‘If I was going there, I wouldn’t have started from here!’: A cautionary tale of wargame design

'Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics.'

This (or something similar to it) is quite frequently quoted, and there is more than an element of truth in it. As Nathan Bedford Forrest is often (incorrectly*) supposed to have said, 'git thar fustest with the mostest', which requires good logistics, and can be vital to winning a battle.

As the majority of hobby wargamers are ‘amateurs’, logistics tend not to be covered in most sets of wargame rules. My HEXBLITZ rules did include some simple logistic rules, but to be frank, they were probably too simple and certainly incomplete.

I recently decided to revisit and revise HEXBLITZ and writing a proper set of logistics rules was the first task I set myself. After a lot of thinking (and two days of writing later) I had a comprehensive set of logistics rules to include in the revised book ... but on re-reading them, I realised that I had designed a monster that only the most ardent wargaming accountant would have found even mildly interesting.

I had done something that all wargame designers need to be very wary of, and that is trying to write a set of rules or devise a mechanism that is so all-embracing that it ends up being too complex and/or too burdensome on the players and was therefore likely not to have been used.

On reflection, this particular 'horse' fell at the fence of 'Cordery’s Rule of Wargame Design', which states that 'If players consistently ignore a rule because it does not make sense or hinders the flow of the wargame, then the rule should be discarded. If players do not notice that it has gone, then it probably should not have been there in the first place.'

I have therefore gone back to the drawing board, slightly chastened and determined not to make this mistake again ... I hope!

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* Bruce Catton, the well-known American Civil War historian, wrote in his book THE CIVIL WAR in 1971 that 'Do not, under any circumstances whatever, quote Forrest as saying 'fustest' and 'mostest'. He did not say it that way, and nobody who knows anything about him imagines that he did.'

The Paulista War: Volume 2: The Last Civil War in Brazil, 1932

I am always on the lookout for small wars that can be a source of inspiration for wargames, and when a copy of THE PAULISTA WAR: VOLUME 2: THE LAST CIVIL WAR IN BRAZIL, 1932 arrived in the post from Chris Jarvis, I realised that this was such a war. (The war got its name from the fact that the main support for the uprising came from the population of the Brazilian state of São Paulo.)

The war was a relatively short one (it lasted from 9th July to 2nd October 1932) and was mainly fought in the Brazilian state of São Paulo and some parts of Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul. Approximately 40,000 soldiers, police, and volunteers fought for the Constitutionalists (or Paulists) against 100,000 army, navy, and police personnel under the command of senior officers who were loyal to the President of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas. It is interesting to note that both sides deployed small numbers of aircraft and armoured vehicles.

As one might expect, the forces loyal to the President prevailed, bringing to an end a period of political instability in Brazil that had seen a series of civil wars fought between 1889 and 1932.

I must admit, that having seen the uniforms worn by both sides (mainly a mixture of Colonial and First World War style uniforms with the odd Iberian touch), it struck me that the forces involved in the Paulista War could form the basis of a couple of small PORTABLE WARGAME armies, and that if I wasn't currently working on other projects, I would be tempted to develop this idea further.

Constitutionalist/Paulista troops. Note the varied headgear, which included examples of the French Adrian helmet, the British Brodie helmet, cloth versions of the Colonial-style sun helmet, and fore-and-aft forage caps.

Loyalist/Government troops. Note the variety of headgear worn by these troops, who seem to be armed with Mauser 7mm carbines and rifles as well as Czech-built ZB vz. 26 Light Machine Guns. 1,080 the ZB vz. 26 were ordered in 1930 for the Polícia Militar de Minas Gerais (Military Police of the State of Minas Gerais) in 7mm Mauser calibre.

Loyalist/Government FT-17 tanks in action.

An example of an improvised armoured tractor used during the Paulista War.

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THE PAULISTA WAR: VOLUME 2: THE LAST CIVIL WAR IN BRAZIL, 1932 was written by Javier Garcia de Gabiola and published in 2021 by Helion & Company [ISBN 978 1 913336 37 0).

The Balkan League: The Kindle edition is now on sale!

Having had several requests for a Kindle edition of THE BALKAN LEAGUE book, I bit the bullet, and it is now available on Amazon for £4.99.

As predicted, the maps are rather too small, and the graphics on the Order Counters in Appendix III have disappeared. The later are, however, copied from the PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME book and should not be too difficult to reproduce from the following image:

Click on the image to enlarge it.

