“Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam ... Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!"

Over the past three weeks, my blog seems to have been suffering from a large number of spam messages as comments. I’m getting between ten and twenty such messages per day, mostly from ‘Unknown’, although some do appear to come from named accounts.

Luckily, I have comment moderation on my blog, which means that I’m able to intercept these comments before the appear on my blog.

I wonder why these spammers bother ... but they do, so there must be something in it for them.

Perhaps one of them will leave an answer as a comment ... but I doubt it!

Preparing for another online Portable Wargame battle

Unless something crops up in the meantime, I hope to take part in my second online Portable Wargame battle against Gary Sheffield. As he organised the first one, I have taken on the task of putting together the scenario for the second.

I have chosen to set the battle during the Seven Weeks War, and it will involve two balanced forces of Prussian and Austrians trying to seize a bridge over a river.

SEIZE AND HOLD! AN ACTION FROM THE SEVEN WEEKS WAR
Scenario
It has come to the attention of both the senior Austrian and Prussian Army Commanders that at least one river crossing has been left unguarded by the opposition, and both army commanders have ordered forces to seize and hold the bridge as quickly as possible. The opposing forces are advancing on the bridge over the river in column-of-march, and will only appear on the battlefield as and when the activation system allows them to appear. Each column is marching along the road towards the bridge, and enters the battlefield at A9 (Prussians) and N2 (Austrians) on the following map.

There is a ford that is passable by infantry (but not artillery) across the river at H11.

Notes about the weapons used

• The Prussian infantry is armed with Dreyse needle guns (Rifles) and their artillery is armed with muzzle-loading, smooth-bore guns.
• The Austrian infantry is armed with Lorenz rifles (Muskets), and their artillery is armed with breech-loading, rifled guns.

Map of the battlefield

Notes about the map

• The blue grid areas are the river.
• The grey gird areas are the road.
• The trees indicate grid areas that are wooded.
• The darker green grid areas are hills.
• The darker grey grid areas are occupied by buildings.
• The darker blue gird area is the location of the ford.

Prussian Force
The Prussian force are commanded by General Baron von Sapt (an Average commander), and comprises:

• 1st Tarlenheim Jager Battalion (Elite, SP4, Rifles)
• 2nd Hentzau Jager Battalion (Elite, SP4, Rifles)
• I/3rd Strelsau Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Rifles)
• II/3rd Strelsau Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Rifles)
• III/3rd Strelsau Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Rifles)
• I/4th Zenda Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Rifles)
• II/4th Zenda Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Rifles)
• III/4th Zenda Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Rifles)
• 1st Battery, Strackenz Artillery (Average, SP2, Smooth-bore field artillery)
• Total SP = 40 SPs; Exhaustion Point = 14 SPs

Austrian Force
The Austrian force are commanded by General Kretzmer (an Average commander), and comprises:

• 1st Fiedler Jager Battalion (Elite, SP4, Muskets)
• 2nd Mundt Jagers Battalion (Elite, SP4, Muskets)
• I/3rd Esterhase Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Muskets)
• II/3rd Esterhase Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Muskets)
• III/3rd Esterhase Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Muskets)
• I/4th Sachs Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Muskets)
• II/4th Sachs Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Muskets)
• III/4th Sachs Infantry Battalion (Average, SP4, Muskets)
• 1st Battery, Riemeck Artillery (Average, SP2, Rifled field artillery)
• Total SP = 40 SPs; Exhaustion Point = 14 SPs

Turn Mechanism
The game uses the card driven Turn-by-Turn turn mechanism as laid down in THE PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME book.

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The names of the units are all made up ... and are named after characters in the novels of Anthony Hope or John le Carré.

A chat with Henry Hyde ... is now available online

I had a very interesting chat with Henry Hyde on Thursday, and he has already uploaded the podcast to his BATTLEGAMES website.

The relevant podcast is not yet available to non-subscribers, ...

... but should be accessible in about a fortnight or so.

There are several levels of subscription, the lowest being the equivalent of $2.50 per month, ...

... and one can easily join online using this link. So if you don't want to wait a fortnight before you can hear my dulcet tones ... join NOW!

Napoleonic Portable Wargame Skirmish rules

I understand that the latest issue of MINIATURE WARGAMES (Issue 447) contains a set of Napoleonic Portable Wargame Skirmish rules written by Arthur Harman.

Arthur had already sent me a draft of the article that he was submitting for publication, and I must admit that he has developed a very interesting variant of the rules that I can thoroughly recommend. I might even venture as far as the nearest branhc of WHSmith to buy a copy when the shops reopen next week!

'You can never have too many trucks': Some renovated 20mm-scale World War Two Russian lorries

During the early stages of the development of MEGABLITZ, we fought a number of large battles to test the rules ... and it was during one of them that someone uttered the (in)famous line 'You can never have too many trucks'. I was determined to make sure that my Russians were supplied with as many as I could muster, and it is some of those vehicles that I have just renovated.

At the time, model Russian vehicles were hard to get hold of, so I scratch-built mine, using a model of a 1.5ton Great Western Railways van as the basis. This kit was originally made by Keil Kraft, then Davric, and is now manufactured by Knightwing.

The kit provided the chassis, bonnet, wheels, and wheel arches, and I made the cab and bodies from Plasticard. I built three versions of the truck, and the ones featured above are the first version.

I also needed some tracked towing vehicles, and my spares box provided enough stuff (mainly from Airfix Matador and M3 half-track model kits) to build two from scratch. They look like cut-down STZ-5 tractors ...

... which is what I hoped they would resemble.

A chat with Henry Hyde

Henry and I were able to rearrange our online chat with Henry Hyde for his regular podcast, and it should be taking place later today.

