The Jutland Enigma

Something from Google Jutland related!

It just goes to show that you are never too old to learn something new! Way back in 2016, I spent a significant amount of time on planning a refight of the Battle of Jutland using 1:2400th scale models. The plan at the time was to use a version of the Avalon Hill game of the same name and it was there, along with the huge amount of destroyers and cruisers required, that I came to an ignominious grinding halt.

Try as I might, I was unable to unlock how the ship specs from the game were arrived at. I tried all manner of calculations in an attempt to reverse engineer the numbers involved - gunnery and flotation factors being the main offenders - but for some reason was never able to 'crack the code'. 

Until now.

There is a substantial amount of fan made material for the game available from back issues of the Avalon Hill General and the Boardgamer magazine and it was whilst trawling through all this lot that several things just seemed to click into place. 

This is going to sound a little strange but this news will mean that I will need to check over and amend where needed the ships specifications quoted in the original game. Some obvious production errors had already been identified - incorrect counter images, wrong flotation values and similar - but armed with the aforementioned additional fan made stuff I will be able to make the game into the version I really wanted it to be. It will also mean that expanding the system beyond the North Sea - there are already Baltic and Mediterranean variants available - to a common system will be a straightforward process. 

And before anybody asks this ‘mini project of sorts’ does have a degree of relevance for the Great War portion of the new book so it is time well spent but you will have to wait to see why!

A Little Part of Jutland

The printed Jutland counters mounted on 3/4 sized Jenga Blocks. 

Tomorrow is the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland. Back in 2016 I had planned to tackle a refight using 1:2400th scale models and indeed, I managed to get the capital ships from both sides completed using a combination of Stonewall Miniatures cast in metal and Panzerschiffe cast in resin, but was unable to push on to complete the cruisers and destroyers. The collection has long since moved on. Ken Reilly, of Yarkshire Gamer fame, did manage to fight the battle using GHQ 1:2400th models and very impressive it looked as well. As an aside is a great advocate for the humongous, Cecil B. DeMille style wargame and everything he does is in the grandest of manners!

British dreadnoughts from Panzerschiffe apart from H.M.S. Revenge and Marlborough which are Stonewall Miniatures

More British dreadnoughts - this time a mixture of Stonewall and Panzerschiffe

Panzerschiffe British battlecruisers

H.M.S. Tiger and the the three ‘splendid cats’ are from Stonewall whilst H.M.S. New Zealand and Indefatigable are from Panzerschiffe

5th Battle Squadron courtesy of Stonewall Miniatures

The first batch of German Dreadnoughts - all of these are Stonewall Miniatures

The earlier German dreadnoughts

The German pre-dreadnoughts - sadly I cannot remember where these came from. I have a feeling they may well have been Panzerschiffe. 

The German battlecruisers. The two Derfflinger class are metal whilst the remainder are resin.

Anyways, I was determined not to miss out marking the occasion this time and so have persuaded the two amigos, Messrs Fox and Huband to tackle an old favourite of mine - Avalon Hill’s Jutland or as I like to think of it, a board game without a board.

It would be nice to tackle the full Jutland operation - perhaps that will one for another day - but due to time restraints we are looking to tackle the opening phase of the battle involving the battlecruisers. The rules will be as written in the Jutland rule book but with a minor change. I do not have a physical copy of the game but I do have a series of PDFs that contain just about everything written about the game in the old Avalon Hill General magazine, along with scans of all the game components from each of the two editions of the game that were produced. The minor change I mentioned is that I have substituted inches for all the movement and firing ranges as the associated devices used in the game are unavailable.

Aside from playing the game itself, there is another reason I am keen to do this. I want to remind myself about the gunnery and damage system used and how this may help with the rules for the new book. So the game will be a bit of a test bed to an extent. 

I settled on the battlecruiser action as it is fairly compact in terms of the number of ships with the added bonus, at least for the Royal Navy that is, of the arrival of the 5th Battle squadron at some point….

A Touching Comment

The book….

….and the dedication.

Several posts ago I wrote about my recent acquisition of what was very much a ‘grail’ book for me. North of Gallipoli by the late George Nekrasov (Cmdr, RAN Retd) has the distinction of being probably the only easily available account of the operations of the Russian Black Sea fleet during WW1. The copy I acquired was from an estate sale in Australia and was not signed by the author but was also dedicated to another sadly departed naval historian - Gary Staff, an author of whom I have a couple of titles in my own collection. the book was embossed with the stamp “Library of Gary Staff”.

One of the titles in my collection by Gary Staff. It is a cracking read with plenty of ideas for scenarios

As previously mentioned I was delighted to have acquired North of Gallipoli - and at a very reasonable price - and was even more pleased to receive the following comment to my previous post.

“Hi David. I'm very happy to hear that this copy of Dad's book is in good hands and appreciated. Gary Staff was a close friend to him. All the best.

