The Painter's Progress....Part 4

Phew! I am glad that's over with - both the interview (and many thanks for all the good wishes - please feel free to uncross any extremities you may have crossed on my behalf!) and the small matter of the final assembly of the remaining eight pre dreadnoughts and the undercoating of the same.

Well I had to do something to steady my nerves....;-)

Seriously though, now it is the inevitable waiting game to see if I have landed the job - possibly I will know this week but more likely next.

All sixteen pre dreadnoughts are now undercoated - which is just as well as it hides the lake of super glue I had to use when fixing the thrice cursed military masts in place. I shall be starting the painting of these tomorrow (I am at the club this evening) so the plan is to try and get the lot finished by the close of play on Sunday. I need to come up with around eight fictional names for the base labels so a trawl through Jane's and Conway's will feature at some point.

Oh, and I also managed to fit in another naval action which will appear on a blog near you soon....;-)

The Painter's Progress....Part 3

In a surge of enthusiasm I managed to assemble eight out of sixteen pre dreadnought battleships destined for the fleets of Fezia and Rusland so am confident that the brushwork will begin in earnest (actually it will begin in my loft if I were to split hairs....) by the weekend. The two items I am painting for the sheer delight of it are also moving along quite nicely so I expect them to be ready before then all being well.

Meanwhile, this evening's entertainment beckons as once again at the club we will be taking to the air in the skies over France in 1940 - with the French providing the opponents for the Luftwaffe for a change.

In the interim though (and this is partially why this post is a short one), I have a second interview for a permanent job this afternoon, so much collective crossing of extremities from each and everyone of you would be much appreciated!

Rolling up the sleeves once again

I kind of hit a bit of a wall with the pre dreadnought part of the Feziana nd Rusland fleets. So far I have managed to paint sixty models (Ok, thirty two of them were destroyers) and painting the pre dreadnoughts will be very easy when I get to them but the problem I have is that the models have to be assembled first. They are quite fiddly with separate turrets and numerous military masts and to be honest, I have found this part to be both tedious and irritating!

It put me off.

It put me off and I was more than a little peeved at the ease with which I 'rolled over'.

In the meantime though, I applied myself to the aerial rules amendments and these are now very close to being finished and so, with the rush of enthusiasm that follows the completion of 'x' (not to mention the realisation that if I don't do it no-one else will!), I am now back in the naval groove - complete with the obligatory super glued fingers!

The models will be assembled, based and undercoated by the weekend with the main paint job to be tackled then. However, and this is something I have NEVER done, I am also working on a little painting task for something that I have no immediate use for. This will be appearing on the blog in due course - hopefully in a few days. What this means of course is that I am painting something for the sheer pleasure of painting it. This is something very new for me, in no uncertain terms! I would never have thought this possible as my loathing of painting is legendary but I guess it just goes to show that you are never too old to change.

Something about old dogs and new tricks springs to mind!

The Continuing Adventures of Fezia and Rusland

An Austrian Navy River Monitor - waltzing along the Blue Danube. The view could almost be along the Mississippi....

I have paused to take a sharp intake of breath whilst I ponder what exactly I want to do with the armed forces of Fezia and Rusland over the periods I want to game. At the moment I am painting the navies for the period of around 1912 so early dreadnought types and a smattering of earlier ships will be the order of the day but what of the land side? Essentially the armies for the period will be effectively those of the Balkan Wars - fez wearing Turks and 1905 vintage Russians in all probability. I have yet to decide on the figures I will be using for this, or even the scale for that matter and so this will be something to consider in due course. What about the earlier period though? Initially I was thinking about the 1895 era as being the starting point but I have decided that going further back would be more interesting (and certainly more colourful). The Russo Turkish War would be an obvious historical reference point and with a few historical liberties could provide the backdrop for a Fezian and Rusland conflict.

Using the Danube would allow me to fight river based actions using essentially ACW model warships so monitors and casemate ironclads could feature, alongside the usual blue water steamships. There was some historical action along the river during the war - Russian torpedo boats attacking Turkish ironclads - so all I would be doing would be expanding on the facts. The idea would be to mirror the ACW Mississippi river campaign on a large European waterway. For some historical insights to the idea I am considering take a look at this: Steamboats on the Danube

In terms of models for this I would use Navwar 1/1200th as they are cheap and easy for me to come by (I only live around 45 minutes away from Navwar). The range available is certainly adequate for what I would need and as a project would not require much in the way of material - certainly nowhere near the amount of ships I built for the long abandoned ACW river campaign I was planning a while back. As far as the land troops are concerned I have yet to decide but I am thinking that 15mm may be the best bet - there are some suitable figures available from Essex in their ACW range that could be pressed nto service - although the idea of using Perry 28mm plastics is very appealing. Previously I have mooted the idea of using the Union figures painted with green jackets and white tousers for the Ruslanders and the Zouave figure makes an ideal Fezian.

