"Some Damned Affair in the Balkans" Part 3

Following on from the self inflicted destroyer problem with the Black Sea Russians i decided to concentrate on finishing the Balkan ships before embarking on a new fleet. The models for the Greeks and Turks have been duly prepared, based and undercoated and now have the initial grey and deck planking painted. I am hoping to have these finished by the weekend and will post pictures when they are ready. I use two shades of grey; one for each fleet and am absolutely convinced that they are way too dark in hue. They look nice though and so I am not going to change them! It does raise the issue though of exactly what colour grey was in use in the early years of the 20th century - certainly there must have been enormous variety even in notionally the same shade. Add in the effects of weather etc and it makes for carte blanche to use pretty much any shade that takes your fancy - that is my story/justification and I am sticking to it! The one problem I always have though concerns decking, or more specifically, wooden decking. Where was it used? What colour should it be? I use a Humbrol Authentic Colour (showing my age here methinks!) HC 4 Deck Plank which is a very pale khaki shade. It looks OK on the models so I shall continue to use this until the last tin has dried out!

The bases I use are made from artists mounting board - my local art shop lets me have a huge bag full every couple of years or so, it lasts ages - and when the model is ready these are painted Humbrol Matt 25 which is a nice sea blue. Waves and wakes are in white and to finish off I use the obligatory white label with the name printed on and the national ensign. A new departure for me will be to have the names of the 'never was-ers' printed in italics - this will serve to differentiate them from their historical counterparts.

Of the models used in this part of the project I would have to say that my favourite is the Agincourt closely followed by the Italian Libia. The former is huge and is very nicely detailed for the scale whilst the latter is a really nice cruiser model. You will see them in due course - hopefully in time for the weekend.

DBSA into the Great War Part 6

After an brief interlude for such things as decorating and various other domestic duties (not to mention the small matter of trying to find another job!) I sat down last night to consider the progress thus far on my DBSA WW1 naval rules. Although I am quite pleased thus far with the efforts I am becoming a little concerned at the classification of some of the older battleship types. It was whilst researching both the Turkish and the Russian fleets that I came to the conclusion that the generic ship types in use needed to be expanded to include Coastal defence or old battleships as a separate type. These are the purpose built versions (such as the various Scandinavian types) or older vessels that are either at the end of their service lives or are rebuilt ironclads etc. This category will serve to clarify some of the older scrap metal still afloat in 1914 e.g the Turkish Messudiye or the Russian Sinope or even some of the more effective purpose built vessels e.g. the Swedish Sverige or Norwegian Norge. I must confess that I had a certain degree of bias with this category as initially I felt it better represented a number of vessels in the Turkish navy than the existing categories. Even classing the Messudiye as an inferior pre dreadnought was a little on the generous side! It does mean that I will have a number of vessels on the ship charts that will need to be reclassified but that should not be a problem.

Another idea I have in this respect will be to draw up a spreadsheet of all the worlds warships as per my classifications so as to be to better able to define what is inferior, superior or normal.

It all adds to the flavour!

The Curates Egg

It has been a strange and eventful couple of days. I have managed to visit not one but two boot sales as well as a visit to the Navwar shop. The two boot sales yielded some real goodies of the written persuasion i.e. books. I acquired on Saturday a hardback copy of Anthony Beevor's 'Berlin - The Downfall 1945' for the princely sum of 50p. This will furnish a nice cheery read for those balmy summer evenings in the garden......................;-) Today saw me acquire hardbacks of 'Blood, Tears and Folly' by Len Deighton - this is a study of what made WW2 special in many different levels and is what I would describe as a 'broad brush' history. Along with this I acquired 'The Battle of Britain - The Jubilee History' by Richard Hough and Denis Richards. The Battle of Britain is one of my all time fave films and I would love to game this using Tumbling Dice 1/600th models - that will be another project for the back burner methinks! The two of these came from the same seller and cost the paltry sum of £2.50 for the pair. The final title is 'The Armed Rovers' by Roy Nesbitt and is an account of the exploits of the Beaufort and Beaufighter squadrons operating in the Mediterranean during WW2. The Med is a preferred theatre of operations for me and so this was a welcome surprise at 50p for the ex library softback. All in all then, a pretty successful couple of days but then it went wrong, horribly wrong..........

You may recall that I was going to visit Navwar on Saturday with the intention of acquiring everything I needed for the Russian Black Sea fleet 1914 to 1917 as well as the Greek and Turkish stuff - both actual and hypothetical. I was able to acquire everything I needed and was feeling pretty pleased with myself until this morning when I made a dreadful discovery.

The Lejtenant Pucsin class of TBDs (Black Sea Russian) were to be represented by, as posted earlier on the blog, the two funnel E (River) class RN destroyer. That would have been fine and dandy had the aforementioned Russian TBD looked anything like the E class. Sadly, due to the incorrect interpretation of a very fuzzy picture I have managed to get this completely wrong as the class had 4 equally spaced funnels - not 2. So I have bagged them up and will be returning them to Navwar in order to exchange them for something more suitable.