Alex Nekrasov.”

Call me a sentimental old fool, but I was touched by that post and am now even more determined to do something that would honour both the memory of George Nekrasov and of Gary Staff. 

Now, where did I put my copy of the Navwar catalogue?….

Bloody April, 1917….

Bit of a grail game this one - WW1 in the air above France in 1917. Operational in scope but with a tactical element for combat resolution.

The rear of the box. The counters have been carefully inched and sorted - which is just as well as there are rather a lot of them! 

I have always enjoyed WW1 aerial games but for the most part these have been ‘plane vs plane’ tactical games. Richthofen's War, Wings, Aces High and Dawn Patrol have all featured (the latter I am still making the ‘flying bases’ for) but aside from tackling the occasional campaign style game I have never gamed WW1 in the air from the operational perspective. 

A closer view of the campaign area….

…. And the components in the box

Bloody April by GMT Games will address this as it is firmly in the mission planning and execution school of wargame. Counters represent anything from one to six aircraft, individual counters for named and famous pilots as well as for things like observation balloons and ‘Archie’. Wind and weather feature and missions are plotted on a map with the counters deployed once identified. There are numerous mission types - artillery cooperation, balloon busting, patrol and others - and these are driven by the scenario. 

The Eagle of Lille expansion. 

This is quite a ‘rule heavy’ game which will take some careful reading before getting to the table but it is something I am hugely excited to crack on with. Also included with the game is an unpunched copy of the Eagle of Lille expansion which covers the infamous ‘Fokker Scourge’ earlier in the war. This is not a period of WW1 air combat I am particularly familiar with as most of the games I have played have tended to be late 1917 to 1918.

I did take a look at the Tumbling Dice 1:600th aircraft range but am undecided about going down that particular rabbit hole although they do look very nice with some work. The all round good chap and project meister extraordinaire - Jim Jackaman -  has produced some lovely examples of WW1 aircraft which can be seen on his blog using the Tumbling Dice range and are well worth a look.

Two excellent books - Marked for Death I have in hardback and it is a cracking read

I have a few books on WW1 in the air and the two above are great reads. I have a copy of Marked for Death in hardback but the chap I got Bloody April from included the paperback version in with the game - a much appreciated gesture!

WW1 Aerial Card Game

Quick and easy to play and with an alternate (and to be fair, more ‘wargamery’) set of rules available on BoardGameGeek.

There are twenty aircraft types for each side - note the lovely artwork on the two examples above - and fifteen of the action cards (three of each of the five types depicted).

 Laurel and I braved the thirty degrees plus heat on Sunday to visit our usual boot sale. It was quite small in terms of the number of sellers and buyers, presumably the weather warning deterred many from attending. Despite the paucity of sellers I managed to pick up the small card game you see above for the princely sum of £1.

Dogfight was released in 2015 and was designed by Martin Wallace - a designer of many boardgames (I own his excellent version of Waterloo) and personally known to a number of readers of this blog (sadly I am not in that number!).

The game is a type of Trumps style game where the applicable aircraft rating - determined by any one of the five action cards you see above for - is compared to the opponents with the highest score being the winner. Simple but effective although as mentioned, there is a meatier set of rules available from BGG which would sit rather more comfortably with the WW1 aerial enthusiast.

The artwork on the aircraft cards is very nice and would be useful for painting colour schemes for the aerial model gamers amongst us.

All in all, a nice acquisition for a £1 and a game that can be easily played anywhere and with a very quick set up time.

WW1 Naval - Micro Fleet style

A boardgame without a board - a tactical game with more weight than Avalon Hill’s Jutland 

The components - play sheets, move/damage record charts and counters. The rules are in the cover and are 21 single sided pages long.

Well this is a blast from the past and no mistake! My good friend Mr Fox was having a tidy up of, I believe, his Area 51 1/2, when he came across his copy of the above, along with the Jutland Fleet packs. Having no further use for the same and knowing my interest in the period and old gaming systems, he very kindly passed them on to yours truly.

Published in 1976 by Tabletop Games, the game was part of a series which included Napoleonics, ancients, Colonials, Sci Fi, WW2 naval, Napoleonic naval and I believe Medievals. Contained inside the cover were the rules, playing aids and record pads along with counters to represent the units. There were additional army packs available and for the Napoleonic naval version the fleet packs for Trafalgar. As I recall the WW2 naval version covered the Denmark Straits and the River Plate with an expansion covering Matapan. 

For the WW1 naval edition the base game features ship counters for the Goeben incident, the Falklands, Dogger Bank and the battlecruiser actions from Jutland. The two expansion packs add the remaining ships to the Jutland order of battle. the rules were very much of their time - chart and factor heavy with written moves.

I remember playing many games with this system, including Jutland, with an old friend of mine using his lounge floor. It was great fun but limited as to the variety of ships available - British and German only. I never knew who designed this but I had many a cracking action with it. Would I use it again? Possibly for nostalgic reasons but as an inveterate rules tinkerer I would probably look to, ahem, borrow some of the ideas and put my own spin on it.

