Advisory Note

Please Note: This blog contains poorly painted toy soldiers that may offend those of an aesthetically sensitive disposition.

Saturday 19 August 2023

Return to the "Red/Blue Campaign" World

 Back in 2020 I had some fun fighting a short campaign using the map featured in SHAM-BATTLE by Dowdall & Gleason. 


The war was originally going to be named The SHAM Campaign but ended up being called The Red/Blue Campaign and the battles can be located using that label.

Here's the original Campaign Map (made simply in Excel) along side the SHAM-Battle version.


In the very first battle, Bluvian forces managed to destroy the bridge that linked Red City and Blueburg and, three years later, it has still not been rebuilt; relations between the Kingdom of Redina and the Bluvian Republic are still very poor.

This is the current map; I have added a couple of small towns to the original and marked where the newfangled railway lines have been constructed - the white heat of Steam Technology has arrived!


Recently the Government of Redina have been demanding the extradition of certain Radicals that had fled Rediton during the war. These revolutionary types have established themselves in the small town of Blueville and set about publishing pamphlets calling on the Redinan populace to rise up against the monarchy and declare a Republic. 

The Bluvian government refuse point blank to cooperate with their old enemy's demands and have put the military on high alert. Bluvian spies report a large build up of Redinan forces near the Eastern City of Redville suggesting that Red will attempt to march across the bog road and invade Blue via the East bridge.

In fact, the Eastern build up is a cunning ruse, a sham if you like. Early in the morning on the 19th August, Redinan Engineers built a pontoon bridge across the Boundary River somewhere West of Blueville (grid C4) and Red's troops, having rushed by train from Redville to Reding, are now marching into Bluvia...

(Why didn't they just jump across? - Ed.)


Redina's Ministers have warned the King that the country is not financially strong enough for a protracted war; the objective is therefore to capture and/or eliminate the Revolutionary cell in Blueville, and give the Bluvians a bloody nose.





12 comments:

  1. This looks like it’s going to be a very interesting little war. I’m looking forward to reading what happens next.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Cheers Bob! I'm going to be playing the second of Martin Smith's One Hour Wargame Mini Campaigns (discussed in the previous post), and fitting them into my SHAM-BATTLE scenario.

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  2. Looking good already! I like the 'building the bridge of boats' vignette! I also like that vibrant red of the Redina uniform jackets.
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Thank you Ion. The shininess of the uniforms hopefully captures something of that Toy Soldier look

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  3. Looking forward to the next instalment. I too like the brightly coloured and glossy miniatures.

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    1. Cheers Peter. The first game is played and I now need to sharpen my pencil and get it reported.

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  4. The troops look great! Looking forward to the campaign.

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    1. Thanks Mark! A short, sharp campaign is envisaged

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  5. Looks good, MJT. Good to see these adversaries rattling sabres again 😁. Looking forward to the report, in due course.

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  6. I zm still in awe at the simple nature of these campaigns,but hey still retain all the essential elements of more complicated campaigns I've seen.

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    1. Thanks Joe - I've tried more complex things but I never finish them!

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