Sino Japanese War 1894/95

 

The latest offering from the indefatigable Mr. Manley. Broadside and Salvo rules, a potted history of the campaign and a complete campaign system as well. Available, along with his other naval rules, from the Wargames Vault under his Long Face Games label. Very highly recommended - despite not being on a grid! Yet….

My knowledge about the above campaign was extremely limited until I started looking at the Russo Japanese War. I had certainly not thought about as a viable gaming option but, with the publication of the above, along with some acquisitions to the library and, probably the biggest surprise, the acquisition of two fleets in 1:1800th resin!

Another title from Mr. Olender - I also have both his volumes on the Russo Japanese War, the Russo Turkish War, the Austro Italian War, The War in the Pacific and shortly to be joined by the Sino French War. They are excellent. Also an Osprey Duel title on the battle of the Yalu River.

A little digging through my library also has some snippets about the war so I reckon I have everything I need to crack on the two forces. 

There are models available from Tumbling Dice in 1:2400th as well as 1:3000th from Navwar. In both cases they are nice models but are quite small. A quick trawl through the net and I decided that 1:1800th might be a better option - both for this and any other pre-dreadnought set ups. I like this scale and was first  introduced to it via Axis and Allies: War at Sea, the collectible WW2 naval game, also used by Warlord in their Victory at Sea range.

The firm I have used are called Three Decks Dockyard and so I ordered both sides for the Battle of Yalu. I will post a fuller review once I have looked at them in detail. They are still quite diminutive but, and this is a really handy point, even allowing for bases they will fit comfortably on the hexes of my new gaming mat. The hexes measure 2” across the flat sides and as the cloth is 6ft by 4ft there would be plenty of ‘sea room’ for manoeuvring. 

The BIG Decision

Work on the book is moving along at a fair old rate of knots! I have decided that the pre-dreadnought era battle that will be included in the book (there will be three battle reports, one for each sub-period) is going to be Yalu River rather than something Russo Japanese War based. Obviously I will need to base and paint the models but this will not be a problem as the numbers involved are quite modest.

So, it looks like I will have plenty to do over the next six months as I will also have to tackle the Great War as well. Luckily painting ships in smaller scales holds no terrors - even for me!