Balagan Military History and Wargaming

Wargaming, and Military History, is the interest I pour most of my spare time into. Check out Alan Millicheap’s site for a good description of this hobby, and why one person chooses to spend his time on it.

Currently I'm keen on the Crossfire rules although I've quite a few Armies for other periods and sets. Based on emails I receive, people seem interested in my material on the Carlist Wars, Spanish Civil War and Blue Division (WW2). I've just started putting more energy in my New Zealand section, and in particular the WW2 bit.

What's New

Crossfire

My Crossfire pages are changing all the time so check there for specifics.

15 Jun 2008: Royalists in Chile

I updated my 1817-18 Chilean Project with the plans for the Royalists.

17 May 2008: Argentine Army of the Andes

Roland has started completing figures for my Argentine Army of the Andes in the 1817-18 Chilean Project.

16 Apr 2008: Ebro Offensive

Inspired by Martin Rapier's article " The Battle of the Ebro, July 1938: A Spanish Civil War Megablitz Scenario" I created the Ebro Offensive (Jul 1938) based on the Offensive rules.

12 Apr 2008: Converting Ansar to Riffi

I've been struggling to find Riffi figures to use for the Rif War so I decided to Convert Ansar Figures into Riffi.

I also finished rereading Shannon Fleming's Primo de Rivera and Abd-el-Krim: The Struggle in Spanish Morocco, 1923-1927 and updating my chronology for the Rif War.

26 Mar 2008: Patriot Flags for 1817-18

I couldn't figure out which flags to use for which units in the 1817-18 Chilean Project so I thought I'd summarise the various bits of information and give my best guess for the Patriot Flags.

26 Mar 2008: Carlist War Gallery of New Stuff

I wanted to share some of my new Carlist War photos, so created a Carlist War Gallery of New Stuff. The first batch includes my pride and joy - the Carlist Band!

22 Mar 2008: Basing for the Liberators Quick Play Rules (QPR)

I updated my page on Basing for the Liberators Quick Play Rules (QPR) - which I intend to use for my 1817-18 Chilean Campaign Project with diagrams of Detached Grenadier and Cazadore battalions.

22 Mar 2008: Setting and Rules for the Rif

I added a description of the Setting of the Rif War and suggestions for Wargaming Rules to use to for the period.

19 Mar 2008: Rif War

Following directly on from my renewed interest in the Spanish Civil War, I have seriously updated my material on the Rif War including

Adding references and material on the First Rif War to the Chronology,
Adding an outline of what the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers (SOTCW) offers on the Rif
Rationalising the Wargaming section into separate Painting Guide, Rules and Figures sections.

09 Mar 2008: Flocking

Updated my Flocking page to show the range of styles I've used over time and my current thinking on Flocking using Sand and Dry brush.

24 Jan 2008: 1817-18 Chilean Campaign Project

The South American Wars of Liberation span an entire continent across 20 years, so I've decided to focus on one campaign hence my 1817-18 Chilean Campaign Project.

23 Jan 2008: South American Wars of Liberation

Inspired by the books put out by John Fletcher of Grenadier Productions I've started putting together some notes on the South American Wars of Liberation.

3 Jan 2008: DBA in the New World

I moved this material into a folder of its own and renamed the New World DBA Index.

1 Jan 2008: Thirty Years War Chronology

Several of the guys and I have got keen on the Thirty Years War so I started putting together a Thirty Years War page. Mainly a chronology so far.

23 Nov 2007: Painting Guide - the Black Undercoat Method

I asked Roland Davis to write a painting guide for the Black Undercoat Method. The vast majority of my figures use this method and Roland is a master of the technique.

21 Oct 2007: DBA/HOTT Camp Mini-Campaign

Inspired by an article by Steve Burt I wrote up some rules for a small DBA/HOTT Camp Mini-campaign. Essentially small force, based in a camp, is blocking an enemy force's attempt to break an off-table siege. Chris Harrod and I are play testing.

22 Sep 2007: Painting Guides for the Napoleonic Period

I got all keen and wrote up a painting guide for Napoleonic Spanish Cavalry, 1st Volunteers of Aragon Light Infantry, French 13th Cuirassiers, British Infantry, and British Allies.

11 Aug 2007: Kongo and Angola 1500-1700

I was thinking about my New World DBA and started to put together a chronology for The Kingdom of Kongo and Colony of Angola.

4 Aug 2007: Guidelines for Historical Scenarios using Shako

I've got interested in the Peninsular War and the Wars of South American Independence again, so started thinking about Shako Scenarios, and put together some Guidelines for Historical Scenarios using Shako.

