Christmas Prize Quiz

While sorting out my bookshelves, I find that I have two good copies of HT Siborne's "Waterloo Letters", so I thought it would be amusing to offer one as a prize in an appropriately off-beat quiz, just for Christmas. Well - actually it's just to get rid of the extra copy, but it might still be amusing.

The book is a collection of 200 of the letters which were sent to William Siborne in the 1830s when he was gathering data to build his ill-fated model of the Battle of Waterloo. The collection was originally published by his son in 1891 - this is the 1993 edition published by Greenhill books. It is in nice, clean condition. The dustjacket is a bit faded, and is what one of my sons used to term "scrunkled" slightly at the ends of the spine, and there is a little general shelf-wear, but the book is tight and firm and doesn't smell.

If you fancy it, all you have to do is have a look at the photo below and answer some questions. If you don't know the answers, have a guess.

(1) What is this? (up to 5 points available for this)

(2) Where is it, exactly? (give an actual location - up to 10 points available, depending how far your answer is in a straight line from the real place)

(3) How do you know, or how did you work it out? Also, do you have any thoughts about this? (up to 10 points for this section, with originality, ingenuity and humour scoring high)

You can comment here (tell me if you don't want it published!) or (probably better) email me through my Blogger profile. I'll keep this open until Christmas Eve (24th December), and publish the exciting results shortly afterwards. When I have a winner, I'll arrange to get a postal address to send the prize.

All you detectives will want to know that I took the photo at around 11 in the morning, on 21st July 2008, in the northern hemisphere.

My Bluff Is Called? – Feasibility Study

Monument at Eggmuhl

I believe I’ve mentioned here before that I have long nurtured a fantasy that one day I might take a little time to make a tour of Napoleon’s 1809 adventures along the Danube. Like all unlikely dreams, it has a built-in safety factor in that if I never get to do it, I’ll never find out that it was a really stupid idea.

The whole point of a trip like this (in theory) is that you do a lot of enjoyable reading, plan it all out and then spend fulfilling days in the sunshine, walking around clearly-signposted, well maintained battlefields, looking forward to the next bottle of halbtrocken and the odd hot chocolate. Oh – and cakes. Lots of cakes. The campaign is very compact – the early stages involved actions just about on consecutive days, so the distances to be covered are relatively small, and – exactly because it was such a fertile area – Napoleon had his army march right along the tourist magnet of the Danube itself. They would have had cakes every day, you bet.

Stadtplatz, Abensberg

When I mentioned it in the blog before, I got a very gratifying degree of supportive jostling – hey! just do it – all that. Excellent. This is what you need to keep your fantasies tickly and fresh. I can’t even claim to get any opposition at home – Mme La Comtesse thinks it’s a really good idea. Now that I have the time, and provided I don’t have to cash in the kids’ future to finance the deal, there’s no reason why not.

Well....

Landburg Trausnitz, Landshut

Well, that’s true. The only argument against getting on with it is that I would then have to organise it and make a job of it. I might mess it up. It might be, as discussed, a stupid idea. There is a risk that my lovely fantasy might turn into a boring mud bath (like some parts of my recent Hadrian’s Wall pilgrimage), or that the battlefields are now underneath local authority housing estates, or a sewage works. I don’t know the area – the Tyrol and Rothenburg ob der Tauber are as near as I have been. Würzburg, maybe.

Next tightening of the screw is that a friend has expressed great enthusiasm for the project, and reckons we should go next September. Should we do Vienna as well? – maybe that would require a second week? – hmmm. At this point, the kids’ future is looking a bit more shaky.

