Turtle Ships and Samurai

 From the pen of the indefatigable Mr Manley (the rules anyway) and the equally erudite Mr Turnbull

I have not forgotten about this little side project - well maybe a little - but it is something I would like to get to the table at some point. I have ships for both sides from MT Miniatures and the rules from David Manley (who else?) so all that I need is time but of course, as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell once observed: “Time is your greatest adversary!”.

Turtle ships and Samurai - what’s not to like?

WoFun Russo Japanese Ships - A Few Anyway….

 

The contents of Japanese sprue number 2. The ships are 1:1400th and not 1:1200th as I reported previously. The bases have been edged in black using a Sharpie - quicker than painting them! 

All of the WoFun Tsushima set are now on bases so the next task will be to edge them. I will be using a black Sharpie for this as it is quick and easier to do than using a paintbrush. The sprue above was included in the box of replacement bases and as it is a duplicate I thought I would see how the black edging looked. I took the squadron to the club last night and Messrs Fox and Huband agreed that it looked pretty good so I will need to edge them whole collection. It should not take long to do and I have also thought about storage for the two fleets. I am thinking about using A4 sized box files - the type that is half as deep as the normal size. The foam used in the WoFun boxes and be cut to size and shape so that the ships can be stored lying on their side. Despite a couple of minor issues (currently being resolved) I am really pleased with this collection and am looking forward to getting it into action soon.

Research, research and more research.

As part of my research into the ‘Battleships’ era (this is what I have christened the pre dreadnought sub period in the book), I have been adding to the library in a modest way. The latest acquisition is the two titles you see below.

Really pleased to have got these two - the information on the ships involved is really comprehensive and comes with plenty of pictures, many of which are new to me.

For the most part I think I have more than enough in the way of printed material to use for my research into the naval dimension of the Russo Japanese war although there is still plenty more out there!

So aside from the edging the bases of the WoFun models all I then need to think about is the basing for the Tumbling Dice models for the Great War. I shall get that particular task organised over the next couple of days. Then it will typing up the first draft of the rules.

Plenty to do then, but it is all manageable!

Shades of Blue and Basing

Original bases on the right with the newer on the left. I am much happier with the new colour!

Those Wonderful WoFun people have done it again! You may recall that when my Tsushima fleet pack arrived - with the bases - that I had an issue with some of them being way too small for the ship. A fair number of destroyer bases and a few cruisers were short by as much as a centimetre. I duly contacted WoFun who were happy to replace them with the suggested size I wanted which was extremely good of them to do so. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the bases arrived yesterday morning and not only had they replaced the incorrectly sized version but also the entire fleet set and the shell splash, fire and explosion markers. 

I was very pleased with this, thinking at the time what would I do with the excess bases, when I realised why they had done this. The sea colour had changed from tropical to more of a blue water colour.

I spent an hour or so swapping the bases over and fixing the ships in place with a touch of glue and merely have the nine Russian destroyers left to finish the job. I am going to stick with the bases supplied but I will certainly look to edge them as the brown of the laser cut MDF looks plain wrong as sea. In the interests of speed I may just go over the edges with a suitably coloured permanent marker although I have yet to decide what colour would look best.

I have also made a list of the ships included on a sprue by sprue basis. The list will also include the ship type, what formation they were in for the actual battle itself and any other pertinent notes. 

The full review will take place once I have sorted the models into their respective formations and yes, there will be plenty of pictures.

The Great War

I also went through the selection of Tumbling Dice 1:2400th scale models I have for the projected Madasahatta/East African/Arabian Peninsula naval campaign - there are a few models I will need to add for this but surprisingly not that many - with a view to getting the bases ordered from Warbases. Once I have these I can organise the models needed for Coronel/Falklands although the temptation to do something with the Goeben and Breslau in the Black Sea is gnawing away at my conscience!

Another Game and The New Rules

Mr Huband's wonderful 'pimped' Minifigs ships - in this case the Russians emerging from Port Arthur with the two minesweeping destroyers in the van.

Lots of domestic stuff going on at present hence the paucity of postings BUT, I was able to take part in a thoroughly enjoyable Russo Japanese naval game using Mr Huband's variant of Bob Cordery's Gridded Naval Wargames pre dreadnought seton Wednesday evening.

The Battle

There are pictures of the action but sadly my own are rather poor so I will look to get some from Mr Fox at some point. The scenario had a Russian squadron attempting to breakout from Port Arthur with a Japanese force attempting to stop them. A sneaky minefield had been laid more or less on the Russian doorstep by the Japanese destroyers and this was intended to be an integral part of the Japanese plan. 

I should mention that Mr Fox was in command of the Russians whilst yours truly commanded the Emperor's finest.

