Jeepers, Creepers!

My wife and I went to see my father today. He is still in hospital in Romford, and his physical injuries look as they are well on the mend. He is, however, very tired all the time and spends most of his time sleeping very fitfully. We spoke to the Medical Registrar who is dealing with my father, and after a long discussion it has been agreed that my father needs to have some further blood tests to find out what is causing the continual drowsiness.

The journey to Romford took me around the section of the M25 at the Dartford Crossing. The motorway was even more crowded than usual, and the journey took us ninety minutes. (The journey should have taken us no more than fifty minutes.) Whilst sitting in the queue of traffic we passed a wartime-vintage Jeep that was parked on the hard-shoulder of the motorway. Luckily we were going quite slowly at the time, and my wife managed to take a couple of photographs on my iPhone.

I assume that the vehicle was on its way back from the 'War and Peace' Show that took place last week. It was not alone, and I also saw two 'Deuce-and-a-Half' trucks with van bodies and a low-loader transporting what looked like a Dodge Weapons Carrier (either a WC-51 or WC-52) and Staghound Armoured Car. Unfortunately the traffic speeded up as we got close to these vehicles and my wife was unable to photograph them.

Memoir '44 Expansion Sets

I recently ordered several of the expansion sets for MEMOIR '44, and part of the order was delivered today. I bought ...

Eastern Front

This set contains:

• 42 Russian soldiers
• 24 T-34 tanks
• 6 ZIS-3 guns
• A Political Commissar chip marker
• 44 double-sided Terrain tiles
• 10 round markers
• 4 obstacles
• 14 Special Unit badges
• A booklet that contains new, additional rules and eight historical scenarios

Pacific Theatre

This set contains:

• 48 Japanese infantrymen
• 12 Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks
• 6 Type 98 75mm anti-aircraft guns
• 44 double-sided Terrain tiles
• 10 round markers
• 4 obstacles
• 14 Special Unit badges
• A night attack visibility chart
• A booklet that contains new, additional rules and eight historical scenarios

Winter/Desert Board Map

This is a double-sided board map with Winter (i.e. snow covered) terrain on one side and Desert (i.e. sand) terrain on the other.

I am still awaiting delivery of the Breakthrough board maps. This set contains two double-sided board maps that are 13 hexes x 17 hexes (the normal boards are 9 hexes x 13 hexes), and which cover all the terrain types used in MEMOIR '44 (i.e. Countryside, Beach, Winter, and Desert). These larger boards will enable me to fight somewhat larger battles.

I have only had time today to have a cursory look at what I have bought ... but it looks like it has lots of potential and should enhance my existing MEMOIR '44 collection.

Never tempt fate!

My last blog entry ended with the phrase ‘until reality and human nature intervene and I get diverted yet again!’

Fateful words.

Almost as soon as I had written them my brother ‘phoned me to tell me that he was on his way to Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex, because my father had fallen over and had been taken to the Accident and Emergency Centre there. By sheer luck my brother had been on his way to see my father in his care home when the accident happened. The home had ‘phoned him and he had been able to divert his journey.

My brother stayed with my father until the latter had been treated and tests made to find out why he fell over. The outcome was that my father had to have a number of butterfly stitches to close a long gash over his right eye. The gash had been caused when he had fallen over and hit his head on the corner of a radiator cover. The right eye was badly bruised and swollen, and my father could not open it. Both knees were also bruised and swollen, and they were unable to support my father’s weight if he tried to stand. In addition they discovered that he had a urinary infection (again!), that his blood pressure dropped if he stood up, and that he was dehydrated.

