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Welcome to Cold Steel Games!

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Welcome to Cold Steel Games! This is a fork of my main blog Themself to split out the military history and game related stuff from the reading and writing that has come to dominate it over the last two or three years.

Why Cold Steel?

It’s a re-purposing of a domain I’ve held for a decade that was originally used for hosting a game design of a WW1 game about night patrols in no man’s land called ‘Hot Blood & Cold Steel’. The game still exists, and I’ll be adding a page with the contents of the old website (spruced up a bit) and a link to download the Hot Blood & Cold Steel game rules and printable tiles.

Posts here will be ocassional rather than to a fixed schedule (Themself typically has posts Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week). All of them will be game or military history related, and I intend to stick with that. Some of the posts here will probably be re blogged on Themself as well, keeping it a one stop shop for all my public writing.

You’ll probably notice that there are already a load of articles here. I imported all the relevant stuff from Themself so that all my military and game related material is here, apart from the stuff over on my Full Moon Games wiki.

All that remains is to write more wargaming stuff!

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games, megagames

Megagame – Watch the Skies 2: Global Conspiracy

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On Saturday I was the lead control for the East Asia region in Megagame Makers largest ever megagame Watch the Skies: Global Conspiracy. You can read rather a lot about it on twitter, facebook, reddit and a number of blogs because there were over 300 people involved in this megagame. Look for #WTS2 to find some of it.

So my role started some time ago, the first Watch the Skies megagame, with a mere 50 players, was filmed by the chaps at Shut Up & Sit Down and megagames became insanely popular. I missed WTS because of family commitments (it was my daughter’s birthday weekend). WTS2, and just about every other megagame, got booked up overnight and I couldn’t get a space on it. Jim Wallman had a plan though, and it involved me (and every other veteran megagame control team person). He scaled it up, to six times the size and about 25% bigger than the previous record holder for the largest ever megagame (which I played in).

Jim sent the control team the draft rules for us to read and comment on. He ran tryout sessions so we could get our heads round it all. He also spent an awful lot of time organising everything. The scale of the event is just huge, and it was all done by volunteers for the love of running large games.

Megagame Watch the Skies 2: The Game

As mentioned above, I was lead control for East Asia, there were three of us in the region looking after six human player teams plus some visitors (a mixture of aliens, press and foreign militaries). The other two control were also very experienced, and we quickly sorted out how we were going to run our corner. Mainly my job was running the map, with Andre sitting opposite while Stephen fielded all the other questions we were getting from the players not involved in whatever was going on at the map.

I’m not going to give a blow by blow account, for a start I was too busy to catch anything that wasn’t at my map, and for a second I’ll let the players tell their own stories. However I do have some highlights from the notes I made for the end of game de-brief.

  • AIM (our pet corporation) did deals very early on with China, Japan and Australia to upgrade their infrastructure and also build additional manufacturing lines there. Vietnam also benefited hugely too (the most in percentage terms).
  • The Australians attempted to breach the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by buying nukes from Iran. This backfired spectacularly and the Australian Government sacked the Chief of the Defence Staff for unauthorised unilateral action (a likely story, but I had fun with the cabinet meeting).
  • Korea was interesting. The South Koreans made wooing North Korea their main effort. We made it as hard as possible for that to succeed without looking like we were being mean. Their dogged determination was eventually fruitful and by the end of the game they were discussing reunification talks having signed a peace treaty two years into the game.
  • Japan clearly had secret deals going with the aliens, although I was only aware of this because of the way they behaved. They stopped whaling and also stopped intercepting UFOs with their SIFs. This didn’t stop another group of aliens from destroying Tokyo by bombarding it with plasma from low orbit almost at the end of the game.
  • Indonesia fell apart, it was small and poor, lost a SIF early on and seemed to be the focus for alien attention (they built a base there). When the government eventually lost the confidence of its supporters it triggered a civil war with the alien intervention splintering their armed forces. This was rapidly won by an international coalition that supported the new government.
  • The Australian SIF teams were spectacularly successful, some of this was luck and some the judicious upgrades of their SIFs (there were four or five of these most of the time). Most turns they had two or three successes, this kept their PR track maxed out, which meant they had the money to invest in more stuff.

