Thursday 12 November 2009

An Archimedes Moment....At Last!!!

EUREKA!!!!!!!!! The DBSA The Great War at Sea Gridded Naval Rules have finally hit the jackpot and WORK!!!! I cant begin to tell you how pleased I am to be at this point with the system. The game at the club featured Black Sea Fleet Russians versus Austro Hungarians and it went pretty well. I used my gridded cloth (11 by 14 squares) with the combatants approaching from diagonally opposite corners. The Austrians fielded a pair of Dreadnoughts, a pair of pre dreadnoughts, a pair of light cruisers and four bases of destroyers whilst the Russians had three dreadnoughts, a protected cruiser, two bases each of destroyers and torpedo boats.

The forces went pretty much full tilt straight for each other but it was gratifying to see proper screening of the heavy units by the escorts in the case of the Austrians - Mr Fox (despite his recent illness) displayed his customary naval cunning in this respect - although they paid a high price in that both the light cruisers (acting as flotilla leaders) ended the action in a crippled and sinking condition. The same thing happened to the Russian cruiser and all the destroyer bases received some damage both from their opposite numbers and the unwelcome attention of the vast array of secondary weapons from the respective battle lines.

I appreciate that is a little vague but all will be clear when I run the solo game. Tactically (and in terms of the game itself) it went very well and 'felt' right although one off naval games tend to be rather heavy on escorts as the natural war gamers tendency to chuck everything in against the opposition with little thought as to the aftermath usually comes to the fore.

Movement finally makes sense and works well - the use of the diagonal plane and 45 degree turns is a winning combination and also has the added advantage of ease of plotting for map moves etc. Even the split move idea worked well - I will make a card of some sort with long or short on each side to use as a visual reminder as to the speed for the turn.

Combat was good - results seemed about right and were heavier than the previous edition - this was what I wanted to enable greater decisiveness in the action. The only problem was that I had failed to allow for extreme scores against destroyers - this is easily rectified though.

Now that the main system has been proven to work I want to expand the rules in two directions. Firstly, I want to extend the set to cover up to 1945 - this means air power and such things as radar etc. I also, more importantly, want to introduce a simple plotting device to accompany the tabletop game to give some background to the action. I shall do this in conjunction with specific scenario types - either mutually agreed or randomly generated. This will make the games more 'formed' and with specific victory conditions which should serve to alleviate the kamikaze escort syndrome to an extent.

Once again I find myself extending my grateful thanks to many people for their unstinting help with this project thus far; in particular the aforementioned Mr Fox, Chris Hardman, Bob Cordery and Aussie Paul, all the members of SEEMS (especially Dave Kightly and Laurie)together with everybody that has read and commented on the blog on the evolution of this so far. Many thanks to one and all - I could not have done it without you!

9 comments:

SteelonSand said...

Congratulations, Ogre, sounds good - now don't stint on the details once you get everything committed to print, will a download be available?

As to aftermath of the 'Eureka moment' - did you run down the street clad in only a bath towel like the man himself? Perhaps clutching a 1/3000th pre-dread base in each hand.....?

David Crook said...

Thanks SoS - It has been an effort and no mistake but I have enjoyed it. I have probably driven the long suffering stalwarts of my club bonkers over the last six months it has taken to get it to the current stage. I have a couple of typing tweaks to incorporate in the set as it stands and then that will be it for the tactical rules. I want to add a map movement system and some scenario types to give games a little more substance but that will be an easy task. the rules are available if you wat I can ping you a copy when ready. I will be changing the format of the ship specs slightly - purely due to a really good idea from the game last night - and I will need to tackle some other navies as well.

The vision you conjured up of the Eureka moment was not replicated - for which, no doubt, the neighbours were eternally grateful!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Glad to note there is no need for Public Restraining orders to be placed.

Reading through your blog has given me that itchy feeling to (a) paint rather than just look at my Navwar Turkish ships and (b) think what else I need from their range. I want to replicate your Med ranges ;)

Paul O'G said...

Aussie Paul is delighted to hear the good news and pleased to have been a part of something good!

I must admit I have abandoned all modelling/painting projects apart from my Deathwing squads due to the impending move, but this is something I'll be very interested to fire up next year in the new Man Cave!

David Crook said...

Navwar Tony was really helpful in suggesting alternatives for Balkan Wars Fleets where the models were not included in the actual ranges. Without his (and others) help the Greeks and Turks would have been very light on destroyers! I added the hypothetical stuff to add a little more interest - besides, the temptation to deploy HMS Agincourt under a Turkish flag was overpowering! I will trawl back through the blog as I am sure I had a list of model codes etc for the stuff that was used for the missing ship types.That should be useful - my favourite model from the Turkish range has to be the Messudiye.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers, that would be most appreciated :)

David Crook said...

Hi Aussie Paul, Loving the Deathwing action by the way - they are looking really good. Space Hulk online - anyone do that?

Seriously though, the help and support from all concerned with the naval project has really got this across the line and has inspired me to further ideas (more of which later!). Cheers buddy, next time you are over the beers are on me!

David Crook said...

There you go!

Turkey

N8P10A Mesudiye
N3112 Worth (Germany) - for Torgud Reis and Hayreddin Barbarossa class PB
N8P33/33A Hamidiye and Mecidiye PC
N8P32 Peyk-i Sevket (x2) Torpedo gunboat
N2521 Durandel (France) - for Samsum class TBD x4
N3508 S/T 165 (Germany) - for Muavenet-i Milleye TBD x4
N4702 Saffo (Italy) - for Akhisar/Antalya class TB x8
N5722 Type 67 (Japan) - for Demirhisar class TB x4. I also used this model for the Bulgarian TBs (x6) as they are very similar in profile. Basically it is a 100 ton turtle back twin funnelled affair.

Greece

N8732 Averoff AC- the scourge of the Sublime Porte!
N8704 Hydra Coast defence PB x3
N8754 Aetos TBD x4
N8152 Huszar (Austro Hungary) - for Thyella class TBD x4
N3511 V1 (Germany) - for Keravnos class TBD x2
N1529 C Class (Great Britain) - for Niki class TBD x4

I can get the codes for the later ships (the hypotheticals)as well as the ships added after the Balkan Wars - the Turks of course gain the Goeben and Breslau whilst the Greeks get the Kilkis and Limnos and the Helle.

Hope that helps.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Thanks :)