Ship Damage Record Charts

First draft of a ship damage record chart. I fully intend tidying this up in due course but for now it will suffice.

The planned test game did not take place this week and so has been rescheduled for November 5th. There will be doubtless be fireworks….

What I have completed this week though, along with the rules, is the complete ship specification design chapter for the book as well as the ship damage record charts for all the combatants included in the WoFun Tsushima fleet pack. The picture you see above is the chart for two of the Russian Borodino class battleships that took part in the battle where the Borodino was sunk and the Orel was captured by the Japanese. 

I intentionally made these quite large - two ships on a side of A4 although you can get four destroyers - so they are clear and that it is obvious what is what. They are probably not the final version but you can see where my thinking is currently at.

The top half looks at the ship itself whilst the bottom covers the weaponry. Each box in the latter portion refers to a single gun or torpedo mount. The letters refer to firing arcs whilst the numbers refer to the type of gun and the range table it uses. There are six types of gun, six range tables and six levels of protection. 

The rules themselves are heavily influenced, in part, by The Portable Ironclads Wargame but this is not simply a rehash - there is a lot of new material here!

Once the test game has been fought there will be an after action report and pictures to follow. It will see the first use of the WoFun Tsushima collection - at least a part of it - so I am very much looking forward to it!

A Week of Varying Fortunes

A welcome addition to the 1815 section of the man cave library - £2 compared to the published price of £45!

 It has been a miserable week. On Tuesday I managed to stumble whilst exiting the man cave and whilst I did not fall down the whole length of the ladder I did manage to ‘pinball’ between both sides of the hatch opening. The result of this was a badly bruised left elbow and a rather battered right wrist - the latter was not broken but I managed to, to quote the doctor at A and E, “Push some bones in the wrong way.” My planned meeting with Mr Manley was duly postponed and so I spent some time working on the rules for the new book.

That was a bit of a mixed blessing.

It was uncomfortable typing to start with, and to make matters worse, I decided that a chink of it needed changing. The change was relatively minor - mainly the gunnery range tables - but of course there is the inevitable knock on effect, changing the sections that reference back to the tables in question. This in turn meant that the ship specification tables needed changing (again!) so all in all, it meant a week of reinventing the wheel, so to speak, with a large degree of rather clumsy typing!

It is all taken care of now though, and I am far happier with the direction the rules are taking so I should be able to run the first test next week.

Boot Sale Bargains

Laurel and I visited our local boot sale on Sunday - the drive was not too taxing on the arms as the route consists largely of straight roads - and quite surprisingly I was able to pick up a few bits and pieces that certainly lifted my spirits somewhat. Aside from the book above - I am a sucker for anything that has Waterloo on the cover and whilst this is not the most detailed account I have read it is certainly worth having, I also scored the following:

A pair of very slightly used A4 cutting mats and a couple of unused A4 display folders - £1 for the four items

One for Christmas methinks - I am a sucker for old games and this one dates back centuries! 50p and worth it for the 30 D6 alone!

So after a miserable start to the week and a few days of considerable pain and discomfort, the heavens decided that I needed something to cheer me up and guess what? These modest acquisitions did just that!

 

 

Memoir ‘44 Refresh….Kind of….

A newish version of an old favourite - so what is different then? Read on….

I have played many enjoyable games of Memoir ‘44 over the years but for a variety of long forgotten reasons I offloaded my collection several years ago. Was this a mistake? Probably, but like many of my similar disposal decisions it seemed like a good idea at the time. I have often mentioned that I like the all important historical ‘feel’ when playing a wargame and whilst Memoir ‘44 has this it is very much at the easier end of the complexity spectrum. Looking back I think this was the main reason for the disposal.

I only found out that a refreshed edition of Memoir ‘44 was being launched whilst reading about Star Wars: Battle of Hoth. My curiosity was piqued at this news and so, with the usual lack of meaningful forethought for which I am renowned, I picked up a copy.

So What’s New?

The new miniatures. These are now in a hard plastic and are a vast improvement on the original versions

In truth, not very much! The box artwork has been cleaned up and the scenario count has been increased - there are 22 in all with one ‘Overlord’ two board version. The miniatures have been remodelled in a harder plastic and look a whole lot better than the original versions. There are some optional activation tokens that can be used to mark ordered units and the rulebook seems to be easier to read - not that it was difficult in the first place!

The Activation Tokens - movement on the left and firing on the right. The idea is that you place one by each unit you are ordering and flip it from the moving side to the firing side when you engage in combat. 

I did read somewhere that the various expansion sets that feature miniatures will have these remodelled to the new standard but the rules etc will still be the same. So far the only rule change I can see is concerns terrain height and this change should also be applied to the existing expansions.

So what’s next then?