I would be really keen to reverse engineer the ship specs just to see how the designer got to where they got to.

My thanks to Mr Fox for passing this on to me - as ever much appreciated!

BTW, if any readers have any of the other editions of this series they no longer need then please let me know - especially the other two naval titles, WW2 and Napoleonic.

‘Der Tag’ - WW1 In the North Sea (and the Baltic)

“This is not the post you’re looking for”….(borrowed from O.W. Kenobi, kind of…).

The Quintin Barry title found its way into the library some time ago and is a cracking read. The Great War at Sea Jutland title is a fairly recent addition and also includes the Baltic so the Russian Baltic fleet can get an outing. 

I have a long history with gaming the battle of Jutland and indeed, back in 2016 had a madcap plan to refight the battle using 1:2400th scale models. I say madcap as although I completed the capital ships for both sides the prospect of all the lighter ships involved proved to be a step too far for me - I did not have the space and the cost of the models was prohibitive. 

If I am honest I have probably enjoyed Jutland more as a board game - ironic really as the Avalon Hill version is not a board game as such - so the GWAS title above should tick a number of boxes. I like elements of the combat system but in my opinion it needs a little tweaking to suit my needs. Having said that all the game mechanics and ship specs seem sound enough so I do not think it would take much to turn it into a more ‘Wargame-like’ system. Something to play around with for sure - but not yet!

Ironclad Stuff

The masts and bowsprit for the C.S.S. Florida have been painted but do need some touching up prior to assembly and finishing off, so I shall be posting the final part of the series tomorrow all being well.

I have learned what will be a great time saver when the ironclad build commences - and I have been kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner as it is, to be frank, blindingly obvious!

From here on it I plan to paint spars BEFORE fixing them to the masts. The same applies to fighting tops. I shall assemble the masts as usual and will paint them before adding the spars etc. The reason for this it that it will mean that no touching up would be required once fully assembled.

Simple, so simple in fact I still cannot believe I did not think of this sooner!

Beyond Steamer Wars

HMS Fifi (top) and Mimi and Toutou. I have around half a dozen other models to build for this collection, including the Belgians. That will be it then until after the ironclads and DTPIW is finished and then it wil be on with the expanded version of Steamer Wars: Hexed

As written, Steamer Wars was designed for use with gunboats and similar. They work extremely well for this and indeed, there is more than sufficient historical material to play any amount of interesting actions - as evidenced by the supplements that David Manley has published. The system is detailed enough to add that skirmish level feel but still manages to maintain a fast play kind of vibe. In short, they suit me down to the ground - which is probably why I persuaded Mr Manley to let me produce the hexed version! 

My planned WW1 project will be taking the system to the next level in that ships of up to dreadnought size will feature although these will be very much in the minority. The ‘meat and potatoes’ of the project will of course be the cruisers - purpose built and auxiliaries.

I am happy to use my hexed version of Steamer Wars for this but it will need to be expanded to include larger and more varied ships and weapon types, varying degrees of armour protection and generally higher speeds. I have a few ideas about all of these areas and so my thinking is currently moving along these lines.

1. Guns larger than 4”. I will be looking at weapons of up to 12” calibre although for the most part it will be around less than that. I will also need to think about torpedoes although rules for these are covered in River Wars and War on the Great Rivers.

2. Armour - protection in general. Steamer Wars has provision for Light Armour whilst War on the Great Rivers features rules for Very Heavy Armour. I am thinking of adding in Medium and Heavy Armour and changing the original Light Armour classification to Protected. This will give me five relative classes of protection - Protected (used in Steamer Wars), Light, Medium, Heavy and Very Heavy. Protected will represent things like improvised protection or gun shields etc. I shall have a play around with this and see how it can be extended across the range of ships being represented. I am happy to leave the damage etc as is - armour effects can be factored in as required. Following on from The Portable Ironclads Wargame my feeling is to assign a notional armour class to the ship in question depending on their historical specifications. It is an effective system and removes the need for detailed armour location rules etc.

3. Speeds. This is quite straightforward and for me is dictated by my available playing area of 6ft by 4ft. In the hexed version of Steamer Wars a hex equals around 4 knots. This is fine for ships with a top speed of around 16 knots (i.e. 4 hexes) but for the faster warships I will need to use a different nominal scale. My thinking at present is that a hex equals seven or eight knots meaning that a 24 knot cruiser will move 3 hexes. Still very much in the planning stages though.

We are where we are….

The expanded version of Steamer Wars: Hexed will happen but not until DTPIW is finished so will not be until at least the middle of next year. But happen it will, for sure!

WW1 Cruiser Warfare

Cruiser Warfare - the chances of me passing this by were slim to zero!

The back of the box. 