The Mechanisms

As always it took us a couple of turns to get our heads around how best to run the map, but seeing as the players have exactly the same problem this is usually managable and so it was this time. We managed to evolve a system that worked for us and helped us get through dozen UFO interceptions in the later turns.

  • money for PR was put on the PR track at the start of the map phase when the military players were paying to activate SIF & agents
  • we did interceptions serially, starting with the SIF with advanced tech (not weapons), then those from the country closest to the interception point, but sometimes randomly
  • when an interception was successful we gave the player the card to leave on their PR track so that we could tot up the PR score afterwards
  • each SIF was returned to either the ready or damaged box as appropriate as soon as the card was revealed (destroyed to control)
  • where Aliens deployed a PAC we made it fight every SIF until it was damaged or driven off

Other things we found

  • there weren’t enough SIF models for the turnover
  • ditto the upgrade stickers & national flags
  • chits for UFOs don’t work, the players missed some when intercepting (even with mass UFO incursions there were still more SIF than UFOs)
  • we ran out of alien tech cards (but to be fair I think we had more than our expected share of alien action)
  • a copy of the detailed turn sequence would have been useful as a playsheet
  • using business cards for money was inspired
  • keeping up with other controls was really hard, I gave up eventually but it would have been useful to have had phone numbers for alien control or a liaison point
  • SIF & unit upgrades need a better mechanism, there needs to be a token exchange that allows regional map controls to upgrade units with the confidence that the corporate players have actually paid to produce the upgrade.
  • ditto a track on which science benefits have been used on keeping the terror track down. I largely relied on memory but this could have been a visual so that the players could see it.

If you were there, then leave me a comment with your story, or link to your blog post, write up, twitter or whatever.

Other Megagame Watch the Skies 2 Reports

Edit: Some other blog posts about the game

Edit 2: A couple more, and there are also some in the comments.

Player Perspectives

Game Control

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games

Release! A game about building software

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I got my kickstarter reward from funding Release! The game arrived the other day, I’ve not yet had a chance to play it but I thought I’d share these photos with you of the box and it’s contents.

image

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Game Blurb

RELEASE! is a light card game about software and the people who make it.

It takes modern development methodologies and crams them into a trick taking card game that is fast paced, easy to pick up, and has a lot of room for strategy.

The Kickstarter edition contains the base game and 14 new plug-ins and expansions.

What’s in the box?

Lots of stuff, mainly game cards, some notepads for recording your score and bits to keep the expansions etc separate. Here are some pictures.

The contents of the Release! box spread out
The contents of the Release! box spread out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close up of a handful of cards from Release!

Close up of a handful of cards from Release!

 

 

I funded the kickstarter because not only do I like to play games, but I get involved in developing software at work. Some of the example cards above are ones that I’d like to play on people at work when they get out of hand…

How to Play

The guys that produced the game have put together a video of how to play the game.

As well as the lovely pre-done box you can also download a PDF of the game for free. You can then print and cut your own cards. Useful if you just want to expand the game or you would like to see the details before you buy. Worth a look.

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Future, games, near future, roleplaying

East End Explosions

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I’ve been exploring the world of Perfects with some friends by running a roleplaying session with the Full Moon games group playing the senior officers of a police counter-terrorism group. More details on Operation Hawkeye. I couldn’t resist writing some press stories as a result of the session.

20440421 Terror RaidEast Ended!

Brave cops foil GM terror group in dawn raid.

Silverton residents were woken by automatic gunfire and a bomb blast as terrorists fought off a police raid. Brave officers stormed through a hail of fire to take out the terrorists. One terrorist was confirmed killed by police, although not before two officers were wounded. Another is believed to have blown themself up in a suicide bombing.