I am still trying to find a way to make the text available as a PDF, but this is proving to be more difficult than I expected.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: A Portable Fantasy Wargame in the garden

Tom Baynham recently sent me some photographs he took of a fantasy wargame he fought in his garden using his slightly tweaked version of the PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

The figures are 10mm Orcs and Elves from Irregular Miniatures ... and mighty fine they look!

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Tom Baynham.

The Balkan League ... is now on sale!

Last nigh I was informed that both the hardback and paperback versions of my latest book are now available to buy online from Amazon.

THE BALKAN LEAGUE is both a Matrix Game Campaign that can be played by a group of people as a standalone game and as a means of generating tabletop battles that can be fought using THE PORTABLE BALKAN LEAGUE WARGAME rules.

This book is divided into three parts, a set of Appendices, and a Bibliography.

• Introduction
• Part One: The Matrix Game Concept
• The origins of the Matrix Game concept
• What do you need to run a Matrix Game?
• How to conduct a Matrix Game
• Part Two: The Balkan League Matrix Game
• Historical introduction
• Maps of the Balkans in 1912 and 1913
• Player Briefings
• General rules
• Specific rules
• Resolving battles
• Part Three: The Portable Balkan League Wargame Rules
• Introduction
• Land warfare rules
• Sea warfare rules
• Appendices
• I: Map sections for the First and Second Balkan Wars
• II: The Balkan League Matrix Game Playsheet/Prompt Board
• III: Order Counters
• IV: Orders of Battle and notes about the armies
• Bibliography
• Books
• Magazine articles

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The paperback is on sale for £9.99 and the hardback is on sale for £14.99.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports

There have been quite a few interesting battle reports on the Portable Wargame Facebook page since my last blog post about other people' Portable Wargame battle reports.

Paul David Leeson has reported on two Napoleonic battles, the Retreat from Cofrentes ...

... and the action at Carpio.

JuanMa Ortiz has been fight an Ancients battle between the Romans and Egyptians using dominoes as the basis for his units ...

... and Mark Cordone has been showing how replacement figures for RISK can make admirable quick-to-make units for use with the rules.

He has even featured some of his painted RISK figures on the Facebook page.

Finally, Barry Carter has used some of his 'spare' French and Indian Wars WoFun figures (plus some Mexican figures that he just had to buy!) to fight a skirmish that resulted from a Comanche raid into Mexican territory.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Paul David Leeson, JuanMa Ortiz, Mark Cordone, and Barry Carter.

Revisiting Laurania and Maldacia

Back in the early days of my blog (30th October 2008) I decided to use the imagi-nation created by Sir Winston Churchill as the basis of a wargaming project.

Laurania had been the setting of his only novel, SAVROLA - A TALE OF REVOLUTION IN LAURANIA. Having read the book many times, I was able to deduce some facts about the country, and I used these to create a map ...

... and a background history for the country.

I needed an opponent, and this inevitably led to the creation of Maldacia, Laurania's northern neighbour ... and who they fought on several occasions:

• Table Top Battles - The Lauranian Border War (1869) - The Battle of Turga (January 2009)
• Incident on the border: The initial positions (July 2010)
• Incident on the border: The early moves (July 2010)
• Incident on the border: The battle for the bridge (July 2010)
• Ford over the River Mob (May 2012)

Since then, this project has been sitting on the backburner, but now that I have my various FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME armies slowly and steadily growing, it might well be the right time to revisit Laurania and Maldacia again in some way.

Renaming Army Blue …

Yesterday I was preparing another batch of my ARMY BLUE figures for varnishing and basing when I was reminded of a comment made by Arthur Harman. The red kepis really do stand out … and as this headgear will be worn by all the figures in this new FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME army, I have decided that I should rename them ARMY KEPI ROUGE.

At some point in the future, I will give all my FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME armies ‘proper’ (i.e. imagi-nation names) … but until then they will remain ARMY KHAKI, ARMY BLACK, and ARMY KEPI ROUGE.

The Balkan League book … is almost ready for publication

The draft text of my latest book has been proofread by Arthur Harman, and I am now in the process of preparing it for publication. Once that is done, I will have a proof copy printed and if it requires no further alterations or changes, I will release it for publication.

This book is divided into three parts and a set of Appendices.

• Introduction
• Part One: The Matrix Game Concept (including a short history of the Matrix Game concept and an explanation about to play one)
• Part Two: The Balkan League Matrix Game (including an historical introduction, maps, player briefings, rules, and how to resolve battles that occur)
• Part Three: The Portable Balkan League Wargame Rules (including land and sea warfare rules)
• Appendices (including map sections, a copy of the Matrix Game Playsheet/Prompt Board, order counters, and Orders of Battle and notes about the armies and navies that took part)
• Bibliography

With luck, I should be able to release the book in hardback and paperback formats by the middle of the month.

