War at Sea

Waitangi Day saw Steve and I play another short naval engagement. This time we decided to play Axis and Allies: War at Sea, just to see how it went. A&A WaS is designed to be a quick and dirty system, but it does have a points system. We decided to go with 100 points each, with Steve playing the Japanese, and me playing the US Navy again.

IJN Battleship Yamato, Heavy Cruiser Haguro, and two flights of  G4M Betty  medium bombers.  A powerful  surface action group under Steve's command.

I first purchased my WaS ships back in 2008, during a trip to the United States. I had discovered their existence whilst searching for naval miniatures suitable for use in CD3 games, and found that they were modeled at 1:1800 - the scale ground scale used in CD. The idea was that I could use them to represent naval forces in amphibious games a mile or two off shore (36 to 72 inches), and have a target that was the right size to be caught in artillery templates.

USS Wasp, USS New Jersey, and a flight of  TBF Avenger torpedo bombers. 

By mutual agreement, the seas were flat and clam, although I don't believe WaS has rules for bad weather! The first turn started with both fleets closing for action, and both sides launching air attacks on each other.

Stat cards for the US fleet. 100pts well spent!

Opening moves. The IJN attempt a torpedo strike on the USS New Jersey.

Steve opted to have one of his bombers attack the mighty USS New Jersey, which resulted in it being destroyed by the New Jersey's AA fire. I had my Avengers attack the Yamato, causing minor damage to the huge battleship.

The second turn saw the fleets move even closer, Steve used his remaining bomber to attack the USS Wasp, which also used its AA to destroy the attacking bomber. My Avengers return to attack the Yamato, only to be driven off by the big ship's AA fire.

Meanwhile the USS New Jersey, and the Yamato exchange gun fire causing minor damage to both ships.

The Avengers sink the Haguro

The third turn saw me change targets for my next airstrike. I decided to attack the Haguro, and that decision paid off, with the Haguro being sunk by the Avengers torpedo attack.  The two battleships continued to exchange fire, with both ships firing broadsides at each other. New Jersey rolls well, causing more damage to the Yamoto, and being only one hit away from causing a critical hit and sinking her outright. The Yamato is more fortunate with its dice and gets the hits needed to cause a critical - sinking the New Jersey!

The  Yamato sinks the USS New Jersey

Turn four sees me attempt to sink the Yamato with another airstrike, before it can get the Wasp in range of its guns. I make a horrible mistake and use bombs rather than torpedoes, causing no damage to the Yamato.

Turn five sees the Wasp in the range of the Yamato's guns. My only chance is a successful torpedo strike with my Avengers...

The Avengers finally sink the Yamato.

and yet again my Avengers sink a IJN ship! So Waitangi Day 2013 had me chalk up two victories, in two very pleasant games using beer and pretzel rules. Not a bad way to start the years gaming, nor a bad way to spend a public holiday.

Victory at Sea

Having come back to NZ with a few new 1:1800 scale Axis and Allies War at Sea ships, and discovering that Mongoose Publishing are producing a range of 1:1800 scale ships for their Victory at Sea game, Steve and I decided to have a game on Waitangi Day. Waitangi can be translated from Maori as noisy or weeping waters, so a naval engagement seemed quite appropriate.

Two USN Cleveland class cruisers.

Victory at Sea is designed to be a quick fast play game, and it delivered! Unfortunately photos of naval games tend not to capture the nail biting tension that these games can generate. Victory at Sea lacks the detail of Harpoon, but it played fast and was fun.

CL- 55 Cleveland and CL - 57  Montpelier

The scenario generator gives ships a priority rating so my two Cleveland class light cruisers were rated at one point each for the engagement, with the IJN heavy cruiser Haguro being rated at two points.

Myoko class heavy cruiser Haguro.

The game started at 06:00hrs with calm waters and good visibility. My US cruisers started with the initiative and were able to detect the Haguro on their radars.

The game began with both sides maneuvering towards each other in order to bring their guns into range. The second turn had the Haguro take the initiative and fire first, only to receive minor damage from the USS Montpelier in return.

Haguro continued to close in order to bring its Lance Lance torpedoes into range. Haguro again misses the USS Montpelier, which also misses with its return fire. USS Cleveland is more successful with its broadside and inflicts more damage on the Haguro.

The Haguro continues to close to torpedo range while taking gunfire hits from both USN cruisers. Once Haguro is in range she fires her torpedoes into the USS Montpelier, crippling her. The USS Montpelier is also hit by the close range broadside of the Haguro's guns. USS Monpelier losses all her main armaments and starts to limp away.

