A day doing odd jobs … and finding something that had been ‘lost’

Posted: May 31, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: COW (Conference of Wargamers), Early 20th Century, Megablitz, MIscellaneous musings, World War II | 4 Comments
After spending most of yesterday sorting out the contents of my father’s house so that we can begin the process of selling it, I have spent today doing all sorts of odd jobs that needed doing, but that had not been done before because I had just not got around to doing them.
Besides shredding a very large pile of redundant personal documents, I have removed a dead Fuchsia bush, repaired the wiring in a faulty electrical extension cable, made the usual end-of-the-month visit to the bank, done a pile of filing for my business, prepared the documentation that I will need for my personal online Income Tax Self Assessment, and begun work on tidying my toy room/wargames room. The latter is something that I try to do at least once each year, and each time that I do it, I find something that I had forgotten about. Today was no exception.
Today’s find was a large box of photographs that I took before the advent of digital cameras. Amongst them were some photographs of the battle that Tim Gow, Chris Willey and I fought using Chris Kemp’s NOT QUITE MECHANISED rules, and which led to the eventual development of MEGABLITZ.
The battle pitted a large Russian force of tanks and mechanised infantry against a very thin line of Finnish defenders … who – if my memory serves me correctly – managed to stop the Russian advance.
I also found some photographs taken some years ago at the Conference of Wargamers. I am unsure of the years when they were taken, but some of the ‘young’ men whose faces appear in them are somewhat older now!
Waiting for a plenary session to start.
Deep thought.
Will he notice if I do it whilst he isn’t looking?
Well someone is obviously enjoying themselves …
Why did I ever decide to put this session on? I have even had to write my own name on a label so I can remember who I am!

The portable wargame: Latest draft uploaded to the website

Posted: May 30, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Late 19th Century, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design, Websites | 5 Comments
I have just uploaded the latest draft of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules to THE PORTABLE WARGAME WEBSITE.

I have also added another entry to the ‘Additional Rules‘ webpage, and the webpage now includes two additional rules that have been devised by other people. These included Ross Mac and Ron Porter’s rule regarding ‘Elite Units‘ and littlejohn‘s rule about ‘Forming Squares‘.

These ‘Additional Rules‘ are fully compatible with the existing draft of the late nineteenth century version of the rules, and are included so that players who wish to use them may do so should they so desire.

Getting things done …

Posted: May 29, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: MIscellaneous musings, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design, Websites | 4 Comments
I awoke feeling a bit better this morning, but after a similar start to the day yesterday I was a bit wary about trying to do too much … and then promptly forgot that good intention!

This morning was taken up with a variety of small but important regular end-of-the-month tasks (e.g. paying bills) and a quick read through of the latest draft of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules. I made a few minor adjustments, and I hope to have them available to be downloaded from THE PORTABLE WARGAME WEBSITE sometime tomorrow.

The main changes are:

  • The Close Combat Power of Infantry (Rifles), Infantry (Other Firearms) and Machine Guns has been reduced to 4.
  • Light Field Artillery has been renamed Light Field/Mountain Artillery.
  • All notes have been numbered using Roman numerals and placed in separate paragraphs within the text of the rules.
  • A rule has been added to the Unit Activation and Turn Sequence sections that states that ‘A Unit may turn up to 60 degrees in order to fire at an enemy Unit; this turn does not count as a move for the purposes of Unit activation but the act of firing does.‘ The first sentence of this rule has been repeated in both the Artillery Fire and Non-Artillery Fire sections.
  • The following note has been added to all the rules that determine Fire Effect: ‘‘Pinned’ Units reduce their Fire Effect D6 die scores by 1.’ An explanatory sentence has been added to the Pinning paragraphs in the Special Rules section.
  • New – and hopefully improved – Arcs of Fire diagrams have been added to Appendix 2.

My wife and I then visited my father just before lunch. We were joined by one of my nephews, and after leaving my father to enjoy his Sunday roast, we went to a very nice Italian restaurant for a late lunch.

After dropping my nephew off at a tube station so that he could return to his University Halls of Residence, my wife and I returned home. Later in the day we went out for a drink with some friends, but this was curtailed somewhat because by then I was beginning to feel very tired and my headache had returned, and one of our friends was also feeling somewhat unwell.

All-in-all, it was a busy day, and I will be off to bed very soon, feeling somewhat better than I did at this time yesterday. I hope that a good night’s sleep will see me fully recovered by tomorrow as it also looks like it is going to be a rather busy day.

I cannot wait to retire so that I can put my feet up and have a rest … but somehow I don’t think that that is going to happen!

Just when I thought I was better …

Posted: May 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: MIscellaneous musings, The Nugget, The Portable Wargame | 8 Comments
I felt a lot better when I woke up this morning, and was well enough to write several blog entries before I took the latest issue of THE NUGGET to the printers. I even managed to do some work on revising the latest draft of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

My wife and I drove down to Herne Bay to see my father-in-law later in the morning, had some lunch on the way, and arrived at his bungalow at about 2.00pm. We stayed with him for a couple of hours, and stopped off on the way back to do some shopping at a supermarket just outside Whitstable.

