Fast Boats for Torpedoes and Tides

 One of the pleasures of running my WW1 naval game last year was getting to know Thomas Brandsetter, who has recently published his rules for coastal naval battles in WW2, Torpedoes and Tides, which can be found on Wargames Vault.

I read the rules eagerly, and appreciated the linked game narrative approach that Thomas demonstrates on his blog, The Raft.  Like some of the campaign-driven games in the Too Fat Lardies stable (Sharp Practice, Platoon Forward), Thomas' rules also provide a vehicle for new boat commanders to rise through the ranks, or die horribly.   

I needed some boats, so my dear friend Trish, the genius behind 4P Press, pointed me towards some STL files on Thingverse.  Just do a search there for Cruel Seas and you'll find lots, all scaled in 1/300 for the Warlord rules.  For the core of my British force I printed and painted five Fairmiles,  three MTBs and two MGBs.  The hulls are all in one piece a printed clearly on my Bambu filament printer.  The guns were a little more fiddly but look ok from a distance.

The masts are made of copper wire and the Red Ensigns ship in Skytrex Cruel Seas kits, of which I bought several.

To oppose them, a quartet of menacing Kriegsmarine E-boats, two S-100 and two S-38 boats, all Skytrex plastic kits.  They assembled cleanly, though I had to go online to various blogs to see how the parts went together.  Skytrex evidently thinks that these things are self-explanatory and don't require instructions.

They all look quite good on the Geek Villain naval mat.  I'm quite happy with GV products.

Next up in the shipyards is a Bangor-class RN minesweeper, a resin kit, nicely detailed.

I hope to have a first playthrough to report on soon.   

Cheers and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

First Time Playing Snorkers: Good Oh!

Just before I went on holiday this month (St Vincent in the Caribbean, quite nice) I had a chance to drive the two hours to Stratford (Ontario) and have a rare gaming day with old chum James.   Having both been bitten with the nautical bug, we wanted to play a game James has been quite obsessed with, Snorkers! (Good Oh!), which is billed as "an exciting, fast-paced WW2 naval wargames ruleset".  

James has a number of games under his life-vest and agreed to teach me the rules.  He pulled no punches!  For our first game we decided to use models from my 1/2400 collection and pitted two RN cruisers (Ajax and Achilles) and three Tribal class destroyers against two German CLs (Koln and Nurnberg) accompanied by three Karl Galster class DDs.  Here is the RN force steaming ahead out of a mistbank at full ahead.  The game tokens are 3D prints.  The ships are all metal models from GHQ.

 

The Kriegsmarine prepares to accept battle.   I put all that work into painting the ships and bases and none at all into preparing some nice labels.  Mea culpa.  At least the three GHQ Galster class ships look good.  The CL in the background is a rather old Panzerschiffe model, though still available for purchase!   The white cotton in the background represent mistbanks which obscure LOS and which can move randomly or dissipate.

One of the adjustments I had to make to these rules is the way they handle speed.  Ships can go from stationary to full speed in a single turn, whereas in other naval rules I'm accustomed to, there is usually a "throttle" rule where ships can only increase or decrease speed by so much per turn.  Not a criticism, just an adjustment I had to make.  And since lighter ships like DDs can move some 20" on the table, and then shoot, there's not a lot of time for fancy maneuvering.   An aggressive player can launch a devastating attack in one turn.  Here I managed to launch a torpedo at James' lead Tribal, but I don't recall it exploding.  German and USN torpedoes in the early war can be duds, which can be quite distressing.

Torpedoes in this game are wicked and deadly.   Launch and impact occur in the same turn, regardless of range.  Targets get a chance to evade, but if a ship is hit by one torpedo, its usually crippling for a bigger ship, and fatal for a smaller one.  Here a torpedo is about to find its mark and send some Nazis to the bottom.  One of the things I learned about torpedoes from this game is to use them before you lose them.  If you have a ship in range, its best to launch everything you have rather than to sink with fish in the tubes.

Of course gunfire is important, and I found the system fairly simple and workable.   Unlike crunchier games which require rolls to penetrate, Snorkers works in a fashion reminiscent of rules like Dan Mersey's Dragon Rampant.  Depending on the defence rating of a ship, you need so many hits to cause damage, and of course there is the possibility of exciting critical hits.   

After our Saturday night game had chased the Nazis away from Narvik, we decided to play a game set in the early Pacific.   For this game we used James' models, which are all 3D prints done in 1/1800 scale.  Even with the larger scale there is just not as much detail as there is in the GHQ models, but the overall look of the larger ships on the table is quite impressive. 

