Filling up the edges

By dint of several tactical disposals over recent weeks I have been able to address a few holes in the collection - some of which I have already detailed on the blog - and so am now at the stage whereby I can call a halt, at least until something else heaves over the horizon!

Aside from the assorted books acquired to support the ironclads - the latest of which feature later in this post - there has been one single large purchase.

Two boxes of Hexon blue goodness along with twenty single hexes - enough to cover 6ft by 4ft with 4” hexes. The colour is possibly a little dark for aerial games but that will not stop me using it!

I have (re)invested in some blue Hexon tiles for use with both naval and aerial games. 

There is, inevitably really, a bit of a back story to this in that I have owned a similar quantity of the blue tiles in the past but moved them on some years ago as I wanted to use a cloth instead. I have been on the lookout for a cloth for ages but have yet to find one that is suitable and so I finally decided to revisit Hexon. I prefer a plain blue rather than ‘seascaped’ as it suits my models better and of course, it means that I can avail myself of the Hexon terrain range for islands and shorelines etc.

I had a long chat with Mr Kallistra at The Other Partizan (which is where Mr Barnes spotted me!) and found out a lot of useful stuff about how to produce your own bespoke designs using the plain tiles.

Another couple of titles have found their way into my collection of naval books - one new and one secondhand, the latter I have Joppy of Steam, Steel and Torpedoes fame to thank for bringing it to my attentions - and of course there is the small matter of my Other Partizan loot.

A great doorstop of a tome and very ‘Brassey’s Naval Annual’ like. As soon as I knew of this books existence I simply had to get a copy!

Everything you wanted to know about RN Victorian cruisers but were afraid to ask - a great companion to the author’s title on battleships of the same era.

A surprisingly modest selection of loot from the Other Partizan. The two crusades titles will support a long distance project I have in mind, as will the Viking title. The MDF bases will naturally be used for ship building….

My Victorian naval project for DTPIW now has pretty much all the research material I am likely to need so I can park that for now. The plans are with Warbases for the ships and so work on the masts can commence in advance of the arrival of industrial quantities of MDF.

It is a great feeling knowing that for at least one project - DTPIW - I have everything that I need to complete it.

It is now at the serious part and I cannot wait to plunge into it!

Once again many thanks to Joppy and I promise I will get the errata tackled asap!

The Other Partizan

For the first time ever I made the 140 mile trip via the A127, M25, M11and the A1 to Newark for the Other Partizan. The five hour round trip for a little over two hours of gaming goodness was absolutely worth it! It was busy, crowded and hard on the feet but I was able to get everything done that I wanted to - apart from meeting a couple of people (sorry Mr Barnes!). 

The first port of call was to transact some business with Dave Lanchester which was, as ever, an ongoing pleasure (and I managed to reinvest some of the proceeds in some items that will feature in the next post) and one that I have no doubt will repeated!

The rest of this post will be largely a photo dump with some commentary - it has been rather a long day after all!

 

Look closely at the Sherman on the bridge at Arnhem - I managed to relieve 1st Airborne in 15 turns out of 20. This was a feat I also managed on my visit to COW a few years back. It is a tale I will tell my grandchildren - and mightily bored they’ll be….

John Armatys - overseer of Operation Market Garden, Wargames Development aficionado and all round good chap - who has persuaded me to pen a blog post about mast building!

Mr Flanagan - roller of legendary dice - thinking about his nest move against the esteemed Mr Evans (he moved at a critical moment and so you can only see part of his head!). I was very much taken by this game - properly researched history, attractive terrain and figures and an organiser passionate about the subject matter!

 

One half of Ken “Yarkshire Gamer” Reilly’s excellent Italian Wars bash.

The other half - Ken is sporting the blue tee shirt!

The whole thing - beautifully executed and with pike blocks that looked like they meant business

WW1 in East Africa in 28mm

The view from the landward side

The accompanying naval support

The view from the sea looking inland

More of the naval support including some old friends….

A-Fez of state….Just like that!

For a number of reasons my favourite game of the day - I will let the pictures do the talking

Native bearers

The view down the table

The all important back story and beautifully executed. I suspect that Eric would have been delighted to see this.

All of the pictures were taken on my phone so apologies for the quality but trust me, there are plenty of better quality ones around!

It was a very quick visit for me - around two hours - but I could have happily spent a full day and then some yanking time to take it all in. These games were the standouts for me but there was sufficient variety of games, large and small to cater for all tastes and all of a high quality.

My show haul was modest, three books and three bags of MDF bases but the shopping was never the main  reason for going. 

All that atmosphere - well done to all that made it such a special day.

Under Starter’s Orders

A real bargain of a new addition - £22 as opposed to £50 - and worth every penny! A more ‘modern’ read compared to Parkes but with a slightly better coverage of foreign competition in the battleship stakes.

