Book Review- Solo Wargaming by David Heading

Hello There! While I continue to make terrain and further storage in the wargames cabin, I have been considering playing some solo wargaming. This is alongside visiting the New Buckenham Historical Wargaming Club, (when health permits), and putting on games with my wargaming friend, Adrian.

Adrian recommended this publication as he uses some of the ideas in it to run a imaginations campaign. His progress is on his blog here.

This 'Practitioners Guide' has the following chapters:

Chapter 1    Why solo wargaming, advantages, disadvantages, inspiration, guidelines, dice, cards, rest of book.

Chapter 2    Battles, setting up, types of battles, types of games, determining terrain, choosing force, generalship.

Chapter 3    Campaigns, choice, period, scale, setting up, campaign in a day, map moving, hidden movement, reconnaissance, communications.

Chapter 4    Personalities, logistics, randomisation.

Chapter 5    Siege, naval, air wargames.

Chapter 6    Advancing and further developments.

This is the first book I have read about solo wargaming and I found it very helpful, informative and thought provoking.

It was clearly and logically set out and did not flood the text with illustrations of well painted figures, which do not support the text or lend anything to the narrative.

While this is not a rule set, it provided ideas, guidance and inspiration for many different aspects of the hobby. Some of which could even be used for multiplayer games and campaigns too.

The prime problem of solo wargaming, impartiality, with the ability to take informed decisions for both sides, is handled early in this book. This has always been a question of mine, as to how to remain neutral in controlling both sides without subconsciously favouring one of the sides.

The usual recommendations of start small and once familiar with the systems that you are using, then add further conditions.

Another helpful feature is that there are references to suggestions in the text, at the bottom of the same page, so you do not have to flick through the book to find that reference.

Publications by Donald Featherstone and Henry Hyde are in the vanguard or recommended further reading but there are a few less well known books as well.

Part of the text refers to 'near wargames', battles from history that for various reasons did not happen, or to use them to help make your decisions in your own games, based on actual incidents.

Overall I found this book very helpful and made me realise that I may have become a bit lazy when it comes to doing some of the background work in the games I have put on.

I will be looking to purchase some of the bibliography from this book, in the future.

La Haie Sainte, Part One

 Hello There! I have started the second Waterloo building, now that La Belle Alliance is finished.

This model will eventually be on a base board and will include the vegetable garden at one end and the small orchard at the other.

To calculate the size of the courtyard, stable block and the front wall I decided to build the farmhouse and barn first.

This also gave me the chance to get the sizes of these two buildings correct in relation to each other as the barn is discernibly bigger than the farm house but neither of the buildings can be so big as to make a massive footprint for the building overall

After a couple of attempts I managed to get a satisfactory size between the two main buildings. This is the barn. The photos show details of each side but also the first few steps of assembling and embossing.

I realised early that while the model of La Belle Alliance was fixed to a base early in its construction, these buildings would be made separately and then fixed to a large baseboard later.

To solve this problem I glued a strip of plasticard along the bottom edge of the barn.

After writing out a plan of each face of the building, I glued this to the Canson foam board and cut out the window and door apertures. I then glued the building together and allowed to dry.

The doors and windows were then lined with scored plasticard, to act as frames.

Then I started the embossing of the brickwork.

Moving around to the next side you can see the embossing progressing and a construction line to keep everything level.

Again more construction lines and some suggestive guides to put the plasterwork on the brick surface.

Here is a close up of the same wall. I have dug out some bricks to suggest they have 'blown'. I have done this by running a scalpel along each side to separate the single brick from its surroundings and then prise out using a suitable dental tool.

This is a close up of the first trial of the plaster work. I spread all purpose ready mixed filler thinly over the surface and when hardened, gently rubbed the whole area with a soft DIY sanding pad. This smoothed the surface of the plaster and flattened the exposed brickwork. As  you emboss the bricks they take on a curved surface to the and flattening the surface out makes them more realistic. 

This is the last side. The brickwork is completed and plaster is done. The 'fortunate' mistake with this side was I applied the plaster then started embossing the opposite end. While doing this embossing I unknowingly pressed this side onto the leather sofa surface. Next morning I had the great effect on the left hand side of the wall. It was also easy to remove what was stuck to the surface of the sofa!

I will attempt to recreate this effect on the other sides, but not using my fiancees sofa!