Wednesday 26 September 2012

Ideas from Sea Battles in Miniature....Part 3


HMS King George V - note the secondary turrets

I have spent further time during the dreadful weather we having, to drill down further into the Dreadnought rules from Paul Hague's book. It has been a very inspirational experience for sure and the funny thing is that a lot of what he had written actually seems to read a whole lot clearer this time around! I can only put this down to my knowledge of naval warfare during the period having increased over the years and so I feel better equipped to take a more detached view of things.

I mentioned in my previous post that the rules as written could be used for the entire dreadnought period and indeed, the author fully intended this. Obviously the aerial dimension for WW2 actions is an additional complication and I believe his follow up title covered this. The one thing that crossed my mind though was when using the critical hit method for damage how would you factor in turret mounted secondary weapons? This was a big WW2 design feature for sure as most modern battleships has turret mounted secondary weapons rather than in the hull. The answer is simple - and I can't believe I missed it - and really quite logical. The author states on page 116: "Turret guns are reduced by critical hits but secondary guns on the maindeck are reduced proportionally with standard hits."

The first dreadnoughts tended to have the secondary guns hull mounted and so the only turrets were for the big guns. So as written the above sentence makes perfect sense for early period fleets. All I would do then would be to include secondary turrets where applicable meaning they would need to be destroyed by critical hits rather than progressively. I have no problem with this in terms of how the rules work and so will happily use this for WW2 or indeed any other warships with turreted secondary guns.

The other thing I will need to tackle is servicing the needs of the hex. The gun ranges translate very handily into hexes but, as ever, move distances are a little more problematic and additionally have an impact on the ship charts for progressive damage purposes. I will need to give this some thought but at the moment I am considering something rather radical to resolve the issue.

I might revert to naval gaming on a normal table top using rulers for distances and turning circles for changes of course. Now there is an idea - I wonder if it will ever catch on?




10 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

Your "radical idea" is exactly what I was thinking of suggesting.


-- Jeff

David Crook said...

Hi Jeff,

See, I told you it would catch on!

Seriously though, whilst I am committed to using hexes for just about all of my immediate requirements I am not averse to using an ordinary table if the need arises. I would prefer to 'hex' the rules at some point but would certainly not halt using them as written in the meantime.

All the best,

DC

Anonymous said...

David, the Hague rules are a concise gem. As a pointer for converting to hexes you won't go far wrong by relooking at Barry Carter's book and marrying the two. Naval rules made in heaven!

David Crook said...

Hi Anonymous,

Funny you should say that about the Barry Carter book....;-)

Carter's title is a great read and I was really pleased to land a copy of it a while back.

You have given me an idea that I will need to check out so many thanks for the post!

All the best,

DC

Steven Page said...

Hi David,
Thanks for introducing me to Paul Hague's grand little volume! I just received my copy through Amazon, and what a treasure! I have a box full of Roman and Carthaginian ships, and now own some rules for fighting them. The campaign rules will help with my MoBaS games as well.
-Steve

David Crook said...

Hi Steve,

No problem sir! Good luck with the Punic Wars games and also with MoBaS. If you have any problems with the latter then drop me a line - happy to help in any way.

All the best,

DC

Anonymous said...

Hi David,

Entertaining as always. I love the Hague rules. Please keep us posted on your solutions.

For WWII, we made the range bands in the rules 5000 yard blocks, taking the range out to 25000 yards (longest historical hit give or take and for our purposes "effective range")

To convert to hexes we use 2 or 3 hexes per 5000 yard block depending on sgips scale and hex size vs play area.

Cheers (and happy birthday)
Whiteylegs.

David Crook said...

Hi Whiteylegs,

Many thanks for the good wishes and also for the very useful ideas re the Hague rules on hexes. I will certainly give them a try when I get to it and let you know how I get on.

All the best,

DC

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Oh I'll just have to get a copy of this one, but if I get this book there is about another dozen I could justify too :(

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

You won't be sorry old chap! I know what you mean about the ever expanding book list as well....;-)

All the best,

DC