In this game I took the USN and put two CLs and a CA, with about ten Fletcher class DDs, up against James' similar IJN force.  We also gave ourselves an air wing so we could see how airstrikes and AA fire went.  Here the Japanese split their focus on the USS Quincy and some of its escorts, and did no damage to speak of.  I was a little luckier, getting a torpedo hit on one of James' CAs.

Once again, James showed me how deadly the torpedo can be in these rules.   I had been content to hold my main force back while sparring with James' most advanced DD squadron, and was getting the best of it, but in that time James brought the rest of his DDs up and raced them through a mistbank, at which point there were fish in the water everywhere.  An IJN DD can carry multiple centre-mounted launchers and can fire torps through wide port and starboard arcs, and so my three cruisers all blew up and sank before they could engage James' heavy cruisers.    We called it a game and it was a good learning experience.

So this isn't an exhaustive review of Snorkers, but I would say that it is true to it's billing in that it's true to its billing as "an exciting, fast-paced WW2 naval wargames ruleset".   It has a minimum of dice rolling, but when you do throw dice, you can be throwing a bucket's worth.   The maneuvre rules are simple (there is the obligatory template for turns) and things happen very quickly.  The turn sequence is somewhat randomized by card draws, which is arguably a more playable approach than simultaneous movement plotting, and thus makes Snorkers more suitable for solitaire play.

 The core rule book provides lists for most ship types that featured in the early war navies of Britain, Germany, Italy, the US and Japan, and it can be argued that for surface actions, WW2 naval gaming is really only interesting from 1939-43.  After that, most battles are just aerial massacres.  There is also an expansion for the French Navy and a new one that provides more focus on the early Pacific war.  In short, if you are looking to wet your feet in WW2 naval gaming, Snorkers would be a good place to start.

Finally, to end our gaming Saturday, I wheedled James into trying the MMP Siege of Jerusalem game I've touted in earlier blog posts.  James took the ruthless Romans, and benefitted from cards that allowed him to build siege ramps against the two key locations I had to defend to have a hope of winning the game.  Without my lovely wall defensive modifiers, it was a long struggle but late in the game the Romans achieved a sudden death win by capturing both Herod's palace and the Temple.   Kudos to James, he's not that interested in boardgames, but he is quick learner and an excellent tactician, as well as a great host and good friend.

You can read James' account of these games here.  Thanks mate, you're a grand friend.

Thanks for reading and blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

Foundry Grenadiers and Happy Civilians for Old Fritz

 Recently finished and mustered into service with the Prussian army are these 28mm Foundry sculpts, grenadiers painted in the uniforms of the Anhalt Desau regiment as per Kronoskaf.   They will eventually represent the 3/6 Kleist converged grenadier battalion once I get the grenadiers from the Von Retzow regiment finished.

I had a terrible moment when I was spraying these figures with Windsor and Newton matte varnish, I was working too quickly and picked up the black primer can by mistake.   It took a split second to realize my mistake but by then I'd done enough damage that I had to essentially repaint the exposed side of three figures.   I will never do that again!

According to Kronoskaf these fellows had yellow piping on the cloth backs of their mitres, I opted for an ochre-ish colour which isn't that visible in this photo but which looks good enough for me.

The new troops are inspected by Der Alte Fritz and found to be satisfactory.

Two finished Foundry SYW civilians also done in this batch.  Magda the camp follower has big natural apples, and Johann would give his other leg for the king if he could.

Hurrah boys!

I should get these fellows on the table and give them their baptism of fire.   Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Quick Thoughts on MMP's Storm Over Jerusalem

 

I've now finished two solo plays of Storm Over Jerusalem, MMP's game of Titus' siege of Jerusalem in AD 70.  It's a winner.   It has fairly simple mechanics (a very slim and well written rulebook) that are reminiscent of those old area movement games of the past, most famously Avalon Hill's Storm Over Arnhem.  

It's a fairly short game (eight turns) in which the Romans have a daunting task of getting over the walls of Jerusalem (so many walls!).  There are two vital areas, the Second Temple and Herod's Palace, and if the Romans can take both in the same turn they win automatically, but that's easier said than done.

The new town (top of the map) is easier to take because the defensive bonuses are slightly less than they are in the old town and the terrain around the new town areas is conducive to siege engines and siege towers which can partially negate the wall defensive bonuses.   So the Romans can make initial headway taking these areas but they aren't vital to the Jewish defenders and they can chew up valuable time.

