An away game

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit David Crook (of A WARGAMING ODYSSEY fame) to deliver some of my surplus wargaming stuff to him and – more importantly – to fight a wargame with him.

Many years ago David and I used to wargame in the cellar under Eric Knowles's shop 'New Model Army' in East London. We lost touch, but thanks to eBay we were reunited (I sold some stuff on eBay that David bought, and when I delivered it to him we both realised that we knew each other), and now we are both regular bloggers and email correspondents. (During yesterday's visit David reminded me that this was the first time we had faced each other across a wargames table since the late 1980s(!).)

David had set up a wargame in his 'man cave' (i.e. loft conversion) using his Hexon II terrain, two of his wonderful wooden block armies, and my MEMOIR OF BATTLE rules.

The scenario is described in more detail on David's blog, but in essence it was set during the Russo-Turkish War and involved a larger Russian force trying to break through a line of Turkish fortifications.

After dicing for choice, I commanded the Turks and David was in command of the Russians.

The Turkish Cavalry in reserve behind the centre of the Turkish outer defences.

The masses of Russian Infantry prepare to advance. The Russian Artillery is sited atop a hill that gives them an excellent vantage point from which to fire at the Turks.

The Russian Infantry. There are lots of them, and all the Units are capable of sustaining considerable casualties before they become unbattleworthy.

The Turkish Artillery prepares to engage the Russians. Their fire proved quite devastating at times.

By the end of the battle all of the remaining Turkish Redif (Second-line Infantry) withdrew into the main line of defences.

The advancing Russians threaten the open flank of the Turkish defences. At this point the Russians are approaching their 'exhaustion level' and are unable to exploit their tactical advantage.

The Russian Artillery commands the now empty Turkish outer defences.

The Turks are withdrawing behind their next line of fortifications and begin preparations to meet – and counter – the next Russian assault.

The battle reached a realistic conclusion when both sides reached their 'exhaustion point' (one of David's modifications my MEMOIR OF BATTLE rules that I intend to copy!) during the same turn. The Russians had achieved their breakthrough ... at great cost in terms of men ... and the Turks were still in behind their fortifications ... albeit that the Russians had broken through the outer ring of the fortifications.

All-in-all this was a most enjoyable battle and a very enjoyable day ... and I left with one of two ideas about how to improve both my MEMOIR OF BATTLE and MEMOIR OF MODERN BATTLE rules.

Thank you David – and your family – for allowing me the privilege of visiting your home and spending time with you!

Getting ready for my next wargame

Having completed the sort-out of my toy/wargames room (well, the truth is that there are still one or two minor things to be done but ...) I am now getting ready for my next wargame. It will be based on the first scenario in the ART OF WAR: OPERATION BARBAROSSA scenario book (Bridge on the River Bug), and after a lot of deliberation I have decided to use the latest draft of my MEMOIR OF MODERN BATTLE (MOMBAT) rules to fight this battle.

The latest draft uses ordinary D6 dice rather than special dice 'borrowed' from Richard Borg's MEMOIR '44 game and the playing pieces will be drawn from my collection of Russian and German MEGABLITZ units. I will not be fighting the battle tomorrow as I am fully booked up for the day. (I am going over to see my father in his care home, followed by a visit to see David Crook of A WARGAMING ODYSSEY fame.) I do hope to start on Wednesday ... emergencies excepted.

It is nice to be kept informed ...

Living near the top of Shooters Hill, one of the highest points around London, has it benefits as well some drawbacks. One of its main benefits are the view. Our house faces west, which means that on the horizon we can see everything from the O2 venue to Chrystal Palace, including Canary Wharf (London's own Manhattan skyline), the Gherkin, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Battersea Power Station, and even the Wembley Arch.

