Warplan 5/5 Campaign System

I'm afraid I couldn't find a way to reproduce the snazzy double headed arrow in 5/5 in the text so will have to do with this instead.

Warplan 5/5 came out in about 1970 and lasted about five years. It was clearly a labour of love and combined a huge amount of work in developing the system and a very sophisticated (for the time) graphical presentation.

It was published by a company called Hirstle Graphic Services, which was removed from the UK register of Companies at Companies House in around August 1975. The company was based in Eltham, near Canterbury. Elsewhere it is also referred to as FEREF/Hirstle Press Ltd., which was incorporated on 1st January 1970; the date it was dissolved is not recorded.

There was an artist called Cliff Hirstle who designed poster for British movies in the 1960s but so far I have been unable to discover any firm connection with the Hirstle Press/Hirstle Graphic Services.

The designer of the system owned the company and it seems the product was sold in 1975 to Heritage Models in 1975, but not much happened with it thereafter.

The system has been described as being ideal for the computer age and therefore fated to be ahead of its time.

At the heart of the system was a set of 30 double sided 5" by 5" map cards (giving 60 maps in total). There were two different sets - all those in the picture are all set 1 and there are four sets there. Set 1 was intended for horse and musket era campaigns while set 2 added railway systems, airfields, oil refineries,naval installations and industrial complexes.

You used these cards in whatever combination you wanted to provide your campaign map.

 Another major part of the package was the system handbook. This actually states that there are no rules attached to the Warplan system - basically it  helps you to manage and record your campaign, logistics etc.

I have been collecting bits and pieces of the Warplan system over a number of years (mainly maps and the handbook) but now have two complete sets plus example of all the other replacement and expansion items.

I don't think there were separate system handbooks for horse and musket and railway/aircraft eras. Section 2 states that "the Warplan 5/5 system is operated virtually the same for either version, except in a few details, which will be noted in the following text, where applicable."

The two copies of the handbook rare different from each other in presentation but not in content -one is printed on white paper throughout while the other is on white for the first and last eight pages, but the middle 32 pages are printed on various different coloured papers.

All these forms etc form part of the Campaign Log system, provided in the original pack as a series of A4 landscape sheets, including (as an example) transparent grids to overlay your maps. The replacements provided versions of these forms in a smaller format and printed on colour coded paper..

There were also symbols and counters for map movement and record keeping.

Clearly developing the system had involved a lot of work and I suspect using it would have required a similar investment of time by the umpire to get to grips with it.

All the photos here were taken with my phone for speed and convenience and posted on the Vintage Miniature Wargames Rules Facebook Group where some discussion of them has taken place.

I may at some point replace them with scans of the various forms etc. if there is interest and when I have the time to do so.

I am also currently looking for an avert from the early 70s from one of the wargaming magazines, to illustratethis post further.

The Jacobite Wargame by D McRobbie: Miniature Warfare & Model Soldiers August 1972

Steve Hezzlewood, Pax Britannica, RSM and X Range

This post is by way of being a bit of a place holder and statement of intent, as I try to pull together some material of interest about this complicated character. My defining moment of contact with him was being blown away in around 1985 by adverts for a lovely new range of 20mm Colonials under the title Pax Britannica. Having sent off a largish order, I heard no more - it was only a few years ago realised I was not the only one to have had this experience.

Steve Hezzlewood designed some of the best, anatomically proportioned figures - in 20mm the Pax Pritannica and RSM Colonials, Napoleonics and American Civil War figures, now available from Dayton Painting Consortium in the States; the RSM 25mm Seven Years War Range (also available from DPC); and the Hinchliffe X Range American War of Independence - now available from Ian Hinds.

If you have not seen any of these figures, you really should take a look at them. The 20mm figures are what I would call small 20mm - think Newline.

For more on Steve Hezzlewood, including his Raid on Boucharde article from the Wargames Manual of 1983, can be found over on DC's Unfashionably Shiny blog.

There is also a history of Pax Britannica on Vintage20Mil.

Gerard de Gre and the Model Generals' Club: Melee Deployment Matrix and Artillery Fire Matrix

Included as an addendum in John C Candler's Miniature Wargames du Temps de Napoleon were these two rules meachanisms from the Model Generals' Club. The first (MDM) was adopted in July 1963, and the second (AFM) in October 1963.

John C Candler: Napoleonique

Harry Pearson and Richard Black's Vintage 20mil (to which as always I am indebted) states that in Miniature Wargames du temps de Napoleon John C Candler promised further sets of rules which sadly never followed. I assume this refers to this intriguing page on Napoleonique, which seemed to foreshadow later wargames marketing efforts and would have been very innovative at the time.

If anyone knows any more about Napoleonique, and whether they did indeed see the light of day, or perhaps was even involved in their play testing, it would be great to hear anything you can add..

John Sharples' Rules for Medieval Warfare 1977

I found these one page rules inserted into my copy of the Hinchliffe Guide to Wargaming. Although I do not know for sure, as both were printed in 1977, I suspect they were released together. Thanks again to John and to Ian Hinds of Hinds Figures and Hinchliffe Models for permission to reproduce them here.

American Revolutiion: Rules by Charlie and David Sweet

Partly as a late trubute to HG Wells birthday last week, and partly inspired by the pictures of Charlie Sweet's gridded 30mm AWI set up from Bob Bard's Making and Collecting Military Miniatures, posted earlier here, here are Charlie and David Sweets American Revolution rules, published in Wargamers Newsletter no 93, December 1969.

The Wells-like features include the use of a spring loaded cannon firing cotton buds. Other interesting elements are a timed three minute move and the use of Chance Cards.

Enjoy!

John Sandars Saturday

I have decided to declare today John Sandars Saturday, and post various items of interest I have been digging out over the last few weeks.

On the back cover of his book Introduction to Wargaming (Pelham, 1975) his publisher's About the Author states:

John Sandars has a wealth of experience in modelling and wargaming to put into this book. He started by modelling ships and soon became interested in military modelling in general. His scratch-built vehicles and figures from the desert campaign of the Second World War have become famous.

He plays many forms of wargaming and has become well-known as the creator of a special game simulating desert fighting. He has recently retired from the navy and lives in Portsmouth.

Among the posts today are a two part series from Miniature Warfare in 1970 on devising a set of rules, which may be seen to be initial thoughts towards his later book. It was always a source of frustration that the book doesn't actually set out the rules completely. In 1988 Dave Tuck and Richard Marsh recreated them in an article in the Solo Wargamers' Association's magazine, the Lone Warrior. Doug Crowther tracked these down and provided a scan which is available on Henry Hyde's Battlegames Magazine site as a pdf to download (6.5 mb). The scanner has cut off one or two words but the document is serviceable one, if you are interested in these rules.

On the Rapid Fire website Richard Marsh and Colin Runford acknowledge the inspiration of John Sandars. For many this inspiration included his modelling and scratch-building, and his series of articles in Airfix Magazine (and later Airfix Magazine Guide) on the 8th Army in the Desert.

Other posts below include some photographs of his work, an article on photographing models in a pre-digital age, and an account of an infantry action in the desert.

John Sandars: devising a set of rules part 1, Miniature Warfare August 1970