Double sized pictures of actual plans and….

….this quite magnificent double sized double sized centrefold!

I finally competed the ten pages of ironclad designs for Warbases and these have been duly sent (and acknowledged) to Martin. I will be making a point of seeing him on Sunday at the Other Partizan show in Newark - a two and a half hour drive from me so I do not plan to make this a regular trip! I hope to catch up with as many people as I can whilst I am there as well as getting some pictures.

Whilst Martin at Warbases is working his magic I will be making a start on making masts as every ship in this project has at least two. Mast building is very satisfying and easy to do but one does need to take care when gluing. You cannot rush it.

Next steps

Another really useful supplement from the pen of Mr. David Manley

Aside from the masts I need to convert the specifications of my chosen ships into DTPIW terms. For the Turks this will be straightforward as many of the ships feature in David Manley’s Russo Turkish War supplement but the Royal Navy I will need to do from scratch.

I will get the modelling tray cleared for action so the San Pablo will need finishing, along with the Belgians for Lake Tanganyika.

I have all the flags I need and will check the paint situation prior to setting off on Sunday - I will need a lot of Vallejo Black for sure!

Let the games commence!

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!

Making Plans

I am the first to admit that I am not really a draughtsman but Martin at Warbases has the uncanny ability to be able to translate my crude sketchings!

The above are the first seven sheets of designs for Warbases for the models I shall be building for the Anglo Turkish War of 1880. There will be a goodly selection of types for both sides and have certainly gone over the planned sixteen models!

As ever I am using my standard hull template - in various lengths as required - which is rather full at both the bow and stern and with dead straight sides. Bamboo skewers (3mm thick and ideal for masts) and wooden cocktail sticks (2mm thick and usable for spars, deck guns and flagstaffs) along with card squares and rectangles (5mm square or 5mm x 10mm and usable for gun ports and deck hatch covers) and lashings of superglue will be the order of the day for sure!

I am really looking forward to cracking on with this lot but first need to clear a small backlog of Lake Tanganyika and San Pablo stuff - more of which later.

Digging Deeper

Now that is a lot of book!

Prompted by the need to really crack on with the ironclad models for DTPIW I spent a lot of time over the weekend poring through the pages of the above two tomes - and a very enjoyable experience is was as well!

I think I have the order of battle for both the Turks and the Royal Navy pretty much dialled in although the inevitable ‘project creep’ has manifested itself.

No surprise there then!

The action I am planning will feature sixteen vessels and I am allowing for building around twenty or so. These will all be masted but I have the building technique for these worked out so they will not be a problem and in fact, I can start building them now. 

The plans for the bespoke pieces from Warbases are close to being completed and will be with Martin Murray later this week. Allowing for a four to six week turnaround I should be working in the models properly from mid November. Assembling the hulls etc is really quick and easy to do - it is the masts that take the time. The aim is to have all the models built and ready for action by the end of the year. In the meantime I shall be honing the text and getting a few more pictures organised - all being well Q1 next year will see it being published.

Fingers crossed!

WW1 Cruiser Warfare

Cruiser Warfare - the chances of me passing this by were slim to zero!

The back of the box. 

The early part of the Great War at sea saw the allies quickly attempting to contain the threat of German cruisers and auxiliaries interfering with troop convoys and merchantmen. It is a fascinating period to game - usually the model count is very modest - with the emphasis being quite asymmetrical. The Germans have to wreak havoc where they can and the allies have to stop them - ideally before they can get back to Germany. 

Over the years I have fought many ‘hunt the raider’ style actions and they are always a lot of fun.

Avalanche Press have produced a number of operational/tactical boardgames covering the Great War at Sea (the series name) as well as WW2 and use for the tactical side a set of rules that would be easily transferable to the tabletop - as long as you used a hexagonal grid that is! 

Aside from the North Sea and the Mediterranean games they also produced the game you see above. This is global in scale as at the start of the war the Germans have cruisers dotted around the place, all keen to return to the Fatherland whilst the Allies are less enthusiastic about that particular course of action! There is in truth only one scenario at the operational level - the German player must get back to the North Sea whilst the Allies must prevent them - but there are a number of tactical games covering Coronel and the Falklands.

I have been after a copy of this for a while but the second hand prices were too rich for me. A chance trawl through eBay came up with a UK based seller of an unpunched version at a reasonable price and so I happily pulled the trigger!

The Allies - The Royal Navy and representatives from the Commonwealth nations (Australia, New Zealand and Canada), France, Japan and Russia, massively outnumber the Germans (and Austrians) but the sea is a big place and so bringing them into action is a Herculean task in itself. 

This type of game is right up my street and I am looking forward to giving it a whirl and naturally, I already have some plans afoot…..