Meanwhile USS Cleveland continues to engage the Haguro with gunfire, causing more damage to it as it begins to swing around to engage the USS Cleveland with the deadly Long Lance torpedoes.

Haguro sinks USS Montpelier.

Haguro then sinks the USS Monpelier with gunfire. The USS Cleveland is alone. Haguro's next broadside misses the USS Cleveland, but a torpedo strikes home causing minor damage. USS Cleveland's return fire causes more damage to the Haguro, finally crippling it, putting its Q and X turrets, and starboard torpedoes out of operation.

The USS Cleveland continues to engage the Haguro with gunfire, as the Haguro attempts to bring its port torpedo tubes to bear whilst returning gunfire. Both ships are taking a pounding from this fire, and it is now a race to see if the USS Cleveland can land the final blow before the Haguro can.

USS Cleveland sinks the IJN Haguro.

The USS Cleveland takes a risk and manuevers back around to the Haguro, in order to deliver a broadside. The broadside hits and the Haguro is destroyed! While that final move was successful, had the Haguro not been finally sunk, it would have surely sunk the USS Cleveland with its port Long Lances and remaining guns.

Chalk up a victory at sea for me!

Back in NZ

I am now back in sunny Christchurch after spending January in Pennsylvania. Despite the best attempts of winter to stop my sight seeing, I was lucky enough to see a few places of historic and gaming interest in between my shopping trips.

 So I am placing a few snaps here as they may be of interest to others. Some of these sites are best viewed in seasons other than Winter....

First up, Fort Necessity, a bad day for Washington.

Ft Necessity: A hasty fortification build by Washington to hold off French colonial forces.

A swivel gun, as part of the reconstructed fort.

Glove for scale.

 Next up, and just now the road is the site of General Braddock's grave. The Braddock campaign was another ill fated move against the French.

The story of Braddock's burial.

A section of Braddock's road - a pathway on the original lay of the road.

The marker at the original grave site.

The present monument.

The Braddock campaign is one that has fascinated me for a number of years, so I was very pleased to be able to visit his grave.

I also managed a trip to Valley Forge - winter being a suitable time to visit, but unfortunately not the right time of year to visit the Brandywine battlefield museum.

 And of course, another site with a link to George Washington!

I can relate to this - I am currently making an AWI force.

Bayonets - a useful weapon in the AWI. Not having one was a major disadvantage.

A reconstruction of one of the Valley Forge cabins.

And of course, I went to Gettysburg again, and took lots of photos, and bought lots of plastic soldiers .....

How could this plan possibly fail?

So I had fun, and will have to visit again during warmer weather. Next post I have some AARs and some WIPs of things actually being made!

Maps and Stuff

A nine piece foam tile set bought by Kat for me!

As Archduke Piccolo noted in his comment on my last post, the photos were indeed taken on a map of Gettysburg.

It works out at being around a metre square.

I have regretted not getting one since seeing it the Gettysburg visitors center in 2008.  I was worried that it would be too bulky to take back home, given the other stuff I was carrying back.

No scale is given however.

 I plan to run a very simple game of the Battle of Gettysburg on it, using a simplified version of Volley and Bayonet.

The township itself. Unfortunately the location of the best toy soldier shops are not marked.

To continue the theme from my last post of items I purchased and had waiting for me in PA, I purchased some more Star Wars Micro Machines figures, and two Forces of Valor German trucks.

In and out of the packaging.

 The trucks are very sturdy diecast models of German Bussing-Nag 4500As, and make a nice change for my German transport park that consists of a collection of Esci and Airfix Opel Blitzs. From memory these two trucks are rated as being medium trucks under CD.

Side by side. Each truck comes with a canvas tilt and two passengers.

 I also decided to grab some cheap Imperial Naval Troopers to bulk up my Galactic Navy forces.

Imperial Naval Troopers.

More recruits for the Galactic Navy.

The final picture shows some toy soldiers my Mother in law found for me. The big grey cowboy is around 80mm high, and is a hollow cast metal figure. Some time spent researching on the internet revealed that he is a Barclay cowboy - No: 752 Cowboy with Lasso.(This link gives more information, scroll halfway down the page for a picture, and return to the main page for detailed information)

New additions to my figure collection - a Barclay Cowboy and two Bonnie Bilt GIs.