Commander Coalfield, the Counter Terror Chief, called on citizens to lookout for accomplices to the GM terrorists that may have escaped.

Forensic teams are scouring the scene for clues to where the explosives and firearms came from and any evidence that will keep the suspects behind bars.

Silverton Siege

[TV report – starting with a press conference with a senior female police officer in her early 40s]

Commander Coalfield “Acting on confirmed intelligence officers of CT conducted simultaneous raids on properties in London, supported by other emergency services and the Metropolitan Police Service. The intelligence received indicated that a group of genetically modified individuals were planning a terror campaign in central London in an attempt to over-turn the provisions of the Genetically Modified Humans Act. This campaign was intended to intimidate ordinary people as well as Members of Parliament.

Our sources suggested that the group in question were well funded and had secured weapons and know-how from overseas. We therefore acted promptly to deal with this threat. My officers were just in time, and we discovered an armed terror cell of genetically modified individuals in the process of preparing for an attack. On gaining entry to the house armed CT officers were met by automatic gunfire. Undeterred they pressed home their entry, which resulted in several officers becoming casualties. Some of these casualties were caused by a suicide bombing, we know from studies that the genetically modified are prone to suicide.

[cut to helmet camera footage from a police officer in the entry team]

[Police Drones drop to window height, switch on bright lights and the speakers blast “POLICE – LIE DOWN AND STAY STILL” on a loop. Two officers pound the door open with an entry e. A tense moment passes as the door initially resisted being opened. Immediately between the camera and the door opening team are a constable and an officer with Chief Inspector rank insignia on the rear of the helmet.

The door opens and the constable and the Chief Inspector rapidly enter. Shots ring out and the leading constable falls. The group pause just inside the doorway, more shots are heard. Two flashbangs are thrown into the next room.

Seconds pass, then two loud bangs. The Chief Inspector leads through a hail of gunfire, to camera police officer falls in the doorway. The view cuts to another camera, the Chief Inspector is seen to fire twice as the terrorist brings the weapon up. Then the ceiling collapses. ]

[Back to the press conference]

Fortunately our officers were all well protected and three of the five are expect to return to duty very soon. Two others remain in hospital under medical supervision, both are expected to make a full recovery. One terrorist was killed, we believe another blew themself up and we have three others in custody. It is possible that they have accomplices in other locations and I am calling on the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious behaviour immediately.”

East End Explosionsnewspaper

Police released dramatic footage earlier today of the raid on an East London property where a terror cell was caught red handed preparing an atrocity. The first police officer into the terraced house was felled by automatic gunfire, an un-named Chief Inspector braved the hail of fire to shoot the armed terrorist. Moments later another member of the terror cell detonated a suicide bomb they had been preparing for Central London, taking the roof off the house and setting it on fire. A second armed terrorist also fired on officers entering from a different route.

Five police officers required medical attention. Three terrorists are in custody. It is thought that there may be other members of the terror cell and the public are asked to keep a careful watch for suspicious activity.

The National Police Counter-Terror Commander, told a press briefing that the attacks were an attempt to over-turn the Genetically Modified Humans Act. Two of those in custody have already been confirmed to be genetically modified and tests are under way on the others involved.

The scene at the house is one of utter devastation, two blasts are understood to have ripped through the house. The first in the attic space which police have confirmed was from a mix of high explosives and at least one incendiary device. A second later explosion is believed to be a residual gas explosion from damaged pipes set off by the fire. Both neighbouring houses were also damaged and the residents have been evacuated. Police forensic teams are still on the scene and are expected to remain for several days.

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games, History, Naval, WW1

Book Review – Fatal Choices by Seth Owen

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Fatal Choices: Wargames, Decisions and Destiny in the 1914 Battles of Coronel and FalklandsFatal Choices: Wargames, Decisions and Destiny in the 1914 Battles of Coronel and Falklands by Seth Owen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I backed the Kickstarter campaign and got both the ebook and the paperback version of this as well as some pre-cut counters for playing the scenarios.