14 May 2007: Galleries for Britannia 600 AD

We played out the Britannia 600 AD campaign and I put together some galleries for Alba, Mercia, Northumbria, Powys, Strathclyde, and Wessex.

10 Mar 2007: Britannia 600 AD

I've always love the Avalon Hill board game called Britannia and thought the map at least would make a good basis for a DBA/HOTT campaign = Britannia 600 AD.

24 Feb 2007: Cristino Organisation

Updated the Cristino Organisation page, in particular added a full list of provincial regiments

22 Feb 2007: Cristino Regimental Histories

I translated the Cristino Regimental Histories from Camacho: Un siglo de presencia militar en nuestra provincia (1833-1936) [Spanish].

16 Feb 2007: 3 Greek Mountain Brigade and the Turcomen

Added further description of the Greek and Ostruppen fighting at Rimini in Sep 1944.

4 Feb 2007: New material on First Carlist War

I just got some more material and started updating my Chronology for the First Carlist War. The first one I'm working through is:

Alcalá, C (2006). 1^a Guerra Carlista [ Guerros y Batallas 31]. Madrid: Almena. [Spanish]

22 Oct 2006: Carlist War Scenarios

I started writing up ideas for scenarios in the Chronology for the First Carlist War

21 Oct 2006: El Mercenario Gallery

El Mercenario sent through photos of some Carlists he's been painting. They're from the new range by the Perry Brothers

15 Oct 2006: Castelfrentano to Orsogna

While on holiday recently I outlined the Kiwi operations from 28 Nov to 7 Dec 1943 as they took Castelfrentano and moved up tot attack Orsogna for the first time

11 Sep 2006: Coat D'arms conversion chart

I use Coat D'arms paints, so I thought a conversion table to other painting schemes would be useful

09 Sep 2006: Figures for Colonial Brazil: Tupi etc

Add a Figures page to the Brazilian area

07 Sep 2006: Painting Guide for Colonial Brazil

Created a Painting Guide for Brazil, including Tupi and their enemies

01 Sep 2006: Links between Military History and Rules

I updated my Luso-Spanish Military History page and my Luso-Spanish Empires page to more clearly show the pages related to military history versus specific rules

30 Aug 2006: Colonial Spanish and Buccaneers

Added the Colonial Spanish and Buccaneers to the Army Lists for my New World DBA

27 Aug 2006: Chanca and Chimu

Added the Chanca and Chimu to the Army Lists for my New World DBA

25 Aug 2006: HOTT in the New World

Added a hint of HOTT to the Army Lists (plus corrected a couple of mistakes and updated the formatting ) for my New World DBA

15 Aug 2006: 26 (NZ) Battalion on the Sangro

Restarted work on the Kiwi action on the Sangro in Nov 1943. Only got as far as 26 Battalion on 28 Nov, but there is more to come

31 Jul 2006:

Added some more notes to my First Carlist War page based on Zumalakarregi Museum: 19th Century Military History in the Basque Country .

12 Jul 2006: Portuguese Auxiliary Division

Added some detail on the Portuguese Auxiliary Division to my First Carlist War page. Finally I have something about what they did!!!

11 Jul 2006: More on Portugal's Liberal Wars

Having acquired quite a lot more material - much of it from Nuno Pereira - I've updated my page on the 1826-34 (Portugal's) Liberal Wars

02 Jul 2006: Cristino gallery

Created galleries for my Cristinos and British for the First Carlist War

01 Jul 2006: Portuguese from 1833

Added some pictures to the Portuguese Painting Guide

30 Jun 2006: Split Cristino Painting Guide

Having added a lot of illustrations to the Painting Guide for the First Carlist War, I split the Cristino portion to give a quicker download. Now has Infantry, Cavalry and Other pages

26 Jun 2006: Cristino Painting Guide

A major overall to the Painting Guide for the Cristinos in the First Carlist War. Added lots of pictures and more description

21 Jun 2006: Belgian Corps

Nuno Pereira surprised me by explaining that Belgium contributed four battalions - the Belgian Corps - to the Liberal Wars

11 Jun 2006: More Carlists

Added details from volume 2 of Duncan (1997) to my account of the First Carlist War. Only four more volumes to go

Duncan, F. (1997). The English in Spain: The story of the War of Succession between 1834 and 1840 (Vols. 1-6). UK: Pallas Armata. (Original work published 1877.)

