The Russo-Japanese War 1904/05

From the Avalanche Press ‘Great War at Sea’ stable - strategic and tactical coverage of the 1904/05 Russo-Japanese War. 

For no other reason than abject apathy, the naval side of the Russo-Japanese War 1904/05 has never really figured in my gaming plans - until now! Actually ‘now’ is a little optimistic as I have way too many other things to complete beforehand but it will certainly be added to the list. 

I picked up an unpunched copy of the above game (from the same source as the previously acquired Cruiser Warfare) courtesy of eBay for a reasonable price and with a definite plan in mind. I want to do something with pre-dreadnoughts at some point and as this was an actual war it made sense to look at it first. Naturally when I get to it I would look to build the ships myself - I will need to figure out how best to model the pronounced curve of the hull of some of the Russian Battleships (the same applies to the French!) - and having looked at several of the actual ships reckon that they should be quite straightforward to undertake.

It will certainly not be anytime soon though!

From the pen of the indefatigable David Manley - there are even ship counters included to try out the rules with!

Joking aside, I could certainly use the tactical system to organise a game or two should the urge arise (which it probably will at some point!) and I should mention that I have a copy of David Manleys excellent rules for the period. 

Covering the war as a whole - this is a good read and a handy primer for further research.

I have a single book in my collection covering the war as a whole and it features in the 1905 copy of Jane’s Fighting Ships. I will try to flesh the library out to cover the naval side in greater detail but for now I have all that I will need.

The Great War at Sea Series

The game featured above first appeared in 1999/2000 and indeed, I remember looking at this series at the time (as I recall I actually purchased a copy of the WW1 Mediterranean version) but I never really got ‘into it’. At the time I believe it was due to the tactical rules appearing to be a little on the ‘light’ side - I preferred rules that were ‘meatier’ - but of course, fast forward to today (24 years in fact) and the ‘lighter’ level of detail is now just right for me!