Back to the Brushes

After a week away from the painting desk, work resumes.  After a few ECW painting distractions, the painting station sees a return to fielding French units for the WAS/SYW.

Off the painting desk today is a 23-figure battalion of Frenchmen from Regiment Boulonnais.  Foot figures are from Old Glory, mounted officer from Eureka, and flags by Not by Appointment.

A number of other French infantry regiments are in the painting queue along with one more French cavalry regiment.  The Lead Pile is running low on Frenchmen so an order from 19th Century Miniatures is on its way.  Soon hopefully! 

The game table has seen no action since the Sumerian game two weeks ago.  Activity is ramping up to host the next remote battle.  On the docket is a recreation of the center sector of the Battle of Solferino pitting the French 2nd Corps against the Austrian I Corps.  I will be hosting the UK-based Rejects in a remote game one week from yesterday as we return to action in the Franco-Austrian War (FAW) of 1859.  Last time (back in May) we tackled San Martino.  Seven players have signed on for the game.

Having the FAW collection out on the table primarily in refights with the Sardinians v Austrians, the French army has seen only limited action in a couple of replays of the Montebello battle.  What I did not realize was that elements of the Imperial Guard supported MacMahon's 2nd Corps at Solferino.  While I could field three battalions of Guard Grenadiers, no Guard Voltigeurs could muster out for the battle.  A quick disruption of the painting queue pushed three battalions of voltigeurs ahead of all else.  My expectation is that Guard Voltigeurs will be ready for action by game day.  I need to order more Guard infantry... 

This week will be busy preparing for the Solferino game.

National Museum of the Pacific War

Nancy and I have been Deep in the Heart of Texas this week visiting family, hiking, and concert-going.  While our base camp was in Round Rock, we did make a foray into Austin for a concert.  No, we were not there to see Willie and the Boys. 

One day we made the two-hour drive through Texas Hill Country to Fredericksburg to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War and the Admiral Nimitz Gallery.  Fredericksburg was settled by German immigrants of which Nimitz' family was one.  There is even a Freitag's Backyard Cafe in nearby Stonewall.  Including a lunch break, we spent a little over six hours in the two museums with most of that time consumed by the Pacific War museum.  So much to see and read.  With travel time, it was a long ten-hour day. 

The museum accomplishes the difficult task of actually educating the visitor about the history of the Pacific War including the causes leading up to the campaign and its aftermath. The War in the Pacific is told through numerous displays with videos, interactive media, battle narratives, firsthand accounts,static displays, and more.  I walked away with a much better understanding of the war from both political and military viewpoints.  Fascinating.  For me, definitely worthy of a return visit for more focused study.  Nancy even enjoyed it and came away with a broad understanding of this theater of the war.

Highly recommended.

Below is a selection of photos from some of the static equipment displays.  The lead photo to this post shows an eerie display of a downed, Japanese Val airplane.

Japanese Type I Dual-mounted MG.

Bofors 40mm gun.

Japanese 37mm gun.

Browning Automatic Rifle.

Willy's Jeep
My dad still has one of these!

Japanese triple-barrelled AA Gun

Japanese gun.

Bren gun.

Knocked out Stuart tank
commanded by Australians.

Does this visit motivate me to ponder a new wargaming period?  Well, that is a silly question.  We all know the answer to that!

While I may not dive into gaming this period in miniature, tackling these campaigns and battles via hex and counter boardgames certainly sees a renewed interest.

If this looks interesting, the website for the National Museum of the Pacific War is 

Home | National Museum of the Pacific War (pacificwarmuseum.org)

As a reminder, keep those Haikus coming if you want an entry in the 10-year anniversary contest.  Many great poems so far.  I hope to see more.

Ten Years Before the Screen

The Palouse Wargaming Journal (PWJ) marches across its tenth anniversary.

It is said that a habit is formed in 21 days.

Publishing a blog for ten years, with regularity, must represent a lifestyle.

With 1,458 blog posts, blogging as a lifestyle decision seems applicable.

With nearly 40,000 comments (OK, half are mine!), this has become a wargaming community and outreach program for me.

What are ten take-aways from ten years of blogging?

