All Over By Christmas

 Big technical problems at the Casa Dojo Mojo House Epictetus, which have been affecting all sorts of things. There has been a very brief bit of wargaming though. We're still in the Great War and using Square Bashing, but now it's 1914.

These are 28mm figures from Mark's collection. I think they're Renegade, but don't quote me on that.

Cavalry as well. The infantry which look as if they are French, are in fact French; Mark didn't have enough British.

The game is going well, but its conclusion has been repeatedly delayed. I am, however, confident that it will all be over by...

Do You Read Me?

 A few years ago, I complained about the lack of legibility of the Warbases' tokens  for Square Bashing and mentioned how I had made some of my own. Only now, after the usual long period of delay attached to anything which I do that is related to wargaming, have I got round to doing something about making the purchased ones usable.

It certainly would have been cheaper to do this in the first place rather than spending money on buying sheets of laminated acrylic and  laser cutting it, not to mention the extended rounded corners saga.

Come Hither, Come Hither, Come Hither

 I've been away. of which more in due course. But some wargaming action awaited me on my return.

Firstly, the tanks advanced at Amiens once again. It's the only scenario in the Square Bashing book for which I have the forces, and so when short of time it's the one which gets put on. It was a victory for the British on this occasion. I obviously don't mean to criticise the good people of Peter Pig, but which side wins is entirely down to how high the die rolls the Germans make in their countdown phase at the end of their turn; nothing else actually matters at all. Still, it passed the time very pleasantly.

Then there is some Cruel Seas news. Not progress, you understand, just news. It would probably be impossible to overstate just how much wargaming crap Peter had accumulated and, while continuing with the task of sorting it out for his widow, James has turned up some more relevant bits and pieces. The most pertinent were a couple of freighters, shown above with the 3D printed one which I bought in an early burst of enthusiasm, that's the one at the back. Now I have a convoy worth sinking it almost seems churlish not to paint a couple of MTB's up and do so.

Bash That Square

 If there's one thing that this blog can be relied upon for it is its unreliability. I said two weeks ago that we would be playing Square Bashing last week in the annexe, and we didn't. However, this week we did.

If there's a second thing that this blog can be relied upon for it is that I never take enough photos to tell the story of a game. In brief then, the Germans looked like they would see off the British attack, but their commander - who'd never played the rules before - decided that having beaten back the first assault then subsequently advancing from behind his defensive positions was a good idea. It wasn't. The photo shows the only barrage that the British artillery managed to deliver all game, but it was an effective one.

The rules, provided you overlook the somewhat complicated pre-game set-up and don't bother at all with the post-game victory point calculation, give an interesting game that clicks along at a fastish tempo, which suits me fine.

Who Are You?

 I've been writing this blog for almost thirteen years without bothering overmuch about whether anyone read it. I write it for myself, and only do so when I feel like it. Over the years I may have had a couple of specific readers in mind from time to time when I wrote particular posts, but one of them's husband found out and the other one died. Obviously, being my own target audience means that I am not particularly concerned with telling the truth and any stray passers-by who read posts would do well not to take what I write too literally. 

Why am I telling you this? Because suddenly I have readers, "Fousands of 'em". It would seem that 10% of all the views that the blog has ever had occurred in June 2025. Now, clearly these aren't proper sentient people. They aren't even wargamers. I'm assuming they're AI bots expanding their 'learning' to cover my ramblings. Don't you find it worrying that our new overlords will treat all this made-up tosh with a much seriousness as they do a serious thing on a serious subject written in a serious way by the Scottish philosopher Jock 'Serious' McSerious? I know I do.

James Was Right

 Now there's a headline that you don't often see. He said there wasn't another night left in the game, and there wasn't. Even feeding in a new Union unit every turn couldn't fend off the Confederates for very long.

