Organising my collection of World War II figures into wargame armies

Over the years I've become a bit of a believer in the concept of synchronicity*, and an example of this has arisen over the past few days.

Just days after Thistlebarrow/Paul Leniston had been writing about how he organises his collection of Napoleonic figures into wargame armies, Chris Kemp wrote a blog entry on his NOT QUITE MECHANISED blog about his new Front Scale Orbat (FSO) that he intends to use for the next stage of his ongoing Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War campaign.

Looking at the accompanying photograph ...

... I was immediately struck by how easily it would work with my HEXBLITZ rules or a modified version of my twentieth century PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

As regular readers will already know, over the past few months I've been renovating my collection of World War II figures, but without any real plan as to how to organise them when they are finished. Having read Chris's blog entry, ideas are now beginning to form that may give me the answer to that conundrum.

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Please note that the photograph featured above is © Chris Kemp.

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* Synchronicity is a concept that was first developed by the analytical psychologist Carl Jung. He used the word to describe 'temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events'. In other words, events that occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related.

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.

Gradually getting there

I'm still struggling with my ennui, but I'm gradually breaking out of it ... I hope!

One thing I have done is to take a long look at some stuff that David Crook gave to me the last time we met, and which has been languishing in a bag since he did. It contains a number of items, including quite a few figures from the collection of the late Eric Knowles.

Assorted vehicles

A useful collection of vehicles from the DAYS GONE range, including two vans, two petrol tankers, a pantechnicon, and a bus. Just the sort of vehicles an under-equipped army might requisition and use to give their troops some mobility.

Tribesmen in turbans

These twenty-four Minifig Colonial figures look as if they are Pathan tribesmen from the North West Frontier of India.. There are enough of them to form a number of PORTABLE WARGAME units, and they may well end up seeing service in a variety of areas of the wargaming world where the locals wear turbans and long, flowing robes.

Different tribesmen in turbans

Unlike the previous Minifig Colonial figures, these twenty-eight figures look like they might be Mahdists. There are enough of them to form several PORTABLE WARGAME units, and they are also likely to end up as generic tribesmen in turbans and long robes. The inclusion of four figures with swords (obviously leaders of some sort) makes this group of figures even more useful.

Japanese or Chinese armed peasants(?)

At first glance I thought that these early Minifig figures were armed Japanese peasants, but having looked closely at the way Eric has painted them, they may well have been intended to form part of a Boxer or Taiping army. The inclusion of what looks like a number of gun crew (possibly four) would imply that any PORTABLE WARGAME army they formed part of would be very artillery heavy.

Converted US Cavalry, wearing fezes(?)

These Minifig cavalry look as if they started life as US Cavalry wearing tall shakos ... but Eric seems to have removed the peaks to turn them into fezes. He may have intended them to form part of a late nineteenth century Ottoman army ... but whatever his intent, they could be used to form several PORTABLE ARMY units.

I can see so much potential in the above ... but at present I seem to have so many projects that I want to work on (or at least finish), I'm not sure when I will get around to using them.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: English Civil War

Kaptain Kobold has fought another of his English Civil War battles using his variant of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules. This game was set up to play-test a version of my card activation system ... and judging by the results, it works very well indeed.

It's thanks to people like Kaptain Kobold my rules and writing about them on their blogs that has helped to make them so popular. As a gesture of my thanks to him, I am hoping that sometime soon I'll be able to publish his rules.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Kaptain Kobold.

Miniature Wargames 435

During a visit to a nearby branch of WHSmith, I was somewhat surprised to see that the latest issue of this magazine was already on sale, even though my subscription copy had not yet been delivered by the Royal Mail. I decided that rather than wait for the ‘missing’ magazine to make its tortuous way through the postal system, I’d buy a copy … so I did.