• Averaging about 10 posts per month, I have yet to run out of content.  When I began, I worried that potential material would soon become exhausted.  To the contrary and to my surprise, more ideas and topics pop into my head than there is time to write up.  My list of draft topics is long.
• Blogging has enhanced my hobby enjoyment. 
• Perservance.  Keep at it and write regularly.  Regular updates are key to engagement.
• PWJ seems to attract readers and regular commenters of a similar demographic with similar interests.  How did this self-selection happen?
• The blogging community is generous and polite.
• Readers tend to follow the principle of if you cannot say anything nice, don't say anything.  My painting may not be the best nor my games the most handsome but you would never know it from commentary here.
• I gained new wargaming acquaintances and friends from all over the world.  Many with whom I have even enjoyed a game or two.  Amazing, really.
• Blogging opened up new possibilities and a venue to share thoughts on gaming, collecting, and wargaming in general with (mostly) likeminded wargamers.
• Following other bloggers’ works and reader commentary are both motivational and inspirational.
• I am grateful to anyone who happens to stop in to read my work and doubly grateful for those readers who regularly offer up a comment or two. 

Thank you for your patronage and friendship.

Now for a little contest!

As a small token of my appreciation for my valued readers, I offer up a gift voucher to one reader's favorite wargaming shop or bookseller.  The only constraints are that the vendor must allow for an electronic gift voucher purchase from the USA and the winner must supply an email address.

The Rules:

1. Create a Haiku observing the traditional three lines of text having 5, 7, and 5 syllables each. 
2. Theme: What draws you to checking in on actvities at the PWJ?
3. Enter as many times as you like by leaving your Haiku as a comment to this post.
4. One Haiku will be selected randomly from my favorite entries.
5. Gift Voucher amount will be determined by the number of responses.

Below are two examples to prime the creative pump:

Paint desk is busy

Armies march into battle

Anticipation.

Thoughts swirl and wander

Inspires; encourages

Quite habit forming.

Contest will close 30SEP2022.

Rules of War

With WSS' 2022 Great Wargaming Survey wrapped up, time to begin digging into the survey responses.

While many of the questions remain the same from 2021, the 2022 survey saw a few, new questions added into the mix.  One of these new questions is the topic for today's installment.

The question of interest is,

What is your primary source for rules.

The available choices were:

Having been in the wargaming hobby for a very long time, a quick glance over to my bookcase of rules shows rulebooks from a variety of sources.  By raw numbers, commercial rulesets seem to dominate shelf space.  However, there are many binders containing free and homegrown rules as well as rules clipped from magazines.  A number of the classic rulesets are embedded within books on wargaming.  A selection of self-published rules take up shelf space as well.  

What is my primary source for rules?  Well, that is an answer that seems to never remain at rest.  In the early days, rules in magazines and books offered inspiration when I had access to little else.  With the arrival of the internet, I found much of value online.  I am an avid commercial rules' collector too.

Inspiration comes from many sources.  The period under study often drives primary rules source too.  Some periods are only addressed by one source.  For me, the answer seems to settle upon the notion that I find inspiration and value in all of the sources listed in the survey.  By linear feet of shelf space, I suppose Dedicated, commercially published rules may take the First Place ribbon.  Being a confirmed rules tinkerer, many of the commercial rules have a tendency to see a house rule or two to satisfy my tastes.  Actually, I tend to tinker with house rules for all of the primary rules sources.

What does the survey have to say on such matters?

Counts by Source for Rules

From the survey counts, more than 50% of respondents choose commercial rules as written.  Add in those that may supplement commercial rules with house rules and the percentage climbs to almost 80%.  Is this result surprising?  Perhaps not.  The advertising and visibility in the hobby press likely drives demand.  The remaining 20% of the market is splintered among four categories.  Self-published commercials rules make up only about 2% of the responses.  I know some self-publishers produce outstanding products, many of which are comparable to dedicated commercially published rules.  I wonder if this niche will grow over time?

Given the dominance of dedicated, commercially published rules, are there any tendencies that can be teased out of the data?  I examine a few attributes.

Source for Rules by Age Group

When examined by Age Group, do any broad generalizations emerge? Yes.  Younger cohorts tend to rely upon free or magazine/book rules more so than do the older cohorts.  Older cohorts are more likely to explore homegrown rules.  These older groups are also more likely to add house rules into a commercial ruleset.

