Battle Notes for Wargamers

As a wishful wargamer, some might say an almost entirely virtual wargamer, I tend to spend most of my time musing on and vaguely planning wargame projects, rather than actually getting any gaming done.  This is mainly because of that old issue of time, which is particularly relevant at the moment because I am about to go off on two consecutive two-week business trips, the first one to Uganda (again) and the second to Uzbekistan (again), so I won't even be near getting back into the saddle until late May.

Wargame books are therefore a very important way of staying connected to the hobby (and my own nostalgic take on it) and when I'm on the internet browsing for things, the 'classics' are the ones that I am invariably drawn to, even if I've not read them before.

Main map for the St Nazaire raid (hand tinted).

In this regard finding a copy of Donald Feathstone's Battle Notes for Wargamers on eBay for £2.99 last week was too much of a bargain to resist.  The copy I received was in very good condition, apart from a bit of spotting on the fly-leaf (oo-er) and the fact that some previous owner has carefully coloured in some of the maps.  Still, for £2.99 it's value for money.

Detailed map for St Nazaire raid.

The book is basically a series of wargame scenarios based on real battles through the ages, stretching from Pharsalus in 48BC to the (Korean War) Pork Chop Hill in 1953.  Of particular interest to me are the Battle of Wynendael (1708) part of Marlborough's campaigns in the Low Countries and the St Nazaire Raid (1942) featured here.

For each scenario there are two maps, comprising a sort of strategic map and a detailed table top map that can be used for the wargame.  The scenarios also include various rule ideas, what ability commanders should have, how to inject the element of surprise (not telling the players what battle it is seems to be the simplest method), tips for making terrain and other ways to game the scenario specifics for each battle.

Overall it is a worthwhile book to have if you are interested in scenario ideas and it complements the excellent Scenarios for Wargames (1981) by Charles S Grant, which provides 52 fictitious scenarios to fight though based on various wargame problems. I understand that John Curry has an updated and revised version of Battle Notes in print currently.

Sturdee's Squadron

This idea for an early WW1 naval campaign based on the exploits of the German East Asia Squadron commanded by von Spee, using Navwar 1/3000 scale ships and the free and versatile Berthier Campaign Manager software, keeps going round in my head (inspired by Geoffrey Bennett's excellent Naval Battles of the First World War).  I've already painted up the first two forces required and have now finished off von Spee's nemesis at the Battle of the Falklands, Sturdee's Squadron.

After having destroyed Craddock's forces at the Battle of Coronel on the west coast of South America (bar the Otranto and HMS Glasgow), the British despatched a much stronger force under Sturdee to the South Atlantic to deal with von Spee once and for all.

HMS Defence

This included the armoured cruiser HMS Defence (1908), which Craddock had been expecting before he set off to fairly certain death against von Spee at Coronel.  However, HMS Defence had been diverted away from Craddock on orders from the Admiralty, though they didn't bother to tell him that.  If HMS Defence had been there it might have made a significant difference at Coronel, with its four 9.2" main guns and ten 7.5" secondary armament.

Sturdee's force also included HMS Cornwall (1904) and HMS Kent (1903), the sister ships of HMS Monmouth (1903) that had been lost at Coronel.  When refighting the Battle of the Falklands the ill-fated HMS Monmouth can stand in for HMS Kent.

HMS Cornwall / HMS Kent

Other ships in the squadron included the fast but unarmoured light cruiser HMS Glasgow (1911) and her sister ship HMS Bristol (1911), as well as HMS Carnarvon (1904), which appears a sturdy looking vessel, if you pardon the pun.

HMS Carnarvon

However, the main feature of Sturdee's squadron were the two fast, modern and heavily armed Dreadnought battlecruisers, HMS Inflexible (1908) and HMS Invincible (1909), each equipped with eight massive 16" guns.

HMS Inflexible and HMS Invincible

These had been released from the Grand Fleet and their unexpected presence in the South Atlantic resulted in the destruction of the East Asia Squadron, partly because von Spee could not believe the reports that two tripod masted warships were anchored in Port William until it was too late.

