A very simple and elegant mechanism

I never cease to be surprised with the ingenuity of wargamers who use my PORTABLE WARGAME rules. They manage to take my basic ideas and mechanisms, and then adapt them to suit their own requirements ... and in the process, produce really simple and elegant mechanisms that I would never have come up with.

Take Kaptain Kobold, for example. In a recent couple of English Civil War tabletop battles he tried out and refined a new turn sequence and unit activation system which is so good that I hope to copy and use it myself in the future. I won't explain it in detail but would direct regular blog readers and PORTABLE WARGAME users to his latest blog post for a full explanation.

Battle in Africa (2nd Edition)

Back in the mid 1980s, Paddy Griffith conceived the idea of publishing a number of well-illustrated sourcebooks that would be of use to wargamers and amateur military historians. They were published by Fieldbooks and the first (and only) two titles in the projected series were BATTLE IN THE CIVIL WAR: GENERALSHIP AND TACTICS IN AMERICA 1861-65, which was written by Paddy Griffith, ...

... and BATTLE IN AFRICA 1879-1914, which was written by Howard Whitehouse. Both were extensively illustrated by Peter Dennis.

Both books have been out of print for some considerable time, and until very recently they could only be found on sale from second-hand booksellers. That situation has now changed as Howard Whitehouse's book has been republished in a new edition by John Curry's 'History of Wargaming' Project.

BATTLE IN AFRICA: THE OPERATIONAL AND TACTICAL ART OF WAR IN AFRICA 1879-1914 is not a reprint. The book has been re-typeset and reorganised so that rather than being an illustrated book, it is a book with illustrations. As a result, I found it easier to read, although it has lost a little bit of the original's almost comic book style.

It is great that this book is now available again and will appeal to those wargamers who have only recently discovered Colonial wargaming as a genre. In particular, I can see it appealing to wargamers who enjoy using A GENTLEMAN'S WAR (by Howard Whitehouse!), THE MEN WHO WOULD BE KINGS (by Daniel Mersey) and (of course!), THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME.

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BATTLE IN AFRICA: THE OPERATIONAL AND TACTICAL ART OF WAR IN AFRICA 1879-1914 was written by Howard Whitehouse, illustrated by Peter Dennis, and published in 2021 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 979 8 5030 7043 9). It is currently on sale at Amazon in both Kindle and paperback editions.

Arriba Espana! (Second Edition): A progress report

Work on the latest edition of ARRIBA ESPANA! is progressing well. I have re-typeset the original text, and I am currently working on the additional text I want to add. This will include a specific set of PORTABLE WARGAME rules for the Spanish Civil War that will draw upon elements and mechanisms from the earlier rules. These include political allegiances, commander competency, air superiority, and air attacks, and are intended to present players with the sort of problems the commanders faced during the conflict. I also hope to include a number of scenarios for small tabletop battles that can be used with the rules, thus making the new edition a much better book than the original.

Army Black: A progress report

The first batch of figures for my FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME ARMY BLACK are finished ...

... and are already stored in their new home.

I am now waiting for some figures to be delivered from Irregular Miniatures, as these will fill in a few of the gaps in the painted figures that I already have. Once they are done, I can continue work on my ARMY BLACK

Seventy-seven years on

Today marks the seventy-seventh anniversary of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of North-Western Europe.

As each year passes, the number of veterans diminishes, and it will not be very long before we are able to identify the last serviceman or woman to have taken part in the Second World War. As a child in the 1950s, I can remember seeing members of the Old Contemptibles marching past the Cenotaph on Armistice Sunday. It is sobering to think that in the 1950s I was much closer to the end of the First World War than I am now to the end of the Second, and that an eighteen-year-old who stepped ashore on D-Day is now going to the ninety-five years old.

I happen to think that it is our duty and our honour to remember them on days like today, alongside all those who served their country before them, and who have served it since. We should never forget the sacrifices they made.

Duncan Macfarlane, RIP

Thanks to a short note by Martin Goddard (the owner of Peter Pig) on TMP (THE MINIATURES PAGE), I heard about the unexpected death of Duncan Macfarlane.

Duncan and I were members of the same generation of wargamers, and I first met him when he started publishing and editing MINIATURE WARGAMES in 1983. He was looking for people to write for his new magazine ... and I was one of the earliest to do so. So, without Duncan, I probably would never have moved on to write this blog and my numerous books.

He was a very nice chap, although he was not the quickest of payers. He once owed me over a hundred pounds for nearly two years, and I only got my money by cornering him at one of the Kensington Town Hall SALUTEs and demanding payment! He paid up on the spot ... and business over, we then had a coffee and a chat ... and I seem to remember paying for the coffee!

Duncan later sold MINIATURE WARGAMES to another publisher ... and then, in 1987, he set up WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED in competition with his original magazine. As a result, Duncan can be said to have been the father of two of the UK’s (and possibly the world's) most successful mainstream wargame magazines, and the person who encouraged so many people who became major influences in wargaming to begin to write about their hobby.

