The Matter of Size Mattering....

I fully intended posting the climax of the battle of Kara Deniz as a single post. Unfortunately, it has gotten so big and involved that it needs to be split into two parts. Ordinarily his would not be a problem but due to the way the narrative has unfolded there are no natural breaks in the text. This has meant that I have had to redraft elements of it and so it will not be appearing just yet.

I will say though, that it was a very good action indeed and enormous fun to fight.

In the  meantime though, I am still looking long and hard at the thorny question of ancient galleys and how best to set up a hexed playing surface. I am not in the position to buy a hex mat so will probably make my own. I have sufficient material available to do this so it is really just a case of getting around to it.

I have also given some further thought to the WW2 aircraft collection and now know what I need to acquire - both for the Middle Eastern project and the Pacific. For the latter I shall be concentrating on the early war period rather than the 1944/45 'Turkey Shoots' so the Japanese the fighters will be the Zero and the Oscar. For the Allies F4 Wildcats, P40s and Brewster Buffalos will be the mounts of choice.

I did have an inkling to tackle the Fleet Air Arm in its various guises over the course of the war - Martlets and Corsairs to begin with - simply because of the variety of potential opponents that could be used on a multi-theatre basis. I will avoid this for the time being though due to the stockpile of other things that would need to be completed first.

I have also been following the various small scale model adventures of a number of gamers across the blog universe with a great deal of interest - these shall remain nameless for the time being - as so I am having a bit of an inspirational moment or two. Should I decide to dabble in a small scale I shall of course report it here and name the guilty parties....;-)

"The Road goes ever on and on...."

For a variety of reasons it has been a very challenging week - and not in a good way either. Various employment seeking activities and the associated dramas together with brushes with assorted officialdom have meant that I am now feeling somewhat wrung out by it all. I am sure that next week will be better (it couldn't be any worse - although I do not want to test that particular theory!) and so in the meantime I have resorted to my favourite morale boosting activity of sorting out the projects I have on the go and planned for the year. Although it does not actually deliver anything tangible in the short term it does have the effect of cheering me up and so is something I set great store by.

This year will be dominated by ships. I have the four fleets for WW1 to complete - Fezia, Rusland, The Royal Navy and the High Seas Fleet. I will need to add to these but not too much and in any event this is not essential for the moment. I will also have the ancient galleys to tackle but will certainly need to add to the collection in order to complete the set ups planned - Greek and Persian and for the Punic Wars. I fully intend tackling the accompanying land side using Command and Colours Ancients so this can in fact be ticked off the list (the land stuff that is). Galleys for the 16th century will feature but I am torn between these and the Minifigs ships based pre dreadnought set up I have. The former will need investment, the latter less so.

I also have the small matter of some aircraft to attend to for use with the Axis and Axis aerial combat games and this will certainly need not only investment but some paint work as well. This will also have an impact on the Middle Eastern project which in all probability is not going to kick off until late in the year.

I am also pondering about painting some figures because I really want to get back into that using my 'new' painting technique.

Lots to do then but the important thing for me is that each of these is within reach (except the 16th century stuff) and requires only modest financing to complete - an important consideration at the moment.

In the immediate future though, I have the last of the coastal defence battleships to complete and the write up of the third and final part of the Battle of Kara Deniz.

Then we shall see what we shall see....;-)

Galleys in the 16th Century

The Battle of Preveza, 1538

As regular readers of this blog will no doubt be aware I am very interested in the history of the Ottoman Turks. It is also fair to say that the 'golden age' of their efforts and achievements was probably from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to around 1650 at a stretch. The sixteenth century was probably the best of this - and one could argue that only under Sulieman the Magnificent was this true. In fact, after his death the empire went into a long and protracted decline but that is not really the object of this post. I have long desired to game with an Ottoman army or navy when it was a force that was taken seriously on the global stage and so the sixteenth century would seem to be the best time to consider this.

