Kind of New Project Planned

Capture of the ironclad Huáscar
by Thomas Somerscales

I am both an optimist and a pessimist. I come up with these optimistic plans for gaming with other people and then they crash and I go into pessimist (depressed) mode. However, I have polled a few of my colleagues at work and they seemed to be willing to have a game. Maybe I can convince Will to join us. 

The plan is to have a one off, beer & pretzels naval battle taking place around the later 1860s to early 1870s. I initially was just going to do a straight up American Civil War game, but I didn't feel 100% going historical. I teach at a Southern college that has been trying to rebrand its image, and there is a lot of potential issues that I could face with administrators if they here about this, even thought this will be purely under the table. The fact that I totally understand is why I am hesitant concerning a civil war battle. Second, I don't want to be constrained by what ships will be involved in the battle. Third, if you have not figured it out by now, I really Imagi-nation scenarios. I can see the Huascar battling it out with a Union monitor...I guess that is how my brain is wired!

So, the plan is to build more ships (!). I am going to make them a little bigger than what I currently do. Somewhere between 1/800 to 1/1000 scale. Currently, my ships don't really have a scale. I am going to build about 10 ships maximum, roughly five per side. There will be a combination of monitors, casemate ironclads like the CSS Virginia, and various others particularly maybe smaller ships armed with spar torpedoes.  I will try to make them simple (he says knowing full well that he probably won't).

The scenario will be the mouth of a major river. One side must get their ships up a certain point of the river, the other side needs to keep them from doing so. Depending on how many people I get to play, will determine how many ships per person. We have some pretty large tables in labs and conference rooms in which to lay a blue plastic tarp on and I can fashion the shore lines with either those wooden hexes I have or cut out felt. 

I have not decided yet on rules but they need to be pretty playable. I might even throw together my own rules. The game probably can't last for much more than two hours. 

That is the plan. Like everything else, I will post my progress on this blog. 

Great War Salvo! Naval Rules

 I am currently at my home town which is a suburb of Chicago. I'm here to help my sister at least begin to clean up my mother's house to sell it, and to deal with some of her outstanding bank finances that for some unexplained reason, I must do it in present here and cannot be done online.

I was going to bring some of my painting supplies and some minis but it ended up that I brought one game, Great War Salvo! by Minden Games. 

I bought this about a year ago, but only did a quick read through. I read it again before I left for Chicago and thought it might be good contender as a relatively simple set of naval rules, it can be played solo, and you really don't need any miniatures. In fact, it can be played with a pad of paper and pencil, which is what I did just tonight. I do have their more comprehensive naval rules, Battleship Captain, but Great War Salvo! seems to be less complex. 

The book is divided up into basic and advanced rules, with some optional rules added that include submarines. Additionally, you get 12 pages of ship counters covering everyone involved in WWI. Ships include dreadnoughts, pre-dreadnoughts, armored cruisers, protected cruisers, light cruisers, and even armed merchant cruisers. The only thing you don' get are torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. You don't get submarine counters either, but subs are a little more abstract. What allowed it to be a candidate for my potential pre-dreadnought wars is that they have a lot of pre-dread battleships as well as a lot of cruisers that were old enough to count. You probably cannot recreate the Russo-Japanese War as is, but I am somewhat a master of reverse engineering stats, so it would not be a big issue. 

There are a number of different factors, but they the usual types: floatation, turrets, armor, and speed. Hits on these causes loss of effectiveness.  Additionally, there are differences in gun effectiveness depending on whether you are firing broadside versus fore or aft. During each turn, players declare whether they are closing in, turning broadside, or withdrawing. This changes range bands. Weather is important, even in the basic rules. 

Combat is in two parts. First, you have to see if you can hit the target. It is a two D6 roll modified by range, but you do get a bonus if you hit the ship in the previous turn. If you hit, then you see if you damage the the ship by rolling three D6 this time and adding or subtracting modifiers. There are a number of modifiers but once you have run through combat a few times, it is pretty quick to tally scores up. Charts tell you whether or not you hit, if damage is taken, and what sort of damage occurs. Unlike some other rules I've used in the past, it is not a slow attrition of loosing hull points. There is plenty of opportunity for more serious or catastrophic damage to occur even in the basic game. 

The game does have an algorithm where the game is not necessarily a slugfest and combat can break off before a ship is sunk. 

For my first test game, I pitted the HMS New Zealand against the SMS Westfalen. I picked them because they were both on the same page. I played the Westfalen whereas has the AI played the New Zealand.

Weather was rolled to be fair and the ships started at Extreme range. 

