Thunder Along The Mississippi........Part 5

Much brushwork has taken place - certainly on the ironclad contingent - and I am at the tidying up 'twixt metal and woodwork stage on all those that have some wood on display i.e. NOT the monitors! I am hoping to have this lot ready for early next week with the added bonus that I have already started the sail elements - they are lovely models and will look nice on the tabletop. The whole collection will be finished by mid August at the latest and I then need to look at the land side. I have a pretty radical idea for this - details of which will be forthcoming once I have the mock ups ready. I also have yet to decide on the rules but there is no immediate rush for this either. The stuff for the land side, should my plans work out, will only take a couple of weeks to complete so September will see the OGRE project tackled - prior to starting at college.

Black Sea Naval Action

At the club last night I gave both the Russians and the Turks a run out using the latest version of the DBSA The Great War Gridded rules that I have been tinkering with. I chose as the forces the following:

Turkey - Yavuz Sultan Selim (BC), Midilli (LC), Hamidiye, Mecidiye (PC) two bases of destroyers - one Samsun (French Durandal types) and one Muavenet (ex German) making four DDs in total.

Russia - Evstafi, Ioann Zlatoust, Pantelejmon (all PBs), Parmiat Merkurija (PC), a base of Bespokoinyi DDs and two bases of Leitenant Pushchin DDs - 6 models for the three bases in total.

I wont describe the action in detail as, once again, this was very much in the nature of a play test (don't worry, when the rules are finally finished I will do so!) but it did serve to highlight a number of issues that need to be addressed. The most significant of these was that I need to clarify exactly how firing arcs and ranges need to be expressed. This caused a little confusion and I must confess that I was probably not clear in my intentions! I think that the ship classifications are fine (although I may revise these in the light of further research) but I want to radically change the firing and damage system as the existing range brackets are a little clunky. I also need to consider stacking and the impact of ships in a potential collision environment.

The action was fairly muted as the Turks dared not risk damage to the Yavuz Sultan Selim so were content to stay at maximum range whilst trading long range potshots with the Russian battleships. Indeed, whilst holding the range the Turks managed to completely circle around the Russians but at the cost of the cruisers becoming detached. The Midilli was hit at long range by the Evstafi whilst acting as close escort to the Yavuz Sultan Selim and as a result retired at top speed from the action. The high spot of the affair came within the last couple of game turns when the Hamidiye and Mecidiye were engaged by the Russian Destroyers. After a short, sharp action the Hamidiye was torpedoed and sank instantly whilst the gunfire of the two cruisers accounted for a base and half of Russian destroyers (3 ships in total). Neither sides main units suffered any meaningful damage although a number of close misses did occur.

Taken in an historical context, the action was probably quite accurate as the Russian battleships could neither catch or out gun the Yavuz Sultan Selim and were certainly not going to take it on individually. The Turks could ill afford to have any substantial damage inflicted on such a large ship as their dockyards were ill served in dealing with major warships. So the honours were fairly even and as a tactical exercise overall it worked well.

The picture is of the Yavuz Sultan Selim and amazingly she was not scrapped until the early 1970's.

Thunder Along The Mississippi........Part 4

All the models have been undercoated and the business of finding names for them is underway. The next step will be to put the magnetic paper on the undersides of the bases for storage purposes. Originally I was not going to use the cast seascape bases provided but have decided to go with them after all - otherwise I would be stuck with a pile of metal of which I would have little use. I have also decided to stay with the existing Confederate flag I will be using on the bases so there will be no need to order another version. I must confess that my ignorance on the subject of Confederate flags has been well demonstrated in this respect - the version I am using is a modern composite of what the CSA flag should look like and I am using it for simplicity!

