Operation Nostalgia: More about the background and concepts.

This posting is in response to comments made by one of the administrators in the Naval Wargaming Facebook Group about the 'Battle of Kasos' naval battle and the campaign in general. It raises issues that may also have occurred to some readers of the blog. I was not prepared to enter into a protracted debate on Facebook - I have seen all too often how those turn out!

The criticism in many ways is perfectly valid. Firstly why are there German ships in the Aegean in 1943? It was pointed out that in the original articles in Wargames Illustrated an example was given of this being a group of vessels on a flag-waving exercise in mid 1939 that remained in the Med after war broke out. The point was then made that the T4 and T24 torpedo boats were not available in 1939. The Germans had captured Italian and French vessels, why not use them? I quote, "I have no problem with the basic premise of the campaign. I just think it would be more realistic to have used 'Italian' torpedo boats, which were taken over by the Germans."

There are two principle generators of my tabletop games. Recreations of historical encounters and campaigns. For the former I try to be as accurate as possible within the limitations of my available space, terrain and collections. For the latter, unless it is a specific historical campaign which I am seeking to play out (none currently underway) then I am none too vexed about the precise orders of battle, terrain etc.

Dealing specifically with 'Operation Nostalgia', it is a fictional campaign based around a proposed invasion of the Greek Islands in the Aegean. Like my other campaigns, I view this as a method of generating interesting actions on the tabletop each of which have consequences further down the line. I never intended it to be a 'what if' campaign. Although most of the forces involved have the sort of kit available in 1943, I have been a little wayward in selecting some of the ships, one or two of the minor vessels were not even built yet. I did this for no other reason that I had models of those ships and I wanted to include them. I am not particularly fussed about how the German ships got to the Aegean, they are there for my campaign!

Which brings me onto the reason for this posting on my blog. We have a small fascinating hobby and a few months ago I chose to do my bit in promoting it by broadcasting to the public how I wargame through this blog. For those new to the hobby, or for that matter those like me who are a little longer in the tooth, it might provide ideas for your own games. For some it may not appeal and others, like the Facebook Group admin, it may not be historically accurate enough for their taste. That's fine, but this is how I wargame and after 50 years I am not about to change any time soon.

My message to all those new to the hobby is do whatever you like to create your own fun game. If you want to send Type 45 destroyers into the Battle of Narvik and get fun out of doing it then great. The emphasis is on 'FUN' as Jay Arnold spells out at the end of each of his podcasts. I would never presume to pass judgement on anybody else's wargaming. To me the fact that you are wargaming gets a huge thumbs up.

I apologise if this comes across as something of a rant. Whilst none of us are above criticism, I have to confess at being a little miffed on this occasion!  

Plans for 2018

With 2017 coming to a close, it is now time to look at what I intend to do in 2018. 'Intention' of course is not necessarily what I achieve and it will be interesting to see at the end of next year precisely what I have completed! I will break it down into 'Battles', 'Campaigns' and 'Painting'.

The Wargames Room and Storage

I thought I would have a brief break from the Campaign series to provide an update on my wargames room and a Eureka moment for me on storing my 6mm armies.

I recently completed decorating the house and included in that was my wargames room. I took the opportunity of reorganising it which has given me a little more space to expand the playable area of my wargames table.

1st up was to align all my shelves along one wall. The wooden boxes are storage solutions for my figures I started making over 20 years ago when I used to transport them some distance to a club. I wanted something robust that would hold the figures steady. The downside is that when full the larger boxes in particular are quite heavy and cumbersome. More of how I intend to resolve that later. There is more stuff stored in my garage including the bulk of my terrain boards. The towels on the right should be on their way soon giving me a couple more shelves.

My rather cluttered painting desk. I just never seem to have enough space on the damn thing! 

Over the years my wargames table has taken various forms. The best though proved to be what I have now. A couple of years ago I purchased a set of 3 trestle tables from my local Lidl store for something like £30. They are very light and can take an amazing amount of weight considering their flimsy looking appearance. They have proved to be very adaptable. I can use just the number of tables I require for the size of any particular battle. When all three are aligned they cover an area 6' x 3'. I cover them in MDF boards which give me anything up to the 7'6" x 4'6" maximum for the room.

Onto figure storage. As my 6mm figure range expanded, my wooden storage boxes were proving to be not up to the task. The main problem being organising the figures into various units then after a battle remembering where they all went. I had marked on the base of the boxes where they should go but it was not very clear. I did not have this problem with my old 15mm or 28mm figs. The problem now being that instead of a few hundred figures I now have 1,000's of the little blighters! The solution was embarrassingly simple that many wargamers have been using over the years. That of the clear plastic A4 size storage trays. I already have quite a few for storing terrain but dismissed them as being too small for my figures. Having seen online quite a few examples of figures being stored in these I came up with:

This is the entire French 1st Corps for Waterloo at a ratio of 1:20. So a little over 1,000 figures stored in one box. I also printed out a template which I stuck to the bottom of the tray showing the location of each unit. A second copy was attached to the underside of the lid so that I could see at a glance which unit was where. So I now have 30 boxes on order! I will certainly have some work to do when they arrive. 

And finally my latest painting project:

Wars of the Roses Crossbowmen and Handgunners for the forthcoming Kingmaker campaign. 

Hope you enjoyed this brief interlude from the campaign and an overview of my hobby space.

Current and Future Projects

A brief look at planned battles I intend to post on the blog together with current projects. Within a couple of days I will have completed a rather less than enjoyable period of decorating the house! On a positive note though I am reorganising my wargames room which should enable me to extend the maximum wargames surface to 7'6" x 4'6" from the old 6'9" x 4'6" (my terrain boards are 9" squares). And then on to the following: