Beau, you must be Gesting..............

I arrived home after an exhausting day at work safe in the knowledge that it would not be getting easier as the week unfolds. I was therefore, very pleased to see that Amazon had delivered my copy of Martin Windrow's 'Our Friends Beneath The Sands - The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935'. This is a great doorstop of a tome and is destined to become a classic judging by all the rave reviews.

I will report in full later but this promises to be a top drawer read and full of inspiration as the desert campaigns of the Legion are superb wargames raw material. There are lots of maps and photographs and the Legions involvement in Indo China is also covered for a change, not just the Sahara.

It looks like I shall be busy then.............;-)

A Weekend Afloat

Well not exactly but it did seem to be naval orientated! I have managed to get the latest acquisitions to the War at Sea collection up to the 'waves, wakes and labels' stage with the exception of the G/H class destroyers for the Royal Navy. The only reason they have been left out is simply because I shall be repainting them in to something a little more RN 194o vintage.

The most 'rounded' acquistions for the collection has to be for the Italians, gaining as they do a pair of rebuilt barrleships, a pair of heavy cruisers, eight destroyers and a flying boat! The Greeks get the Averof (see the picture above), a pair of G class destroyers and four ex RN Flower class corvettes.

The German navy gain six late war Narvik class destroyers (armed to the teeth!) whilst the RN has to make do with three R class battleships and a County class heavy cruiser.

I will post pictures when these are finished and whilst surveying the collection I was left with the feeling that it is getting pretty close to as much as I am ever likely to need!

Well, perhaps not - especially as the next expansion is due out in December...........;-)

Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones - Once upon a time in the Crusades

Back in the boot sale groove on a very very blustery and wet Sunday and boy did I score big! First up was a pristine hardback copy of the book The Crusades - (the BBC TV series) by Monty Python's Terry Jones. I have some more detailed works on the subject but this was a cracking TV series and the book is a very good primer. This cost me the princely sum of 50p. I also acquired a paperback omnibus of the first three Indiana Jones films - Raiders, Temple and Last Crusade. The cover is a little creased but this will be a good one for the train journey to and from work. I also acquired the 2 disc DVD special edition of Once Upon a Time in the West - the Sergio Leone film starring Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson for a pound.

Pride of place though was numbers 1 to 54 of the GW partwork Lord of the Rings - the magazine supporting the games produced by them of Peter Jackson's film trilogy. Over half of them still have the figures in the plastic bags (or the metals in their clear plastic and card blister packs) and those that are not 'on the magazine' have been undercoated and assembled. A few of the figures are damaged and certainly numbers of the bases are missing but this would be easily rectified. Also included was the plastic box this lot was stored in and a copy of the artwork book covering the film of The Two Towers.

This was completely unexpected and I am unsure what I will do with this although the figures are fantastic for use with any Tolkein based skirmish - which is unsurprising given that is the subject matter of the game! The price for this collection was £10 and I am confident that even if I decided to offload the entire amount I will easily make considerably more than I paid for it!

Robot Wars on the Cheap

The picture above is of the robots available in plastic from EM4 Miniatures manufactured in hard plastic and easily suitable for scales from 6mm to 28mm. These are priced at a mere £2.50 for 5 models (one of each) and you are able to customise the weapons fit which is useful. From a gaming perpsective I have always enjoyed battles between these giant robots or 'Mechs and there are many sets of rules available covering this genre. As a small diversion I intend painting up some of these (I only have 10 so it should not take too long!) for a club night knockabout type of game - possibly making use of the Heroscape terrain I have.

As far as the paint job is concerned I am thinking about some nice camouflague schemes for the two sides and also making use of some of the many sets of waterslide transfers I have tucked away. EM4 are well worth a look for odss and ends and you can also get the plastic versions of the space fighter types from the sadly out of print boardgame - Silent Death.

http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/index.html#infolines

Boxing Clever

As mentioned on more than one occasion I am in desperate need of a new storage facility for my War at Sea collection. At the present time it lives in two box files and an old cutlery box (about the size of two box files side by side) but these have now passed the point where the models can be comfortably stored. My solution to this predicament is very much in the nature of an improvisation but thus far appears to be OK. Basically I have added a tray insert into the two box files made from foam card so there is now two levels for the models. I have also lined both the file and the tray with magnetic strip (actually a supply of Rochford District Council Recycling fridge magnets!) and will line the underside of the model bases with some magnetic paper. The models are light and so having them magnetically fixed in their storage will make it easier to travel with and pack - not to mention the ease of selection of specific models for a game!