The book is a fascinating tour of the what if as well as the real history. It takes us through the technical and political backgrounds of both sides, the vessels and the commanders. Owen explains why the situation was what it was, why the protagonist navies had chosen their strategy and how they had got their ships on station when the first world war started.

Map showing British and German ships and movem...
Map showing British and German ships and movements at the Battle of Coronel, 1 November 1914. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Each of the battles is presented as a playable scenario, with basic rules in the annex and some counters (I got the pre-cut set as part of the Kickstarter, but the book has a copyable annex). In addition to the house rules in the book there are also suggestions for how to play the game with a couple of other popular sets of naval wargame rules.

Doing this allows readers to understand how much leeway the real result had, what was inevitable, what was plausible and what was bad luck or poor judgement. The factors affecting this are also explained in the text. For example British gunnery was poor, most of the sailors were reservists recalled at the outbreak of war, so they were out of practice and many unfamiliar with the kit installed on the ships. They were also scratch crews and hadn’t had much time to practice together.

This is so much more than a history, it offers an insight into how and why the events in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean turned out the way they did.

View all my reviews

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Books, design, economics, History

World Building – Towns and Villages

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One of the things that I often do when I am writing a story is to sketch a map of the area where the story takes place. This helps me to visualise what the characters will be able to see. The thing is though, you can’t just bang down stuff randomly (well you can, but it isn’t realistic – you want your world to be realistic don’t you?)

How settlements form

Typically people build houses where there is shelter from the elements, adequate supplies of food, water and fuel. They also like to build them in easily accessible places for the most part. All villages and towns grow from farmstead, places a farmer, and his family, decided to settle.

However not all of these farmsteads ends up as a village. There are loads of outlying farms in populated countryside, some of them are ancient or at least built on the remains of an ancient farm. What distinguishes those that get bigger?

There’s an element of luck, but mainly it is because they either have an abundance of some resource or they lie along a convenient route. Trade is the reason most of our towns exist. Certainly this is true of the most ancient ones. There exceptions to this, but these tend to be modern capital cities (Washington DC being an example) or new towns intended to displace people from densely populated inner cities (like Milton Keynes, or Cumbernauld).

Villages

Look closely at the next handful of villages you drive through. There is a clear difference between an extended farm

English: Corfe Castle Village Square This is t...
English: Corfe Castle Village Square This is taken in the Square, looking west towards the National Trust shop and the war memorial in the centre of the Square. This is now used as a roundabout for the village traffic as well as a seating area for the tourists (as depicted by the photograph)! The National Trust shop is located in the village as the castle is a National Trust property. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

with houses for the labourers and a proper village. Villages tend to have a focal point, usually a green space, but sometimes a market square. Modern villages still have them, there will be an open area possibly with a children’s play area. Around this there will be a Church, possibly a pub, a shop or two and often a war memorial. Even if there isn’t an open area there will be a cluster of the Church (with graveyard), a pub, shop and war memorial. These will be surrounded with houses, perhaps along a single linear road. If there is a second cross road this may also have houses along it. The cross roads (sometimes a Y) will often run on two sides of the Church, or the village green if there is one.

Optional extras, depending on the size of the village

  • village hall (needs about 1,000 residents to be viable);
  • school (needs a couple of hundred kids aged 4-11 within five miles to work);
  • more shops and pub (scale up shops per 200 inhabitants, and pubs per thousand);
  • larger villages have more streets, keeping everything within minimum walking distance.

Of course when you are world building for a story you make the village suit the narrative that you are conveying. It doesn’t really matter if the shops, pubs or anything else is economically viable. If you need an internal rivalry then two pubs might be a way to do it. If you need a football team, or a Women’s Institute then write in the Pavilion and pitch, or the village hall or whatever you need.

