The Rules of the Game and 15….

 The Rules of the Game is a truly wonderful book about how the Royal Navy arrived at where it did in order to fight at Jutland. I have owned a paperback version of this but really wanted a reasonably priced hardback version - 700 pages is a lot to ask of a paperback! For the other title in the picture, read on….

I am feeling particularly unwell as the seasonal chesty cough/sore throat/head full of cotton wool thing has kicked in with a vengeance! However, trooper that I am, I have managed to get a substantial amount of work done on the book and have rested the creative genes to tackle a little, shall we say, side hustle…

The big news though, is that I have been able to secure copies of not one, but two ‘grail books’ - and with a bonus!

So what does the mysteriously enigmatic ‘15’ mean then? Take a look at the picture below then, and all will be revealed….

Small War and Skirmishes 1902 to 1918 by Edwin Herbert - the first of two volumes with the second covering the period 1919 to 1935. Aside from the ‘Colonial’ style conflicts the book also looks at the sideshows of the Great War. I am really pleased to have this in my collection - especially as it is signed by the author and the late Ian Heath and is listed as copy number 15 from when it was published!

The Rules of the Game is a superb book and in my opinion essential reading if one wants to understand the how and why the Royal Navy ‘did what it did’ during the Great War. 

This is a brief post as the need for a hot lemon and honey has assumed greater importance - I will also throw in some paracetamol for good measure!

Ship Charts and Firing Arcs

The ‘Mark 2’ version of a ship record chart (actually more like mark 8!). I am a lot happier with this version as it is far ‘leaner’ and user friendly. The ship details are at the top whilst the bottom covers the weapons fit. 

 I mentioned in my previous post that I had been busy beavering away on the rules for the new book and so you can now see a couple of examples of what I have been up to.

The ship record chart I am rather pleased with as it is a lot tidier and far more obvious as to what is what. Having said that I have just spotted something that will need amending - the arcs of fire for the turrets do not account for port and starboard fire. The chart also reflects a rule change that I have incorporated. Essentially secondary guns get one box per two barrels whilst tertiary guns get one per three barrels. This was incorporated to help to equalise the hits between the hull (flotation) and the weaponry. I have also incorporated a very simple hit location table. In a nutshell, for each hit a ship suffers the owning player rolls a D6. A roll of 1 to 3 is a flotation hit, 4 is a tertiary, 3 is a secondary and a 6 is main guns or torpedoes. If a ship does not carry any of the weaponry listed then the hit is classed as flotation.

The beginnings of a firing arc diagram. I created this rather crude diagram using MS Excel. It was a royal pain to do so and worst of all, when you try and add it into Word you can see where the lines do not quite line up (the bold lines are where this occurs). This diagram illustrates the arc for forward firing guns.

I was rather pleased with the above until I tried adding it to a Word document. It looked horrible so the above is very much a work in progress. In the Portable Ironclads Wargame I used models and my hexed playing mat for the arcs but I was keen to add them as a diagram this time. I shall continue to experiment with this - I reckon that I just need to check out a couple of You Tube tutorials to get this bedded down. Aside from diagrams it will also allow me to draw battle maps on a hex grid which will be very useful indeed - way beyond naval games!

Risings and Rebellions 1919 to 1939

The follow up volume to Small Wars and Skirmishes 1902 to 1918

Definitely some very entertaining looking campaigns to look at and all very Portable Wargameable !

 It was a pretty lean November as far as blog posts went. No particular reason for this other I have been beavering away on the rules for the new book. I think they are now there or thereabouts and so I am arranging a further test game next which will be the largest action fought with them so far. It should be fun!

In the meantime though, I have been able to pick up a few items on the acquisition list, all of which will find their way onto the blog in due course but today I shall focus on just one of them.

The ‘tribal’ block armies - originally designed for Zulus (predominantly brown) and Afghan/Mahdist/Arab types.

There is an abundance of ‘small wars’ in this book and the preceding volume (which I am awaiting delivery of) so for me, there is certainly plenty of mileage. Couple with my earlier acquisition of Colonial Armies of Africa 1850 to 1918 by Peter Abbott, I reckon that I have more than sufficient for needs in terms of inspiration. I am leaning towards using the block armies again - they have been sitting patiently in their storage boxes for way too long - but I am conscious of the fact that they may need a little upgrading. Again, nothing major, just a few minor additions. This option of course means that I can get into action far sooner than painting figures!

WW2 in the Skies

Taking to the skies over Europe. The base game covers the Battle of Britain whilst the Battle of France and Defending the Reich are covered in the expansion pack The stretch goals fleshes out the main protagonists and introduces the Belgians and Italians

A reminder of the Pacific version

The ‘sea side’ - the neoprene version is unsurprisingly identical - 40mm across the flat sides of the hexes

The reverse side of the seascape - the clouds and islands for the neoprene version are on a separate strip and require cutting out which is far more sensible as they can be deployed where needed.

Small counters - in this case from the Pacific version, mainly because I have yet to unseal the Europeans!

