Panzer 8 WW2 Naval Rules

Whilst on the train on the way home yesterday evening I took the opportunity to have a closer look at the naval rules produced by Panzer 8 and mentioned in my previous blog entry. This reinforced my opinion that there is potentially a very interesting and challenging set of rules waiting to be bolted on top the basic system and so I am going to spend some more ‘cerebral’ time over the weekend messing about with them; in between the various painting tasks I have scheduled.

I had a look on the Panzer 8 website last night and found a couple of battle reports of actions using the author’s rules and they seemed good fun – both fast playing and with results that looked feasible. Certainly from a club night perspective they have a lot to offer and should I be successful in my attempt to expand the core system into something more palatable to the traditional naval war gamer then it will be a project worth tackling.

The one thing that I need to be careful of with this exercise is that in attempting to add additional ‘chrome’ to the rules I avoid the trap of upsetting the flavour and balance of the system as devised. I want to maintain the simplicity of the original but to have a more ‘rounded’ rules system. Fortunately, the ‘chrome’ will not be too onerous to formulate and neatly breaks down into bite-sized chunks.

Movement – I may introduce a rule whereby a ship has up to three moves allowed depending on type. A turn costs one move. This means that a ship with a move of two could turn and then move one zone or move two zones if facing the correct way; with a move of three they could turn and move two zones or turn, move and turn again or even move three zones if facing the correct way. A ship not turning stays where it is. This rule will allow for variations in ship speeds and manoeuvrability based on their historical capabilities. In connection with movement I may introduce an initiative procedure in order to add some unpredictability into the game turn.

Combat – The main thing that will be needed here is provision for guns smaller than 8” in calibre – not only for light cruisers and destroyers but also for secondary weapons. Provision will also be needed for AA weapons as well as torpedo combat. I am happy with the combat mechanics as they are and so little or no change will be needed in that respect. A few additional firing modifiers will be needed but again, nothing major.

Damage – The existing system of separate Turret and Hull hits is fine as it stands but I am tempted to replace it with the US system of hits being described as D1, 2, 3 or 4 with sunk being the fifth level. This will have implications for combat and will ensure that only one type of damage marker will be required. Damage effects can therefore be linked to the D level and combat etc adjusted accordingly. This will need some careful thought but is certainly viable.

Ship Factors – This is probably the biggest single area for revision. Ship Attack Factors will need to allow for secondary weapons where applicable as well as torpedoes and AA. Movement will be based on type as mentioned above. Defence Factors are a lot more complex as tonnage, build and armour will need to be considered. Assigning one point per 10,000 tons is OK when dealing with the bigger ships but anything less will be horribly vulnerable – single hit heavy cruisers anybody?

Air Power – Ship borne AA guns and the use of fighters need to be factored in and some variety in respect of aircraft types would be in order – the basic combat mechanics are fine as they are though; simple and to the point and will need little change. Carriers should not ordinarily appear within a tactical action in any event and so if one is unlucky enough to find itself in range of a battleship then it has been poorly served by its commander!

Submarines – The whole submarine and ASW thing is a game all of its own and whilst not usually relevant in a surface fight will obviously need to be considered in the context of convoy actions. The use of zones will make the process simpler when dealing with submerged submarines.

Quite by chance last night I noticed that the rug on the floor of the new Man Cave is divided into forty squares – eight by five – so I have an instant zone based playing area of the suggested size of 160cm by 100cm. Ignoring the squares I have the eight zones needed and by placing a selection of models on the rug I was able to see how such an action would look and the short answer is – absolutely fine. The only downside is the colour: beige…………………………………..;-)

Rules without Frontiers, Games without Tears.........