Communities

A key feature of villages is that typically people know who there neighbours are, and in the smaller more settled ones far outside the commuter belt, the lineages of all the residents. Or at least some of the inhabitants know all of that. This can be a feature for interesting stories. The other thing that happens in these sorts of communities is that the smarter kids leave for university and jobs in the big city. Some of the others join the services (including some of the smart ones) and go away that way. Often they reappear later in life, retired in their forties, or professionally qualified as the local GP, district nurse, solicitor, entrepreneur, mechanic. A good way to bring people in without having to make them complete strangers to the rest of your characters.

Towns

English: Wigtown market square gardens. The ga...
English: Wigtown market square gardens. The gardens in the market square with the town hall in the background. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Towns are a whole different order of magnitude different. They don’t scale into villages, there is a sort of multiplier effect with proper towns. Almost every old town that I have looked at, and I do pay attention on my travels, is based around a market, and very often also a river crossing.

Towns tend to be on the nexus of trade routes, and they draw in people from surrounding villages for markets and also specialised trades. As well as being bigger than villages, especially with the tradespeople, they also have a lot more in the way of amenities. There will be a square, with a town hall of some sort on it, and often also a church. In many modern towns the square has been infilled, usually with parades of shops, descended from the market stalls that once stood in the same place.

Like the villages the towns are often formed around a cross roads, this can be two sides of the main square, or sometimes they join at one end of a widened high street and then split out after the shopping area (Reigate in Surrey does this, the A25 and A217 being the primary routes).

Another key feature of a town, other than being astride a trade route, is that it tends to have an abundance of something useful (or it did have in its early days). This could be something simple like weavers in a sheep farming region, or a watermill in an arable area. There ought to be something. This might not matter to your story though and you don’t need to worry about it much. However it could also be useful as a hook, or a clue.

How I draw maps

Firstly I think of the sort of place that I need for my story, and the key locations I need it to have. Once I’ve listed those out I get myself a blank sheet of paper (although I do sometimes use squared paper).

Pencil usually starts with some outline topographical features (which way is uphill, where are the water courses).

Then I put the focus of the village/town on the map, along with some routes. I see this as growing the town organically.

Next down are the key locations I need relative to each other. I then fill in the gaps between them with the other necessary parts of the village/town. i.e. the pubs, shops and civic amenities. If it is a mediaeval walled town then I add these in now as well. If there is a need for industry I also stick that in too.

Lastly I add in some houses for the people to live in, making sure to put the bigger ones upwind of the town (the richer districts of towns/cities tend to be upwind on prevailing winds because the rich folk can afford to build where the air is sweeter). I try to put in at least one building for every ten inhabitants, in modern times maybe two to three times that much, we live much less densely these days, even though there are more of us.

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Ancient, games, megagames

Megagame Funeral Games II pt.2

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This is the second part of my offside report on the Megagame Makers megagame ‘Funeral Games II’ which I played in on Saturday. It covered the period following Alexander the Great’s death and the struggle by his successors to attain power. In the first half of the game I played Antipater, until he died of old age in his bed, then I played his heir, Cassander.

Cassander

This afforded me a moment to breathe. I was reincarnated as Cassander, my heir. As it turns out Perdiccas got killed and he became my younger brother Alexarchus. Another player also got reassigned then too and played the middle brother Pleistarchus. We had a short breather and plotted how to establish ourselves as powerful, the downfall of Queen Olympias and the rebuilding of Thebes.

Cassander”s Objectives

  • Gain control of Macedonia
  • Expand your power base in Europe as widely as possible
  • Eliminate Olympias and Alexander the Great”s surviving family when the time is right
  • Sideline Eurydike and the half wit King Philip III (both dead already)
  • Rebuild Thebes as a snub to Alexander”s memory

What Cassander Did

Stage one was get some money and some troops. None of the European Macedonians wanted to reward or use Antipater’s heirs. So I took an opportunity to go to Egypt to see Ptolemy who was an enemy of Olympias and had managed to be declared a rebel twice over. He had enough loyal Macedonians with him to be able to hold his own rival Assembly and overturn those decrees.