So I promised I would have a look to see what would be involved, and how it would be, and what the costs might look like, and I would get back to him. I dug out Loraine Petre and the John Gill trilogy, and the trusty Elting & Esposito atlas – now you’re talking – and the AvD road maps, and I started taking serious notes. A return flight to Vienna from Edinburgh is a bit over £200 if you book it far enough ahead. Hire a car at the far end, and from Vienna it is around 250 miles to Abensberg, then short hops back towards Vienna will get you to Landshut, Eckmühl, Ratisbon (that’s Regensburg to you and me and the road signs), then a bit further to Aspern-Essling and Wagram. Small, family-run hotels – possibly a couple of centres would cover the whole area. Or maybe that’s too much for a week. The more I got into this, the more it seemed like an actual military campaign. Needs a lot more work. Where the blazes is Berthier when you need him?

I had a root around on the internet to see if anyone publishes battlefield guides for this campaign, or this area. So far I came up with very little. Maybe the local tourist organisations can provide more information. Now I come to think about it, I don’t even know how many of the battlefields would make a worthwhile visit. I’m quite happy to work away on this – my only misgiving is that at the moment it looks as though it might be a fair amount of work just to decide if it’s at all feasible.

Oh well, all right then

I could, of course, look for a commercially available organised tour – if there is one – these things tend to cluster around bicentenaries these days. The really big downside of such a tour (apart from the cost – I’m sure these are excellently done, but they are not cheap) is that I do not relish spending much time on a bus with a bunch of people who are like me. No, thank you. Also, I was once told a scary story about a trip someone did to the WW1 battlefields of Northern France, which was spoiled only by the fact that the organiser/owner/guide was a total pain in the neck, which caused problems after 5 days of continuous, unrelenting monologue. High risk, I think.

So I would definitely prefer the do-it-yourself approach, if I only had a few more clues to get me started. Please – anyone done this, been to this area, know of any books or sources, have any tips on how to go about it? Even insider info about the best cakes in town would be most welcome.

Solo Campaign - Weeks 25 & 26

Two more weeks of the campaign. The Spanish troops from Vigo are now on their way by ship via Gibraltar to Tortosa, and, while the French armies delayed doing anything about a relief, the Second Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo was over almost before it started.

Encouraged by the poorly-repaired walls, by the good results achieved by his own siege artillery and by word from the Alcalde that the townspeople would rise against the garrison if the place were assaulted, Tarleton made as much use as possible of the vacated earthworks from the French siege, carried out a week of effective bombardment, and then forced the French breeches in a daylight raid, using the men of the Seventh and Light Divisions. It was all over very quickly - the garrison troops showed little enthusiasm for the task, though they fought bravely enough during the assault. The town was taken at the cost of a little over 300 casualties to the Allies.

Someone is going to be really cross about this...

More trouble at Ciudad Rodrigo

Week 25

Random Events and Strategic Notes

Advice from his engineers has convinced Tarleton to press on with attacking Ciudad Rodrigo, since the repairs to the walls are incomplete, and since the French did not have time to finish removing the trench system for their own siege – in particular, the battery positions might still be useable with relatively little work. For the first time this year, the Allied siege train is now present with the main field army.

Tarleton has decided to detach part of his force to cover the siege. Clauzel’s army, facing him, is not in good shape – a lot may depend on the number of reinforcements and returns from hospitals in the next week or so.

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give the Allies 5 and the French 5. Since they had the choice last week, the  French opt to move second.

Moves

Allies (5 allowed)

1 – Sp B (España) are now at sea, somewhere off the coast of Portugal, heading for Tortosa

2 – New force E is detached, under Picton – Third Division plus most of the cavalry plus the Portuguese howitzer battery. They take station facing Clauzel’s force, to screen Ciudad Rodrigo and its siege-works

3 – D (Framlingham, with the Allied siege train) commences siege operations against Rodrigo – the surviving portions of the French battery positions, commanding the part-repaired breeches, allow the siege artillery to commence bombarding the walls in the first week of action.

4 – A (the remainder of Aigburth’s force) lay siege to Rodrigo

5 – B (Graham) to scout northwards into Orense

[Intelligence step -

• only French scouts seen in Orense.]