Anyway, all in all, I've now got plenty of ships for covering all of the actions in the Pacific and South Atlantic and I intend to use the random 'army plans' feature of Berthier to allow some different scenarios to be played out, for example allowing Craddock to actually have HMS Defence at Coronel (or even HMS Canopus, which missed out on the destruction because of engine trouble).

Other scenarios could involve von Spee taking his captains' advice and deciding not to try to attack the Falkland Islands, but rather to continue up the eastern South American coast picking off allied merhantmen, or perhaps cross to the eastern Atlantic to try to elude the Allies and eventually get back to Germany.  Hopefully more on that in subsequent posts.

Lost at Sea

Well, this is my first post this year, and in fact the first one since September.  Basically I've been away a lot, starting with Montenegro in September, followed by a week in Uganda and then another long week in Uzbekistan in January.

I've also been working on a project in Ukraine so it seems that I am the go-to person in my company for countries brought to you by the letter U.  And in fact with three out of a possible four in the bag (USA, UK and UAE don't count) I was thinking that perhaps Montenegro was an adminstrative error and it should have been Montevideo instead, thus completing the set.

But I haven't stopped thinking about wargaming all the while and in fact I took my copies of the naval rules General Quarters 1 and 2 with me all the way to Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan for some light reading and a reminder of normality (particularly as my luggage never made it further than Tashkent for the week).

German wrecks

Anyway, here are a few things I have been working on should I ever have time to get some naval wargaming done.  Yes, scratch built sinking ships in 1/3000 scale to go with my small (yet growing) fleet of Navwar WW1 ships, not to mention the splash markers that I prepared earlier.

Bottoms up

I made these from some spare bits of balsa sanded to shape, polystyrene off-cuts and pin heads for the turrets (where visible).

British wrecks

They have yet to be used in battle but I have plans...which no doubt I'll get around to once I get back from Uganda and/or Uzbekistan, which ever one I have to go to first.

WSS Danish - Regiment Prince George

I'm not the fastest (or most accurate) painter in the world but here is my first War of the Spanish Succession period Danish regiment, Prince George, which took me about two weeks to do.  These 15mm fgures are from Blue Moon (click to enlarge the pictures) and my aim is initially to recreate the two Danish brigades that were at Blenheim under Scholten.

WSS Danish - Prince George

I've put them on 30x30mm bases (from Warbases) and each regiment comprises a combination of the following packs:15 MBN 101 - Infantry Command;15 MBN 102 - Infantry Tricorn; 15 MBN 104 - Grenadiers Mitre. I liked the idea of having a couple of grenadiers on the right flank for each regiment.

WSS Danish - Prince George

Authorities differ on the shade of light grey the Danish coats should be but I thought that darker rather than lighter would be more appropriate, particularly as I wanted to make sure that they could be clearly differentiated from any French that happened to be on the table.  Purists will note that they are not wearing double breasted coats as they should be, but that option wasn't available from Blue Moon.

The Prince Geroge regiment has rather striking orange facings which colour I arrived at by mixing some artist's acrylic Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow in equal amounts (painted over a red 'shade' layer).  Uniform details came initially from Charles S Grant's books (in this case Vol 1) as well as the recently received booklet The Danish Army 1699-1715 by CA Sapherson (from Caliver books), as well as some other on-line sources.

Orange is not the only fruit (nor, for that matter, the only facing colour used by the Danes)

As you can possibly see I tried, for the first time in 15mm, to achieve some sort of shading techniques, which can be a bit tricky on these small figures.  Basing was a variation on my usual method which involved using rough shelly East Lothian sand, painted earth brown this time and dry brushed, followed by adding some static grass.  Note that I've also not got around to putting the flags on yet.  Ray Rousell from the famous Don't Throw a One blog very kindly sent me some flags, and once I get around to printing these out and fitting them I will have finally finshed my first Danish regiment (though the next one is already started!).

WSS Blue Moon 15mm Grenadiers

Albeit slowly, my War of the Spanish Succession project is progressing, with the first infantry regiment in the process of being painted (the Danish regiment Prince George) and the next one waiting in the wings (painting table) with a nice overing of black undercoat.  However, as with any project there is immediately the issue of basing, rules and basically how many figures one needs to buy in order to get a presentable army on the move.