The Russian force consisted of the following:

Sevastopol PB (Flag)

Poltava PB

Potemkin PB

Petropavlovsk PB

Dvenadsat Apostolov Old PB

Tri Sviatitelia Old PB

Rossiya AC

Rurik AC (Flag)

Gromky DD

Grozny DD

The Japanese force consisted of the following:

Shikishima PB (Flag)

Kaga PB

Akagi PB

Asahi PB

Chitose AC

Yoshino AC

Idzumo AC (Flag)

Ikazuchi DD

Inazuma DD

Oboro DD

Akebono DD

The Japanese orders were to prevent the Russians breaking out whilst maintaining the integrity of the fleet - basically avoiding losses where possible. With this in mind the Japanese plan was simple. The cruisers and destroyers were to ambush the rear the of the Russian line whilst it negotiated the minefield - hopefully with some damage inflicted during the transit. The Japanese battle line held back with the intention engaging the van of the approaching Russians.

The Russians emerged with their two destroyers on minesweeping duty whilst the Japanese flanking force raced to get behind them, counting on the minefield to delay and hopefully break up the Russian formation. 

Aside from scraping the paint from a couple of Russian ships as they raced by the minefield might as well have not been there for all the good it did! This meant that they managed to get much further forward than anticipated, almost up to the Japanese battle line. 

The action that followed was intense to say the least! 

The Japanese destroyers flung themselves at the centre of the Russian line and two - the Ikazuchi and the Inazuma - were duly sunk for their trouble. They died honourably. The rear of the Russian line gleefully engaged the flanking Japanese armoured cruisers, sinking the flagship, the Idzumo. Whilst this was happening the Japanese cruisers fought back hard, battering the Potemkin, the Sevastopol and the Dvenadsat Apostolov. They also managed to sink one of the two Russian destroyers, the Gromky. 

In the van of the Russian squadron the two Russian armoured cruisers had the misfortune of running into the Shikishima, the Kaga and the Akagi at point blank range who then collectively reduced both ships to a sinking condition in fairly short order - to paraphrase Mr Fox as he drily observed, I most certainly did enjoy destroying both cruisers at point blank range!

Sadly we had to call a halt at this point but it was a cracking action. As Mr  Huband observed, the tracks that two fleets took had the feel of an actual battle - which is after all, how it should be. It certainly felt like it!

New Rules

The 'New Rules' alluded to are of course, those that will be appearing in the new book. I am happy to say that I am now at the first draft stage and I will be looking to start play testing in a week or so. There are a few elements borrowed from the Portable Ironclads Wargame as well as Bob Cordery's Gridded Naval Wargames so they will not be too unfamiliar. 

Given that the rules will be extensively tested before publication having them ready now is really handy. As an aside it also means that I will need to get cracking on some painting for the Great War portion of the rules, as well as drawing up some ship charts.

Once again my thanks to Messrs Fox and Huband for a most excellent evenings entertainment

 

Star Wars Assimilated by the Borg…..

The Empire Strikes Back - Command and Colours style….

….and the back of the box

By way of a change of direction this post is firmly rooted in Science Fiction (or should that be Science Fantasy?), a gaming genre that I have enjoyed in many forms over the years.

Star Wars: Battle of Hoth is the latest offering from Mr Command and Colours himself, Richard Borg. When this was first announced some months ago I knew that resistance would be futile and so two copies of the game duly arrived earlier in the week. 

The game rules would be familiar to anyone that has played any of the Command and Colours series of games. Command cards dictate movement and combat and each side - Empire and Rebel - has their own set of 16 order cards. There are also nine leader cards for each side - there are three leaders, each with their own special abilities - and a deck of support cards to use with the two campaigns included. The leaders are Han, Luke and Leia for the Rebels and General Veers, Admiral Piett and Darth Vader for the Empire.

The rules and scenario book - 12 pages for the former and 20 for the latter

The biggest change from most C and C games with this edition is that the playing area is a modest 7 by 10 hexes so the action kicks off quickly. The map board is double sided with the reverse being able to join another board for epic style battles. There are eighteen scenarios, seventeen of these use a single map whilst the last one - Assault on Hoth - is the epic version requiring two copies of the game as it uses two maps for a playing area 15 by 10.

Countersheet front….

….and back

Map board deployed for scenarios 1 to 17

….and the flip side 

The two campaigns included - note each side has their own instructions. Also shown are the dice and assorted game aids.

Most of the key elements from the battle are present - AT-ATs, Snowspeeders, Probe Droids, Rebel Artillery, the Ion Cannon, Sheild Generators and of course, the infantry. In common with some of the Memoir ‘44 expansions, elite units or special weapon equipped squads have a counter to indicate their status. Imperial snow troopers are in 4s whilst the Rebels are in 3s. AT-ATs are singles, as is the Rebel Artillery. Probe Droids operate in 2s whilst the Snowspeeders are in 3s.