The early part of the Great War at sea saw the allies quickly attempting to contain the threat of German cruisers and auxiliaries interfering with troop convoys and merchantmen. It is a fascinating period to game - usually the model count is very modest - with the emphasis being quite asymmetrical. The Germans have to wreak havoc where they can and the allies have to stop them - ideally before they can get back to Germany. 

Over the years I have fought many ‘hunt the raider’ style actions and they are always a lot of fun.

Avalanche Press have produced a number of operational/tactical boardgames covering the Great War at Sea (the series name) as well as WW2 and use for the tactical side a set of rules that would be easily transferable to the tabletop - as long as you used a hexagonal grid that is! 

Aside from the North Sea and the Mediterranean games they also produced the game you see above. This is global in scale as at the start of the war the Germans have cruisers dotted around the place, all keen to return to the Fatherland whilst the Allies are less enthusiastic about that particular course of action! There is in truth only one scenario at the operational level - the German player must get back to the North Sea whilst the Allies must prevent them - but there are a number of tactical games covering Coronel and the Falklands.

I have been after a copy of this for a while but the second hand prices were too rich for me. A chance trawl through eBay came up with a UK based seller of an unpunched version at a reasonable price and so I happily pulled the trigger!

The Allies - The Royal Navy and representatives from the Commonwealth nations (Australia, New Zealand and Canada), France, Japan and Russia, massively outnumber the Germans (and Austrians) but the sea is a big place and so bringing them into action is a Herculean task in itself. 

This type of game is right up my street and I am looking forward to giving it a whirl and naturally, I already have some plans afoot…..

Playing Drafts

Although I still have to build a few more models for Lake Tanganyika - these will be on the small side, motorboats and similar - my thoughts have already stepped forward into the rest of the ‘Afrabian’ collection. As an aside Afrabia - a mixture of Africa and Arabia - is a fitting name for the theatre of my planned WW1 naval project which of course will include Madasahatta.

Thus far I have been wary of tackling ‘modern’ style warships - in this case WW1 - as there tends to be a lot more detail from the main deck upwards. Flying bridges, conning towers, searchlight platforms etc, not to mention shielded and un shielded guns of all calibres and of course turrets. For the ACW the ships tended to be a lot simpler looking!

In many ways the model of the Graf Von Goetzen convinced me that actual warships for the period would be doable - mainly due to the provision of the bridge and boat deck - but that they would need a little more in the way of planning than the earlier ironclads. 

My standard template for warship hulls - this one is 4” long by 1” wide. In my world the 1” beam is usable for ships with an actual beam of 30 to 45 feet.

Rightly or wrongly my standard hull template will form the basis for these models - mainly because I have quite a supply of some of the key sizes I will need. It is probably worth mentioning why this template is the shape it is. Basically I needed a shape with straight sides, primarily for the casemate ironclad types. It is simpler to make straight sided box like structures than curved, at least using my technique and the  materials that go with it. Practicality over style is definitely my modelling mantra!

Anyways, for the Afrabia project I have drawn up a list of the principle ships to be built although I have not included things like merchantmen, colliers, tugs etc. It is a fairly lengthy list but nowhere near the size of the ACW collection. I have yet to finalise the Lake Tanganyika collection but reckon around half a dozen or so models will do it.

So without further ado here are the named models that will need building.

Rufiji Delta

SMS Konigsberg

HMS Severn

HMS Mersey

HMS Weymouth

HMS Chatham

HMS Dartmouth

There will be some smaller craft involved in this as well but they can be built quickly and from stock.

Another force that will feature as part of this consists of the following:

HMS Astraea

HMS Challenger

HMS Hyacinth

All the above are historically ‘in theatre’ but where things get rather more interesting is when you factor in the ‘what could have been there’ types and the ‘never was-ers’. A good example of the former is the light cruiser SMS Bremen. She put into one of the German West African ports early in 1914 and her captain prepared a detailed report for its defence. Luckily for the allies this was never followed up on.

SMS Blucher from the film Shout at the Devil. 

The latter will be the planned twin sisters of the German navy taken straight from the pages of fiction - SMS Blucher and SMS Ziethen. I need to read both Shout at the Devil and Brown on Resolution for any further details - assuming there are any! I have yet to consider any similar heavier metal for the Royal Navy but it will feature - as well as some pre dreadnoughts.

A (very) rough initial draft of what will eventually become a German light cruiser - and I shall be building three of them.

The rather crude drawing you see above is the first draft of the design for what will be a German light cruiser. I tend to do this to get my ‘eye in’ so to speak so that I can then translate this into a more accurate drawing with measurements etc. Once this is done then it is off to Warbases to have the requisite pieces produced. Having some good references is invaluable at this stage! 

SMS Konigsberg having a bad day.

