Wargaming In History - Featherstone and Grant

It all started with an ebay purchase of a copy of Practical Wargamer. I have a soft spot for this old magazine, and now and then a cover will catch my attention and I will buy a copy. And so, an advert on page 6 of the November/December 1991 issue alerted me to two books by my favourite old school authors (as I originally thought), Donald Featherstone and Charles Grant. However, the publication date of 1991 quickly told me that the 'Grant' book would be written by Charles S. Grant, Grant senior having sadly died in 1979.

The two books were evidently part of a series that seems to have passed me by at the time - the 'Wargaming In History' series by Argus Books. This appears to have been a five book series with titles on the Peninsula War, Waterloo, the American Civil War, 'Goths, Huns and Romans', and the Anglo-Boer War. Donald Featherstone was the author of the Peninsula War title, and Charles Grant had written the book on Waterloo. The authors of the other three books are unknown to me. The series editor was none other than Stuart Asquith, and Argus Books were a specialist company who also published Practical Wargamer.

I decided to take a punt and see what those two famous wargaming authors had to say about Napoleonic wargaming back in 1991. Once again ebay came good and I got both books for a total of £25.

The books are A5 size, with around 120 pages each, and black and white throughout. The intention was obviously to provide a background to the period in question, in terms of a basic narrative of the campaigns and battles involved and the tactical and equipment details that wargamers would want. Each book has a short set of basic rules. There are numerous illustrations and a reasonable number of maps.

The basic campaign detail would still be useful to a total beginner in Napoleonics, but the  tactical analysis in both books is a little outdated now. More importantly, both books are too limited by their small size to do their subject justice, and given the limited amount of space I felt there was rather too much history and not enough wargaming. 

Donald Featherstone provides a set of brief descriptions of the main battles of the Peninsula War, but these are illustrated mainly with old maps of variable quality and usefulness. There are only a couple of maps which show an actual wargaming set up. Charles Grant has a rather easier task with the more restricted subject of the Waterloo Campaign, and good maps are provided allowing the action of the campaign and its battles to be followed.

But the main issue is the very short sets of wargaming rules included, both consisting of only a handful of pages. Both are interesting as far as they go, with both authors (Donald Featherstone in particular) providing quite original rules which diverge from what might have been expected from each of them. But they are much too abbreviated to be satisfactory - an experienced gamer might fill in the gaps, but a beginner could well end up rather confused. Quite a lot of space in both books is devoted to a description and analysis of Napoleonic tactics, but how this translates onto the wargaming table is much less well covered.

Thirty years on, these books are really only of value to someone like me - a collector of old school wargaming books. As such I'll be glad to have them on my shelves. The tantalising glimpse they provide of what could have been two sets of very worthwhile rules is frustrating but still of interest.

A bit more WW2 gaming to come soon, and a new battlemat to review from Geek Wargaming, so stay tuned. 

'Til next time!

Wargames Illustrated 403

Just a quick post of a self-serving nature. But then I guess most blog posts are of a largely self-serving nature, when one thinks about it.

Anyway, issue 403 of WI has an article on Shadow of the Eagles, written by me. It forms part of the 'Designer Notes' series.

Many thanks to Dan Faulconbridge for the opportunity - the layout/design guys have done a really nice spread for me over 4 pages. I'd also say the rest of the magazine is well worth a look.

I'm hoping to feature an SotE game soon with real Napoleonic figures, so stay tuned - 'til next time!

P.S. - that Napoleonic game can now be seen on the Shadow of the Eagles blog.

The Engagement At Kopiec

This little solo battle was used to test the current state of play with my revision of the 1973 WRG WW2 rules. It is, of course, entirely fictional. However, for inspiration it uses the north-easterly advance of the Germans towards Warsaw in early September 1939, in particular the well-known Battle of Mokra where an armoured train helped to hold up an attacking Panzer Division for a day or so.

The structure of the scenario came from the Bolt Action rule book, being scenario 1, 'Envelopment'. This fitted nicely into a narrative of Panzer units hurrying forward trying to bypass Polish units, only to find a determined defence in place backed up by an armoured train. The Bolt Action book only gives basic set-up zones and table proportions, so I had to fill in the terrain detail myself:

The table was 4' x 4', using 15mm figures and models.

