Naval Action at SNS

Dave surveys the initial deployment of Battlecruisers.

While I haven't posted many pictures of our SNS group's games the last couple of months, in my defense I can say that most of those games have had pictures posted at GAJO's website here: http://www.gajominis.com/blog/blog%202013/blog2013.html

I wanted to get the group involved in some naval gaming, so I developed a series of narrative-linked scenarios that would introduce players to the rules Victory At Sea: Age of Dreadnoughts. I would be using my own 1/6000 scale Figurehead WW1 miniatures. In the first game we unfortunately did not have the sea cloth cover, so instead used some of the sea 2' x 2' boards stored at GAJO. The action was to take place somewhere along the channel, so we weren't worried about the land at opposite corners of the table.

The High Seas Fleet Approaches the Grand Fleet. Ships open fire with misses.

The first scenario was to introduce players to the basic rules, without worrying about squadron formations, small ships, torpedoes, etc. Just big ships blasting away at each other. In the scenario, the Germans are trying to get a Battlecruiser to break through and head out to the Atlantic where it can hopefully make its way to the Mediterranean and the Turks. Different from history, the German player can decide on a different ship than the actual Goeben. To help get the ship away, the fleet has sailed under extreme secrecy. To confuse the Grand Fleet, the German fleet split up and made different tracks back to port while the Battlecruiser squadron made a dash for the channel to give their secret ship a chance. Having been confused, the British fleet broke into different hunting groups, and belatedly a late discovery meant they could only attempt to reach the escaping Germans with their Battlecruisers.

Goeben comes under fire. Splashes soak the battlecruiser.

In Age of Dreadnoughts, when multiple ships fire at the same target, the splashes can confuse the fire directing, so I use ship splash markers from Litko to indicate a ship has been fired at by at least one ship. Then players can know to add the -1 modifier for hitting if they fire at it again from a different ship. In this game, the Germans spread out a little bit, and a couple of the ships made directly for the British battlecruisers and the shortest distance off the table.

Battlecruisers close to dangerous, near point-blank ranges and suffer critical hits and fires break out. Quietly, Von der Tann (at bottom right) fires on Indomitable but steers for a corner of the engagemant zone.

The Germans are mixing it up with the British to confuse them about which ship is trying to make its escape. The British decide among themselves that Seydlitz is the obvious choice. Goeben suffers from major fires, and Seydlitz takes a pounding by two British ships who tenaciously move closer and closer. Indomitable takes hits. Most of the the ships suffer damage except for a couple.

Ships clobber each other at short range but no one does down.

Goeben and Indomitable fit fires as well as each other. Lion and Indefatigable catch Seydlitz in crossfire but the tough ship just takes a licking and soldiers on, giving back just as good as she gets.

...and, there goes the Von der Tann... off to the Med.

Suddenly the British captains see the Von der Tann sneak off the game corner, strategically winning the scenario. But they vow revenge and go after the the Seydlitz with fury. To no vail! CLosing time at the store, and with the game called, the Seydlitz is still afloat and under power, but VERY beat up and will need time to be repaired in a dock along with Goeben and Moltke. Indefatigable, Indomitable, and Lion will also be a long time in drydocks.

Fun was had by all and in the end it looks like Dave W really enjoyed the game and may get into collecting some ship minis. I also played this scenario with the WFHGS group. There, the outcome was a little different.

Death of a battlecruiser.

In the WFHGS version of the scenario, Dennis decided to spread his German battlecruisers wide, and try to spread out the British, which is exactly what happened. In this game, however, Von der Tann made straight toward the center of the enemy at fast speed, drawing their attention. Seydlitz, meanwhile, stayed close to the edge of the battlezone, and snuck off to the Med without a scratch. Poor Von der Tann, however, took some severe crticial hits slowing her down and reducing her firepower. After a particularly deadly barrage, a magzine hit went terribly bad and the ship exploded in a giant cloud of flame. Still, the Germans won, and I have become convinced that players of WW1 naval games eagerly hope to see ANYBODY's cruisers blow up! Such is the legacy of Jutland perhaps.

