A Gunboat Distraction

Where I am at so far. The ‘sandwich filling’ is a piece of 1mm thick card - the hull is not glued yet and is posed solely for the picture - which will painted prior to assembly for the black line around the hull you see below. The end result will bear a passing resemblance to the model in the picture but as usual there will be shortcuts taken and detail fudged!

A rather lovely model of the USS San Pablo

I know, I know - I should be building ironclads, models for Lake Tanganyika, designing models for the ‘Afrabia’ or writing Developing The Portable Ironclads Wargame! So what am I doing then?

Well it is still something Steamer Wars related - but it is something of a minor diversion all the same.

I offer no apologies, I am as weak as the next wargamer!

It was only a couple of years ago that I first watched the film The Sand Pebbles starring Steve McQueen, Richard Crenna and Richard Attenborough. The film tells the story of the fictional US gunboat - the San Pablo - serving in China in the early 1920s. She is there to protect US interests in the area set against a backdrop of increasing anti-foreign sentiment. 

I decided to build a model of the San Pablo and obviously I will need to build some opposition in the shape of some armed Sampans and Junks. Thinking about it, China gunboats could make for a cracking mini campaign or Steamer Wars supplement - all the Great Powers had a presence of sorts following the Boxer Uprising and the revolution of 1911 that ultimately led to civil war.

The model I am building is 4” long with a beam of 1 1/4”. The hull consists of two pieces of 3mm thick MDF and the 1mm card ‘filling’ making it 7mm from the main deck to the waterline. I will not be adding the awnings and the ventilators amidships will be missing. As you can see from the picture above I have fashioned what will be the main deck superstructure so next will be the upper deckhouses etc. I will be painting as much as possible prior to assembly so this build will have incorporated several lessons learned from the Lake Tanganyika collection.

I also need to think about the aforementioned sampans and junks, not to mention a rope barrier…. ;-)

Another Birthday

I tend to be a little behind the curve in respect of Osprey titles but the arrival of the above could not be more timely! Very helpful having the pertinent information readily to hand rather than trawling through several other volumes. There are a few others in this series that will be added…. 

Yesterday, the 28th of September, was my 64th birthday or as I described it ad nauseam, my ‘Beatles Birthday’. I was spoilt rotten by the family - my son kicked off the day with his delicious scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast and the family takeaway dinner - and our tradition is whoever has the birthday chooses the takeaway and so for a change from our usual Indian or Turkish we enjoyed a quite scrumptious Chinese. I was fortunate to receive a wonderful selection of presents. The Memsahib has paid for a massage for me along with a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin, some aftershave and a pair of slippers. My son got me a sleeve for my new laptop and the four Osprey titles you see in the picture - very useful indeed and certainly timely! From my daughter a new pair of Bluetooth headphones and some nibbles - I am a sucker for Fruit Pastilles and chocolate covered Brazil nuts!

It was a lovely day and I was definitely both moved and humbled by all the good wishes from friends and family.

Meanwhile, back at the modelling table….

Developing The Portable Ironclads Wargame

The latest addition to the library and a fairly significant clue as to where my current focus is for the period!

As it has been quite a while since this title was first mooted I figured that it would be a good time to outline what it will consist of - and what it will not! This has been prompted by a couple of things. Firstly, I have chopped and changed my mind about certain elements over time which has proven to be rather confusing - especially when I was revisiting the draft text! Secondly, I have recently exchanged emails with Simon Wilson, one of my blog readers and a play-tester extraordinaire for the original Portable Ironclads Wargame, in which questions were raised about the new book.

Taking these two points together I decided that the time was nigh to describe what ‘Developing’ will look like and hopefully allay any concerns about ‘new versions’ and suchlike. 

What is in it

DTPIW is first and foremost a collection of optional rules for use with the original version. Players can use some, all or none of these as they are suggestions only - just to mix things up a little and to tailor their gaming experience to what works best for them. In keeping within the spirit of the Portable Wargame the core rules are designed to be a toolkit that can be tinkered with to suit a player’s own ideas for the rules governing naval battles during the period. If something does not feel right then it can be changed or discarded as required.

There will be included a full square grid based adaptation - this will include firing arcs and adjustments to the rules where needed. Originally I wanted to use a square grid but I really struggled to get it to work but after experimentation etc I reckon I have nailed it down at last.

There will be a full errata to the original version. I am working on a PDF that is concerned solely with the rules - to be honest this is more of clarification of certain points than a wholesale change - which should be available shortly, free of charge. There are a few errors in the supporting text but nothing major and so tidying these up makes sense.

At the time of writing there is only one change to the rules that is recommended - that of firing arcs which has featured in my two recent blog posts. I have added to the armour and gunnery factor tables so that the rules can use broadside battery ships of the line - two and three deckers still in service. 

The ACW ship specification list will appear in an expanded form featuring more ships. There will also be some more model pictures as I have added to the ACW collection since publication (although I still have some to build!).

There will be an action fought on a square grid and for this I have chosen to go down the fictional route rather than looking at a historical campaign. I will be featuring a battle taken from the war of 1880 between Great Britain and Turkey and so am currently designing and building the models for this.

What is not in it

This is not a second edition, it is merely the first edition tidied up and with a suite of optional rules to try. 

There is no expanded historical background nor details of technical evolution. Lissa or the War of the Pacific will not be appearing as they have been extensively covered elsewhere - I wanted something a little different - which is why I opted for a fictional campaign. 

Final Thoughts

At the risk of repeating myself, most of what will be featuring in DTPIW is what could have been in the original Portable Ironclads Wargame but time and circumstances were not on my side in 2022. I hope that this volume will help to round out the rules for the period 1860 to around 1880 and to demonstrate that they are usable beyond the American Civil War - fascinating though it is!