French (5 allowed)

1 – K (Jourdan) march from Avila to Madrid. This is a difficult (brown) road, so a test is required:

2D3 = 2 +2 (Jourdans rating) -1 (brown road) = 3   - the march is completed, but the force is both Tired and Demoralised (and therefore excluded from the replacement routine)

2 – I (Clauzel) to scout from Salamanca towards Ciudad Rodrigo.

3 – N (Marmont) to scout from Zamora towards Orense.

[Intelligence step –

• No new information – Clauzel’s patrols capture a trooper of the KGL 2^nd Dragoons near Vitigudino, but he does not know anything.]

Supplies and Demoralisation

All units are in supply. French Force K is demoralised, so get no replacements this month. Since 12^th July is the nearest weekend to the middle of the month, reinforcements, replacements and returns from hospital are diced for.

Detailed additions:

French – 2. Rugeois, 4/28 Leg, 4 Vist, Tirailleurs of Abbe’s Bde, 1/25 Leg, 2/25 Leg, 1/27, 2/27, Tir of De Conchy, 1/50, 2/15, 3/15, 4/82, 1/86, 2/86, 10/3 Art a Pied, Vist Lancs, 2/6 Leg, 1/69, 1/39, 2/39, 1/76, 3/2 Art a Chev each +1 block; Tir of Arnauld, 2/69, Spanish Guard Fus each +2 blocks. Total increase is 5200 infantry, 125 cavalry and 2 guns.

Anglo-Portuguese – 51^st Ft, E Troop RHA, 1/95^th, 1 Cac, 1 Huss KGL, 1/Cold FG, 2/24^th, 1/45^th, 1/88^th, 2/5^th, 1^st Ptgse Cav, A Troop RHA each +1 block; 5/60^th, 2 Drgns KGL, 11 Ptgse Cav each +2. Total increase is 1900 infantry, 750 cavalry and 4 guns.

Spanish – 1^st Foot battery and 1. Lanc de Castilla each +1 block . Total increase 125 cavalry, 2 guns.  

Contacts

None, apart from scouts.

Second Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (Week 1)

The French have 5 fresh line units in Rodrigo, of which 1 is required to suppress the hostile population. Thus the Garrison Value (GV) is 4, without bonus since Col. D’Orsay (the acting garrison commander) is rated as average. The Fortress Value (FV), which should be 6, is only 4 since the repairs to the damage caused during the French siege are not completed.

The civilian population of the town, only recently subjected to a siege which caused much loss and hardship, are openly hostile – acts of sabotage, theft of stores and violence against the garrison soldiers are common, and any assault will qualify for an additional “Agustina” dice because of the pro-Allied sympathies of the townspeople – there are many who would act in support of an assault.

After Aigburth has divided his troops, he has 18 combat units in his besieging force. Dividing by 4 gives an Assault Value (AV) of 5, plus 1 extra point since Aigburth himself is rated as Good. AV = 6.

The siege train consists of 3 x 24pdr batteries (2 iron, 1 brass – commanded by Capts. Glubb, Thompson and Rittberg (KGA)), a 10” howitzer battery (Capt. Tonkiss), 2 mortar batteries and Capt. Lane’s rocket troop – total Battering Value (BV) is thus 7.

Bombardment phase: French have a Garrison Value (GV) of 4, thus roll 4D6 - they come up 4 4 3 1 – no 6s means no hits on the Allied Battering Value (BV), and no 5s means no loss to the besiegers’ Assault Value (AV).

Simultaneously, the Allied battering guns (BV = 7) roll 7D6 – 6 5 5 3 3 1 1 – the 6 causes 1 pt of damage to the Fortress Value (FV), the 5s each deducts 1 pt from the Garrison Value (GV).

The French garrison have lost ½ of their GV, which is calculated as 1/10 x ½ of the 3500 men engaged, which is about 175 men. The Allied loss is negligible.