I do rather like Fire and Fury, but experience suggests that if the men in grey charge in column and keep charging then they will sweep all before them. The issue seems to be that Union brigades are all very brittle, whereas Confederate ones retain cohesion much longer. I've never read the rules for myself so I'm not really sure if that's a central feature of them, or just something specific to the scenarios which we have been playing.

There has been some slight forward movement in the set-up of the Square Bashing game, with attackers and defenders now deployed. However, whilst I had intended to fight this solo it has, in an unexpected development, been decided that it will be next Wednesday evening's game instead. This will allow James to 'spray his cloth'; not a euphemism.

Fighting for Mexico - the unboxing

 It is a truth universally acknowledged that a wargamer in possession of more money than sense must be in want of a set of rules for a period for which he has no figures. I have, therefore, bought a copy of the newish Peter Pig rules 'Fighting for Mexico'.

They consist of 132 ring-bound, black and white pages within colour covers. There are a number of photographs, mainly showing examples of suggested unit basing, terrain types etc with only a couple appearing to illustrate points from the rules. A first read through gives the impression that they are easy enough to follow, and they do contain a number of snippets of the designer's thoughts. Peter Pig have a house style which involves those explanatory sections also being used to tell anyone who questions their decisions that they are wrong, which I have always found a bit irritating. The same could be said of their approach to editing and proofreading; pages 31 and 32 for example seem to me to contain exactly the same information repeated twice in pretty much the same words each time. 

They are inevitably gridded - which is good - and I understand that the RFCM rules which these most resemble are PBI and SCW, but I've never read those so can't confirm that. They do have some resemblance to Square Bashing, and many of the differences appear, at first glance, to address things I don't quite like about that set. In particular they allow units to be spread over more than one square, which would sometimes make sense in SB, and for which I have seen house rules on other blogs. It does, however, worry me that units are going to be very difficult to tell apart from each other without some sort of elaborate base marking system. That is, of course, all moot because I don't game the period. While I was ordering the rules I did take the opportunity to buy a couple of packs from Peter Pig's extensive Mexican Revolution range, but that was just by way of a look see...

Round that corner

 I've had a few days off from wargames related activity because the weather has been rather good. "Surely," I hear you say, "good weather is spraying weather?". Indeed you would think so, but no. While my back was turned the can of paint has dried up, clogged up and generally given up. But the really annoying part is that there appear to be no replacement cans to be had in the UK for love nor money. I don't know what to make of this: it could be related to leaving the EU; it could be something to do with ships stuck in canals; or the colour could have been discontinued for ever (*). For the time being I shall brood on it without doing anything, and hope that something turns up.

On a more positive note I have produced some more Square Bashing tokens, and this time I have manage to produce rounded corners. This might seem trivial, but every time I have made a gaming aid on the laser cutter so far I have intended the corners to be rounded, but they never are. It's easy to design it that way in the CAD package, but until now impossible to port across into the machine code. I am still not entirely clear how I managed it this time - Ungrouping and Breaking Apart may or may not have been involved, whilst Changing Objects to Paths almost certainly was - but I'll take the win.

You may recall that I had even less success in trying to use heat to bend some German model railway scenic material. I can report that it cuts much more easily, and takes glue without any problem. What was I thinking? I shall give more details of what it is when I have finished it.

* Anyone else pissed off about Listerine Original?

Frangas, Non Flectes

 Well, the heat gun didn't either maim me or burn the workshop down. Instead it was the material which defeated me. The arc to which I wished to bend it was too tight to do so without it snapping. So back to the drawing board.

To fill the time I made some tokens for Square Bashing from laminated acrylic. I bought a set from Warbases quite a while ago, which are solid, tactile, perfect in every way except that once they are on the table you can't read them. In Warbases' defence the ones that I have made are too expensive to make commercial sense; or possibly any sense for me to make them either.