10 Jun 2006: Portuguese Liberal War

Inspired by material on the Viriatus Miniatures site, I wrote up the precursor to the First Carlist War, i.e. 1826-34 (Portugal's) Liberal Wars. Also wrote up Portuguese Organisation in the First Carlist War and a Portuguese Painting Guide

01 Jun 2006: New Mexico

Started writing up the Spanish conquest of New Mexico

29 May 2006: Wildly Inspired Miniatures

It seems Wildly Inspired Miniatures are producing again, including their ranges of NZ Wars figures

19 May 2006: Perano = Kiwi Tanks

Wrote up the Kiwi and Indian attack on Perano,18 Nov 1943. This was the first time New Zealand tanks saw combat

01 May 2006: NZ Wars Gallery

Took some snaps of my NZ Wars kit and created a gallery. Also added a subset of the pics to the painting guide and figures page

27 Apr 2006: Rules

I updated my reviews of various Rules for the NZ Wars

I also started typing up my father's Rules for Naval Warfare 1500 to 1850

25 Apr 2006: Portuguese in Japan

Added a place holder for the Japanese episode in Portuguese history (or the Portuguese episode in Japanese history), although really this was an excuse to show some pictures of my mate Vince's Samurai

24 Apr 2006: Costumes of the Spanish Army, 1859

A long time ago Chris Tubb sent me an article from the Illustrated London News of 1859 entitled "The Costumes of the Spanish Army". I finally added these details to my page on the First Moroccan War

11 Apr 2006: NZ Military History

Reorganised the New Zealand section, to include a summary of the various wars we've been involved in, regrouping the material into folders for NZ Colonial (Maori) Wars and WW2, and adding more detail to the WW2 bit - still a long way to go

07 Mar 2006: Flocking

I'm experimenting with a style of flocking using C1229 Earth.

05 Mar 2006: Complete Revamp

Completely revamped the Wargaming pages. The gist of this change was to separate all content related to specific rules - Crossfire, Shako, DBx - from other military history and wargaming content - Luso-Spanish, Arab-Israeli, New Zealand. Campaign rules are catalogued with the tactical rules they relate to, but there is a master Campaign index as well. Apologies to anybody who had links.

Military History

Luso-Spanish (Iberian)	My specialty is the Military History of Spain and Portugal. The bits that seem to interest people the most are Carlist Wars, Spanish Civil War and WWII ...more
Arab-Israeli	The Arab-Israeli wars from 1948 to the present ...more
New Zealand	A brief summary of the various wars involving New Zealand, with additional details on the NZ Colonial (Maori) Wars (1845-72), and WW2 (1939-45) ... more

Wargaming Rules

Crossfire	Arty Conliffe's WW2 rules are my favourite set at the moment. I've got House Rules, a FAQ, Scenarios (including campaigns) and other Musings, which I also use for the Spanish Blue Division in Russia the Spanish Civil War ...more
Shako	Thoughts on how to use Arty Conliffe's Napoleonic rule set for the First Carlist War ...more
Matrix Games	A general overview of Matrix games and a couple of suggestions for campaigns ...more
DBx	Variations on DBA, DBM, DBR and HOTT, plus compatible campaign systems ...more
Campaigns	A list of all the various campaign rules that appear on the site ...more
Other Rules	Conquerors & Kings (C&K) Blue Division for Flames of War Rules for Naval Warfare 1500 to 1850

Wargame Clubs

North London Wargames Group, Hertfordshire, UK

A club I've just made contact with. Meetings are held on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month from 2 PM to 6 PM at St. Joseph's Church Hall, Eleanor Road, Waltham Cross, UK.
Website: http://www.nlwg.org.uk/

Guildford Wargaming Club, Surrey, UK

These chaps play a variety of games at the club (mostly DBM / DBR). Club meets Monday night 7.00 -> late at the St Johns Centre (Merrow) Guildford, UK. All welcome !!
Website: Guildford Wargames Club

Manawatu Duellists Society, Palmerston North, NZ

This was my old club in New Zealand (when they were called the Manawatu Miniature Strategists)

Meet on Thursday night at the Riverdale School hall, Slacks Road, Palmerston North.

Website: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Manawatu_Duellists/

Sources / Links

Fire and Fury - A site focusing on this rather jolly set of American Civil War rules

Free Wargames Rules - a entire website of them.

The Nafziger Collection - George Nafziger's catalog of Orders of Battle

The Headquarters of the Perfect Captain

Some free downloads of Renaissance games.

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