Colonial wargamers might find useful and I would like to be able to share them online; the question is, how?

I don't particularly want to rewrite all or most of the html code I used to create the original website, but I think that I might have to if I do create a new website. A better alternative would be to find some way of converting my existing files so that I can upload them simply, quickly, and easily to the new website, but I suspect that is not a realistic prospect.

A potential alternative might be to use my currently moribund Colonial Wargaming blog.

Whatever I decide to do, this will be no small task ... but I think that it will be worth doing, even if it takes me some time.

Nugget 339

Yet again, the printers did an excellent job and turned around the printing of THE NUGGET in a matter of a couple of days. I collected it from them yesterday and will get it out in the post to members tomorrow. In the meantime, members can read this issue online.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the third issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2021-2022 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 338

The printers did a sterling job, and I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from them this morning. I hope to post it out to members tomorrow. In the meantime, members can read this issue ...

... and the Colour Supplement online from the relevant page on the Wargame Developments website.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the second issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2021-2022 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 338

The editor of THE NUGGET sent me the latest issue on Sunday, and I passed it to the printer this morning. With luck, it should be ready to be posted out to members by next weekend.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the second issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2021-2022 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 337

I will be collecting the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer later today, and I hope to post it out to members tomorrow. In the meantime, members can read this issue ...

... and the Colour Supplement online from the relevant page on the Wargame Developments website.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the first issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2021-2022 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 337

The editor of THE NUGGET sent me the latest issue on Friday, and I intend to send it to the printer on Monday morning. With luck, it should be ready to be posted out to members by the middle of next week.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the first issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2021-2022 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 336

I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET (N336) from the printer earlier today, and I hope to post it out to UK members of Wargame Developments on Tuesday. I have upload it to the Wargame Developments website so that members can download it or read it online.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the ninth (and last) issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2020-2021 subscription year. A re-subscription form/reminder for the 2021-2022 subscription year will be sent out with this issue. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 335

The editor sent me the latest issue of THE NUGGET yesterday, and I intend to take it to the printer as soon as possible. I should be able to collect it and post it out to members of Wargame Developments by the end of the week. I will also upload it to the Wargame Developments website so that members can download it or read it online.

Please note that this issue contains an important announcement about COW2021 (the Conference of Wargamers 2021).

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the eighth issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2020-2021 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 334

The editor sent me the latest issue of THE NUGGET on Saturday, and I have uploaded the PDF version to the Wargame Developments website. It can be downloaded and read online using the password that was sent to all members when they resubscribed.

This issue will only be available as a download until the current lockdown has eased. At that point a printed copy will be produced and sent out to full members. In the interim, a copy of the PDF version has been sent as an email attachment to all members.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the seventh issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2020-2021 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 329

Yesterday, I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer, and I posted it out on Friday afternoon. With luck, it should be with members of Wargame Developments in a few day's time.

I have uploaded the PDF version to the Wargame Developments website, and it can be downloaded and read online using the password that was sent to all members when they resubscribed.

As a bonus to this issue, a PDF copy of D Wayne Thomas’s rules OVER THE HILLS (AND FAR AWAY!) can also be downloaded from the Wargame Developments website.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the second issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2020-2021 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you recently. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 326 and VCOW

This afternoon I sent a PDF of the latest copy of THE NUGGET as an attachment to an email to all members of WD. It contains the following information, which has also been added to the WD website.

The Conference of Wargamers is an extraordinary event. There can be very, very few, if any, conferences which charge a fee for entrance and then expect delegates to provide the entire program and write up the proceedings. Yet each year COW is a triumph of good will and collective endeavour over standard consumer practice. Each year, as the call goes out for sessions and the members of WD provide, and we all have a jolly good time at Knuston. Then your Editor eagerly awaits, and eventually receives, enough reports for 9 issues of The Nugget.

For obvious reasons this year is not the same. It is extremely unlikely at this time that we will be meeting at Knuston this year. We can however take this as an opportunity to develop our wargames and the way we engage with conflict simulation. Following a discussion with a handful of members, we have taken the decision to offer an alternative to COW – Virtual Conference of Wargamers (VCOW).