Here's some YouTube advice on reforming rigid foam using heat, which I would have done well to have watched before I started:

Bloody Barons II

 I like to keep an occasional eye on  the most common search terms that have brought people to the blog. Sadly 'gay porn' has disappeared from the list, but thankfully 'beardy Branson is a twat' is hanging in there. Recently, the term 'Bloody Barons II' has appeared. Upon investigation I discovered that I had somehow overlooked the fact that Peter Pig had updated the rules first issued in 2005 and of which I own a copy. Even more investigation revealed that they are in fact a completely new set of rules, but have been given the same name.

My initial reaction was that it was some sort of con; in my defence I'm a bit of a cynic and that is my reaction to most things. However, logic says that it's the opposite that would be a con: the same set of rules with a new name. I don't know why I mention it. In any event I bought a copy.

As a slight digression, I am in the market for a fitness tracker or smartwatch and have been watching a number of YouTube reviews of various options. These influencer chaps - none of whom seem to be at all physically fit despite their interest in health tracking apps - have hit upon a useful trick for stretching out content. They do an 'unboxing' post followed, if one is lucky, by a full review in due course. That doesn't seem a million miles from what I have done (i.e. started to do) with 'Infamy, Infamy', and so this is an unboxing of 'Bloody Barons II':

• They are genuinely a completely different set of rules with, as far as I can see, no mechanisms in common.
• They are recognisably a Peter Pig/Rules for the Common Man ruleset:
• Four base units with casualties removed in half bases
• a pre-battle sequence, this one much simplified compared to others
• random game length
• Very useful playsheets; completely impenetrable main rulebook that seems deliberately written to confuse
• They are gridded with some obvious similarities to 'Square Bashing' e.g. in the morale phase
• There a couple of what look like innovative rules - albeit that for all I know they appear elsewhere in the RFCM canon - such as a phase where movement is by square followed by one where movement is, well, by square, but in a different way. Cavalry also seem to spend all their time off-table until they charge on to the field, melee and then retreat off-table again.
• Includes scenarios for all the battles from the WotR.

One of the things that I didn't like about the original rules was the way that they dealt with mixed bow and bill units, which was far too fiddly for me. These new rules seem to just assume that all units are mixed and abstract it from there, which is rather more to my taste. So, I shall add them to the pile of rules to try, and you can add them to the pile of rules awaiting a full review. Don't hold your breath.

Pot97pouri

I am not old enough to have seen Peter Green in his prime, but the former Mrs Epictetus and I did get to see him in 2009 when he did a low key tour. Musically it was very good, although understandably he didn't engage with the audience at all. Lovers of trivia may wish to know that he performed that night in a hat very reminiscent of those favoured by Benny from Crossroads. There have been those who have, and in the very recent past too, mocked such headgear; I trust that you are now suitably sorry for your actions.

I have been asked what happened in the 'Square Bashing' game, reports on which ended rather abruptly. You may remember that it had been that British turn to move next, and that their situation appeared to be hopeless. It appeared that way because it was in fact hopeless (*). The only sensible thing for them to do was to retreat, but as you will also remember I had been reading C.S. Forester's 'The General', in which such behaviour is forbidden regardless of logic or cost in human life. I therefore decided that, guided by this philosophy, the British would attack to attempt to recapture their lost positions. To cut a long story short, they didn't, rendering their situation some way beyond hopeless, and leading to me clearing the table. No photos were taken.

Lots of musicians have been recording concerts with no audience during these troubled times, and blog favourites The Heimatdamisch are no exception. Here's an excerpt, but be warned that what the trumpeter does at the beginning is most definitely not the recommended method of ensuring that surfaces are free of the virus. Conny seems to have spent the whole of lockdown on a sunbed, but I for one am glad to once again get the chance to admire her lungs.

* Your bloggist has been reading too much Douglas Adams recently.

Bring me sunshine

"If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my choice." 

- Napoleon Bonaparte

As those readers in the UK will know, it has once again been what the Met Office refer to as 'well hot'. At such times it is custom and practice at the Casa Epictetus to abandon wargaming, blogging and the like in order to frolic outside. And so, with due regard to social distancing and no regard whatsoever to social decorum, that's what has been happening for a few days. The reason that we in this country drop everything and rush off into the sunshine is that we know perfectly well that it won't last long, and inevitably the rains have now come back, and tagging along with them is your bloggist.

