A DIARY OF THE GREAT WARR (E BOOKS FOR ANTIQUARIANS)

A Diary of the Great Warr (Robert Massie) Available on the Internet Archive

 

Greetings fellow shut-ins!  As we round into a full year under COVID limitations, I find myself rediscovering and re-reading some of my favorite books, particularly those that can provide some light diversion.  A perfect example, and one with interest to those who dabble in military history, is the Diary of the Great Warr (pictured above)--publicly available online at the above URL.  The conceit of the book is ingenious: it is written in the persona of a descendant of the 17th Century diarist Samuel Pepys--and the writing is also in the same 17th Century style, which is quite an achievement. Our narrator is a 50-something fellow of the upper middle class, late of Her Majesty's Naval Office, who documents the day to day life in the United Kingdom during the Great War.  

Actually written during the war years (the first was published in 1917), eventually, there would be three volumes. I stumbled across them I forgot where, but I am fortunate to have acquired them all.  As you can see in the above illustration, these originally came with dust jacket, of which I only have one (for the second diary).  You can tell something of a book by its cover, and I think the dust jacket captures the tone and approach of the books very well.  As usual, you may clix pix to get BIG PIX in this post (and hopefully to expand the passages for ease of reading). By assuming the persona of a somewhat self important--but earnest--fellow of a certain age on the home front during the Great War, the author is able to good-naturedly poke fun at the attitudes and events of the day, as well as to provide a light diversion in dark times.  In this post, I only drew upon bits from the first diary, but they are all equally rich.

     CAPTURING A SPY AND THE DOGS OF SCARBOROUGH

As any patriotic Briton, our narrator is on the lookout for saboteurs and infiltrators, and quite willing to do his part to thwart them (sometimes with unforseen consequences)...  

...and he carefully evaluates the many rumors of the day.  Here's an example of a popular rumor dealt with in the book, one of many (this one from the bombardment of Scarborough):

DOMESTIC BLISS

We are treated to various and sundry trials and tribulations of his married life...

...of particular fun are the sticky situations that arise from his dalliance with the hilariously named Polish "Countess Xczwpqmyssl" (as he calls her), none more entertaining than when he is out with her in a hat shop and runs into his wife...

LETTERS TO THE PAPERS AND SUPPORT FOR THE WAR EFFORT 

Our narrator is not shy about forwarding ideas to help the war effort, such as the family recipe for the making of toe plasters...but it seems that his efforts go strangely unappreciated...

 

HARPOONS, GIANT LOBSTER POTS, AND ELECTRIC LIGHTS

Our narrator regularly encounters a cast of characters at his club, Gen (retired) Pirpleton, Admiral (retired) Topper, and old running mate Squillinger, among others, all of whom are eager to share opinions and ideas for winning the war.  Although the proposed bomb-proof "umbrelloes" to ward off zeppelin raids deserve honorable mention, among the most brilliant are the several and sundry "cunnning, feasabile" proposals for dealing with the German submarine menace...

REAL EVENTS AND THE REALITY OF WAR

It is easy to forget that this book was written by someone living in a combatant country while events were unfolding and not after the fact from histories and other references. As such, the reader sees key events reflected in the text as told from the contemporary perspective, and I would add done with rather remarkable accuracy.  The accounts deftly walk the line between conveying the soberness warranted given the events and audience while still delivering a redeeming light touch...

The Naval Battle of the Falklands

The Battle of the Marne

The Failure of the Neuve Chappelle Offensive

The Dardanelles Naval Campaign (Anticipating the Gallipoli Landings)

...

The Human Cost Brought Home

 Highly Recommended

These are just a few snippets. There is so much more to be found in these books. I am thoroughly enjoying my second read-through (as if you couldn't guess). Not only are they highly amusing and distracting, but they are a remarkable literary performance--not only is the content diverting, but the deft handling of the distinctive linguistic register provides a level of amusement all its own (then again, perhaps I am just easily amused, being something of a "fond, silly, fellowe").  Highly recommended, certainly worth checking out given that it is an open resource text available online. For another diversion, I would also highly recommend the audio version of the actual Diary of Samuel Pepys: read by Kenneth Branaugh: his reading is a revelation and really brings the text to life, particularly good to listen to if you're painting pike and shot.

Excelsior!

PANDEMIC PURCHASES

Image of Trafalger Editions Waterloo 1815 (taken from their website)

 

Greetings fellow shut ins!  The post-holiday doldrums in hobby activity combined with a bit of bother with a pinched nerve in the neck that has caused me to be unable to maintain the posture for keyboarding has caused an absence of activity on this blog lately. Feeling better now, thankfully, and so took to the keyboard to get back into things. In this post, I thought I'd share some acquisitions that I have made during the course of the pandemic--sort of retail therapy (I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who found myself buying toys to compensate for the lockdown).  I found myself drawn to these novel games that I do hope to actually play, despite the fact that I haven't managed to actually play a non miniatures wargame in years. I won't go into reviewing these games in detail, but will just do a brief show and tell. You can follow the links to get more complete information on them.  As usual, in this post, you can clix pix for BIG PIX.