Turn 1

The New Zealand got to go first and rolled to turn broadside. I chose to close in. This moved the range band from extreme to long. If I had also turned broadside, the range would have stayed extreme. The ship with the largest gun gets to shoot first. Shooting is not simultaneous, neither is damage. The New Zealand fired and hit me, but even with the +4 added to the to damage roll, it bounced off. The Westfalen fired but it missed. The armor factor of 4 on the Westfalen cancelled out New Zealand's broadside rating of +4. I rolled to see if the battle continued and it did. 

Turn 2

Again, the New Zealand got to go first and rolled to close. I decided to close as well. Because we both closed, we skipped the medium-long band and brought us down to medium range. New Zealand fired first but this time missed. I fired and also missed. Again, the battle continued. 

Turn 3 

New Zealand went first and turned to broadside, so I decided to turn broadside as well. The range stayed at medium. The New Zealand hit me and was able to cause damage. I took took 2 floatation points of damage but there were no further consequences in the basic rules. The Westfalen fired back hitting and causing damage in the form of a turret hit. This meant that from then on, the New Zealand gets a -1 when trying to do damage. I rolled and the battle continued.

Turn 4 

Getting initiative, the New Zealand rolled to close in. I decided not to press my luck and ordered a withdraw. The range stayed at medium. We both fired and hit each other but there was no damage taken on either ship. I was hoping to end the game, but the AI said otherwise. 

Turn 5

Pretty much a repeat of turn 4, with the New Zealand continuing pursuit,  but with both ships missing each other. 

Turn 6

Finally I got to go first, but I chose to continue to run. The New Zealand decided to turn broadside (maybe captain AI decided he was tired of missing or his shells bouncing off my ship). What that did however was to increase the range to medium-long. That slight increase in range was enough cause the New Zealand to miss (really low dice rolls didn't help). The Westfalen fired and scored a hit and knocked off a floatation point off of the New Zealand. Again, the AI determined that the show must go on.

Turn 7

Again, the New Zealand stayed at broadside while I continued to run. That furthered the range to long.

Again, the New Zealand failed miserably to hit me. I managed to hit him but no damage this time. Finally, the war gods of the sea looked favorably upon the Westfalen and called the battle over.

The game took under an hour to play. It probably would have been shorter but I had to get used to tabulated the pluses and minuses. I got the hang of things and by turn 4, things sped up. I'm sure there were some things I goofed up on or missed when adding up things. For example, ships are rated with different speeds. It seems that these speed rating are only related to the effects of speed on damage, at least that was is what it seemed in the basic rules. Also, one of the things I had to remember was that even though the game only uses D6 dice, different charts use different numbers of D-sixes. For example, many of the decision charts only use one D6, but as I stated above, the to hit chart uses two and the to damage chart uses three. 

I enjoyed it. Once I got the swing of things, the turns moved pretty quickly. I think the range bands can be converted to either squares or hexes that would really help if I was to play a multi-ship game. It would tough to juggle a game with only paper and pencil. 

Even though I don't have any miniatures with me, I do have paper, thin cardboard, and glue. I can draw up some quick and dirty ships. I should have brought the various gridded naval wargame rule books with me, but I my David Manley rules are all on pdf. I can have a mini solo naval con on the dining room table. 

Another Victory At Sea Battle

This game pitted the Japanese with three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and three destroyers. Will had three Fletcher class destroyers, and one Iowa class battleship. Guess who one? I did manage to sink all his destroyers, but he annihilated all of my ships mostly with the battleship. Trying to damage the Iowa was like trying to kill Superman using a pellet gun. Even my long lance torpedoes could not penetrate the Iowa's anti-torpedo belt. It didn't help that he got the initiative for all but one turn. Initiative not only determines who moves, but also who shoots. Some pictures:

Sinister grin on Will's face

My cruisers valiantly engage the Iowa

Float plane view shortly before the carnage

Couple of things:

First, Will failed to tell me that if I launched my torpedos at his battleship at an angle to its broadside, there were lower odds of hitting, but I could have bypassed the Iowa's torpedo belt if they hit.

Torpedoes are crap in this game. The Japanese really weren't all that effective, but the American's are even worse. You have to be point blank to hit anything with a torpedo. In a duel between my destroyer and his, we only hit each other when we used our guns.

As I said above, initiative also determines who shoots first. I don't think I would have had a chance anyway, but at least one of my cruisers was quickly sunk before it had a chance to fire back at the battleship.  