In the sixteenth century, the war at sea in the Mediterranean was dominated by the galley. True, they often carried guns and routinely used slaves/captives/convisted crminals for the propulsion but essentially the tactics were little removed from that of the ancients - except that the ram was more likely to be a close range forward firing salvo of cannon fire followed by a boarding. In fact the ram was not a ram at all, more like a spur to sink into the opponents upper works thereby forming a boarding bridge of sorts. It was deemed better to capture ships than to sink them. Gunpowder had made the biggest difference though - both from the point of view of ship-borne artillery and that of personal firearms.

I have many ideas in connection with how I want to tackle this (although not immediately - I have far too many things to do in the interim) and once again, Navwar will be the supplier of choice for the ships I shall be needing in due course. As with the ancient galley period, I have a small but fairly complete selection of books on the period so when I eventually tackle it I will not be short of inspiration.

On the subject of inspiration, the following battle looks like it might be fun to have a go at it in due course - and no, it is not Lepanto!

Battle of Preveza

This also has the added attraction (for me in any event) of having been fought on my birthday - 28th September. Now I wonder if I could set myself the challenge of readying the models for both sides in order to attempt a refight of this action to coincide with my Birthday later this year?

Mmmm, much to ponder here methinks....

More on Ancient Naval Warfare Rules

The Persian King of Kings surveys the action at Salamis

In my recent post on Ancient Naval Warfare Rules I mentioned the old WRG fleet action set and the 'cut down' version of the same that appeared in the book Salamis by Richard Nelson. Essentially these rules have been doctored to suit the battle of Salamis but in my view would suffice for the actions fought during the entire campaign.There is but a single ship type considered - the trireme - although these are of varied effect and usage depending on the nationality represented. As far as I am able to ascertain the only other type of fighting ship that could have been involved in the campaign is the smaller pentekonter so these should be added into the order of battle as being representative of some of the smaller contingents involved.

My plan at this stage is to extract the tactical rules from Richard Nelson's book and type them up for use as a standalone rule set. Whilst the models are being readied I will also have to give some thought to a hexed playing surface with hexes around 1 1/2" to 2" across the flat sides although I could make use of Heroscape tiles in the short term.

My collection of models for this period as it stands at present for this campaign consists of eight Phonecian triremes (they have built up sides compared to the traditional version), eighteen conventional triremes and eight pentekonters. I want to increase these to 12, 24 and 12 respectively so this will give me a reasonable number to play around with for various rule sets.

The big attraction for me with the whole idea of warfare under oars in this period is the conflict between the boarding and the ramming school. One side wants to get close to board whilst the other does not - instead they want to drive a nice neat little hole in the side to sink the ship in question.

As projects go this is very self-contained and I have most of what I will need readily to hand. Once the current batch of pre dreadnought coastal defence battleships are completed I can then give this my undivided attention - with some Command and Colours: Ancients land battles in support using the new Spartans expansion for the Hoplites and the other elements from the Eastern Empires set. Assuming all goes well with this project I will then give some thought to the later Punic wars on a similar basis as I have the nucleus of a set up with some galleys for both sides. The aforementioned Command and Colours game has the Carthaginians and Republican Romans in the base game as well so that will add another dimension for me to explore. The number of ships available for this particular project will need bolstering however, but that will the worry for another day.

That's the plan anyway....;-)

The Economics of the Unemployed Wargamer

I have posted occasionally about the ongoing unemployment situation I am currently experiencing and how it has impacted on me - both personally and in the pursuit of my hobby. The job search is still ongoing and I am pursuing a number of alternative forms of employment - moving off at a tangent from my previous career in compliance and operational risk. I am sure that I will get another job in due course but it is proving to be an onerous struggle and to be honest, it does get me down on the odd occasion - usually when I have spent an exhausting day talking to recruitment agencies and getting nowhere.

I have been very fortunate in that my family have supported me and my partner has been an absolute rock in this respect. I am also fortunate in that the members of blogdom have provided me with much in the way of encouragement, support, advice and occasionally a good laugh as well.

There has also been a tangible benefit as well in that I have also been fortunate enough to have many gaming friends that have not only been generous with their time and support but also with selected unwanted material that has been passed on to me.

I am lucky, and I count my blessings in that respect.