I am also tackling the basing this weekend of a further 35 ships and one aircraft model. At last the Royal Navy have their R class battleships! I also note that the next expansion set for War at Sea has been scheduled for December this year so I guess I will need to think about my wish list for when this comes along!

Axis and Allies: War at Sea 33% and Floored

Whilst on holiday I was able to spend a little time considering the ‘tweaking’ of the Axis and Allies: War at Sea rules in order to turn them into something a little more ‘wargames-like’. You may recall that I had previously considered morale etc in order to avoid the ‘last ship afloat is the winner’ syndrome. An idea I am mulling over is to apply DBA type victory conditions i.e. when a fleet loses a third of its number then it is deemed to require breaking off of the action where possible thereby conceding the game. At first thought this would mean that ships would then concentrate on the most vulnerable targets in order to gain a quick win. I have considered this and think that perhaps applying a degree of weighting to the required victory total would be a good idea – almost like using the points system from HOTT.

The answer came about in an unusual way. In the War at Sea rules damage is applied in terms of hull hits. The number of hull hits varies by ship type from 1 to 5 or 6. Typically, destroyers have 2 hull points, most cruisers 3 and battleships etc 4 upwards. Using this as a guide then a typical fleet might consist of half a dozen destroyers (each of 2 hull points), a pair of cruisers (of 2 or 3 hull points) and a couple of battleships (of 4 or 5 points). Totalling the hull points would come out at, for example, 28 points using the maximum scores quoted. Taking this as an example then 28 divided by 3 comes out at 9.33, call it 9 for arguments sake. This means that when the fleet has lost more than 9 hull points it has in effect lost the game.

The weighting aspect refers to the relative importance attached to the types of ships making up the fleet. Using the fleet above as an example then the priority would typically be to sink the largest enemy vessels present so the escorts would be relatively unimportant – unless of course they were attacking the key units.

My suggestion then would be to that no single ship type can contribute more than 50 percent to the total hull points required for victory UNLESS the entire type can, by being hit/sunk, exceed the notional 33 percent limit. In other words (and still using the example above) if the fleet lost, for example 4 of its 6 destroyers then that would be 8 hull points in total. Using the 50 percent rule only 4.5 (or 4 rounded down) would count towards the 33 percent (9 in the example) score required for victory unless another destroyer was damaged/sunk which would then make the score 10 hull points which would be enough for the win.

So what is the point of this exercise then? Well, for one I would like to see players having to think about the fact that fighting to the last ship should not be the acme of naval command. Even in a non scenario based game (the dreaded ‘one off’) tabletop admirals need to be mindful of the forces they have at their disposal and that they are not for indiscriminate use, representing as they do a nations substantial investment in men and material.

A further consideration I have is to dispense with the use of the ship cards currently used – particularly the special abilities. The reason for this is that all the ship data could be easily added to a spreadsheet which would be more user friendly (and less likely to get lost!) and gives the game a more 'wargames like' feel. Many of the special abilities should be automatically assigned to types rather than individual ships e.g. chasing the salvoes (this gives destroyers a saving throw when under heavy gunfire), laying a smokescreen, torpedo defence etc.

I would like to trial the 33% rule at out next club session due on Wednesday 03/09. For this game we are using the ‘off the grid’ version as we now have available at the club an additional room with a turquoise speckled floor covering, ideal for the Mediterranean. The community centre the club uses has knocked through a dividing wall between our room with the one adjacent and replaced the wall with some sliding partitions. This gives us not only more space (almost double) but it means that we can have more games on the go (each with fewer participants) as well as a great space for naval games.

It also means that we can fight 20th century naval games at more sensible looking ranges and at long last I may even be able to get some decent pictures of the action!

A Very Odd Turkish Delicacy.............

............and this is one that the Man Cave of my Antipodean chum will appreciate!

Cheers Tas - it was very tasty, especially when washed down with some Efes served cold!