It would certainly be colourful and another fascinating what if?

To be honest, the 1912 project for the moment will be confined to the naval side with the block armies being used for the land battles. The reason for this is simply because painting up troops for the Middle Eastern/Caucasus project (initially 1941 Germans and Russians) will provide me with more than enough drab looking troops to paint so I would really fancy working on something a little brighter.

I should also add that coming across the following website has absolutely nothing to do with this desire to tackle some colourful Turkish types....Ottoman Uniforms

Even so, "I'm gonna need a moment alone, boys"....;-)

Pilots, Airframes and Tactics

A6M3 Zero - this version was used in the film Pearl Harbour

Regular readers of the blog will no doubt be aware of the ongoing aerial activity I have been considering around the Axis and Allies WW2 air combat game. Essentially this has been around redploying the special abilities associated with each aircraft type. These abilities usually apply solely to the card for the aircraft in question which is fine if you are fighting one on one type games but less so for actions involving numbers of similar aircraft on one side. For the games we fight at the club we usually have the aircraft deployed in pairs as a minimum (my own collection is organised around flights of four aircraft) so it makes more sense to have a degree of commonality for similar types in use. A good example of this would be the 'Boom and Zoom' tactic employed by, in this case the Mustang P-51. In a nutshell the P-51 was historically very good at making slashing attacks whereby it would dive steeply and then climb up onto the target's tail. I believe that it would be more accurate, all things being equal, to allow all P-51s the ability to be able to make this type of attack, not just a particular plane/pilot combination as determined by the aircraft card.

I have already converted the pilot quality by nationality tables from the old Air Force game into the Axis and Allies format and so all that now remains for me to do is to determine which of the abilities from the cards can be randomly applied to the aircraft that are being used.

The system I am devising will mean that the aircraft in use will have type specific 'airframe' abilities applied automatically, those relating to tactics will be applied on a scenario specific basis (again for all the aircraft affected) and those relating to the pilot will be rolled for on an as yet to devised table.

I realise this all sounds rather complicated but in reality it is quite staightforward. The hardest part was typing everything up but now that it is completed I should be able to turn the game into something a little more wargames like.

Thats the plan anyway.

Big decisions over Little Models

A Panzerschiffe 1/2400th Moltke class German Battle Cruiser - at  US$4 a go that is not bad and stylistically, they fit the Stonewall range very nicely.

One of the problems I have run up against in connection with my decision to use 1/24ooth scale models for my WW1 and WW2 gaming is the old chestnut of model availability. There is plenty of choice for some very nice models - by which I mean C in C, Viking Forge and GHQ as well as the budget end via Stonewall, which is providing the main bulk of what I shall be using.  The first three ranges models are not cheap though and so large quantities of them are for moment beyond my resources. However, the quantity of models available from them appear to pale into insignificance when set against those available from Panzerschiffe in the US of A.

The range available is 1/2400th and the models are made from a grey resin. I have read various reviews of these ships and they range from good to not so good (I read somewhere someone describing them as being carved out of a bar of soap - a little harsh methinks from what I have seen thus far!) but to be honest, whilst they are not (nor, I suspect, are they intended to be) super detailed models they are very effective gaming pieces. Stylistically they fit in very nicely with the look of the Stonewall models so the decision I have taken to make use of some of their range will probably come as no surprise. I need early battle cruisers for both the Fezians and the Ruslanders - 11" gun armed German types and the 'I' Class from the Royal Navy (and the follow on Indefatigables), a selection of the one off Royal Navy battleships, pre-dreadnoughts and in fact, if truth be told, a whole pile of assorted ships from various nations.

Initially though, it will just be the battle cruisers. It has given me much to ponder though in respect of what the final look of the fleets will be.

From the UK there is a US$ 40 minimum order size which conveniently translates into the 10 models I want to get first of all - each being US$4. The order will be placed shortly and I will report back, for the benefit of the non-US readers, in due course.

Many thanks Jeff for the occasional prompt with these models!

The Sultan's Hubris....Game Number 36

With the battered Abdul Aziz currently under repair the entire northern coast of Fezia was open to attack by Rusland naval forces. The coastal coal trade had virtually ceased as the threat of enemy action served to deter many of the privately owned steamers from putting to sea. Something had to be done in order to restore the vital shipping lanes to their peak capacity - the Fezian war effort relied heavily on the flow of coal and other supplies from along the coastal areas.

