Psychogeography and wargaming

Over the past couple of years I have been following the adventures of John Rogers, a YouTuber and writer whose channel is dedicated to 'immersive London walking tours exploring the hidden history of London, its streets, suburbs, and forgotten places – from ancient paths and lost rivers to post-war estates and overlooked corners of the city.' He also explores 'coastal paths, countryside walks, and historic locations across the UK.' His films 'combine walking, storytelling, psychogeography, and cultural history, uncovering the layers of the urban landscape and the stories embedded within it.' John is occasionally accompanied by others, including Ian Sinclair, who is a great advocate of psychogeography.

So, what is psychogeography?

Psychogeography was developed as a concept by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International in the early 1950s and is defined as being 'the exploration of urban environments that emphasises interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes.' The concept was influenced by Marxist and anarchist theory and the Dadaists and the Surrealists.

In INTRODUCTION TO A CRITIQUE OF URBAN GEOGRAPHY – published in 1955 by The Situationist International Text Library – Guy Debord defined psychogeography as 'the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.'

In the UK, it has a small but very active following, particularly amongst academics, artists, filmmakers, and writers. The latter include Peter Ackroyd and Will Self.

So, why did I become interested in psychogeography?

The answer is very simple. I live on Shooters Hill and it has been identified by the late Steve Moore and Ian Sinclair as being a psychic hotspot, which apparently makes it an important location in psychogeography.

And what links psychogeography to wargaming?

Again, the answer is simple ... Guy Debord. In the 1960s, he felt that if the left-wing remained ignorant of military strategy, they were unlikely to prevail in the class war he expected to take place soon. In conjunction with Alice Becker-Ho, he devised a grid-based wargame – LE JEU DE LA GUERRE – that he hoped would fill this void.

The cover of the 1987 edition of Le Jeu de la Guerre.

The game was published in France in 1977, and an English edition followed in 1985. In recent years, Class Wargames – a London-based group – has revived interest in the game, and an electronic version is available to download.

Members of Class Wargames playing Le Jeu de la Guerre in Brazil.

I have played the latter solo many times on my iPad (it has an AI opponent option available as well as the option to play online against other wargamers), and it certainly helps to develop ones strategic thinking!

A screenshot of the electronic version of Guy Debord's wargame.

Time – and life – permitting, I hope to investigate further into the possibility of applying psychogeography to wargaming.

Another progress report about my Portable Belle Époque Wargame rules (2)

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, the significant changes I am making to THE GATLING'S JAMMED rules from THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME book are as follows:

• Machine guns a treated like artillery and have their own fire phase.
• The number of units a general can activate each turn is subject to a degree of randomness that depends upon their ability.
• A timescale has been introduced.

The section that deals with the second of these currently reads as follows:

Grading a general and activating units

• To determine a general’s grading, two D6 dice are rolled, and the combined dice score determines the general’s grading.
• Dice score = 10, 11, or 12: General is graded Good 
• Dice score = 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9: General is graded Average
• Dice score = 2 or 3: General is graded Poor
• This grading helps to determine how many units they can activate each turn.
• If used during a campaign, a general’s grading can be changed to reflect their success … or lack of it.
• Before the battle begins, each side is allocated a playing card colour (i.e. red or black).
• The number of units they command is totaled, divided by 2, and rounded up.
• This gives the median value of the playing cards that the general will be allocated.
• The median value of the playing cards is then adjusted according to the general’s competence:
• Good general: Increase the median value of the playing cards by 2.
• Average general: Increase the median value of the playing cards by 1.
• Poor general: No adjustment is made to the median value of the playing cards.
• The players extract the red and black playing cards from two packs of playing cards and place them in separate piles.
• The general who has been allocated the red playing cards removes the red playing cards that have their modified median playing card value from their pile plus the red playing cards that have their modified median playing card value plus 1 and minus 1. These form their pack of activation cards.
• The general who has been allocated the black playing cards removes the black playing cards that have their modified median playing card value from their pile plus the black playing cards that have their modified median playing card value plus 1 and minus 1. These form their pack of activation cards.
• The two piles of coloured activation cards each have a Joker added to them to form that side’s pack of activation cards.
• Each side’s pack of activation cards is then shuffled and placed face down.
• Important note regarding the activation of artillery and machine gun units
• During the turn sequence, the artillery and machine gun fire phases take place before a side activates its other units.
• Both sides can – but do not have to – activate their artillery and machine gun units each time one of their side’s activation cards is turned over.
• If they do this, these count as one of that side’s unit activations.
• Once all the units that side can activate have been activated, the playing card is discarded and placed face up next to that side’s pack of activation cards.
• This process continues until a Joker is turned over, at which point the discarded activation cards are returned to the relevant pack of activation cards and the whole pack is re-shuffled, and the process begins again.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe and Harry Beck: When is a map not a map ... and does Harry Beck's diagram have wargaming potential?

