The last twenty months have been a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of life experiences, that includes my hobby time, but that has seen the normal routine of producing JJ's Wargames joining in with everything else and having to adapt to the demands of only so many hours present in a day, that is allowing the occasional break to sleep.
Thus producing my normal review of the previous twelve months in the hobby together with a look at how I did against what I had planned and more importantly what would be the direction of travel for the next year ahead seems to be a bit of a moving feast given that my last blog review was back in 2021 in the wake of Covid and our coming out of lockdown.
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| JJ's Wargames Year End Review, 2021 and The Plan for the New Year Ahead, 2022 |
This I think rather impresses upon me why I have a habit of working to a normal routine that would see me traditionally planning my time in the hobby annually, and reviewing progress against the plan as a great way of getting things done in the time available and not simply floating from one idea to the next and never really feeling that anything started had reached a natural completion, which appeals to the Zen nature in me, of going with the natural flow; and yet here we are after a break in transmission put simply down to the fact that for four months, from the end of October 2021 to mid February 2022, Carolyn and I were living out of suitcases on the other side of the globe, which rather put paid to the 'normal routine!'
So to reassure myself as much as anything, I decided to scan back over the intervening months between this review and my last in an effort to try to get a sense of direction and in so doing finding myself amazed somewhat as to how many experiences had been had in that time and how much progress had been made in project work, suggesting that at least having made a plan was certainly better than having no plan at all.
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| Books reviewed here on JJ's since my last review. |
Starting with the blog itself, content has inevitably changed to incorporate my travels, including themes, with some imposing on the time available more than others, with the All at Sea, Age of Sail collection and gaming taking precedence over others and a return to military and naval reading and book reviews that has had to compete for time with other reading I have indulged in during my leisure time, espicially in planning phases for our big journey.
So I was pleased to have included in my time away and on return home, six titles reviewed from JJ's library that have in the main inspired my All at Sea project work but are nevertheless jolly good reads and I was pleased to have them included in the array of titles reviewed here on JJ's.
I should add that even here my reading time has given way to the titles included from my Audible collection which has allowed me to work whilst absorbing a great book or two, finding myself recently deeply engrossed with the Aubrey & Maturin collection from Patrick O'Brian, that is a perfect addition to time at the painting desk.
Other areas of my hobby that were current back in 2021 have given way to the pressures of getting back on track with current major themes, hence my regular Vassal meet-ups with Steve M , and work on my AWI Mohawk collection have had to take a back seat as I focussed on finishing ship collection builds for friends Bob and Jack.
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| The new year of 2022 got off to a cracking start with me able to run the Battle of Cape Finisterre or Calder's Action at the DWG in February, enabling me to claim having run all the key actions from the 1805 campaign. |
Looking back at the review for 2021, I noted that my focus was very much on progressing the work started with the All at Sea collection having run Trafalgar at Warlord Games that year and with the collection added to, with an eye to staging the Battle of Cape St Vincent in time for the 225th anniversary of the battle in 2022.
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| It was a real pleasure to roll out the massive Spanish fleet in time for the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Cape St Vincent at the DWG in February. |
The Battle of Cape St Vincent using Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) was a real treat to bring to the table in terms of the numbers of models involved and I learnt a lot about how to and how not to fight this big battle and is a theme I want to come back to in the future.
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| Small Ship Scenarios for KMH that included 'Sercey off Sumatra', WOJE action off the Bahamas and the Packet Ship Antelope in action with the French Privateer Schooner Atalanta |
As well as big-battle themes, progress was made in developing a collection of and playtesting several smaller single ship and squadron level scenarios and games for KMH in 2022 that saw several of these small actions run at the DWG club meetings and a playtest of a scenario from Chris Stoesen's, War of Jenkin's Ear (WOJE) scenario book for KMH and Sharp Practice, using some suitable Napoleonic stand-in's to recreate his interesting fight off the Bahamas in 1742.
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| Naval Wargames Society Meeting at Yeovilton where the Penarth boys joined Captain Steve and me to play the Leeward Line Scenario. |
My year with KMH in 2022 was topped off nicely at the Naval Wargames Society Meeting at Yeovilton where the Penarth boys joined Captain Steve and me to play the Leeward Line Scenario recreating Collingwood's attack at Trafalgar, a collaboration that was to lead on to bigger things in 2023 on my return from travels.
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| Bob's French third rates of renown completed before going on my travels |
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| Jack's Spanish collection completed in 2023 |
As well as adding model ships to my own collection I was really pleased to be able to start to build two collections for friends in the club, Bob and Jack, that would be started in 2022 and completed on my return from travels in 2023, and now both the chaps have significant core collections for the British, French and Spanish fleets.
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| Perry's AWI Continentals successfully converted into my first large batch of Tryon County Militia. |
As regards other activities in 2022 prior to leaving in October for Vancouver, the AWI Mohawk collection ended for now on a bit of a hurrah as well as a proof of concept build that saw my Perry's AWI Continentals successfully converted into my first large batch of Tryon County Militia presenting a firm foundation for continuation of this theme at a later date.