The Sultan discussed the situation with his naval advisors and so it was decided, under extreme secrecy (and also very reluctantly), to recall from the Eastern Middle Sea the two armoured cruisers Abdul Hamid and Abdul Mejid; together with the two protected cruisers, Assar-i-Shevket and Nijim-i-Shevket in order to cover the coastal area previously assigned to the Abdul Aziz.

The Sultan's reinforcements - fresh from the Eastern Middle Sea

This was a bold stroke, especially as the Epirian raiders had yet to be apprehended, but the Sultan was counting on the element of surprise. Rusland would not be expecting to encounter these ships and whilst the Abdul Hamid and Mejid were not as powerful as the Abdul Aziz they were still far better than any of the cruisers that the enemy possessed.

The large armoured cruisers Abdul Hamid and Abdul Mejid.

The four ships of the Fezian squadron entered the area of the Zonguldak Bight during the hours of darkness so as to be on station when the Rusland cruisers arrived. The plan was a simple one. The two protected cruisers were to be the bait and as the Rusland ships moved in to tackle their hapless opponents the Abdul Hamid and Abdul Mejid would appear from their stern. It was a gamble and although the Sultan's naval advisors were not entirely convinced it was a good idea, bowed to the inevitable pressure from above (the Sultan could be very persuasive when he had to be - especially when supported by the Teutonian naval attache whose opinion he valued highly) and so the orders were given.

The Rusland raiding squadron again under the command of Admiral Saltykov

Meanwhile, Admiral Saltykov aboard his flagship, the Admiral Kornilov, was completely unaware of this latest Fezian development. The three ships under his command (the turrets on the fourth ship of the squadron, the Muravev Amurski, were still giving trouble and so she remained in port - much to the barely concealed annoyance of her captain) had been at sea for three days this time out and thus far had not encountered so much as a fishing boat. He had decided that he would push on for one more day and would then head for home. This would be as far as he dare go as this would take him a lot closer to the main Fezian submarine base at Bartin.

Baiting the trap - the two Fezian protected cruisers: Assar-i-Shevket and her sistership, Nijim-i-Shevket

The two small Fezian cruisers, Assar-i-Shevket and Nijim-i-Shevket spent an uneasy night preparing for the day ahead. Their role as bait was not an enviable one and none of the officers or men were under any illusions about their fate should the two supporting armoured cruisers fail to make their rendezvous. Their ships were both lightly armed and armoured and they could match the Rusland cruisers in but one respect - their speed was the same. Their combined total of twenty 4.1" guns would be of little use against the armoured Rusland cruisers and so any thoughts of a holding firefight would be doomed to failure. The only hope they had for delaying the inevitable was to attempt to disperse the Rusland formation, causing them to split their fire between the two targets. Trading broadsides would not be an option and so both captains resolved to manouvere aggressively and try and buy time for the heavy support to arrive.

On a day of gambles this would be the biggest gamble of all.

The Game

The only change to the rules from the previous action is that I have reverted to Bob Cordery's original Portable Naval Wargame system whereby turning a hexside costs a movement point. The arrival of the two Fezian armoured cuisers was determined by a dice roll. Starting on game turn 2 the Fezian commander needed to roll under the number of the current turn in order for the two ships to appear so that on turn 2 a 1 was needed, turn 3 a 1 or 2 etc.

Fezia

Abdul Hamid and Abdul Mejid - Armoued cruiser, Medium Armour, Speed 3, Flotation Points 13 (Critical 4), 4 x Medium Gun Dice (3 on a Broadside), 3 x Light Gun Dice (2 on a Broadside), 9 x Light-1 Gun Dice (5 on a Broadside).

Assar-i-Shevket and Nijim-i-Shevket - Protected cruiser, Light Armour, Speed 3, Flotation Points 6 (Critical 2), 5 x Light-1 Gun Dice (3 on a Broadside).

Rusland

Admiral Kornilov, Admiral Nevelskoi and Admiral Butakov - Armoured cruiser, Medium Armour, Speed 3, Flotation Points 10 (Critical 3), 2 x Medium Gun Dice, 7 x Light Gun Dice (4 on a Broadside), 5 x Light-1 Gun Dice (3 on a Broadside).

Somewhere in the Fezian Sea, off the coast nearing Bartin....

Upon sighting the two Fezian protected cruisers, Admiral Saltykov orders full speed ahead as the Admiral Kornilov breaks formation to engage

With the Rusland warships in sight the two Fezian ships split up with the Nijim-i-Shevket heading to the north and the Assar-i-Shevket to the south - straight into the path of two oncoming enemy cruisers!

The Admiral Nevelskoi and the Admiral Butakov (centre foreground) head towards the Assar-i-Shevket whilst the Admiral Kornilov chases down the Nijim-i-Shevket (at the top of the picture).

