The printed proof copies of the book have been thoroughly read by myself and Arthur Harman, and the remaining errors have hopefully been detected and corrected. As a result the book is now finally ready to go.

I have released all the versions for what Lulu.com call ‘General Access’ (i.e. people will be able to order copies directly from Lulu.com), and it should then be available for sale with Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc., within a couple of weeks.

The printed proof copies of DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME have arrived, and once a few final checks have been made I can proceed to full publication in the very near future … which will probably now be early July.

The book has 128 pages and contains 82 illustrations that include black and white photographs, explanatory diagrams, and maps. The contents are as follows:

• Introduction
• Pinning and Unpinning Units
• The Two Kills Option
• Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
• Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
• A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Army Lists for The Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
• A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
• Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
• Simple Mini-Campaigns
• Scenarios
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

When the book is finally published, the various versions will be priced as follows:

• Ebook version: £2.99
• Paperback version: £6.49
• Hardback version: £15.99

This is slightly more that the cost of THE PORTABLE WARGAME and reflects the fact that it has 16% more pages.

I have finally finished writing and illustrating the DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME, and it is now being proof-read prior to publication. It is currently 128 pages long and contains three full sets of rules and 82 illustrations.

The contents remain pretty well as they were in my last update, and looks like this:

• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Pinning and Unpinning Units
• The Two Kills Option
• Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
• Army Lists: Some generic examples
• Army Lists: A pair of historically-based examples
• Balanced Forces: The 40 SPs per side method
• Balance Forces: The randomly-generated number of SPs per side method
• Unbalance Forces: The randomly-generated number of SPs per side method
• Elite, Average, and Poor quality units
• Fortifications, fieldworks, and prepared defences
• Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
• A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Army Lists for The Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
• Tactical Formations
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
• A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
• Types of Aircraft
• Aircraft Arcs-of Fire
• Turning
• Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
• Simple Mini-Campaigns
• An example of a mini-campaign: ‘Long live the Revolution!’
• Scenarios
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

To give a bit of flavour of what the new book will contain, here are a few of the illustrations I have used, with their original captions:

Figure 27: The same wedge formation as that shown immediately above, but on a hexed grid. The wedge formation is the one of the tactical formations that is easier to reproduce on a hexed grid rather than a squared grid.

Figure 29: The same Barbarian army in wedge formation as that shown immediately above, but on a hexed grid.

Figure 47: Let battle commence! The War Elephant unit has moved into contact with an enemy Heavy Infantry unit.

Figure 67: An example of a point-to-point campaign map of the Waterloo Campaign (1815). The forces involved move from one point to another.

Figure 75: The leader of the Revolutionaries prepares to fight to the last surrounded by his loyal troops.

Figure 82: A hexed grid version of the original Sittingbad map, modified to represent Sittingrad during the Rusland Civil War.

With luck the book should be ready for publication at some time during June or early July.

Thanks to the feedback I have had from my small team of play-testers and proof-readers, work on DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME continues apace, and with luck it should be ready for publication by the end of this month. Final checking and the need to finish one chapter – for which I have to borrow some figures – are the only things that I can foresee that will hold up this process.

At present the contents look like this:

• Introduction
• Pinning and Unpinning Units
• The Two Kills Option
• Army Lists, Balanced, and Unbalanced Forces
• Big Board – and Small Board – Gridded Wargames
• A few observations about Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Portable Wargame Rules: Ancients
• Army Lists for The Portable Wargame: Ancient Army Lists
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some example from the Ancients Rules
• A few observations about the Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Developed Portable Wargame Rules: Early and Mid Twentieth Century
• Adding another dimension: Some thoughts about Air Combat Rules
• Portable Wargame: Air Combat Rules
• The Portable Wargame in Action: Some examples from the Air Combat Rules
• Simple Mini-Campaigns
• Scenarios
• Bibliography
• Endnotes