Age of Dreadnoughts Game

German Battlecruisers keep British Destroyers at bay.

For our February Armchair Admirals night, Chris at GAJO set up a great scenario using the "Age of Dreadnoughts" rules by Mongoose Publishing. He created a strategic map that let each admiral plot their fleet movements and when contact was made, the ships came out. Great job, Chris!

Norm made a dashing destroyer admiral and definitely proceeded aggressively in his search for the German ships. Gary R played his role as the German admiral very carefully, and definitely had us double-guessing ourselves as he managed to shell the English coast and lay a minefield. There was a great moment of uncertainty when one of the British destroyers mysteriously blew up- was it a sub or a mine? Eventually though, we managed to get in range to attack the german ships. In the first encounter, the smaller cruisers tried to identify and slow the German battlecruisers but they took a terrific pounding and some losses.

British battlecruisers enter from the right. German Battlecruisers need to exit at photo bottom.

Norm charged in with his British battlecruisers. My British dreadnoughts were one map hex away, struggling to get into the fight. Norm decided to really give the rules a test and charged right in!

As the Germans cross the "T", British battlecruisers turn to port from the line ahead formation.

Damaged German ships on the left fall behind, but leading British ships are taking serious hits.

Blucher is in trouble, and the Lion-class battlecruisers are repeatedly hit. Tiger is in trouble.

1/6000 HMS Tiger by Figurehead miniatures.

Although we did not get to the point where my dreadnoughts could come into play, I was very impressed by these rules. The combat system is fun, record-keeping is fair, and I love the special traits and actions allowed by the rules. We'll be trying this again. After all, the Germans got away...

Arbruthnot vs. Des Touches 1781

French on left, British on Right.

The Armchair Admiral night game was held Saturday night with 4 players. We were recreating the same scenario from the American Revolution that we had played late last year. Then, we used the Grand Fleet Actions rules. This time, we played using Warhammer Historical's Trafalgar naval rules.

British closing from the right while the French struggle with wind changes.

Again, we were using the "store fleets" of Figurehead's 1/2400 Age of Sail range. Ranges in Trafalgar rules were cut in half to better match the small ships. Instead of paper markers, we used different colored pipe cleaners for status markers. White represented broadsides firing, red indicated a fire on board, and brown indicated the ship could not fire for a turn.

Russ's British squadron looks like it's getting in a crossfire. Gary's Division, led by HMS London, tries to get Terry (far left) in range.

This game really ran the gamut of interesting events. especially concerning the weather! We experienced everything from becalming to wind shifts to raging storm. Mostly this was to the detriment of the French!

A hard pounding. Terry's and Russ's lead ships collide while Norm's French squadron (left side) pound the British. HMS London sets a French ship on fire.

As the British and French got in close and nasty, the two lead squadron ships collided suffering extreme hull damage. Unfortunately, Terry's damaged lead ship collided next with one of his own ships and began sinking.

Norm's French squadron tacks to the right and pounds the back end of Russ's remaining three ships.

Russ loses a ship to critical hull damage. Other ships began to take multiple critical hits and soon several ships have problems steering.

Gary's squadron prepares to rake the French.

Suddenly a gale turns into a raging storm and cuts ranges down and the firing is far less effective. Several ships catch fire but quick-acting crews douse the flames. there are sever hull and crew losses on both sides. Unfortunately, some ships put themselves in danger when they lose steering control due to severe damage.

Gary fires his raking broadsides.

As Norm's French squadron braces for devastating fire, Gary blasts away with several rakes. Splinters everywhere. Remarkably, one of the French ships takes a bow rake at near point-blank range but only suffers minor damage. Russ and Terry blast away with increasingly fragile ships.

The Fleets begin separating. Several fires taking their toll.

One of Russ's ships burns fiercely and the crew is destroyed while fighting the fire (or jumping overboard). Both sides are battered, but Gary's British squadron remains very strong and could continue the fight. Alas, the game ends.