One of my favourite paintings by René Magritte – the Belgian surrealist painter – is 'The Treachery of Images' (In French, 'La Trahison des images').

It is often referred to by its alternative – and probably better known – name of 'This Is Not a Pipe/Ceci n'est pas une pipe' ... and it depicts an image of a pipe with the words 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' underneath the image.

What I like about it is the fact that the painting conveys an apparent paradox! To the casual observer, it looks like a pipe ... but the actuality is that – as the words underneath the image state very clearly – it isn't a real pipe.

Now what on earth has this to do with wargaming?

Bear with me; things will become clear ... I hope!

Back in 1931, Harry Beck designed a schematic diagram of the London Undergound network ... and if you ask the internet to find a map of the London Underground, a modern version of Harry Beck's design will appear.

Harry Beck's original 1931 diagram of the London Underground network.

Perhaps it ought to have 'Ce n'est pas une carte/This isn't a map' underneath it?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a map as being 'a drawing of the earth's surface, or part of that surface, showing the shape and position of different countries, political borders, natural features such as rivers and mountains, and artificial features such as roads and buildings' and the Collins Dictionary states that it is 'a physical or digital image of a particular area such as a city, a country, or a continent, showing its main features as they would appear if you looked at them from above'.

By these definitions, Harry Beck's diagram is not a map. You certainly could not navigate your way around London's roads using it as the actual geographic positions of the underground stations is very different from their relative positions on Harry Beck's diagram. For example, this is the section of Beck's diagram showing the section of the tube from Earls Court in the west to Waterloo in the east and Queens Road in the north to West Brompton in the south.

Here is the same section of the London Underground superimposed on a road map of the same area. (N.B. the colours used to designate the different tube lines is different.)

Bearing in mind that most of the tube lines shown were constructed using the 'cut and cover' method and followed the route of existing roads. the differences are very noticeable.

As an aside, according to Transport for London (TfL), the average time it takes to travel between stations on the London Underground is 2.5 minutes ... so, by counting the number of stations between one's starting point and end point and multiplying by 2.5, you can calculate the approximate journey time from one station to another.

So, what has all this to do with wargaming?

One style of wargaming 'map' is the point-to-point one, like this ...

A point-to-point map of the area around the Battle of Waterloo. The travel time between each of the places on the map is approximately the same ... and the geographical positions of each is correct.

... and it seems to me to bear more than a passing resemblance to Harry Beck's design ... especially if you add a colour code to the different parts of the road network!

So, could Harry Beck's design – and the many similar designs used across the world – form the basis of a point-to-point wargame campaign map? I think so ... and if I get time, I may explore this idea further.

Another progress report about my Portable Belle Époque Wargame rules (1)

I have been making somewhat slower progress on my Portable Belle Époque Wargame rules than I expected ... but I'm gradually getting there!

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, the significant changes I am making to THE GATLING'S JAMMED rules from THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME book are as follows:

• Machine guns a treated like artillery and have their own fire phase.
• The number of units a general can activate each turn is subject to a degree of randomness that depends upon their ability.
• A timescale has been introduced.

