(Naval Wargaming - 1) - Fire as she bears!

I got elected to bring my Trafalgar rules and ships last week at the club, so I duly dug them out to discover to my dismay that a good number of mast, bowsprits and sails had fallen off since their last outing (over 3 years ago). Undeterred, I cracked on and made the necessary repairs which was quite satisfying and much easier than initially thought.

I quickly re-read the rules, which fortunately are relatively straight forward and don't require any great nautical knowledge, prepped some ships rosters, and came up with the following brief scenario outline:

The Action of the 9^th of July 1810

A British Squadron led by HMS Fury (74) was dispatched to the West Indies Station to provide reinforcements following renewed French activity. On route the squadron was scattered by inclement weather, leaving the Fury without its escort of frigates, now almost in sight of port, a French squadron is bearing down, in the hope of picking off the lone ship of the line.  The few ships stationed at the port have been dispatched to provide an escort and to hopefully deter the French from attacking.

The British

HMS Fury – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 250pts

HMS Clarence – Cutter – 30pts

Commanded by Rob.

 

HMS Gloucester – Razee Frigate – 140pts

HMS York – Brig – 60pts

HMS Middleham – Brig – 60pts

Commanded by Craig.

 

540 points

 
The French

Toulon – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 225pts

Le Petit Rouge – Corvette – 45pts

Commanded by John.

 

Le Glorie – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 225pts

Le Mans – Corvette – 45pts

Commanded by Andy.

 

540 points


There were 4 players and I acted as referee, Rob took HMS Fury and Clarence, whilst Craig took the remaining British ships, Andy and John split the French equally between them. Only John was familiar with the rules, so after briefly going over the basics, action commenced. I decided to keep things simple, so that the wind was blowing in a northerly direction and that wind direction and strength would not change throughout the course of the game.

The two groups of French ships started to either side of the HMS' Fury & Clarence on the Western edge of the board heading in an easterly direction, with the remaining British Ships at the opposite side of the board heading in a westerly direction hoping to come to the rescue.

Both Fury & Clarence maintained their course, seeking the safety of the other British ships, whilst both French squadrons veered off, one captained by Andy heading NE and Johns heading SE, Craigs British reinforcements headed in a NW direction and with the wind assisting them they soon closed in.

The corvette Le Mans, struck the first blows, with a stern rake on HMS Fury which managed to cause considerable damage including taking out the carronades, a single shot in reply hit Le Petit Rouge, causing rudder damage which saw this little ship heading off to the NW unable to steer that was the last we would see of this ship(or so we thought).

 The British had now managed to get all their ships together and showing some great seamanship managed to isolate and gang up on Le Glorie which had taken some shelter behind a small island. This cover proved insufficient to the British whose manuevering was quite impressive, a broadside from HMS Fury followed by a further broadside from HMS Gloucester saw Le Glorie not only crippled but completely sunk. However HMS Fury had taken further damage in the exchange and was now down to Light cannons only.

In the centre of the table the smaller ships had a bit of a set too as HMS Middleham took on Le Mans, things again went the British way as HMS Middleham took only very minor damage whilst managing to both de-crew and cripple Le Mans, leaving it floating in the middle of the table. HMS Middleham now tried to rejoin the main fleet, being somewhat isolated and with the Toulon now coming up from the South seeking some revenge.

Before HMS Middleham could escape however, a sail was spotted ont he horizon as the plucky corvette Le Petit Rouge, had just managed to make a repair of its damaged rudder (just before it went off the table) and turnabout heading straight for HMS Middleham. The French now out for blood, de-crewed HMS Middleham with a single broadside leaving it floating next to its earlier victem(Le Mans) in the middle of the game board.

With Toulon heading in from the South and Le Petit Rouge moving East from the centre of the table the remaining British ships where clustered around a small island still celebrating the victory over Le Glorie. Finding themselves a little tight on manuevering space, they just about managed to turnabout to face the danger presented by the still unscathed Toulon.

Whilst Le Petit rouge sailed around the centre of the table considering whether to take HMS Middleham under tow, Toulon finally managed to bring her guns to bear on the British, further minor damage was inflicted on HMS Fury and the cutter HMS Clarence was totally crippled by a broadside from the large 3rd rate. manuevering in the small space between the island and the edge of the board proved problematic as firstly HMS Fury went "over the edge" quickly followed by Toulon, at which point we decided to end the game with the result a British victory. the Final tally was as follows:

Le Glorie – sunk

Le Mans – crippled and no crew

Toulon - sailed off the edge

Le Petit Rouge - survived

HMS Fury - sailed off the edge with major damage incurred

HMS Clarence - crippled but still crewed

HMS Gloucester - survived

HMS Middleham - crippled and no crew

HMS York - survived

Rob's HMS Fury with HMS Clarence almost hidden behind it, in the background you can just see John's French 3rd rate, coming in from the South.

