DTPIW: Once More Unto the Breach....And all that!

Not exactly the forces that will be action soon but there are similarities. The Mobile Bay Confederate ships the CSS Tennessee leading followed by the CSS Selma flanked by the CSS Morgan and Gaines.

This coming Wednesday evening will see another run out of The Portable Ironclads Wargame at the club - and it promises to be a doozy! There will some ships in action that have never graced the table top but more importantly, some new players will be taking part for the first time.

It will also be a relatively large action - around a dozen models all told - with a fort and minefields to contend with, at least for the Union that is.

I have also finalised a QRS for use with The Portable Ironclads Wargame which will be road tested as part of the game. I cannot claim that it has been a wholly individual exercise - a number of significant contributions have come from various quarters - as many suggestions have been made in getting it to where it is now. They know who they are and have my grateful thanks.

There will be an after action report but for now it is sufficient to relate that the game is the final act of the trilogy of battles that started with Gridded Naval Wargames by Bob Cordery, set along the 'great father of waters' the mighty Missenhitti river.

Command and Colours: Medieval(?)

The modest selection of titles I own covering much of the material from the base game - note the hardback version of the venerable Armies of the Dark Ages.

It Is fairly safe to say that the majority of readers of this blog will be familiar with the Command and Colours series of games designed by Richard Borg. The Medieval version takes as its starting point the end of the Roman Empire in the West and finished up at the end of the 6th century. I do not consider myself to be well read in the period at all but in my mind calling this period Medieval feels a little off but I am sure that wiser heads than mine can explain the whys and wherefores!

Anyways, before moving on the Crusades expansion (which I why I purchased the base game in the first place and then waited ages for the expansion to be published!) I figures that it would be a good idea to acquaint myself with the wars of the early Byzantines centred on Belisarius of Robert Graves’s Count Belisarius fame - despite the artistic licence!

Starting with the WRG book - and what gamer of the period hasn’t? - I added a few other titles over time to round out my knowledge of the period. With the exception of the Belisarius title all have featured on the blog at some point in the past. The Belisarius title is the latest addition and I am really enjoying reading it.

It is one of those books that is very self contained in that it starts with setting the scene of the period, traces the life of Belisarius and his campaigns, looks at the armies of the period and how they were equipped and fought as well as including maps and brief biographies of the key personalities. It is not a perfect title in that here are a few irritating typos but make no mistake - if you only had one book on the period I would absolutely recommend this one!

At the time of writing I am just getting to the war in Africa against the Vandals after his earlier campaign against the Persians. This is one of the irritating typos - Sasanid rather than Sassanid….

Despite my earlier reservations - mainly because of a lack of knowledge of the period - I am looking forward to enjoying some games set in the 6th century before moving on to the main course of the Crusades - which in my world is firmly in the Medieval timeframe!

For the record I have absolutely no intention of painting armies for this period nor for the Crusades - although the idea of using 3mm has a certain appeal….

Just saying….

DTPIW: A Big Chunk of Progress

Oh no - not another firing arc diagram!

It has been a busy but rewarding day working on Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame. The final chapters (with the exception of the battle report - which has yet to be organised, let alone fought!) have been sent over to the Editor-in-Chief and for the first time in a while I can sense the finishing line being in sight!

Pictures are being added and once the new text has been incorporated and sent back to me for review - there are a few minor changes here and there - we can think about publishing which, all being well, will be during this half of the year.

The picture you see is a taster of what you can expect - no context though, that will spoil the surprise!

More on Fighters of the Pacific

Looking forward to giving this a spin - there is a solo system included - and am thinking about how best to ‘elevate’ the aircraft counters.

Following on from my earlier post about Fighters of the Pacific, today saw the arrival of the Midway expansion set, all the way from the US of A! I now have both expansions for the game - Coral Sea being the other - which means that some South Pacific carrier air action may well be imminent! There are some kickstarter bits and pieces that would be nice to have but are not really essential and besides, I have to keep myself in check for when the European version is launched later this year.

