SoL versus Super Blue Blood Moon

The two Stephens took command of three squadrons (each of six ships) of mainly Spanish ships (they had some help from a set of French frigates) to take on Darren's Rovay Navy.  The two sides were almost identical.  Activation was random using cards as per the standard rules.

 A simple set up,

 The action started almost immediately with a few long range shots.

The arrows denoted the wind direction.

 The British had a lucky success when a well placed shot caused an explosion on one of the Spanish flagships.

Great opportunity to use one of the sunken ship markers that Darren has.

Then the moon intervened...

An unsteady hand, but an interesting affect.

I tried the flash and got a better result.

Going...

Going...

Really going...

Almost totally gone.

Gone.

Normal play is now resumed

By the end of the third turn the Royal Navy has taken a hammering,

but a second Spanish ship has been sunk.

This time the loss was due to accumulated damage.

And at this unfortunately late stage we decided to sail off into the moonset.

Maybe 18 ships a side is a little bit ambitious, but I felt the game was working well.  The ship profiles were as follows:

The frigates relay ability just extends the flagship's command radius. 

I didn't use the reload option, ruled that undamaged ships would avoid collisions (which in my opinion worked well otherwise the game would have been resolved by collision damage) and toyed with an "engaged" rule, but ran out of time to try it. 

Ships were allowed to fire at any point in their move.  The wind was fixed and most ships were moving medium or long (as ships do with the galleon ability).  It would be interesting to have a "make sail" and/or "reduce sail" activation.  The idea for "engage" was like "battlestations" or "clear for action"  There would then need to a "break off" or "disengage" activation.  At this stage, more thought is required.

Quick bit of Napoleonic Naval Action

The planned fleet level game using Darren's ships and the Galleys and Galleons rules had to be postponed till next week, which was just as good, as a simple practice game last night demonstrated that a few barnacles had adhered to my memory of the rules.  They were quickly removed and play commenced.

 The British cut across the French as they head out to see.

Stephen N, as first to arrive was given command of the French who were on a mission to the Americas to retrieve an errant family member of one of the political class.  Utmost discretion was required.

Mark B commanded the blockading Royal Navy.  Interception was a given, but could they put a stop to this French adventure?

 The French got in first, blasting up the lead British ship.

As this was a very simple game to get back into the rules, the Frigates were Q3 C3, the 3rd Rates Q3 C4 and the French Flagship, a 1st Rate at Q5 C5.  They all had chaser guns rated at C1 and either Master Gunner or Trained Gun Crew ability.  

Damage has been marked with cotton wool, as I'd left black dice at home and couldn't find my other markers that I would have used for this purpose.

 As sailing ships keep moving there is little room for maneuver, although the French did try a bit.

The perpetual movement produces lots of opportunities for collisions, but I ruled ships would veer away before crashing into another ship as they are not built for ramming and also really don't take up all the space represented by their model.

I need to give this a bit more thought and I'm tending to have damaged ships to be at risk of collision and/or fouling.

 The French are through.

The British fire had been abysmal.  I had forgotten to bring my dice and we were using Mark B's sea-sickness green dice and they served him abominably.

The French will escape.

Will there be a chase?

Will they encounter other Royal Navy patrols on the High Seas?

What about the return journey?

I did make use of the Sails of Glory counters.  I now think I best actually do an inventory of the counters and their meanings.  This requires more work, but an initial allocation matches well with the Critical Damage table.

 Captain hit

 Grappled

 Magazine explodes

 Fire

 Fouled

 Rigging damaged

 Sinking

 Rudder damage

 Taking on water

Galley Action

Yesterday I umpired a game of Galleys and Galleons between Mark Woods and Michael.  It was Michael's first game with these rules, so things were kept simple, not that G&G is a complex set of rules.

 Mark's flagship and its consorts.

 A frontal ram by one of Michael's triremes inflicted a bit of damage.

 The fleets coming into contact

Each side had 12 ships: one hexareme as flagship (Q4 C5), 5 quinqueremes (Q4 C4) and 6 triremes (Q3 C3).  These were arranged in two squadrons.  Mark was fielding mixed squadrons while Michael had all his triremes on his left (bottom right corner in above photo) and his big ships on his right.

The game played well, with plenty of maneuvering until contact was made.  

The game then became a slugfest, eventually going to Michael.

The Rules or the Models?

This is a variation on the question: "are you a gamer or a collector?"  It is also a bit of a chicken and egg question.

Another variant is wargame models or museum quality miniatures.

This all arose from an exchange of correspondence prior to receiving my Sails of Glory starter set.

Thickness of bases - thin for better table ascetics, or thick for ease of handling?

What I can say about the Sails of Glory miniatures is that they make excellent (as in hard wearing or playing) wargaming models. For the game you can use other miniatures and you can definitely use the Sails of  Glory models for other rules (maybe just with a change of base or no base at all).  Same goes for the planes.

So in that sense Sails of Glory (and Wings) is a double plus good investment.

I started this post in April 2014 and have let if fester since then.