The hospital decided to keep my father in overnight and on Thursday I took over the task of dealing with the hospital, visiting my father, and coping with all the other sundry details that arise from an elderly person being admitted to hospital. I spent most of Thursday waiting for my father to be moved from the Medical Assessment Unit to a normal ward. The hospital told me not to visit until he was transferred, with the result that I waited … and waited … and waited. The ‘he’ll be moved in the next hour’ message seemed to be repeated ever hour until the early afternoon when they finally moved him to a medical ward. Armed with the details of where he now was my wife and I went to the hospital (and what should have been a fifty minute journey took us nearly twice as long thanks to a traffic jam at the Dartford Crossing!) having collected his washing and shaving kit from the care home on the way. We stayed with him for some time, but he was sedated so that he could cope with the discomfort of his injuries … and to prevent him from trying to remove the butterfly stitches that were obviously irritating him.

We returned to see him yesterday, and it was good to note that the swelling on his eye was considerably smaller. He slept for most of the time we were there, but he was fully conscious for a short time and it was obvious that he was finding it difficult to cope with the pain in his knees. The staff told us that he was eating and drinking quite normally but that he was spending most of his time sleeping.

My brother has taken over from me today, and no doubt he will find my father in better health when he visits him. At present we are unsure what will happen tomorrow as the hospital will be quite difficult to get to … because the Olympic Torch Relay is passing through that area and quite a few roads are going to be closed and diversions will be in operation. As both my brother and I can only get there by car, this will pose a problem for us.

The upshot of all of this is that for the past two days I have done absolutely no work on any of my wargaming projects … and I cannot see that situation changing for at least another couple of days. That said, the doorbell range just before I sat down to write this blog entry and the postman delivered a large parcel containing two MEMOIR ’44 expansion sets. I have yet to open them … but doing so will give me something wargamery to do.

Maintenance of the aim

The 2011 edition of British Defence Doctrine (BDD) states that 'maintenance of the aim is regarded as the master principle of war' ... and yet we wargamers so often forget this when it comes to our own projects.

I am as guilty of this as anyone else, as the events of the past week have shown. A week ago I was working on a modified version of BATTLE CRY that would be 'aimed at fighting battles from the earlier part of the twentieth century, and include rules that cover simple tanks and aircraft'. The rules are finished ... but remain untested.

Five days ago I started to base up some 20mm-scale Russian World War II troops that have been sitting in a box waiting to be based FOR SEVERAL YEARS. The bases are undercoated ... but are still unfinished.

I also fought a short battle/campaign using some cobbled together rules, figures and dice from MEMOIR '44, and a game board from RISK: LORD OF THE RINGS. The whole thing showed potential ... but I have yet to begin developing the idea in any serious manner.

Four days ago a blog entry by littlejohn about a battle that he had fought using a version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules set me off on another tangent, and led me to re-format the existing rules so that they fit onto one side of a piece of A4 paper ... but I have yet to use them in a game.

As far as I can see I have worked on at least four separate projects in the last week ... and have yet to complete any of them! I have therefore decided that today I am concentrating on making some progress with the figure basing with the intention of using the figures to test the modified version of BATTLE CRY that is printed off and sitting on the desk next to my computer.

My watchword from now on will be MAINTENANCE OF THE AIM ... until reality and human nature intervene and I get diverted yet again!

Battling on!

Littlejohn has done it again ... twice! He has now fought two Colonial wargames in two days using his development of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

I hope that he keeps up the excellent work that he has done so far with developing the rules as I find it very encouraging to see people using my ideas and making them into their own.

I have been to ... Oxleas Meadow and Greenwich

I had arranged to meet some former work colleagues for lunch today in Greenwich. I decided to travel by public transport, and because the bus stop I had to start my journey from was close to the site of one of the Rapier missile sites that have been set up to 'protect' London during the Olympics (Oxleas Meadow), I made a short detour to take some photographs.

This proved to be rather a stupid decision as the rain suddenly decided to get a whole lot worse just as I reached the stretch of my journey that was totally devoid of any overhead cover. Despite this I persisted and finally reached Oxleas Meadow just as the rain briefly stopped.

I had hoped to take some close-ups, but I was warned not to go down the slope towards the missile site by a police officer. This warning was not given because of any security restrictions but because the slope was exceedingly slippery and dangerous to walk down unless one had walking boots ... which I did not!

