Quick Naval Game

Today, my daughter and I had a quick test game of Fast Attack Boats: a Game of the Arab-Israeli Naval War-1973. It was published in 1980 by Yaquinto Publications. This is one of their record album games. The album opens up and you have the hex board in front of you. Its compact, but once you punch out the counters storage of them is a problem. Unless you hope they don't fall out of the record jacket (I can't believe I still remember such terms), any sort of ziplock bag or envelope is going to make the jacket bend and eventually warp. This is would be a bad thing considering that the jacket is your game board.

The rules are pretty simple: move, shoot, launch missiles or torpedos, repeat. It is simpler than Sea Strike, but at the same time, its less generic. There is no detection or lock on. The only bookkeeping was to track damage. Small counters representing missiles and torpedoes avoid the need to keep track of those. There are differences between Israeli SSMs and Soviet missiles that the Egyptians and Syrians use. Ships have differences as well. Torpedoes seem worthless, but I'm sure in the right hands could make a difference. The odd thing is that missiles and torpedoes are extremely maneuverable. It is particularly weird with the torpedoes, unless wire-guided ones were common back then. The restrictions for what direction to launch your missiles or torpedoes didn't seem to matter because of this. It didn't specify in the rules, but we made up a rule that missiles and torpedoes need a designated target just like gun fire. What probably compensates for the high maneuverability is that a missile or torpedo can get to your target and still roll a miss. Damage is similar to a lot of other modern rules where there are no damage points. Instead, a ship racks up percentages of damage that accumulate. Over 40% weapon systems and propulsion start become to become an issue. Torpedo boats are an exception, they are pretty much toast if hit. There is a rule for ramming, but we didn't get to try them. There is a campaign system included.

The game lasted all of a half an hour, tops. My daughter had two Israeli missile boats that had a combined 14 Gabriel missiles! I took the Syrians with two Komar-class missile boats and four torpedo boats. Not only did they have far fewer missiles, but could only fire one at a time as opposed to two at a time. It was pretty one sided. I did manage to slightly damage one of her ships, but she leisurely sank all of mine. all my torpedo boats valiantly managed to launch their torpedoes before turning to dust by missiles. Only one torpedo managed to make it to a target but missed due to poor dice rolls. My last missile boat tried to escape, but it got beaten down enough were it was moving at only half speed. I then decided to try to ram one of her ships, but she finished me off with missiles to spare. 

I liked it in spite of a few quirks. I think it lends itself to some tinkering to beef it up and include more ships. As always, I am looking for rules and ideas to be used for my ImagiNation wars. 

Thoughts about Campain Maps

I hope this does not bore you, but I am thinking out loud here. Maybe some of you have thought about this too.

I am building my final touches on my campaign map for my Bovatopian campaign. I am not really ready to post it, but a few things that I am working on/struggling with. What I have been very deliberate as I put together this map is the need for geographical locations to be strategically important. This is the problem with my map of Gambusia. I really didn't make it with a strategic game in mind. Here are some issues that I now see with my Gambusian map:

1. Lines of Communication
Wikipedia defines lines of communication as the routes that connect an operating military unit with its supply base. First, and probably the most major problem is that there are too many lines of communication in the form of roads and to a lesser extend railroads. Armies of both sides can easily bypass various towns or cities. Urban centers have no strategic significance in terms of blocking or cutting off the enemy, or keeping lines of communication open. The only urban centers that are important are the capitals of the opposing nations.

2. Cities and Towns
In addition to too many roads, there are way too many cities and towns. It is likely that the two are related. Too many cities and towns leads to too many roads.

3. Reasons for Naval Operations
When I started my Gambusian campaign I envisioned having naval battles as well as land and air battles. I've come to notice that the two main antagonists share such a long border that there doesn't seem to be a need for any naval battles, other than some of the islands that could be contested. I suppose the two nations can blockade each other to keep supplies from coming in, but because the ports are on opposite ends of each nation, there'd be too much risk involved for each nation to set up a blockade.

How to fix the problems? Look at board games
Sadly, I got rid of many of my old Avalon Hill games a long time ago, however, I stated looking at those that I do have to see how I can set up strategically-important lines of communication. I do have VASSAL installed on my computer, though I've never figured out how to use it. I can pull up the digital versions of old wargames and see how they do things. I am using the Bovatopia campaign to resolve these issues. When I am happy with Bovatopia, I will then redo Gambusia.