TRAFALGER EDITIONS

Trafalgar Editions Austerlitz 1805 and Waterloo 1815

Map and Components for Austerlitz 1805

Map for Waterloo 1815

Austerlitz 1805 game in progress

 

I picked up both the Austerlitz and Waterloo games from Trafalgar Editions (above). These are hybrid systems.  They come with beautiful mounted maps--and units are played on the maps, miniatures-like, with no hexes, squares, or areas.  I have read through the rules and watched several YouTube vids on these, and I have to say I am of mixed mind. Unfortunately, the rules, as far as I can tell, lack clarity when it comes to managing terrain, which, given the entire conceit of the system should have been a main point of emphasis. For instance, there are large and small features, and there are many places where several different terrain features are crowded together. Given the size of the counters, there are many places where a unit could straddle several pieces and/or kinds of terrain.  Yet the rules have little to say about how to adjudicate the interplay of terrain and units--how you actually occupy terrain, what happens when a counter is bigger than the terrain feature, which is quite common, particularly with farms and small towns. Does the unit footprint "shrink" or expand to fill area terrain, or is it considered to extend out of it? (And if so, what then?) When might you need to move around a piece of terrain, or set up next to it, as opposed to going through it or in it? What happens in towns or strips of towns that are large enough for units of both sides to be in at the same time? (Is that even allowed?). What about a unit that straddles several different kinds of terrain at once?  In my email to the developers on these sorts of terrain questions, they basically said, albeit nicely, to "use common sense."  In the video reviews I've seen, except for elevation and starkly obvious cases of isolated terrain features, the terrain seemed to be relegated to window dressing, basically, with the emphasis on handling units as if they were on a billiard table, which negates the idea of these games being played out on actual maps, to my mind.  So, just for me, I would say that these games are about an 80% effort. The interplay of the terrain and units need not have been made complicated, but my thinking is that it should certainly have been articulated as a central component of the game system and not left to the players to muddle through "using common sense." In that regard, I would recommend Austerlitz over Waterloo given that the terrain is much less complex and would have fewer cases to deal with.  I supposed I could still give a game a try, but even if that doesn't work out, I've got some excellent components, the mounted maps in particular, to repurpose.

 

PRATZEN EDITIONS

Flight of the Eagle Volume I and Volume III

Components for Volume I 

 

Followers of this blog may recall several posts indicating my interest in Von Reisswitz style Kriegspiel.  These games by Pratzen Editions are a complete "Kriegspiel in a box"--whereas the Kriegspiel rules (and versions of them) generally gives you the "What" these do that and also give you the "how" of running the games: to include period maps, complete OOBs, unit and commander markers, rosters, scenarios, and a complete rules system to resolve movement, reconnaissance, and several versions of combat resolution (both a tactical option and something more abstract for quicker games). They include a special section specifically to guide umpires on running the campaigns. Volume I covers the 1806 campaign in Prussian, the (overlooked in my mind) campaigns of 1806/7 that included Eylau and Friedland, and the beginning of the 1809 campaign in Bavaria. Volume III has the 1814 campaign, campaigns in the Peninsula, and the full 1809 campaign. It also includes a bundle of rules supplements for the game systems that are worth the price of admission on their own.  Although you could mix these games with miniatures, they are stand alone systems that don't need them. As such, they are particularly well suited for remote play via email under lockdown, or for players who don't have the room to lay out miniatures games. 

 

U&P GAMES

W1815 from Finnish Based U&P Games

Map and components of W1815

 

W1815 is one of those rare things: a genuine breakthrough. It plays in less than 30 minutes. You don't move units---you manage the battle, committing resources, choosing options, and countering opposing options. Although I have yet to actually play the game, my reading of the rules and tinkering with it tells me that it will deliver on its promise. You can find lots of reviews of this game if you google it, and I would particularly recommend seeking out YouTube reviews.   Someone has even created a W1815 module in Tabletop Simulator, so there is the possibility of playing this game remotely on that platform, a nice bonus in these days of lockdown.

 

 Well, that wraps up my recounting of my retail therapy during the pandemic (thus far!). 

 

Excelsior!

YEAR END POST 2020

Greetings, fellow shut-ins.  Time for the traditional retrospective post on the blogging year.  As I looked back on the year's blogging activity to prepare this post, I was struck by a sense of "before" and "after": despite having been glad to put 2019 in the rear view mirror as a less than stellar year, and with the pre-COVID days of 2020 being pretty awful given the many stupid things that were going on (particularly here in the US), I still found myself dwelling wistfully on the posts of January through early March as the last vestiges of "normal" as we knew them.  I think that we are now sharing the experience of other generations that have lived through epoch-defining cataclysms--after enduring the immediate disruption and loss of life (which we're still not through), we'll emerge and and come to realize that we aren't going to be resuming where we left off. Like the world of 1914 that was swept away by the Great War, the pre COVID world of 2019/20 has been swept away by events. Some good has come out of it (like the quantum leap in connections among hobbyists across distances via virtual platforms), but much will have been lost (exactly how much has yet to be seen), and new challenges will emerge and become part of the new "abnormal." Apologies for the existential blathering. Despite my hope to keep this blog about the hobby and toy soldiers, I think the elephant in the room had to be addressed.  Now, on to the usual stuff...