The section that deals with the first of these currently reads as follows:

Machine gun fire phase

• Machine gun fire definitions
• If an enemy unit can be seen by a machine gun unit (i.e. there is a direct line-of-sight between the target and the machine gun unit firing at it), the machine gun unit may fire at it.
• Machine gun units can fire over other units that are in front of them if they are on a hill that is higher than the target.
• General machine gun fire rules
• Machine guns fire within an arc-of-fire that is forward of the direction in which it is facing.
• Machine gun ranges are measured through the edges and not the corners of the grid areas.
• Machine gun units can only fire once each turn.
• Machine gun units that fire cannot move during the same turn.
• Machine gun fire can destroy any type of ground unit.
• Machine gun units can fire into woods, built-up areas, and fortifications.
• Machine gun units can fire out of woods, built-up areas, and fortifications if they are in a grid area that is on the edge of the woods, built-up areas, or fortifications (i.e. the adjacent grid area in the direction they are firing does not contain woods, built-up areas or fortifications).
• Machine gun fire rules
• The target grid area is identified.
• Roll three D6 dice for the machine gun unit firing at the target grid area and add or subtract any relevant modifiers:
• Increase the D6 die roll score by 1 if the machine gun unit has fired at the same stationary target during the previous turn.
• Increase the D6 die roll score by 1 if a friendly general is in a grid area that is adjacent to the machine gun unit.
• Reduce the D6 die roll score by 1 if the target is in cover or fortifications.
• Results:
• Modified D6 die roll score = 5 or more: Machine gun fire lands on the target grid area.
• Modified D6 die roll score = 4 or less: Machine gun fire has been totally ineffective.
• If the machine gun fire has been effective, any unit that is in the grid area in which the machine gun fire lands is hit, and a D6 die is rolled to determine the effectiveness of the artillery fire upon the target unit. (See the Resolving hits on units section of the rules.)

Another Nagato!

In July, thanks to the generosity of Nigel Drury, I added a model of the IJNS Nagato to my collection of 1:1200th/:1250th-scale Japanese warships.

Since then – and thanks to eBay – I have acquired a second model of a Nagato-class battleship ... so now I can field both IJNS Nagato and her sistership IJNS Mutsu in a naval wargame.

I now have models of six of the ten battleship that the Imperial Japanese Navy had in service in 1941. To complete my collection, I need another two Kongo-class fast battleships (IJNS Hiei and IJNS Kirishima), the IJNS Yamashiro (a Fuso-class battleship), and IJNS Hyūga (an Ise-class battleship).

Battles of the Balkan Wars

Further to my recent blog post about the First and Second Balkan Wars, I have put together a list of the main battles of each war.

Battles of the First Balkan War (1912–1913): Fought between the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro) and the Ottoman Empire.

Battle of Kirk Kilisse (24th to 27th October 1912) – Bulgarian victory over Ottoman forces in Thrace.

Battle of Lüleburgaz (29th October to 2nd November 1912) – The largest battle of the war, leading to an Ottoman retreat.

Battle of Kumanovo (23rd and 24th October 1912) – Decisive Serbian victory over the Ottoman Vardar Army.

Battle of Sarantaporos (9th and 10th October 1912) – Greek victory opening the way to southern Macedonia.

Battle of Yenidje (2nd and 3rd November 1912) – Greek victory leading to the surrender of Thessaloniki.

Siege of Adrianople (3rd November 1912 to 26th March 1913) – Fall of the key Ottoman fortress to Bulgarian and Serbian forces.

Battle of Monastir (16th to 19th November 1912) – Serbian victory securing control of Pelagonia.

First and Second Battles of Çatalca (17th and 18th November 1912 and 20th to 22nd March 1913) – Ottoman defensive successes holding the line near Constantinople.

Battle of Bizani (5th to 6th March 1913) – Greek victory leading to the capture of Ioannina.

Battle of Bulair (8th February 1913) – Ottoman tactical success against Bulgarian forces.

Siege of Scutari (28th October 1912 to 23rd April 1913) – Montenegrin and Serbian siege of the northern Albanian town.

Naval Battles of Elli (16th December 1912) and Lemnos (18th January 1913) – Greek naval victories ensuring control of the Aegean Sea.

