Rod’s Wargaming Website

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Having been wargaming for over 65 years, a few years ago I created this website as a record of my activities.

The “About” page contains a history of my wargaming over the years, and since I grew up in Southampton, which many might regard as the spiritual home of wargaming in UK, you will notice some well known pioneers of the hobby mentioned there.

The other Top Menu pages are devoted to the different historical periods of my wargaming, in the main sections of Ancients and Horse & Musket.  The Ancient section has drop down sub-menus of Roman Era and Medieval.  The Horse & Musket section has drop down sub-menus of 18th Century, Napoleonic and Zulu War.  There is also a section on General matters, which includes sub-pages on Terrain, Planning, Modelling Tips and Wargame Accessories.

There is also a section on Military Historical Research, containing a number of items of straight (ie not wargaming) matters which I have researched over the years.  This section comprises two drop down sub-sections, one on Organisation and one on Tactics.  The former includes a paper on the Authorised Establishments of the British Army (1802-1815), which has details of the organisational structure of infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers and supporting units.  It also includes a paper on British Converged Light Battalions, the latter formed by converging all of the light infantry and rifle companies in each brigade, plus several further papers.

The right end of the Top Menu has a Contact page and a Search button.

The postings on the Blog record my current model soldier production or wargaming activities.  I also use this to announce any new pages published on the website.  The blog postings below are in reverse chronological order, but can also be accessed by subject through the side menu.

Finally, I also have a website to give details of my portfolio of Military History Talks (currently 21).  This can be viewed here.

New Model Army Completed

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As described in a recent post. i have decided to create a wargame setup for The New Nodel Army and the Scottish Army,, based on the Orbats for the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, using the Paperboys English Civil War book. The advantage of Paperboys is that I could create a complete Army relatively quickly, so it is really good for trying our new historical periods.

My first post on that described making Monck’s 1st Brigade, shown below. The bases are quite thick because they have been weighted to make them more useable on a wargames table. The Paperboys book has 28mm figures an bases 40mm wide, I have reduced the figures to 20mm on 30mm wide bases, which fits my existing wargame scenery and small wargames table better.

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Royal Engineer Minefield Breaching Model

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And now for something completely different.

When I moved into my new apartment I put up various pictures and ornaments. Included in this was a shelf displaying items from my time commanding a Royal Engineer Bomb Disposal Squadron in the mid 1970s. We had adopted the more modern title of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) by that time.

The photo in the centre is of the Headquarters, 3 Troop and Support Troop of 49 EOD Squadron RE, which were based at our main location at Lodge Hill Camp just north of the Medway Towns. 1 and 2 Troops were based in other locations at Colchester and Aldershot. In those days the Royal Engineer Bomb Disposal Regiment, 33 Engineer Regiment (EOD) had three squadrons. the Regular one which I commanded, a Territorial Army (Reserve) Squadron and a squadron sized school which trained Army, Navy and Air Force Bomb Disposal personnel. Nowadays it is much bigger with six Regular Squadrons, in two Regiments and three Reserve Squadrons in another Regiment. The Headquarters which commands all of these also commands the Royal Logistic Corps EOD Regiment, the Search Dog Regiment and another Royal Engineer Regiment specialising in countering Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear. The EOD School is now Regiment sized.

The certificates either side of the photo are from the British and American Bomb Disposal Schools, both of which I attended. The model in the front was presented to me when I left the Squadron. It is of a Metal Ring Shaft and Gyn, lifting a World War II German bomb out of the ground, which is what we spent quite a lot of time doing.

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New Model Army

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I have moved into my new apartment but it has taken me some time to unpack everything and get it just as I want it. My study was the last thing to sort out, but it is now finished with all my books on their bookshelves and all my model soldiers in cupboards above my desks.

I saw an advert recently for a very reasonably priced book being sold by the Naval & Military Press about the Battle of Dunbar, “Cromwell against the Scots”. It was not a period which I knew much about but I know the Dunbar region quite well so purchased the book. It is a good read and it inspired me to purchase several other books on this Anglo-Scots War.

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Batavian Auxiliary Infantry Cohorts

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During the Early Imperial Roman Era. each Roman Legion was accompanied by a number of Cohorts of Auxiliary Infantry. In the case of the XIV Legion these were Batavian Cohorts I – VIII, who would seem to have accompanied XIV Legion during the 43 AD Roman Invasion and the 60 AD Boudicca Revolt. They had no higher structure than Cohorts and reported to the Legion’s Legate.

This is my Paperboys version of COH I BAT. Just like my Legion Cohorts they have six Centuries, each of four figures.