The Midway set, aside from the usual Wildcat, Dauntless, Devastator and Zero, Kate and Val types, also includes Buffaloes, B26s and Avengers. Both the expansions include a five scenario mini-campaign that features key points of the respective operations.

Nice and compact - it all lives in the base game box - and ready to roll so I reckon I should do something about it over the weekend.

A Mixed Bag of Goodies

Ancient galleys of all shapes and sizes at war over some five centuries. 

The back of the box

With the last flurry of activity in relation to the ongoing ‘churn and burn’ of my collection, I scored three items that have been on the acquisition list for a while. I can honestly say (said no wargamer ever!) that I am now at a convenient break point from all the ‘ducking and diving’ of recent months!

There are a couple of other items I have my eye on that have yet to be released but for now that is it.

First up is a board game I have been casting covetous eyes on for some time. War Galley is a tactical board game representing ancient naval warfare so lots of biremes, triremes and larger types feature with all the usual ‘ancient galley style shenanigans’ one would expect - oar rakes, the ‘Diekplus’, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Egyptians, Carthaginians and a whole pile of scenarios. This copy is unpunched and comes complete with the Salamis expansion set, several scenarios from magazines as well as the counters required to refight the naval battle from the film Ben Hur - “Row well and live!”

I still have all the material for my planned Salamis project - including a whole pile of MDF triremes. I have a feeling that using this board game may make the refight happen sooner rather than later - even if it does not it will still be a whole lot easier to set up.

Sagittarius Rising on the left (a Folio edition) and the outstanding work by Prof. Philip Sabin on ancient battles and how to game them.

The other two acquisitions are of the book variety. Sagittarius Rising covers the life of Cecil Lewis from 1915 to 1921 as a flyer and trainer of flyers. I read this in paperback a number of years ago so getting a cheap hardback Folio edition was a no brainer. Perfect inspiration for my ‘cardboard aircraft’ WW1 aerial project!

Lost Battles I have owned but but copy went missing some time ago and whilst a paperback edition was published this hardback edition came up at a very good price so again, it was too tempting to turn down. The book is essentially a toolkit to recreate ancient battles using a grid.

What’s not to like?

Very happy with all three of the above and at the time of writing I have one further acquisition that is currently en route from the US of A which will finish a particular project off. 

In the meantime though, back to DTPIW and also the flying bases and cardboard aircraft!

The Second Day of Hampton Roads

Yesterday evening saw Messrs Fox and Huband once again taking command of a selection of ships for a ‘based upon’ Hampton Roads - the second day thereof - game using the Portable Ironclad Wargame. Once again that ‘Will ‘o the wisp of the bounding main!” Aka Mr Fox, assumed command of the Confederates, represented solely by the CSS Virginia. Mr Huband took command of the USS Monitor and the grounded USS Minnesota.

Historically the CSS Virginia sallied forth to finish off the USS Minnesota but was prevented from doing so by the appearance of the USS Monitor.

So much for the history….

In the action that followed - and apologies for the brevity of this report - the CSS Virginia initially largely ignored the USS Monitor and headed straight for the USS Minnesota, firing as she went. Despite the size of the Union vessel she was ‘sunk’ in fairly short order due in part to some ferocious Confederate gunnery (never again will I listen to Mr Fox bemoaning his dice luck!). The USS Monitor eventually got to grips with the Confederate ironclad by the simple expedient of parking herself across the bows of the CSS Virginia and exchanging fire at point blank range to telling effect. It was all the invitation that the CSS Virginia needed though, and so she duly rammed the Union ship - to no effect! However, following the post ram attack optional free turn, the Confederate ship was now facing the right way headed towards home and so with little likelihood of being overhauled by the USS Monitor, we called the action.