He has sent me a list of possible topics for us to talk about, including:

• A brief autobiography.
• How I became a wargamer, what wargaming I enjoyed, and the publications and people that influenced me most up to 1980.
• The birth of Wargames Developments (WD), the Conference of Wargamers (COW), and THE NUGGET.
• Paddy Griffith.
• My blog.
• THE PORTABLE WARGAME and its variants.
• THE MADASAHATTA CAMPAIGN and Eric Knowles.
• My plans for the future.

As I wrote last week, I’m not sure when the podcast will be broadcast, but when I do have a date and time, I’ll pass that information on to my regular blog readers.

Weather and campaigns: Initial designs for Operation Barbarossa weather charts

After playing around with various designs for my Operation Barbarossa weather charts, I came up with the following designs:

Arid

During the year, this type of terrain has:

• A 50.0% chance of dry weather
• A 29.7% chance of muddy weather
• A 19.4% chance of snowy weather

Grass Steppe

During the year, this type of terrain has:

• A 44.5% chance of dry weather
• A 30.5% chance of muddy weather
• A 25.0% chance of snowy weather

Deciduous Steppe

During the year this type of terrain has:

• A 38.8% chance of dry weather
• A 33.3% chance of muddy weather
• A 27.8% chance of snowy weather

Coniferous Steppe

During the year, this type of terrain has:

• A 33.3% chance of dry weather
• A 33.3% chance of muddy weather
• A 33.3% chance of snowy weather

Some examples of how the weather charts work:

• It is June 1941. A D6 die is thrown, and the score is 6. It is dry in the Arid, Grass Steppe, Deciduous Steppe and Coniferous Steppe terrain zones.
• It is November 1941. A D6 die is throw, and the score is 3. It is muddy in the Arid, Grass Steppe, and Deciduous Steppe terrain zones, and snowy in the Coniferous Steppe terrain zone.
• It is March 1942. A D6 die is thrown, and the score is 4. It is muddy in the Arid, Grass Steppe, Deciduous Steppe and Coniferous Steppe terrain zones.
• It is April 1942. A D6 die is thrown, and the score is 2. It is dry in the Arid terrain zone, and muddy in the Grass Steppe, Deciduous Steppe and Coniferous Steppe terrain zones.

Weather and wargame campaigns: Including the rasputitsa

It would seem to me that the most difficult season of the year during the Eastern Front/Grand Patriotic War was the season when the rain and melting snow turned the mainly unmetalled Russian roads into mud. This is referred to in Russian as the rasputitsa, and it occur twice during the year, namely in the autumn (when it rains) and the spring (when the snow thaws).

The summertime seems to be a time of dry and dust, whilst the winter is a time of cold and snow. During the former, normal movement is possible, but can cause things like vehicle engines to suffer excessive wear if they are not fitted with filters, whereas in the winter, snow and ice can impede movement and cause fuel and lubricating oil to freeze.

Bearing this in mind, I have decided that:

• During the summer (the hot and dry season), each campaign move would each last three days
• During the winter (the cold and dry season), each campaign move would each last six days
• During the rasputitsa (the wet and muddy season), each campaign move would each last fifteen days
• Each of the terrain types (Arid, Grass Steppe, Deciduous Steppe, and Coniferous Steppe) would experience the seasons (and thus the impact of the resultant changes) at slightly different times of the year.

Bruce Quarrie produced something along these lines in his book TANK BATTLES IN MINIATURE 2: A WARGAMERS' GUIDE TO THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 1941-1945, and I intend to produce something very similar for my campaign.

(It is worth noting that I also consulted the relevant chapters or sections in Donald Featherstone's ADVANCED WAR GAMES* and COMPLETE WARGAMING* [Revised Edition], Lionel Tarr's MODERN WARGAMING RULES 1939-45*, and Tony Bath's ANCIENT WARGAMING*, but decided that Bruce Quarrie's solution was closer to my own thinking on this topic.)

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* These books are all in print, thanks to the work of John Curry and the 'History of Wargaming' Project.

WD and COW ... forty years on

Now that the Virtual Conference of Wargamers (VCOW) is definitely taking place on 10th, 11th, and 12th July, planning is well underway. As this is the fortieth anniversary of the first ever COW (Conference of Wargamers) and the foundation of Wargame Developments (WD), I am going to give an online talk about the origins of COW and WD.

The driving force behind the creation of COW and WD was the late Dr Paddy Griffith.

In the aftermath of the demise of the WARGAMER’S NEWSLETTER and BATTLE FOR WARGAMERS, ...

... there was no forum in the UK for the discussion of wargame design, and Paddy decided to organise a conference entitled ‘New Directions in War Gaming’ to see if a viable alternative or replacement could be developed. The conference took place at Moor Park College, Farnham, Surrey, over a weekend in 1980 ... and WD and COW were the result.

I am the last remaining member of WD who attended the Moor Park Conference ... and it makes sense for me to take on the job of recording and passing on the story of its origins.

Weather and wargame campaigns: some ideas to test

I spent quite a chunk of yesterday thinking about how I might factor seasonal weather changes into my forthcoming Operation Barbarossa campaign. After considerable reflection, I decided that I need to use a simple D6 die mechanism to ‘generate’ the weather for each campaign month across the various types of terrain on my campaign map. This would, in turn, determine how far units and formations can move in each type of terrain.

I have also been thinking about how long a campaign game turn should last ... and I think that season and weather will also influence this. For example, if the Summer weather is good, each campaign turn would equate to three days/half a week of real time (with ten turns per campaign month), whereas if the Winter weather is snowing/freezing, each campaign turn would last fifteen days/a fortnight of real time (with two turns per campaign month).

I need to start testing some simple mechanisms to achieve my goal, and I hope to do this over the next week or so.