The Way Ahead

 

 

Each December we visit our family in the UK and spend Christmas and New Year with them. This enforced break in our normal routine removes me from my PC and wargame table, and allows me to have a break and appreciate how much I enjoy my normal routine. It’s lovely to spend time with our family, and especially at this time of year. But it is also nice to return to our busy and enjoyable normal routine

The end of the year is the traditional time to review events of the previous twelve months, and plans for the next twelve. Normally this would be a review of our wargame activities, but this year it has been a review of our life style.

Jan and I are fortunate to share both of our main activities, which are Wargaming and walking. For the past eight years we have run two walking groups for our local U3A. Monday is a 5-6 hour mountain walk and Thursday a more moderate 3 hour valley walk.

Blogging has also become a major part of my weekly routine. Each week I publish four blogs. One for each walk, an update for my 1813 campaign and this one. I also have a Facebook for each of our walking groups, and post an update each week

During the past year I have found that it has all become quite a chore, rather than something I really enjoy. Jan had an accident early in the year, which stopped her doing the more strenuous Monday walks. We had both already found the harder walks more challenging, and without her company I enjoyed them even less. I also felt quite guilty leaving her at home each Monday.

This commitment has grown up over many years, and has done so because we enjoyed it and welcomed each new activity. Obviously I enjoyed all of the administration; otherwise I would not have done it. It filled the long hours of retirement, and we made many hundreds of friends through the two U3A groups. They also became the centre of our social life. But as you get older you have less enthusiasm and energy, and what was great fun can become a challenge.

So in late November I decided to review our activities and to rearrange them to suit our current circumstances. Our weekly routine would be designed to suit what we wanted to do now, rather than what we had committed to over the years.

Our wargame activities had changed greatly since we started our 1813 campaign in 2009. It had always been a vehicle to provide us with an endless supply of battles to wargame. But it has grown from a solo campaign for the two of us to a PBEM campaign with ten players from around the world, and then back to a solo campaign again. As a PBEM campaign we completed at least one, and often two, wargames a week, and kept it going 365 days a year. More recently a wargame lasts 10 to 14 days. We still enjoy it and it still remains a major part of our life style. But gone is the hectic programme to keep up with updating ten players each week and Wargaming the resulting battles.

We decided that the major adjustment would be to our walking groups. We started the first group in 2015 to share our love of hill walking. We had a great response, but kept our weekly walks to a maximum of 16 on each walk. We soon found that we had more people wanting to walk and rather than disappoint we started a second group. Covid brought all of this to an end. Here in Spain restrictions were very severe, including being unable to leave the house except to shop or medical appointments. As the restrictions were relaxed we started the Monday walk with just 6, then 10 then 16 members. Eventually we restarted the Thursday group, but with valley walks in place of the hill walks.

Now that Jan could no longer to the Monday walks, we have cancelled the weekly hill walks and will concentrate on the weekly valley walks. This will remove half of the administration and give us more time for more sedate activities – such as sitting in the local square to enjoy a cold drink in the warm sunshine, even at this time of year.

About the same time that we started the reorganisation, we began watching the very enjoyable Netflix series The Crown. Last week we watched the final episode, when Queen Elizabeth is asked to review the plans for “London Bridge”, the code name for her ceremonial funeral. She was asked to do so because she was 79 and approaching 80 and the programme explored her reaction to accepting old age as a relatively fit and active person.

My 80th birthday is in June 2024.

Review of 2020

I don’t always do a review of each year, but this year was pretty exceptional and surely deserves one.

 

I try to keep this blog confined to wargaming and things military, I have another blog which records our hill walking and living in Spain generally.   But the coronavirus has had a major impact on our wargaming as much as any other aspect of our lives over the past year.

 

It is hard to believe that a year ago few of us had even heard of covid19, let alone how much it was going to change every aspect of our lives almost overnight.