The Union ship could have pursued the CSS Virginia but as they both had the same speed (2) the best that they could have done would have been to maintain station. A tactical Confederate victory for sure but the Union blockading squadron would soon be reinforced and the likelihood of a repeat performance would be slim.

The pictures are 

Starting positions. The brown hexes are where the USS Minnesota has run aground

The ironclads approach cautiously 

USS Monitor closes on the CSS Virginia who maintains a damaging fire against the helpless USS Minnesota - however, in her eagerness to tackle the grounded Union vessel she has strayed into range and arc of her broadside.

By this time the damage to the Union frigate was terminal and so the Confederate reversed her course for home - straight into the USS Monitor!

Sadly no picture of the ram attack but the positions above are after it was resolved. Sadly the Confederate gunnery dice did not take to ramming and so no damage was inflicted on the USS Monitor. Once she was underway the CSS Virginia was heading directly back to base. The USS Monitor wisely broke off the action.

Afterthoughts and Observations

From a historical perspective the action felt accurately paced and ‘right’. The USS Minnesota was made short work of, reflecting a similar impact the CSS Virginia had the previous day. USS Monitor was able to ‘run interference’ but by the time she did it was already too late. The two ironclads banged away at each other with limited effect - the USS Monitor definitely came second overall during the exchange - and the ram attack was a disappointing failure. 

The vulnerability of wooden ships when facing ironclads was ably demonstrated, as was the somewhat laborious exchange of fire between the two ironclads. As mentioned, both felt right for the period.

The rules ran well enough although I need to make some markers for various things - fires, floods, sinking etc - and also to further refine the QRS.

Mr Huband came up with a rather nifty flow diagram for firing which I am seriously thinking about incorporating within the QRS at some point.

As a spur of the moment idea I have suggested running the first day of Hampton Roads - pre the USS Monitor - which should be fun (maybe not for the Union though!). Something to think about though.

Once again my thanks to both Mr Fox and Mr Huband for their continued interest and support - it is very much appreciated.

Duel of the Ironclads - Hampton Roads

USS Minnesota (top), USS Monitor (centre) and the CSS Virginia (bottom) prepare to do battle once again.

This evening I shall be running a Portable Ironclads Wargame based on the second day of the action at Hampton Roads. It is a small scenario consisting the Union frigate the USS Minnesota (aground for the duration of the action but able to fire) supported by the USS Monitor against the CSS Virginia. Mr Fox will be commanding the Confederate ship whilst Mr Huband will once again command the Union. 

Victory conditions are quite simple. The Confederates must sink the Minnesota and retire from the action whilst the Union must sink the Rebel ship - at any cost.

Very much looking forward to overseeing this and my thanks once again to Messrs Fox and Huband for taking part.

Addressing Gettysburg

 If you only ever acquired one book on the battle of Gettysburg I reckon that Mr Adkin’s title would be at the front of the queue! I have his titles on Waterloo and Trafalgar and they are quite simply outstanding (the Western Front title is on my ‘to get’ list). The board game is a truly unique experience - for the reason why, read on!

Aside from the naval perspective, my interest in the American Civil War has been at best, erratic. It has been one of those periods of history that has always seemed like a good idea but has never really ignited the enthusiasm. Back in the day I had some truly horrible experiences with a number of rule sets that really turned me off the period. In fact it was only due the launch of the board game Battle Cry - which itself has a number of issues - that I made a modest attempt to revisit the period. 

The strangest thing though, is that whilst my interest tends to head towards the Western theatre, I have a fondness for the Gettysburg campaign. Along with Waterloo, I reckon that several rain forests have been expended in print over the years for this iconic battle between the States. To keep things simple I have acquired two titles on the battle specifically - the one you see above by Mark Adkin and another currently en route from the US of A. Naturally I have seen the film of the battle which I enjoyed enormously - the soundtrack grated though!

