Glorious Morning......

a new AWI hex grid conversion!

I have had this on my list of things to do for a while. Here is the link to my first shot at converting Peter's excellent AWI rules to a hex grid format.

I want some of these.....

just bigger!

GHQ perfection in 1/285, would you believe it!

I have just turned in a major piece of work on a development project so now have a short space of time to do some wider thinking before the next stage. 

My jumble of thoughts are on the subject of modern warfare, the type of small unit activity I'm working on in my temporarily paused Desert Eagle. What set off this train of thinking was the recent battle between Turkish troops supported by their Free Syrian Army proxies (Ahrar al-Sham) and ISIS for the control of al-Bab, a key town in central northern Syria. This is at the outer limits of the current Euphrates Shield operation. The Turks set out to take al-Bab and fought an intense battle for the hospital area. In this battle they lost 10 Leopard 2A4s, a Sabra M60 plus 4 APCs/armoured recce vehicles. Bellingcat have covered this here in a brilliant article.

Apart from proving that the Turkish Leopards are a bit feeble, as was seen in the earlier border fighting, it also shows the scope for using lots of tanks. I have become interested in the possibility of using 12mm scale for this type of game.

I have checked out what is available and I want vehicles that are quite large and the ability to use individually based infantry. 10mm is pretty barren in this respect. However, the Minifigs 12mm range is comprehensive. They do packs of three different types of arab insurgents (28 for £4.05) and US and Russian special forces. Irregular miniature do a range of large 10mm modern troops specifically to fit with 12mm vehicles which is described as Modern Bush Wars. So all set to go? Very nearly.

Minifigs do all the tanks you could ask for plus HMMWVs and Toyotas with MGs and recoilless guns. What they don't do is the new breed of HMMWV with armoured turrets which are the de rigeur vehicle for the Middle East. Where can I find something that will fit with 12mm? Not even Shapeways have anything that fits. I don't relish trying to scratch build turrets in this scale! Any ideas?

In other news.......

• Activation mechanics: Peter at "Grid based wargaming - but not always!" has come up with a very simple, adaptable die roll based activation mechanism. Simply brilliant.
• Scum...: A supplement has just been published with additional rules and units. A must for $1.49!  

More grid stuff.....

and even more scum than I was expecting!

A couple of interesting things have come-up....

Nice hat!

Rommel: A new set of rules from Sam Mustafa. The two best things about this are that the game covers more than just N. Africa and that it is an operational game using a grid! The squares are 6", representing 1km across. On a 6 by 4 table this gives 12km by 8km and allows one to two divisions a side in battalion sized units. Teaser material is now available on Sam's website and he has gone into some detail about the game in a recent podcast.

Scum of the Earth: I have mentioned the beta version of this before. The beta version was badged as an AWI/Napoleonic small battles game on a 2 by 2 board. The final version has now been published. What is great is that it contains period specific rules for:

English Civil War, Seven Years War, American Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, First Schleswig War, Crimean War, American Civil War, Second Schleswig War, Austro-Prussian War, Colonial battles, Franco-Prussian War, Spanish American War, Russo-Japanese War and 1914. 

That is quite a bit more than I was expecting and is most welcome. All for $12.99. There are some really interesting mechanisms in these rules and I'm keen to give them a go. 

How can anyone say this is not a golden age!

What's this!

Travel Battle!

This just popped up on the Perry Miniatures site. A travel Napoleonics game with 2x3D geometric boards each of 10 by 10 1" squares.

The games comes with:

• 160 x Infantry 
• 24 x Cavalry 
• 4 x Guns and 12 crew 
• 6 x Brigadiers 
• 6 x Buildings 
• 4 x Dice 
• 1 x Set of rules

The miniatures ar 8mm plastic (very interesting!) in red or blue.

This looks great, the only drawback is a £50 pre-order price.  

Poltava (2)....

more stuff!

My last post on this game included the Swedish tactical considerations map. Steve has now, very kindly, sent me the Russian tactical considerations map. I think this is such a good idea. Possibly a little difficult to do for a large game, but certainly very effective for a game this size. Nice one! 

Hopefully the game will be available commercially at some stage.

Poltava......

game launched!

The Poltava game that I helped playtest was designed as a freebie for the Swedish Army Museum's exhibition of wargaming that runs through to January next year. The event has now launched and there is a very nice review of the exhibition on the Dalauppror blog. No feedback on the game yet but it will be interesting to see what people think of it.

There was an interesting comments from Kaptain Kobold on my earlier post about how much scripting was required for the Poltava game. Poltava is a complex battle. I thought that the postcard game dealt very well with the phases of the battle. The following picture illustrates the objectives that the swedes need to hit before they can win.

It works really well and is a great illustration of how wargames can provide a platform for learning about history. It is also challenging and fun!

I hope that the game is successful and that Steve Kling takes the system forward to further battles. He has mentioned Yorktown and I think that a full set of AWI battles would be a nice idea.

By the way, I have come to think that if I wasn't English (whatever that might mean) then being Swedish would be my next option!

Secret game.....

no secret any more!

One of my 6 by 6 games was labelled "secret game". It is a bit of a cheat since I had already played more than six times since Christmas.

I have been privileged to have taken part in the play testing of a new game "The Battle of Poltava 1709" by Steve Kling. Steve is a real expert on the Great Northern War. His company Historical Games Co. has published Fields of Battle Vol 1 covering 8 battles of the GNW and also a brilliant GNW compendium in two volumes. 

I'm a big fan of small games which are exemplified by the battles in Vol 1. I'm also a big fan of Sweden and the GNW. So, I volunteered to do some play testing for a post card game which will be given away to visitors to the Swedish Army museum in an exhibition that starts this month featuring wargames through the ages.

As you can see, the game really is a post card game with an A4 map and 30 counters. The Armemuseum Facebook site blows the gaff on the game. 

The game is a mix of the FoB rules and the Postcard from the Revolution series by Mike DeSanto. It is very challenging and historical with a really good combination of strategy and luck. 

I'm massively pleased to have had some involvement in this game. I'm not sure if this game will be available commercially but I understand Steve has intentions to use it more widely. The Battle of Yorktown has been mentioned! Very cool.

As this is a bit of a cheat I may well have to put another game into my 6 by 6 challenge.