Removing the losses, the figures become FV = 3, GV = 2 (total = 5) for the French defenders, and AV = 5, BV = 7 for the Allies, which will be the starting position next week. Even with the potential Agustina bonus dice, Aigburth does not wish to commit to a storm this week, and his request for the garrison to surrender is ignored – the officer carrying the petition was not permitted to speak to Col. D’Orsay.

Week 26

Random Events and Strategic Notes

The Second Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo proceeds apace.

King Joseph is now concerned at the exposure of Rodrigo and of Clauzel’s force around Salamanca (which is of his making). Jourdan’s force in Madrid is tired and disorganised from its march from Avila (which went surprisingly badly considering the mild weather), so is unable to send anyone back to support. Marmont, as ever, is worried about his line of communication with France and – since he is not sure where Graham’s force is (they are at Braga) – he is reluctant to move towards Salamanca in case Graham gets between him and Burgos.

The seaborne Spanish force of España was sighted off Cadiz on Thursday 16^th, en route to Tortosa.

Gen de Division Ferey has joined the Armée de Portugal to take command of Maucune’s Division – Gen de Bde Lamartiniere returns to his duties as Marmont’s Chief of Staff.

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give the Allies 6 and the French 7. The French opt to move first.

Moves

French (7 allowed)

1 – K (Jourdan) rests at Madrid to recover from Tiredness and Demoralisation.

2 – P (Martinelli’s brigade of Garde Nationale) march from Pamplona to Tudela.

3 – R (Paquerette’s brigade of Garde Nationale) march from Bayonne to Pamplona.

4 – S, a new brigade of Garde Nationale, becomes garrison of Bayonne, under Gen de Bde Normande.

5 – N (Marmont) to scout from Zamora towards Orense.

[Intelligence step –

• Ciudad Rodrigo is known to be under siege. Marmont’s patrols are looking for Graham’s force around Orense.]

Allies (6 allowed)

1 – Sp B (España) at sea aboard Capt. Thornycroft’s squadron of the Royal Navy – sighted off Cadiz on Thurs 16^th July – heading for Tortosa.

2 – E (Picton, screening Rodrigo) to send patrols to keep Clauzel’s movements in sight.

3 – B (Graham) to scout northwards into Orense

4 – Sp D (Maceta) to march from Toledo to Talavera

5 – Sp F (Ximenez, with irregulars) to march from Ocana to Toledo

6 – Sp E (Mira, with provincial troops and irregulars) to march from Alarcon to Ocana.

[Intelligence step -

• the French seem to be dithering...]

Supplies and Demoralisation

All units are in supply. French Force K is demoralised, so suffer losses to desertion: the following units all lose 1 block – 2/2 Nassau, 2/4 Baden, 1/2 Ita Leg, 1/3 Ita – Total loss 800 men.

Contacts

None, apart from scouts.

Second Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (Week 2)

Bombardment phase: French have a Garrison Value (GV) of 2, thus roll 2D6 - they come up 5 3 – no 6s means no hits on the Allied Battering Value (BV), and the 5 means a loss of 1 pt to the besiegers’ Assault Value (AV).

Simultaneously, the Allied battering guns (BV = 7) roll 7D6 – 6 5 4 3 3 1 1 – the 6 causes 1 pt of damage to the Fortress Value (FV), the 5 deducts 1 pt from the Garrison Value (GV).

Removing the losses, the figures become FV = 2, GV = 1 (total = 3) for the French defenders, and AV = 4, BV = 7 for the Allies. Since he has received word from the Mayor of Rodrigo that the citizens will act in support of an assault (thus gaining the attackers a bonus “Agustina” dice), Aigburth decides to storm the half-repaired French breeches.

The Storm:

During the week leading up to the storm, the French have again lost ½ of GV, which represents

1/10 x ½  of the 3325 men involved = 165 men, leaving 3160. The Allies have lost 1/6  of their remaining AV, and thus have lost 1/10 x 1/6 of the 5500 men employed = 90 men, leaving 5410.