I plan to rebuild my ACW library in a measured way with some selective ‘high mileage’ titles (those that punch above their weight in terms of coverage and detail etc) but am not planning on embarking on a huge involvement in the period. A Battle Cry level will suffice although not with the game of that name.

So where is all this leading?

Every so often a game appears that really shakes things up in terms of how a particular period or battle is gamed. The Guns of Gettysburg is such a game. Take a look at the below and think to yourself - “that is right up Mr Crook’s street!”

Not a hex in sight! Areas and a really nice looking map with a stunning rendering of terrain elevation

Blocks and counters - what’s not to like?

A complete spare set of labels (and yes, I DO have a use for them!)

The back of the box

This game is the third in the series - the others being Marengo and Austerlitz - and the concept behind this is quite simply outstanding. It has a Kriegspiel feel about it in many ways which means it has that ‘being-a-general-moving-units-around-on-a-map’ feel to it.

There was never any doubt that this would appeal to me and if they ever produce a Waterloo version I will be all over it like a cheap suit!

I am really excited about this and even better - the rules are quite modest, the basic game weighing in at a mere 13 pages! Of course one could readily swap the blocks for figures but for me that would defeat the object of the game. It looks like a 19th century battle map come to life.

Really, really pleased!

The Genesis of an Idea

Available from Tumbling Dice 

All the mounted counters for the RFC/RAF - more than enough for my needs and with a good selection of types

Work on the ‘cardboard aircraft’ project continues at a measured pace - mainly because what I am tackling at present is quite laborious!

I am mounting the counters from the TSR game Dawn patrol onto 1” MDF squares (3mm thick) as the card used is really thin. These mounted counters will then be used in conjunction with a flying base to give the illusion of flight. It is simple work but for a variety of reasons quite tedious and best undertaken in bite-sized sessions.

If you look closely you can see the difference in size - small, but in need of attention

Matt 80 for the bases - very ‘old school!’

To begin with, the counters themselves, notionally 1”, are anything but. There are also some counters on which the aircraft images have been printed slightly off centre. Squaring them involves carefully placing the counter as centrally as possible (or with the ‘slightly ‘offset’ bias) on the base and then trimming the edges with a combination of a scalpel and gentle filing. Bearing this in mind, I have thus far managed to ‘base’ all the British aircraft - 32 in all - which leaves me with the French, American, Belgian, Italian, German and Austrian types to go. On top of this are the AA counters and a couple of double sized balloons.

Whilst the aircraft part continues at a leisurely pace so does the flying base part. After trialing Humbrol Satin 131 and Matt 89 (grass green and sky blue respectively) I then experimented with the old gaming standby of Matt 80 - and to be honest I am far happier with the results. 

Tomorrow I shall take the map to get it laminated so at least that part will be finished.

In the meantime though….

I have been thinking about rules to use - Dawn Patrol as written are not quite what I am looking for - and so acquired a copy of Duel of Aces from Tumbling Dice. They are very good and one thing struck me - they would be very easy to adapt for a square grid.

Which happens to be what my soon-to-be-laminated map has….

Have I found yet another rabbit hole to fall into?

Turning the Tide in a Timely Fashion

 A useful title using previously restricted or classified naval reports found in the library of the Britannia Royal Naval College. Part of a series that includes operations in Norway in 1940, hunting the German raiders, the Bismarck chase, hunting the Tirpitz and Matapan

It never ceases to amaze me how wargaming synchronicity has played a not inconsiderable part in my enjoyment of our hobby. I could site numerous examples of this from over the years but will instead confine myself to the latest one.

In my last post I briefly described Fighters of the Pacific - a new board game covering plane to plane combat in the South Pacific in 1942. The emphasise is on Carrier Operations and whilst the rules are simple, there is a great degree of subtlety in the mechanics and they ooze the all-important period ‘feel’.

I have gamed carrier operations in the South Pacific many times using Flat Top, CV and now via the Smithsonian Avalon Hill games Midway and Guadalcanal. I also played an awful lot of Dauntless - the Air Force Pacific version - so it is fair to say that I have ‘form’ with the period.