The two semi round GIs appear to be figures from a US company called Bonnie Bilt. I managed to find a blog with some information on them, but apart from that I wasn't able to find much about them. The figures are hard plastic, and are quite visually pleasing. I am sure that they will look good on one of my bookshelves.

More Twilight 2000 figures.

Soon to to opened after far too long a wait!

Before I left NZ I purchased a number of items online and had them delivered to my inlaws. Amongst the items purchased were some packets of Twilight 2000 figures - some of which were still in the original packaging. (I was also generously given a couple of Twilight 2000 US figures by Modernkiwi at "The Kiwi's figures and stuff" that I am going to paint up and post when I get back home. ModernKiwi's blog has a nice mix of GW fantasy figures and 20mm figures that is well worth checking out)

Polish Paratroopers. These were purchased loose.

Noble Knight games had a few packets in stock - both loose and in the original blister packs - at some extremely reasonable prices, so I purchased their entire stock of them. I suspect the only reason they still had them is that they had listed them as being 15mm figures rather than as 20mm. This confusion probably resulted due to the fact this range of figures was designed to be used with Roco Minitanks range of modern vehicles, as well as with plastic figure ranges. So they were listed on the packaging as being HO scale, they are actually closer to 1/76 scale.

Polish Paratroopers, or Khandist scum?

 The Polish Paratroopers will probably end up being used with Khandist forces.

Soviet Support Weapons. Straight out of the packaging.

The support weapons provided appear to be an AGS-17, and a NSV HMG. A very nice combination of weapons. These will provide a HMG stand, an AGL stand. Plus I have gained an extra tripod mount.

Soviet Support Weapons. Three crew to serve weapons, and a female soldier carrying a crate.

Next up are the two packets of Soviet Heavy weapons. In each set is meant to be three crew figures, a mortar, and an AT missile.

Soviet Heavy Weapons. purchased loose in the bag.

The first pack contains everything it should, however the unopened packet proves to be missing a key part - the AT missile launcher. The Missile launcher is probably meant to be an AT-4 Spigot, while the mortar is probably a 82-PM-41, or another Soviet 82mm mortar.

Soviet Heavy Weapons - Still in the original box, and missing the AT launcher.

Unpackaged Soviet Weapons - at least I have the tripod mount!

I plan to use the spare mount from the Soviet Support weapons set, and the tripod missing the launcher, as the basis of scratch building up two AT Missile stands, so all is not lost!

Soviet Infantry - still in the blister pack!

The officer figure is destined to be used as a high level command stand in a Soviet, or Soviet equipped force.  The other figures will probably end up being used in my Balkan hordes.

Unpackaged Soviet Infantry.

The blurb from the back of the packet.

1985? That dates these a bit! Sadly neither GDW or Grenadier are still in business.

 All in all, quite a useful bunch of figures that I am looking forward to painting up!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone reading this has a very happy 2013! Currently I am at my parents in law's house in Spring Run, PA and will be there for the next month, before returning to New Zealand in February. I should be able to make a few modeling related posts from here over the next couple of weeks.

Eagle Games: Napoleon in Europe

Last Monday night I went around to play a very relaxed social game with an old friend. We normally play various games in the Axis and Allies series, but the last couple of times we have played games from the Eagle Games 'big box of stuff' series. It's a fairly relaxed affair that follows the same general format - The game gets brought out and set on the lounge floor, while the first movie is watched, and the pressing issues of the day are discussed. Then once the second movie is started, the box is opened, and the game is set up. Once the second movie is over, the game is started. While this may seem to take a fair amount of time, it is nothing compared to the time once spent on playing Axis and Allies 2nd edition through to the bitter end.

It's a very big board - All figures are 1/72 scale.

 As there was only the two of us playing we took turns in choosing nations out of the seven powers - I was the Russo-Franco-Ottoman Alliance, while my friend was the Anglo-Austrian Spanish Alliance. Prussia was neutral in this contest of titans. We played the basic game which plays quickly. The game has three versions (and for more info click here)

France loses territory to  Anglo-Spanish Forces!

 While the evening was fun - the dice were not in favour of the Russo-Franco-Ottoman Alliance. Indeed, after losing Paris and Moscow, I conceded the game. I am currently planning to run another game with more players using the more advanced rules.

Double sixes abounded - but only when rolled by the Anglo Austrian Spanish  Alliance!

 I will also add in some more dice to the game as it only has four in the box - nowhere near enough for the masses of dice that are required for a battle in this game!

The battle board - France's last stand!

I have more stuff to post after Christmas, but it can wait! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!