The articles included in this issue are:

• Welcome (i.e. the editorial) by John Treadaway
• Forward observer
• Send three and fourpence: I contain multitudes: Co-operative & Solo Historical Wargames by Conrad Kinch
• D-Day Special Features Commemorating 75 Years
• Raus! Raus!: Load your torpedoes and gun your ship’s engines in an exclusive ‘what if’ scenario for Cruel Seas with text and photographs supplied by Warlord Games
• Spreading the Ham and Jam right to the edges: A D-Day scenario by Colin Phillips, with photographs by John Treadaway
• Dorylaeum: Crusading in Anatolia, July 1, 1097 by Jon Sutherland, with photographs by Diane Sutherland
• Darker Horizons
• Prepare for war!: Move over Warhammer: Conquest is bringing grimdark to the world of fantasy an interview with Leo Mavrokefalos conducted by James Winspear, with photographs by Para Bellum
• Fantasy Facts
• Show Report: Being Partizan: The Editor goes to the first of the Partizan 2019 shows with text and photographs by John Treadaway
• The Great Expedition: Drake’s Raids in the New World 1585 to 1586 by Chris Swan, with photographs by John Treadaway
• Slightly unbalanced: An ad hoc WWII scenario mechanism for the Western Desert by Dave Tuck, with photographs by Malc Johnston
• Recce
• Compare & Contrast: Trying out Games Workshop’s Citadel Contrast by James Winspear
• How To … build a fantasy house: Part One: Architecture in miniature! with text and photographs by James Winspear
• Moult Free: The continuing tales of a wargames widow with text and photographs by Diane Sutherland
• Club Directory

So, what did I think of this issue?

The magazine had yet another freebie attached to it by sticky tape, but unlike the last issue, I was able to remove my two 1:300th-scale MTB models without tearing or damaging the cover.

I really enjoyed Conrad Kinch’s Send three and fourpence: I contain multitudes: Co-operative & Solo Historical Wargames article … and not just because my PORTABLE WARGAME rules and blog as well as Wargame Developments and THE NUGGET get a mention! He very clearly sets out to refute a couple of assertions made in a recent MEEPLES & MINIATURES podcast (Episode No.264) by Joseph McCullough – the designer of FROSTGRAVE, RANGERS OF SHADOW DEEP, and GHOST ARCHIPELAGO – that ‘Fantasy and Science Fiction wargamers are ‘ more interested in story while Historical wargamers are more interested in simulation’ and ‘historical solo/co-operative games were ‘… virtually non-existent’’ … and do so very well indeed. In my opinion – and bearing in mind that I like to think quite a bit about the whys and wherefores of wargaming – the magazine was worth buying just for this article.

It was also good to see a couple of D-Day-related articles, but on the downside, why were there two terrain modelling articles in the same issue?

All-in-all, I felt that this was a better issue than last month’s … even though I’m still waiting for my subscription copy to arrive!

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With an enviable degree of synchronicity, the Royal Mail delivered the subscription copy of this magazine just as I was about to press the 'Publish' button!

You could not make thing like this up and be believed!

A Wnter-ish War revisited

After writing yesterday's blog entry, I realised that not all of my regular readers will remember this mini-campaign and I was rather vague about when I wrote about it. I've therefore decided to add links to the various battle reports.

A map of the southern border area between Opeland and SPUR. Click on the map to enlarge it.

• A Winter-ish War: The background to the war
• A Winter-ish War: SPUR's Air Force mobilises!
• A Winter-ish War: The outbreak of war
• A Winter-ish War: Day 1: The SPUR attack in the left-centre sector
• A Winter-ish War: Day 1: The SPUR attack in the right-centre sector
• A Winter-ish War: Day 2: The SPUR attack in the right-hand sector
• A Winter-ish War: Day 3: The SPUR attack in the left-hand sector
• A Winter-ish War: The armistice and its aftermath
• A Winter-ish War: An untold story

Light bombers of the SPUR Air Force (escorted by two fighters) about to attack the Opelandic capital, Viputa.

The SPUR battleship Krasny Viputa (Red Viputa) protects units of the SPUR Naval infantry as they approach the coast of Opeland.

Being in a state on ennui

For some inexplicable reason, over the past couple of weeks I have been smitten with that dreaded state of ennui* that sometimes afflicts wargamers. There are plenty of things that I COULD be doing – and some that I SHOULD be doing – but for the life of me I just cannot seem to be able to generate the necessary motivation to do any of them.