Before I disappeared I had played out some more of the game currently in progress in the annexe. Although I can vaguely remember what happened I can't really bring to mind any of my associated thought processes, so basically this is a couple of photos to bring us up to date. The British rolled better dice than the Germans once again and called in a barrage which has, for the moment at least, stopped the assault on the town and destroyed a field gun into the bargain.

Unable to attack, the Germans responded in kind and for the first time one of their barrages was both called in and hit its intended target. However, it achieved very little actual damage when it got there. Elsewhere the Germans did what they should have done the previous turn and attacked in the centre, with great success.

The attackers now hold three of the four objective squares, although not the one that I seem to have flung all their strength against. No doubt there's a learning point in there somewhere. I'm not sure what options the British really have left, except to try to roll high numbers at the end of each turn and finish the game quickly. To be continued...

Urgent Arrival of New Rules

"Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war." - Pablo Picasso

Both I and the stepladder have returned to the annexe. If the time spent decorating has taught me anything, it is that my previous practice of paying someone to do it for me was the entirely correct approach and one to which I should return forthwith. 

When we last visited the table, the British had a big hole in their line and needed to fill it. The normal route to bring on reserves in 'Square Bashing' is the reinforcement phase, which occurs right at the end of one's turn. There is also the option, in the opening phase, to select Urgent Arrivals as one's asset. Only one asset is allowed each turn, and that is presumably to speed up game play. I'm happy with that, but it has always seemed to me that some assets give more value than others, and so the same ones - artillery barrages mainly - always end up getting selected. If one rolls well then a barrage can do damage to a number of squares and an even larger number of units. If one rolls well when choosing, say, Hasty Defences one can put some sandbags up in one square. They just don't seem comparable to me. I therefore allow a modest upside to a couple of the asset classes to reward good (i.e. lucky) dice rolls. In this case the British rolled two sixes and three fives with five dice and thus two infantry units arrived and moved into the gaps. Not much else happened on the British turn until the very end. The game starts with a clock set to 21, and the defender rolls a D6 as the last action of their go to reduce it; when it reaches zero the game is over. Six turns is therefore a reasonable forecast for the length of the game. On this occasion the British rolled a one, implying that there are most likely still six turns to go. That rather suits the Germans.

So, the Hun commander decided to take advantage of this probable extra game length by not immediately assaulting in the centre, but giving himself an extra turn of barrage. Unfortunately the German artillery, having missed everything on the first turn, failed to even fire this time. The only assault that occurred was against the town objective where, having successfully rolled to use their Higher Command ability to add to the attack, the Germans were rolling thirteen dice against nine. Perhaps inevitably they nevertheless lost the melee. My tactics of constantly assaulting built up areas doesn't seem to be the right one after all. Still, a flamethrower unit has arrived and next time perhaps they will do better. British shooting improved and one German unit, which had failed morale based on last turn's shooting casualties and therefore couldn't move, took a bit of a pasting.

The Birth of the Cool

Apologies to those who have been waiting for an update on the Square Bashing game. The British have had a turn and got some reinforcements into their line, not least because I played a bit fast and loose with the rules. I shall pick up the narrative again shortly, I hope. In the meantime there has been a certain amount of stuff going on here to distract me, as opposed of course to the amount of going out and being distracted, which has been none whatsoever. However, reopening of the sorts of places that I like to go is at least on the horizon, and therefore I have been giving some thought to what I shall be wearing when the day comes. As a noted man-about-town in these parts I am aware that all eyes will be on me for guidance as to how the hygiene-conscious dandy will best equip himself for the world post lockdown. The answer, dear readers, is this:

The new normal

I wish to offer a hat-tip (a literal hat-tip as you can see) to Peter for his advice. In one of the infrequent round-robin emails that have passed between the wargamers of the lower Wharfe valley to check whether anyone has fallen off his perch I mentioned that I intended to rock the bandana. Upon reading this, he sagely suggested that I should not forget the hat.

