"A Date which will live in Infamy" - December 7, 1941

70 years ago today Japan launched its surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, thereby ensuring that the United States were irrevocably drawn into World War 2.

Pearl Harbor

A big anniversary and a big reminder that sacrifice knows no international boundary.

At Long Last....

Mine, all mine....MWAHH, HAA, HAA HAAAA!!!!!

Finally, after an epic journey (as a result of usual my usual inexplicably delayed execution of intent!) my first copy of the Airfix Sink the Bismarck set arrived yesterday morning, courtesy of Ebay.

I cannot begin to tell you just how pleased I am to have this (and the knowledge that, ahem, Santa will be adding to the fun come 25/12!) and the central planning office (i.e. my head!) has been on overdrive ever since!  In truth I was hard pressed not to just get out the modelling tray and start on them there and then but luckily sanity prevailed and so I was able to restrain myself and so the box, after a quick examination (and noted that some of the smaller gun turrets have some skewed gun barrels....) the box was consigned to the naval section of my storage where the KGVs and the Gneisenaus awaited them.

The first thing that struck me though, seeing all the sprues of pieces, was how much material there is for that would be of much use in other models....;-)

Archibald Forbes and the War of 1877

The man himself - from a caricature in Vanity Fair

I am currently reading, via my ebook reader, Czar and Sultan by Archibald Forbes. It is an account of the Russo Turkish War of 1877 and is a cracking read. Aside from the enthralling story (I will not give anything away as you can download the same for free) it is a subject of much personal interest and with many ideas I shall incorporate into the ongoing saga of Fezia and Rusland. A brief overview of the life of this fascinating gentlemen can be found here Archibald Forbes and he certainly 'got around' in his role as a War Correspondent. During 1877 he covered the war from the Russian side and was present at most of the major actions. The book is available to download at czarsultan and it comes with my most definite recommendation!

Archibald Forbes and a random selection of Eastern European types 

Reading this book has made me realise just what a boon having an electronic reader is (mine is the Sony PRS 600) as many books that would be hard to get hold of in paper form can be obtained, with a little digging, via the net. Don't misunderstand me - it will never replace the sheer delight in buying and reading a good book (and as students of military/naval history we all read a lot of books about our chosen interest) but from a convenience perspective and for the ability to be able to access those hard to find titles it is a blessing.

Towards 2012 - Now that the Cataclysm has been averted....

I had a very lazy weekend. After a busy few days at work; coupled with some inevitable train dramas it meant that I was in need of some 'r and r' and so this weekend was 'it'. No painting, no modelling, no gaming - just allowing my thoughts to wander and taking care of a few PC related issues. I had a minor problem with my Ebook reader in that rather foolishly I had tidied up the downloaded files on my PC and had not considered the impact on my reader. I charged it up and suddenly had gone from 120 to 5 books! Sorting out the resultant chaos was easy enough but it took a while to do so - mainly because I took the opportunity to tidy up the said download files on my PC. One thing I did do though was to download the manual onto the reader for future reference.


I must confess to being somewhat behind the technological curve in terms of technical ability and so the exercise probably took me longer than it should have done but I was pleased that my back up enabled me to restore the reader to its former glory - and with some extras!
Whilst waiting for the various screen prompts I gave some thought to the 'plan' for next year on the gaming front; as well as reviewing the events of this year. Next year is surprisingly modest in terms of what I plan to tackle. On the ship front I will have the scratch built 1890 Turkish and Russian fleets to do (as soon as the remaining ACW models are completed) followed by the 1/1200th WW2 North Atlantic kit. I have a pair of 1/3000th items to consider - the U-boat convoy game and the Spanish Civil War; both of which I have the models for.


I will get the two 'toy soldier' 15mm 1890 armies finished and then would look to tackle something for Fezia and Rusland on a 1930s basis. Any other 'land' stuff will of course be using my block armies and these can be used as and when the whim takes me. Regular readers of the blog will no doubt remember that I had expressed an interest and intent in gaming Operation Barbarossa in some fashion but I am now unsure that this will take place. The 1930s war between Fezia and Rusland will take precedence and will provide sufficient mechanical interest!  Incidentally, the 1930s armies will of course be organised with the Portable War game in mind and naturally with some mini campaign applications thrown in for good measure.


The first task will be to finish the ACW ships and ideally I would like to have this done by the end of the year. It is 'doable' but I need to start 'doing' rather than just thinking about it!


Overall I am fairly satisfied with the way this year has gone in terms of gaming achievements. The 1890 to 1920 naval rules have at last got to the shape I want and the block armies in conjunction with 3d terrain has been a revelation. As a concept for use with other applications; both of historical period or land or sea (or even air) based it has much to commend it. Best of all though is the potential for my new den - a potential I am only just beginning to make use of.


Isn't there a Chinese proverb along the lines of 'May you live in interesting times.'?


I certainly hope so!

1:1200th and WW2 Naval Wargames

So close I can almost taste it....

Ok, I know that these models are hugely oversized for most gaming needs - especially if you are using a table top - but the attraction of making up some plastic models in this scale is one that I would not be able to resist; and nor have I!

