I’m not as young as I was!

When we got home yesterday, I felt very tired. It was at that point that I realised that since Friday morning, I have driven more miles in five days than I had driven in the six months between the start of the lockdown and setting off to the West Country!

Doing something like this takes its toll, and this morning I woke up feeling totally drained and in need of another break. It’s on days like this that I realise that I’m no longer as young as I think that I am, and that a seventy-year-old body takes more time to recover than my twenty-five-year-old mind thinks it should.

Getting old does have its compensations ... but it also has its costs.

A short break

After having had four cruises cancelled since March, Sue and I decided that we needed a holiday, and for the last four days we have been on a short break to Tiverton, Devon.

We first went there in the 1990s and had enjoyed our stay, so when we were discussing where to go for a short holiday, we thought that it might be nice to return there. Sue contacted the owner of Tiverton Castle, which rents out several apartments that form part of the castle, and they had a vacancy ... so we booked the same apartment we had stayed in back in the 1990s.

I’ll be writing a blog post about our brief holiday in Devon, and with luck, I should be able to upload it either tomorrow or on Thursday.

P22: Rhine patrol boat

During our recent trip to Sandwich, Kent, I saw what looked like a small military vessel alongside the River Stour quay. On closer inspection, it turned out to be the P22, a patrol boat that was built and operated by the United States Navy as part of the Rhine Patrol from 1952 until 1958, when she and her sixteen sisters were handed over to German Federal Army or scrapped.

P22 remained in German service for ten years, and was then sold for use as an oil rig support vessel.

She was bought by Barry Field in 2014, and brought to Sandwich three years later for preservation by a charitable trust that he helped to set up with the assistance of the town’s council. She is open to the public at weekends (and for special events), and has taken part in both the 75th D-Day anniversary celebrations and the recent film, DUNKIRK.

The next moves of my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War play-test mini-campaign

The situation on 30th June 1941

The weather for July is DRY, therefore each turn represents three days.

1st July to 3rd July 1941
The next card turned over is the Five of Diamonds and the Russians can move one formation one grid square.

Remnants of 2nd Rifle Division move into G8.

4th July to 6th July 1941
The next card turned over is the Seven of Clubs and the Germans can move one formation one grid square.

In this instance, the 1st Infantry Division advances into F7 ... and then into G7 as they are moving along a road, which doubles their move. The 1st Infantry Division has occupied Riga.

7th July to 9th July 1941
The next card turned over is the Ace of Hearts and the Russians can move all their formations one grid square.

Remnants of 2nd Rifle Division move into H9.

Remnants of 1st Tank Corps also move into H9, and thus joins up with 2nd Rifle Division.

1st Rifle Division moves into I9.

10th July to 12th July 1941
The next card turned over is the Four of Diamonds and the Russians can move one formation one grid square.

1st Rifle Division moves into H9, and thus joins up with the remnants of 2nd Rifle Division and 1st Tank Corps.

13th July to 15th July 1941
The next card turned over is the Jack of Clubs and the Germans can move two formations one grid square.

1st Panzer Division moves into G10.

2nd Infantry Division moves into H10.

16th July to 18th July 1941
The next card turned over is the Six of Diamonds and the Russians can move one formation one grid square. Instead, they choose to reorganise and dig in where they are currently located.

19th July to 21st July 1941
The next card turned over is the Two of Hearts and the Russians can move one formation one grid square. Instead, they continue to extend the fortifications they are constructing at their current location.

22nd July to 24th July 1941
The next card turned over is the Ace of Clubs and the Germans can move all their formations one grid square.

1st Panzer Division moves into G9.

1st Infantry Division moves into to H7.

2nd Infantry Division moves into I10.

25th July to 27th July 1941
The next card turned over is the King of Spades and the Germans can move all their formations up to a total of five grid squares.

1st Panzer Division (G9), 1st Infantry Division (H8), and 2nd Infantry Division (I9) converge on H9, attacking the Russian defenders from three directions at the same time ... and not from the direction of Vilno as the Russian expected!

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The mini-campaign has reached a stage where a massive battle of encirclement now needs to be fought. The German formations are the attackers, and the Russians will be defending a fortified position ... although the fortifications may be pointing in the wrong direction!

Never mind the billhooks

Recently, Wargame Illustrated has given away a free book of rules with each issue, and this month it was NEVER MIND THE BILLHOOKS: WARGAMING BIG SKIRMISHES AND SMALL BATTLES IN THE WARS OF THE ROSES by Andy Callan.

Now, as most of my regular blog readers will know, my main historical interest lies in periods when most of the people involved had guns rather than pointy things with sharp edges (I do make an exception when it comes to Colonial wargaming, but that's just me being inconsistent ...) BUT I know that anything written by Andy Callan will be very good ... so I bought the magazine ... just for the rules booklet.

I was not disappointed!

For a start, the cover has an illustration by Peter Dennis, and although it is not a period that interests me, I would love to own a copy to hang on my wargame room wall. (I cannot, because there isn't any space, but the picture is that good!) As to the rules ... well they are simple and easy to understand, well illustrated with pictures of beautifully painted toy soldier that are relevant to the text on the page (not something one can always write about a rule book these days!), and use a card-driven battle sequence. Suitable paper versions of the cards are included in the booklet, and these can easily be reproduced for use by players.

If I was going to wargame the Wars of the Roses, these would be the rules that I would use. I am not ... but there are some nice rule mechanisms in them that might well be worth 'borrowing'!