Blue Moon WSS 15mm Grenadier

Clearly there are various rule sets to be considered and basing needs to be flexible to accommodate any changes.  I have a soft spot for the classic WRG 1685-1845 rules and Black Powder is also a popular contender; however, after visiting Claymore in Edinburgh last month we decided that Piquet Field of Battle (2nd edition) would be worth a try for this period.  These rules suggest four bases per unit and after a bit of thought it was decided that 16 infantry figures (or 8 cavalry) on a 12cm frontage (on four 30x30mm bases) was what we'd aim for.

Being interested in the Danish troops in the WSS, the Battle of Ramillies blog has turned out to be a very useful place, particularly in terms of how the regiments could be represented.  What I liked is that the regiments include a couple of grenadiers and I thought I could do that as well.  So, based on the figures I have (or will have), what I'm planning is shown below:

Obviously Blue Moon do grenadiers and so some arrived in the post this week.  There will be two of these for each regiment and like the line infantry they are very nice sculpts.

Blue Moon WSS 15mm Grenadier - Reverse

There seem to be two pose variants for the grenadiers and I think that once I get some troops finished these guys are going to look quite fine in the place of honour on the right of the regiment.

WSS Blue Moon 15mm Infantry

There are various options for War of the Spanish Succession (WSS) period figures in 15mm (or Marlburian period, if you want to be all anglocentric) including Essex, Dixons, Minifigs, Irregular, Roundway, Lancashire Games, Black Hat and Freikorps to name but a few.  Actually that's quite a lot of choice if you think about it!

Infantry Officer

However, for my WSS project I decided to go for the Blue Moon (Old Glory) figures which are 15mm from the sole of the foot to the eye so, are actually probably more like 18mm figures.

Infantry Officer - Reverse

These troops don't have that stocky look that some figures have (so are similar to Minifigs in that regard) and are very nicely detailed I think, with only slighty visible mould lines and with flash usually only in the awkward gap between the sword scabbard and the leg.

Infantry NCO

Infantry command packs contain 10 figures and comprise two different officer poses, two different NCOs (when I compared two separate command packs there are at least three NCO variants), two drummers, and four ensigns.

Tricorn Infantry

Standard infantry packs contain 30 figures and there are slight pose and head variations in each pack.  I favour the march attack stance over the Minifig style of lunging forward precariously, or other odd postions that some manufacturers come up with, so the marching pose plus the variations available made these the obvious choice for me. 

Tricorn Infantry - Reverse

These are the basic Tricorn Infantry Marching (15MBN102) but there other types of infantry available including French with fuller coats and front-mounted cartridge box (could be used as Spanish), various types of grenadiers and "Infantry with Tricorn in Open Coats" (for summer campaigns presumably, or possibly for use as Prussians).

Nice figures I think and certainly more detailed than some of the competition.  If only my painting skills were up to it....

The WSS Project

Remarkably there has actually been activity on the War of the Spanish Succession front this summer.  The main achievements have been that a) some "15mm figures" from Blue Moon arrived (actually Old Glory Minatures UK Ltd) and b) I've decided what I am going to paint them as (well, the infantry at least).

Blue Moon 15mm Marlburians

When considering the WSS project my first thoughts turned to British and Dutch forces but Geoff has already got some Dutch regiments up and running (in addition to his French and Bavarian) so my attention turned to the Allies.  Although Marlborough led the Allies' campaigns there were troops from quite a number of other nations, which in fact often outnumbered the British contingent.

Looking through the OOB for the Battle of Blenheim, for example, it occured to me that the Danish brigades might be an interesting force to start with.  So my plan initially is to recreate Bielke's Brigade and Rebsdorff's Brigade under Lieutenant General Scholten, that formed part of the Allies' Austian right wing commanded by Eugène himself.  Note that I'm not aiming to copy the OOB for a particular battle, it's just that I like a bit of structure to what I'm planning.