Purchases From Chicagoland

Last week, I took the kiddies to visit my family in Chicago. My family actually lives in the suburbs, but unless you are from around there, you probably won't know the names of the towns. Anyway, I made my semi-annual trip to Games Plus Hobbies. I usually spend about an hour or so, wandering around, basking in the glow of all things gaming. I had not planned to but I ended up buying three items.

First, Team Yankee rules by Battlefront.

A lot of folks have been playing them using 6mm. I read through them a couple of time. I'm not exactly sure how they differ from Flames of War, but they seem easier to understand. I recall there were some things in FOW that I just didn't get, like artillery. Made more sense to me now. They only problem right now is that the weapon stats are for a few AFVs and such that were in NATO or Warsaw Pact. Hopefully they will expand it beyond that.

Next up is a game called Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games.

I've seen this for awhile. I thought I'd buy it and my daughter, nephews, and I could play it one night. That never happened.  Reading over the rules, it looks like a fun game, but it's hard to say until it gets played.

Finally, I bought some micro-scale banana trees. I don't remember who makes them.

They don't exactly look like banana trees, but they will due as some sort of palm tree. Looking at them, I can see how they were made. The makers of these took wire that is used to hang pictures up. It consists of a number of very fine wires that are twisted around each other like a cable. they unravelled them at one end at glued flocking to them. It seems, too, that they didn't bother spraying them with any sort of PVA glue to hold down the flock. There is flock coming off of some of the branches and the bases. Also, their bases are rather thick. I'll use them, but I'm not sure if they were worth the $12 I paid.

Active April to Slow May

Not much as been happening hobby-wise since the Nerd Fest convention. Between finishing school and home life, I've very little other than prime some figures. Most of what I've been doing is cleaning. I've probably mentioned this before, but my wife ordered a major cleaning frenzy. We have too much junk. Of course, when I tell her I am taking this or that to the Salvation Army, I get from her, "No-no-no! We need to keep that!" Ugh! Most of the stuff is either junk she bought at a garage sale, or clothes (her's, my daughter's, or my son's). One moment its get rid of it all, the next is must not part it. We have a big community next Saturday and I hope we can sell of a bunch of stuff.

I was pretty good about spending up to about the last two, or three weeks ago. Here's a few things I got. I apologize for the crappy pictures. Adobe Photoshop spoiled me. MS Paint is worthless.

First up, Battle Cry board game.

I've read so many things through other blogs about this system. My gaming buddy Will, was going to hold a nano-convention at this house this weekend, and I thought that would be a good excuse to buy it. A friend of his had some old SPI games that I was itching to play again, but it fell through for this weekend. At least this gives me time to learn how to play it.

Next, The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871-1918 by Aidan Dodson.

I've always like ship drawings and lately, I've been building up a library of these various sorts of books. I had a lot of Amazon.com points on my credit card, so I thought, why not? The drawings are a little small, so they lack a lot of the detail such as ship's boats. For ship making purposes, that is a help, What it has is fewer of are the top views. Otherwise, it looks like a good book.

Third, is The Fred Jane Naval War Game (1906) including the Royal Navy's Wargaming Rules (1921).

This is one of John Curry's History of Wargaming Project books. This might be another "fun" sort of game to play at Nerd Fest, or Will's gaming convention (if or when he has it). After reading Curry's chapter in the book below, I might also get his reprinting of Fletcher Pratt's rules. I have a copy, but there is some expanded material based on Pratt's and others' unpublished notes concerning the game.

Last is Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming edited by Pat Harrigan and Matthew Kirschenbaum.

From what I've read so far, its pretty interesting. Being a history buff, the chapters on gaming history are very enlightening. The sections of the book are divided up into specific topics, but its not always clear why a particular chapter is in a particular section. Some of the chapters read a little more like promotions of an author's game. I also noticed that a number of the authors are seem a little condescending when it comes to miniature gaming. Its a little hypocritical to look down on miniature gaming but then essentially confess that Advanced Squad Leader and some others are basically miniature games!  Nonetheless, its a good book and worth the read. Its a scholarly publication, but its not as dense as Phillip Sabin's Simulating War, which is a good book but a tougher read.