The Romans have a lot of troops but they don't all start on the map oat once and can only be brought on from four specific reinforcement zones.  The Roman stacking limit is five units per zone, so the Roman player has to develop attacks carefully and plan to reinforce them.

The game is card driven, in that each player gets a hand of cards with fresh draws per turn and the cards convey certain bonuses and allow strategems, such as gradually cutting off Jewish supplies, upgrading Jewish units with captured Roman weapons, onager and ballista attacks, siege ramps, and such.   Some cards can negate others, so if the Roman plays the battering ram card and if the Jewish player has the flaming brand card, it cancels the battering rams.    If you like the flavour that cards bring, you'll like this game.

Here's the situation at the end of the second of two play throughs.    The Romans have thrown their full might at Herod's Palace (left) and the Temple (right) and in both case the Jewish defenders hung on grimly.  The game ended a turn early because of card play, and it was a tie simply because the Romans inflicted massive casualties on the Jewish garrison.

Siege games have a lot appeal for me.  For the attacker they can be interesting problems to solve, and for the defenders while there may not be lots of maneuvre choices, the tension of hanging on is always fun.   And the advantage of a paper game like this one is that I don't have to build a model of Jerusalem and to paint both armies, the game's all in the box.   

Physically the counters are oversize, colourful and well printed.  While mounted mapboards seem to be a thing of the past, it's a lovely and educational map and the cards are well done.  Full marks for the game's components.

This is a game I would definitely play again.

Cheers and blessings to your die rolls,

MP+

Scurvy Scruffy Steppe Soldiers: Foundry Seven Years War Cossacks

Galloping in from the east are these two Cossacks, badly needed light horse for my Seven Years War Russian army.   I have ten more to paint, but these two were the first off the painting bench.   They're part of Foundry's Cossack range of figures.  

 

And some Cossacks on foot, based individually for kleine krieg games, probably using Sharp Practice rules.  The cottage is a Warbases kit, with some of my own touches.

Consorting with the enemy, a friendly Prussian.  Prost!

The whole Cossack crew pose at their rented vacation cottage.  They gave it a bad review,  five torches, as in they each took a torch and burned it down - said that the towels were scratchy and the WiFi was bad.

Thanks for looking, and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

The Kids Are Alright, the Monsters, Not So Much

This Monday was the first day of spring break here, so we had grandkids Ollie and Evie over for their first sleepover in our new house.   Of course, HeroQuest was on the menu.

Five years ago the church I worked for at the time had a big garage sale, and one of the items was the basic HeroQuest set with an expansion pack (something Skeleton King).  They were asking $10 for it.  I knew enough about the game's value on Ebay that I gave them $20 and I still got a good deal.  Saved it for the day when the grandkids might want to play it. 

A year ago when I first introduced it, HeroQuest was a hit even when Ollie and Evie had to include little sister Lucy (age 4 at the time).  A year later, I noticed a huge uptick in the older kids' understanding of the rules and an astonishing memory for details in their previous games.  Evie for example regularly reminded her brother that because he had a staff he could attack monsters on the diagonal.  Clever girl.

This time to make it more interesting I replaced the players' tokens with mins from my fantasy collection, which was a big hit.   We played the third level in the basic set, the lair of Ulag the Ork, with Ollie playing his wizard and Evie her Elf (they both like spells).  We ran the Barbarian and the Dwarf as NPCs.  It was a near run thing, thanks in part to Ollie favouring Leroy Jenkins tactics and thinking his wizard could also be an assaulter.   Before the final boss fight I let them recharge their spells and "found" them a healing spell in a chest to top them up.   Ulag never had a chance.  

It was absolutely fascinating to see them be so engrossed by a totally material game, with physical tokens, when they are so accustomed to playing video games.  The kids went home demanding another game in the near future.  We might also try a very basic game of a fantasy game like Dragon Rampant, because I think they're ready for it.  I hope that decades from now, days like this one will give them happy memories and maybe some play ideas with their own kids.

Foundry 28mm Imperial Roman Legionaires

 And this post is pretty much what it says in the header.

Catching up on this blog after all the WW1 naval business which has dominated this blog in the past year  to show some recently completed work now that I'm fully moved into the new house and the painting desk is up and running.   The Ides of March seems like a good time to show off another eight metal 28mm Foundry Romans.

The shields are handpainted, matching a previous design from some figures I did a year (!) ago.  At this rate I might have a century if I live to be a century.  I like the resting pose of these figures, suggesting that they are being held in reserve or just waiting for the Germanii to come charging out of the treeline.

They are based individually but I have an abundant supply of eight figure rectangular movement trays for ease of handling.

Thank you for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+