Bielke's Regiments were:

• Regiment of Foot Prince George (light grey coats, orange breeches, facings, etc.) (there were two battalions at the battle, but I'll just have one)
• Regiment Dansk Den Kongelige Livgarde til fods (straw yellow coats, carmine red breeches, facings, etc.)
• Regiment of Foot Prince Carl (light grey coats, grey breeches, yellow facings, etc.)

Rebsdorff's Regiments were:

• Fynske Regiment of Foot (dark grey coats, green breeches, facings, etc.)
• Sjaellandske Regiment of Foot (light grey coats, dark blue breeches, facings, etc.)
• Regiment of Foot Christian Ulrich (light grey coats, grey breeches, crimson facings, etc.)

Uniform details are from CS Grant's excellent  The Armies and Uniforms of Marlborough's Wars Vol 1 (Partizan Press).  I also have ideas for some additonal regiments - probably British, as well as what Danish cavalry regiments to do.  I want to prepare a few Bourbon regiments as well, to supplement Geoff's French and Bavarians.  More of that, as well as the proposed rule set and basing, later.

Claymore 2013

Well, I managed to achieve something since I last posted and that was to get to Claymore 2013 in Edinburgh.  It's been somewhat of a tradition since our school days and Geoff and I must have been going to it since at least 1980 when it was held at Adam House in Chambers Street, through the Meadowbank years (I had a tenement flat right across the road at the time) and now at its current home, the Edinburgh College campus in Granton (on the old gasworks site).

Anyway, some interesting games were on (with fewer Very British Civil War offerings than previously).  A bit too many odd space battles in evidence though (surely that is what computers are for?): I'm afraid I take the historical wargamer bit seriously.  Anyway, here are some highlights.  First are some pictures from the 15mm SYW Zorndorf refight put on by the Gourock Wargames Association (GWA).

Prussian cavalry cross the Langer-Grund on their right.

Cavalry action in the woods.

View from behind Russian centre.

View of Prussian centre.

View of Russian centre.

Cossacks in the woods.

Overview from the Russian's right flank (the Zabern-Grund in the foreground).

Prussian artillery and infantry.

Figures were a mixture of Old Glory (mainly Prussians) and Essex (mainly Russians).  The GWA was using the Piquet ruleset and it seemed inspiring enough for me to go off and buy a copy afterwards (added to the pile, but more of that later no doubt).

The next game that caught my eye was the Glasgow and District Wargaming Society's 28mm WW2 scenario Raid on Tito, depicting the botched attempt by the Germans to mount a combined airborne and ground attack on Tito's headquarters near Drvar in what is now Bosnia.  Rules were Bolt Action and this game was particularly interesting to me as I have recently been reading Fitzroy MacLean's Eastern Approaches (amongst other things).

Tito's forces threaten to over-run the German LZ and glider.

Tito's headquarters.

Panzerschrek in the marsh.

Germans infiltrate the woods.

Partizans defend Drvar.

Overview of Drvar

Another interesting game was the Charge of the Light Brigade public participation event put on by Kirriemuir Wargames Club.  Rules were apparently based on the Tennyson poem of the same name (sub-titled Anyone for Tennyson?).  The aim, as you might expect, was to get (the remains of) your squadron to the 'safety' of the Russian guns at the far end of the Valley of Death.

What's that you say, Nolan?  Those guns over there?  Righto!

It'll all end in tears.

"Very interesting, but stupid."

Hurry up lads.  If we don't get there in time the pubs will be all shut.

Other games included some sort of barbarian attack on a Roman fort put on by Claymore Castings (excellent figures):

Oi, leave that testudo alone.

The Tyneside Wargames Club with a massive Great Captain rules demonstration:

Impressive.

And RAF Leuchars' participation game Banzai!  Looked like fun - although I thought the guy in the foreground moving the aerial sea urchins on sticks around had escaped from the kitchens at Pizza Express.

Met office forecast - Divine Wind, gale force 10, backing easterly.