When the announcement was made that Shooters Hill had been selected as a possible site for an anti-aircraft missile battery during the forthcoming Olympics, I was not surprised. It is the obvious location, given its commanding position. It is also following several historical precedences. For example, during the Napoleonic Wars one of the Admiralty's signal towers was located on top of Shooters Hill. During the Victorian era the hill was also the projected location for a massive fortification that would be the last line of London's defence in the event of a French invasion. Finally, during the Second World War the hill was the location chosen for an anti-aircraft rocket battery (also known as a Z Battery or battery of 3-inch Unrotated Projectile (UP) projectors) ...

... as well as a barrage balloon ...

... and several camouflaged anti-tank defensive positions. (One of the latter – a flame fougasse – was located less than twenty yards from my house!)

As you might gather, we are happy with the decision that Shooters Hill be selected as a possible site for a Rapier anti-aircraft battery. What we are not happy about is the way this decision was communicated to us. The only communications we have so far had are a hand-delivered letter from the local council, the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The letter was delivered today, 6th May ... but was dated 27th April(!)

The letter was accompanied by a leaflet from the Ministry of Defence ...

... which informed us that we could visit the site chosen for the missile battery so that We could talk to the Officer Commanding ... but the date of the visit was 4th May, two days ago!

This is typical of so much of the Olympics-related communications my wife and I have received over recent months. Another example is the as-yet-to-be-announced car parking arrangements for the period of the Olympics and Paralympics. We have been informed that our house is within the area in which car parking will be restricted, and that local residents will be issued with parking permits. We were told that the arrangement for doing this would be done 'early in 2012'. Well it is now the start of the fifth month of 2012 ... and as yet no arrangements have been announced. Furthermore there have been suggestions that we will be charged up to £75.00 per car for the permits, and that we will have to buy books of temporary, limited parking permits for any visitors who might come to see us during the Olympics and Paralympics.

It is nice to be kept in the picture about what is going on ... but this is just not happening at the moment.

Five months on ... and a 'Eureka!' moment

I was doing some minor tidying up in my toy/wargames room this morning and happened to need to move the spare single unit shelf I bought for the IKEA Husar bookshelves/cupboards I use ... and wondered if I could put it to good use. I only have three single units, one of which is next to the cupboard I am now using to store my Hexon II hexed terrain. When I opened the door of this single unit I realised that with a small amount of rearrangement I could move the contents to some of the other bookshelves. This would free up the single unit cupboard so that it could be used to store some of the Hexon terrain items, including the hills, roads, streams/narrow rivers, and fortifications. The space where they had been stored could then be used to store non-Hexon II terrain or painted figures.

The only fly in the ointment was the absence of the shelf support pins I needed so that I could use the spare shelf. A search through my box of IKEA spare parts proved fruitless, but at my wife's suggestion I searched eBay and found some on sale at a 'Buy it now' price ... so I bought them.

With luck the shelf support pins will be delivered early next week. In the meantime I have cleared the cupboard and moved the storage boxes into the newly emptied space.

Five months on ... and I am finished ... for the time being!

Despite various distractions and diversions, I have finally finished sorting out my toy/wargames room ... for the foreseeable future.

It now looks like this:

The bookshelves/cupboards are from a now-defunct IKEA range of furniture called Husar. All the storage draw units and wooden storage boxes are also from IKEA, and the plastic storage crates are all from Really Useful Boxes. The wooden crates were bought in various DIY stores such as Homebase and Great Mills.

One of the reasons why I decided to have this grand sort-out was to make my Hexon II terrain more accessible. Well now it is! One of the cupboards now houses all the hexed terrain tiles, and in the narrow shelf space between the top and bottom sets of terrain are the trays of trees I have based to use with my Hexon terrain. (The boxes of clips that hold the terrain tiles together are also stored on this shelf.)

In the gaps above this cupboard are two draw units and a wooden storage box. The former hold my Hexon small hills, roads, and stream/narrow river terrain sets and the storage box contains my Hexon trench and fortification sets.

On top of the cupboard are several Really Useful Boxes. These contain my Hexon large hills and mountains as well as my Hexon river terrain sets and several miscellaneous Hexon items that are too large to fit into the other storage I have used.