Due to the recent disruption of the annual round of wargame shows because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had not seen Duncan for some years. The last time we spoke, he was manning his stall at the SELWG show and asked me to get him a coffee, which I gladly did. We were then able to have a short chat, and he said that he was pleased to see that I had begun publishing my own books.

He will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him.

Duncan Macfarlane

1948-2021

Requiesce in pace

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A rather grainy and out-of-focus 'captured' image of Duncan taking part in the Tyne Tees Television series BATTLEGROUND. The battle featured was a refight of the Battle of Edgehill, and his opponent was John Tilson. A recording of the programme is available on YouTube. For a man who was an excellent photographer, there are surprisingly few photographs of him in the public domain, and this is probably due due to him being more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it.

Army Black: The work begins!

I have managed to fix enough figures to bases to form three FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME units for my ARMY BLACK. I have finished varnishing them and they are now ready for the next stage of the basing process.

The next stage is to paint the edges of the bases matt black, and then to flock the base with finely ground cork. The final stage in the process is to fix a thin piece of magnetic rubber to the underside of the base so that the base will ‘fix’ itself to the thin steel sheet that lines the bottom of the storage box the figures will be kept in.

Amateur Armies: Militias and Volunteers in War and Peace, 1797-1961

Many years ago, I bought and read THE DEFENDERS: A HISTORY OF THE BRITISH VOLUNTEER by Geoffrey Cousins (published in 1968 by Frederick Muller Limited).

I was intrigued by the history of the British Rifle Volunteer movement of the Victorian era, so when I saw Stephen Cullen’s AMATEUR ARMIES: MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS IN WAR AND PEACE, 1797-1961, I decided to buy a copy.

I was not disappointed by my choice.

The book not only covers the history of militias in various nations, but also the failed French invasion of Fishguard in 1797, the development and popularity of the Victorian Rife Volunteer movement, the various left and right-wing political militias that took part in the Spanish Civil War, and the role played by the Cuban Militia in Castro’s post-revolution Cuba. The latter includes the defeat of the Bay of Pigs invasion, a topic of particular interest to me.

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AMATEUR ARMIES: MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS IN WAR AND PEACE, 1797-1961 was written by Stephen M Cullen and published in 2020 by Pen & Sword Military (ISBN 978 1 52673443 3).

At last ... after thirty-six years ...

Thirty-six years ago, I began couple of projects that started well ... and then petered out.

The first was to paint 15mm-scale armies for both sides who fought during the Franco-Prussian War, and the other was to paint a 15mm-scale American Civil War Union army. I did complete about fifty Prussian and fifty Union infantry before my enthusiasm began to flag, and since then they have been sat in storage.

I rediscovered them recently and decided that I ought to do something with them ... and I now plan to use them as the basis of a couple of FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME armies. I am going to start with the Prussians, and the painted infantry that I have should provide the basis of at least half a dozen infantry units. I will need a few additional figures (officers, artillery gun crews, and some cavalry) and I have already placed an order with Irregular Miniatures for enough figures to fill the gaps.

I intend that this will be my main project for June, with writing ARRIBA ESPANA! as my secondary one.

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In FUNNY LITTLE WARS, the Prussian/German Army is referred to as ARMY BLACK and has the following ORBAT, to which I have added its PORTABLE WARGAME SPs:

• Divisional Staff Group (Commander: 6 SPs)
• An Infantry Brigade comprising:
• A Guard Grenadier Battalion (Elite, 4 SPs)
• A Regular Line Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• A Regular Jäger or Schützen Light Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• A Machine Gun Company (Regular, 2 SPs)
• A Cavalry Brigade comprising:
• A Heavy/Guard Cavalry Regiment (Elite, 3 SPs)
• A Light Cavalry Regiment (Regular, 3 SPs)
• Horse Artillery (Regular, 2 SPs)
• A Machine Gun Company (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Engineers (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Field Artillery OR Siege Artillery (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Army Service Corps (Regular, 1 SP)
• Total Strength Points = 37 SPs
• Exhaustion Point reached after the loss of 13 SPs

I suspect that as my ARMY BLACK develops, it might acquire additional or slightly different units. However, I hope to stick to this sort of ORBAT to start with.

A new month and a change of project

Last month I decided that in order to keep my various projects moving forward, I needed to switch from one project to another every fortnight. I wasn’t able to do that last month, but now that we are in June, I have decided to put work on my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project to one side, and to pick up work on another.

It was my original intention to move on to my Napoleonic project, but the recent gift of some excellent 15mm-scale artillery, coupled with the discovery of some painted figures that I had in storage, means that I will concentrate on putting together a couple of FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME armies. In parallel, I will continue work on the new edition of ARRIBA ESPANA!, with the intention of publishing it by the end of the month.