Following on from my recent post about ‘Relative Position’ naval war games; I have managed to track down the fast play rule set using zones to regulate movement and combat I had mentioned. The rules are by Panzer 8 and are available as a free PDF from http://panzer8.webs.com/. The naval rules (there are a number of other interesting sets contained within the PDF) are very fast play and are primarily designed for early war gun actions using ships sized at heavy cruiser or larger. Basically ships are able to move one zone a turn and can be either broadside to the enemy, facing towards or away. A ship that is broadside on is presumably ‘stationary’ although maintaining position would perhaps be a more accurate description. Weapon ranges are given in terms of zones and although scales are not quoted I would take a single zone as being roughly 5,000 to 6,000 yards. Ships have an attack and a defence factor and gunfire is a two step process – a single roll to hit or ‘straddle’ the target and then opposed rolls for damage. Damage is either T for turret or H for hull with the damage being marked as points of either type. There are critical hits so the almost obligatory chance of HMS Hood going bang is represented. Air power is represented with carriers allowed a strike per 10 aircraft at a maximum of two strikes per turn. There are no rules for AA fire or for the use of fighters. Ships that are smaller than a heavy cruiser do not feature and so the light cruisers and destroyers required as escorts and scouting parties are conspicuous by their absence.

The playing surface consists of eight zones – four a side – and ships may not cross into the oppositions half. The suggested size of the playing area for 1/3000th is 100cm by 70cm with the zones being 12.5cm each. Obviously for 1/1800th (the scale of the War at Sea models) these would need to be larger – I would think that perhaps 20cm per zone and 100cm wide. That would give an overall playing area of 160cm by 100cm or just under a 6ft by 4ft table. In fact you could probably just use the 6ft by 4ft as is and scale the zones accordingly. Ships are placed however the player prefers within each zone so formations can be represented quite handily.

The obvious amendments and additions to the basic system look something like this:

Increased number of ship types and more representative attack and defence factors
Secondary and AA weapons
Smaller calibre guns i.e. less than 8”
Ship torpedo attacks
Increased variation between ships of the same notional type
Air power – escorting and defending fighters
Submarines and ASW

Now I realise that this lot looks pretty intimidating but I don’t think the suggested tweaks will cause huge amounts of extra work. The author’s website includes a forum to discuss the rules presented and so I will be utilising this in order to ensure that my efforts to upgrade the core system are in tune with his intent.

I realise that this is yet another set of naval rules I shall be playing around with and so, as a long term naval war game enthusiast I will offer no apologies for this!

The Man Cave: Unplugged

In a moment of whimsy I decided to take a few shots of the Man Cave: The Rayleigh Annex (affiliated to its Antipodean version!) so you can see the nerve centre for all my various operations and plans for global domination.

The only thing remaining for me to do is to put up a couple of small shelves for the sound system and a selection of suitably inspiring CDs.

Perhaps a small fridge for the Pimms and Lemonade...............;-)

I am very pleased with the final result although the colour scheme was SWMBO's idea and made use of various tins of paint that were festering in the shed!

In the Man Cave: Abstracting the Abstracted Abstraction

Yesterday evening saw me tackling the first job in the new Man Cave: cutting out card bases for the War at Sea ships and aircraft. Due to time constraints I was only able to get the bases cut for the twelve aircraft. These are 40mm square and are painted the same sea blue I use for the ships – Humbrol Matt 25. I print off identifying labels for these as well; merely numbering them by type e.g. Stuka 1, Stuka 2 etc. I shall tackle the ships this evening with a view to painting and finishing the whole exercise in time for the weekend. Preparing these bases is not difficult, merely time consuming but it does have a certain therapeutic value. The aircraft have been duly stuck to their bases and are awaiting the brush. In the interests of economy I will mount all the ships on their bases before getting the paint out and so tackle the whole lot in one fell swoop. I will need to get the ships and aircraft labels ready as well as putting the names and ensigns on the bases is my favourite part of the process – primarily because that is the last step and it means the models are ready! There will be a photo shoot when the models are ready and now that I have a new camera I am keen to give it a thorough work out!