For the model above I shall have a single bespoke main deck piece - the actual ship (this could be any of the earlier German light cruisers as they all had a similar layout) has a raised fore and quarter deck joined centrally (the circles are the funnels) and with four sponsons, each mounting a 4.1” gun. There are two shielded deck guns mounted amidships and two pairs each of two guns fore and aft. 

This will mean six shielded guns to build and four fitted into the sponsons. The masts are no problem but the searchlight platforms (and the searchlights) will need to be made, as will the forward bridge structure and the aft deckhouse. 

Whilst the end result will not be a super detailed scale replica it will look like that which it is supposed to!

As ever, ‘based upon’, ‘purely representational’ or even ‘Hollywood style’ will be the building technique of choice. All I now need to do then is to get drafting and crafting!

Steamer Wars Tactical Rules Hexed Adaptation

Delighted to get this out in the world and looking forward to developing and expanding the system

Its here! Today sees the publication of Steamer Wars Tactical Rules Hexed Adaptation (phew!) via David Manley’s Long Face Games label and available from the Wargames Vault for £3.50. This version contains only the tactical rules - the original version has the campaign system and Spicer-Simson’s own account as described at a lecture.

My thanks to David Manley for allowing me to take this on and I have to say that it has not only been a lot of fun but it has also firmly cemented my resolve around the Africa/Arabia/Madasahatta campaign idea! I plan to add further ships to the Lake Tanganyika collection and then it will be on to the Rufiji Delta, followed by West Africa and finally the Red Sea.

As it stands I am looking at building around 15 assorted cruisers, a couple of monitors and two or three pre-dreadnought battleships - all in my usual simple style and designed to offend the purist!

This is going to be a whole lot of fun!

Mimi and Toutou Go Forth*....Lake Tanganyika, 26th December 1915, Game Number 77

It is hard to believe that this is in actual fact the first game I have fought this year! I started one in February - an ACW naval test game - but never got around to completing it. So we are where we are, seven months on and gaming something entirely different!

Steamer Wars: Hexed

The following action was fought using the soon to be available hexed version of David Manley's excellent rules Steamer Wars which are designed for use with warships at the lower end of the scale so gunboats and the like are the main combatants rather than battleships and cruisers etc. Having said that I shall be featuring some cruisers in due course within this system for use in my planned African/Arabian/Madasahatta style campaign, more of which will feature in a later post. For now though, back to Lake Tanganyika where battle is about to be joined - after a few points about the rules.

This is a small action, even by the standards of Steamer Wars as it consists of a pair of Royal Navy motorboats (Mimi and Toutou) and a small gunboat (Kingani) and this has an impact on some of the rule mechanics, entirely intentionally naturally!

Rule Observations

Ships movement is determined by their size in the first instance and then by the player’s initiative. For this action this can be ignored as the largest ship - the Kingani (size 2) - will always move first followed by Mimi and Toutou (size 3). 

Spicer-Simson, as a personality, can be both a blessing and a curse to the Royal Navy but in this case his command ability is satisfactory as his roll of 3 equals no effect. 1 or 2 would have helped with initiative (not relevant for the reasons above) whilst 6 has a negative effect on morale and stops the Royal Navy from getting too close to the opposition.

Fundi, the engineer on the Kingani has the ability to increase the acceleration of the Kingani or with any engine damage however there is a risk of injury in the case of the former.

The starting positions. Kingani at the top of the picture being stalked by Mimi (left - Spicer-Simson commanding) and Toutou.

Lake Tanganyika, 26th December 1915

Action at last! The steamer Kingani appeared on its regular patrol route, oblivious to any obvious danger. Little did she know that she was about to be engaged by two small motorboats of the Royal Navy - even in this unlikely part of the world.

“It is both the duty and the tradition of the Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship” Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, First Sea Lord

 Turn 1. The commander of the Kingani, currently cruising along at 8 knots had spotted the fast approaching Royal Navy motorboats and immediately knew that they could be in trouble. The only meaningful artillery they carried was deployed forward so the enemy could hang off his stern and engage the ship with impunity. The Kingani could not outrun them so she would have to turn to fight. She increased her speed to 9 knots and threw her helm over to port.

Mimi and Toutou immediately accelerated to their maximum speed of fourteen knots with Toutou attempting to get to the stern of the German vessel. Mimi however, went straight towards the enemy.

Turn 1 after movement. Toutou is poised to get behind the Kingani whilst Mimi has gotten uncomfortably close to the Kingani. Fortunately for Mimi, her headlong rush at the enemy vessel has positioned her bow just out of the firing arc of the enemy vessel (in rule speak Mimi’s bow is technically in the aft firing arc as the hex is bisected).