I had a good time anyway. I had just given a final exam earlier that morning, and there was some drama regarding a student who failed to show up for it. This entire semester has been, as my son calls it, "scibbiddy." Due to financial issues, not of the faculty's doing, we have been bearing the brunt of things, which has culminated in a whole lot of calamity, including the resignation of my department chair in anger.  Any time I can get away from work issues and dive into something fun, I am a happy camper. 

Victory At Sea

I got to play a test Warlord Games' Victory at Sea naval rules at Will's gaming shop. It was SO nice to have a game and interact with others. It was a quickie set up. I had a Japanese heavy cruiser and two destroyers. My opponent, a friend of Will's, had the USS Northampton heavy cruiser and three Fletcher class DDs. Will acted as umpire. 

It was a pretty crazy battle. Ships were constantly circling each other, particularly the destroyers to get a torpedo launch in. Torpedoes have a very short effective range. Only my cruiser had the Japanese long lance torpedoes. Bottom line, the Americans sunk all my destroyers and heavily damaged my cruiser. I badly damaged his destroyers and sunk the Northampton with my cruiser's torpedoes. It  was decided that it was a minor victory for the Japanese in terms of points. I suppose the American destroyers could have pursued, but all of them had already launched their torpedoes. I had a reload of torpedoes ready to go, and probably would have taken down at least two of the destroyers before their guns got close enough.

The rules seem ok. I would need to play a few more games. It seemed like torpedoes are not at all effective particularly in terms of ranges. I'd have to compare it to other rules. I'm not sure if I want to buy the models. They aren't bad, but frankly, at 1/1800 scale, they could have better detail. I think GHQ's 1/2400 figures have a lot more detail to them. 

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. 

Let There be Light!

While I was in Chicago for two weeks, my daughter dragged me to JoAnn's Fabrics. Ott Lights were a whopping 50% off! Not only couldn't I resist, but I bought one for my daughter, too. This one is a big step from my old one because it has a larger light. The goose neck will mean I have more flexibility lighting positions and hopefully will hold up longer. My last one's arm became all droopy early on and I had to prop up the arm with a bottle of craft paint.

Also, I got a hold of Bob Cordrey's latest rules. This time on naval wargames:

This is a printed and expanded compilation of some of his rules that he has up on his website. I mentioned them in a old post. I've played his pre-dreadnought rules solo a couple of times and really like them. Of the three rule books of his that I now own, I think I like this one the best.

Harpoon: Captain's Ediion

There are a lot of wargames that were published in the good old days that are now out of print that I wished I had purchased. So, I've been picking up a number of them. One reason is to have some board games available if needed. The other is looking at them in terms of converting them into miniatures games. This is nothing new for me. Way back in the late 70s, my buddy Mark and I used the rules for Avalon Hill's Midway as the basis for a very simple naval game using handmade ship miniatures. We also once tried using AH's Panzer Leader to have a microarmor battle.

I've been focusing on naval and air board games because there are few miniature rule sets out there compared to land-based games. My latest purchase is Harpoon: Captain's Edition (H:CE).

Unlike Harpoon rules, H:CE is a board game that takes place during the 80s. The rules are pretty simple, but not simplistic. They are also pretty clear cut and well organized. I read them in about 20 minutes and didn't feel confused about any particular part. I noticed that some of the mechanics are very similar to those of other modern naval rules, Shipwreck in particular. I think these can be easily converted into a miniature game. There are only two minor drawbacks. First, weapon stats is somewhat abstracted.

Sample of ship cards for H:CE. Weapon and defence stats on the right.

As seen above, there are anti-aircraft/anti-missile defenses, anti-ship weapons, and so on, but you don't know specifically what the weapons are. The weapon systems for Rory Crabb's Naval Command is the same way. I prefer to know exactly what each weapon does so that I can build my own boats. However, with a little work, I can figure out weapons data.

The second issue is more of general complaint of a number of modern naval rules. Many rules seem to focus on the "big ships" and leave out smaller ships. For example, there are no Soviet missile boats such as the Komar or Osa, or even the larger Nanuchka-class and Tarantul-class missile corvettes in this game. I can forgive H:CE as it has a narrowly focused scenario that takes place in the Northern Atlantic. However, I don't understand why other rules sets do the same thing. Not to pick on them, but Naval Command is an example. Interestingly, I've seen this in some WWII naval rules regarding destroyers. It's as if they don't exist. Again, I can work out the stats for these smaller ships, but it would be nice if they were already done by the author of the rules.

I need to get back to my 6mm miniatures. I have been making some pillboxes and small bunkers out of polymer clay. I will give a report on those soon.

