Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame - A Sitrep

Not a new picture but one I enjoy - The Confederate squadron at Mobile Bay: CSS Tennessee leading followed by the CSS Selma, both flanked by the steamers CSS Morgan (top) and CSS Gaines (bottom)

Progress has made with much of the text for Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame and has been passed over to the editor in chief for initial formatting etc. A selection of the chapter headings are below which will give a little taste of what is to come.

Revisiting the Rules.
Thoughts on Initiative and Movement
More Thoughts on Movement
Thoughts on Firing
More Thoughts on Firing
The Use of a Square Grid
Expanded ACW Ship Specifications
Bibliography

There are other chapters to be added, including two or three devoted to the background of the Anglo-Turkish War of 1880 with the battle report - aside from these and the usual acknowledgments, introduction and an expanded Designers Notes, will be just about it. 

In the meantime though, work on the models has stalled somewhat, simply because I am waiting on some bits from Warbases to continue. I have more than enough for some of the models but I am looking at a production line approach for the build so prefer to wait until all the pieces of the puzzle are in place.

It is all coming together nicely!

Iron and Oak and Battle Cry

 This one nearly passed me by! I remember seeing this game when it first came out but never got around to getting a copy. This has been duly rectified and with an additional surprise in the box! The game is a ship to ship tactical combat game that uses a square grid, order cards and wait for it - opposing dice rolls for movement and firing. Needless to say, it would be very simple to use models rather than counters although in my case I would need a larger playing surface to accommodate my models.

The box lid....

....and the back.

The playing surface - note the square grid (actually rectangular).

The game components. Lots of damage counters and the all important ship cards and counters

Some additional scenarios and rules found in the C3i magazine

There are some unusual mechanics in this game - opposed dice rolls for movement and firing would certainly raise a few naval wargaming eyebrows for a start - but the rationale behind the various systemic decisions seem sound enough, certainly for the gamer that wants a 'game that has the flavour, rather than a 'flavour that has a game'. 

On a different tack....

I have been looking long and hard at the scenarios in Battle Cry and indeed, also reacquainting myself with the rules. The former was a pleasurable experience, the latter less so, mainly because I am averse to using them as written! A quick visit to the files section of Boardgamegeek soon rectified this and so I was able to download an advanced set which looks far more appealing. I also used the opportunity to download a variant for the Zulu War.

If time permits I am looking to run a Battle Cry over the weekend using the advanced rules so watch this space as I shall certainly be posting the after action report on the blog.

Revisiting the ACW Via Battle Cry

Nice and compact and with plenty of scenarios….

….as you can see on the right hand page

For a variety of reasons my time over the next few months is going to be busy. Aside from the 24 models I need to build for Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame, there is the small matter of fighting the battle with the said models when completed and then writing it up for the book. I am quite happy with all this activity and it all fits in with my current domestic situation nicely. However, I am conscious that I have not been getting any gaming in other than naval - again, this is not a problem but I do fancy revisiting some ground based action.

It has to be something that is quick and easy to set up and play - something for which the Portable Wargame series is eminently suitable for - and not requiring a ton to table top models and terrain. From my collection there are a number of options that tick the convenience factor, especially the Command and Colours series, of which I have a reasonable selection. 

I had a look through and settled on Battle Cry - the 150th Anniversary edition - as this ties in nicely with the Portable Ironclads Wargame, at least from the history perspective anyway.

I plan to work my way through the scenarios, in no particular order, with the occasional write up for the blog. I may even badger some of the denizens of SEEMS (the South East Essex Military Society) to take up the flag of either side as the new venue is far more amenable than the previous one IMHO. 

At least you can hear yourself think which is a decided advantage in my experience!

Some Blasts from the Past

For some unknown reason a batch of my photos used on the blog have appeared in a separate album rather than the main one. The pictures relate to posts from 2012 although some of the pictures are older than the blog itself, being of a 2005 vintage. I do remember having to cull some pictures from my earlier blog posts as I was close to using up my Google limit - which of course they increased shortly after I had done so! I digress though, and so without further ado....

Turkish Dirigibles for use with the VSF rules called Aeronef. These and the rest of the pictures of similar types were a small selection of the scratch built air fleets I made from assorted plastic bombs, scrap sprue and other odds and ends.

Small Greek Dirigibles....

....and some larger types.

Some of the Bulgarians

A converted Revell model of the Hindenburg in Turkish livery. This model was a carrier and you can see the launch rails beside each funnel.

The Aeronef collection, circa 2005,  has long since moved on - Steve Blease of Wessex Games now owns them I believe - but I remember they were a lot of fun to build and use. They would be easy enough to replicate and indeed, I have squirreled away some bits and pieces for just that purpose. 

A mock up predreadnought from 2012....

....and another one. Neither were finished but seeing them again has given me a few ideas (like I need some more!)

A detail taken from a game in 2012 using my original, first edition ACW models, again, long gone although they did reappear on eBay when the buyer sold them!

An overview of the game itself - block armies and scratch built warships, a winning combination and one I must revisit at some point!

The magnificent seven City class casemate ironclad gunboats - I only have three in the current setup.

It was a pleasant surprise coming across this lot again and it has made me think about some great games from days gone by and the early years of my blog - and before!

 

In the Middle of Lidl

The box

Measuring some 195mm across the flat sides and with hexes 26mm across the flat sides this has ‘Portable Wargaming’ written all over it!

The pieces that make up the ‘puzzle’ element

As you can see they are 26mm across….