In all I have a further 32 ships to be based – 17 for the Royal Navy, 7 for the Italians and 8 for the Germans – with no prizes for guessing the nationality at the top of the list! As mentioned previously I am really pleased to have a couple of models of HMS Repulse (one will be used for HMS Renown – although the two ships were slightly different to look at) and have bitten the bullet and acquired an additional copies of HMS Warspite to serve as Queen Elizabeth and Valiant. The War at Sea ships are variable in quality and accuracy but as representations of the vessels in question they are ideal for use as wargames models. The only downside is their size – realistically I can only use them at the club as the table size required is well beyond anything available in my house!

I have considered how best to make use of my War at Sea models at home and have come to the conclusion that the only way I would be able to achieve this would be to dispense with movement entirely and merely concentrate of the combat side embracing the concept of relative positions. I have seen a set of fast play naval rules kicking around on the net that use a system of zones for relative positions and whilst I was initially wary of such a concept I have revised my opinion somewhat. Although such a system will serve to further ‘abstract the abstraction’ I think it may well have possibilities.

The biggest problem with this approach is how best to represent the effects of manoeuvring (course and speed changes etc) on the table top. Consider two warships sailing parallel at a distance of 10,000 yards at the same speed of 20 kts. Their relative positions will stay the same although they will carry on moving on their current course. Ships following these two at the same heading but at, say, 30 kts, will pull ahead and this separation will continue. Similarly, a slower ship will fall behind. As long as the two ships in the centre of our example maintain their course and speed then the faster and slower ships will eventually disappear into the distance. There would no reason then why the two ‘middle’ ships in the above example could not be static on the table top with the faster and slower vessels are placed accordingly until either changing speed or course or exiting the combat area.

Simply put, a ship will either attempt to close or open the range of combat by a combination of speed and course relative to the enemy. Unless one ship has an advantage in terms of speed then, all else being equal, the enemy should be able to maintain the status quo and be able to conform the other ships movement – in other words, stay the same. The trick will be to allow for such tactical manoeuvring without actually moving the models but still showing the same on the table top (after all, that is why we are using models rather than cardboard counters!).

I will look at this in a little more depth as I would dearly like to be able to fit an action using the WaS models on a standard dining table. Much to ponder methinks (yet again!).

Man Cave 2: The Next Generation

After an exhausting weekend I have finally commissioned the new Rayleigh Factorium aka Man Cave 2! It has been hard work putting it together simply because of having to reorganise, in effect, three rooms. Now that I am back in business the first task will be to get the bases prepared for the additional War at Sea ships and aircraft I have. This will be tackled in conjunction with the revised storage system I will be using for them which will take up a lot less space. Although I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had sourced a supply of box files that are half the depth of the standard version I have not been able to price these at less than £3.99 a go which is more than I want to pay. As I calculated I would need about a dozen of these the cost would mount up – I would certainly be able to buy far more interesting material with the monies in question! As an alternative then, I will use the existing box files I have and make up some inner trays to double up the carrying capacity. I was tempted to use a new shade of blue for the bases (my current shade of blue is a little on the dark side) but given that I would then have to repaint nigh on 200 others decided that this was probably not a good idea!

Once that has been tackled I will then return to the Balkan Wars stuff and I will push on get these finished as soon as possible. Around the ongoing figure painting I have a couple of modelling projects to undertake - these are relatively small scale and make for a welcome diversion whilst waiting for paint or varnish to dry. These are of a VSF nature and are simple to manufacture en masse - now that I have some extra room it means that semi painted or assembled ‘kit’ can now safely be left out overnight – and will be used for both Aeronef and the forthcoming Aquanef.

The ‘cerebral’ projects, mainly naval campaign based, are on track, albeit somewhat retarded, and so completing the additional War at Sea stuff should hopefully provide an additional spur. I have two ideas on the go – the Mediterranean based Malta Convoy scenario and revisiting the Bismarck affair. Once the models are based then I should be more inclined to push on with the mechanics of the two campaigns – these will drafted during ‘non-painting’ time e.g. lunch time or even on the train to and from work (I have an hour each way).