The Kingani is unable to fire at present due to restriction of her firing arc whilst Toutou is just out of range  - light guns have a range of 4 hexes whilst Kingani is 5 hexes away. Mimi rolls a D10 to hit with the following modifiers being applicable: -1 for the target being size 2, -2 for the target travelling greater than 6 knots, -1 for the firer moving greater than 7 knots (2 hexes) making -4 overall. The roll comes up as a magnificent 9! This is reduced to 5 which equals the minimum score of 5 required. A further roll of a D10 is required to potentially inflict damage. At this stage the only modifier is a -1 from the D10 roll as the firing weapon is a light gun. This time the roll is a 6, minus 1 making 5 overall. Against a size 2 target the effect is Light Damage which affects gunnery next turn, has a morale impact and requires a roll on the damage table. 

This is a 10! Royal Navy gunnery seems to be in fine fettle! This is a critical hit which requires the roll of a D6. The roll of 2 equals Heavy Suppression so next turn the Kingani, should it be able to fire, does so at a minus 2 alongside any other applicable modifiers.

As the Kingani has been suppressed she is required to check her morale. There are no applicable modifiers so it is a straight D10 roll which comes up as a 9 so her morale is unaffected.

Turn 2. The Kingani increases speed to her maximum of 10 knots (3 hexes). Mimi and Toutou, already at their respective maximum speed of 14 knots swing around on the Kingani who is unable to outmanoeuvre her harrying assailants.

Turn 2 after movement. With her helm hard over and at maximum speed Mimi positions herself at point blank range off the stern of the Kingani whilst Toutou approaches in a more measured way.

Once again the Kingani is unable to fire but now both of the Royal Navy gunboats are able to do so. Mimi fires first at a range of 1 hex. Her firing modifiers are as follows: size 2 target -1, target 6 knots or more -2, firer 7 knots or more -1, firer turned more than one hex side -1 making -5 in total. The roll is a miserable 1! Clearly the high speed manoeuvring of Mimi was sufficient to put the gunner off his aim! Toutou opens fire with the following modifiers: target size 2 -1, target speed 6 knots or more -2, firer 7 knots or more -1 making -4 in total. The roll is a 6 which is reduced to 2 which is a miss at that range (a minimum of 5 is required.

Turn 3. Kingani tries a new tactic. She decelerates at her maximum rate down to 8 knots (2 hexes) whilst putting the helm hard over. She is banking on the high speed of her opponents working against them as they frantically try to avoid coming into range of her artillery. Mimi has to take drastic action to avoid doing exactly that and so decreases her speed down to 12 knots (3 hexes) in order to maintain her advantage. Toutou, once again adopts a more thoughtful approach - keeping her speed up but avoiding excessive manoeuvring - and gets her reward by appearing of the port aft quarter of the enemy vessel. Kingani is in deep trouble.

Turn 3 after movement. Kingani slammed on the brakes and turned as tightly as she could but to no avail as Mimi, by dint of some braking and swerving of her own, managed to stay on the enemy ship’s stern. Meanwhile Toutou has nefarious designs of her own as she prepares to open fire at point blank range.

Once again Kingani is unable to fire and once again, both Mimi and Toutou are able to and at point blank range! Mimi fires first and the modifiers are as follows: target size -1, target speed greater than 6 knots -2, firer speed greater than 7 knots -1, firer turned more than one hex side -1 so minus 5 in all. The roll of 7 was not enough as with a whopping minus 5 in modifiers leaves a score of 2. This is 3 below the minimum required to score a hit.

Toutou has a number of modifiers of her own but has only turned a single hex side so hers are -4 in all. Again the roll of 2 is not enough. 

Thoughts so far.

Excessive speed and manoeuvring certainly wreak havoc with gunnery - even when you are able to fire!

Turn 4. Kingani drops her speed to 7 knots and continues her attempt to at least get in a firing position. Mimi decelerates to 9 knots and closes on the aft port quarter of the enemy ship. Toutou similarly slows - 12 knots in her case - but needs to turn rather more than Mimi which will affect her gunnery.   

Turn 4 after movement. Kingani continues in her attempt to shake off her dogged pursuers to at least cause one of them to overshoot her. Thus far this has been unsuccessful. Mimi is on her aft port quarter whilst Toutou is now positioned off her stern. All three vessels have slowed down.

Kingani is still unable to open fire but as ever, both Mimi and Toutou are able to do so. This time Mimi only has -4 in modifiers whilst Toutou has a -5. Both need to score high to hit - 9 and 10 respectively. The scores are 3 and 8 which is not enough in either case, a minimum of 5 being required.

Turn 5. Kingani slows even more - this time down to 5 knots (2 hexes) meaning that she will be an easier target to hit but there is a plan of sorts. Mimi slows even more - now at 7 knots (2 hexes) - whilst Toutou carries on at 12 knots (3 hexes).

Turn 5 after movement. Kingani still has both Mimi and Toutou dogging her every move and preventing her from engaging either. Her captain is becoming increasingly anxious as he can see no successful outcome to this action unless….