My library is quite modest concerning the Pacific campaigns but in three fell swoops this has changed for the better!

The book you see above was acquired yesterday in the most surprising of circumstances. Laurel and I headed into the village (Rayleigh, where we live) to an antique valuation event at the local community hall. She had some gold jewellery that she wanted to dispose of wanted to get an idea of its value. After having done that we then ventured into the high street - Wednesday is the Rayleigh market so it was pretty busy - to see what a couple of jewellers had to say about the value. All this seems very mundane but for one significant detail. It was the first time that Laurel had been in Rayleigh high street since her surgery over three years ago. She is a not a fan of crowds - especially in her powered chair - but she coped admirably with crossing roads and negotiating some quite confined spaces. One of these was the Rayleigh indoor market which has within a magazine and discounted book stall. There was not much I was interested in but the title depicted above caught my eye and for - wait for it - £2.99 I immediately snapped it up!

The book is quite dry, using as it does official reports and such, but for all that it is really useful for planning scenarios for either naval or aerial actions. I am now actively looking out for the others in the series.

With grateful thanks to Mr Kightly - extremely timely for sure!

The second piece of synchronicity came about as a result of a gaming friend having a clear out of stuff - which I had offered to help with. The three Osprey titles you see are all penned by Mark Stille who leads me quite nicely into the third piece of synchronicity - one of my Christmas presents.

The final member of my Pacific library - the author has also penned a title on Leyte Gulf although my interest in the theatre is primarily 1942

So there you have it - a selection of relevant titles covering both the naval and the aerial side and which will stand me in good stead for Fighters of the Pacific, Flat Top, CV, Midway and Guadalcanal.

Once again my thanks to Mr Kightly for his most generous gift of the hugely useful Osprey titles!

Fighters of the Pacific

Gotta love that over the top box art!

The back of the box

Rules and scenarios

Essential game cards

The map board made up of eight sections that clip together. The hexes are 40mm across the flat sides.

The other side - complete with clouds and a couple of islands - aka targets!

The ship counters and assorted other bits and pieces - flak barrages, AA guns and damage markers

The aircraft counters. The US get 18 Wildcats, 22 Dauntless and 10 Devastators whilst the Japanese have 17 Zeros, 18 Vals and 12 Kates. 

How it looks (in a small but illustrative way) in action - lovely stuff!

One of the ideas I was messing around with as part of my ‘flying based cardboard counters’ idea was to tackle aerial combat in the South Pacific during 1942 - deep in the heart of Flat Top and Dauntless territory. The game of the title does exactly that and in quite a unique way.

I had an eye on this game since 2021 but for a variety of reasons never really got around to it - until now that is. A chance acquisition on eBay and I am now the proud owner of a copy of the base game and have the two expansions - Coral Sea and Midway - on order. I also want to try and track down the kickstarter exclusives as well - mainly as they expand the order of battle somewhat.

In a nutshell the game is all about carrier air combat - not the mechanics of launching and recovering aircraft, just the combat part - on a larger scale than usual in terms of the number of aircraft on the table. The game system is simple - planes are either high or low, the white side for high the blue side for low - and combat does not use any dice. In a nutshell, if an enemy aircraft is in the attacker’s field of fire it must dodge the attack if it has not been activated so far that turn or it takes a hit. 

An aircraft that dodges an attack is then activated and so may well be in a position to attack a separate enemy that in turn may be able to dodge. Within the game this is referred to a ‘Chain Reaction’ and is a neat way to simulate a ‘furball’.

Most aircraft can take two hits  with the exception of the Zero that can only take one but it does have the ‘Agile’ trait for free turns at the end of the move along with ‘20mm’ for increased firepower at one hex.

