Risk of a Campaign Viktory II

Plenty of bits in the box for sure - and it uses hexes....

I came across this on the net and boy, oh boy oh boy do I want one!

Viktory II

Anybody seen this anywhere?

Tile over Substance....Part 2

Pook's turtles - or the magnificent seven if you prefer

It has been one of those days. One of those days where the brain goes into overdrive as an idea suddenly becomes inflated into something far larger. One of those days where the possibilities of such an idea suddenly appear to be endless.

Ok, I know that all sounds very dramatic but indulge me if you would. I spent lunchtime today considering naval stuff and how best to game some of the periods prior to the 20^th century that I have an interest in. Obviously any such game would be hex based and so the need for a suitable playing surface that suits the size of models used is a priority. Hexon is fine for either ships that engage at a long range and with moves that are correspondingly smaller in order to remain within the playing area or for a small number of ships that are neither fast nor manoeuvrable engaging at shorter ranges. For me the earlier era translates as the following:

• Squadron level ACW river actions – my own ‘scaled to fit a Hexon tile models’ or 1/1200th
• Squadron level Victorian/Napoleonic/18^th century – 1/1200^th        

In each of the above cases the models will fit on a Hexon tile quite happily and look fine when used in conjunction with the full sized block armies for combined operations actions. Moving back in time, the next periods under consideration begin to struggle in terms of filling a Hexon size as the models are now starting to get too small. I am talking about the Armada, Lepanto style galleys and then back to the ancients. Now it is possible to game these in 1/600^th scale but that misses the point as far as I am concerned as here we should be dealing with fleets. An Ancient trireme an inch long in 1/1200^th will look lost on a Hexon tile and having multiples of models in a hex is just plain too complex to allow for so the obvious thing is to reduce the size of the hex; thereby providing a larger number of hexes for a given playing area and retaining the 1 ship per hex ideal. By extension, this could also apply to models from the Napoleonic/ACW/Victorian era – especially if using smaller models e.g. 1/2400^th. These models are really nice  - I am referring to Tumbling Dice here – and have the added attraction of not only being cheap but crucially, are also easy to paint.

A major bonus of using these smaller models is the fact that I can model terrain using Heroscape far more easily than with Hexon because taking my maximum playing area of 6 x 4 foot it would mean that I could get effectively twice as many hexes on the table. This would give me more ‘sea/river room’ for manoeuvre. This would be especially useful for ACW river actions as it would be possible to model a larger stretch of water than I could with Hexon. This has given rise to a monumental decision.

(Pauses at this point for a very sharp intake of breath, squares the shoulders, flexes the neck and clears the throat to the accompanying roll of drums )

A pair of sidewheelers

I have decided that in order for me to successfully game the naval wars on the rivers during the ACW I will need to acquire a pair of fleets in a smaller scale than I currently have available. In short, the fifty models I have scratch built (of which 17 are fully painted, based, named and flagged) are now surplus to requirements and will be disposed of. This will include the name labels as yet unused, the printed flags and the clear plastic I am using for the bases.

CSS Louisiana - she is now painted.

I intend using the proceeds of the sale to furnish the fleets in 1/2400^th for the not only the ACW but also for those Napoleonic or Victorian ironclads ideas I have, possibly also expanding into the 16^thcentury.

There, I’ve done it.

Tile over Substance

Not mine I hasten to add (thank Google Images!) but you can see what the blue tiles I am talking about look like - and it is a neat layout, missing only some white spray!

Despite my intention to try and limit the scale of my naval activities I have had to bow to the inevitable to an extent and will be using ships in varying scales as needed. My WW2 1/4800^th scale adventures will be using the full sized Hexon tiles on a 6 x 4 ft table with a playing area equal to 12 x 18 hexes. The combination of small model size and a large area will give the correct aesthetic scale look to the action – especially with capital ships duking it out at ranges measured in miles. A 4” Hexon tile will happily take the largest ships in this scale with the added bonus that smaller ships can fill a hex in multiples if required – I am thinking of destroyer formations here, say four models to a hex. This will be an important consideration for large squadron or fleet actions – especially when reaching back to WW1.

