Wargamer's Notes

WARGAMER’S NOTES QUARTERLY Issue 1 Volume 1 : January 2017 Horse and Musket Rules Boer War Blockhouse Designing Wargames WARGAMER’S NOTES In this issue... QUARTERLY Wargaming the Ninth Cape Frontier War ................................. 3 Call It Macaroni! ................................................................................................................................. 7 Welcome Converting Plastic 20mm WW2 German Paratroopers, Part 1 ................................................................................................................... 9 Welcome to the first issue of Wargamer’s Boer War Blockhouses .................................................................................................... 12 Notes Quarterly! Simplicity and Brevity in Game Design – Part 1 .... 13 About the Editors ...................................................................................................................... 16 We have long had the ambition to emulate the The Costs of War: Wargaming on a Budget ..................... 17 terrific work done by Phil Olley of the excellent Hexagonal Terrain: A How To .......................................................................... 19 - and too short-lived - Classic Wargaming Setting the Scene for Russo-Japanese Naval Journal. It was Phil who demonstrated a few Armageddon ....................................................................................................................................... 23 years back that an amateur undertaking like Wargamer’s Notes was not only possible, but Little Lead Men ............................................................................................................................. 27 still relevant, and even valued in the 21st Tales from a Bedfordshire Village ........................................................... 28 century. We would be hugely remiss were we to neglect mention of the late, great Don Featherstone, who paved the way many years ago with his Wargamer’s Newsletter. Imagine our surprise when both Stokes and Graphic Design by Amy Geddes. I discovered a mutual admiration for these Contact the Wargamer’s Notebook team at: two hobby giants during an email exchange [email protected] early last September. Not many days later, we began batting around this crazy idea for our own hobby periodical. And here we are Front cover: Xhosa Ambush, Noel Williams several months later with the inaugural issue of Wargamer’s Notes! ------------ that people who call themselves “war gamers” actually undertake? Nowhere is it more true than in Wargaming that people can call themselves the members Over the next months and hopefully years we of a broad church. It seems to us there are so may get a chance to at least partially answer this many possible directions one might take the question through the pages of WN. This parcel hobby. of pixels you are looking at represents for us the culmination of our own attempts to answer So, consider this. What is it that you love the question for ourselves. We hope your own about war gaming? What makes the hobby contributions may help others explore this for fun for you? Is it the making of things, themselves as well, and invite you to get in touch collecting or painting the miniatures, or with us should the writing bug bite, and you have building the armies? Is it the reading and a sudden urge to share your particular take on collecting of books on your chosen periods the wargaming hobby with the rest of us. Go on! and campaigns? Is it some combination of all Don’t be shy! these activities? Perhaps it is something else altogether? Maybe it’s the people you meet Greg and Stokes across the table? Or, possibly, it’s the games you play? Or is it the broad array of activities Wargamer’s Notes Quarterly: Issue 1 | January 2017 | Page 2 Wars more generally, but just want to put an Wargaming the Ninth initial toe in the water, starting with the last war is quite a good introduction to it. Because the Cape Frontier War wars stretch back beyond the Napoleonic period, the Cape theatre offers lots of opportunities for Noel Williams - Sheffield, UK adapting existing collections and using them in different ways. Scenario: You’re established on a plateau On the other hand, if you want a really authentic simulation, it’s hard to find accurate figures. 