The Poles could deploy anywhere south of the line A - B. The Germans started off-table, and moved on from the northern base edge in move 1. The WRG rules use a 1 to 1 scale, with one vehicle model representing one actual vehicle, and infantry based as 'elements' or 'groups', four to a base. In fact, very similar to Flames of War. Forces were:

Poles

Company CO.

Infantry Platoon

HQ: command group, ATR group, light mortar group.
3 x sections each: 2 rifle groups, 1 rifle/lmg group.

Tank platoon: 3 x R-35 tanks.

Light Tank platoon: 3 x TKS tankettes

Mortar section: 2 x 8cm mortars (off table). Mortar observer.

Armoured Train: train no.51, Pierwszy Marszalek.

Germans

Company CO.

Panzergrenadier Platoon

HQ: command group, ATR group, light mortar group.

3 x sections each: 1 rifle group, 1 rifle/lmg group.

2 x Tank Platoon: 3 x Pz.38T, 1 x Pz.II.

Heavy Tank Platoon: 2 x Pz.IV, 2 x Pz.II.

Mortar section: 2 x 8cm mortars (off table). Mortar Observer.

Normally I would make an attacking force stronger than the defenders, but the Bolt Action scenarios are designed for equal points battles. I decided to give this a go, and in fact it worked well. I used the points from the WRG 1973 book and the two forces came out at around 750 points each.

The Germans would score 1 victory point for every Polish element knocked out, 2 victory points for every friendly element inside the Polish set-up zone, and 3 victory points for every friendly element that managed to move off the table via the Polish baseline.

The Poles would score 2 victory points for every German element knocked out.

The Game In Photos

The set-up.
The green markers show the target points for the German preparatory bombardment.

A couple of moves in.
By some miracle (well, a throw of 11 with 2D6) the Poles have conjured up an airstrike.

The CO of the Polish R-35 platoon was responsible for picking off a Pz.IV.

Move 4 and a Stuka appears. Scratch 2 R-35s!
At top right the German heavy tank platoon has 3 tanks out of 4 knocked out

One of the Pz.38T platoons advances with some infantry support.

On cresting a small rise, 2 more German tanks are knocked out by the guns of the armoured train.

Move 5 and more close air support arrives for the Germans - an HS-123 strike.
More importantly for the Germans, their left-flanking tank platoon
has exited the table to the rear of the train.

Game over. The Polish centre is holding but the train is badly shot up,
 and the Poles have been by-passed.

After 6 turns the score was Poles 20 points, Germans 26. There was no way back for the Poles from this situation.

This turned out to be a fun little solo game, and very valuable in sorting out my revised version of the rules. An armoured train is a particularly tricky subject to make rules for - the 1973 version of the rules doesn't mention armoured trains, and the guidance in the 1988 version is limited. An armoured train is a big unit and has to be counted as a company-level formation. They were heavily armed and can be deadly against both tanks and infantry.

I'm definitely sticking with this project, which seems to offer a simpler experience than Battlegroup with no re-basing and a nice old school feel.

Getting back into face-to-face gaming has been delayed by various commitments in June, which is a shame. It appears even the retired cannot entirely escape from life outside gaming! But at least the summer appears to be here. If you're reading this, I very much hope your own post-lockdown wargaming is flourishing.

'Til next time!

Cotswold Wargaming Day - It's Back!

So, it's time at last to schedule the post-covid Cotswold Wargaming Day. This year it will be a little later than in 2019, and is currently planned for Sunday 3rd October 2021. Venue is the same as in previous years:

Westwoods Community Centre

Bassett Road

Northleach GL54 3QJ

I'm hoping to be able to accommodate a few more than in 2019 (we had 30 of us that year), but at the moment the centre is opening for a maximum of 30 people. By October that should have improved. If you're not already on the mailing list, contact me via the comments section if you are interested in attending or putting on a game.

The current holders of the Stuart Asquith Trophy for Best Game.
Stuart Surridge and the Wyvern Wargamers.