Movement and manoeuvring is quite simple, as befits a game that features a larger than usual number of aircraft at any given time. Aircraft are able to ‘slide’, turn, climb and dive with aircraft that have the ‘Fighter’ trait also being able to Split S.

Initiative and activation are key - activation is by air group or individual aircraft and the former can be of any size.

Did I mention that the game uses hexes? Well it does and the double sided mapboard is really nice. The hexes are 40mm across the flat sides which is rather handy and yes, I am already thinking about using the ‘sea side’ of the board for naval games using 1:2400th models.

The counters are really nice, chunky and use high quality aircraft and ship images. These would be ideal for use with my ‘cardboard aircraft flying base’ idea although gluing them to an MDF base is not really necessary - I will have to think of something else instead.

The two expansions add to the aircraft pool as well as the ships, meaning more targets, I mean carriers.

There is also a solitaire mode which is handy for me and is sure to get some use.

All in all the game is certainly worth a spin in its own right, but naturally my thoughts go beyond the initial offering and so other systems will feature. Shipping later this year is Fighters over Europe which covers the Battle of Britain with two expansions available - one covering the Battle of France (handy for fleshing out the Luftwaffe OOB and of course featuring the French) and one covering daylight operations over the Reich in 1943/44. Me 262s anyone?

In Other News….

I am now roughly a quarter of the way through the Dawn Patrol counters. It is tedious work as the US idea of what a square inch looks like does not appear to be anything like the UK version - coupled with some occasionally offset printing - so some careful positioning, trimming and sanding is required - for each one. Having said all that it is definitely worth the effort!

Quick Reference Sheets? Hmmm....

Hexagonal Firing Arcs - Take 2.... (Appearing on a QRS near you very shortly....)

One of the things that came out of the game last Wednesday was a request for a Quick Reference Sheet (QRS) for the Portable Ironclads Wargame. In truth I had always planned to produce one but never really got around to it. 

Guess what I have been doing for the last few days? 

Yup, a Quick Reference Sheet - except that at the moment it is anything but!

The rules section of The Portable Ironclads Wargame runs from page 37 to page 42. Six pages in all although the firing arc diagram adds another so call it seven.

My QRS currently stands at eight sides of A4.....

I should qualify this by pointing out that one A4 sheet has the new firing arc and examples of how a ship turns off the bow or the stern, another A4 sheet contains the charts and tables so the actual rules themselves are on two sheets of A4 - only the first of which would be essential, containing as it does the most important stuff.

The rules sheets refer to the rule numbers in the book as well as the associated table/diagram which in turn are referenced back to the appropriate rules so navigating the four sheets of A4 should present little difficulty.

Ideally I would have liked to have gotten the whole thing onto two sheets of A4 but short of using a 'bible print' font size - not very kind on old wargaming eyes - I cannot see how much I can cut it down by. Having said that the rules now read far more economically in this format. Once I have finished them I plan to make use of them at the next club game to iron out any wrinkles and make any amendments they may be necessary. After that they will be uploaded to the Gridded Naval Wargame and Portable Wargame Facebook groups.

A long overdue task, but a welcome one!

Action along the Winnebago River

The Prologue….And it came to pass….

Yesterday evening saw the Portable Ironclads Wargame getting a run out at the club. The main purpose of the action was to try out the square grid but more importantly, to prepare Messrs Fox and Huband for more challenging games ahead. 

The scenario was deliberately simple and with but two ships a side. For the Union, under the command of  Mr Huband, the river monitor USS Ozark and the double ended gunboat the USS Agawam whilst that ‘Will ‘O the Wisp of the bounding main’, Mr Fox took command of the ironclad the CSS Missouri and the CSS Gaines. The action was short and sharp as the pictures will show.

Opening moves - the Union opted to head in two directions whilst the Confederates maintained a line ahead with the CSS Gaines leading the CSS Missouri

The two Rebel ships caught between the USS Ozark (bottom left) and the USS Agawam (top centre). The CSS Gaines was able to deliver a hefty blow against the Union river monitor.