VCOW will take place over same weekend as physical COW, that is the weekend of the 10th to the 12th July. It will begin on Friday with a Plenary session, and there will be 4 blocks of sessions over the Saturday and Sunday. These sessions will be a mixture of lectures, discussions and games, and attendees will be able to sign up to a range of different activities over the course of the VCOW. Sadly, you will have to provide your own food, but other than that, we hope to recreate the COW experience as far as possible for all attendees. We also hope that VCOW will provide us with some innovative new types of games and allow us all to explore the benefits and limitations of the virtual medium.

Obviously, attendance at VCOW will be by remote access (or, from the comfort of your own home, if you prefer), using conferencing apps such as Zoom or Skype, which I’m sure many of you are becoming rather familiar with at the moment. Sessions will likewise be run via a remote access media of the session leader’s choice.

To register a session, please send Tim Gow the following information:

• Name of presenter(s)
• Title of session
• Type of session – e.g. Role play, matrix, toy soldier, committee, lecture.
• Approx. number of participants
• Running time
• A few lines of chat about the session for the updates and programme
• Preferred time slot (day, morning, or afternoon)
• Media for participating (Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, etc.)

We intend to be able to provide technical support and a virtual briefing to session organisers ahead of VCOW to help the less technically secure. As virtual participation is rather more intense than face-to-face meetings, we recommend that non-game sessions last no longer than 40 minutes.

We are delighted to announce that the Plenary session will feature two sort lectures by:

• Peter Perla, Author of Peter Perla's Art of Wargaming
• Mark Herman – author of numerous titles for SPI, Victory Games, etc.

Also, Graham Longley Brown, a well know professional gamer who runs session for the army, will provide a lecture over the weekend.

Any fully paid-up member of Wargame Developments or anyone who has been a member within the last two years may register to take part in the Virtual COW. In order to take part must register your email address and make a small contribution (£5.00) to the cost of the software licence. This can be done via the VCOW blog page at https://wdvirtualcow.blogspot.com/

We very much hope that this format will enable WD members who for whatever reasons have been unable to attend COW in the past will be able to participate in the full WD experience.

Just as with COW, participants are strongly encouraged to submit On and Offside reports to the Editor of the Nugget. As always, your submissions ensure the Nugget’s publication.

We hope that VCOW will appeal to the membership of WD, and we look forward to you registering to attend and submitting your sessions in the near future.

Bob Cordery, Tim Gow, and Matthew Hartley

Nugget 326

Whilst I was taking part in my first online PORTABLE WARGAME battle last night, I received a message from the Editor of THE NUGGET that the next issue was on its way to me. This is ahead of schedule because it contains some important information about COW.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this issue will not be printed until the crisis is over. In the interim, it will be published in electronic format, and a PDF copy of this issue will be sent to every subscribing member of Wargame Developments for whom I have an email address. In addition, the PDF version of this issue will be uploaded to the Wargame Developments website as usual, and members will be able to open it using the password that was sent out to them when they re-subscribed.

As I have stated previously, when the current pandemic is over, printed copies of the 'missing' issues will be printed and sent out to full members so that their collections of printed NUGGETs will be complete.

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IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the eight issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2019-2020 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Having problems getting hold of a copy of The Portable Colonial Wargame?

Over the past few days, I have had several emails asking me why copies of THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME are not at present available to purchase from anyone other than Lulu.com. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer other than to state that:

1. The paperback edition is listed on Amazon as 'unavailable'
2. The hardback edition was listed on Amazon as 'unavailable' ... but the listing seems to have been withdrawn

There have been rumours going around that Amazon are only sending out books that they have in stock so that they can concentrate on delivering vital food and other supplies during the pandemic, and their website certainly carries the following information:

'As the Coronavirus has spread, we’ve seen an increase in people shopping online. To serve you while also helping to ensure the safety of our employees, we have prioritised stocking and delivering items that are a higher priority for our customers. These are items such as food, health and personal care products and items needed to work from home. As a result, estimated delivery times for some items may be longer than usual at the moment. You can find updated delivery times on the product detail page.'