Rebels - artillery, a unit of Snowspeeders and infantry

An Imperial AT-AT, a pair of probe droids and a unit of snow troopers.

The AT-AT - All Terrain Armoured Transport. 

Due to the smaller sized board the action stats almost immediately and has that all important ‘feel’ - I defy anyone playing this to not have the soundtrack running through their head, if not actually playing it!

Originally I was a little undecided about this latest offering as I thought it might be a little restrictive but there is still plenty of tactical meat to get into, along with the Star Wars feel. I would have liked to have seen some other material available - AT-STs, leader figures, maybe some Rebels mounted on Tauntauns.

For all that, I am still going to enjoy this first instalment in the ‘Galactic Battles’ series - rumour has it that other battles will feature on a standalone basis but be prepared for a wait though! There are already a lot of fan made ideas for scenarios etc doing the rounds and the 3D printing fraternity have been having a field day. I am looking forward to taking my first steps into a galaxy far, far away….

“Lock S-Foils in attack mode!”

Hard on the heels of the Star Wars bundle came the latest offering from Osprey - Voidfighter: A Science Fiction Dogfighting Wargame. As soon as I saw this I was all over it like a cheap suit - gotta love some Sci Fi dogfights - as this is a gaming subject that has given me some cracking games over the years and long overdue for a revisit. Best of all, you really do not need a lot of material to get some games in.

Plenty of Sci Fi goodness to look forward to then- and I most certainly will!

Bots the Matter? 2,000,000 plus or is it?

 

A large number for sure but how accurate is it?

I am not sure if I should be celebrating this or not as the blog has gone beyond the two million page views in a fairly spectacular fashion!

The progress to two million was relatively measured but over the last couple of weeks or so the daily page views have been off the charts so to speak! I think I hit the two million milestone legitimately but it has been bonkers on a daily basis ever since and way in excess of the usual viewing traffic.

Much activity in the Bot-o-sphere methinks.

Anyway, to all of the human readers that have looked at my ramblings over the years, many thanks.

And to the Bots, please leave A Wargaming Odyssey alone - I shall start getting delusions of grandeur otherwise!

Girding One's Loins - NWASS 1

A nice way to ease myself back into the Great War at Sea after a surfeit of Ironclads!

Following on from our brief and rain soaked sojourn to the West Country last week, work has commenced in earnest on the new book. Currently the working title is "Naval Wargames in the Age of Steam and Steel" but this may not be the final word. It will however, suffice for now.

I have been busy going through my physical and digital archives to dig out any usable material for the book and was delighted to find several bits and pieces I had forgotten I had. To begin with there is a very nice table of Jane's Gun Ratings and which ships carried what. These came from a set of rules published by Skytrex back in the day and I have fond memories of using them with my 1:3000th French.

I also came across some of my earlier naval rule sets for the period 1890 to 1920 including one titles "The Naval Wargame 1890 - 1920" which contains some ideas that I may well bring up to date and include in the new set.

Another part of this process is that I have decided to type up the salient bits and pieces from various sources so that I have a digital version handy and also so that the information is all in one place. I have really enjoyed doing this and it has had the added advantage of limbering up my keyboard skills. It is also handy having a physical version for making notes on etc - I tend to do this and then retype the text.

The amended bases for my WoFun Russo Japanese collection will be on their way this Thursday which is really handy. This will means that the two fleets will be ready for action very shortly and the plan is to persuade Mr Huband to let me use them as part of his ongoing RJW project - naturally with pictures and after action reports! 

I also dug out the box of 1:2400th Tumbling Dice WW1 British and German ships that will need basing and painting. I may tackle this particular task sooner rather than later which will then mean that I will have all the ships required for the three sub periods - now referred to as Ironclads, Battleships and Dreadnoughts.

You may recall that I had flirted with the idea of a Madasahatta inspired WW1 naval campaign that included East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The models acquired reflected this and so the list is as follows:

ABB38 Bristol 1909 (CL) x 1

ABG2 Brandenburg 1896 (PB) x 2

ABG30 Magdeburg 1911 (CL) x 1

ABG24 Moltke 1910 (BC) x 1

ABB26 Apollo 1890 (CL) x 2

ABB9 Swiftsure 1903 (PB) x 2

ABB14 Cressy 1899 (AC) x 1

The fleet packs consisted of the following:

ASB MSP9 British China/Pacific Squadron 1905

ASB MSP12 British Falkland Islands 1914

ASB MSP11 German Pacific Squadron 1914

You can probably guess where two of the above packs are heading! In fact I plan to run Coronel/Falklands as the WW1 game in the book although the temptation to use the Goeben and the Breslau against the Russians in the Black Sea is also quite tempting....

At this stage I have no plans to add to the ACW collection so that is 'good to go' as they say. In the meantime though, I need to measure up the TD models for their bases as well as typing out the name labels. Luckily I already have the ensigns in stock.