Aircraft data cards

Following on from previous post I am delighted to relate that I am now the very proud owner of the full kickstarter versions, including all the extras, of Fighters of the Pacific and Fighters of Europe! Fighters of the Pacific I now have two copies of - at least of the base game, the two scenario packs (Coral Sea and Midway) and the stretch goal expansion (see the previous post for details) - but only one set of the other stretch goals extras which is why I acquired the additional set. The kickstarter extras include an extra copy of the playing board, a neoprene version of the same, a pack of Aces for both sides, some bespoke storage boxes and a limited edition coin. The latter is a nice to have from a collection perspective but serves no game function.

The neoprene mat is a plain hexed seascape (hexes being 40mm across the flat sides) with a separate strip of neoprene onto which are printed some cloud formations and a couple of islands - these would need to be cut out to use but have the advantage over the map boards as you can place the islands and clouds where you want whereas they are printed in place for the basic playing board. Both the board and neoprene versions are ideal for naval games using models although the 40mm hex size would mean smaller models than I am used to.

No matter, there is a plan of sorts….

I do not need two copies of the Pacific version so will have a think about what to do with it.

Fighters of Europe is the real prize for me in all this. Covering the Battle of Britain in the base game with the Battle of France and Defending the Reich (US daylight bombing raids) as expansions along the stretch goals expansion that includes a whole heap of additional aircraft and extra scenarios. 

European countryside - 24 by 17 and again, 40mm across the flat sides of the hexes

The coast and clouds - these need to to be cut out 

The contents of the base game - luckily the Battle of France expansion expands out the Luftwaffe as it includes Bf110s, Ju87s and Do17s

Lots of extra aircraft….

….and even more! 

I am absolutely delighted to have these two games and all the extra bits and bobs in my collection. The aircraft counters are lovely and I will certainly look to devise some kind of flying base for them in due course. As is my usual modus operandi with a board game I am already thinking about what other rule systems I can use the components for. The map boards for the Pacific version I have already earmarked for use with ships (they would need to be small though!) and the European landscape could also serve for the Great War.

The rules for this system do not use dice or indeed, anything random to determine combat outcomes. It is all about initiative and maintaining formation. This may not be to everyone’s taste - the element of luck in aerial combat has been mentioned in many books (at least the ones I have read!) - and I would probably include myself in that but I will reserve judgement until I have a few hours flying time under my belt before changing anything.

Although you can read the lists of aircraft included in the pictures I shall type them out in full at some point but that will be for a later post.

Kickstartering Fighters of the Pacific

The base game and the two scenario packs

Way back in March of this year I posted about my acquisition of a board game called Fighters of the Pacific. You can read the post here: Fighters of the Pacific

I then was able to acquire the Coral Sea and Midway expansion packs but for completeness - especially a greater selection of aircraft - I was really keen to get a copy of the Kickstarter Stretch Goals pack. Finally, after much trawling of eBay, I have been able to get a copy!

I will let the pictures do the talking but suffice it to say that I now a selection of 24 aircraft types for the Pacific War including the infamous Japanese ‘Ohka’ manned rocket powered bomb.

The front of the box….

….and the back, including a list of the components. Note the PBY Catalina and yup, that is the Yamato!

The four counter sheets - these are double sided and in the case of the aircraft have a dark blue ‘sea’ side to represent low level and a white ‘cloud’ side for high level.

The new format aircraft data cards - the types above are for the base game

I ma really pleased to have gotten a copy of this stretch goal set as it really helps to round out the Pacific set. Aside from the additional counters there are also some scenarios that make use of them, including Aerial Recon - always an important part of carrier operations - and others.

The final counter set for this game features aces from both sides but this was only available for the full kickstarter pledge. I may be able to get a copy at some point but I am not holding out much hope that it will be anytime soon.

The European version - Fighters of Europe - is available and features the Battle of Britain, the Battle of France and US daylight raids over the Reich. I would be really keen to get a copy of this!

Meanwhile, back to the Russo Japanese War….

Today I Have Been…..

 An old favourite from back in the day - 1980 to be exact - that I spent many hours grappling with at the club. The grey matter still winces at the memory of the abuse it suffered!

…..Mostly sorting through the ship data cards from the old Yaquinto board game of Ironclads and the expansion set. 

I played Ironclads an awful lot ‘back in the day’ but it became a real struggle when you started fielding a large number of ships. It works really well with around half a dozen or ships a side and I have been tempted to use the rules along with my models for old times sake. I would definitely need to revisit the rules though!

A sample ship data cards from Ironclads, in this case the famous Union gunboat U.S.S. Carondelet

The main reason I have been going through the ship data cards is because they are quite useful in respect of what guns are mounted where on a given ship. This in turn is helpful as I am currently drawing up the ship specifications for the American Civil War - the start of the ‘Ironclads’ sub period - for my new rules. These will be appearing in the new book, along with a couple of surprises.

You will recall from my last post that I am currently preparing ship cards that show individual gun positions. This is quite old school in many ways but I am a firm believer in using this type of system for naval games as it gives some extra flavour to the action.

The rules from the Expansion Kit - more ACW ships along with those for the War of the Pacific and Lissa.

Once I have completed the Ironclads ship specs I will go on and produce the ship damage cards. The final part will of course be the Great War, or at least the 1914/15 part of it.

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!