You can tell that horse hasn't been able to get its hair cut for a while

In the same exchange he passed on the welcome news that one of his horses had foaled. When I mentioned this in conversation to a friend (with nothing whatever happening in one's life, any subject, however irrelevant, is likely to be brought up in order to keep the conversation going) she asked a question that was obvious, but which I had unaccountably overlooked. Was this the same horse that he had been riding when he fell off and hurt his leg? I shall report back.

Let's see some more action

I said that the delivery of my rubber railway track inspired me to set up a 'Square Bashing Game', but it was also because I have been reading C.S. Forrester's 'The General', as recommended by David form Suffolk on his blog. As with his other recommendation, 'Private Angelo' by Eric Linklater, I thoroughly enjoyed it and have no hesitation in adding my praise to his. Towards the end of the book the unimaginative eponymous Lieutenant-General is astonished as his Corps is very quickly overrun when the dastardly Hun comes up with some new tactics. Crucial to these tactics were the Stoßtruppen (I'm going to call them that, not for the usual pretentious reasons which often find me using untranslated foreign languages, - vous savez parfaitement de quoi je parle  - but in order to distinguish them from the Nazi thugs of a later generation) whom I mentioned the other day. So, there are two things in particular that we know about these units: they were specialised assault troops and were equipped and armed to facilitate that role; and whenever they came up against a well-defended strongpoint rather than attack it themselves they by-passed it and left it for the ordinary troops following behind to deal with. You don't need me to point out that there is a bit of a contradiction there. The rules writers at Peter Pig have opted to follow the first line of approach, presumably on the basis that if you had a special type of unit whose main objective is to rush across the board and leave by the opposite baseline then no one would choose them and even if they did then it wouldn't make for a very good game. All of which is a long-winded way of justifying my decision to charge the German's two Stoßtruppen battalions straight at a defended town.

That all happened on the special opening phase, so now we are on to the first German turn proper. This opens with the asset phase. When we played 'Square Bashing' a few times a year or so ago I came up with a number of brilliant alternatives which greatly improve this aspect of the game. Unfortunately I didn't write them down and, with one minor exception, I can't remember them, so I shall be using the rules as written. The board above shows the assets available to either side. I decide to call in a suppression barrage with the aim of pinning the units in the town while the main German attacking force comes up. I committed eight of the available twelve dice to this and succeeded. 

Or, to be more precise, succeeded up to a point. The barrage came in and missed everything, a combination of overs and unders ensuring that no British units were hit. Still, those in the town can't now withdraw in their turn, which both suits the Germans and, by removing one decision, makes it easier to play solo. (By the way, there will be no overhead photos for the time being as I am doing some decorating and the stepladder is required elsewhere.) Next comes the higher command phase. This is also one that seems ripe for a tweak or two, but for this game I'm playing it straight. During their respective turns the Germans will be able to attempt to improve the fighting spirit of selected units and the British may do the same to the morale of theirs. On this occasion the Germans try to affect the less weakened of the units attacking the town, but fail. After this is the German morale phase in which the unit half way up on the left of the above photo, badly beaten in a failed assault in the opening special phase, turned tail and ran away, although it didn't rout. 

Moves and assaults are next. The whole line moved up meaning that those remaining in contact with the town were now supported. I decided that they would assault again, because even though they would do so at adverse odds and probably lose (they did), it probably wouldn't suffer more casualties than they would be letting themselves be shot at (which they didn't). On top of which there was always the remote chance that they could have forced the British back into the barrage thereby inflicting heavier casualties.