Retribution was swift though, as the CSS Gaines was subjected to a withering fire from the Union ship

In fairly short order, the gallant Confederate ship was subjected to a withering fire, battering her into a sinking wreck

With the Rebel fleet down to the ironclad the CSS Missouri - now with the two Union vessels across her line of retreat - the action came to an end. 

The game was brief but enjoyable although a couple of areas of confusion arose. To begin with the use of squares and positioning of ships within got a little scrambled. When moving orthogonally a ship sits squarely across the two squares - on the centreline if you prefer. When operating diagonally a ship would sit on the central spot formed by the two squares touching at a single corner.  In the heat of the action this got a little muddled but to be honest it made little difference to the overall outcome. 

Squares and dots aside the general consensus was that the rules would benefit immeasurably from a quick reference sheet. Guilty as charged with that omission - it is something that I always intended doing but never quite got around to doing so. I have started work on one and it will be uploaded on the Gridded Naval Wargame facebook group file section.

All in all though, I was pleased at how it went and it was a good work out to exorcise any gremlins before we move up to more challenging and complex actions.

Once again my sincere thanks to Messrs Fox and Huband for their time and carefully considered input.

Cheers chaps!

 

Reaching for the Sky….and Beyond!

WW1, the Battle of Britain and ‘Over the Reich’ - perfect for my ‘cardboard aircraft’ aerial adventures

As part of my ongoing aerial project I wanted to get copies of the rules available from Tumbling Dice as part of their Wings at War range. Normally these include a selection of 1:600th scale aircraft but I only wanted the rules. A quick email to Paul at Tumbling Dice and I am now the proud owner of the trio of rule sets you see above. The incentive to crack on with the flying bases and counters has never been higher!

“Space Battles” was always going to get my attention…..

Another set of rules I have just acquired are set of starship combat rules penned by Rick Priestley. These are designed to be usable with whatever models you like although he does provide his own background for those that would prefer this. A couple of things that caught my eye with these rules is that they are grid based - a square grid no less although a hexed version would be perfectly usable - and use packs of normal playing cards for damage etc - no dice are involved.

I have only just skimmed through these rules but there are some interesting ideas therein - along with enough starship technobabble to appeal to most Sci Fi gamers. Needless to say I am thinking about using the painted Red Alert fleets to give them a spin.

In the meantime though, I need to get organised for the Portable Ironclads Wargame taking place at the club this evening.

Lots to do then!

Flying Bases and Cardboard Aircraft

The base has been been painted using Humbrol Satin 131 Green and Matt 89 for the counter edging and the pole. The base the counter is on has a hole on the underside and is not fixed in place

There is enough room to have two dice frames along the rear edge if required - these are the 7mm versions from Warbases

The view from the rear. The dice frame will be used to indicate the altitude.

Whilst waiting for some paintwork to dry with the ironclads I took the opportunity to revisit the idea I had for flying bases for cardboard counters. The pictures above are very much in the experimental stage but I really think that there is a lot of mileage with this idea!

The next step will be to stick all the Dawn Patrol counters to the 1” square bases I have with the central hole. The counters are very slightly larger than the Warbases 1” counters so a degree of careful trimming is needed to make sure that the sides are flush.

I am undecided about the final finish for the base as the plain green looks, well, plain and green - perhaps some light texturing may help. All the paint needs a further coat and varnishing but his far I am pretty happy with the concept. As mentioned previously I need to get a ‘sea’ set of flying bases and am now also thinking about a ‘desert’ set.

Dead chuffed with these and they are dead simple to make!

Back in the Ironclad Painting Groove

Turkish ironclads

I managed to get a good couple of hours in the man cave this afternoon, resuming work on the ironclads for the Royal Navy and the Turks, with the emphasis on the latter. As you can see, the white-lined top/upper decks have been fixed to the hulls so the next step will be to tackle the main deck features - essentially everything apart from the masts. 