In respect of the Curates Egg it is fairly safe to say that whilst the weekend has thus far been good in parts the faux pas in respect of the Russian TBDs has served to take the shine off it somewhat!

WW1 Black Sea Russian Navy Part 2

After much ferreting around (and a phone call to check some details with Mr Fox - cheers Neil!) I have at last come up with the shopping list for the Black Sea Russian Navy 1914 to 1917. Subject to availability I should have this little lot safely at home by Saturday evening. I will post the model codes and quantities etc - as I did for the Balkan Fleets - in due course and i am planning on getting the whole lot under the brush as soon as possible. I have a number of ideas in mind for mini campaigns involving this little lot; more of which later.

The main (in fact the only) difficulty experienced was the choice of model to use for the Lejtenant Puscin class TBs - as near as I could tell they looked like RN two funneled E or River class DDs. This sub group was built by Cammell Laird for the RN and the Russians were described in Jane's fighting ships as being Laird types. In 1/3000th though any differences will be minimal.

Cost wise the whole lot should come in at under £20 so chalk one up for credit crunch wargaming!

WW1 Black Sea Russian Navy

By virtue of my sons very generous fathers day present (of £20 cash plus some very nice aftershave!) the funding is now in place for the 1/3000th Black Sea Russian Fleet and the extra Greek and Turkish ships mentioned previously. I started the research in earnest over the weekend using a combination of Jane's Fighting Ships of WW1 (the omnibus edition) and Rene Gregor's The Russian Fleet 1914 to 1917. Everything has thus far been pretty straightforward but I need to find out about the Laird and Yarrow type torpedo boats (just over 300 tons and looking like turtle backs) used as these will form the mainstay of the fleet in late 1914 - at least until the full quota of Novik class DDs are built starting early 1915. The Russians were very keen on mines as well so this will need to be borne in mind in any mini campaign ideas that result.

There is a really good book on the subject of Russian Naval operations in the Black Sea called North of Gallipoli by gentleman called something or other Nekrasov - I will try and source a copy of this although the Ottoman Steam Navy 1828 to 1923 covers the theatre in some detail. By referencing the Ottoman title and the Russian title I own I should be able to get a clearer picture of what went on.

Extra Boot Sale Bargains.......Again!!

Another Saturday, another trip to Sadlers farm for the boot sale. This time I was able to score a couple of titles to add to the collection for the riduculous sum of £1 each. The first - Blandford's Military Uniforms of the World is an old friend. I remember having a copy of this way back in the early seventies and it was an absolute goldmine of information - especially to a young and financially challenged wargamer! The copy disappeared over time and so I was very pleased to acquire this, albeit for nostalgic reasons. The second tome is far more serious and I was really pleased with this - Richard Woodmans The Real Cruel Sea - The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939 to 1945. The title covers exactly what it says on the cover and is a sobering reminder of the reality of ships at war with not only an implacable enemy but also the worst effects of nature. It certainly adds a perspective to what our naval games should be about - namely protecting our own trade and stopping that of the enemy. Much food for thought with this read methinks.

DBSA into the Great War Part 5

The grand play test with the Austrians versus the Italians was not a great success and this was entirely my fault. By virtue of my poor choice of Austrian destroyers to use from those available and the subsequent suicidal handling of them it meant that the game was pretty much over before it started. The Austrian destroyers were the comparatively early Huszar class compared to the Italians and they came off distinctly second best in a melee with them. The melee was also conducted under the barrage of supporting secondary batteries from the Italian dreadnoughts so the Austrians had a short but exciting life. With the screen destroyed (three bases out of four with only a single point of damage to show on the Italian side!) the Austrians deemed discretion to be the better part of valour and broke off the action. A number of points came out of the game as follows:

1. The damage system of differing types (flood, fire etc) should not be used for destroyers as it slows things down and adds little to game play.
2. Dispensing with NIPs is a great idea and I am pleased I followed that particular line of thought.
3. A play sheet would be helpful!
4. The use of a D6 for ordering speed increases and extra turns worked well and added an element of uncertainty to moves as the action progressed - especially as formations began to get separated.
5. The use of tile spacer bow waves worked well and was a good idea.

I will not bother with a detailed account of this action as it was a fairly low key affair again, due entirely to my own fault. Running a play test at the club may not have been the best idea as the distractions are many and legion so the next round may be either a solo test or perhaps around someones house. I will tweak the rules accordingly to allow for the change in damage for destroyers and will also get a play sheet cobbled together.

The system does appear to be sound though despite the poor showing of the Austrian destroyers (and some truly abysmal dice rolls!). I have consoled myself though with the knowledge that the battle fleet breaking off when faced by an unchallenged destroyer attack was probably quite likely historically..........;-)