The Matrix Game map of the Balkans during the First Balkan War from the book THE BALKAN LEAGUE.

Battles of the Second Balkan War (1913): Fought when Bulgaria turned against its former allies, Serbia and Greece, joined later by Romania and the Ottoman Empire.

Battle of Bregalnica (30th June to 9th July 1913) – Major engagement and Serbian victory along the Bregalnica River.

Battle of Kilkis–Lachanas (19th to 21st June 1913) – Decisive Greek victory over Bulgarian forces.

Battle for Knjaževac (4th to 7th July 1913) – Bulgarian offensive action against the Serbians.

Battle of Doiran (23rd to 25th June 1913) – Engagement during the Greek advance against Bulgarian positions.

Battle of Kalimanci (18th and 19th July 1913) – Successful Bulgarian defensive stand halting the Serbian offensive.

Battle of Kresna Gorge (8th to 18th July 1913) – Fierce Greek counter-offensive operations trapping the Bulgarian army.

Battle of Pirot (24th to 27th August 1913) – Late-stage engagement near the Serbian border.

Siege of Vidin (14th to 19th July 1913) – Serbian siege of the Bulgarian fortress city.

Southern Dobruja Offensive (July 1913) – Unopposed Romanian invasion of Bulgarian territory.

Ottoman Recapture of Adrianople (23rd July 1913) – Unopposed re-entry into Eastern Thrace by Ottoman forces as Bulgarian troops redeployed.

The Matrix Game map of the Balkans during the Second Balkan War from the book THE BALKAN LEAGUE.

New YouTube video ... that shows how I make my YouTube videos!

I recently wrote two blog posts that explained how I created my YouTube videos using MS PowerPoint and NCH VideoPad video editing software. I decided that it would be a good idea to use these methods to create a YouTube video about how I make my YouTube videos ... and that is exactly what I have done!

The video lasts approximately eleven and a half minutes and can be found here on the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel.

'Bring me my Chariot of fire!': My new rollator/stroller has been delivered!

As my regular blog readers will know, I suffer from mobility problems as a result of my axonal polyneuropathy. This means that although I can walk a reasonable distance – say 100 metres – with the aid of walking sticks, if I am walking for longer than five minutes at a time without resting, I need something more substantial to support me.

When I finally learned how to walk again in 2024 (this was only possible thanks to the excellent support and help I received from the Royal Borough of Greenwich's Reablement Team) I was issued with a rollator/stroller. This is a four-wheeled walking frame that has a seat and back rest that one can use as a mobility aid when walking longer distances. I have used this on many occasions when going for a walk or when visiting somewhere where I knew that I was likely to do quite a lot of walking ... but it is second-hand, the brakes are prone to not working as well as they should, and it is very heavy and cumbersome to lift in and out of my car.

As I needed a rollator/stroller on my recent cruise, I hired one rather than taking mine with me. This hired rollator/stroller proved to be much lighter and easier to use than my existing one, and after giving it some thought, I recently bought a new one that I can use from home and that I can also take with me on future cruises ... and here it is!

I have already taken it out for a stroll around the local area, and it is much better than my existing one. For one thing, the brakes work ... and this is important if – like me – you live on a steep hill.

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Most people know that 'Bring me my Chariot of fire!' is a quote from William Blake's poem 'And did those feet in ancient time' which became the lyrics of the famous song, JERUSALEM.

Fewer people know that the poem references Chapter 6, Verse 17 of Kings 2 in the King James bible, which states:

And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Sixteen million hits!

I just realised that my hit counter passed sixteen million hits earlier today.

It looks as if the AI bots are still the major contributors to the total number of hits my blog has received. I only wish that I got paid every time they visited as it would help pay for my next cruise!

The Balkan Wars on a single tabletop!

Some years ago, I came across a very interesting concept: a complete 3D map of the Balkans that fitted onto a tabletop and that one could fight the Balkan Wars on using 15mm figures. I cannot find out who developed this idea ... but as the following images indicate, it is brilliant!

If anyone has any information about this, please can they share it?