The traders were out in full force and apart from impulse buying a copy of Piquet Field of Battle 2nd edition to try out (1700-1900), I added to my collection of unpainted Blue Moon 15mm Marlburians and got a copy of the Osprey book on Peleliu 1944, just for interest.  Anyway, overall not too bad and thanks again to the SESWC for keeping this show on and growing all these years.

Tank Furniture: Hawsers

Well, it's been a hell of a long time since I posted on this blog - athough not for want of thinking about it.  I've been pretty busy at work since before Easter, what with two major projects in Turkey at or close to finale stage requiring frequent trips to Istanbul.  However, considering the recent trouble in Gezi Park and Taksim Square, I've not been over there for the past few weeks (I'm missing my Thursday night tango club at the Taksim Point Hotel, I can tell you).  But I digress.

So, to get back into the swing of things here is something of what I've been working on intermittantly over the past few months, related to those Armourfast tanks that are lying mainly unpainted in a box (they were getting dusty on the workbench they'd been sitting there that long).  The thing is, the Armourfast kits, being simple models, need a bit of kitting out with clutter, so I've been working on that and thought that one of the things you see on real tanks are hawsers.  So here are some I made earlier from string and wire.

The string is actually the decoration from a wedding order of service (not mine) and the loop (at either end) is made from some twisted fuse wire.  After cutting into lengths of 7cm or 8cm, I stiffened the string by giving it a coating of wood glue (PVA) rubbed in with my fingers.  Then I superglued the fusewire loops onto either end of the string.  The join was disguised with a 0.5cm strip of masking tape wound around it a few times.

Once all the glues had dried I undercoated it in black, gave it a heavy dry brush of gun metal and then a thin wash of rust colour.  When I get around to it I will post a picture of them in situ on the tanks themselves, along with some of the other items I've been making.

Private McBain's Bairn

Scotland's regiments have a long and proud history, although actually I should say 'regiment', as we've only got one now, formed from the merger of Scotland's previously remaining six regular and two territorial regiments in 2006 (see footnote).

Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket on a braw day. I can see my house from up there you know.

Anyway, one of the many great things about living in Edinburgh (apart from it also being in Scotland) is that there is a lot of military (and other) history to experience, particularly if you make a visit to Edinburgh Castle, which is easy to do on a regular basis if you are member of Historic Scotland (£5 a month for family membership - go to Edinburgh Castle twice in a year and it pays for itself).  

Edinburgh Castle on another braw day.  My house obscured by extinct volcano and castle.

However, the point of all this tourist board stuff is that Edinburgh Castle has some fine regimental museums that are well worth a visit including one for the Royal Scots.  There is a walk-through exhibition there and, currently reading about the War of the Spanish Succession, the following caught my eye (click to enlarge).

Mind you, saves on day-care costs. 

This is a depiction of a private soldier of the Royal Scots, being Orkney's Regiment, standing over a fallen frenchman at the battle of Malpaquet in 1709, all of which you get to see from quite close up.  The quality and arrangement of the uniform and equipment are fascinating (if a bit dusty) and of course I was interested in the uniform details because (should the figures I ordered ever turn up) I will be painting up a couple of regiments of redcoats to start with.  The point being that according to Charles S Grant's book The Armies and Uniforms of Marlborough's Wars (Vol 1) facings for this regiment were originally white but changed to blue at some point, evidently before Malpaquet, as shown here.

But if you look closely there is something else going on here, for this is the eponymous Pvt McBain and just before the battle, McBain's wife, who was with him on campaign, "handed over their three-week old baby son to him saying she would follow the Colours no more.  Having nowhere else to put him, McBain placed the baby in his knapsack where he remained, and survived throughout the battle."

Now that's what you call a braw bairn.

Footnote
Battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
1 SCOTS The Royal Scots Borderers (itself an amalgamation of the Royal Scots and Kings Own Scottish Borderers)
2 SCOTS The Royal Highland Fusileers
3 SCOTS The Black Watch
4 SCOTS The Highlanders (Seaforths, Gordons and Camerons)
5 SCOTS The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
6 SCOTS 52nd Lowland Regt (TA)
7 SCOTS 51st Highland Volunteers (TA)