Lepanto - 1915 Part 3 and 100 Not Out

Last night saw the play test of the latest version of the DBSA WW1 Navl Gridded Rules and as is usual with things, a few issues raised their ugly heads. Sadly I am not able to give a blow by blow account of the action other than to describe it as a narrow Turkish victory after they had managed to sink a couple of bases of DDs and cripple a light cruiser for no loss and with very little damage. Much muttering under the collective Austro Hungarian and Italian admirals breath was heard concerning the quality of the Turkish dice rolling (or was it the poor quality of their own?).

I will need to clarify the turning rules a little as they caused a degree of confusion in their execution - nothing major - just a tad reworking. Also on the hit list will be LOS implications when using destroyer screens as well as firing arcs for DDs themselves.

I will need to consider the inferior/superior nature of particular vessels as now the dice roll has been removed from costed turns and speed I need to think about how to factor this into the rules.

Overall I am quite satisfied with the core mechanics for this set - it is just a case of fine tuning to make them a viable alternative to more traditional sets.

This post is also a milestone of sorts as it is my 100th. I am really enjoying the whole blogging thing and it has given me much inspiration and welcome support for all of my varied endeavours. With this in mind I should like to extend my warmest thanks to all that have contributed or even just browsed through - cliched I know, but I really could not have done it without your continued and most welcome support.

Here's to the next 100!!

Lepanto - 1915 Part 2

Tonight sees the action described earlier with the Turks exchanging blows with a combined Austro Hungarian and Italian fleet. The rules I will be using for this are yet another version of the DBSA WW1 gridded set I have been experimenting with. I must confess to having second thoughts about my decision to abandon these simply because I have had a radical idea as to how to solve the diagonal situation when using a square grid. In a nutshell there will be no pure diagonal moves at all. What will happen though is that turning includes a displacement by a square so the effect is similar to a diagonal move. This probably sounds more complex than it is and I shall try to incorporate a diagram in the revised set showing what I mean. Ships must also complete turns within the move so there will be no carrying over a turn to the next go. I am really excited about this and hope that it works in practice.

I have also dispensed with move and turning related dice rolls and have simplified firing as when calculating ranges the firing player is allowed to count one diagonal square to the target with the rest being orthogonal. Again, this will make more sense when explained with he aid of a diagram.

I shall try to get some pictures for the blog with a report of the action for tomorrow.

Lepanto - 1915

This Wednesday evening at the club will see Mr Fox and myself exchanging salvos across the tabletop in a naval action set in 1915 close to the scene of the great battle of Lepanto, 1571. The Turks will be taking on a combined Austro-Hungarian and Italian Fleet using my own 'soon-to-be-abandoned-and-replaced-with-something-that-will-probably-need-as-much-tinkering-with-as-its-predecessor' set of DBSA based WW1 naval rules. I will report on the action in due course but in the meantime I will be cranking out a revised play sheet for the game which incorporates some nifty amendments so the action will have elements of a play test about it.

The change to the action came about as a result of a throwaway comment by Mr Fox whom had just finished reading Roger Crowley's Empires of the Sea - The Final Battle for the Mediterranean 1521-1580. No prizes for guessing where the inspiration came for the game then!

Birthday Celebrations

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
My paint tray is overflowing,
But I've fixed my PC!

Happy birthday to me as today sees my 49th year of being on the planet (some would probably debate that statement but what the hell!). Goodies have rained down on me - a couple of DVDs, some chocolates and some 28mm Sci Fi bits and pieces so I have done pretty well. Best of all though was the happy outcome to the Holly's Appendix episode - the sighs of relief were heard for miles around!

This evening will see the traditional family custom of the birthday persons choice of takeaway for dinner - that will be an Indian then! I am drooling at the prospect of a good Jalfrezi and some Indian lager to wash it down with!

As a further piece of good news I was able to score an extra copy of Risk (with the 18th century figures therein - see the earlier post on this) from ebay for a very good price so the number of figures available has doubled. I just need now to do the same for the Lord of the Rings (and the expansion) and I shall be in business!

Terminator Marines - dont you just love 'em!! Part 4

After the deluge of shock and awe that has been the norm in the Rayleigh Factorium this week you could be forgiven for thinking that anything gaming wise would be very much on the back burner in the grand scheme of things. You would indeed be correct in that assumption but, when faced with adversity, one must present the inevitable stiff upper lip and press on regardless. So it was I found myself with a spare hour this evening in which I made some further inroads into my painting Terminator Marines for Space Hulk. The blue section of marines have now had the imperial eagle that is embossed on the breastplate drybrushed with GW Burnished Gold over the black base colour. I have to say it looks pretty good and so these models are now a step closer to completion and my karma has been restored to a degree.

I must confess that it was a very pleasant distraction from recent events.........;-)

Irregular Miniatures 2mm Ships

Above is the picture taken from the http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/ website of their newly launched range of generic 2mm (approximately 1:900th) 20th (and 19th) century warships. Just the thing for all those Aquanef fleets being planned...................;-)

Check out their website for catalogue codes and prices - as well as sizes which is quite useful.

That Was The Week That Was...............

................And what a week it has been!! Last Sunday we had to interrupt our usual boot sale activity to bring my 13 year old daughter, Holly, home and take her to the hospital with severe stomach pains, ominously located in the region of her appendix. She spent two days at the local hospital being poked, prodded and tested in a variety of ways to ascertain the cause of the problem but to no avail. They even squeezed in an ultrasound scan for good measure but everything drew a resounding blank. SWMBO stayed with her on Sunday and we all came home Monday evening although Holly was still a little uncomfortable. She stayed at home for a couple of days and felt well enough to go back to school on Thursday but halfway through the morning had to come home as the pain was back with a vengeance. So it was back to the hospital for another round of tests only this time it was decided that more drastic action was needed. She was drugged up to the eyeballs but I was very impressed by the fact that despite her pain she managed to retain her sense of humour (obviously gained from her dad....) because at one point, after her third dose of morphine, she managed to unplug herself from the monitor (showing such things as heart rate, blood pressure and blood/gas levels) and so all her vital signs 'flat lined' and all manner of alarms and beeps sounded. She looked me straight in the eye and said "Am I dead yet?!" with jaw dropping dead pan delivery. Such is the stuff of comic legend!

It was decided that another overnight stay was in order (again with SWMBO) with an exploratory operation (using a camera) to finally decide, once and for all, what the problem was. This kicked off mid Friday morning and as a result of what the surgeons found my darling daughter is now minus her appendix - which the surgeon lately described as looking like 'a curly fry'. She is now home and aside from being very sore (with keyhole surgery they literally blow you up with CO2 which has the effect of making everywhere ache for a few days or so) will make full recovery in a short while. Two weeks off school and a further two excused from PE is also the result.

It is staggering to think that after some half a dozen blood and fluid tests, an ultrasound scan and an X-ray and the attention of several doctors and surgeons the only way they could find out what the problem was was actually to operate.

As a parent the worse thing you can experience is watching your offspring in pain and so this post is really one of self indulgence as I wanted to share with you all the joke from Holly for whom I have enormous respect and love for showing such bravery in the face of her obvious suffering.

On a completely separate subject I have also managed to get my PC 'deloused' and have also doubled the RAM so it should be a little faster to use and less 'clunky' in operation. I now have the small matter of a number of college items to catch up with as a result of the dramas of the week but am pleased and relieved that all ended on a positive note.