Oxleas Meadow, looking south. The missile is set up so that any threat from the south can be seen and dealt with whilst is is over Eltham and Chislehurst.

The missile site is protected by the Police and a double line of wire fencing.

The launcher appears to be armed with eight Rapier missiles.

If the weather improves over the next few days I might try to get some close-ups of the missile site.

Once I reached Greenwich I had just enough time to get down to the waterfront so that I could photograph HMS Ocean, which is acting as a command centre (and guardship) for the Olympic security operation.

HMS Ocean at anchor near Greenwich Pier.

HMS Ocean is armed with three Phalanx CIWS. One is situated on the ship's bow ...

... whilst another is located on the starboard side at the stern.

The number of antenna indicates why HMS Ocean has been chosen to act as a command ship for the security operation. Her flight deck and compliment of helicopters is also useful should there be an emergency.

Whilst I was in Greenwich I could not resist photographing the newly-restored Cutty Sark.

The Portable Wargame ... on a single page

Littlejohn's recent blog entry about a Colonial wargame fought using a modified version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules induced a mild flurry of interest in the rules, and so I had a look at them yesterday to see if I could change the layout so that they would fit on one side of A4 paper ... and I managed it!

A printable version of this new draft of the rules is now available in PDF format from here. I am rather pleased with the new layout as I think that the charts and the rules relating to them are easier to read.

PS. I understand that littlejohn is preparing to fight a second Colonial battle using his modified version of these rules, and that a report on his progress has been published on his blog.

The Portable Wargame is alive and well ... and still being used!

One of the first things that I do each morning is visit Google Reader so that I can follow the progress of my favourite blogs. This morning's visit gave me a very pleasant surprise ... a battle report by littlejohn about a wargame that he had fought using a slightly modified version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules!

In retrospect I realised that what I should have done yesterday was not to have produced an extemporised set of wargames rules and fought a game with them (albeit that it was a very enjoyable experience!); what I should have done is got my PORTABLE WARGAME stuff out and used it. After all, it was exactly the sort of situation the rules were designed for!

As Homer Simpson would have said ... 'Doh!'

So what do you do on a wet Saturday in July?

When I awoke this morning the sun was shining ... but within an hour all that had changed and the weather forecast predicted heavy rain for the rest of the day. So what was I to do? The answer came back ... do something wargamey!

(I am not sure whether such a word exists in the English language, but 'wargamey' sounds like it should do!)

I therefore set to work on a couple of things that I have been thinking about doing. The first was to glue some painted metal 20mm-scale Russian World War II figures to some bases. I have had these figures for a long time, and had just never got around to basing them. I had actually forgotten about them until my big clear-out earlier this year, when I found them in a box inside a large storage crate with a lot of other stuff. I decided to base the figures on individual bases, and as I had a large bag of new copper-covered steel pennies available, I used them.

Once the superglue had 'cured', I painted the bases with some matt grey enamel paint. This acted as an undercoat and gave the next coat of paint (the top coat) something to adhere to.

Whilst the undercoat was drying, I started on my second project for the day. This arose from a conversation I had earlier in the week with Ian Drury. Ian introduced me to the benefits of area movement back in 1998 when he staged a session at COW (the Conference of Wargamers) about an American invasion of a Japanese-held island. The island (New Stanhall) was actually a map of Jersey divided up into different-sized and shaped areas, and the individual figures represented a company on Infantry. The rules were simple to learn and easy to use, but the scenario made it a very interesting battle to fight.

In our recent conversation Ian outlined some ideas he had for an operational-level wargame that used area movement, figures/models, and a simple combat system based on that used in MEGABLITZ. This has struck a chord with me, and it seemed like I had an ideal opportunity today to play around with the concept.

My starting point was reading the report in THE NUGGET of the 1998 session at COW (the Conference of Wargamers). I realised that what Ian proposed needed a higher level of resolution (Regiment/Brigade at least, and more likely Divisional-level) and I wondered how I could achieve that.