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| A really fun game of Vauban's Wars played at Chez JJ's with Chas and Vince back in February 2022. |
In February 2022 I got to try out a long anticipated playthrough of Vauban's Wars, which are a brilliantly unique set of rules designed to allow the playing through of sieges, something that played a large part of many horse and musket campaigns, none less so than the Peninsular War which has figured large here on JJ's.
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| Highlights from some of the shows attended in 2022 |
In addition to the wargaming and modelling I attended some great shows in 2022, that saw a big boys beano to Partizan in May and a trip to Colours in September amongst others.
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| In March Carolyn and I travelled up to Yorkshire for a short break and I got to see the last remaining Leda Class Napoleonic British frigate, HMS Trincomalee at Hartlepool which was a very special trip. |
Alongside the wargaming shows, there were some excellent trips to various military history venues, that started with my visit to HMS Trincomalee in the March but would include later that year the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, the Wars of the Roses battlefield of Blore Heath, the RAF Cosford Aircraft Collection, the Soldier of Shropshire Military Museum and a May time expedition to enjoy the delights of Rome.
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| Trips and excursions in 2022 include the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, the Wars of the Roses battlefield of Blore Heath, the RAF Cosford Aircraft Collection, the Soldier of Shropshire Military Museum and a May time expedition to enjoy the delights of Rome. |
Then, as if all of a sudden, Carolyn and I found ourselves on a plane from London Gatwick bound for Vancouver and 2022 changed dramatically and without precedence as we began our four month odyssey.
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| RAM tanks in Vancouver, battleships in Hawaii, carronades, Maori Warriors and First World War fighters in New Zealand, all easily combined with a bit of R&R in Fiji or Mount Cook and the Remarkables. |
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| New Zealand, especially, will always hold a very special place in our memories down. |
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| A wargaming break from all the tourist stuff provided by the chaps, Mark, Paul and Ion from the Christchurch Wargaming Club. It was so nice to simply roll bones and talk wargaming after two months on the road. |
On our return to dear old Blighty in February, a new year was already well under way and the All at Sea collection reasserted itself as a primary task with work immediately recommenced on Bob and Jack's collections, with me re-learning skills with the paintbrush and rigging thread to get back up to speed.
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| I was really keen to work on Warlord's new models once Bob and Jack's collections were finished. |
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| The All at Sea project work recommenced on my return with new models added to the collection that included the new Warlord Fourth-Rate and Razees, whilst additional Small-Ship/Squadron scenarios were play tested at club that saw the Chase of the Alexander and the Battle of Cape Ortegal recreated at club. |
As mentioned, Captain Steve and my meeting up with the Penarth Chaps at Yeovilton led on to further plans that saw us decide to get chaps from both the DWG and Penarth together in the summer to play a weekend game of Trafalgar using Kiss Me Hardy which saw me preparing a couple more new models from Warlord to add to the Trafalgar collection to new named models, the Spanish Santa Anna and the British 64-gun Agamemnon in preparation.
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| A small bit of preparation work saw these two important named additions to the Trafalgar collection |
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| Bantry Bay 1796 - Naval Wargames Society Meeting at Yeovilton 2023 |
Another aspect of my naval wargaming activities has been a growing association with the chaps at the Naval Wargames Society and I was eager to pick up where we left off in 2022 by preparing a new game to present at Yeovilton in October which led to the preparing of the Bantry Bay 1796 game and some work on my first pieces of coastal terrain as this fictional action was deemed to have been fought in the entry to Bear Haven anchorage selected by the French invasion force to start their landing.
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| As planned in 2021/22, the Battle of Camperdown project is underway for completion in 2024 and the first test game. |
As regards other activities in 2023, the New Year began in Melbourne, Australia with trips to the MCG to watch Australia play their test match against South Africa, swiftly followed by our acclimatisation to all things Australian, which has lead to my ongoing series of posts set to conclude when we arrive in Darwin in February 2023 prior to departing for Singapore and home.
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| Trips to the Roman town of Silchester in May and another beano north to attend Partizan and a visit to the National Civil War Centre in Newark. |
On arriving home, the activities calendar picked up as quickly as the wargaming one with trips to the Roman town of Silchester in May and another beano north to attend Partizan and a visit to the National Civil War Centre in Newark.
Whilst in Oxford we made the pilgrimage to the grave site of the greatest author of the 20th century, the late great J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife Edith, in grateful appreciation for his lifetimes work on books such as the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and others brought to publication by his son Christopher, and got to soak up the ambience of one of his favourite pubs in Oxford with a drink at the Lamb & Flag, where we able to toast the great man more appropriately.
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| The Devon Wargames Group at its best, coming together to play one big game at our annual Gus Murchie Memorial meeting in December, that traditionally signs off another club year. |
The club membership has continued to grow in the time covered by this review and presents the club with a nice problem to have, namely how to provide enough games for a growing membership, and maintain the club spirit of inclusion and friendly fellowship that is the essence of our great hobby; with the club displaying all those attributes this month with our annual Gus Murchie Memorial Game that brings the club together to play one big game in the festive spirit.
