A present from my wife
Posted: January 30, 2013 Filed under: MIscellaneous musings 20 CommentsMy wife and I are now of an age when we tend not to buy each other big presents for Christmas or birthdays, but just before this Christmas my wife asked me if I wanted or needed any more Hexon II terrain. I answered in the affirmative, and a week or so ago I gave her my list … and it was all delivered yesterday.
I am now the proud owner of:
- A pack of marsh/swamp single hexes (10 in all)
- Two packs of blue single hexes (20 in all)
- Two packs of green flocked single hexes (20 in all)
- Two packs of desert single hexes (20 in all)
- Two desert transition hill sets
- A desert transition escarpment set
The additional hexes and hills/escarpments will give me the ability to have quite a bit more variety of terrain on my tabletop.
What a great present!
Adding a naval dimension: taking a step back
Posted: January 29, 2013 Filed under: Early 20th Century, Naval Wargames, The Portable Naval Wargame, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design 6 CommentsThe problem is that I am not quite happy with the result. All the game mechanisms work … but I am not totally happy with the way they mesh together. I have therefore decided to take a step back from doing further work on this project for a few days. Previous experience shows that when I return to it, my mind will be clear and the problems will have either gone or solutions will present themselves.
Another hurray for eBay!
Posted: January 29, 2013 Filed under: Board Games, MIscellaneous musings, World War II 10 Comments
… and six Marder II self-propelled anti-tank guns.
Some of the latter have a rather bad case of ‘barrel drop’ … but I think that this can be cured with some hot water and patience.
(I have included a ‘small’ 20mm-scale figure [actually the officer from the original Airfix German Infantry set] in these photographs to give blog readers some idea as to the size of these model vehicles.)
I probably bought more of the two types of vehicles than I will ever need, but at a cost of £1.00 each they were a bargain … and wargamers love bargains!
Adding a naval dimension: slow progress is being made
Posted: January 28, 2013 Filed under: Early 20th Century, Naval Wargames, The Portable Naval Wargame, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design 4 Comments
Progress is therefore being made … but rather slowly.
Adding a naval dimension
Posted: January 27, 2013 Filed under: Naval Wargames, The Portable Naval Wargame, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design 8 CommentsI was already thinking about how I could include the effects of coastal artillery gunfire on warships in the next draft of the PORTABLE WARGAME rules, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that what I needed to do was to add a whole naval dimension to my PORTABLE WARGAME rules. I had already written a set of optional rules that allow aircraft to be included (and which are a self-contained set of air combat rules in their own right) and it seemed to me that I needed to do the same for ships.
My starting point is going to be my existing PORTABLE NAVAL WARGAME rules. They follow the same format as the other PORTABLE WARGAME rules, but will need to undergo some revision in order to be compatible with the existing rules.
An excursion into naval bombardment
Posted: January 26, 2013 Filed under: MIscellaneous musings, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design 20 CommentsScenario 1
A Rusland battleship has been sent to take part in a naval gunnery training exercise. An obsolete coastal defence fortress has been prepared so that it can act as a target for the battleships guns. The latter has been told that it must fire at the target from a range of between eight to ten hexes (the sort of range at which any artillery mounted in the fortress would be able to fire) and it must assume that there are two Coastal Defence Artillery Units in the fortress. Its own armament is equivalent to two Units of Heavy Artillery (the main armament) and a Unit of Medium Artillery able to fire on each beam (the secondary armament).
Shells that landed and did no damage were marked with white markers and those that did damage were marked with black markers.
The results were very interesting!
Turn 1
3 shells on target; no damage caused.
Turn 2
2 shells on target, 1 shell under; no damage caused.
Turn 3
3 shells over; no damage caused.
Turn 4
1 shell over, 2 shells under; no damage caused.
Turn 5
1 shell on target, 2 shells under; no damage caused.
Turn 6
1 shell on target, 2 shells over; no damage caused.
Turn 7
1 shell on target, 1 shell over, 1 shell under; no damage caused.
Turn 8
1 shell over, 2 shells under; no damage caused.
Turn 9
3 shells over; no damage caused.
Turn 10
1 shell on target, 1 shell over, 1 shell under; no damage caused.
Turn 11
1 shell on target, 1 shell under, 1 dud shell; 1 casualty caused … at last!
Turn 12
2 shells over, 1 shell under; no damage caused.
Turn 13
1 shell on target, 1 shell over, 1 shell under; one casualty caused.
Turn 14
3 shells over; no damage caused.
Turn 15
2 shells over, 1 shell under; no damage caused.
Turn 16
1 shell over, 1 shell under, 1 dud shell; no damage caused.
Turn 17
1 shell on target, 2 shells over; one casualty caused.