Wings of Glory for WW1 is fine and great fun for a club night.  Unfortunately for WW2 it just doesn't work for me (which is not to say that WoG WW1 is perfect - handling of altitude, collisions and passing shots for example).  The search for WW2 air rules continues and I'm keen to try out some of the hex based systems.

Sails of Glory on the other hand has been surpassed by Galleys and Galleons.  Much simpler but very much more playable.  It is still early days in using G&G for Napoleonic naval and I am working with the ANF in their long search for the perfect Napoleonic naval rules.

Other related developments in my favourite wargame periods also touch on this subject - the models or the rules.

Ancients

Impetus has been a major success and has seen an expansion of my 15mm Tin Soldier collection which was already undergoing an expansion due to using Field of Glory.

Can do Saga in 28mm, but I prefer using the figures for Songs of Blades and Heroes.

Always ready to do a DBA game.

Galleys and Galleons has been great for Ancient Naval and I'm keen to see how things go with the Roman Seas paper boats.

ACW

Fire and Fury 15mm, nothing further to say.

That said, I wouldn't mind having some of those ACW ironclads...

Napoleonics

Napoleon's Battles 15mm works for me.  Songs of Drums and Shakos I enjoy for skirmish and as for naval, still searching (definitely G&G and maybe It's Warm Work).

WW2

Crossfire and Blitzkrieg Commander and Megablitz and 1/72nd or 1/76th and 15mm and really I'm all over the shop.  I just like the models.

Fantasy

Songs of Blades and Heroes and HotT.  More the former as I can just get away with single figures that take my fancy.  I will probably take my Barsoom project forward with the Songs rules.

Conclusion

For me I think it is the models first, then the rules.  Napoleon's Battles maybe the exception, and Fire and Fury as well, but that might just reflect my age.

Great hobby!

Just the Galleys (and a fish)

For the clubs games day Mark Woods and I arranged a game of Galleys.

And fish.

Where's the fish?

Phoenicians on the left (myself and Stephen B) and

 Greeks on the right (Mark Woods and Stephen N).

The Stephens had the left wing squadrons in each respective army.  The Marks took the centre and right wing squadrons.  We used playing cards to represent each squadron and shuffled each turn so now one new who was going next (except person who went last in a turn couldn't go first in the next turn).  This system worked well.

Beautiful Xyston models.

Here's the fish, or rather monstrous sea creature.

And it takes a fancy to one of the Greek quinqueremes.

The Phoenicians get first hit with a successful ram 

(marked by the green dice in lieu of tasteful damage markers)

The Greek quinquereme fights back, miraculously setting the fish on fire.

The two fleets (each comprising three squadrons)

are now engaged.

Ram and counter ram.

But some damage is caused by shooting 

(the quinqueremes are armed with Scorpios for long range combat)

The Greek flagship looks a little nervous

(big ship in the top middle of the picture looking lonely)

Killer Trihemiolia which have worked round the Greek left flank

and represent a tandem killing machine.

The Greek flagship was rammed and then shot up.

The Phoenician flagship landing the killing blow 

(skillful rolling of a six by me to Mark's four).

The right of the Phoenician line.

Three Quinqueremes holding firm (they did precious little else).

The action viewed from the Phoenician left.

Tally

Phoenicians lost 4 Triremes and 1 Quinquereme.  

Greeks lost 8 ships (including Flagship and one to the Big Fish).

Galleys and Galleys and Monster Fish

Today Mark Woods and I did a bit of test (or retest) of Galleys and Galleons for Ancient naval warfare as we plan to run a big game for the next NWS games day.

Two evenly matched fleets deployed in two squadrons per side, as seen from my opponent's side.

Each force had: 

• 1 Royal Flagship Q4 C5
• 4 Quinquereme Q4 C4 
• 3 Trihemiolia Q2 C2
• 3 Trireme Q3 C2

All were considered to have bow and javelin shooting out to one short all round (no modifier) and the quins and flagship had Chaser Guns, eh, I mean Scorpio.  We thought of having different rules for catapults but decided it was getting unnecessarily complex.

And Mark Woods gets off to fine form on his first activation roll.

We used playing cards to represent the squadrons, he was King and Jack of Spades and I was King and Jack of Hearts.  Simple system works well for multiplayers as well.

My first activation was a bit of a fizz as well.

And then it got interesting...

The Hearts claim first sinking.

The Monster Fish, sometimes played by Simon who had joined us, has a chomp on one of my ships.

Lots of action.

One of the Spade's ships has even caught on fire.

That damn fish has come back for another bite.

End of game.

The Hearts lost two ships sunk and one captured.  The Spades lost two ships, captured one, but have three ships crippled.  The fish is still hungry.

I'm still amazed how well this rule system works and how adaptable it is.  

All that is needed for our big game is a tailored QRS and some ship identity cards.

The fish is truly ancient, having been in my family for as long as I can remember.  My guess is it was a souvenir from one of mum or dad's travels in the 1950s, possibly even earlier.  I reckon its Italian and therefore possibly mum's from the 1950s or maybe dad's from the 1940s.  Pity they are not around to ask, but I am sure they would be happy to see it still is around and bringing fun.

And I can't mention fish without referencing this:

The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) by Yes

Enjoy