Kingani is still unable to open fire but as ever, both Mimi and Toutou are able to do so. This time Mimi only has -4 in modifiers whilst Toutou has a -5. Once again, both need to score high to hit - 9 and 10 respectively. Mimi rolls a miserable 3 and misses whilst Toutou scores a truly magnificent 10! Her damage roll is -1 due to having a light gun. The roll is an equally impressive 9 which drops to 8. This is heavy damage so she is suppressed for next turn and has three rolls on the damage table. 

The first roll is a 1 which is a heavy suppression next turn (-2 gunnery modifier). The second is a 4 which knocks out a randomly determined gun - Kingani only has a light gun forward so this has been knocked out! The next roll is an 8 which is engine damage. Her speed is reduced by 1D6 knots - the roll is a 4 which takes her speed down to 3 knots. Fundi, the engineer, adds a modifier to any non-critical hit engine damage repair attempts starting next turn.

Kingani requires a morale check due to being suppressed and damaged. The D10 roll has two modifiers each of -1 - the first is for sustaining actual damage (the loss of the gun) and the second is because she is now disarmed. The roll is a 1.

As the adjusted score is now -2 which is a ‘Flee’ result. The vessel must turn away from the enemy and attempt to leave the table. If the vessel is unable to move it surrenders.

Endgame

I decided to call it there as the likelihood of Kingani getting away at 3 knots - even if Fundi works his magic - was pretty remote. All Mimi and Toutou had to do would be to hold station and batter the Kingani into scrap so a fluttering white handkerchief would doubtless have been seen as she surrendered (her only option really).There would have been a chance of the Toutou colliding with the Kingani but the outcome would have been the same. Spicer-Simson had secured his place in naval history although not in quite the same way as historically - the gunnery was abject to start with although rendering Kingani’s gun hors de combat was historical!

The rules worked really well and are suitably manic. Gunnery and high speed manoeuvring do not go together comfortably and so once Mimi and Toutou had gotten into Kingani’s aft and stern and more importantly out of her forward firing arc it was only going to be a matter of time - especially as Kingani obligingly slowed down.

This was a lot of fun to fight despite the skewed initiative due to the differing ship sizes. The next action will feature five ships and initiative will certainly play its part. In the meantime though, I need to think about some more ships for Lake Tanganyika - Belgians and assorted odds and ends oh, and a gun barge….

It is good to be back!

Available really cheaply secondhand and a great companion to Peter Shankland’s The Phantom Flotilla

*Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika by Giles Foden - an excellent account of the expedition and battle and a constant source of inspiration.

A WW1 Imagi-Naval Project

The African Queen, before she reached the lake (the Gin had already been dumped at this point....).

Now that the first phase of the Lake Tanganyika project has been completed, I have spent some time thinking about how best to take this idea further. I had previously mentioned about the Madasahatta expanded campaign idea that would include both East Africa and the Red Sea. The main thrust of this assumed that the German East Asia squadron headed west rather than east and based itself on the island of Madasahatta. The rest of the setting kind of designed itself with ships being added as required - making use of German East Africa and the Arabian peninsula up to the Red Sea.

I also wanted to factor in the operations in West Africa - mainly as it would provide as good excuse to add in the French as well as some more gunboats - which although challenging from a geographic point of view will make the overall situation more interesting.

I have been compiling a list of ships to run with this and despite the potential scale of the area of operations this is relatively modest. However, some of the models themselves will be quite challenging to build - especially as I will need a lot of bits and bobs custom cut by Warbases. What I will need to do is to ensure that there is a lot of commonality in terms of parts etc in order to make it a more cost effective exercise.

I have had a bit of a thought about the whole Scharnhorst/Gneisenau East Asia Squadron angle and have decided to change this a little. I am instead going to use a pair of fictional German Cruisers - SMS Blucher from 'Shout at the Devil' and the SMS Ziethen from C.S. Forestor's Brown on Resolution. They will be sisters and in my mind's eye will look like the love child of the actual Blucher of Dogger Bank fame and the Scharnhorst/Gneisenau. I will have to research both as far as I am able first of all before starting on the build - which is down the batting order in any event.

On the subject of fictional ships I could not resist making a model of the African Queen and as soon as I have worked out how to 'weaponise' her in game terms will pit her against the Louisa and the 6pdr. Incidentally, the Louisa in the film of the African Queen was played by the MV Liemba - formerly the Graf Von Goetzen and still, I believe, in service on Lake Tanganyika.

Finished at Last!

HMS Mimi and Toutou with HMS Fifi (ex Kingani) at the top of the picture

Graft Von Goetzen at the top with the Hedwig Von Wissman (left) and the Kingani (right). The latter has a flag but the camera angle does not show it!

No varnish dramas and with flags proudly flying! I have to say that this little mini project (should that be Mimi project?) has really given me a boost and so I am looking forward to getting them into action and also adding to the collection. There are another half a dozen or so models for Lake Tanganyika and then it will be on to the Rufiji Delta, West Africa and then the Red Sea.