It was just after we got back to the car that I suddenly began to feel my temperature rise, and my headache returned along with the feeling of nausea. I managed to drive home … just … but my plans to set up a play-test of my rules this evening have had to be put on hold.

I hope that this is just the final stages of the bug I have had for the past few days finally getting itself out of my system. I have too much to do this week to be ill … and I am determined to fight at least one wargame at some point during the next eight days!

Nugget 245

Posted: May 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: The Nugget, Wargame Developments, Wargames publications | Leave a comment
The latest issue of THE NUGGET (N245) was emailed to me by the editor last night, and I hope to take it to the printers this morning. It is my intention to collect it next by Friday, and get it sent out in the post by Saturday morning at the latest so that it will with members of Wargame Developments by early June.

I will make the PDF versions of THE NUGGET and THE NUGGET COLOUR SUPPLEMENT available for all members to download from the Wargame Developments website as soon as I can after THE NUGGET has been put into the post.

The portable wargame: Even more arms-length play-tests!

Posted: May 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Battle Report, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design, Websites | 2 Comments
Ross Mac has really got the bit between his teeth with regard to using and play-testing my PORTABLE WARGAME rules. Over the past few days he has fought two more battles with the rules, one set during the Russian Civil War and the other during the first half of the nineteenth century.

As usual his feedback has been very helpful, and I hope to make a few minor changes to the rules in the light of his comments. Once they have been made, I will make the latest draft of the rules available via THE PORTABLE WARGAME WEBSITE.

Polemos: A breakthrough?

Posted: May 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Polemos, Wargame Design | 12 Comments
I had one bit of good news yesterday; I received a message from Dr David Charles Ballinger Griffith’s great granddaughter about POLEMOS!

It appears that she saw my blog entries about POLEMOS, read about my attempts to find out more information about Dr Griffith, and decided to get in contact with me. Furthermore, she informed me that she has an incomplete copy of the game, including the rules, which she is looking after for her cousin!

She has very kindly agreed to send me scans of the rules at soon as she can, and once she has I hope to be able to transcribe them. I will then see it it will be possible to recreate the game so that it can be demonstrated to a wider public at some time in the future.

Thank God for the iPad and WiFi!

Posted: May 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: MIscellaneous musings, The Portable Wargame | Leave a comment
As regular readers will have noticed, I have not blogged for the past two days. This was due to my coming down with a very unpleasant stomach bug that basically laid me low for forty eight hours.

During that time I have not been able to concentrate too well, and sitting at my keyboard trying to type and focus on the screen made my headache worse. However, my iPad (plus my home WiFi system) made it possible for me to keep up to date with what has been happening in the world from the comfort of my bed and my favourite armchair.

I am now feeling much better, although I am still a bit wary about what I eat and drink. The headache and stomach ache have almost disappeared, as has the feeling of nausea. I still have some muscle pain, but that is also gradually diminishing. With a bit of luck I will feel well enough to visit my father-in-law later today, and to see my father tomorrow. I might even feel up to staging my long-awaited play-test of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

The portable wargame: Questions from Ross Mac

Posted: May 25, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Late 19th Century, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design | 4 Comments
Despite my best intentions, I have yet to mount any play-tests of the latest draft of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules. Ross Mac has, and when I got home this evening he had sent me a very interesting email that posed several questions that needed to be answered. As a result, I have had to give serious thought to the possibility of making some further minor changes and clarifications to the rules.

I know that there are some people who will not like what appears to be my inability to actually get this set of rules to a state where they are to all intents and purposes finished (and I include myself amongst them!), but if a play-test shows that there is something that needs to be changed, then changed it must be.

I hope to make the necessary changes at some time over the weekend so that during next week – which is half-term – I might actually manage to mount some play-tests of my own. In the meantime, if anyone else has any questions about the rules, please send me an email and I will attempt to answer it as well as I am able.

The origins of Cordeguay

Posted: May 25, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Imaginations, Little Wars, MIscellaneous musings | 8 Comments
When I was thinking about a name for my South American FUNNY LITTLE WARS imagi-nation, I remembered using the name Cordeguay many years ago, and so I decided to reuse it.

Its derivation is quite obvious. My surname is Cordery, and there are several countries in South American that end in ‘-guay’, so it made sense to call my imagi-nation Cordeguay. Imagine my horror, therefore, when I discovered that someone else had also used the same name for a South American country. It appears that the country is featured in one of the Net Force Explorers books, THE ULTIMATE ESCAPE (No.4) by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik.

Now I cannot prove that I came up with the name before either Tom Clancy or Steve Pieczenik, but I hope that neither of them will be offended if I continue to use it.

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