There will be the usual facilities (kitchen area, free tea, coffee and biscuits), and the usual prize giving for various categories of achievement. Car parking is free and plentiful. This is an all-day event from around 08.30 to around 17.00 - the caretaker is very flexible. The normal £5 voluntary contribution to cover costs is requested. 

I am hoping the day will not clash with other covid-delayed events - I know that The Other Partizan has been re-scheduled for the following Sunday. I'll certainly be trying to do both!

To conclude, just a little bit of eye candy to remind us of our lost friend Stuart Asquith, who lived in Northleach until his untimely death in 2019, not long after attending the show which he had inspired. These are a couple of photos of his collection of Suren 30mm figures.

 

So, fingers crossed and we will have a lovely day of relaxed wargaming, meeting old friends and making new ones. Hope to see you there!

Napoleonic Spring

So it looks like you lucky wargamers will have three (I say again, 3) new Napoleonic rule books coming your way in the next month or so. The even better news is that they serve different preferences for game type, so there's no need to worry about choosing. You can just buy all three!

At the skirmish end, there's the Napoleonic supplement for the well-regarded Muskets and Tomahawks FIW rules. The supplement is called Shakos and Bayonets:

Of course, the solid middle ground (the product for those discerning wargamers who prefer the 'classic' game) is covered by Shadow of the Eagles. Should be on sale in a week or two:

And at the 'big battle' end, we have Absolute Emperor from Osprey. It's good to have another book in the Osprey Wargames series that takes on an historical subject, and the author should be congratulated in fitting a set of Napoleonic rules into a 64 page book costing £12.99:

Calling All Grognards

So, instead of asking "Does the wargaming world really need a new Napoleonic rulebook?", certain people will now be asking "Does the wargaming world really need three new Napoleonic rulebooks?". 

The answer, of course, is "Yes". The question was answered way back in 1962 by Donald Featherstone, who wrote in War Games, 'there are almost as many rule books as there are wargamers'. Our hobby is made up of a collection of individuals - or in other words, this is a bottom-up hobby. We create it for ourselves. People who want to write some rules go ahead and do it, and in the digital world they can throw their hat in the ring and see if other people will like (and buy) their work. 

Worried about the fragmentation of the hobby? Well, news just in, the hobby has always been fragmented. That is its nature. It's nothing new. So revel in the choice available. No matter how many rule books are out there, you will quickly find your group of friends or your club will settle on 2 or 3, and you can (or should) enjoy comparing and contrasting the games you have with them. Who knows, you might even settle on just one. For a while.

And so of course, in a year or two, Shadow of the Eagles will probably be forgotten and the next new rule book will be on the market. C'est la vie. Why did I write a set of Napoleonic rules? Because it was fun, and I enjoyed doing it, and I enjoyed the process of bringing it to market and seeing it commercially published. I have a feeling that most rule books come into existence for the same or similar reasons. 

And, I have a copy of Absolute Emperor on order. I'll probably never play a game, but I'll enjoy seeing how the author solved his particular set of challenges. And my knowledge and enjoyment of the hobby will be enhanced. So there.

Rant over - 'til next time!

Shadow of the Eagles - nearly there!

Well, the manuscript is with the printers, the cover is designed, and you can buy a 'rules only' PDF from Wargame Vault right now. In about 3 weeks the full, hardback rulebook will be available for purchase at £29.95. That's a bit more than I first expected, (it's more of a book than I first expected), but Partizan have pushed the boat out to produce a really nice publication that should live up to the expectations of 21st century wargamers. 

Update as of 31st March - a new cover has been decided upon!

The watermarked PDF is $27.50, around £20 depending on the exchange rate. 'Rules only'? Well, like it says, you only get the rules. The 'Wars and Campaigns' section, which is a more narrative and friendly way of having army lists, is not present, and the examples of play and the notes expanding and explaining the rules are also only in the hardback book. But if you're a Napoleonic grognard who already knows it all and can pick up a set of gaming rules easily, then you can save a bit of money and avoid the P&P. Please note that the PDF is NON-PRINTABLE.