On the very top are the largest Hexon terrain items, including an eight-hex river section and two large slopes. These are just too large for any of the storage boxes or draw units I have used, and are therefore kept in plastic bags.

Five months on ... and still not quite finished yet!

I had hoped to have finished the grand sort-out of my toy/wargames room by now ... but real life (in the form of yesterday's trip to Herne Bay and the need to do some food shopping this morning) has delayed me somewhat. Furthermore, I seem to be suffering from 'sort-out' fatigue, and I am finding it very difficult to get the last few bits done. I am about to take a break to watch the Indian Premier League cricket match between the Chennai Super Kings and the Deccan Chargers, and after that I hope that my malaise would have passed and I can finish the job I started last Monday.

Herne Bay in the rain

It has been some weeks since my wife and I visited my father-in-law's bungalow in Herne Bay, Kent. Because it is election day for the next Mayor of London and the members of the London Assembly, the school where my wife normally works on Thursdays was closed as it was being used as a polling station. We therefore decided to go to Herne Bay today, and to use the opportunity to see the solicitor who is dealing with my father-in-law's estate and the estate agent who is selling the bungalow.

The weather was not particularly good, and the drive to Herne Bay was punctuated by heavy rain showers. Once we were there it took us less than fifteen minutes to check that the bungalow was all right and to pick up the mail that had been delivered since our last visit. We then went to the seafront, where we parked close to the fish-and-chip restaurant where we usually eat lunch ... as we did today. The rain was by now falling quite steadily and the wind coming off the sea made the air temperature feel even lower than we had expected.

After an enjoyable lunch of cod and chips, our decision to visit the solicitor turned out to have been a very sensible one. The solicitor had been on the point of writing to my wife to request some information about the bungalow as well as her signature on the sales contract. By visiting the solicitor when we did, we probably speeded up the sales process by nearly a week.

The estate agent had nothing new to tell us, and having done everything we planned to do in Herne Bay, we drove home through the rain showers. The poor weather did nothing to improve the driving conditions, and when combined with the heavy traffic, it made for a less than perfect journey home. We got home late in the afternoon feeling tired and cold, but also feeling that we had made substantial progress.

Five months on ... and almost finished

I have almost finished sorting out my toy/wargames room. With luck it should take me another couple of hours to finish putting everything into its allotted space ... and then I can think about celebrating with a wargame!

I will definitely be using my Hexon II terrain, especially as it is now so much more accessible. I will probably use the first scenario from the ART OF TACTIC: OPERATION BARBAROSSA scenario book, but I have not yet decided what rules to use. My first thought was to use either my OPERATIONAL ART or MEMOIR OF MODERN BATTLE (MOMBAT) rules, but during the sort-out I found the figures I used some time ago when I wrote RED FLAGS AND IRON CROSSES (TARRED AND FEATHERSTONED) rules, and I am now considering using both the figures and the rules.

All I have to do now is to finish the sort-out ...

Five months on ... and a lot of progress has been made!

This morning I finally finished cataloguing the books I have selected for disposal, and they are now stored in a number of strong laundry bags. This will make them easier to move about until they are finally sold.

I am going to use some of the space that has been freed-up to enable me to have easier access to my Hexon II hexed terrain (including the hills, streams, roads etc.) in the hope that I can make much more use of it. I have already begun to move the Hexon II terrain into its new 'home' ... and in the process I have begun to relish quite how much of it I have!

The rest of the newly emptied space will enable me to have some storage for future projects ... although I need to finish some of the ones that I have in the initial or planning stages before I do.

I love the sound of horses' hooves in the morning!

I was sitting at my computer answering my emails when I heard the unmistakable sound of horses' hooves growing nearer. I grabbed my camera ... and was just in time to see the Royal Horse Artillery (who are based less than a mile away in Woolwich) exercising their horses on the road that runs past my house. The weather was wet, a fine rain was falling, but the sight and sound of those beautiful horses raised my spirits.

It was interesting to note from the photographs that each team of horses are closely matched for colour, and that their turn-out was superb.