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I have known Andy Callan since I met him at the famous Moor Park wargames conference organised by the late Dr Paddy Griffith. I have followed his wargaming career ever since, and as I wrote earlier in this blog post, I know that anything that he writes will be very good.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports

It is over a month since I did a review of other people's Portable Wargame battle reports ... and there have been some great ones to look at!

Barry Carter's battle reports never ceases to inspire me ...

... and Martin Rapier continues to show just how versatile the rules can be by using them to fight a wargame on a computer-generated gridded battlefield, an event in which another regular user of the rules - Martin Smith - also participated.

In addition, Martin Smith has been showing how the rules can be used with very small-scale figures on his converted chessboard.

Steven Briddon's skill as a painter comes to the fore in his hex gridded desert battle, for which he used the scenario for the Battle of Hook's Farm, ...

... although I think that his real love still lies with his 54mm figures.

My regular online opponent, Gary Sheffield, has been playing around with a Medieval version of the rules that he is writing, and has been play-testing them in a number of online battles with Spencer Jones.

Gary has promised to publish his rules online once he is happy that they have had all the kinks ironed out of them.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Barry Carter, Martin Rapier, Martin Smith, Steve Briddon, and Gary Sheffield.

Taiping Era: Tabletop Wargame Rules for land conflict in mid-19th Century China

TAIPING ERA: TABLETOP WARGAME RULES FOR LAND CONFLICT IN MID-19TH CENTURY CHINA is the latest set of rules to flow from the pen of my old friend and fellow long-time member of Wargame Developments, Graham Evans AKA Trebian.

Like his previous book, IT'S GETTING A BIT CHILE: TABLETOP WARGAME RULES FOR LAND CONFLICT IN THE WAR OF THE PACIFIC 1879-1884, this book is far more than just another set of wargame rules. As its contents (which are listed listed below) shows, it contains enough background information for someone who has little or no knowledge of the period to read it and begin raising a number of small armies that can be used on the tabletop. As to the rules … well, they are designed to be used on a 6-inch squared gridded playing surface (a big plus in my book!) using 15mm-scale figures on 30mm wide bases. However, the rules can be used with large or smaller scale figures if the size of the grid squares is adjusted to match any changes to the size of the bases.

It is worth noting that the book and rules do not just cover the Taiping Rebellion, but also the:

• The First China War 1839-42 (The Opium War)
• The Taiping Rebellion 1851-64
• Nien Rebellion 1854-68
• Miao Rebellion 1855-72
• Panthay Rebellion 1855-73
• The Second China War 1855-73 (The Arrow War)

The book is divided into the following chapters:

• Introduction
• A Brief Military History of China in the mid-19th Century
• The Basics
• We need to talk about EDNA
• Troop Classifications
• Weaponry
• Figures, Scales & Formations
• Turn Sequence
• Movement
• Charges
• Firing
• Close Combat
• Routing, Retreating, Retiring and Rallying
• Commanders
• Winning & Losing
• Resources
• Order of Battle - China 1860
• Regimental Colours - British and French Infantry
• And Finally
• Index

I must admit that reading this book did make me think at least twice about adding some suitable figures to my own Colonial collection, but for the time being, that is on hold for the moment. I am sure that other wargamers will read this book and be similarly enthused to 'give it a try' ... and I don't think that they will be disappointed if they do!

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TAIPING ERA: TABLETOP WARGAME RULES FOR LAND CONFLICT IN MID-19TH CENTURY CHINA was written by Graham Evans, and published in 2020 by Wargaming for Grown Ups Publications (ISBN 979 8 672 01853 9).

Soldiers of the Queen (SOTQ): Issue 178

The Victorian Military Society has recently published the latest issue of its journal, and a copy of SOTQ (Soldiers of the Queen) arrived in the post over the weekend.

The articles included in this issue are:

• 'A Man for All Season' or a Soldier of His Time?: Kitchener of Khartoum by Dr Rodney Atwood
• The Red River Expedition by Paul McNicholls
• 'On Guard - at Hampton Court' by Dr Andrew Winrow
• Book Reviews by Andrew Winrow, Roger T Stearn, and Dan Allen
• Officers of the Victorian Military Society

As always, I really enjoyed reading this magazine, and the Victorian Military Society is to be commended for managing to publish and distribute its journal whilst the impact of the current pandemic is still affecting everyday life.

Nugget 328

I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer on Friday, and I will post it out to members of Wargame Developments later today. With luck, it should be delivered by the end of this week.

I have already uploaded the PDF version of this issue to the Wargame Developments website, and it can be opened using the password that was sent out to all members when they re-subscribed.

Thanks to the appointment of a new Colour Supplement editor, the NUGGET COLOUR SUPPLEMENT has been relaunched, and the first issue is available online in PDF format via the THE NUGGET page on the Wargame Developments website.

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the first issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2020-2021 subscription year. If you have not yet re-subscribed, a reminder was sent to you recently. If you wish to re-subscribe using the PayPal option on the relevant page of the website, you can use the existing buttons as the subscription cost has not changed.

The next VCOW: Definite news

In the wake of the success of the Virtual Conference of Wargamers (VCOW) that took place in July, it has been decided to run a second VCOW in February 2021. This is not a replacement for the annual Conference of Wargamer (COW) - which we still plan to run in a July 2021 - but is seen as being an additional way by which wargamers in general (and members of Wargame Developments in particular) can enhance their wargaming knowledge, listen to talks about various aspects of wargaming, take part in online games and discussions, and enjoy exchanging ideas and concepts with likeminded individuals.

Attendance will be open to all members of Wargame Developments and invited guests of members, and the cost of registering will be £5.00.

Further details will be published over the next week or so, and contact will be made by email to all those who took part in VCOW2020.