Source for Rules by Primary Wargaming Interest

When survey results are stratified by Primary Interest (primary wargaming interest, that is, between historicals, fantasy/sci-fi, or a mix of the two), a big distinction between Fantasy/Sci-Fi and Historical gamers surfaces.  Fantasy/Sci-Fi wargamers tend to stick to the rules as written (RAW).  There seems little place for house rules, homegrown rules, or tinkering.  Why is that?  Perfect rules, focus on tournament play, or something else?  The survey suggests that historical wargamers are more rules tinkerers than other groups.  If you are an historical wargamer, is this your experience too?  Are you a rules tinkerer?

Source for Rules by Years Spent Wargaming  

As seen in tendencies from past survey analyses and the results for age and primary interest above, years spent in the wargaming hobby (Duration) offers no surprising results.  In fact, duration confirms what has been presented.  That is, newer wargamers tend toward free and magazine/book rules more so than do the old veterans of the hobby.  These seasoned vets are more comfortable adopting house rules and homegrown rules than those with less time in grade.  

In whichever category you find yourself, whether by age group, primary interest, or years spent wargaming, I am always interested to read your thoughts on your sources for rules.

More ECW et al.

Following up on the ECW command stand presented last week, today more ECW figures depart the painting desk.  Off the table is a nine-figure regiment of horse in buffcoats and floppy hats.  Figures are TAG cavalry from the Thirty Years War range (Swedish?) but I am pressing them into service for the ECW project.  Nice sculpts but a bit fragile.  Upon close examination, one can see that the trumpeter has already lost the bell of his instrument.  This mishap occured during the photoshoot.  Fragile little thing.  I may try to reconnect the bell to the pipe.

Game #2 with the Sumerians and Basic Impetvs occured on Tuesday.  With hosting a four-player remote game, once again, the players kept me hopping and photos were few.  I may be able to create a patchwork summary battle report but perhaps, not.  

While the game was entertaining, the post-game discussion prompted a useful analytical exercise.  The discussion continued on to email where the relative merits of rules and resolution of specific tactical situations were debated.  This conversation sparked a chance to ponder topics on game design, theory, computational validation, and testing.  Perhaps fodder for another posting and further discussion.

Finally, after a few days of very smoky skies from assorted wildfires, the air cleared for my daily, morning ride out on the bike.  Number of miles put into the legs today was 36 traveling north along the Spokane River.  A few photos from today's ride follow.

Until next time...

Sumerian First Game!

A little over one year (13 months, actually) after starting a Sumerian Army (well, actually two!), my Sumerians take to the field of battle.

Following on Graham's Sumerian battle in last week's remote game, I offered up my Sumerians for another look at Ancient Mesopotamian warfare in this week's game.  In preparation for hosting the weekly remote UK game, Kevin volunteered to help me put the armies through their paces with a Basic Impetvs variant I devised.

Battle lines are drawn

We would use two matched armies in the contest with the victory condition of breaking the enemy army in a straight-up fight.  Each army would contain 17 BMUs.  Plenty of units for a big battle.  I would play the Red Army.  Kevin would play the Blue Army.

Notice that one unit of heavy infantry (spear) on each side of the table is of the opposite color.  Whoops.  That was a last minute mix-up on my part.  To even out the two armies, I swapped one of the red shielded spear with one of the blue unshielded spear.  I forgot to swap their colored VBU dice.  This would cause me some confusion later in the game during the heat of battle.

The armies advance.

To begin the battle, Red launches a broad advance across the battlefield (remember I am playing Red and positions are relative to my place standing behind the Red deployment zone).  With skirmishers ineffective against skirmishers in missile fire, the skirmishers in the Left Battle Group (BG) charge the skirmishers facing them.  In the melee, one Blue skirmisher is scattered.  One of the Red skirmishers is damaged and disordered.  Marginal success!  I try the ploy again, this time using my Center BG.  Unfortunately, my two-skirmisher attack is repulsed with heavy casualties.

Skirmishers contest the center of the battlefield

while control of the pond is up for grabs.

Seeing the success of skirmisher vs. skirmisher melee, Kevin attacks my weakened skirmisher on the left.  His attack sends both my skirmisher and its support into retreat.  In the center, his slingers damage the javelinmen screening my center.  Kevin's army plods slowly forward.  My skirmishers on both left and center sectors are running for cover.  To cover their retreat, the heavy infantry advance while the battle cart in my Left BG trots forward through the skirmishers.  Is the enemy within striking distance?   

Red skirmishers in flight.

Red Lugal surveys the situation.