It has been my honour and privilege to act as Chairman for the club since its forming back in 1981, now in its forty-second year, and I'm looking forward to starting another full year of club events in 2024.
So that concludes my review of the key activities that have contributed so much content to JJ's Wargames and progressed my projects in the hobby, which I'm pleased to say pretty well corresponds with my plans laid out in 2021 to focus my activities around the All at Sea, Age of Sail collections with the Cape St Vincent anniversary game ticked off and the Camperdown project well underway incorporating the new models from Warlord Games.
I also proved myself correct in the assumption that other projects such as the AWI and Romano-Dacians would likely go on hold as soon as our travel arrangements were confirmed and smile at the hope expressed in that post about commencing my Wars of the Roses project and thoughts of getting into the English Civil War.
So where does JJ's Wargames go from here, now with the blog having passed its tenth anniversary and approaching two million views and six thousand comments, and my hopes to entertain my readers with content they might find interesting, but certainly with content that I find interesting.
Well I intend to focus my activities on completing everything I would like to do with the age of sail collection, which will start with the completion of the Camperdown project and a running out of the game in 2024.
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| Signal Flag lockers being prepared for some new game ideas in 2024 to go along with my big set-piece battle repertoire. |
As part of this project, I am working on pulling some games together in the New Year using a Fleet Battle set of rules to try out some new ideas better suited to putting the players of these large set-piece battles more firmly in the role of an Admiral rather than a ships captain, and with more emphasis on command and control at fleet and squadron level and less on individual ship sailing and damage control management.
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| My Christmas present from Carolyn was the complete collection of William James' Naval History together with some extra models from other family members. |
The big games played so far with KMH have demonstrated the need for a somewhat different approach, but I'm keen to maintain the narrative that KMH generates through its chit activation and built in friction that it causes, and I still see KMH doing its magic for my small battles and small ship actions alongside To Covet Glory as I continue to develop my small ship/squadron scenario book, now enhanced by a marvellous Christmas present from my darling wife as seen above.
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| The Action off Providien,12 April 1782, by Dominic Serres (1722–1793) A clue to where my next project for the All at Sea collection intends to focus after Camperdown has been completed. |
Needless to say any rules I use will need to be modified to suit my own tastes and plans to invite Jack back over to Chez JJ to help in that process, as he did in our test games some four years ago when the Warlord models first became available, are underway.
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| The Carnatic coast of India is the setting for my next age of sail collection build. |
The other focus for All at Sea are my plans, hopefully this year, will be to branch out into the naval war of the American War of Independence, and a plan to build the contending fleets of French Admiral Pierre Suffren and British Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, which has been moved up the development stage with my work building the Dutch fleet for Camperdown and the feasibility of the modifications to the Dutch fleet equally applicable to the French and British ships serving on the east coast of India in 1781-83.
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| https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/suffren-versus-hughes-war-in-the-indian-ocean-1781-1783.php?sid=77bbddf1910228f4d83db3447f2da916 |
In addition, it is with some anticipation that I await the publication of the next naval title from Helion Books, set to be published in Spring 2024, which will likely add further inspiration to this project build, with Quintin Barry the author of a previous title I have and reviewed here on JJs, 'Far Distant Ships: The Blockade of Brest 1793-1815'.
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| https://devonwargames.blogspot.com/2013/02/battle-of-sadras-1782.html |
Alongside the completion of this collection I have some ideas for a small campaign using the models that will follow the completion of the build project, so lots of interesting stuff to write about on the age of sail front.
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| A great set of rules for Age of Sail fans, that give a great narrative to the games I play. |
I have managed to play a lot of games in four years using Kiss Me, Hardy, a very much underestimated set of rules if some reviews I have read are to go by, not without their faults, but that applies to all rules, but with some very clever mechanics that make for a very intriguing game once they are mastered.
Needless to say and as is my want I have incorporated changes from others and additions of my own, to Nick Skinner's original set that sees us playing a different set of KMH rules than the original, that I feel has added to the granularity without moving away from the wonderfully intuitive game the rules create that allows players to focus on being commanders of ships or squadrons without over indulgence in the minutia of which particular round or rounds to load in the 24-pounders.
I have been asked to post a copy of the JJ's House Rules additions to KMH which are now written into my rewritten set of the rules that incorporates all the stuff that has been garnered from the years of Lardy Specials, and my plan is to publish a PDF of these additions as soon as time permits, more anon.
As well as the All at Sea stuff, the usual mix of content will be a feature of JJ's going into hopefully the next ten years of the blog and I look forward to sharing the adventures with you in 2024, likely starting with a post covering my visit to Oz Armour, better known as the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum just out side Cairns earlier this year.
Until then I will wish everyone a very happy 2024 and may your dice keep on rolling sixes!
As always, more anon,
JJ
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