 

We have had a better experience than many.  The first six weeks were a nightmare.   We were confined to our house and could only leave for essential shopping or to visit the doctor or chemist.  Even then only one could leave.   The Spanish police enforced these restrictions to such an extent that roads, villages and towns were deserted.   My wife was stopped by a police checkpoint who demanded the shopping bill to check the date, and then checked the boot to confirm that the groceries agreed with the bill.   One of our neighbours was fined for walking to the end of our road just to exercise.   Not pleasant, but it did result in total acceptance of the restrictions.  And still does, even though the police enforcement was greatly reduced at the end of the first lockdown.

 

However we do live in a lovely and isolated village inland from Denia on the Costa Blanca.   The village has a population of just 1000 and most work on the land.   Visitors are unusual and everyone knows everyone else.   It has a very safe feel in these difficult times.

 

Our normal routine is to walk twice a week with each of the two hill walking groups we run.   We also visit the coast once a week and go for short walks on most days.   In addition we have a couple of wargame moves each day.  We are fortunate to have a permanent wargames room, and there is always a game set up.

 

During lockdown we could not leave the house at all, so we relied even more than usual on our wargaming.   Without the distraction of walking I also spent a lot of time reorganising our long running 1813 campaign.

 

First I reorganised the index to this blog, which took me many weeks.  

 

Then I reviewed and amended both the campaign and the wargame rules

 

But the biggest task by far was to reorganise the whole concept of the campaign.

 

It is a fictional campaign based on the 1813 campaign.   I have never tried to recreate the historical campaign, and the orders of battle are based on the figures in my collection.   But I have always tried to recreate historical maps, and to follow historical aims and objectives.

 

I always found it very difficult to make wargame maps which showed the main physical terrain of Germany and Spain.   Current maps do not show such terrain in the sort of detail which I would require for wargaming.   I was also difficult to find borders of regions and smaller nations and states.    It becomes very easy to become bogged down in detail of the areas where campaigns and battles were fought, but then impossible to find such detail of the rest of Germany and Spain.

 

I finally decided to create fictional military regions.   I will review how that has gone in the next blog.

Happy New Year

First a very Happy New Year to those of you who follow my ramblings.   As I start the tenth year of this blog I must thank you all for the support over the years.   I do it for my own satisfaction, but it is nice to know that you take the trouble to read it.

Jan and I have just returned from two weeks with my son and his family in the UK.   He lives in a lovely village called Rothbury, which is north of Newcastle.   It is a lovely walking area, and we usually explore the nearby hills and valleys.   However this year we have both suffered from flu, which cast a shadow over the festivities.   Fortunately we got Christmas Day over before Jan went down.   However New Year was a very quiet occasion.   It was a particular shame because the weather was sunny and even mild (by local standards) and would have been ideal walking conditions.

We have now returned to sunny Spain.   My cold is much better, though Jan is still suffering.   Tomorrow I lead our first walk of the New Year, and we settle back into our busy and enjoyable routine.

An occasional break of routine is a good opportunity to consider objectives and priorities.   Here in Spain we have a busy routine and little opportunity, or desire, to just sit and think.   Without the distractions and the opportunity to work on the campaign or wargame there is plenty of time to do just that.   Particularly if you don’t have the energy to do anything physical.  

This year I had more time than usual to read wargame blogs and forums.   At this time of year many do a review of the past year, and outline plans for the New Year.  This often involves taking on a new period, scale or project.   Many plans will not mature, but I do envy them the enthusiasm of planning.

I have not bought a new model soldier in more than 12 years, nor have I painted a single figure in that time.   Having developed my campaign system I have spent all of that time wargaming, rather than collecting or painting.   I have no regrets about this.   Instead of hours painting figures I spent hours each week running the campaign, wargaming the battles and updating the campaign blog.  

However I do miss the excitement of new projects.   I have no interest outside of the Napoleonic period, so a different period is not a possibility.   I have no desire to replace my figure collection, I have already done that at least four times over the years.   I have no interest in new wargame rules, all have proved a disappointment over the years.   This is probably due more to me than to the rules themselves.   Because we wargame so often we quickly find the flaws in new rules, or perhaps I should say rules with which we do not agree.  We then adjust the rules, which lead to further problems down the line.   Using our own house rules allows me to adjust them as necessary to provide the type of game we enjoy.  Because I have written them I am better placed to anticipate any resulting problems.