The PDF is, paradoxically, a bit of Old School publishing, allowing gamers to just have the rules, like in the 1970s and 80s before army lists and coffee table rule books were thought of. I think it's quite an interesting marketing idea.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having the book in my hand in the not too distant future. If you're thinking of buying, rest assured the rules will be supported by a website which will include a forum and a blog, along with the facility for free downloads of any supporting material that might come along post-publication. So all your questions can be answered, and you can find out how other gamers are getting along with the rules. The site is live now. To access the forum and blog you'll need to sign up, but that should be pretty painless. Let me know of any glitches:

shadowoftheeagles.com

You can also check a brief teaser on the Caliver Books Facebook page.

Exciting times! 

'Til next time.

A WW2 Rules Revolution

How does a new project start? It's often hard to pin down. But a week or two ago something made me get these old WRG rules down from the shelf, where they have lingered for at least 40 years. With a couple of house moves in recent years prompting the need to slim down the bookshelves, many of my old rule sets have made their way into landfill. But these guys have always been retained. 

I can't claim to have ever been a big player of these rules, but I did play a game or two back in the day. Even then they seemed like a set that had potential, rather than a really finished product. I ended up developing my own WW2 rules, which eventually got over-complex and were dropped in favour of the old Peter Pig rules, Abteilung. Since then it's been a succession of commercial sets, leading to my present use of the Battlegroup rules.

Back To The Future

Battlegroup have always been good fun, and I've had some excellent games with them. But I have always had some reservations. I won't bore you with the details, but overall I often had the feeling they were just a bit too much. Big coffee-table books, with lots of special rules and detail that could produce interesting game play but were also easy to forget about if you didn't play regularly. These rules had chrome with a capital 'C'. The other main thing was that they were, at heart, a set for individually based figures of at least 20mm size, which had an alienating effect for someone using 15mm figures based in groups of four. And I never really worked out the difference between Points Values and Battle Ratings. 

A recent small-scale solo test, from the German side.

And so one evening, there I was with a copy of the 1973 WRG set in my hand. Hmmm, these look pretty simple. And the whole set (covering everything from the Spanish Civil War to the Korean War) is about 35 pages in a book smaller than A4. Perhaps there might be something here for the occasional WW2 gamer.

The main thing I remembered was the 50mm infantry move. Just 2 inches? Right from my first reading of the rules all those years ago, that simple fact had told me that these couldn't really be a serious prospect for proper wargaming. But giving them a good re-read (or two) convinced me that there was an absorbing project here - revising the rules to my own satisfaction for a more straightforward WW2 gaming experience. And the first thing I would do was simply change that 50mm move to 100mm.

Over the years I've been pretty disparaging about a lot of WRG rule books - in recent times, the old 'ancients' books in particular. The successor to the 1973 WW2 rules, which came out in 1988, I found to be genuinely and grimly unplayable. They went to the council dump many moons ago. But the 1973 book always had the feel of a classic that perhaps I didn't fully appreciate, but might do one day. That day appears to have come. Here I would like to quote the man himself, Phil Barker, from a 1980s article in Miniature Wargames magazine:

"It does a rule writer no credit to fail to acknowledge his debt [to older rule sets], or even to blackguard his predecessors. Something can be learned from all of them, even if only what to avoid".

Indeed. It is easy to pick holes in forty-year-old rule sets with the benefit of hindsight. But on the other hand, it can't be denied that 'what to avoid' is sometimes only too apparent. However, enough of that.

The above scene from the perspective of the Polish defenders.

Forward To The Past

And so off I go. I've started my re-write, and played a single test game (solo of course). I believe I may be on to a winner. There is much I will change, but there is also much to admire; like the simple fire-before-moving sequence which makes excellent sense in a WW2 game, and the straightforward yet mostly satisfying firing procedures. And one particularly brilliant aspect is the absence of any kind of 'melee' or 'close combat' rules. They are simply completely absent, with the possibility of such processes unmentioned. So close encounters between opposing troops are simply resolved by the standard firing rules, which seems to work very well. And as we all know, that's exactly what resolved 'close combat' in WW2 encounters - firing at very close range. The final clincher may well be that this is a set of rules firmly based on infantry 'elements', meaning groups of 4 figures mounted on a single base. That's more like it!

I'll keep you posted. And rest assured, if I develop anything like a workable set, it will be shared online. Right up to the point when they become the top-selling set of rules for WW2 miniatures!

'Til next time!