….and around 7mm thick.

I spent this morning with Laurel on a ‘getting some bits in for Christmas and topping up other odds and ends’ mission which was fr the most part successful. We visited three stores and the last of these was Lidl - the well known ‘budget’ supermarket for those who are unfamiliar.

One of the features of this shop is the central aisle - the ‘middle of Lidl’ as it has come to be known - that usually contains all manner of items ranging from assorted tools, garden bits and pieces, items of clothing and children’s toys and games.

It is always worth a look down this aisle and today proved the wisdom of doing so as I picked up a copy of the above for a mere £3.99!

The uses for this wonderful piece of kit are many. With some careful terrain building - the pieces contained therein could be used for hills or similar - a laptop sized wargame could be fought whilst sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea and a chocolate hobnob! One thing that crossed my mind would be using this for Gladiatorial type games or indeed, any kind of duel setting. 

I may well have to go back and try and get a couple of other copies of this!

Tolkien about Heroic Fantasy

 

“One game to bring them in….and in the expansion, bind them!” The 1st edition base game and the Battles of the Third Age expansion

Some time ago I acquired a copy of the War of the Ring, at that time published by Fantasy Flight Games and the first edition. The game is now produced by Ares and is the second edition. It is a sprawling strategic campaign game set against the backdrop of the Lord of the Rings in the good guys have to unite in order to by time to beat the bad guys whilst the Fellowship makes it way to Mordor to destroy the ring. It is features cards for various actions within the game and best of all, nigh on 300 Bob Naismith designed figures representing the key characters and armies. In the first edition these have been moulded in a hard polythene, unlike the second edition which uses the same figures but moulded in a softer, more oily polythene.

Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures but these are taken from the rule book. Above you see the good guys whilst below are the forces of evil

Sadly the Battles of the Third Age does not include such a page but does see the addition of models representing Rohan captains (Theoden, Theodred and Eomer), Gondor captains (Faramir and Imrahil), Black Uruks, Southron horsemen, the Witch King, Corsair ships, Treebeard and the Ents, Half-orcs, Dunlendings, Galadriel, the Balrog and a dozen siege machines, six for each side - Towers for the forces of evil and Trebuchets for the bad guys. I will get some close ups of the figures in my next post.

Needless to say it was the figures that originally clinched it for me. The foot figures are roughly 25mm, the mounted slightly smaller, say around 20mm-ish. The Ents are around 35mm tall whilst the siege machines and Corsair ships do not really fit in with the figures at all as they are too small.

I had a plan about painting the figures (many owners of the game have done so) and using them for such things as HOTT, Dragon Rampant or even low level skirmishes. A bold plan given my aversion to painting but these figures would suit even my old-fashioned and amateurish painting style. They have nicely exaggerated detail that lends itself well to shading and highlighting and, to be frank, older eyesight!

To cut a long story short, an opportunity arose to acquire the only expansion that was available for the first edition - elements of which found their way into the second but not all. It was a little on the expensive side but in the interests of completeness I grabbed it and was hugely pleased that I did.

Battles of the Third Age is really two expansions in one as it expands the original game as well as providing two standalone battles - the Battle for Rohan and the Battle for Gondor. These two are effectively ‘games within a game’ and are a perfect way to get into the heat of the action quickly. As I recall the Lord of the Rings version of Risk had a similar idea with the expansion that included additional figures and a game based on the battle of Minas Tirith.

What does this all mean then?

Well, I still like the idea of using the figures outside of the original game but obviously, there would be shedload of painting to undertake first. Call it a long term slow burner then, unless something profound happens in the meantime!

Which of course it has….

The latest offering from Two Fat Lardies - and hugely impressive these rules look as well!

The rear cover

These will need more figures than for HOTT or Dragon Rampant but not excessively so in my opinion. I reckon that given the range of models available from the two War of the Ring sets I could easily raise a couple of forces that would be usable in a Tolkien/Peter Jackson style setting.

Oh well, another project to add to the list but, and it is a significant but, I have everything I need to complete it in terms of figures.

Meanwhile though, back to the ships (and not the Corsairs of Umbar!).

Redesigning the Monarch

This is an example of what Martin at Warbases has to translate into something tangible! A - this will be the 'top deck' and includes the holes for the newly placed masts. The mainmast (with 3 1/2" next to it is usually around half an inch closer to the bow. B - shows the two extra pieces required for the main deck. You can see the notch for the bowsprit. C - Try as I might I have not been able to find out the shape of the flying deck so have gone with this. D - is the design of the smaller turrets. 

Following on from my post of yesterday I thought I would show a little of what passes for the thought process when I design one of my models.

I say 'what passes for the thought process' with my tongue firmly in cheeks as the statement implies a far greater degree of planning than is the norm! In truth that is probably why I have avoided writing tutorials as my methodology is far too haphazard to be written about in a meaningful way.

Anyways, if one can sift through the odds and ends of notes and blog posts and see any kind of pattern then well done, that is more than I can!

HMS Monarch - note the central armoured citadel on top of which the two turrets sat.

I sat down with my copy of British Battleships by Dr. Oscar Parkes and looked up HMS Monarch on page 131. From the diagram there, and that above I was able to get a good idea of the main points I would need to show on the model.

After a degree of experimentation I was able to get a sense of 'the right bits in the right places' which will certainly be good enough to represent HMS Monarch when she is built and ready for the tabletop.

The plan has been sent to Warbases for Martin to no doubt wring his hands in despair at!