Of the models you see above the three that feature in the top row on the left will all have barbette deck guns whilst the two in the bottom row on the left have twin turrets.

Size matters - at least relatively speaking! For the record my model of HMS Superb is the same size as the completed ironclads you see above. The new versions of the Turkish ships are the size you see above

Four of the Turkish ships are smaller versions of models I had built previously and that featured in a couple of battles. The original ships measure around 5” long - the same size as my model of HMS Superb. In reality, the Turkish ships should have been around an inch and a half shorter. With the ACW collection I was never really that fussed about relative sizes - some are, most aren’t - but I have made more of an effort with this one and so the Turkish ships will look rather more accurate in respect of size.

The next step will be the deck features and of course, getting the Royal Navy up to a similar stage!

It is good to be back painting and building these again!

 

Thoughts on The Russo Japanese War

Part of the Avalanche Press “Great War at Sea” stable - 1904 - 1905 means of course the Russo Japanese War. 

The familiar GWAS approach - strategic moves on the map and the battles arising are fought on the tactical map.

A while back I acquired an unpunched copy of the Great War at Sea board game covering the Russo Japanese War. The game is lovely to look at - as are the rest in the series - but as yet it has not seen any action and so has sat, somewhat forlornly, on the shelf of shame in the man cave. 

I have a lot of ‘previous’ in respect of the predreadnought era, going back to the days of the old Newham Wargames Club when my French 1:3000th fleet regularly locked horns with the Austrians and Italians of Mr Fox. We used a set of rules called “Devil at the Helm” which gave a good, albeit complicated game. Using them for actions set in 1905 really pushed the system - meaning that the game s-l-o-w-e-d down almost to a crawl. It is safe to say that they were very much of their time!

DBSA - the naval version of DBA - works well for the period and the indefatigable Mr David Manley has, unsurprisingly, produced a set of rules for the Russo Japanese War called White Bear, Red Sun (available from the Wargames Vault under Long Face Games label) that builds upon them. They also include a rather nifty campaign system. 

A really good set of rules - both for the tactical and the strategic side. The PDF also has ship counters, a larger map and area control markers. In my opinion, it is one of Mr Manley’s best!

So between the above two I have the wherewithal to fight actions from the war with the advantage of using a campaign system to generate the battles. The counters from the board game could be readily used with White Bear, Red Sun although I would not be averse to making the models required. These would be easy enough to do but for the one thing I am sadly lacking - time!

In this case I would look to use commercially available models - probably in 1:2400th from Tumbling Dice although I have seen a number of other options that could be viable.

So what happened next?

Well, I was looking through eBay for books about the Russo Japanese War when I came across a rather interesting looking board game.

Available from Nuts Publishing - quite a small box

The contents. The Map is roughly A3 sized with the area divided into zones. The game is all about controlling them

The wooden ‘meeples’ used for the Japanese land forces

A close up of the map and the (two sided) counters. Only ships of cruiser size and above are represented and the flip side of the counter represents a damaged ship.

The game last for six turns with the Baltic fleet arriving on turns 5 and 6. The victory conditions are quite simple - if the Japanese do not have a ‘meeple’ in the Mukden Box of the Manchuria track the Russians win. The other way of winning is the position of the Control Point (CP) marker. CPs are gained by controlling sea zones so at the end of turn 6 whoever has the most is the winner. The game takes around an hour to play and fits handily on a normal sized tray. There are optional rules regarding minefields, the attack on Port Arthur and some additional ships.

Another game in the same series - “This is SPARTA!”

All in all it is a quick fix but challenging and it is one I shall look forward to trying out. If the previous game in the series is anything to go by (300: Earth and Water, a game covering the Persian invasion of Greece) then it will have been a great investment. For the record it cost £23 plus shipping!

There is a cunning plan with all this - more of which in a (much) later post….