Holiday Find

Our annual Christmas visit to the homeland (Chicago) was very brief. My wife got almost no time off. The kids and I drove up and then I picked up my wife from the airport two days later. My mohter still insists on cooking our various traditional Christmas meals. This is nice, but at 85 year old, its getting harder to do everything. I spent my time, running around to various butcher shops and grocery stores picking up the items for the various meals. We were back on the road the 26th. No trips to Games Plus, or visiting old friends.

While hunting down some cooking pan in my mother's basement, I came across a old copy of Seapower II rules:

Apparently, I had opened them, but I don't remember spending any time reading them. I paid $12.95 for them, which for me at that time (late 70s) was a lot of money.  I never did get Seapower III, even though its says at the very bottom left hand side to ask for them. ALNAVCO still sells them, so if I like them,  I will take the plunge and get them.

This is likely my last post of this year, so happy holidays to you! May 2015 be a safe and happy one!

More Naval Games, More Foolish Spending

September and October have not been thrifty months for me. I bought a big pile of lead (modern and 15mm sci-fi) and a bunch of books and rules.

First up, is the computer game Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations by Warfare Sims.com.

I've never been much of a computer gamer. First-person shoot 'em ups just don't appeal to me, no matter how fantastic the graphics are. Back in the 90s, I played Doom, Ultima, Diablo, and Mythic, mainly because my friends in grad school did. The only game I really liked was the Civilization series.

So, why this one? One of my problems is finding a reasonable set of rules for modern naval gaming for my Chalupastan War campaign. I read about this game on the War Is Boring website.  The author used this game to simulate a battle between China and the Philippines over some island in the China Sea. The thing I liked about it when I looked into the game is that you can design your own scenarios, and modify ships, seemingly to the point of building your own ships. The price is a little steep ($95), but having recently been promoted to full professor, I felt I could splurge.  The game claims that you don't have to micromanage things, but the one practice game I did play, I felt like I was doing so. In the space of maybe two hours in game time, my Spruance-class destroyer was badly knocked out of commission and I had no idea if I had hit the practice target with my cruise missiles. To be fair, I have not played since then due to a lack of time, but even if I do get the time, I think its going to be a while before I start tinkering with the ships and making my own scenarios to fit my fictional campaign.

Next is the 1987 edition of Harpoon Modern Naval Wargame Rules by Larry Bond.

In an earlier post, I bought and had a cursory review the most recent version of Harpoon (4th edition). While it is very detailed, It seems overwhelming to play, especially if I dare play it solo.  Recently on TMP, someone ran a Falklands game using the 1987 version and the comments were that is much more playable than this most recent one. My used copy of it came in the mail today, so I can't say anything about it. Besides being the older edition, I wanted to compare it to other games that I already own just as Shipwreck. Bulldogs Away!, and Surface Battle Group. There are some things like in these other rules that I like better than in 4th ed. Harpoon, but there are some aspects in each I don't care for.

Big Improvement in Rapid Prototyping

The SteelonSand Blog recently reported that the War Times Journal website is now selling pre-dreadnought ships made from rapid prototyping. He has a good review and states that they are far superior than what you get from Shapeways. I am not sure what WTJ's process is for making them, but seems like a huge step above what I've purchased so far from Shapeways. I looked at the prices and they seem competitive compared to Shapeways. This being said, I don't blame the vendors who create the models at Shapeways. From the little correspondence I've had with some of the vendors, they don't seem to have a lot of input into the production of their work. For example, I've order some microarmor and was told that it couldn't printed. I contacted the vendor and he was more perplexed than I. Apparently, they go back and forth on whether or not a particular model can be printed or not.

These new minis make me VERY tempted to venture forth into the pre-dread waters!

OMG, This is Fantastic!

I've been tinkering with the idea playing some games of Bob Cordrey's The Portable Naval Wargame, formally known as Memoir of Battle at Sea. Had I paid more attention to his updates, I would not have ordered the blank dice originally needed for these rules. He made some minor changes that included using standard dice rather than color-coded dice. Based on my read of them, they are a simple (but not simplistic) set of rules that emphasizes playability and a fast game, but seems to have a good degree of flavor for pre-dreadnought and dreadnought naval battles.  I have not been able to give them a try (big surprise there), until now....

...anyway, from Bob's site, I found that another site, Three by Two Tactics, has taken his game and made a virtual board game for it (see here). Its not an online game.  You do need to have the rules handy, but it allows you to run games and test the rules without investing in physical miniatures. Plus you can play it anywhere...like in your office...when you are trying to grade final exams.

Bob's rules are free, and its free to run the game board. Another plus is that it runs on Macs as well as PCs. That's a big plus for me! Give them a try.

Now, back to grading (cue "Volga Boatmen").