Aigburth uses the full force at his disposal for the attack (he has the choice to use only part of his AV, to keep losses down). The numbers work out thus:

the Defenders’ Storm Strength, DSS =  FV + GV + 1D6 = 2 + 1 + 3 = 6

the Attackers’ Storm Strength, ASS = AV + 1D6 + the Agustina Dice = 5 + 4 + 2 = 11

Since ASS > DSS, the fortress falls. In the storm itself, the Allies lose 0.25 x DSS (= 2) from AV, so their final AV is 3. Thus they have lost 2/5 of their available AV, representing losses of 1/10 x 2/5 of the available 5410 men = 215 killed and wounded. Remaining strength is thus 5195.

The French defenders lose 0.5 x ASS (= 6) from GV, so their final GV is -5. Thus they have lost 600% of their GV, and loss in killed in wounded in the storm is 1/10 x 600% of the 3160 men available = 1895. The surviving 1265 are taken prisoner.

Total losses during the siege are thus

Week	French	Allied
1	175	0
2	165	90
Storm	1895	215
Captured	1265	0
Total	3500	305

The French force (Combat Group C on the map) is destroyed. The Allied attackers (Combat Group A) have suffered a loss of 2 blocks/bases, which are deducted (at random) from the following infantry units in the Light Divn: 1/52^nd & 1/95^th.

The Fortress Value of Ciudad Rodrigo had a final value of 2, which will require to be made back up to 6 by engineering and repairs. 

ECW - More Foot Regiments

It's taken me longer than usual to get these finished off and based up, but here are Lord Byron's Regt of Foot [R], with the red flag, and Col Richard Holland's Regt [P], from Manchester.

They are sitting on the board from a vintage-1978 Ariel game I obtained on eBay, just to make a change from the usual utilitarian cork mat.

I regret that the flash has washed out the colours a bit, but you get the idea.

Hooptedoodle #72 - Rio’s Eye

...and other tangential thoughts

For a while, up until October of last year, I ran a small publishing business which was basically a post-retirement hobby job to keep me sane – or very nearly sane. It was mostly a device to introduce sufficient real hassle into my life to stop me taking out my daily frustrations on friends and relatives.

Anyway, among other things, this operation required me to spend a fair amount of time each month distributing a community newsletter around a rural area. In fine weather this was good exercise and a pleasant activity for which to get paid, though the small number of residents per unit area and the distances involved meant that this distribution work took longer than would have been ideal. One aspect of visiting every one of 1600 or so letter boxes every month was that I met a lot of people, and occasionally found myself in situations which otherwise I would have never come across.

Which, as you may have guessed, is a windy preamble to a short anecdote, which will have some vague connection with something else I’ve been thinking about. It’s a system.

One day, as I was going up someone’s front garden path in one of the villages, a friend walked past in the lane outside. I called to him, from somewhere in the middle of the path, exchanged waves, and said I would phone him later in the day. When I resumed my plod towards the house, I found the householder was standing in the doorway, arms folded.

“What are you doing in my garden?” he asked. Although the large shoulder bag full of booklets made it fairly obvious, you would think, people sometimes would ask me this.

“Good morning,” I replied, with my official Community Smile, “just delivering the monthly Advertiser.”

My man was unmoved.

“Why are you having a conversation in my garden? I wouldn’t come to your garden to have a conversation.”

I should, of course, simply have beheaded him with a single backhand stroke of my samurai sword (a move which I practised several times in my mind after I left him). However, experience had taught me that an exchange of ribald witticisms with any of my readers usually – inevitably – led to the discovery that they were closely related to one of my biggest customers, so instead I went into professional mode, and the Smile didn’t dip a millimetre.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you – I saw someone I need to get in touch with. As for being in your garden, it is the only way I can get to your letterbox.”

Humour, you see. Engage your listeners. Then he produced a rhetorical question which has given me much food for thought since then.