Turn 18
1 shell over, 1 shells under; no damage caused.
Turn 19
2 shells on target, 1 over; one casualty caused.
Comments
It took 57 shells(!) to knock out the two Coastal Artillery Units in the fortress! This was mainly due to the range at which the battleship was firing (i.e. outside the range of the Coastal Defence Artillery).
Scenario 2
In this scenario the battleship opened fire at almost point-blank range (i.e. three to four hexes). This should increase the accuracy of her gunnery but would also leave her at risk of being hit by the guns of the Coastal Artillery Units if they were firing back.
Turn 1
3 shells on target; damage caused.
Turn 2
3 shells miss; no damage caused.
Turn 3
1 shell on target, 2 shells miss; one casualty caused.
Turn 4
1 shell on target, 2 shells miss; damage caused.
Turn 5
2 shells on target, 1 shell missed; 1 casualty and damage caused.
Turn 6
3 shells on target; 2 casualties caused.
Comments
It took only 18 shells to knock out the two Coastal Artillery Units in the fortress, and this was almost entirely due to the range at which the battleship was firing (i.e. inside the range of the Coastal Defence Artillery).
These two scenarios gave me the opportunity to play-test the possible outcomes of a naval bombardment of a coastal defence fortress at both long and short range, and they would appear to show that it if time is short, it is vital to get as close in as possible, and to risk the damage that might be caused to the ship or ships conducting the bombardment.
Latest draft of the Portable Wargame: Modern rules now available to download
Posted: January 26, 2013 Filed under: Charlie Sweet, Early 20th Century, Gerard de Gre, The Portable Wargame, Wargame Design, World War II 4 Comments- A turn sequence that uses playing card tiles to determine the order in which Units are activated.
- Changes that enable Artillery Units to ‘hold their fire’ if they are firing at targets that are (or are likely to be) in direct line-of-sight and at a range of not more than 4 grid areas. (This concept was ‘borrowed’ from Gerard de Gre and Charlie Sweet’s Napoleonic wargames rules in which Artillery can ‘hold fire’ if they intend to use canister later in the turn.)
I have used the opportunity to make a few cosmetic changes to the layout of the rules and have included a range of optional rules including:
- Air-to-air combat rules
- Air-to-ground combat rules
- Ground-to-air combat rules
- Rules for Cyclist Units
- Rules for Ski Troop Units
- Rules for Tank Riders
- Rules for Gas attacks
These ‘one side of a piece of A4 paper’ rules have now become seven pages long … but in my defence I would like to point out that the last three cover Special Rules, Definitions, and Optional Rules.
The latest draft can be downloaded in PDF format from here.
Hurray for eBay!
Posted: January 25, 2013 Filed under: Board Games, MIscellaneous musings, World War II 4 CommentsThe first was a copy of a board game called CROSSHAND POKER. The game was brought to my attention by Pete Jones in a recent comment that he made in response to my post about making your own playing card tiles.
The game contains TWO full sets of plastic playing card tiles (including four Jokers). The tiles are slightly thicker than the ones supplied in the PLAY 5 game and will stand on their edges without any problems.
Having decided that it was quite possible to mix 15mm-scale vehicles and small 20mm-scale figures on the tabletop, I looked around on eBay from some suitable vehicles to add to my collection. I found several from various suppliers of collectible models made for the Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast AXIS & ALLIES MINIATURES game, including three T-26s (painted in Finnish camouflage) …
… and a Hungarian Zrinyi Assault Howitzer.
I also have some other vehicles on order, but they have yet to arrive. When they are delivered I hope to feature them in a blog entry.
Visiting Fireman
Posted: January 25, 2013 Filed under: Battle Cry, COW (Conference of Wargamers), MIscellaneous musings, Wargame Developments 4 CommentsWe spent a very pleasant evening together, and managed to fight the Battle of Bull Run using BATTLE CRY … which he won! (The end positions for both sides can be seen in the following photograph.)
We also spent time talking about wargaming in general and the Conference of Wargamers [COW] in particular. Quite a few ideas were discussed (including a possible Plenary Game for the next Conference), as were several potential scenarios for large-scale MEGABLITZ wargames we might fight in the future.
As usual my wife and I enjoyed seeing Tim, and hopefully he will be visiting us again in the very near future.
The move to hybridisation
Posted: January 24, 2013 Filed under: MIscellaneous musings 4 CommentsHe telephoned my wife yesterday to tell her that the car she was interested in had been delivered, and asked it she would like to see it. She was (very) interested … and this morning we drove to the dealership to look it over and to give it a test drive. As a result it looks as if we are very likely to be a two (petrol/electric hybrid) car family in the near future.
WARGAMING MISCELLANY 