Further information can be found on the webpage about Amazon and COVID-19.

The paperback, two hardback, and the PDF editions are available to purchase via Lulu.com, but they are currently experiencing slower than normal production and delivery times for the printed editions.

To give you some idea of the impact this is having, I can give examples of my own experience with orders. I placed an order for some books on 2nd April; I was notified that they were ready to be dispatched on 11th April; and the tracking app tells me that the parcel is still awaiting collection by the courier company (a total of thirteen days to date). This compares with an order that I placed on 24th March, which was delivered on 2nd April (a total of ten days), and another – made when things were 'normal' – which was ordered on 20th October and delivered on 26th (a total of six days).

So, in answer to these emails, all I can say is be patient and the book will become more widely available in due course ... and for those of you who want to order a printed copy from Lulu.com, it is worth noting that they currently have a 10% sale price offer available on all printed books until 16th April.

Top-down American Civil War counters for an online Portable Wargame

Over the next couple of days, I hope to take part in an online American Civil War battle using a modified version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules. The only problem is that I don't have enough figures and I don't have the time (or inclination) to paint what I need. The solution ... to make some top-down counters!

This turned out to be a lot simpler than I expected. I have a colour inkjet printer/scanner and A4-sized labels as well as access to the JUNIOR GENERAL website, and it only took me about ten minutes to find the right top-down images I needed and to set them out in an MS Word document, with each unit neatly labelled. The results looked like this:

Confederate Army

The complete sheet of top-down Confederate counters.

The Confederate infantry counters.

The Confederate cavalry and artillery counters.

Union Army

The complete sheet of top-down Union counters.

The Union infantry counters.

The Union cavalry and artillery counters.

All I've got to do now is to draw out a suitably sized 14 x 14 squared grid ... and then battle can begin!

Nugget 325

I had hoped to collect the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer today, but the current lockdown that has been imposed by the UK government has made that impossible. However, the printer has promised to deliver it to my home this afternoon if it is at all possible. If this happens, and the Post Office is still functioning, I will post it out to members of Wargame Developments later this week. With luck, it should be with them by early next week.

I have also sent a PDF copy of this issue to every subscribing member of Wargame Developments for whom I have an email address. In addition, the PDF version of this issue has been uploaded to the Wargame Developments website as usual, and it can be opened using the password that was sent out to all members when they re-subscribed.

As I have previously stated, it is very likely that THE NUGGET will only be published in electronic format for the foreseeable future. When the current pandemic is over, printed copies of the 'missing' issues will be printed and sent out to full members so that their collections of printed NUGGETs will be complete.

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IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the seventh issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2019-2020 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 325

The editor of THE NUGGET sent the latest issue to me over the weekend, and I have sent it to the printer. They have very little work on at the moment, and are running with a skeleton staff. As a result, they hope to print it later today and to have it ready for me to collect at some point tomorrow.

Assuming that there is not a total lockdown announced later today, I will endeavour to post THE NUGGET out as soon as I can BUT it is highly likely that this will be the last printed issue that will be appearing for some considerable time. In order to overcome this situation and to ensure that members still get their NUGGETs, I will be sending it (and subsequent issues) to all members via an email attachment. It will also be uploaded onto the Wargame Developments website. It is our intention that when the crisis is over, printed copies of the missing issues will be sent out by post.

If you have a spam filter on your emails, you might like to know that I will be sending the email from wargamer1950-AT-gmail.com. (Please remove the '-AT-' and replace with '@' if you have to add this email address to your list of permitted senders.)

Our message to all members is keep safe and keep well.

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IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the seventh issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2019-2020 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Nugget 321

I posted the latest issue of THE NUGGET out to members of Wargame Developments earlier this afternoon, and it should be with them within the next few days.

I have already uploaded the PDF version of this issue to the Wargame Developments website, and it can be opened using the password that was sent out to all members when they re-subscribed.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the third issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2019-2020 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you some time ago. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

Organising my collection of Napoleonic figures into wargame armies

I've long been an admirer of Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston's NAPOLEONIC WARGAMING blog, and particularly the way he has maintained a tempo of fighting weekly battles as part of his ongoing Napoleonic campaign.