Well, I certainly have no plans at present to go down the rabbit hole and start hoovering up expansions etc - especially as all of the models will be remodelled at some point. I can see myself getting another copy of the base game and the Operation Overlord expansion, along with the double sided desert/snow map board. Most of the scenarios in the expansions can be downloaded from various sources and by making use of the Axis and Allies collection that recently returned home I should be able to fight pretty much anything that takes my fancy.

I think for now the main thing is that I have the base game again and as long as I use it for what it is - a simple but cracking WW2 tactical wargame - rather than what I think it should be all should be well!

WoFun Tsushima Collection

The full Tsushima collection is now ready for action with the bases edged in black (I used a permanent  marker rather than painting them - it was a whole lot easier!) and I have also sorted the ships into their historic formations. There are few gremlins. There are a couple of names spelled incorrectly, one Japanese destroyer was duplicated (Shinonome), another (the Akatsuki, ex Russian Reshitel Nyi) used the wrong image and a further Japanese destroyer - the Arare - is missing. One of the Japanese torpedo boats had the incorrect number - 42 rather than 39 - and a number of their formations were missing entirely - four torpedo divisions in all and an old cruiser squadron.

The Russians had a couple of names spelled incorrectly and the eight ships of the transport squadron used the wrong image - a point of which I am currently in discussions with WoFun.

Despite the above minor niggles I am hugely pleased with the collection and am trying to persuade them to expand the range to include the pre Tsushima ships (and losses) for completeness. 

Anyways, without further ado, here are the two fleets, ready to do battle (and they will be very shortly!).

Japan

1st Squadron, 1st Division - Mikasa, Shikishima, Asahi and Fuji (all PB). Kasuga, Nisshin (all AC) and Tatsuta (UPC)

1st Squadron, 3rd Division - Kasigi, Chitose, Niitaka and Otowa (PC)

1st Destroyer Division - Harusame, Fubuki, Ariake and Akatsuki. 2nd Destroyer Division - Oboro, Inazuma, Ikazuchi and Akebono. 3rd Destroyer Division - Shinonome, Usugumo, Kasumi and Sazanami. All three units are (DD)

2nd Squadron, 2nd Division - Izumo, Iwate, Asama, Tokiwa, Azuma, Yakumo (all AC) and Chihaya (UPC)

2nd Squadron, 4th Division - Naniwa, Takachiho, Akashi and Tsushima (all PC)

4th Destroyer Division - Asagiri, Murasame, Shirakumo and Asashio. 5th Destroyer Division - Shiranui, Murakumo, Yugiri and Kagero. Both units are (DD)

3rd Squadron, 5th Division - Itsukushima, Hashidate, Matsushima, (all PC), Chin Yen (obs PB) and Yaeyama (UPC)

3rd Squadron, 6th Division - Suma, Chiyoda, Akitsushima and Izumi (all PC)

9th Torpedo Boat Division - Aotaka, Kari, Tsubame and Hato. 15th Torpedo Boat Division - Hibari, Sagi, Hashitaka and Uzuru. Both units are (TB)

10th Torpedo Boat Division - Numbers 43, 40, 41 and 42 (42 should be 39). 11th Torpedo Boat Division - Numbers 72, 73, 74 and 75. Both units are (TB)

Russian

1st Division - Alexander III, Orel, Borodino and Suvorov (all PB), Zenchug (PC).

2nd Division - Oslyabya (2nd class PB) Navarin, Sissoi Veliky (PB), Admital Nakhimov (AC) and Izumrud (PC)

3rd Division - Imperator Nikolai I (PB), Admiral Seniavin, Admiral Apraksin and Admiral Ushakov (all CDB)

1st Cruiser Division - Oleg, Aurora (both PC), Donskoi and Monomakh (both AC). 2nd Scouting Division - Svetlana (PC) and Ural (AMC)

1st Destroyer Division - Byedovy, Bystry, Buiny and Bravy. 2nd Destroyer Division - Blestyashchy, Gronky, Grozny, Bezuprechny and Bodry (both are DD)

Transport Squadron - Almaz (a yacht but used as an unprotected cruiser)

So there you have it. Despite a couple of minor niggles I am more than satisfied with this collection. The models (is that the best way to describe them?) look fine and I am sure that I will get some entertaining games with them. I only hope that my discussions with WoFun will yield fruit in respect of the additional ships.

Now, to battle!

Avalon Hill’s Original Midway

An oldie but a goodie. The box is relying heavily on sellotape for its structural integrity but the contents are all present and correct.

I must admit to never having owned or played this version of the climatic battle in the Pacific in 1942. I have gamed the battle using CV - the S. Craig Taylor designed game produced by Yaquinto using his Flat Top system - and it is always a lot of fun. The US needs to keep hidden whilst the Japanese need to attack Midway island. 

Anyway, to cit a long story short I had the opportunity to acquire a copy of the base game at a price that was frankly too good to turn down - so I didn't!