PAINTING 

Although I had expected that the lockdown would provide the context for a productive year, the overall totals were in the ballpark of the previous year. Completing my Romanian Army was a huge achievement among my painting projects (don't get me wrong), but after that, productivity lapsed.  This year, like most, I painted exclusively in 28mm. I painted 140 infantry figures (to include dismounted commanders) and 25 mounted figures. If we count mounted figures as 2, this would make grand combined total of 190 figures. The grand combined total for 2019 was 160.  The great difference is that in 2019 painting was distributed over the year while in 2020 it dropped off as energy waned after April (and picked up a bit in November/Dec).  In this year's total, I counted one third of the figures in the great rebasing project: although those were pre-painted acquisitions, I did a substantial amount of repainting to create unit themes and also to bring them up to the look of the rest of my collection. This year, I painted terrain for the first time in recent memory: 12 earthwork segments (4" each) and one bridge. Add to this total a bit of equipment, 4 cannon.  So in the end, despite the times, the painting effort was sustained, and I must say that the Romanian Army project did help to get me through the lifestyle adjustments during the early lockdown period.

BLOGGING

In 2020, I only managed 31 posts (counting this one). In 2019, I had 36 posts.  Like many others, distractions and stresses of the "real world" had an effect on the energy and concentration available for blogging.  I hope to do better in the next year!  My original aim was to post once per week, but have only managed that rate for one year (2017).  I'm always tinkering and doing something in the hobby; I think there is sometimes a tradeoff between blogging and hands-on hobbying: rather than being complimentary, sometimes they can be at odds.  I think I need to distribute my blogging a bit more in order for it to be more sustainable. I will add, however, that I still enjoy blogging--it has become an integral part of the hobby experience for me, particularly the connections that it engenders. 

READERSHIP

I began the year with 52 followers and had a modest (and much appreciated) increase to 56 in this year.  Given the limited number of posts, I'm happy that this blog still provided enough interest to gain a few followers (as opposed to losing them!).  I also must give a shout out to those who regularly post comments: as any blogger can tell you, a few comments go a long way when it comes to encouragement.  I know that I have lurked more often than I would have liked this year on other people's blogs, and hope to return to leaving comments more regularly when I visit.

CONTENT PAGES

The Nine Years War Resources page had the most hits this year, with 861, closely followed by the Dubious Designs page, with 823. Interesting note: the Dubious Designs page had 244 referrals in November from grognard.com after someone posted a link to my games page there. Good to get noticed.  I only have to wonder how many people have actually put together and played one of the games.  I suppose if they weren't being well received, I might have had some questions or seen a comment about them, so I'll take silence as a positive.  After these two leaders, the next are the 19th Century Rules, with 547 hits in the last year, and the Miniatures on a Grid: Baroque Battles page, with 484.  As far as all time, the the Nine Years War is at the top with 3,340, followed by Dubious Designs at a distant second with 1,910, then 19th Century Rules at 1,720 and Miniatures on a Grid at 1,670. It is good to see that these pages are getting visited.  

VIRTUAL CLUBBING

Given that I have a Zoom account via my workplace, I began hosting weekly (virtual) club meetings for my circle of gaming friends. These were impromptu at first, but have grown into regular sessions held on Sunday afternoons (we're now up to number 37 and counting). I think I need not say much about how central these gatherings have become to our hobby.  In ours, we simply go around with each member doing a "show and tell" (or just visiting if they haven't got anything new to show that week).  Social aspect aside, these have been inspirational and generated new ideas for gaming (such as Pikeman's Lament, which we have collectively discovered and been exploring in these gatherings). Although I don't host virtual gaming sessions, there are others in our club who have, with more to come.  Speaking of virtual gatherings, I was happy to have participated in the Virtual Conference of Wargames this last year, and am looking forward to VCOW 2021. 

CONCLUSION

I have been very fortunate that during this awful year I was one of those who was able to flex to working from home and whose livelihood was not whacked by circumstances. Nevertheless, there have been a few developments on the personal front that have weighed things down and affected energy available for hobby and blogging (on top of the drag of the pandemic on us all).  There was a health scare that was (happily) overcome, and working through a major life decision to accept an early retirement incentive offered by the university where I work.  Thus, I'll continue working through June, after which I will be employed full time with toy soldiers.  In the meantime, I will continue to meander along and blog in this space and look forward to seeing everyone the next blog year.

Excelsior!