In 'Square Bashing' you shoot in the opponent's turn if you haven't been assaulted. The unit above found itself in the open and targeted by two mortars and a field gun. However, the dice have swung back against the British and nothing happened. The rather odd looking deployment along the British line was caused by some dreadful dice rolling during the depletion phase of the set up. If I was the Germans - which of course I am - I would be intending to put some gas down to stop the off-table reserves moving forwards and reinforcing the line at this particular point.

Lastly, the Germans brought on their only off table unit to add to the attack along the road in case the gas ploy doesn't work.

Stoßtruppen

Re-reading yesterday's post I find that I may have given the impression that, after setting up the terrain, I followed the official rules for setting up the game. Obviously, and as I think we now all realise, great men of history such as myself are exempt from the sort of petty constraints that are appropriate for lesser beings; in other words, that's not exactly what I did. Instead, having established that the Germans were not only attacking, but were doing so with overwhelming force, I decided to give them some stormtroopers and fiddled the rest of the force around to make the points still even. The rules, which are not always either clear or consistent, say that you have to choose your forces before determining who attacks and who defends, but rather confusingly also say that the Germans can only have stormtroopers if they attack.

On the centenary of the start of the Great War some years ago various figure manufacturers launched WWI ranges on the assumption that there was going to be lots of demand from wargamers inspired by all the commemorations. There wasn't and very few, if any, of those ranges, were ever completed. In the case of the producers of 20mm plastic sets a fair number of them seemed to start with German stormtroopers - presumably because they are exotic - and then they never got round to anything much else. That is why most of my German forces are metal whereas most of the British are plastic. I mention all this because, whilst I have some stormtroopers painted up I wouldn't bother using them for a game at this level where each unit represents a battalion. On my table the units so designated look just the same as the other German infantry.

This is also consistent with the way that Stoßtruppen are handled in 'Square Bashing'. Basically, they are infantry units that are deployed further forwards than everything else and get an extra assault phase right at the beginning of the game, during which they get to throw some extra dice. Given that the attacker moves first this effectively means that they get to attack twice in a row. After that first phase, they stop having any special abilities and count as the highest quality of infantry. They are allowed to deploy last, after the defender has both set out his units and they have been depleted to represent the initial barrage, meaning that they can attack the weakest point in the line if they so choose. I went down a different route, choosing to use them to try to seize the town that is one of the objectives. It didn't work. The British (or, to be more precise, their coin toss) decided to stay and fight and won the fight quite handily. I have clearly not only forgotten the rules, but also what tactics are best employed with them.

The Germans on the left have failed in their assault, losing one figure (half a base in terms of the rules). The casualty marker counts up losses until the next time morale is taken. The British losses were caused during the depletion rather than the assault, but in any case if you win the fight then then any casualties are ignored for morale purposes. Speaking of 'winning the fight', that's what the red token signifies, meaning that they will be able to claim extra dice in the next melee. I bought the tokens from Warbases and they're crap; unreadable in fact. When I gain access to the lasercutter once again I have a plan to make some better ones, also acrylic. The coloured beads indicate the quality of the unit.

The second unit of stormtroopers fared even worse, but my photograph of that turned out to be rather blurred. These others are now sitting in the open with two machine gun units ready to open fire on them. I think that the first German turn proper will need to open with a barrage on the town and hope that it doesn't fall short.

Let's see action

When the railway track that I had ordered prior to lockdown arrived it proved sufficient - at least once the hot weather was over - to motivate some wargaming activity. It was easy enough in the first instance to set up a Square Bashing scenario incorporating said railway. However, doing that made it clear that I had completely forgotten everything about the rules. I have now re-read them and the game is pretty much ready to go.

Although I laid out the terrain on a whim, I followed the rest of the pre-battle sequence in full. The Germans rolled exceptionally well and the British exceptionally badly, so I think we must interpret this as part of the German Spring Offensive in 1918. They have pushed through the front line and the unprepared British reserves are trying to stop them. The defenders' poor dice continued into the depletion phase so a big chunk of their force - including two thirds of their field guns - start off table. In addition their heavy artillery is presumably needed more urgently elsewhere, because their barrage assets ended up being very low.