I discussed my plans with Ptolemy and he agreed to legitimise it if I was successful, but not in advance. That was good enough for me.

Ptolemy made me governor of the province of Judea. This gave me some regular income and somewhere to raise troops. My brothers also managed to gain a fleet (Pleistarchus) and some mercenaries (Alexarchus). I also negotiated with the Greek city states on our project to restore Thebes, and unknown to me Alexarchus was doing the same with Seleucus. I returned to Boeotia having secured funding from the Oligarchs and also permission to raise troops from Demosthenes. At the same time the European armies were preparing to go to Egypt to fight Ptolemy. So I spent some time encouraging this, especially from those that I thought were loyal to Queen Olympias. I spoke to my brothers in law Autodicus and Sippas to try and persuade them to stay in Pella.

In the Spring I rebuilt Thebes with funding from Seleucus that Alexarchus had brokered. I had also got funding from the Greek oligarchs and permission from the Democrats to raise troops in Greece. This gave me a force in Europe and also enough funding to be able to bribe any troops left behind either to join me or to stay out of the fight. All I needed to do was be patient and wait for the fleet to take the army away in the Summer.

As soon as the army sailed for Egypt I was left with the largest force in Europe supported by my two brothers and with three thousand talents to bribe the troops remaining with my brother in law Sippas. As it happened Sippas agreed to join us and we had an uncontested Palace Coup. I immediately had Queen Olympias killed but Cleopatra narrowly escaped before I could do the same to her. I took control of the young King Alexander IV in the hope of gaining legitimacy as his guardian and also showing that I was acting in the best interests of the royal line (if not of some of its members specifically).

We had a brief conversation, but didn’t have enough Macedonian troops to form an assembly. Although we had control of Macedonia we couldn’t call out the levies to ratify our actions. Pro-tem I made myself Regent of Europe, Pleistarchus Governor of Macedonia and Alexarchus Governor of Thrace. I also made Sippas Strategos of Europe. All of this would only stick if others agreed. I was a little surprised when the fleet returned the Army at the end of the Autumn, as soon as they’d heard the news they’d abandoned fighting Ptolemy and returned to Macedon.

First on the scene was Autodicus, another of my brothers in law. As there was time for a storming of Pellas I rapidly negotiated with him and handed over the reigns of office as Regent of Europe to him. In return I was to be the guardian of Alexander IV. However while I negotiated Alexander’s step father sneaked into the Palace and stole the boy and his mother (Roxanne) out. Prudently I retired from Pella to Thebes ‘to ensure no misunderstandings or bloodshed’. I know a massacre waiting to happen when I see one, we were outnumbered 10:1 by the legitimate army. The main thing was that I had survived and was still in possession of my money, army and governorship. Not only that I wasn’t out of favour. Both of the remaining regents were my brothers in law and the next most powerful Macedon was an ally too, at least for now.

 

Cassander's troops and money at the end of 'Funeral Games II'
Cassander’s troops and money at the end of ‘Funeral Games II’
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Ancient, games, History, megagames

Megagame Funeral Games II pt.1

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Today I played in the Megagame Makers ”Funeral Games II” which was the second outing of a classic Megagame of what happens after Alexander the Great dies. As such it involves a mix of military operations, politics and personal relationships to cement power and block others from achieving it.

My starting role in the megagame Funeral Games was as Antipater, one of three regents agreed by Macedonian Assembly in Babylon in the days following Alexander’s death. Antipater was the Governor of Macedonia, Regent and Strategos of Europe and Head of the Hellenic League. The only person with more legitimacy than him to command is Perdiccas, another Regent who is in Babylon with Alexander’s body and the two Kings (Philip III and Alexander IV).