You may recall my abortive attempt to acquire half a dozen sets of the newly re released Airfix: Sink the Bismarck set of models. Well, I happen to know that Santa has a couple of copies of this for me come on 25/12 and I have also just scored a further set via Ebay. I have also picked up a couple of Revell Duke of Yorks and a pair of Gneisenaus for good measure.

I have been looking at what else is available in this scale from a metals perspective and I was quite surprised to see that there is a reasonable amount of kit available - certainly sufficient for what I want - although most of which will need to come from the US which makes it a little more on the expensive side. The numbers I will need will be fairly low in any event so the proportional cost will not be excessive.

I am hugely tempted to use these models as the basis for the Fezian and Rusland fleets circa 1935 to 1940 to support the land based armies for that period when I eventually get around to them. The only problem is that they are so distinctive looking - the Bismarck looks like, well the Bismarck - that it would be difficult to visualise them as anything else without some fairly fairly radical chopping about. I am happy to undertake that if need be (indeed I have a number of ideas along those lines) but it then becomes a more substantial exercise than merely assembling and painting the models.

I will need to give this some thought in due course but to be honest I am leaning towards a WW2 North Atlantic type set up initially; mainly because this is a long standing interest of mine and I would really enjoy the model making aspect of the exercise. The rules would need some careful thought as for fewer ships my usual fast play approach (or at least the, as I term it, 'bag you're dead!' mechanics) would not be appropriate as the actions will be almost at skirmish level. Strategically it would of course be a different story.

One for the new year then, after many other things have been attended to!

1860 to 1890 Naval Ramming

The Italian Ironclad Ram Affondatore - sunk as a result of damage received at the Battle of Lissa in 1866, she was re-floated and repaired and served the Italian navy for another 40 years!

Unsurprisingly the Ram attack has caused me a number of minor headaches in respect of how to undertake it within a war game. I have the bare bones of how it should work and intend incorporating it in the Close Range Attack phase of the rules rather than more commonly within the movement phase. This will save incremental or sequential movement which can slow things up considerably - especially when there is a lot of such attacks under consideration. As a fudge this will also include spar torpedo attacks as essentially in order to attack they have to 'ram' a vessel.

The basic idea I have is that a player declares his Close Range Attack as normal and so the target is now faced with three options. It can respond with its own Close Range Attack (this is primarily when facing off attacking destroyer/torpedo boats in the 1890 to 1920 set but is the same in principle for the earlier period) and so the combat proceeds as normal. It can ignore the attack - typically to ensure that it can fire in the subsequent gunnery phase. Finally, the new choice is to Evade and this is specifically for use against a ram or early spar torpedo based attack.

I have a process worked out for this that needs a little road testing but the gist of it is that attacking ram needs to roll a d6 and score higher than his target's speed to make an attack. The target must also roll a d6 needing to score higher than the attackers speed to evade. If both are successful then the ram attack damage is calculated at half its normal rate to represent a glancing blow against the target. If the attacker passes and the target fails the evasion roll the the attack is at full effect. If both fail then the attack does not happen at all; similarly if the target passes and the attacker fails then that is also a failed attack.

Using this simple technique means that a fast ram is more likely to catch a slow opponent. The evasion roll represents each side lining up to attack or dodge the blow or to minimise the impact where possible. The resolution of the blow itself will be the same as for a conventional Close Range Attack so the mechanics are nicely aligned.

It looks very much like the rules will be easy enough to put together - ship specifications will be far more problematic although the 1860 to 1905 Conways will be absolutely essential for this part!

Delayed trains, the Spanish Civil War and Naval Warfare 1860 to 1890

Scratch built ACW Confederate Ironclads - prior to basing and hoping to inspire the builder to finish the remaining 32 models!

After a disastrous train journey home last night due to an unfortunate fatality on the line (I was going to be a little late in any event due to a job interview) I was not able to tackle very much at all by the time I had had my dinner and relaxed after the rigours of the day.

Luckily the train was only half full so I had plenty of space to sit in and room to think. During the extra 90 minutes of my journey I managed to finish the book I have been reading (Heroic Voices of the Spanish Civil War - Memories of the International Brigades) and to get some preliminary thoughts down on paper for the 1860 to 1890 variant of the Portable Naval War Game.

The basic approach and mechanics of the rules will be identical to the 1890 to 1920 version. The number of generic ship types will be increased to incorporate two additional types - gunboats and a category I am calling Improvised Warships. This will cover a very wide range of ship sizes, protection levels and weapons carried and is designed primarily with the ACW in mind. Guns will be split into rifles and smooth bore artillery and I will need to consider firing arcs in far more detail than previously. I have some plans for this that are very simple and made even more so by the use of a hexed playing surface (I knew there was a good reason for buying the Hexon tiles!). I will also need to make provision for the use of the ram attack and again, have partially addressed that as well. I am reasonably confident that the 1890 to 1920 rules can be taken back in time to cover the earlier period but I need to ensure that the flavour of the times is captured so that the resultant game is not just an afterthought (technically I suppose it is but the intention is that it is not if you see what I mean!).

All in all then, the proposed earlier variant of the Portable Naval War Game seems to be a lot less work than I originally envisaged although I dare say that statement will come back to haunt me in due course. The first play test will feature the ACW river collection which will be receiving some urgent attention over the coming weeks - hopefully to finished by the end of the year.