My plans for earlier periods are a little more involved and I have to say they were causing me a number of problems. Starting with the ACW my dilemma is very simple. I have the large scratch built models available (around 1/600^th give or take) and these fit nicely on the Hexon tiles. They also fit in well as part of a combined operations type set up using the block armies. With the increased table area of blue Hexon I now have I will be able to fight some interesting games in this scale with a reasonable area of water to manoeuvre on. The only downside is that should I want to tackle a Heroscape scaled game the ships are simply too large. If the ACW was purely a naval undertaking then of would not be a problem but as I will fighting along the rivers the land side is important and critically, should I want longer playing area (featuring twists and turns and defences in depth) then the Hexon is too large for my current set up. Using Heroscape would appear to be the obvious answer to this dilemma but with only 21 blue tiles currently available its use is rather limited. A Heroscape tile is roughly 45mm across the flats so is less than half the size of the Hexon version. Methinks an extensive trawl of Ebay may be in order!

This whole subject though has got me thinking in a number of directions.

As it stands a standard Heroscape tile will happily accommodate a 1/2400 scale Napoleonic, ACW or 'black fleet' style Victorian ironclad. It will also take a 1/1200th scale galley - be it Ancient or 16th century. So, I reckon that using the smaller scale hexes for the smaller scale models will have the advantage over Hexon in two ways. Firstly, relatively speaking the smaller scale models fit the smaller hexes far better and so aesthetically look 'right'. Placing a 1/1200th scale ancient galley measuring an inch long in a hex 4" across looks a little forlorn to say the least. Secondly, as most galley and ACW river actions feature land on one or more sides of the playing area having the smaller hexes means that terrain can be modeled more accurately whilst still preserving a reasonably sized playing area. 

I have a modest selection of 1/1200th galleys for the ancient period and reckon that this scale will probably feature for the 16th century when I ever get around to it so that is a done deal. 

I need to think long and hard though about the ACW collection though as I do not want to be painting up the same ships in two different scales.

Memoir of Command and Battle Colours Cry '44....Part 1

Messing with the (Richard) Borg Collective....Resistance is futile....Prepare to be assimilated....

Given that I will be making much use of the above system in one form or another for my myriad of planned (and yet to be planned) hex and block based adventures I think that now would be a good time to sit down and think about exactly what shape I want the rules to end up in. It is absolutely my belief that it would be possible to have a single set of rules that cover the entire period from 1700 to 1945 so the plan then is to prepare such an animal. This is not without a few pitfalls but I think it is certainly achievable. I also think that taking the best elements from each current set – Napoleonics, Battle Cry and Memoir ’44 – would be a good starting point, sprinkled with a dash of Bob Cordery’s Memoir of Battle for good measure.

The biggest single difficulty for me concerns command cards. As it stands we have a WW2 set, an ACW set and then one for Napoleonics – I am not including Ancients at this point. There are other unofficial versions as well. These have one thing in common regardless of the period being gamed. They all have sector based movement/activation cards. The special cards are the period flavour specific types. Now I am thinking that it should be possible to draft a set of generic command cards for movement/activation and even for the special cards but with these meaning different things in different periods or even the same thing effect wise but described differently. This is purely a personal thing but if the tabletop reflects the action you are fighting then having generic cards should not matter – to me the description of the ‘period effects’ is a piece of ‘chrome’ rather than being of essential value.

I am planning to compare the command cards across the sets to establish the common cards and then take a look at the special effects to see what degree of crossover exists. As it stands at present there is one official set for the post Napoleonic 19^th century (Battle Cry ACW) period; a period that I would like to explore in respect of Colonial actions and even battles up to the Great War. The easy solution would be to use the cards from closest period to the game you are fighting but I would not really be happy with that approach – it would be a fudge too far, even for me.