As another ‘cerebral’ exercise I will continue to add flesh to the background of both Balkrunia and Karagoz; my pair of 1920’s ‘imagi-nations’. I am enjoying this diversion and have plans to make use of some of the figures I have for the forces in question; with the addition of a few WW1 vintage vehicles and some Wings of War aircraft, suitably repainted. I have been considering using the Peter Laing 15mm WW1 collection as the basis for Balkrunia and Karagoz – I certainly have enough figures to produce any amount of armies and of course, should I design the uniforms etc myself (I was not planning to do this originally) I can ‘mix and match’ to my hearts desire. The figures from this collection would need a repaint in any event so this would probably be a good opportunity to revamp the collection into something unique.

20,000 Leagues Under the Aquanef at Salute

I am really excited about the forthcoming release of Aquanef by Wessex Games. The rules are designed to allow gamers to fight naval actions during the latter half of the 19th century incorporating both submarines and sea monsters and using Aeronef. Aquanef themselves are what Victorians imagined submarines would look like – the most famous example of course being the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. The game mechanics will be familiar to Aeronef players and as such the set represents a logical extension of that set with many similarities in terms of game mechanics and background. I am a great fan of submarine games but this has usually been confined to board games as representing surface and subsurface activity on the tabletop is not an easy undertaking. From what Steve Blease is describing on his blog it would appear that a viable solution is available in the shape of using upturned plastic beer glasses and old CDs. The CDs are ‘seascaped’ and placed on the top of an upturned beer glass (or should that be beer plastic?) with the ship model placed on top. The complete assembly is moved as per normal – this represents the surface element of the game. The subsurface side can consist of models on the usual ‘flying’ bases – using different height stems for the Aquanef may be a possibility in order to represent different depths. A complexity will arise of course when tackling and action that encompasses subsurface, surface and air elements using this method – an alternative I imagine would be to use half pint glasses for the surface elements and pints for the aerial with the subsurface kit on ordinary flying bases. As an aside, with some careful modelling there is no reason why a model, suitably prepared, could not be used as a spaceship, a dirigible and an Aquanef – that makes for very economic gaming with the same models being used for three different genre! My plan is to experiment with this approach and so my tried and trusted ‘plastic-aircraft-bomb-with-scrap-bits-of-sprue-added-and-based-on-a-flying-stand’ technique will once again be on the model tray in due course.

Steve Blease is running an Aquanef game at Salute with, I believe, Matthew Hartley, so to anybody with a passing interest in VSF please pass by and take a look. Certainly the pictures released thus far on his blog: http://bleaseworld.blogspot.com/ are very inspiring! I am hoping that lots of pictures get taken of this game as I am really keen to see how the CD idea works out for representing surface and subsurface units. The models that Steve has produced for the game are also featured and very nice they look as well. I was really taken with the underwater scenery idea and so have a mental note to visit our local Aquarium shop – Swallow Aquatics – for some further inspiration. It all looks really effective and I am really sorry not to be going to Salute to see it in action.

A similar approach with the models could be used for another period of interest, which for me would be enormously tempting (and as an additional project I suppose!) – this being a WW2 German U Boat Wolf Pack attacking a convoy. The only problem I envisage is the fact that full hull submarines (i.e. not the usual waterline types) are hard to come by unless you use 1/600th or 1/700th. One to think about for the future perhaps but in the meantime I am keen to try VSF style sub and subsurface warfare using Aquanef as published. It should also give me the stimulus to tackle the 1/2400th scale ACQ models I have that featured in my previous post.

1/2400th Scale Ships and Steel on Sand

I must confess that I had completely forgotten about these little beauties - these being my collection of models produced by Tumbling Dice of various ACW ironclads and steamships. The prompt came about from a post on the excellent http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/ and so whilst the looming spectre of yet another half finished project is now back on the radar I am very pleased I dragged the models out.

The blog is well worth a look for anyone interested in small scale projects - painting, modelling and converting - and is one I have found both valuable and inspirational.

The one thing I have done though is to remove the separate bases as most of the models had already been assembled, undercoated and in most cases half painted. I did this solely because I prefer to use a flat, non textured base as I print name labels and ensigns to decorate them with.

Well done steelonsand - a great blog and really inspirational....curse you!!!