Hitting a brick wall

I broke my left leg eighteen weeks ago ... and I have been striving to get better ever since. For months I was basically confined to my bed or a chair next to my bed, and it is only during the last fortnight that I have begun to get the sort of treatment that I need to regain my mobility. I can now stand (with assistance) and I have manged to walk a few steps using a Zimmer frame (which is also known as a walker or walking frame) to support me. I no longer need a hoist to get me in and out of bed and can do that myself (using the Zimmer frame) as long as I am supervised ... just in case I run into any difficulties.

All of this is very positive, and the fact that I now have a diagnosis of axonal polyneuropathy* in both my lower legs means that the physiotherapists can devise a programme of exercises that should help me regain more mobility in the future.

What has yet to be determined is the cause of the neuropathy. The most common causes are excessive, long-term alcohol consumption and diabetes ... but as I don't drink alcohol and blood tests show no sign that I have diabetes means that I will need further tests in the future to identify the reason why I have developed this condition. My fear is that it might be something that cannot be treated and reversed as this will mean that any mobility that I do regain might be restricted for the rest of my life.

During the past eighteen weeks I have been using my interest in wargaming to help keep me from falling into a state of despair. The old 'Black Dog' has been sniffing around quite a bit of late and there is only so much thinking and writing about wargaming that one can do before a state of ennui cuts in. I have now reached that stage and desperately feel the need to set up some terrain, get some figures on a tabletop, and play a wargame!

To date I have been very lucky in that I have had the support of my numerous wargaming friends and acquaintances, many of who have written me wonderful messages. Thanks to Zoom, I have even been able to observe at least one wargame and been involved in it at a distance. However, I can sense that my enthusiasm for arms-length wargaming is waning, and I really need to take a step back and reappraise my future wargaming projects.

I had already decided to concentrate my efforts on my Belle Époque project, but to do so I really need to have access to a better computer than the current, small 12-inch laptop that I am using as well as to the Belle Époque figures that are in my currently unreachable toy/wargame room. I need to find a way by which I can undertake further work on this project within my currently restricted circumstances. I have a couple of ideas ... but I need to think about them before committing to one of them.

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* According to online sources, axonal polyneuropathy is defined as follows:

Axonal polyneuropathy is a type of polyneuropathy, which is a systemic process that damages nerve cells, nerve fibres, and nerve coverings. It causes symptoms and signs related to axon loss, such as impaired sensation, muscle weakness, or pain. Axonal polyneuropathy can affect both large and small fibres, but small-fibre polyneuropathy can specifically interfere with the ability to feel pain or changes in temperature.

Those sources identify its main causes are:

• Nutritional deficiencies, most commonly of thiamine, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, or vitamin E, or from excess intake of vitamin B6 or alcohol.
• Metabolic diseases such as diabetes, kidney failure, connective tissue disease, deficiency syndromes such as malnutrition and alcoholism, or the effects of toxins or drugs such as chemotherapy.
• Nerve compression or injury.
• Hereditary diseases.
• Autoimmune conditions.

The fighters featured in the film Things To Come

Quite early in the film, there is an aerial dogfight between two 'fighters'.

They are in fact a Percival Mew Gull ...

... and a Hawker Fury.

These were both civilian-registered aircraft, and the Fury was retained by Hawker as part of the development programme that eventually led to the Fury Mark II.

Percival Mew Gull

The Mew Gull was a single-seat racing monoplane built by the Percival Aircraft Company between 1934 and 1938. Only five were built and they dominated aircraft racing in the UK in the runup to the outbreak of the Second World War.

The aircraft's characteristics were:

• Dimensions:
• Length: 20ft 3in (6.17m)
• Wingspan: 24ft (7.32m)
• Height: 6ft 10in (2.08m)
• Wing area: 88 sq ft (8.2 m2)
• Weight:
• Empty: 1,150lbs (522kg)
• Gross: 2,125lbs (964kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × de Havilland Gipsy Six 6-cylinder air-cooled 200hp inverted in-line piston engine driving a 2-bladed variable-pitch metal propeller
• Performance
• Maximum speed: 240mph (390km/h, 210 knots)
• Cruising speed: 230mph (370km/h, 200 knots) at 7,000ft (2,100m)
• Range: 1,500 miles (2,400km, 1,300 nautical miles) at at 228mph (367km/h)

Hawker Fury

The Fury was a single-seat biplane fighter built by the Hawker Aircraft Company from 1931 onwards. 275 were built in two marks (Mark I (87) and Mark II (112) and the aircraft was operated by the Royal Airforce (196) as well as the air forces of Norway (1), Iran (22), Portugal (3), South Africa (ex-RAF aircraft), Spain (3), and the Yugoslavia (50).