I have tried new projects over the past few years to create wargames outside of the campaign.   Although it is great fun working on the project, the games have always disappointed compared with the campaign games.

It’s a nice problem to have.   A bit like wealthy people complaining that they are bored with their lives.   But I still feel a little envy when I read about a fellow wargamers projects for 2019.

Review of 2016

One of the advantages of a weekly blog is that it is quite easy to review the year, you just look back over the previous 52 entries.

This year was dominated by converting my 1813 campaign back to solo from PBEM.   The PBEM campaign had started in September 2009 and had dominated not only our wargaming but also much of my spare time.   There were up to twelve players and I processed one campaign day each week.  So there was a constant flow of email back and forth, not to mention answering general questions and the ongoing task of replacing players who left the campaign.   Six years is a long time to maintain the interest and drive, and I was finding it hard going over the last six months.   It was also becoming increasingly difficult to find new players and increasingly annoying when one packed it in without a word of warning.

So I was more than ready for a new start.  The PBEM campaign had become an integral part of our wargaming, and would have to be replaced with a solo campaign.   It would have to be Napoleonic, we don’t have any other period figures.   I started with a clean sheet and considered the options.   

I quite fancied doing the whole of the Napoleonic Wars as a series of campaigns.   Some years ago I made a start on this project with the Italian campaign of 1796.   It proved too difficult to wargame the battles, as each battlefield had to bear a resemblance to the original.   Plus the orders of battle were difficult with the figures on our shelves.   You will find that campaign here

http://wargamecampaignsofnapoleon.blogspot.com/

I also considered doing each of the major Napoleonic campaigns as a series of mini campaigns, similar to our current campaign phase.  But again the orders of battle and recreating the battlefields were a major problem.

So I decided to carry on with our 1813 campaign.  It has been designed to make use of our current model soldiers and model buildings.   All of the maps had been designed to provide battles for the size of table and scenic squares we use.   Most important the campaign and wargame rules had stood the test of time.

I miss the outside influence on the campaign and the pressure of having other players involved.   The number of battles to be wargamed has greatly reduced.   In 2015 we wargamed 58 campaign battles.   In 2016 we gamed 30 campaign battles.

On the other I have enjoyed the actual campaign more.  Previously I had no influence on the progress of the campaign, nor on the battles it produced.  We did wargame the battles, but had to accept a large number of standard encounter battles.   I can now manoeuvre the map campaign to produce more interesting battles, and make more use of the terrain.  

So what about 2017?  

The campaign will continue to form the basis of our wargaming.   I no longer paint model soldiers, and we have made all of the scenery we require.   So the campaign itself will be the challenge.  

Happy New Year

Jan and I have just returned from two weeks in the UK with our grandchildren for Christmas and New Year.  

In previous years the PBEM campaign continued through the holidays, and I always took a laptop to update the campaign.   This year the campaign is in its final stages.   The last orders have been received and processed.   Four of the five campaign areas have been completed, leaving just Wellington v Soult to complete.

Wellington has one final battle to fight, and in the next few days I will be setting up the last wargame of the campaign.

There are still about 15 blog entries to be posted on the campaign diary blog.   Only three of those have still be written, and must wait for the result of the final battle.

So for the first time in six years I have been completely wargame free for two whole weeks.  It seemed very strange at first, but I soon got used to it.  

Having returned home I am now catching up on the campaign.   Just posed the final diary entry for the campaign in southern Spain.   The Spanish won this final phase.   In 1813 there was not much difference in quality between the Spanish and French armies in the Peninsula, so this is not such an unexpected result.

Over the coming weeks I will completing the campaign diary blog, and will then start work on the new solo campaign.

You can find the 1813 PBEM campaign diary here

 http://1813pbemcampaigndiary.blogspot.com

Happy New Year to all, both those who have followed my ramblings over the years and to any new reader who just discovered this blog.