“How would it be,” he said, deadpan, “if everyone came into my garden to hold a conversation?”

Devastating insight. I agreed that would be, at the very least, crowded, gave him his newsletter and left him to enjoy his day.

But that is a hell of a thought. I was allowed to be in his garden – I wasn’t trespassing – I was quite within my rights to be there. I was even allowed, presumably, to speak to a passing friend if I had one and he passed. I would be expected to stop short of attracting the friend’s attention by blowing a trumpet, I imagine, but it all seems in order. The whole subject of what happens if suddenly everyone – potentially everyone in the world? – simultaneously carries out some legal and reasonable action, such as being in the same place, is big and dangerous.

The only thing that saves us is probability. They probably won’t. It is unlikely. Sometimes, in busy cities for example, it seems that they are trying to, but commonsense tells us that my villager’s proposition is silly, but the point is still interesting, if only from a philosophical point of view. What if the entire population of the Earth all arrived on, say, Weymouth beach on the same afternoon? They would all, individually, be within their rights to do so, but the results would be catastrophic – just think of the effect of that single mass on the planet’s rotational inertia, for a start. Then there’s the environmental impact, lack of toilet facilities, critical failures of the ice cream supply and so on. It really doesn’t bear thinking about – my grumpy villager was right to be concerned.

The two things which offer me a little comfort over this are

(1) It is, as I say, very unlikely. The sheer scale of the project management implications are terrifying

(2) The authorities would probably notice once about half the world’s population had arrived, and do something about it

This comfort, however, is tempered a little by some further thoughts

(1)  Reports from incidents in the Arab Spring and last year’s London riots suggest that the Facebook app on mobiles might now make it a bit easier to organise such an event [awesome]

(2) Just a minute – the world’s population includes the authorities – good grief. If they had already arrived, would that make it better or worse?

So I am still a little troubled – the phrase still rings in my mind: what if everyone did... [whatever]?

Given this background and my predisposition to this kind of anxiety, I was lying in bed watching today’s early morning news on TV, and I saw a news clip of Rio Ferdinand, the Manchester United footballer, being struck in the face with a coin thrown from the crowd at the end of the big match against their local rivals, Manchester City. In the early morning, my mind wanders a bit. Some thoughts stumbled around my head – I haven’t refined them or sorted them, but this is what I was thinking about before my coffee:

(1) It’s a pity – it was a terrific match, and it is regrettable that it should end with such a stupid, antisocial act

(2) Ferdinand did the right thing – he laughed it off, made light of it – he could have been very badly hurt, but he wasn’t really

(3) It is worrying that a mindless minority of football crowds – probably of many types of crowd – can be egged on by their friends and by group hysteria to commit such deeds – things which they might deeply regret at other times and in other circumstances

(4) However, there must have been many millions of people involved in football matches yesterday – watching and playing – at all levels, in all countries where the game is played, and the proportion of people who were struck by coins or missiles is so small that it is simply insignificant. If the TV cameras had not been on Ferdinand as the coin hit him we would have heard much, much less about it.

(5) As it is, British ITV (for example) featured a slo-mo clip of the incident long before, and much higher up the batting order than, all other discussion of the weekend’s sport on their news programme. It must be the sort of thing we are interested in, then.

(6) I hear the villager’s voice – “what if everyone threw coins at football matches? – what then, eh?”

(7) Well, that is a worrying idea. Off the top of your head, would you say the media’s outraged coverage would make it more or less likely? If we make the shaky assumption that morons mostly have little imagination, does spelling out (in slo-mo, for the benefit of the hard-of-thinking) how to commit an anonymous, violent offence at a public event lead us to expect a growth in the number of such incidents next week? Place your bets – Faites vos jeux, messieursdames...

(8) I guess we have to react. It is right that there should be some concern, but it should be proportionate, and it should be thought through. The police and the clubs will all be worried, and rightly so. Someone, somewhere will claim that football should be watched from behind a high plastic shield. I hope not, but someone will claim this is further support for a hobbyhorse theory they have held for years.