Luckily, I have my blog to look back at, and that has provided me with a little bit of inspiration to do something. Flicking though the 2016 printed volumes of my blog, I came across the solo mini-campaign that I ran in the early part of the year … A WINTER-ISH WAR. Reading the text and looking at the photographs made me realise that what I need to do is to fight a wargame or two. I could wait until COW – which will be taking place in less than four weeks’ time – but I need to do something about my state of ennui NOW!

I have a couple of ideas whirring around in my head, but as part of my ‘get motivated’ plan, I’ve extracted all the separate blog entries about A WINTER-ISH WAR and collated them into a book. I sent the file off to Lulu.com today, and within a week or so it should have been printed and sent to me. If I am happy with the result, I may even make it available to the general public, probably as a PDF as it would be a bit pricey if produced as a printed hardback because I have opted to have the photographs reproduced in colour.

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*Ennui is defined as being 'a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement'.

Now I know where I got the design from!

Yesterday, whilst re-watching the film KHARTOUM (it was essential research for my forthcoming game at COW2019!), I noticed that at one point, members of the relief force can be seen boarding a Nile steamer ...

... and I suddenly realised where I must have got the outline of the design of my model Nile steamer from!

Admittedly the steamer in the film has two decks and the model only has one ... but the general layout is very similar.

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It might not be obvious from the photograph, but I have repainted the deck of my model with a lighter shade of paint. The original colour was rather too dark, but the new colour seems to look more the colour of a scrubbed wooden deck ... which is the look that I wanted to achieve.

The Great Game: Waterloo Replayed

From 9.00am this morning until 6.00pm this evening, what is hoped to be the largest ever figure wargame will be being set up in the Kelvin Gallery of the University of Glasgow.

WATERLOO REPLAYED has been organised by Professor Tony Pollard and is being run in aid of WATERLOO UNCOVERED, a charity that is using an archaeological survey and dig on the Waterloo battle site as a support program for military veterans and members of the the military community. The charity was set up by Mark Evans and Charlie Foinette, who studied archaeology together at University College London before enlisting the Coldstream Guards.

The wargame will be fought over two days (Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June) and everything will be packed away on Monday 17th, just a day before the 204th anniversary of the actual battle!

It was great to see that several of the more well-known wargame companies have been involved in this project, and I think that all wargamers will hope that this event generates a sizeable amount of money for this very worthwhile charity.

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Please note that the image featured above is © Waterloo Replayed and the copyright of the logos featured thereon belongs to the various named organisations.

A recent addition to my book collection

During a recent visit to Falconwood Transport & Military Bookshop I managed to buy a copy of BRITISH DESTROYERS: A HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT 1892-1953 for £30.00 … which is about a third of the price I have seen it on sale from several online bookshops.

The book was written by Edgar J March, and published in 1966 by Seeley, Service & Co, and it is a companion book to the better-known BRITISH BATTLESHIPS by Dr Oscar Parkes.

The author of BRITISH DESTROYERS: A HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT 1892-1953 drew heavily on the Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers and Building Plans held by the Admiralty, and it includes 175 photographs and 100 detailed plans, some of which fold-out.

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BRITISH BATTLESHIPS: 'WARRIOR' 1860 TO 'VANGUARD' 1950: A HISTORY OF DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND ARMAMENT was published by Seeley, Service & Co., in 1957.

Dr Oscar Parkes OBE was a Royal Navy surgeon, naval historian, marine artist, and editor of JANE'S FIGHTING SHIPS from 1918 to 1935. This book has long been regarded as the regarded as a definitive source, and was the result of thirty-two years of research. I already own a copy, and my acquisition of BRITISH DESTROYERS: A HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT 1892-1953 completes the set.

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The contact details for Falconwood Transport & Military Bookshop are:

Falconwood Transport & Military Bookshop
5 Falconwood Parade, The Green, Welling, Kent DA16 2PL
Tel: 020 8303 8291