The Armed Forces of my Belle Époque imagi-nations

Having completed the model ironclad battleships for my Belle Époque imagi-nations, I thought that a review of the collection I have been building up was due.

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THE ARMED FORCES OF BURGUNDY

Navy

The Burgundian Navy currently comprises the following ships:

• Battleships
• République
• Liberté

Army

The Burgundian Army currently comprises the following units:

• Infantry
• 1st Infantry Regiment
• 1/1st Infantry Battalion
• 2/1st Infantry battalion
• 2nd Infantry Regiment
• 1/2nd Infantry Battalion
• 2/2nd Infantry Battalion
• 3rd Infantry Regiment
• 1/3rd Infantry Battalion
• 2/3rd Infantry Battalion
• 4th Infantry Regiment
• 1/4th Infantry Battalion
• 2/4th Infantry Battalion
• 5th Infantry Regiment
• 1/5th Infantry Battalion
• 2.5th Infantry Battalion
• 11th Infantry Regiment
• 1/11th Infantry Battalion
• 2/11th Infantry Battalion
• 12th Infantry Regiment
• 1/12th Infantry Battalion
• 2/12th Infantry Battalion
• 13th Infantry Regiment
• 1/13th Infantry Battalion
• 2/13th Infantry Battalion
• 21st Infantry Regiment
• 1/21st Infantry Battalion
• 2/21st Infantry Battalion
• 22nd Infantry Regiment
• 1/22nd Infantry Battalion
• 2/22nd Infantry Battalion
• 23rd Infantry Regiment
• 1/23rd Infantry Battalion
• 2/23rd Infantry Battalion
• 1st Machine Gun Battalion
• 2nd Machine Gun Battalion
• 3rd Machine Gun Battalion
• Cavalry
• 1st Cavalry Regiment
• 1/1st Cavalry Squadron
• 2/1st Cavalry Squadron
• 2nd Cavalry Regiment
• 1/2nd Cavalry Squadron
• 2/2nd Cavalry Squadron
• Artillery
• 1st Field Artillery Regiment
• 2nd Field Artillery Regiment
• 3rd Field Artillery Regiment
• Engineers
• 1st Engineer Battalion
• 2nd Engineer Battalion
• 3rd Engineer Battalion
• Train
• 1st Supply Column
• 2nd Supply Column
• 3rd Supply Column
• 4th Supply Column
• Generals
• A General (Mounted)
• Three Major-General (Mounted)
• Two Brigadier-Generals (Foot)

Units shown in italics are reserve units.

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THE ARMED FORCES OF KHAKISTAN

Navy

The Khakistani Navy currently comprises the following ship:

• Battleship
• Zafer

Army

The Khakistani Army currently comprises the following units:

• Infantry
• 1st Infantry Regiment
• 1/1st Infantry Battalion
• 2/1st Infantry Battalion
• 2nd Infantry Regiment
• 1/2nd Infantry Battalion
• 2/2nd Infantry Battalion
• 3rd Infantry Regiment
• 1/3rd Infantry Battalion
• 2/3rd Infantry Battalion
• 11th Infantry Regiment
• 1/11th Infantry Battalion
• 2/11th Infantry Battalion
• 12th Infantry Regiment
• 1/12th Infantry Battalion
• 2/12th Infantry Battalion
• 1st Machine Gun Battalion
• Cavalry
• 1st Light Cavalry Regiment
• 1/1st Light Cavalry Squadron
• 2/1st Light Cavalry Squadron
• 2nd Lancer Regiment
• 1/2nd Lancer Squadron
• 2/2nd Lancer Squadron
• Artillery
• 1st Field Artillery Regiment
• 2nd Field Artillery Regiment
• Engineers
• 1st Engineer Battalion
• Train
• 1st Supply Column
• 2nd Supply Column
• Generals
• A Major-General (Mounted)
• Two Brigadier-Generals (Foot)

Units shown in italics are reserve units.