We concluded that Trafalgar rules are very good for battles on the smaller size. Certainly weather, collisions, and gunnery were easier with this set. We'll probably use these rules for the naval campaign I hope to run this year.

1805 Trafalgar refight

Last weekend GAJO put on the largest naval game held there so far, a refight of the historical sea battle of Trafalgar (1805). This is the famous Age-of-Sail battle between the British (under the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson) and the allied Franco-Spanish fleet. Unfortunately for me, I had to work that afternoon and was not able to participate. Chris at GAJO tells me he will have photos of the battle up this weekend at www.Gajominis.com.   I was able to get pictures of the setup on the Friday night before.

HMS Victory leads the windward column toward the enemy.

The rules used were Grand Fleet Action,  a very good set for managing a large fleet action. I'm sure everyone had a great time last Saturday. Tonight, our club's first Armchair Admirals session will be held playing a WW2 naval game using the Micronauts: the Game set from GHQ.

While Chris set up the Trafalgar refight in the store lobby, several gamers including some of the N.U.T.S. players as well as some of our SNS chaps playing a large desert WW2 battle using Flames of War rules. From what I could tell, it was a game more for introducing new players and  refreshing up on the rules. The table was packed with figures as you can see. From the look of things everyone was enjoying pushing armor.

Panzer III's maneuver through a gap in the ridge.

SNS Gamenight - April 2009- Age of Sail

There was only a small group of us for our monthly gamenight (I'll bet Easter week had something to do with it). I had planned to present a demonstration of Warhammer Historical's new Trafalgar age of sail naval rules. For this game, the British and French ships shared similar crew qualities and ship statistics.

Trafalgar is aimed primarily at the Napoleonic Wars period of sailing combat. You can use multiple scales, but as my small fleet of 1/1200 ships is not ready, I decided to use the GAJO store fleets of 1/2400 ships by Figurehead. Chris has done a great job painting these up, and I've used them in a couple of games using Grand Fleet Actions. For Trafalgar, one must reduce ranges and speeds in half for this scale. Fortunately, the Yahoo! egroup supporting these rules is a busy group, and someone has already provided downloadable charts and rosters with the scale modifications already made. Of course I made full use of these.

Dennis and Russ took the French ships while Lynn and I piloted the British ships. If we had seen more players, we would have included 74-gunners. As it was, 2 first-rate and 2 second-rate ships on each side hammered it out. Trafalgar requires several templates for turning and cannon fire-arcs, as well as a multitude of status counters. I made cut-out copies of the templates, and we used different colored pipe cleaner segments to represent ship status.

After several rounds of maneuvering, the fleets came within average contact distance. In the top photo, one of the French ships has taken enough damage to have started a fire.

I decided to use Litko mini-splash markers to enhance the battlefield appearance. Although not necessary, you could also use them to help you remember how many hits your ship has taken that turn.

The lead French ships on the left have both suffered rudder jams and must continue sailing straight ahead. Formidable (80) is beginning a turn to try to cut off the rearward British ships, she takes a severe rake from Royal George(100). Behind the Royal George, Cornwall (80) also suffers a rudder damage and sails straight while Boyne(80) steers around. While Ville De Paris(120) burns, poor Victory (100) in the front of the British squadron suffers a critical hit preventing firing that turn.

While the French leads L'Orient(120) and Ville De Paris fail to fix rudders and sail on, action gets fierce in the back. A non-fouling collision between Formidable and Royal George hurts the British ship more than the French, and yet Formidable's hull takes a severe pounding from other ships. The French are aiming high, however, and both Cornwall and Boyne lose a mast each and much rigging. Fire breaks out on Royal George.

Unfortunately, we had started the game late and so decided to call it at this point. Everyone felt the game was nicely done, and there seems to be enough detailed damage to satisfy each player. We felt that new players should start with a couple of ships but once the rules are learned a player could control a small squadron. We will definitely be playing this set of rules again.