I believe that it would be easy enough to formulate a single set of rules that cover 1700 to 1945 using the Command and Colours system with a set of generic command cards and with period specific special effects added to taste. This is one of tasks I shall tackle over the weekend, along with sorting out the Ironclads boardgame and starting on the final tranche of the block armies.

Ironclads R Us

The base game

The rather useful expansion set

After a minor delay (and following on from my post of 2/9/12) I collected the copies of the above game whilst en route to the club last night. Aside from being a little musty (and with some 'sunning' in odd places) after having stored in a garage the two games are in remarkably good condition and in fact the base game has only partially had the counters punched - the expansion not at all. The game covers tactical naval combat on a ship to ship level during the ACW and with the ships in the expansion set, the Austro-Italian war in 1866 (the Lissa campaign) as well as the Pacific war. There is also a selection of British and French ironclads included as well so the potential for some cross channel activity is also covered.

The game is very detailed - almost skirmish-like in its complexity - and to be honest I doubt very much if I will play it as written, simply because I no longer have the inclination to undertake such exercises in head scratching. However, for me that is not the point of the exercise. The material contained therein in respect of ship and weapon details is an absolute goldmine of detail that will prove to be invaluable for any of my planned naval adventures during the period. The counters are a great source of material to use for testing purposes in the absence of models and for that reason (among many) this is a great acquisition for me.

The first thing I will need to do though is to have a little tidy up of the base game and punch out the remaining counters and then take stock of the potential - especially of the ship and weapon data - for turning this into something a little more in tune with my current requirements.

Heroscape Deserts

"What do you mean you forgot the sun cream?"

Following on from my recent game using the Heroscape tiles rather than Hexon I have been trawling the net with a view to trying to acquire some of the blue ‘water’ tiles. I managed to source a full set of the tiles from the base game via Ebay which will be very handy indeed – not only for the blue tiles but also as the others are in their raw state I will be able to model specific terrain features if needed. It also means that I can produce a desert set more readily rather than by painting over the green flocked tiles. To be honest this is not really essential but in the interests of consistency I should have a flocked desert set – it will certainly look better in any event. Mention of the desert has awakened a whole series of ideas I have for games using the blocks which up until now I have not been able to progress. This also means that completing the 20^th century blocks has assumed a greater degree of priority as a number of these ideas will involve tanks – and rather a lot of them....;-)

It also means that my old friend T.E.Lawrence will at last get a look in which rather nicely coincides with the release of David Lean’s Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia on Blue Ray. There is also the added attraction of the Sanussi revolt in WW1 as well so I will have more than enough to keep me busy with desert type adventures of one kind or another!

Flat Top - Carrier Battles in the Pacific, 1942

Flat Top - a box full of WW2 aerial and naval goodies and a piece of history

This morning saw the arrival of a copy of the Avalon Hill edition of Flat Top that I managed to source from Ebay. As mentioned previously, I wanted a copy of this game for use as a kind of campaign tool with the intention of it going with the 1/4800th scale Pacific collection (that is the one that I have yet to acquire of course). The Avalon Hill version (the second edition) expanded the original Battleline game with additional ships and a slightly larger map area requiring a two page plot map. Although the counter count weighs in at 1,300 or so it is not a game that has great skyscrapers of counters on the board, in fact the counters are largely deployed on task force cards with but a single counter representing them. The plot maps are of pivotal importance in the game and of course have uses far beyond the actions of 1942 - and I fully intend exploiting them accordingly!

The mapboard - as you can see it is rather large!

The Allies are yellow and the Japanese are red and roughly half of the counters are aircraft

Two pads of plot maps - very, very useful indeed!

Rules, charts and tables

The game is in absolutely pristine condition and I hope to make much use of it - both as a campaign tool for miniatures battles and as a classic boardgame in its own right.