(9) There was a time in England (1970s?) when the authorities and the clubs were so terrified of pitch invasion that there was a requirement to surround the pitches with wire netting to prevent it. The Hillsborough Disaster was graphic demonstration that the risks from the worst imaginable pitch invasion were negligible compared with the risk of injury to the crowd themselves if they were unable to escape on to the playing field in the event of an accident. It is easy to be sanctimonious, or wise after the event, but the police and the sporting authorities, with the best of intentions, got it wrong in that case – in getting rid of a small identified risk they directly gave rise to a new and much more frightening risk which they had overlooked.

(10) As usual, I probably don’t have anything directly useful to contribute. I have no qualification to offer an opinion, this would not be the place for it, and no-one cares what I think anyway – in any case, I am far better at pouring scorn on the efforts of others than offering anything useful myself, but I do find myself coming to what is effectively a restatement of an age-old truism which makes me groan when other people come out with it:

“The problem lies in society, not in football crowds.”

That’s the standard version. This is usually the prelude to some single-interest wacko thumping his own war-drum on what he, in his infinite wisdom, sees as the answer. So it’s time for us wackos to stand up and be counted. I don’t know how to get from where we are to where we might otherwise be, but I believe that we need to achieve a position where collective decency smothers the idiots.

Football – all sports – need to get back to the position where families go to the games. That will do it. Wives, grannies, kids, girlfriends. As the antisocial element have chased away those with a nervous disposition, so there is an understandable, growing reluctance to take one’s tender nearest and dearest to such a tribal obscenity as a football crowd. The situation is self-perpetuating. In fact, it’s worse than that – it is self-propagating.

For many years, the big games in Italy on a Sunday were remarkably free of crowd trouble, because whole families had season tickets. No-one is going to wish to be a bear or a hard man in front of his mother, for goodness sake. Very inappropriate. You could even see this effect in the old gang-lands of Glasgow – nothing would get the warriors off the street faster than getting a telling off from someone’s granny. No amount of counterthreat or bluster can combat that. I doubt if the lads out on Kristalnacht took their families along, for example.

So I think the truism is not quite correct, but contains an element of the answer – the truth of the matter, it seems to me, is that the problem is that football crowds do not represent an acceptable subset of “society” (whatever the blazes that is). Society is not especially sick or evil. When you are out doing your Christmas shopping, you will be very unlikely to be struck by a coin, because society doesn’t behave like that. If the shopping centre was filled only with drunk young men singing football songs you would have more reason to worry.

The clubs should think about offering special deals for family tickets. Get the mix of humanity in the grounds back to a healthier state, and let them sort themselves out. I promise not to let my granny throw coins if you do the same.

What would happen if everyone was expected to behave themselves – all at the same time? Then what would happen, eh?

Anschluss Publishing – Ebb & Flow

I was sorting out my bookshelves a bit yesterday – trying to identify a bit of space for some new things, and seeing if I have any old things which I could usefully move on. In the process, as ever, I came across a number of books I didn’t even remember having bought, and some of them look pretty interesting!

One booklet which I came across again, having read it a few times, is the Diplomacy and Other Means campaign system. This was written by Ian Hinds some years ago for Anschluss Publishing. I got my copy second-hand through eBay. The book is interesting for a number of reasons – mainly for the holistic approach and the way it works. It is unlikely that I would ever actually play the game, since it does not lend itself at all to solo play and since it requires a lot of paperwork – albeit cleverly thought out paperwork.

The booklet makes reference to Anschluss's Ebb & Flow rules for miniatures wargames to cope with the combat aspcts of the campaigns. I had never heard of these, and did a bit of further research, and found they were still available, from (I think –and if this is wrong then humble apologies all round) Essex Miniatures. I phoned up and ordered the core rule system from them, plus an expansion – Module III, which covers the Peninsular Campaign of 1812-14. Sadly, I received only the expansion module – which is a series of army lists and OOBs, with some detail rule amendments for this particular campaign – plus an apology for the non-availability of the core rule booklet, which was now long out of print.