Methinks that Warbases are going to be busy….

First of all though, redoing some pictures and fighting a battle, possibly two!

Lake Tanganyika - Going Forth With Mimi and Toutou

With apologies for the picture quality - Graf Von Gotzen at the top, Hedwig Von Wissman below the Graf, Kingani/Fifi - the same ship but will feature both the German and then the Royal Navy ensign following her capture and finally Mimi and Toutou. Just the varnishing needed and the all important flags and then - to battle!

Ok then, the models are built and merely need varnishing and the all important ensigns and we are ready to go! I need to get some pictures redone for Steamer Wars: Hexed once they are ready so, all being well, it should be available via the Wargames Vault next month.

The build was quite a learning curve in many ways as well as being a useful way to get back into the construction groove.

The main takeaways are as follows:

1. Plan and use plans (the internet is your friend, along with Jane’s, Conway’s and a whole host of other titles!

2. Paint items prior to assembly- especially where overhangs are involved!

3. Make sure any holes are drilled out with the right sized bit….

4. Think about ‘universal pieces’ - items of superstructure or hull that can be designed and produced by Warbases across as many models as required.

5. In short, remember the 7 P’s!

 

The First of the Few....

Ready to boss Lake Tanganyika and probably suitable for commerce raiding duties as well. 5" long and 1 1/4" across the beam. Solely painted with Vallejo acrylics and made from MDF for the hulls, elements of the superstructure, gun shields and the boats, card for the hatch covers, dowel for the funnel, bamboo skewers for the crane uprights and cocktail sticks for the crane arm and flagstaff. 

No, I am not talking about Spitfires or anything aerial related - rather the model you see above is the first of the few needed for my WW1 Lake Tanganyika project. She is the largest of the lot and is based upon or inspired by the German Graf Von Goetzen.

I am pleased with how she turned out but since that picture was taken I have had a bit of a nightmare with her! My tin of satin varnish - admittedly a few years old - seemed to have 'gone off' and after a coat of the same the model had all manner of dirty streaks everywhere although the varnish itself was lovely and satin. The result was probably accurate but not the look I was aiming for. Anyways, I have gone over the offending pieces with some fresh paint and have applied a coat of brand new varnish so hopefully all will be well. 

The other five models are painted but are awaiting their weapons which I had hoped to have been able to attend to today but for the varnish incident.

I have learned a lot from this build and for sure there are certain things I would do differently going forwards. Painting pieces prior to assembly being one of them!

WW1 in 200 Pages

Not my usual style of reading material but….

….it covers all the bases and has some wonderful battle scenes. Besides, at the cost of £1 it was too good to turn down - so I didn’t!

First piece of WW1 related news - the models for Lake Tanganyika are roughly 80% finished with everything painted but requiring final assembly, last minute touching up, varnishing and the addition of the all important flags. I shall be spending some more time on them this evening with a view to finishing them all off tomorrow. An action or two will then follow shortly - using the hexed version of Steamer Wars and Bob Cordery’s Mimi and Toutou go Forth rules found in his excellent book: Gridded Naval Wargames.

Second piece of WW1 related news - I picked up the book above at our local boot sale this morning for the princely sum of £1. It is by no means a detailed account of the battles included but serves as a good primer. It is chock full of colour pictures and some very nice battle scenes. I suppose you would class it as a coffee table book but it is nice to own and serves as a great taster for the battles of the Great War.

There are some other titles in the series - WW2, the ACW, Battles of the Great Commanders and Great Battlefields of the World.

The ACW version may be worth digging out but we shall see.

Carry On Up The Jungle By Following That Camel....

Two theatres of the Great War of a particular interest....

East Africa - obviously nowhere near as detailed as the board game Schutztruppe but a great primer all the same

The siren call of the desert.... I can almost hear Maurice Jarre's epic soundtrack to one of my all-time favourite films.....

No, this is not about the two Carry On films - rather it is fleshing out the why's and wherefore's of my current flight of fancy, a WW1 naval campaign based around East Africa, the Arabian peninsula and Madasahatta.

By a huge twist of fate - aka a convoluted internet search - and following an industrial quantity of assorted disposals, I was able to acquire the two games you see above. These are by Decision Games and are part of their 'Mini Games' series. Of the two the Lawrence of Arabia title is a solitaire game whilst Lettow-Vorbeck is designed for two players. Either way I reckon that both can be played solo - I have 'form' in doing this so it will not be a problem!

There is no real connection with my planned campaign style set up with either of these two games other than that the subject matter is of relevance. Having said that, the idea of 'point to point' movement would translate into a Portable Wargame  Campaign type of set up - especially if Madasahatta could be accorded similar treatment.

That is not something I would do BUT, I know a man that might..... :-)

Madasahatta would of course be a naval hub in all this as its location would be astride the routes into the Red Sea as well as towards East Africa. 

Needless to say I now have rather a lot to think about!