My thanks to Simon Wilson for helping to prompt this post!

Firing Arcs - Revised Edition and the Rule of One Hex

A busy day for the CSS Tennessee (in the centre). Her opposition consists of the USS Kearsage (on the left side of the Confederate ship), the USS Keokuk (top right) and the USS Sassacus (bottom right.

Following on from my last post I wanted to explain further how this works in practice and so have set up the hypothetical engagement you see in the picture above. The following text is not how it will appear in the final PDF but I hope it serves to make things clearer.

The Port and Starboard firing arc of the CSS Tennessee is the area marked by the coffee stirrers designated P and S. Now the eagle eyed among you will have no doubt noticed that alternate hexes are in fact cut in half by the aforementioned coffee stirrers. What does this mean?

Allow me to explain.

In these rules warship models for the most part occupy two hexes. In order for them to be fired upon at full effect then both hexes occupied by the target ship MUST be within the firing ships firing arc. Note that a ship that occupies one full hex and one hex that is cut in half - essentially a partial hex - within a given arc may also be fired upon at full effect. If a ship occupies only one hex within a firing ship’s firing arc then the fire is at half effect, rounded down. This is the Rule of One Hex.

Taking each target ship individually I will explain the arcs and effect on firing.

USS Kearsage - she is in the Port, Forward Wide and Aft Wide firing arcs - and heartily wishing she was elsewhere! For the Port arc she has her stern hex fully within the arc whilst her bow occupies a partial hex - this counts as being fully within the arc. For the Forward Wide arc only her stern is within the arc so any fire received will be at half effect. For the Aft Wide arc her stern occupies a partial hex and her bow is fully within the arc so she can be fired upon at full effect.

The upshot of all of this is the USS Kearsage can be engaged by the CSS Tennessee using her Port and Aft Wide guns each at full effect and from the Forward Wide arc at half effect.

USS Keokuk - she is fully within the Forward Wide arc but only her stern hex is occupying a (partial) hex within the Starboard arc. The USS Keokuk can therefore be engaged via the Forward Wide arc at full effect but only at half effect via the Starboard arc.

USS Sassacus - she is fully within the Aft Wide arc but only occupies a single hex within the starboard arc. Similarly to the USS Keokuk she can be engaged fully via the Aft Wide artillery of the CSS Tennessee but only at half effect from the Starboard guns.

In addition to the above it should be noted that all firing is adjudicated on an individual firing arc basis, even against a single target and a ship may only fire once per firing arc.

In summary

If a target ship only occupies a single full or partial hex within a given firing arc then it can only be fired upon at half effect, rounded down. 

A firing ship can fire once from each arc that it has artillery for and a target to potentially hit.

I hope this has made things a little clearer and please by all means offer any comments or observations - anything to make sure the end result is clear, fair and not misleading.

Firing Arcs - Revised Edition

Firing Arcs version 2. F - Forward, FW - Forward Wide, P - Port, S - Starboard, A - Aft and AW - Aft Wide. F and A are the single row of hexes directly off the bow and stern respectively, P and S are the rows of hexes that lie between the upper and lower horizontal coffee stirrers whilst FW and AW are everything above or below the coffee stirrers placed amidships on the model. The coffee stirrers are a scratch builders friend and can be found in many places, the letters came from the Works whilst the ship is the CSS Tennessee

Converting the Fire Arcs that David Manley used in his Dahlgren and Colombiad rules to be usable on a hexagonal grid presented a few challenges but I managed to make a reasonable approximation of them for use in The Portable Ironclads Wargame. Unfortunately, I seemed to have been beset by a bout of ‘Barkerese’ when it came to describing them, along with references to bisected and straddled hexes! It was a part of the rules that needed to be tidied up and so I have done so.

The picture above will feature in DTPIW, along with some clarification of firing in general - I should emphasise that there are no major changes, just a few little tidy ups!

Hedwig Von Wissmann - Version 2

Hedwig Von Wissmann - note the extensive awnings present

My original model for Hedwig Von Wissmann was lacking a certain something. In common with many ships when operating in tropical climates, Hedwig Von Wissmann was often photographed with awnings in place as protection from the sun.

Hedwig Von Wissmann - version 1 (bottom left)

My first attempt at building her dispensed with the awnings - these would probably be taken down when clearing for action - and I was not entirely satisfied with the height of her bridge superstructure.

The days wore on and so the satisfaction level diminished even further so inevitably, steps had to be taken - the result of which you can see below.

Version 2. I opted to leave the bridge awning in place and by placing a 1cm square piece of 3mm MDF painted black on the half inch square lower bridge. The awning itself - the ‘roof’ - is a half inch square of card.

The side profile. The smaller recessed black piece gives the perception of depth and raises the height of the structure to something more suitable.

I realise this is a but a small piece of work but the end result is something I am far happier with and it certainly looks better. It is also another modelling technique that could be readily used on similar vessels and so has been saved in the brain cell.

Flags and Forts

The African Queen continues on her way past the fort at Shona - I know, it is Turkish but it’s the only one I have that is vaguely close to the original! 

I managed to get the Union Jack applied to the African Queen - in the film she only sported it when going to attack the Louisa - but I like to see my models with flags!

I did hit a small problem in that the flag is only the right way round on one side - The Union Jack should be flown with the wide diagonal stripe at the top nearest the flagstaff. It is correct when viewed from one side but not the other.

Right on the starboard side….

Wrong on the port!

The fort is there just as a backdrop to represent the fort the African Queen had to pass by on her way to the lake. She came under rifle fire from some Askaris but as she had the sun behind her it was mostly ineffective.

Am I going to build a fort for the Germans? Absolutely!