The Sultan's retribution was not long in arriving - but would it be too late for the gallant Assar-i-Shevket?

The run to the south. The Assar-i-Shevket about to be engaged by two of the Rusland cruisers. Her fight was one-sided and despite gallant resistance the end was inevitable.

Riven by assorted calibre shells, the battered and sinking Assar-i-Shevket attempts to limp away from her assailants.

The Rusland cruisers though, continue to batter her mercilessly.....

....until the brave cruiser slips beneath the waves! The survivors clinging to the wreckage of their ship know that they have done all that the can and so now it up to the armoured cruisers to avenge them.

Meanwhile, the two heavy Fezian cruisers make their prescence felt as the Rusland ships attempt to reform to face this new threat.

The Admiral Kornilov comes under heavy fire and takes some minor damage.

The Fezians do not escape scot-free though, as the leading ship receives return fire from the Admiral Kornilov.

It is now the Fezian turn to break formation as the Abdul Mejid attempts to head off the Admiral Kornilov.

A ferocious gunnery duel ensues with the Admiral Kornilov fghting back hard against the two Fezian ships as the Abdul Mejid closes on the Admiral Nevelskoi

The ships draw apart with the Admiral Konilov finally in touch with the Admiral Nevelskoi. Ominously for the Ruslanders the Admiral Butakov is some way away from the rest of the squadron and with the two Fezian cruisers barring her route to safety! Meanwhile the battered Nijim-i-Shevket appears back on the scene after her recent brush with the Admiral Kornilov.

The Admiral Butakov comes under heavy fire from the two Fezian cruisers but with little effect. Her captain decides to run the gauntlet between the two enemy ships at full speed in order to rejoin the squadron.

Reacting quickly to this Rusland move, the two Fezian cruisers place themselves alongside the enemy cruiser (shades of Nelson perhaps?) and batter it remorselessly! The Nijim-i-Shevket enters the fray and attempts a torpedo attack which just misses the beleagured cruiser.

A veritable blizzard of shellfire erupts around the Admiral Butakov but she fights back hard against her three attackers. Hit after hit shakes the hull relentlessly.

Meanwhile, the other two Rusland cruisers can only watch the unfolding drama as they are too far distant to easily assist their hapless squadron mate.

At full speed, and despite her recent mauling, the Admiral Butakov attempts to escape from the unwanted Fezian attention....

....but to no avail as a further succession of assorted calibre shell hits leave her a battered and smoking ruin!

Crippled, with water pouring into her hull and fires raging from stem to stern, the Admiral Butakov staggers under the continual rain of shellfire....

.

....until finally, she loses her unequal fight and slips beneath the waves!

At this point Admiral Saltykov decided to break off the action as there would be little to be gained by engaging the two more powerful Fezian cruisers on an equal basis. With a heavy heart he ordered the remains of his command to turn around and to head at best speed for home.

The Nijim-i-Shevket headed over to where her sister ship, the Assar-i-Shevket, went down to pick up survivors whilst the Abdul Hamid did the same for the crew of the sunken Admiral Butakov. As a gesture to the crew of the Rusland ship in honour of their bravery, an honour guard was formed up and was ordered to present arms to the survivors as they were helped aboard. Across the havoc of war, a shred of humanity and respect was the least the bloodied but proud survivors of the Rusland cruiser should expect.

Aftermath

The game went really well and I am now absolutely delighted with the rules! There was a lot of shooting (meaning lots of dice rolling - always good fun in a rule set in my opinion!) but the level of damage felt about right. The change to the movement rules made quite a difference and really made you think about whether to turn or not. One final change I want to employ is to allow the plus one bonus to firing dice for engaging the same target on successive turns to only a single calibre rather than across the whole battery of a ship. Historically mixed caibre batteries had problems differentiating fall of shot so it seems better to apply this to a single calibre only.

The action demonstrated the hazards associated with breaking up a formation in the face of an ordered enemy. The Rusland formation was broken up early on in order to satisfy the need to engage an enemy that was in turn operating independently. Unluckily for them the two supporting Fezian cruisers arrived (on turn 4)  before they could reform and so were able to engage the Rusland cruisers in two sections - with the Fezians operating from the central position. This in turn enabled one of the Rusland cruisers - Admiral Butakov - to become isolated with ultimately tragic results. Although the two Fezian cruisers were operating in a dispersed fashion for much of the action they were still close enough for mutual support and this proved to be decisive.

At the time of writing I have the next batch of models under way for both Fezia and Rusland and these are of course, the pre-dreadnoughts. Once I have the last couple of bits and pieces from the dreadnought ranges that I need I will then also be able to tackle both the Royal Navy and the High Seas Fleet.

It was also great fun to fight!