The railway track

The Germans are clearly going to win the battle, but the somewhat convoluted victory point system means that they have to win big in order to win overall, if you follow me. Added to the variable game length (a die is rolled after each turn until a target total is met and the game is over) means that they will have to get on with it. That makes it ideal for a solo game, and - always assuming my enthusiasm is maintained - I shall play it out. The main decision the British have at the beginning is whether to resist the stormtrooper attack just about to be launched on the town - which is one of the victory objectives - and risk destruction at the hands of crack troops, or to withdraw in the hope of retaking it once reinforcements arrive. I shall toss a coin I think.

Pot96pouri

My intentions of laying out a Square Bashing scenario in the annexe have been undermined by the absolutely glorious weather we're having. It looks like it's going to be a while before normal meteorological conditions are resumed, so in the meantime here are a couple of musical items which continue where we left off the other day:

Tinywargames

I don't often mention it here, to the extent perhaps that newer readers may not even be aware of it, but I am actually rather interested in toy soldiers, wargames, modelling and so on. Several weeks on one's own unable to go out or see anyone should have been the ideal opportunity to engage in the hobby, but I have been somewhat busy doing other things. One of the paradoxes of life is that in order to be properly lazy you really have to work at it.

Anyway, all that may be about to change, because I have received a package in the post. At the beginning of March I visited the Overlord show in Abingdon. Among the traders that I don't see at northern shows was Tinywargames, who make mats. Following a useful chat at the time and an exchange of emails afterwards I ordered one. Immediately after that the country went into working from home mode and so I wasn't entirely surprised when it didn't turn up. However, I definitely let it slide for too long before chasing it up, which I only did last week. They sprang into action and the replacement, or possibly the package that had never been sent in the first place, arrived promptly. Either way, and especially in the circumstances, I'm more than satisfied with both the customer service and with the product.

I have been wanting some railway track to use with Square Bashing. I thought of buying a cheap toy train set - and one can get some ridiculously cheap ones - but the track in the ones I have seen is OO/HO gauge, which while it matches my 20mm figures doesn't suit the subscale terrain that I use with them. I then looked at N gauge track, but, contrastingly, that is ridiculously expensive, even second hand. The track on the mat that I have bought is a suitable size for what I want and came in a 1.7 metre strip on thin rubber, which lays very flat on top of the Hexon. When I have cut it up I shall have over 5 metres made up of various lengths. The only downside is that they will all be straight. However, as it's a grid based game I can't see that being a problem.

So, I am now enthused to see what it looks like in action by setting up a scenario. I think I know from where I can steal one, so more details to follow in due course.

One half mass times velocity squared

I'm partial to both military history and physics and so was delighted when they were combined in the latest Royal Armouries talk, which was on the development of very large guns since the Crimean War, with (some) reference to the science behind them. Subjects covered ranged from Mallet's Mortar to the Iraqi Supergun, via the Paris gun, Gustav and Dora and the V3.

Mallet's achievement was perhaps the most impressive, given that he started more or less from scratch in his application of the scientific method to the problem which he faced; namely how to destroy the fortress at Sebastopol, the task which was to eventually be completed by Schwerer Gustav nearly a century later. He successfully reverse engineered the required shell size (anticipating Barnes Wallis in his calculations), overcame the problem of circumferential stress in the barrel, and used a modular design for ease of transport. All he didn't manage was to complete the task before the war ended; the gun was never fired in anger.

The weapon that really caught your bloggist's attention was the Pariser Kanone, not least because its range was so great that when aiming they had to take account of the rotation of the earth, a subject which of course has often featured here before. According to the speaker, Paris moved four miles between the gun being fired and the shell landing; it was not a precision weapon.

One interesting analogy used was that the kinetic energy of a projectile leaving the barrel of a WWI 7.5cm field gun (i.e. those included in my Square Bashing games) was equivalent to that of an articulated lorry travelling at 100 mph.