The Fury Mark II's characteristics were:

• Dimensions:
• Length: 26ft 9in (8.15m)
• Wingspan: 30ft (9.14m)
• Height: 10ft 2in (3.10m)
• Wing area: 252sq ft (23.4m2)
• Weight:
• Empty: 2,734lbs (1,240kg)
• Maximum: 3,609lbs (1,637kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Rolls-Royce Kestrel IV liquid-cooled 640hp V12 engine
• Performance:
• Maximum speed: 223mph (359km/h, 194 knots) at 16,500ft (5,000m)
• Range: 270 miles (430km, 230 nautical miles)
• Service ceiling: 29,500ft (9,000m)
• Armament: 2 × 0.303inch (7.7mm) Vickers Mk IV machine guns with 600 rounds per gun

Firepower: The Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich: Part 2 – Firepower!: A YouTube channel video

I have created a pair of YouTube videos that tell the story of the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich.

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The second deals with the history of the second location of the museum – Firepower! inside the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich – and includes coverage of some of the exhibits that used to be on display.

This video can be found here.

Third Portable Wargame Compendium ... has now been published ... at long last ... I hope!

I understand that despite several problems arising from the use of AI by Amazon KPD to check my manuscript for plagiarism and copyright infringements, the Third Portable Wargame Compendium is now on sale with Amazon (in hardback and softback editions) and Wargame Vault (in PDF format).

The prices are:

• Hardback: £27.50
• Paperback: £20.00
• PDF: £7.50

The hardback, softback, and PDF editions are all over 135 pages long and are in full colour.

A hexed version of the 3 x 3 Fast Play Portable Wargame: Incorporating more feedback

Although some of my regular blog readers are happy with my suggestion that I turn my 3 x 3 hex grid through ninety degrees so that the the corners rather than the face of the hexes were at the top edge of the grid, other are more resistant. I have therefore gone back to look at the original layout both without ...

... and with the full-size Reserve Areas added ...

... and then with half-sized Reserve Areas added to the centre column ...

... to see if the suggested use of half-hexes works with it. The result looked like this:

My first reaction was that the end result was rather ugly and ungainly, so I made few changes. I turned all the Reserve Areas into half-hexes and removed two half-hexes from the central column, thus:

I think that the end result looks far better and returned to a 3 x 3 grid arrangement, albeit that the central column is made up of two full-size and two half-size hexes.

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I am not sure which of the two orientations (point of the hex to the top vs. flat side of the hex to the top) will work better than the other ... but it will give me something to think about over the next few days.

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After I thought that I had finished writing this blog post, I was struck by the fact that in the section immediately above this paragraph, I was trying to compare two versions of a 3 x 3 hex grid that were not really comparable. I therefore altered the left-hand grid by reducing by one column in width. The end result looks like this ...

... and has the same number of green half-hexes as the right-hand grid.

Despite being smaller, I still think that it looks better than the alternative.

Things To Come

On Sunday 4th August, Talking Pictures TV showed one of my all-time favourite films, THINGS TO COME. The film was produced in 1936 by Alexander Korda for London Films and was written by H G Wells, who based the idea behind the film on his own 1933 book, THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME. The film's memorable soundtrack was written by Sir Arthur Bliss.

The film had a cast that included many stars of the British cinema, such as Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Sir Raiph Richardson, Margaretta Scott, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Maurice Braddell, Sophie Stewart, Derrick De Marney, and Ann Todd.

The first part of the film starts in 1940 and events take place in Everytown.

International tensions are rising and the country (it is unnamed but is very obviously Britain) is threatened by a foreign power. Without a warning, an air attack is made of on Everytown and this leads to immediate mobilisation. A full-scale World War breaks out and fighting soon reaches a stalemate. The war drags on for many years and by the 1960s, no one seems to be able to remember why they are fighting ... but the state of war has become part of normal life. (Prophetic shades of Orwell's continual state of war between the three great super states in his book 1984, perhaps?)

The fighting gradually peters out when a pandemic called the 'Wandering Sickness' breaks out. It isn't clear what caused the illness, but it is suggested that it is the result of some form of germ warfare that got out of control. The illness is very infectious, and can only be stopped by killing off anyone who is infected. In Everytown, a local warlord called Rudolf (AKA 'The Boss') ...

...imposes some sort of order.by doing this, and gradually the vestiges of 'civilisation' return.