Whilst readying these models I have also been giving some thought to the land dimension - forts, shore batteries and troops etc. I have a plan for this that I will reveal in due course - I just need to make a few enquiries first......;-)

Thunder Along The Mississippi........Part 3

After a herculean effort I have managed to get all the models assembled and on bases for painting. I have also placed a small order with Tumbling Dice for a Gloire (to use as USS New Ironsides - see the picture above), a couple of screw sloops and a couple of stern wheelers. This will suffice for the time being and the painting schedule breaks neatly into two parts - basically thems with sails and thems without. I shall be tackling the non-sailed vessels to begin with as the paint job will be a lot easier!

More Boot Sale Bargains - Synchronicity in Action

By way of a change I was actually selling at the boot sale today - the lazybones boot sale at Rettenden - and as is customary on these occasions I was able to have a wander around and to hopefully snaffle a couple of bargains. This indeed proved to be the case and the first acquisition was a pristine paperback copy of The Bloody Crucible of Courage by Brent Nosworthy for the princely sum of £2 - not bad when the cover price is £18.99! Given my current foray into the American Civil War this was a superb example of synchronicity in action! The book is a study of the 'Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the American Civil War' and should complement nicely Rally Once Again by Paddy Griffith.

The second bargain was something a little more unusual. It is a complete copy of the boardgame Conquest designed in the early 70s by the late Donald Benge. The game is an abstract ancient/medieval wargame using point to point movement and features cavalry, infantry, chariots, elephants and two types of warship. Dice are not used and the idea is to either wipe out your opponent or capture his capital. The board features both land and sea areas and chariots, elephants and one of the ship types can also transport troops, thereby increasing tactical flexibility. The box is pretty battered but the contents (52 stylised plastic pieces) are intact; together with a book of tactical puzzles based on the game. I have played this game although many years ago and so it was a welcome acquisition, albeit of an abstract nature.

Selling wise the day was pretty grim but the two items acquired more than made up for it.

Thunder Along The Mississippi........Part 2

Once more into the research breach as I attempt to find suitable names for the ships in the collection. In this I am fortunate to have a few titles in the collection that will be of enormous help - namely Warships and Naval Battles of the Civil War by Tony Gibbons which is an absolute bible for the period. The ironclad stuff should be pretty straightforward although the Confederates suffer from having, aside from Virginia, only one type of casemate ironclad represented, or more specifically, one size. I need to identify a couple Confederate ironclads about the size of the CSS Texas (she is the named vessel that comes in the pack with the Virginia) so this should be pretty straightforward. The real difficulty will be with identifying and naming the bewildering array of various sized screw and paddle vessels of all shapes and rigs employed by both sides.

I also want to find out which, if any, of the various European ironclads in service at the time was closest in layout and design to the USS New Ironsides as i would like to have her as the Union flagship.

Thunder Along The Mississippi........

I know, I know - chopping and changing your mind about a project is the easiest way NOT to get anything done but the sight of the 1/2400th Tumbling Dice ACW fleets laid out on the table in front of me (with the added advantage of all having been acquired previously) was frankly more than mortal flesh could bear and so I shall push on with them instead of the Sci Fi stuff - of which I am still waiting for some of the constituent parts (thin excuse I know!). The Sci Fi OGRE project will be quite a quick 'blitz' job in any event.

There are 36 ships in total, of which a half are ironclads of one sort or another and they are really nice castings although some of the ships are a little odd looking when compared to their historical originals. Some of them, especially the CSS Virginia and the Cairo type river gunboat are almost 'cartoonish' in their profile. Very nice though, all the same. All the models have a cast 'seascape' type base which is separate for most of the models although not for the smaller sloops and gunboats. I shall still but these on card bases so as I can apply names and flags and I will apologise in advance for the fact hat the Confederate flag I shall be using is not the naval version - I only discovered that after I had ordered the normal one!

Tumbling Dice will be adding to the range in due course but there is sufficient to be going with. I am undecided about the rules etc I shall use although I have a number of sets in mind.

Thunder Along The Mississippi refers to the book of the same name by Jack Coombe that describes the riverine battles during the ACW and is a great read. The author also wrote a companion volume called Gunfire Around The Gulf culminating in the battle at Mobile Bay.