The legacy of Paddy Griffith

I can put my hand on my heart and say in all honesty that I would not be the wargamer I am today if I had not met Paddy Griffith.

Paddy's death in June 2010 was a shock, and eleven years on his legacy is only just beginning to be truly understood and his vast contribution to military history and wargaming realised. It is therefore worthy to note that John Curry's 'History of Wargaming' Project has recently published two books that cover just a fraction of Paddy's work.

PADDY GRIFFITH'S WARGAMING OPERATION SEALION: THE GAME THAT LAUNCHED ACADEMIC WARGAMING is an edited compilation of the original briefings etc., that were used in the famous Staff College wargame of Operation Sealion that took place in 1974 and the re-staging of that game (in modified form) at the Wargame Developments Conference of Wargamers in 2008.

Its contents include:

• Foreword (by Peter Perla)
• Introduction (by John Curry)
• Reflections on Wargames in General and Operation Sealion in Particular (by Paddy Griffith)
• Operation Sealion, the Biggest Non-Battle in History (by Paddy Griffith)
• Operation Sealion: The Book (by Richard Cox, with footnotes by Paddy Griffith)
• The Staff College Wargame
• Introduction
• Structure of the Game
• General Scenario
• Hitler's Invasion Directives
• Exercise Sealion Participants
• Rules for Umpires
• Sample Order Sheet
• The Weather
• The Weather Forecast of the South East of England
• Tie Times September 1940
• Sun and Moon Times
• Bomber Command Operations
• The Battle of Britain Wargame
• Damage to Targets Outside Fighter Command
• Order of battle
• German Invasion Craft
• Briefings
• Orders for German Invasion
• Orders for U-Boats
• Event Logs
• In Game News Reports
• The Result of the Operation Sealion Game
• Peace Offer
• An Umpire's Post Game Reflections
• Characteristics of Royal Navy Ships
• Characteristics of German Ships
• Characteristics of Main Aircraft in Operation Sealion
• The Wargame Developments Game at the Conference of Wargamers (2008) (by John Curry et al)
• Requirements for a Successful Operation Sealion (by John Curry)
• Selected Bibliography
• Appendix: Paddy Griffith's Debrief Notes on the Sealion Game at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford

A number of people who would have participated in the actual operation were involved in Paddy's wargame, and I wrote about them in some detail when the book was originally published.

Of possibly wider interest is PADDY GRIFFITH'S GAME OF WAR; REFLECTIONS ON A LIFETIME OF WARGAMING. This is a compendium of some of Paddy's articles, games, and correspondence, and gives a wonderful insight into his thinking about the relationship between military history and wargaming.

Its contents include:

• Acknowledgements and Challenges (by John Curry)
• Foreword (by Bob Cordery)
• Gaming World War II: Paddy's Greatest Legacy
• Obituary (by John Curry)
• A Wider View of Wargaming
• Donald Featherstone and Paddy Griffith
• A Lifetime of Writing Books
• Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst (1973-1989)
• The Moor Park Wargaming Conference (1980)
• The Toy Soldier Debate (1984)
• Interview with Paddy (1985)
• The Game of War: Wargaming for TV
• Waterloo 1815, The Wargame
• Balaklava 1854, The Wargame
• Reviews of The Game of War Mini Series
• British Army Evaluation of SPI's Firefight Wargame (1977)
• Roleplaying the Experience of Combat: Men Against Fire
• Naval Wargaming: Hunt the Bismarck
• 1814 Campaign - The Strategic Statistics
• The Civil Wars of Wargaming 1960-1990
• 'Black' Games
• Monkey Orange Solo Game
• The Taiwan Crisis Game: The Game that Almost Became An International Incident (2006)
• Books Published by Paddy Griffith

I did make a minor contribute to these books, and my opinion is therefore biased, but I feel that there is much in both of them that will interest the thinking wargamer who is looking for something a bit different.

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PADDY GRIFFITH'S WARGAMING OPERATION SEALION: THE GAME THAT LAUNCHED ACADEMIC WARGAMING was edited by John Curry and published in 2021 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 979 8 510 67146 9).

PADDY GRIFFITH'S GAME OF WAR; REFLECTIONS ON A LIFETIME OF WARGAMING as edited by John Curry and published in 2021 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 979 8 464 48388 0).