 

 HMS York, Middleham and Gloucester heading to the rescue.

 

Craig's Brig's rendezvousing with HMS Fury and HMS Clarence, the razee frigate HMS Gloucester trailing behind in the foreground whilst in the background Andy's 3rd rate tries to put an island between it and the British.

 

 

Le Petit Rouge sails off to the NW with a damaged rudder, whilst Le Mans(in the centre) is about to be blasted by the two British Brigs (bottom right). Le Glorie seeks the shelter of an island shadowed by HMS Fury and Clarence.

 

 

Everyone claimed to enjoy the game and the rules, and somewhat surprisingly we actually managed to finish the game.

 

 

 

 

Odds & Ends (4) - What I've got and what I play

The Purge:

Its easy to get distracted as a wargamer, when the latest ruleset or miniature release takes your fancy it's hard to resist and before you know it you have an eclectic collection of half built, half painted forces. Well at least thats how I was, but when my first child was born (nearly 5 years ago) I soon realised that my gaming time was going to be severely reduced, so I started a much needed cull of the miniatures/rules that I either no longer cared for or knew I would never get around to painting up. I also intended on moving on to smaller scales to save on scenery/storage space, so out went my:

28mm Ancients.
almost my entire collection of GW's Warmaster range (I was lucky with these having bought almost everything when they were initially released).
my three 40K armies.
entire legions of 6mm Epic Orks, Space Marines and Squats.
2 Blood Bowl teams plus spare Star players and the like.
the majority of my really old early 80's pre slotta stuff.
all my GZG starships and Battlefleet Gothic stuff.
my 20mm WW2 British Infantry.
several boardgames.

By doing this I narrowed my focus and was actually able to crack on and get projects moving again, it also funded my wargaming purchases for 3 years, mainly due to some of my Warmaster stuff being very rare, I got over £100 for a packet that cost me £5. So now nearly 5 years on from the start of the purge, I am much happier in my hobby, as the unpainted lead mountain has shrunk drastically, and I'm getting more gaming in, on the games I've focused on, which brings me to them.

The Survivors:

So this is what I currently play:

6mm World War 2 using H&R miniatures and BKC2 rules (I have both a British Brigade and the German equivilent at a scale of 1 stand = 1 platoon).

(Some of my 6mm WW2 Late war British)

(German Panzer Grenadier Battalion)

(German Armour)

6mm War of the Roses using Baccus miniatures and Impetvs rules (I have around 90 units based for Impetvs).

(A game of 6mm War of the Roses, at the club)

15mm/20mm World War 2 using either my own 20mm SHQ miniatures (about 2-300 of these plus a dozen or so vehicles) or my mates 15mm FOW miniatures with the Rules of Engagement ruleset.

(20mm Para's defending a casino)

X-Wing, I have everything bar the latest large ships that have just been released.

6mm Napoleonic using Black Powder and my mates miniatures (I have nothing at all to contribute to these games).

(6mm Napoleonic Black Powder at the club)

1/1200th Napoleonic Naval, using Langton and Navwar miniatures with the Trafalgar ruleset.

28mm Old West, using a variety of miniature companies and the Legends of the Old West ruleset.

(Red's Gang)

 

(Red)

(Big Dick Bowdre)

(Evil Eli)

(Lightnin' Joe)

(Little Dick Whiteley)

(Injun Joe)

Wings of War/Glory, not played this for a while but still one of my faves for which I have around 20 airplanes including a Balloon and Bomber.

28mm Pirates, not got very far with this, as I only have around 6 crew and a small ship I converted from one of my sons wooden toys, lack of opponents has kept this on the back burner for now.

10mm Warmaster Medieval using my own homebrew Game of Thrones lists and figures from Magister Militum and Kallistra, this got put aside again due to a lack of opponents, but has now been picked up again as I've managed to get a mate interested in it.

28mm Judge Dredd, picked these up at Xmas, not done anything with them as yet, I only have a Justice Dept team ,and I'm looking for some good 28mm Post Apoc ganger types to use as opponents.

10mm Colonial Marine vs Aliens, Im using the Pendraken miniatures, but haven't decided on a ruleset as yet, I was tinkering with my own home brew rules, but have now moved on to converting ROE for this purpose.

 

 



(10mm Aliens & Marines from Pendraken)

 

6mm Sci Fi, mainly GW stuff - Space Marines to be exact and loads of them including a few original metal titans, I have a bunch of stuff from other companies too, and have been thinking of getting back into this genre as I've not played for a long long time.

28mm Samurai, always wanted an excuse to pick up some of the Perry Miniatures Japanese miniatures, and the Osprey's release of Ronin allowed me to do this.

Pirates CSG, I have around 200 ships for this, and at least 1 of every type of ship released, not played for a while, but I intend to use this to introduce my son to gaming.