I therefore decided to experiment with figures and other playing pieces from my MEMOIR '44 wargame and a suitable map. Finding a suitable map was actually easier than I thought it might be (I had visions of drawing my own on a large piece of paper). A glance through my small collection of boardgames soon produced a likely candidate ... Risk: Lord of the Rings edition!

Before I could start, however, I needed to cobble together some rules.

RULES

Units

• Each Infantry figure, Gun, or Tank represents a Regiment of that type.
  
• An Infantry Regiment costs 1 point to create and throws 1 Combat Dice.
• An Artillery Regiment costs 2 points to create and throws 2 Combat Dice.
• A Tank Regiment costs 3 points to create and throws 3 Combat Dice.
• An Infantry Division has 2 to 4 Infantry Regiments and 1 or 2 Artillery Regiments.
• A Tank Division has 2 to 3 Tank Regiments, 1 or 2 Infantry Regiments, and 1 or 2 Artillery Regiments.

Turn Sequence

• Both sides throw a D6 die; side with the highest score moves first.
• The side moving first (Side A) throws a D6 die; this determines the number of Divisions or individual Regiments they can move.
• Side A moves each Division or separate Regiment they wish to move in turn, resolving any combats as they occur.
• Once Side A has moved the number of Divisions or separate Regiments it is allowed to move, Side B may them throw a D6 dice and follows the same move and combat resolution procedure.
• Both sides throw two D6 dice. This determines how many points they may spend to 'build' new Regiments and Divisions. (This is an optional rules to be used in a longer game.)

Move Distances and rules

• Infantry Regiments and Divisions: 1 map area per turn.
• Tank Regiments and Divisions: 2 map areas per turn.
• Only Infantry Regiments and Divisions may pass through mountains. They take one turn to enter the mountains and one to leave.
• Tank Divisions reduce their movement to 1 map area per turn in woods, forests, marshes etc.

Combat

• Combat is resolved using Combat Dice marked as per MEMOIR '44
• Each Division throws a Combat Dice for every point the Division is worth (i.e How much it cost to create. For example, an Infantry Division with 3 Infantry Regiments and 1 Artillery Regiment is cost 5 points = 5 Combat Dice).
• Each separate Regiment throws a Combat Dice for every point the Regiment is worth (i.e. how much it cost to create. For example, a Tank Regiment cost 3 points = 3 Combat Dice).
• Two Infantry symbols 'kills' an Infantry Regiment.
• Two Grenade symbols 'kills' an Artillery Regiment.
• Two Tank symbols 'kill' a Tank Regiment.
• Two Flag symbols forces a separate Regiment to retreat.
• Three Flag symbols forces a Division to retreat.

Now that I had some rules, I needed a small war to try them out!

THE INVASION OF ROHAN

For some months the situation on the border between Rohan and Gondor had been tense. Both sides were claiming that the other was encroaching upon their territory, and despite diplomatic efforts by the other nations of Middenheim, war became inevitable.

The two sides mobilised the following armies:

• Rohan: A Tank Division (with two Tank Regiments, two Infantry Regiments, and an Artillery Regiment), Three Infantry Divisions (each with three Infantry Regiments and an Artillery Regiment), and Three separate Infantry Regiments.
• Gondor: Two Tank Divisions (each with two Tank Regiments, two Infantry Regiments, and an Artillery Regiment), Three Infantry Divisions (each with three Infantry Regiments and an Artillery Regiment), and Two separate Infantry Regiments.

Starting Positions
Not wishing to be seen to be escalating the situation, Rohan screened the border area with her separate Infantry Regiments whilst holding her Divisions in the middle and north of the country. Gondor, on the other hand, moved her mobile forces up to the border in preparation for an attack.

Turn 1
Gondor began the war by attacking Rohan! They threw a 2 on their D6 dice, and could move two units.