At the beginning the Greek city states have revolted under their Democratic leaders. Democracy was out of favour, the Macedonians prefer oligarchs. My slogan was ‘Freedom from the tyranny of the majority!’ Continue reading Megagame Funeral Games II pt.1 →

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Remembrance Challenge

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We took our cubs to the local war memorial in the Church just down the road from the Scout Hall. Before we went we”d got the cubs to make a wreath of poppies and to write a message on it. Each boy did his own personal wreath. We then went on a walk down the road and went into the Church where we spoke to them about why we remember and also how things were different back in 1914. South Merstham wasn”t as big then as it is now, for a start the new houses were mostly built in the 1950s. In the 1911 census there were somewhere in the region of 600 men in the locality, about 150 of whom signed up in August 1914 (I”m guessing some would be unfit, others in jobs that couldn”t just go off to war and some others not that keen).

Clark Pack #Merstham #cubs pay tribute to the fallen of South Merstham

Remembrance Challenge

At the end of the session we gave each of the cubs a slip of paper with one of the names from the WW1 memorial in the church and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. They were asked to come up with what they could about the name they were given. I took a name too, and being more grown up and a bit of an analyst I went a bit further than just the CWGC website. I didn”t pay for any information though, I only used free open sources.Why don”t you go down to your war memorial and do something similar. Post your findings on your favourite social media and challenge your friends.

Who was William English?

William English was born in Bletchingley in the Autumn of 1874, his father was Gordon English (who lived in South Merstham by 1918). In the summer of 1905 he married Catherine Colgate Dagnall in Reigate. Catherine was born in Reigate in the Summer of 1879 and her family is reasonably well documented on http://loiselden.com/tag/dagnall/.The search entry for the 1911 census (which I couldn”t see the whole record of without paying) showed that William was a caretaker in 1911. He seems to be in Reigate, although I couldn”t quite see the address details. His wife is listed as living at 14 Croydon Road in Reigate by CWGC, he may well have been living there at the time, or she could have moved after his enlistment.

War Service

William”s service number is G/450 and he is listed as an Acting Company Sergeant Major with the 7th (Service) Battalion of the Queen”s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment at the time of his death in May 1918.His regimental service number is very low, the series was used for the wartime volunteers and started in August 1914. This suggests that he was in the first batch of volunteers, although the battalion he served with is part of K2, or the second hundred thousand volunteers. Either way it is likely he was with the 7th (Service) Battalion (NB there was another 7th Bn of the Queen”s Regiment).

7th (Service) Battalion, Queen’s Regiment

Sept 1914 Formed at Guildford as part of the Second New Army (K2) and then moved to Purfleet to join the 55th Brigade of the 18th Division then moved to Colchester.

May 1915 Moved to Salisbury Plain.

27.07.1915 Mobilised for war and landed at Boulogne. This is the start of the Battalion war diary which has been digitised and you can read it online. The first entry lists all the officers and warrant officers with the battalion as well as the overall strength. William English was not a CSM at this stage.

The Battalion spent most of 1916 in the line or resting between spells at the front. It was one of the assault battalions on 1st July and while it took casualties these weren’t enough to stop it actively participating in The Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of Thiepval Ridge, The Battle of the Ancre Heights, The Battle of the Ancre.

1917 was a similar pattern of operations with periods of rest, consolidation & training between spells in the front line trenches. Operations on the Ancre, The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The Third Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of Pilkem Ridge, The Battle of Langemarck, First Battle of Passchendaele, The Second Battle of Passchendaele. Notably it took a pasting at Passchendaele and lost a lot of men.

In 1918 the battalion was in the line when the Michael offensive happened, and two companies were completely lost, in addition to casualties taken in the other companies that managed to retire. I’d surmise that this is when William English, as an Acting CSM, was captured by the Germans. I’d also guess that he was wounded when he was captured and this is what lead to his death in Germany on 9th May 1918.