Although some technology has survived – mostly military technology such as the ability to manufacture small arms and ammunition – society is almost medieval. There are some aircraft but there is no petrol for the engines, and 'T'he Boss decides to rectify the situation by seizing the coal and shale mines owned by the Hill People ... who one assumes are the Welsh. The coal and shale can then be processed into petrol, thus giving him a military advantage over his potential enemies.

The attack on the Hill People is successful ...

... and it was this scenario that I wargamed in 2010. However, before 'The Boss' can exploit this advantage, his regime is overthrown by an international organisation – Wings across the World – that is devoted to rebuilding a united and peaceful world society.

(I even went as far as to produce a short video about the scenario I used, and looking back at it, it wasn't a bad early attempt at creating a YouTube video. That said, the timing of the various sections of the video are a bit too quick for the watcher to read the captions and I really ought to try to remake it at some time.)

I first saw this film when I was a child, and it had a profound effect on me, and since then I have watched it many times. It was my first exposure to the idea of a dystopian future, and every since I have enjoyed reading books and watching films that fall into that genre.

Firepower: The Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich: Part 1 – The Rotunda: A YouTube channel video

I have created a pair of YouTube videos that tell the story of the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich.

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The first deals with the history of the original location of the museum – The Rotunda – and includes coverage of some of the larger exhibits that used to be on display.

This video can be found here.

A problem with the Third Portable Wargame Compendium

A problem has arisen with the Third Portable Wargame Compendium.

I have just had a message from Amazon about the book. Apparently they think that it contains previously published material that may already be under copyright. I have got to resolve this within five days, otherwise they will withdraw it from publication.

Needless to say, I have no idea what the problem is as the Compendium is made up of articles provided by living authors who all created their own work. The only thing it might be is an illustration that has been used, so I will have to check everything and provide evidence of it being in the public domain. If it isn’t, I will have to remove it.

I have never had anything like this happen before and I suspect that an Amazon AI bot has found something that its programming considers plagiarism or copying of some sort, hence the message.

It looks as if I’m going to have a trying day today!

Third Portable Wargame Compendium: The final draft is currently being proofread and checked

The final draft of Third Portable Wargame Compendium is being proofread and I hope that it will be published by next weekend.

The Third Compendium will include the following articles:

• Modifications to the Ancients rules in Developing the Portable Wargame for fighting medieval battles
• Constantinople Beleaguered ... a PW3x3RW campaign idea
• A simple English Civil War campaign system for Portable Pike and Shot
• Simple English Civil War 8 x 8 Campaign Rules
• Some suggested improvements to the Brigade-level Portable Napoleonic Wargame Rules
• Developing the Napoleonic Brigade-level Portable Wargame
• Ideas for developing the Portable Napoleonic Big Battle or FP3x3PW Rules
• Wargaming the Flagstaff War – New Zealand 1845 – 1846
• Towards a Portable Gettysburg
• Sham-Battle and the Portable Wargame: Melding two concepts to produce a set of mini-campaign rules
• Some well-known scenarios revisited
• Big Battles, Small Armies
• A simple framework for narrative campaigns
• 6 x 6 Portable Wargames

The following images show the first pages of each of the articles;

A hexed version of the 3 x 3 Fast Play Portable Wargame: Incorporating some feedback

I've had some interesting feedback from Arthur1815, Mark Cordone, and Archduke Piccolo and I have been playing around with my hexed version of the 3 x 3 Fast Play Portable Wargame. In my last blog post, my hex grid layout looked like this:

My first change was to add a half-hex to each of the three hex rows (as suggested by Arthur1815) ...

... and this made the whole thing look better. (I think that the aesthetic side of wargaming is something that should not be ignored. I'm a great believer if something looks right, it probably is.)

I then divided each hex into two (again, as suggested by Arthur1815).

This immediately increases the number of grid areas.

I then changed the full-size Reserve Area grid areas to half-hex, which makes the whole thing far more aesthetically pleasing.

My 15mm Belle Époque armies are mounted on the following sized bases (width x depth):

• Infantry: 40mm x 20mm
• Cavalry: 40mm x 30mm
• Artillery: 40mm x 40mm
• Machine guns: 40mm x 30mm

The half-hex measures 10cm across and 5.8cm high ... so I can fit two single-base infantry and/or cavalry units or an artillery unit in each half-hex.

This means that the single-base infantry and cavalry unit can advance straight ahead or obliquely BUT the artillery unit may only advance obliquely.

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It is worth noting that Archduke Piccolo is also looking at the use of half-hexes, and I thoroughly recommend that anyone who has found this blog spot interesting should read his recent blog post.