As far as my hobby is concerned the last six months have been an object lesson in how to manage expectations. I have been able to invest in new items but only at the expense of trading out long dead project material. My library has has been downsized by about 40% and the proceeds turned into a variety of things for a number of projects. Luckily the projects I am working on - mostly naval but with the Middle Eastern project and some aerial stuff - are all at an advanced stage in terms of the material I have and so the need to buy in more kit has been greatly reduced.

My collection is now leaner and with this comes a degree of, for me, clarity of purpose. This is a rare experience for me and one that I am actually enjoying. Of course I will still get the odd 'ooh shiny' pang of wanting to splash the cash but I have now become very self controlled - even my partner has noticed this. Even at boot sales I have been restrained and with this comes a heightened awareness of the real value of things and whether or not I want them because I need them or because they are there.

Like I say, I am fortunate, blessed even.

Naval warfare from Alexander to Actium

This will serve to give me some additional background to the wars of the Successors, the Punic Wars and those of the later Republic of Rome

There are few pleasures in life to be the acquisition of a new book. So it was this morning when, by virtue of the finance gained by some selective eBay disposals, a newly acquired title dropped through the letter box and added a degree of lustre to the day. The above book fits in quite tidily with my small but nicely formed library on ancient naval warfare and will provide some additional background to the era covered. I quite fancy the idea of the Punic Wars afloat and so will look to tackle something for that period in due course - in conjunction with Command and Colours Ancients.

The aforementioned eBay disposals have also funded an Osprey Vanguard title that should be arriving in a couple of days as well as the last of the Stonewall Figures 1/2400th scale models I need for the four fleets I am working on. There is also suffcient change from the disposals to enable me to acquire the last ships I need to complete the Greek and Persian fleets so it has not been a bad few days - it serves to deaden the effect of the ongoing unemployment saga anyway!

Not Quite Salute....

I did not attend Salute this year - nor have I done so since it was last at Olympia! My reasons over the years are many and varied but on this occasion there was one reason only. Finance, pure and simple. It would probably cost me the best part of £30 to travel to the show and to pay to get in and given my (still) unemployed status this is a big chunk of money spent even before hitting the trade stands! Sadly I cannot justify that kind of outlay at present.  Assuming I am in work by next year then I will certainly be giving Salute 2014 a visit - and you can bet on that!

For me, a piece of Napoleonic nostalgia

In the meantime though, the boot sale season has started up again in earnest - despite the recent snow and wet weather. SWMBO and I managed to fit in three boot sales over the course of Saturday and Sunday and I was pretty successful in two of them. To begin with I picked up a copy of the Blandford title: 'Uniforms of Waterloo' by Philip Haythornthwaite. I have owned this book in the past and wanted to reacquire it in order to add it the 1815 section of my library. It is a very nice title and I recall using it a lot when I was painting Airfix Napoleonics back in the mid 1970s.

The image came from Amazon - my camera is currently in the lounge and I am in the other room....

I also picked up a copy of 'Scrimgeour's Small Scribbling Diary 1914 to 1916' and subtitled 'The Truly Astonishing Wartime Diary And Letters Of An Edwardian Gentleman, Naval Officer, Boy And Son'. I am really looking forward to reading this as it gives a great insight into the lot of a young midshipman during the war. Sadly the author lost his life on HMS Invincible at Jutland in 1916 aged a mere 19 years old.

The final title was a paperback copy of 'The Fort' by Bernard Cornwall and set during the American revolution. This is not really my period but the book has been highly recommended so I thought I would give it a spin. Bernard Cornwall needs no introduction so I will not bother to do so - it does look like cracking read though and very inspirational in terms of the action depicted.

Finally, I also picked up a couple of packs of 1ft square cork floor tiles - with nine tiles in each pack. Needless to say I have a cunning plan for these, details of which will remain a closely guarded secret for the time being.

My entire boot sale expenditure for the weekend came in at £3.40 with the books costing £1.50, £1 and 50p respectively, with the two packs of cork a mere 40p.

Not quite the retail marathon that is Salute but satisfying all the same!