In the long history of wargame disappointments this was only a minor sadness, so I had a look at what I had received and put it away safely on the “small booklets” shelf, to be revisited periodically when I was looking for more space. I’ve kept a casual eye open for Ebb & Flow on eBay and elsewhere, just out of interest – not that I would be likely to adopt the system, but I sort of collect other people’s wargame ideas in the same way as a saxophonist friend of mine collects obscure minor scales – they might come in useful one day, but – more relevantly – I just like to read them.

Never found them, yet I still see reference to them here and there. Someone’s blog was reminiscing about Ebb & Flow the other week, and there is occasional mention on TMP. I’m still gently intrigued, if anyone has any experience of these rules, or tales to tell.

ECW - Test Days

Clive was good enough to come to stay for a couple of days to help with playtesting my ECW game based on GMT’s Commands & Colors: Napoleonics boardgame. He was also good enough to bring with him some rather splendid Swedish and Imperial 30YW armies of Revell figures, which was a considerable help, since my own ECW armies are too small to fight at present.

Hot news in North Berwick - photo courtesy David Warren/BBC

His visit coincided with the only bit of local excitement we have had in North Berwick in living memory – the fire station burned down. No-one was hurt, fortunately, but I am now a bit concerned in case the lifeboat station sinks. Clive has news that there is some Euro help on its way – two Spanish reserve fire-fighting crews have been despatched to help us in our hour of need – we understand that they are called Jose and Hose B.

Back at the wars, we started off with two Napoleonic battles, just to get us off to a comfortable start and to get Clive up to speed again on CCN.

The first Napoleonic game was an improvised action between an 1811 Spanish army and a French force consisting mainly of Confederation and Italian troops, led by King Joseph himself, no less. It finished very close – the Spaniards (Clive) won 7-6 on Victory Banners – the early failure of a couple of irregular units more than balanced by lamentable French artillery and the tragic loss of the King – struck down by remarkably lucky dice (he’ll be back). Poor old Joe was shot right through his wine bottle.

The second game was based on a scenario for Orthez published on CCNapoleonics.net. The comments on the website suggested that the French always win – well, I have news for you – I was the French and I got absolutely hammered. It isn’t as though I did anything wrong – the game hardly lasted long enough for me to do anything at all, good or bad. It would be pathetic to complain that I was unlucky again...

Then we moved on to an ECW-type battle, using my rules extensions for CCN. We played the same action over a few times, gradually refining and pruning the rules. We found that cavalry were too powerful – far more potent than my early tests and calculations had suggested – so made some changes there which produced big improvements.

To avoid an oversized unit (of horse) being unstoppable on the field, the rules now restrict the number of blocks/bases which may count for Combat Dice. There are also some reductions in the advantages gained in melee by Galloper cavalry and by “Rash” Gallopers, and some detail changes in the use of Stand of Pikes as a defensive tactic.

Lastly, I have amended the rules for Veteran units slightly. Previously, I had a simple bonus of 1 die for a veteran unit in any kind of combat. On revisiting this, I can’t see why two equally-matched veteran units would kill each other more rapidly than any other two equally-matched units, so veterans now only get an extra die when they fight Raw or Militia troops.

I’m getting there. With luck, you should find a new panel in the top right corner which will link to downloads of the latest versions of the documentation and cards for the ECW game. Thanks again to Clive for his time and his intellect (and his company, of course), and thanks to my son Nick for his usual, intriguing, rather idiosyncratic photography. The last picture with numbered counters is of an extra game we tried using Victory without Quarter rules. The game didn’t go as well as it should – our knowledge of the rules is not good, the game was not adequately prepared, my support program on the laptop did some things which looked remarkably like logic errors, and fatigue had set in by this stage!