1500 metres long, with steep sides to North For some this’ll be a problem. If you’re looking and South, but easy access up the Western for accurate models of the Frontier Armed and Eastern slopes. You’ve a 1000 native and Mounted Police (FAMP) of 1878, you’ll levies of Mfengu tribesmen, around 200 find it difficult. For others, this will be a great Colonial mounted police, and a 7 pounder. opportunity, as you have no choice but using Below you, in the valley are three divisions proxy figures, or else converting your own, so you might as well simply use “best guesses” without of the Gcaleka tribe of the Xhosa people, worrying about the niceties of accuracy. This each mass probably well over 1000 warriors, means you can use the war as the basis of a more approaching loosely from three directions. imaginative colonial wars setup, employing any How do you dispose your force? set of figures you find acceptable for the conflict. Your gun has an unusually slow rate of fire, My brief scenario from the battle of Gwadana, the opening conflict of the 9th Cape Frontier War, tells but has some success in holding up the you quite a lot about the wargaming possibilities Gcaleka advance. Yet it can’t be everywhere, of this period. Combats are typically quite small and your force is gradually being outflanked. scale, with the native, Xhosa, forces generally After ten rounds, the carriage of the 7pdr much larger than their Colonial opponents. Xhosa breaks. Seeing this, your Mfengu levies losses in this battle were perhaps two or three waver. They may run. You may soon by hundred. Colonial losses were six troopers of the FA M P. outflanked and overwhelmed by superior numbers. What actions do you take? So you’ll need either a large Xhosa force, or good rules for recycling native forces. Sometimes the Xhosa tactic was to extend its superior This is the battle of Gwadana, the opening numbers at its flanks to encircle the enemy. So battle of the 9th Cape War. It’s a war largely for this tactic you’d need comparatively large unfamiliar to most gamers and rarely gamed. It’s forces. But more often the Xhosa approach was interesting, though, as the last war in a hundred to keep up sporadic skirmishing from cover in years of conflicts in the Cape and the immediate the bush, with occasional attacks in ‘clumps’ precursor of the Zulu War of 1879. Many familiar or ‘waves’ of warriors, sometimes with clear names from the later campaigns in Natal first coordination, sometimes rather haphazardly. This learned about African conflict against the Xhosa can be simulated with fewer figures as hidden in the Cape, including the 24th regiment, soon snipers do not necessarily require any figures, to become the defeated of Isandlwana and the whilst scattered forays can use the same figures heroes of Rorkes’ Drift. repeatedly. From the gamer’s perspective, if you want to do As for figures, if you’re not too much of a stickler something a little different with your existing for historical accuracy, you can easily use Zulus Zulu Wars collection this war offers some new for Xhosa, as long as they wear minimal regalia. In scenarios here. Or if you’re interested in the Cape fact, the two ethnicities are essentially unrelated. Wargamer’s Notes Quarterly: Issue 1 | January 2017 | Page 3 Xhosa Attack a Boer Farmstead Xhosa in this period seem to have fought in mixed Colonial forces, as in this battle, were heavily dress, with some completely naked in traditional dependent on native levies, from Mfengu manner, others protected by hide capes or tribesmen (known to Europeans rather occasional hide shields, and some in elements of demeaningly as ‘Fingoes’). Gwadana shows their European garb. potential brittleness in battle. Their performance could be quite variable. These, again, will be So the gamer can plausibly mix figures of a little difficult to represent accurately. At the different origin together to approximate Xhosa time of writing, I’ve not been able to identify forces. Although my figures are predominantly any manufacturer. However, as their dress seems from the Perrys’ Cape Wars range (and there’s also to have been quite variable, a mix of European a substantial Cape Wars range from 1st Corps) I supply and native adornment, generally of mix in Foundry Africans and Warlord Zulus, with poor quality so quickly spoiled by the rigours of some small conversions. I think Old Glory have bush fighting. In effect, they’re a motley crew African figures that could be used too, and there of ill-dressed Africans, so you can reasonably are probably others. In the smaller scales, where use any assembly of figures you feel fits the bill. niceties of native dress are less evident, though I One approach for the 9th CFW could be to use know of none which are specifically intended as the Natal Native Contingent from the Zulu War, Xhosa, there are many ranges of African and Zulu interspersed with Zulus, Xhosa or Africans in warriors which could be used. European dress. In my force, I even mix in a few figures from the AWI and cimaroons from my pirate collection. Wargamer’s Notes Quarterly: Issue 1 | January 2017 | Page 4 Mfengu and also a high proportion of Xhosa but independently minded, and a large body

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