Blood Bowl, still got 4 teams and a bunch of star players/cheerleaders.

Car Wars- bought this on a nostalgia trip, but still intend to play it at some stage.

(Irregular miniatures 6mm Post Apoc cars)

Most of the above get at least one play a year, whilst some get far more than that, ROE for EG being a current favourite, I think I've played that at least 6 times in the last couple of months.

I also play a number of different boardgames, such as Axis & Allies, Richard III, and Zombies to name some.

The Future:

I'm intending to add to my 6mm Sci Fi stuff at some stage with some CinC & GZG mini's, but their's no particular rush for this. I also want to add more to my 10mm Sci Fi collection as this is currently quite small and I need more guns and bugs, but again, until I get some rules sorted, no big hurry.

As for my WW2 stuff, no plans on expanding my 20mm armies, but I intend to get some suitable 6mm tanks to represent an early war BEF contingent.

I'd like a few more figures for my Ronin game but no great expense (or rush), maybe 1-3 packs from Perry's.

I'll try and keep up with the X-Wing releases but the large ships are currently beyond my gaming budget.

I need to pick up a couple of the more recent releases for Wings of War, the Brisfit inparticular.

I am also really desperate for scenary for  Ronin, Judge Dredd and the 10mm Sci fi stuff, but should be able to cobble together most of what I need apart from the Ronin scenary which is beyond my ability to knock together.

Finally, I have been really tempted recently to start a 15mm Dark Age force for use in a skirmish/warband level game, quite possibly using the free Age of Blood rules, and whilst browsing Khrusan Miniatures 15mm Vikings, I stumbled upon their extensive 15mm Sci Fi range and I now want almost everything they put out....must resist the temptation.

(Boardgames - 1) - Richard III - Game Report

I introduced my mate John to this game recently, and we managed to get two of the three campaigns played out. I took a few pictures but it being a boardgame they are not very exciting.

(Early in the 1st Campaign)

The first campaign did not go very well for my Yorkist forces, and I made a few silly moves when I invaded from Calais with the Nevilles and the future Edward IV committing them to battles I didn't have to fight and withthe odds against me. This resulted in a huge series of battles in the South West that led to the deaths of Salisbury and Fauconberg, and Warwick deserting to the Lancastrian cause, Edward barely escaped the disaster. My invasion from Ireland and the troops I raised in East Anglia all came to nought, and at the end of the campaign my opponent held over 10 votes to my 3 or 4, all in all a crushing victory for the Lancastrians who did not lose one loyalist, whilst I had lost 3 including the traitorous Warwick.



The 2nd campaign was a different kettle of fish entirely, as the Yorkist forces moved straight in for the kill having realised that King Henry VI was in London with few nearby supporters. King Henry soon lay dead on the battlefield killed by the Earl of March, and the Yorkists held most of the South of England, with Lancastrian forces mustering in the North and South West. As the campaign progressed we realised we wouldn't get to play the 3rd campaign which was a little disappointing as we were both engrossed in the outcome. However knowing this, we both made some moves that we might not have done if we had a 3rd campaign to consider.

One such move was a major Lancastrian attack on the isolated Duke of York, accompanied by the Earl of Rutland and the Irish mercenaries who were all holed up in Chester, this 1st Battle of Chester saw 7 Lancastrian blocks against my 3 Yorkists. Against all the odds the Yorkists came out victorious without even losing a block, the Earl of Rutland performed magnificently hitting on 5 out of 7 rolls of the dice (he needs 2 or less to hit), the Lancastrians on the other hand had been all but annihilated as only 2 blocks retreated and both of those were badly mauled.

 

 

(The Battle of Chester, Before & After)



As a final move and at this point a little annoyed at the defenders of Chester, my opponent threw another 4 blocks at the grim survivors, leading to the 2nd Battle of Chester which again saw him fail, as I held off the attack losing the Irish, but having both Plantagenets survive. More losses followed for the Lancastrians as I pounced on isolated nobles.

(The final tally of loyalist KIA's)

And that brought the 2nd campaign to a close, the final adding up was 13 votes to 12 in the Lancastrian favour so the newly crowned Edward of Westminster would have a tenuous hold going into the 3rd campaign. The final toll of dead loyalists was 2 Yorkists dead and 6 Lancastrian dead, with the way blocks were positioned ready for the final campaign and the large losses of the 2nd campaign things were not looking too good for the remaining Lancastrians.

 

 



(Set up ready for the final campaign)

I'm off to the club next week, having not attended for about 3 weeks now, for a planned game of Rules of Engagement using 15mm Germans vs Russians.