Over the past few weeks he has been writing about how he organises his figures into armies, and after a recent blog entry about the French Imperial Guard, I exchanged a number of messages with him. The upshot of this is my decision to get some of my figures onto my tabletop to see if I could organise them in a similar way.

Above: Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston's French Imperial Old Guard Corps.
Below: Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston's French Imperial New Guard Corps.

(Please note, I wrote similar and not the same. As Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston pointed out in one of his messages, one should tailor ones wargame army organisation to what one has available, both in terms of figures and space. It should also reflect a reasonable balance between the strengths of the three arms deployed on the tabletop. I have used the same terms as Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston has on their blog so that readers can compare the two.)

Imperial Old Guard Corps

As can be seen, this Corps comprises:

• 4 bases of Imperial Guard Foot Grenadiers
• 4 bases of Imperial Guard Foot Chasseurs
• 2 bases of Imperial Guard Horse Grenadiers
• 1 base of Imperial Guard Horse Artillery (with gun)
• An officer on foot

I like the balance between the various arms, and this size of tabletop army (it has twelve bases and an officer) is ideal for the size of table I can easily set up.

Imperial New Guard Corps

As can be seen, this Corps comprises:

• 4 bases of Imperial Guard Fusilier-Grenadiers
• 4 bases of Imperial Guard Fusilier-Chasseurs
• 2 bases of Imperial Guard Lancers
• 1 base of Imperial Guard Horse Artillery (with gun)
• An officer on foot

This is also a nicely balanced tabletop army that meets my requirements regarding tabletop space and convenience of storage.

Imperial Guard Reserve Corps

As can be seen, this Reserve Corps comprises:

• 2 bases of Imperial Guard Foot Grenadiers
• 2 bases of Imperial Guard Mamelukes
• 4 bases of Imperial Guard Horse Artillery (without guns)

This includes all the Imperial Guard units that I have currently renovated but which have not yet been allocated to a Corps.

(I still have some Imperial Guard figures that I have yet to renovate. These include another two bases of Imperial Guard Lancers and two bases of what I think are Imperial Italian Guard Foot Grenadiers.)

Napoleonic Corps Organisation Chart
When looked at as an organisation chart, my Corps organisation looks like this:

I rather like the look of this Corp structure, and I could use it with the various versions of THE PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME without any problems.

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Doing this exercise has made me realise that I really ought to finish renovating my collection of Napoleonic figures over the next year or so in order to get them onto my tabletop and fighting some battles. Perhaps one way to achieve this is to try to set myself a goal of renovating twenty or so figures per month. This would certainly put a dent in the pile of figures awaiting renovation without turning the project into an obsession.

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Regular blog readers might have noticed that I set my various Imperial Guard Corps out on my recently painted 50mm squared PORTABLE WARGAME board from Warbases. This was not done by accident. My earliest attempts at writing a set of Napoleonic wargame rules used single-base units on a 50mm squared tabletop. (It was a 15 x 15 grid, which is somewhat larger than my new board.)

I wanted to see what my Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston-inspired Corps looked like on a similar tabletop, and it struck me that by halving the size of a Corps (i.e. using 4 bases of infantry, 1 base of cavalry, 1 base of artillery [plus a gun], and an officer), I could fit two small armies onto my new 50mm squared PORTABLE WARGAME board from Warbases without too many problems.

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Please note that the top two photographs featured above are © Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston.

Nugget 318

Somewhat belatedly, I will be posting THE NUGGET (N318) to UK, EU, and Overseas members later today. It has already been uploaded to the website so that it can be read online.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the ninth and last issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2018-2019 subscription year. Renewal forms for 2019-2020 will be sent out with this issue to members who are not attending COW2019. The latter have automatically renewed their membership as part of the cost of attending COW.

Nugget 318

Due to an unavoidable minor delay, I was not able to collect the latest issue of THE NUGGET yesterday. I hope to collect it today, but this means that I will not be able to post it until Tuesday next week as it is a Bank Holiday on Monday.

I have already uploaded the online version of NUGGET 318 to the Wargame Developments website so that members can at least read it before the printed version is delivered.