As befits a game released in 1964 the rules are pretty straightforward but do not let that fool you because this offering has oodles of period feel and flavour. It is certainly simpler than Flat Top - which I am a huge fan of - and I would have no hesitation in trying this at the club. All the key elements of carrier operations are there - endless searches, assembling and delivering strikes and protecting the all important carriers. I knew that a number of fan based additional scenarios had been drafted and a chap on eBay produces them. These cover the familiar Coral Sea and Eastern Solomons campaigns (back in the day I played these to death using Flat Top) and also one that I have never looked at - Leyte Gulf in 1944. Both of these are now in the same box as the base game - acquired for completeness naturally!

The contents snuggly stored n the original box

The Midway search boards

The battle board - combat is odds based, how very old school!

The search boards for Coral Sea/Eastern Solomons and Leyte Gulf along with the scenario details and log sheets etc. There are two copies of each map, one for each side.

I must admit that for carrier games this collection is probably more likely to be used than either Flat Top of CV, simply because much as I love both of those games they do need a lot of time and dedication to play successfully. Maybe one day I will be able to persuade someone to give either of them a spin.

In the meantime though, the Avalon Hill game is a welcome addition to the collection and, as I recall, there is a Mediterranean WW2 version available featuring the RN and the Italian Navy using the same system. I will keep an eye open for that for sure!

Hoth, Lissa and Lake Ontario

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

Oh yes indeedy! This is a whole lot of thematic fun with plenty of replay value

I had my first game of Star Wars: Battle of Hoth at the club last night - it was enormous fun! It has been described as ‘Memoir ‘44 lite’ in terms of how it plays and that is a pretty fair assessment. It uses the familiar card based activation system with the usual section and tactic cards with the added chrome of leader card. These are optional but certainly add to the Star Wars ‘feel’ of the game.

Scenario 1. The Empire had five infantry units and two of probe droids whilst the Rebels had seven infantry units. 

Paul, my opponent, took command of the Imperial forces whilst yours truly was the Rebel Alliance. Paul has never played a Command and Colours game so it was a good opportunity for him to try it out. We opted to fight scenario number one of the eighteen included in the game and also to take a leader each - these are represented by three cards that are shuffled into each player’s deck - so Paul took General Veers whilst I opted for Han Solo. The winner was the first player to collect four medals with the probe droids being worth two a unit (normally these are not worth any medals).

The Rebels began well enough on their left flank and quickly despatched two Imperial infantry units. The probe droids lurked in the rear of the Imperial position - only one of these was fired on in the entire game -  whilst the Imperial left flank advanced and dealt with the rebels accordingly. They also managed to take a left flank Rebel unit out as well and so reached four medals and victory.

It was only when I got home that I realised we had been playing with wrong number of command cards for the Empire - they should have had three and not the four they used - it was my fault for sure but I am not convinced t would have a difference to the outcome. 

Paul really enjoyed the game, as did I, and we have decided to work through the scenarios including the final epic scale assault on Hoth requiring two copies of the game - which I have.

The next release in the series is rumoured to be the Battle for Endor so expect to see Ewoks, speeder bikes and perhaps AT STs.

Lissa

I have certain degree of history with the Battle of Lissa in that I actually owned both fleets in 1:2400th many years ago. I cannot remember the manufacturer of the models but for some reason or another I parted with the whole lot during one of my periodic project churning exercises. As I recall it was a rules based decision as why they were disposed of - basically there was not a set around at the time that I wanted to use.

Anyway, I digress. 

As well as Lissa it also includes the actions on the Italian Lakes. Needless to say the indefatigable David Manley has covered this period - Broadside and Ram for the Lissa campaign and Krieg Am Gardasee for the lakes (a supplement for Steamer Wars). Both of these are available on Wargames Vault under his Long Face Games label

When I first heard that this book was going to be published I knew that it would inevitably find its way into my collection - and it has! I had considered using Lissa as the battle in Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame (before the ACW part was added to the title) but making the models in the time available would not have been achievable. I may yet get around to it though and this book will be invaluable when I do! 

Lake Ontario

Looking forward to reading this - nice small scale actions, easily manageable and with me looking at the smaller end of the Tumbling Dice age of sail range!

A welcome change of pace has been revisiting the age of sail. Again, I have a long history with this period although have not really done very much with it. I have a few things to look at - more at the lower level rather than fleet sized - with the war in 1812 featuring and possibly the war against the Barbary Pirates. Part of the naval activity in this war took place on the Great Lakes with Lake Ontario seeing some eminently gameable actions. The book above covers not only the naval side but also some of the land actions - again, these are of a size that easily translates onto the table top. 

As ever, plenty of things to keep me ticking over - along with new book, and my next post will provide a bit of an update on progress with this.