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THE ARMED FORCES OF SCHWARZENBERG

Navy

The Schwarzenberg Navy currently comprises the following ships:

• Battleships
• Kaiser Frederick
• Kaiserin Augusta

Army

The Schwarzenberg Army currently comprises the following units:

• Infantry
• 1st Infantry Regiment
• 1/1st Infantry Battalion
• 2/1st Infantry Battalion
• 2nd Infantry Regiment
• 1/2nd Infantry Battalion
• 2/2nd Infantry Battalion
• 3rd Infantry Regiment
• 1/3rd Infantry Battalion
• 2/3rd Infantry Battalion
• 4th Infantry Regiment
• 1/4th Infantry Battalion
• 2/4th Infantry Battalion
• 5th Infantry Regiment
• 1/5th Infantry Battalion
• 2/5th Infantry Battalion
• 6th Infantry Regiment
• 1/6th Infantry Battalion
• 2/6th Infantry Battalion
• 11th Infantry Regiment
• 1/11th Infantry Battalion
• 2/11th Infantry Battalion
• 12th Infantry Regiment
• 1/12th Infantry Battalion
• 2/12th Infantry Battalion
• 1st Machine Gun Battalion
• 2nd Machine Gun Battalion
• Cavalry
• 1st Hussar Regiment
• 1/1st Hussar Squadron
• 2/1st Hussar Squadron
• 2nd Hussar Regiment
• 1/2nd Hussar Squadron
• 2/2nd Hussar Squadron
• Artillery
• 1st Field Artillery Regiment
• 2nd Field Artillery Regiment
• 3rd Field Artillery Regiment
• Engineers
• 1st Engineer Battalion
• 2nd Engineer Battalion
• Train
• 1st Supply Column
• 2nd Supply Column
• 11th Supply Column
• 12th Supply Column
• Generals
• Three Major-Generals (Mounted)
• Two Brigadier-Generals (Foot)

Units shown in italics are reserve units.

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THE ARMED FORCES OF STALBANIA

Army

The Stalbanian Army currently comprises the following units:

• Infantry
• 1st Infantry Regiment
• 1/1st Infantry Battalion
• 2/1st Infantry Battalion
• 1st Machine Gun Battalion
• Artillery
• 1st Field Artillery Regiment
• Engineers
• 1st Engineer Battalion
• Train
• 1st Supply Column
• Generals
• A General (Foot)

Funny Little Wars

Some time ago, I (and several other people) helped to encourage Paul Wright to produce a new, revised edition of his FUNNY LITTLE WARS book. He has, and it is now on sale from Lulu.com for £20.00.

The book is substantially different from the first edition and reflects the developments and changes the rules have undergone in the intervening years. The book comes in two parts, the first explaining the background to the rules, the way the rules work, a couple of scenarios, and suggestion on how to build a suitable toy soldier army and to conduct a garden wargame. The second part contains useful information and a brief summary of the rules.

The contents include:

• Introduction
• 01. The History of Mr. Wells
• 02. Playing Little Wars Yesterday
• 03. Playing Little Wars Today
• 04. The Basic Rules
• 05. The Advance Rules
• 06. Some Sound Advice for Such Men
• 07.Two Classic Scenarios from Little Wars
• 08. The Historical Setting of Little Wars
• 09. Building an Army
• 10. The Garden or Arranging the Country
• 11. The Idle Hills of Summer, and a Last Word
• Funny Little Wars Kitbag
• I. Toy Soldier Resources
• II. Further Reading
• III. Army Lists
• IV. Players Aide Memoire
• V. Playing Aids

The Army Lists include ones for:

• Army Red (AKA Britain)
• Army Blue (AKA France)
• Army Black (AKA Germany)
• Army Black, Yellow, Red (AKA Belgium)
• Armies Orange/Green (AKA The Irish Republican and Protestant Volunteers)
• Army Dark Green (or the Tumbling Bear) (AKA Russia)
• Army Cerise (or the Rising Sun) (AKA Japan)
• Army Orange (AKA The Boer Republics)

The book contains numerous colour illustrations, both old and new. and in my opinion is even better than the first edition.

The book opens with a very interesting statement which sets the stage for the rest of the book:

This is a work of the imagination.

Picture a garden, with HG Wells and toy soldiers ...

...the idea of a Late Edwardian afternoon, and a little campaign in the sunshine set in the far away world of hills, forests, castles and forts.