One of Gondor's Tank Division's pushed across the border and obliterated the single Rohanic Infantry Regiment protecting the area.

At the other end of the border the second Gondorian Tank Division destroyed both the Rohanic Infantry Regiments defending the border.

Rohan threw 4 on its D6 and decided to move thee units. One of the Rohanic Infantry Divisions attacked a Gondorian Tank Division, and almost forced it to retreat.

This was followed by Rohan's only Tank Division taking on one of its Gondorian opposite numbers ... and considerably reducing its effectiveness!

Rohan's final move was to bring one of its two uncommitted Infantry Divisions forward to support its Tank Division.

Turn 2
Rohan won the right to move first this turn. The Rohan side was permitted to move three units.

The Rohanic Tank Division immediately attacked a Gondorian Tank Division ... and reduced it to a single Tank Regiment!

This was then attacked by one of Rohans Infantry Divisions, but they were unable to cause it any further casualties.

Rohan also moved one of its Infantry Divisions into the Mountains.

The Gondorians were permitted to move four units. They began by attacking the Rohanic Tank Division with the remnant of one of its own Tank Divisions ... and managed to destroy one of its Tank Regiments.

They followed this up with a second attack on the Rohanic Tank Division by the other Gondorian Tank Division, but this had no effect.

The Gondorians also began moving Infantry Divisions forward on their right ...

... and left flanks.

Turn 3
Rohan was again able to move its units first. They threw 5 on their D6 die and could therefore move five units.

First its Tank Division mounted another attack on a Gondorian Tank Division ... and wiped it out!

One of the Rohanic Infantry Divisions then attacked the remaining Gondorian Tank Regiment and forced it to retreat back into Gondor.

Finally Rohan moved both its other Infantry Divisions forward.

At this point the Gondorians had been force back behind their own frontiers and their army had been reduced to almost half its initial strength. The government of Gondor felt that it had no alternative but to seek a ceasefire, which Rohan was only to pleased to agree to as their government had no wish to invade and conquer Gondor.

CONCLUSIONS

For such a hurriedly designed set of rules they actually functioned quite well. I don't think that I have designed a game that is anything like the one Ian Drury envisaged ... but it was a simple and fun way to spend part of a wet Saturday in July, and you never know, I might revisit this again in the future!

PS. Everything that I used to fight this battle was stuff that I already had on my shelves. All I did was to use the various bits and pieces in ways that its original designers had not though to use them.

PPS. It is still raining!

The Olympics will be taking place at a venue near you soon

In two weeks time London will be engulfed by the Olympics ... and things are already beginning to happen.

The first thing that I noticed was a sign that appeared one day recently on a lamp post opposite my house.

Then on Tuesday my journey home from St Albans at 10.00pm was delayed by large gangs of workmen painting white lines and Olympic Rings on the main roads near the Blackwall Tunnel. The 'Zil' lanes (special traffic lanes for the exclusive use of Olympic athletes, officials, and sponsors) have now arrived, although the signs do say that us common folk are allowed to use them until the Olympic Route Network (ORN) comes into operation on 27th July.

The Olympic Route Network (ORN) sign.

Yesterday new signs were erected around the area where I live notifying drivers that the area will become an Event Day Zone (EDZ), and that only people with parking permits for that area will be allowed to park there during the Olympics and Paralympics. Our Parking Permits (including permits for visitors) arrived in the post yesterday, and they will have to be displayed on our car windscreens from 27th July onwards, otherwise we may be fined and our cars may be towed away. I understand that some people have put the visitors permits they have been sent on sale ... and I found the following one on sale at Gumtree for £350.00!

I understand that a battery of Rapier anti-aircraft missiles will be deployed less than half a mile from my house by the middle of next week (it appears that local protesters have failed to stop this happening), and if I get the chance I will try to pay the unit a visit and take some photographs.

The Olympics will be taking place at a venue near me very soon ... and I can hardly wait.

(Please note that my final comment is supposed to be ironic!)