18 August 2017

A Sudan Campaign

Nice photo from the latest game at the NWS with some of the local lads.
It has been far too long since this site has been updated and for that please accept my humble apologies.  My time has become quite tight in the past two years and work, family and general life have been incredibly busy.


The old journal - even looks the part.


However the Sudan is still a strong rallying point for my wargaming passions and I was looking over an old "Campaign Journal" from nearly twenty years ago.


Pretty hard to put this on a flat bed scanner!


All those years ago we were keen to put the Gilder rules into a campaign at the club and as I was incredibly keen to start fleshing out the rules, I put my hand up to run the show and see what we could put in motion.  The first point of reference was the wonderful Wargames World where Peter Gilder had placed a good deal of information to at least get started on running a campaign.


Filed away, this copy got us all quite excited. 




What a wonderful magazine spread that captured all the flavour of this wonderful period


The articles for any who can recall reading them at the time were wonderful and full of creative flair and ideas however tantalisingly short on details and the nitty-gritty rules of thumb we so desired.  Therefore we took what we could find from the articles, looked through all the old style "How to" campaign books we could get our hands on and started off with a flurry.




My colourised version of the original map from WW








It was decided that we would need four players for the campaign to be the respective column commanders.  We would then invite in various members of the club to play a Regimental or Brigade Commander role as required.  In this way the four column commanders wouldn't get all the games and the individual players could use some imaginative flair every time they took the field, much to the horror of the overall Generals.  It was wonderful stuff.


My poor photo of my original brief heavily taken from Gilders article.






Page two of the brief


Page three - these can be found in the appendix of "The Sands of Sudan" rules


To further complicate issues for the players I did want them to also have a political eye looking over their actions and decisions.  Hence I asked friend Gerry Webb who was busy at the time getting Castaway Arts up and running whether he would like to play the part of a distant Prime Minister in his home town of Cairns all the way in Northern Queensland.  Being a colonial aficionado from way back he gratefully accepted the role and sent out his first directive before a tent was packed!


The Prime Ministers first missive to Graham




The game was now afoot.


The next post will detail the initial formations, orders and individual plans from the lads as the campaign prepared to get underway.


Wonderful old advertisement for Peter Gilders wonderful range of figures.
























18 comments:

  1. Carlo,
    Great to see an update. Life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes - but what a return, as you say the journal looks the part and is certainly something I intend to do when I eventually start my Scotia Albion campaigns in the not too distant future!

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    1. Thanks Graham and appreciate the visit and comment. Yes the increased eating into the old leisure time by one thing or another has been certainly impacting on the wargaming time and the blogs, especially this one, have suffered as a consequence. Let's see what we can do up until Christmas to get it rolling again. The journal itself was acquired from an old long since closed down bookbinder who used to make these got the Supreme Court Judges who would use them for note taking and pasting in copies of relevant evidence etc. prior to passing judgements and then I think clippings from the press after the case finished. Beautiful old work hand made craft with calf leather spine etc. Looks old!

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  2. Ah ! those copies of Wargames World take me back ! , sadly modern magazines don't match those in the past . Tony

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    1. So true S - they are a poor facsimile now and I think the last magazine that could hold a candle to those of the glory days was Henry's "Battlegames".

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  3. I'm impressed that you typed everything up and bound it in a journal. Now that's dedication to the campaign. Thank you for the trip down Memory Lane with the WW pictures and the Gilder advert

    Jim

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    1. Thanks Jim. Wait until you see the order returns as they were great fun to write up.

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  4. By Jove, that takes me back! All those wonderful articles about Sudan campaigning, not to mention the photos of the figures and Arab buildings. I still have those issues of WW in storage back in England. I hope to retrieve them and my Sudan collection before long.

    I'm looking forward to the next blog post, although I know how real life gets in the way. My own gaming/modelling output will be put on hold soon since we're moving house.

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    1. Thanks AJ and I certainly know what it's like not to be able to access items at will due to the tyranny of distance and circumstance. Good luck on the house move and stay tuned for some interesting posts...one at least hopes!

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    1. Glad to hear Dave. I'm hoping to add a few of the battles from this campaign into the long awaited The Sands of Sudan Campaign and Scenario book. One day...

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  6. Carlo,
    Wonderful Colonial hobby journal, and the VERY BEST Colonial Collection on the Planet.
    Regards
    John

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    1. You are far too kind John and it is greatly appreciated. The Journal still has the old glossy and quite average photos from the games so I will attempt to recreate a few of the scenes in them with the new collection. Should be fun.

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    1. Thanks Norm - the campaign was great fun and like all these projects, helped me to focus ongetting items finished or particular games and scenarios.

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  8. You've got us begging for more now, Carlo !

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    1. Not long to wait Stephen and a another post will be on its way.

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  9. I am now waiting with bated breath for the next instalment. Glad to hear there may be some impetus on the Campaign supplement. Time flies but wargames projects seem to crawl. Our new wargames lodge has been delayed but footings are currently being dug out. Really looking forward to getting back into gaming. We are running our first weekend of 2017 this weekend and hope to have a report in the next week or so. Keep up the good work on your blogs. Cheers

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    1. Thanks Andy. Good luck with your move and I hope everything goes well.

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