This is a game of imagination ...

'I dream, therefore I exist'

August Strinberg

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FUNNY LITTLE WARS: EDWARDIAN GARDEN WARGAMES IN THE STYLE OF MR HG WELLS was written by Paul Holcroft Wright and published in 2022 by Battlefield History Litd. (ISBN 978 1 4583 7005 1).

The Khakistani ironclad battleship

It took me less time than I expected to build my model of the Khakistani ironclad battleship and to paint it.

The colour scheme I chose was similar to that on the other ships I had modelled, and featured a black hull, beige upperworks, and an ochre funnel.

The Portable Wargame Compendium ... is being proof printed!

Yesterday I finally drew a line under any further work on the forthcoming PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM and uploaded the text to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). There were a few minor problems that needed to be solved, but these just took a bit of time and some effort on my part to sort out. Once that was done, I saved the book in draft form and ordered some printed proof copies. These should be with me by the middle of next week, and once I have checked them, I will release the book for publication.

The cover of the paperback edition looks like this:

They will be printed in colour and the final price will be about £20 for the hardback and £14 for the paperback. I’m still looking at how to make the book available in PDF format as KDP does not support the sale of books in that format.

The trials and tribulations continue

At 9.00am on Tuesday I was phoned by one of the nurses from the Urology Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich. They asked me to go for a short consultation at 11.00am and to collect a prescription for the first stage of my treatment. Sue and I drove to the hospital, and by 11.00am we were sitting in the reception area for the Urology Outpatients Clinic, waiting for my appointment. The nurse was running a little late, but by 11.45am I had been seen, and we then set of to the hospital pharmacy to collect my prescription.

That is where things began to go a bit awry.

On reaching the pharmacy, I had to join a queue to hand my prescription in. This took fifteen minutes ... but when I got to the front of the queue, I was told that the prescribing doctor had not written their name in the correct box on the prescription form and that I had to go back to the Urology clinic to get this error corrected!

I did as requested ... and then had to re-join the queue to hand my now correctly completed prescription in. I then had to wait for a further forty-five minutes for the pharmacist to complete my prescription. During this hiatus, Sue went off to find somewhere outside to sit.

By the time I left the hospital and re-joined Sue, it was after 1.00pm. On the way back to our car I tried to pay for our parking, only to discover that the single coin payment machine in the whole car park was full and would not process any further payments. I then tried to pay online ... but as I did not have the parking company's app on my telephone and I hadn't got my credit card with me, I could not pay! I now risk a £80.00 'fine' for non-payment, so I took a photo of the machine showing the fact that I had tried to pay but was unable to do so.

The icing on this particular day's cake came later in the day when I went to my GP's surgery to hand in the paperwork the hospital had given me for my doctor so that I could arrange an appointment to have an injection that will form part of my treatment. (I have to take a course of tablets for four weeks, and halfway through I have to have an injection of another drug that will work with the tablets.)

When I spoke to the receptionist at the GP surgery, they told me that they were not able to arrange an appointment unless they had the drug ... but they were not sure if they had to give me the prescription for the drug so that I can get from the pharmacy and take it to them or if they could order it directly.

The receptionist consulted the practice manager, who then had to discuss the situation with the person in charge of processing prescriptions. They eventually came up with a solution; the GP surgery will order the drug directly and then contact me to arrange a date and time for my appointment.

The thing that I found disturbing was the fact that they had no idea how long it would take for the dug to be delivered. I kept repeating that for the drug to be effective, I needed to have the injection on Wednesday 3rd May. The practice manager assured me that she didn't expect there would be a problem ... but I was not convinced when I left the surgery and won't be until they confirm my appointment.

My Khakistani ironclad battleship

Khakistan is an imagi-nation that draws its inspiration from Ottoman Turkey, and when thinking about a design for an ironclad battleship for the Khakistani Navy, I looked at the various warships that served in the Ottoman Navy during the 1880s and 1890s. After considering the options, I chose to base my design on that of the Osmaniye-class.

These ships were constructed in the 1860s as broadside ironclads, ...