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XIV Legion Baggage Train

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Roman Legions famously built a Marching Camp every night during their campaigns. In order to do that they needed to to have a substantial baggage train to carry all of the tents and other equipment.

Each contubernia of 8 men had a tent, carried on a mule, led by a slave muleteer. That is 10 mules per Century and 60 mules per Cohort. On my Paperboys 1:20 figure ratio, I have decided to represent this as a stand of three mules and one muleteer per Cohort.

I have used the baggage mule and a muleteer from the Republican Roman CR12 Roman Commanders and Scorpion sheet. Here is one stand of three mules and a muleteer. It is 75mm long and 15mm wide. I joined the mules together with a thick cotton thread and the muleteer is leading the first mules with a piece of that same thread.

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XIV Legion Testudo

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Well, I am still waiting to move into a two bedroom apartment (one bedroom being converted into my study/library/wargame room). The lady who was selling it to me died just before we were about to Exchange Contracts, so her relatives have got to get Probate before they can sell it to me,

Meanwhile I have made some Testudos for my Paperboys XIV Legion. These were used in sieges, but also in battles in open countryside, such as the illustration below (from the Osprey “British Celtic Warrior vs Roman Soldier”) of a Testudo being used to attack rough ramparts at Caractacus’ last stand in mid-Wales in AD 50.

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Paperboys XIV Legion

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In my last post I showed how I made a Cohort of XIV Legion. I have now completed the whole legion. As I explained in my previous post, my figures are in just one rank, so at a 1:20 figure ratio, each stand represents a Century of 80 men. I have also reduced them from the 28mm size in the Paperboys Roman Invasion book to 20mm, which fits all of my existing terrain and 15mm scale buildings. I would normally deploy my Cohorts is in their standard battle formation of Posterior Centuries drawn up behind Prior Centuries. Here is the First Cohort, which has five double size Centuries, represented by 10 stands, rather than the six Centuries of the other Cohorts. Just behind the normal command stand (in the centre) is the Legion’s Eagle stand.

The stands are quite thick since they are weighted to make them more stable on a wargames table. The figures are all mounted to their stands using the new Paperboys system of gluing their feet directly to the stand with no upright guide to attach them to. Their right feet are also slightly set back to give them more animation. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have used a green base paper, since that blends in with my existing terrain, which the normal Paperboys base paper does not. The First Cohort are in a different pose to the other Cohorts, so that I can identify them easily. I intend amending Andy Callan’s excellent rules in the Paperboys Roman Invasion book, to give the First Cohort of each Legion Elite status, as though a Leader has joined them, although he will not need to do so,

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Paperboys Roman Era

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I haven’t posted anything on this website for the last six months. My lovely wife died very unexpectedly in January, having gone into hospital with a chest infection. I have been really busy sorting out all of the funeral arrangements plus all of the legal and financial matters arising from that. We had known each other for 60 years, been a couple for 58 years and married for 56 years. I miss her so much.

As a result I am in the process of moving from my four bedroom house to a two bedroom apartment (one bedroom will be converted to be my study, library and wargames room). I haven’t got time to get back to painting plastic model soldiers during the move, but I thought I would make some more Paperboys ones. I decided to put my Paperboys World War II setup on hold, since having played a few games of Rapid Fire, it didn’t interest me as much as earlier historical periods.

I have often thought about creating a Roman era set up and have now used Paperboys to do that. It is of course incredibly cheap, the A4 Paper version of the book only costs £19.95 and it is really even more convenient to download the electronic version at £9.95. You can then copy the pages as many times as you like and build a complete Roman and Ancient British Army.

Peter Dennis’ website has many other downloads for Armies in this era, German, Parthian, Numidian, Republican Roman, Caesarian Roman, Macedonian, Carthaginian etc. Most additional sheets cost just £1 each.

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3rd Battalion Irish Guards

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Shortly before Operation Market Garden, the Guards Armoured Division reorganised to form four Regimental Groups, each of an armoured battalion and an infantry battalion from the same Guards Regiment.  They were flexible in how they operated, but normally 5 Guards Brigade commanded the Grenadier Guards Group (1 Motor Battalion Grenadier Guards and 2 Armoured Battalion Grenadier Guards) plus the Irish Guards Group (2 Armoured Battalion Irish Guards and 3 Infantry Battalion Irish Guards).  32 Guards Brigade similarly commanded the Coldstream and Welsh Guards Groups.

The XXX Corps advance was initially led by the Irish Guards Group, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Joe Vandeleur, who was the Commanding Officer of 3 Irish Guards.  I wanted to make a model of him in his scout car, looking a bit like Michael Caine who played him in “A Bridge too Far”.

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