It is possible that he was captured earlier and that there was some other cause of death, without seeing a death certificate or a service record (I looked and could not find his service record at all) it is difficult to be sure. I read the entire battalion war diary from when it starts in 1915 up to May 1918 and he isn’t mentioned once. The CSMs occasionally get a mention, usually when they are either replacing the RSM, leaving to be commissioned or running some instruction for junior officers.

Knowing that the role usually keeps them moving between the rear and the front when in action, and ensuring discipline and training in camp it is unlikely that a CSM would be taken prisoner except when the lines are fluid, which is during a large battle. CSMs don’t usually go out and patrol, they’re more likely to be checking sentries or that the rations and ammo have come up if they are in the trenches. In battle they may well be moving forwards to find where people are, which would make them more prone to capture. In a retirement they may not have been with the company when orders were given to retire and could easily turn up where the enemy now are.

CSM William English is listed as a Prisoner of War in the Queen’s Regiment archives, and he is buried in the Niederzwehren cemetery, Kasseler Stadtkreis, Hessen, Germany. This is a concentration cemetery bringing in graves from POWs from southern Germany.

That’s what I know. If you know more please drop me a comment.

Thanks.

Some Sources

Commonwealth War Graves Commission http://www.cwgc.org/

basic info about casualties, as a minimum name, rank, regiment & date of death

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919

normally paid but usually free around 11 November each year, has slightly more information that CWGC tends to have

Records of the Queen’s Regiment are online, some with Surrey County Council

http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/825571/Queens-Royal-West-Surrey-Regiment-Prisoners-of-War-1918.pdf

http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/war_diaries/local/7Bn_Queens/7Bn_Queens_1915/7Bn_Queens_1915_07.shtml

FreeBMD (& FreeCEN)http://www.freebmd.org/

Has copies of the transcribed indexes of Births, Marriages & Deaths in England and Wales from the General Register Office. These aren’t very detailed, they’re just intended to point you at the correct page in the register. If you have time you can go into a register office and see the register for free, although they will encourage you to order a certificate instead.

Birth Index Oct-Dec 1874

Surname Given Name District Volume Page

ENGLISH William Godstone 2a 172

Jul-Sep 1879

Dagnall Catherine Colgate Reigate 2a 168

Marriage Jul-Sep 1905

Surname Given Name District Volume Page

ENGLISH William Reigate 2a 439

DAGNALL Catherine Colgate Reigate 2a 439

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Megagame: Iron Dice – Turn 10

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Third week of October 1914

Iron Dice umpire map at 15:57 (Turn 10)
Iron Dice umpire map at 15:57 (Turn 10)

BEF Report to the War Office

The Belgians on our left were attacked and driven out of their trench line, and retreated towards Calais. The BEF left flank is, although entrenched, hanging in the air again. BEF reserve troops are at St. Omer. A request to the navy is made to bombard Dunkirk. A combined counter-attack will be made by the BEF’s left flank and the cavalry (reserve), supported by heavy artillery and naval bombardement.

Team Control Gloss

The BEF were using the fact that the enemy in front of them appeared to have gone static to rotate and rest their Corps. They also absorbed nine of the 12 available TF Battalions to bring all the Corps back up to full strength after the casualties from their previous counter-attacks and in the retreat afterwards.

Although the Belgian force was liaising closely with the BEF and drawing supplies from a secondary sea head established at Calais the BEF had not realised just how weak it was. It had a battered Belgian Division and a French reserve division in it, making it a very weak Corps (about 60% of the effectiveness of the BEF Corps). The Germans seemed to sense that this was the weak point, or perhaps just chose it because it was the seaborne flank. Either way they hit it with three fresh Corps supported by two heavy artillery units. The odds were stacked against the Belgians and their force simply disintegrated under the weight of the attack.

Turn Nine  –  Iron Dice  –  Turn Eleven

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