... but they were modernised and reconstructed in the early 1890s. They were re-boilered, re-engined, and rearmed with two 9.4-inch/24cm guns mounted in single centreline barbettes fore and aft of the ship’s main superstructure.

The modernised ships looked like this …

… and when ‘cartoonised’, the design looked like this.

The Schwarzenberg ironclad battleships

The two Schwarzenberg ironclad battleships have now been painted and varnished.

As Schwarzenberg is a simulacrum of Imperial Germany, I painted them in one of the colour schemes used by the Imperial German Navy, black hulls, white upperworks, and ochre funnels.

The Portable Wargame Compendium

I have finally decided that I need to get the Compendium published as soon as possible, and have made the decision not to add anything further to it. At present the contents page looks like this:

I had hoped to add a couple more battle reports, but I felt that this would delay publication past my self-imposed deadline of the end of April. I need to add a couple of biographies for some of the contributors, and then I will send the draft off to be proofread. Once any necessary changes have then been made, I will publish the Compendium.

Trials, tribulations ... and more tests!

Since I my recent stay in hospital, my medical situation has dominated pretty well everything that I do. My sleeping pattern is very erratic thanks to my being fitted with a catheter and bag (if you turn over in the night and catch one or other, boy do you know it!) and my mobility is limited. I have managed to drive to the shops and back, but even with an automatic transmission, sitting in the car can be painful. I can walk (slowly) and can climb the stairs in our house (even slower). The latter is very inconvenient as our home office and my toy/wargames room are on the top floor, up two flights of stairs.

Despite all of the above, I am managing to cope, thanks in no small part to my wife, Sue. She has been a great support, putting up will my occasional outburst of ill temper and depression, and keeps me on an even keel all the time. She makes concessions to my condition, but she hasn't allowed me to become a slave to it.

Wednesday is a case in point.

I had to go to University College Hospital, Lewisham, on Wednesday for yet another scan. This time it was a CT scan, and because there was a possibility that they might have to sedate me, I was not allowed to drive myself there and back. The appointment was at 12.15pm, but I was required to be there an hour earlier so that I could drink a litre of special liquid that would enhance the effectiveness of the scan. Although Google Maps stated that the journey would only take twenty-five minutes, we set off over an hour beforehand.

To get to the hospital, we had to drive around the South Circular. For non-Londoners, this is a route across South London that was proposed over one hundred years ago. A short section was built in the early 1920s, but further development was delayed, and eventually a number of local roads were joined together by little more than road signs to form the current route.

The North and South Circular Roads now form the outer boundary of the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone), and all vehicles travelling inside the zone that do not meet certain exhaust emission standards have to pay a daily charge of £12.50 for cars, vans and motorcycles, and £100 for coaches, HGVs and buses. As a result, traffic levels on the South Circular - which were already high - have increased as drivers seek to avoid entering the ULEZ.

Despite the heavy traffic, we reached the hospital just after 11.00am ... and then could find nowhere to park! As a result, Sue had to drop me off and drive home (a journey that took her forty-five minutes) after agreeing to come to collect me when my scan was over.

After drinking my litre of special liquid and being fitted with a cannula so that a chemical marker could be introduced to my blood system during the scan, I went into have the scan. Unfortunately, the cannula failed and I had to be taken out of the scanner to have a second cannula fitted. This delayed the scan, and I wasn't actually finished until 12.50pm. I phoned Sue, and she drove back to the hospital to collect me. By the time she had negotiated her way there, picked me up, and we had got back home, it was well after 2.15pm. We were both very hungry (I was not allowed to eat before the scan), and after a late lunch, I had a very long sleep in my armchair.

In fact, I kept dozing off until it was time for our evening meal, and I felt dog-tired when I eventually went to bed ... only to find that I could not sleep!

This is not an untypical day for me ... and until my medical problem is identified and I can begin treatment, it is likely to remain so. Doing the occasional bit of modelling or work on the Compendium is helping to keep my mind occupied and the pain at bay, but progress on both is slow.

The Schwarzenberg ironclad battleships: A progress report

The models of my two Schwarzenberg ironclad battleships are now assembled, and once they are painted and varnished, they will form the backbone of the Schwarzenberg Navy.