JOHN'S DUGOUT

  Hyboria is one of those wargaming rabbit holes that can distract you for months or even years. It used to be only possible if you lots of wargaming ancient and medieval armies, time and gaming friends. There were no Ospreys books or Codex to lay everything out for you. Names of regiments their uniforms, generals, royal houses, you invent as long as they are in the spirit of Hyboria. Dusty armies sitting in your wargames cupboard suddenly are re-evaluated. Eygptians become the Stygian Guard of Thos Amon, Medieval French the might of Aquilonia, and Saracens the host of Turan. That barbarian figure with bulging muscles and dodgy man bob hair cut, Conan the wandering Cimmerian hero. What is Hyboria? Ah, I knew you'd ask me that. It is the land invented by fantasy novelist Robert E Howard but set in our Earth's pre history. Sorry there are no no dwarves and elves for you D&D fans. Mankind is in ascendancy but there are undead, and a sprinkling of unholy demons and random mons...

This is a genre I wanted to try having seen the films  Hell Boats and They Were Expendable  the latter stared John Wayne! I recently found a second hand copy of The Battle of The Torpedo Boats (by Brian Cooper, Pan  1971 ) which tells us everything about the PT boat battles in the English Channel, Med and Pacific. With the release of Cruel Seas in 2019 coastal wargaming was played at many wargames clubs. Having seen the 1/300 scale boats I feel that 1/600 would be my preferred scale and cost. Mostly because I'd like to try convoy actions. Or something different like boats taking on a cruiser like the Scipio Africanus, or a destroyer e.g. the Terezuki. Perhaps something really big like the US attacks on the Japanese battlecruisers at Surigoa Strait. A rummage through the wargames cupboard finds two 1/300 Warlords sprues given away with copies of Wargames Illustrated - sigh!  Meanwhile here are some scenarios to get you started if you have collections and rules. The ...