Odds & Ends (3) - X-Wing AAR

Managed to squeeze a game of X-Wing into my busy schedule this week, we both took ships we hadn't used before so it was a bit of a learning experience. Both squadrons came in about 160pts. I took command of the Empire, and had the following ships:

1 Firespray (Standard Bounty Hunter with an Auto Blaster, Navigator, Concussion Missiles and Seismic charges)
3 TIE IN (1 Royal Guard, 1 Sabre Sqn & 1 Avenger Sqn with Push the Limit and a Hull Upgrade; Expose and Hull Upgrade and nothing, respectively)
1 TIE Bomber (Gamma Sqn with Prox. Mines, 2 loads of Cluster Missiles and both normal and Advanced Proton torp's)

The Rebel forces commanded by John were:

1 Millenium Falcon (Han & Chewie with an Intelligence Agent and draw their fire)
2 X-Wings (1 Red Sqn & 1 Rookie both with R2's and Proton Torp's)
1 A-Wing (Green Sqn with Push the Limit and Cluster missiles)
1 HWK (Rebel Operative with a Recon Agent Shield Upgrade and Blaster Turret)

I didn't manage to grab many pictures as the action was flowing and I don't like to disturb it for the sake of a few photo's, so apologies for the lack of quality images.

We made our own mission up, which was that the Rebels would start in 2 groups the Falcon and X-wings in one the HWK and A-Wing in the other, the Falcon and HWK had to get within range 1 of each other and then both spend an action "Communicating" as they attempt to transit vital information via a short range encryption device. The Empire simply had to stop this from happening.

It didn't start too well for the rebels with their rookie X-wing pilot heading straight into an asteroid, fortunately doing no damage(this became a bit of habit for this poor pilot, who managed to hit 3 asteroids during the game)

 

The battle split into two distinct  sections, with the X Wings engaging the TIE/In and the Falcon and A-Wing taking on the Bomber and Firespray, the HWK being quite fagile took itself out of the battle  hoping to fulfill its mission.

 

My TIE's managed to eventually defeat both X-Wings though not before my Royal Guard had had his Pilot skill reduced to 0 due to critical hits. The Bomber seemed to draw a lot of fire and was taken out before I had chance to fire off all its special weapons which is always annoying. The A-Wing after being shot up, was destroyed when it clipped an asteroid.

The chase was now on to bring down the HWK which would scupper my opponents mission, the first TIE to get within range of the HWK was promptly and much to my surprise shot down in one quick burst. The Falcon was attempting to get within range of the HWK and all the remaining ships had converged in a corner of the table. Finally managing to get rid of some critical damage that prevented the Firespray from Target Locking the HWK, I launched my missiles only to see the HWK easily survive the attack. At this point both the Falcon and the Firespray were badly damaged and the HWK was just hanging on in there. Both remaining TIE's had suffered only minor damage, but both had injured pilots. If I didn't take the HWK out soon the rebels would claim the victory, fortunately for me in an attempt to evade the Firespray the HWK swung straight into the line of fire of both my TIE's and my man of the match - The Sabre Sqn Pilot did that last bit of damage to bring it down.

Only the Falcon survived on the rebel side and that was badly shot up, I still had 3 ships left but all were damaged and it was much closer than the final tally would seem.

It was my first run out with the Firespray and I liked it, its auxillary fire arc(to the rear) is very useful, and unlike most Imperial ships it can take a kicking. I was particulary impressed with the Expose skill on my TIE Sabre Sqn pilot which he managed to use almost every turn.


We have planned a game of Richard III for next week which John hasn't played before and I'm not overly familiar with, so its off to swot up on the rules.

Odds & Ends (2) - A look at some little buildings

I have built up quite a collection of Leven Miniatures buildings and scenic's over the last couple of years and thought I'd share a few pictures of them and a mini review.

I first stumbled across Leven about two years ago when I developed an interest in 6mm WW2 and wanted some terrain. I discovered that these are cracking little buildings full of detail for their size and very well cast in resin, pricing is more than reasonable at £2-3 for the majority of the range. Another plus is it seems Leven's range is continually expanding with new releases every month and I have found that the owner is somewhat open to suggestion for new models for the range. I cant really say much more than that, well other than adding that all my orders with them have been delivered within a few days of placing the order(though I am fairly local to them), so an all round thumbs up from me, and I'll certainly be keeping an eye out on their upcoming releases and be ordering some more stuff in the future.

Disclaimer: Please note my painting does not do these models the justice they deserve.

Here are some of Leven's Normandy range:

A few examples from their Military range: Dragons Teeth, Obs Bunker, Sandbags, Fuel Dumps & Ammo Dumps:

And some items from their Railway & Industrial range:

Finally most of their Medieval Range:

I really should have included some 6mm miniatures in with these photos for some of idea of scale, Oh well maybe next time, fortunately though the dimensions of all these models are listed on the companies website. I'm off to swat up on Impetvs now for tomorrow nights game which will also see the christening of my new geek/hobby room and the first use of some of the medieval buildings above.