He is!  Wasting little time, my Left BG's battle cart strikes!  Seeing the activity on the left flank, my Right BG plunges into enemy skirmishers.  Luckily for Kevin, all of his skirmishers manage to successfully evade my heavies.  Hope my attacking formations have not over-extended themselves.

Red attacks!

The attack with my battle cart on the left goes much better than the attack on the right.  While my cart is disordered in the clash, the enemy spearmen are driven off with loss.  My attacks are looking good as the battle unfolds with roughly even losses to each.  An enemy cart stands vigilant protecting the retreating infantry while awaiting its chance to pounce on my disordered cart. 

The enemy is driven back!
but at what cost?

As expected, the enemy battle cart does not wait long to strike.  It moves forward, wheels, and attacks!  Beaten, my battle cart retreats to safety.  The enemy Lugal, in his battle cart, charges ahead into the Red battle cart of my Right BG.  Again, my cart is overpowered with heavy loss.  It, too, is forced to make a hasty retreat.  The battle is turning against me.

In a futile attempt to stabilize the situation and salvage the battle, Red's Lugal charges forward into enemy heavy infantry.  In a prolonged melee, the Lugal goes down and the cart destroyed.

Red Lugal in melee!

Red Army begins to waver.

With Red Army reeling, the enemy Lugal, flushed from success, pursues into the wavering skirmishers.  The skirmishers are cut down like standing grain.  As the Red center collapses, the left fares no better.  Blue heavy infantry are hunting down the buckling enemy.  In an instant, the battle is over.

Hunting down the vanquished.

Victory to the Blue Army and Kevin!

What looked like an evenly matched battle that was developing into a slugfest, quickly changed to a destruction of my Red Army.  The key to victory for Kevin was that he pushed his pursuits against units that had taken casualties and were in no shape to offer up significant resistance.  When it rains, it pours.  I went from an army in good shape to broken in two turns.  I think Kevin was surprised by his success.

As for the rules, I think they did the job.  Having a warm-up game before the six-player remote game on Tuesday was a good choice.  This game provided a chance to bring up a potential kink that is easily resolved.  With activation by BG, it was easy to lose track of which unit belonged to which BG.  Now, VBU dice will be color-coded so this confusion will not interfere with the next game.  Having the results from this contest and the QRS fresh in mind, Tuesday's game has a chance to proceed more smoothly. 

Thanks again to Kevin for a very useful and enjoyable outing.  Oh, and congratulations on a resounding victory.

Ramblings and an ECW Command Set

I begin September with a mixture of topics without a common theme.  Well, besides wargaming, that is.

First, off the painting table is an ECW command vignette for the 30mm ECW project.  The figures, themselves, are from TAG while the models are sculpted to represent Pappenheim.  I know, I know.  Pappenheim did not see service during the ECW.  In fact, he fell in battle during the Thirty Years War but the figures lingered in The Lead Pile and the group was pressed into service as I whittle down the lump of TAG lead.   

Second, The Great Wargaming Survey, 2022 edition closed out on Wednesday.  Hope everyone that wanted to participate did so and within the allotted time.  I expect to see the survey response datafile in the next few weeks.  I look forward to diving into the data to see what new tendencies emerge from the land of wargaming.  At last count, total responses had not set a record but turnout was robust, again.  Oh, I used my WSS coupon code to order a subscription to WSS magazine.  While I occasionally pick up the digital edition when the theme is of interest, I have not subscribed to the magazine in years. 

Third, the gaming front sees two battles this week.  Game #1 was an Ancient Sumerian clash using Graham's To Ur is Human rules.  The game was a hybrid in that there were active players both onsite and remotely.  Ian and I were online.  Graham (umpire), Phil, Richard, and Tim were in Shedquarters pushing lead.  In the heated contest, Richard, Phil, and I came out on top.  Graham will likely have a full accounting of the battle in due time.

Game #2, is slated for later this afternoon. Kevin is coming over for a F2F game.  Sticking with the Ancient Sumeria theme, my Sumerians will see their Baptism of Fire on the gaming table.  Time was spent this week preparing for the game including writing up a Basic Impetvs variant for Bronze Age combat on a hex grid.  We give the rules their Baptism of Fire too.

Finally, The Palouse Wargaming Journal approaches ten years in the blogosphere.  Anniversary date mid-September.  More on that event later.