The plan

So, what am I actually going to do with this project?  Here's a brief run-down of my plan as it stands at present:

ERA - World War 1 will be the starting conflict for my restart of the collection.  There are a multitude of historical and hypothetical actions that can be played out on a tabletop.  I also like the ship designs.  The lack of radar and aircraft is a minor bonus, although I do admit that WW2 will be a part of the collection in the future.

THEATRE - Oddly enough, I'm starting with the Baltic.  The Russian Navy in WW1 was no slouch (at the beginning, anyways), and the relatively constricted waters of the Baltic will provide some much-needed boundaries for battles.  The fleets involved are not very large, therefore affordable although that might not last long as the collection grows!

SCALE - 1/2400.  Fairly obvious, this one.  Most of the games I have seen here in the Seattle area have used 1/2400 scale minis.  I already have some 1/2400 scale minis, left-overs from previous work, and the selection is fairly extensive.

MINIS - I am going to try and make the nucleus of the collection centered around GHQ miniatures.  Yep, the expensive ones.  I really like the detail of the minis, and they are not hard to get here in the States; in fact, one local game store has the entire line of GHQ models on their shelves for those impulse purchases.  I do freely admit, however, that I will be taking advantage of GHQ's periodic sales in the purchasing of these minis.

RULES - General Quarters 3 - Fleet Action Imminent is my rules set of choice for most actions (although I'm having a bit of a problem with the rules at the moment; more later).  These rules have enough detail for me, a long-time Seekrieg fan, and are reasonably fast-playing.  I might dust off my copy of Seekrieg 4 some time - if I run a game for my friends in Spokane they will demand it!

So, the easy part is done.  I need to do some research on the composition of the German and Russian fleets in the Baltic, find providers of the appropriate minis, paint, base, and play!

Ship gaming YouTube video

Ted Henkle's latest wargaming creation is a movie about a Malta convoy in WW2 - Impending Fury 

Naval Gaming news - 25 January 2009

Spartan Games has posted some new greens for their upcoming Sky Pirates miniatures for Uncharted Seas

Warhammer Historical has opened a Yahoo group for their upcoming Trafalgar age of sail rules

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Naval Gaming news - 18 January 2009

Spartan Games has released their new Thaniras Elven ships - here

PT Dockyard has a new series of never-built ships in 1/1200 - here

Mongoose Publishing has posted a preview of their upcoming rules Victory at Sea - Age of Dreadnoughts - here


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Naval Gaming news - 10 January 2009

This is the first segment of Naval Gaming News, with hopefully many more to follow:


Minden Games has released Panzer Digest Naval Special 2008, containing a complete game based on the Dogger Bank encounter of 1915, variant rules for Avalon Hill's Jutland, game reviews, and other goodies


Toshach Miniatures has released several sets of appliques for 1/6000 WW2 aircraft carrier deck markings

Topgun Marketing has some special deals for modern 1/1250 missile boat packs

Litko Aero has some news islands and shoal markers in their Naval Tokens range

Spartan Games has some pics of their new Uncharted Seas tokens




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Drumbeat 2009

Yesterday, I played in my first game of General Quarters 3 at Drumbeat, a nice but small historical-only gaming event in Seattle. Mark Serafin braved adversities to show up and run this event.

The scenario was a training scenario, just to get people up on the rules. There were six players - 2 Japanese and 1 German vs. 1 US, 1 British, and 1 Dutch (me!). Each player had three ships: 1 light cruiser or large destroyer and 2 smaller destroyers. The Dutch force consisted of: Java, Kortenaer, and Witte de Withe.


Here are my three ships, GHQ Models I believe and expertly painted by David Sullivan.



The game starts - Java leads the way. HMS Penelope is close astern as we pass close to an island.



German destroyers off the port bow! We started the game at a really close range, and in the name of simplicity the visibility rules were not used. The action got hot immediately - the Germans received fire from my division and the Brits. The US destroyers were waaaaaaaay behind us, and the Japanese forces were not this close! Java was able to damage the lead German DD, and she had some luck in the return fire - Java was hit twice, but each hit was against a non-existent system (TT launcher in this instance), in effect no damage was done. Kortenaer (second in the Dutch line) was not so lucky - she suffered an Engineering hit, reducing her max speed and lost one of her two TT launchers.



The Royal Navy division - Penelope leads 2 H-class (?) DD. Minis by GHQ and well-painted by Mark Serafin.



A little later in the game - Java (and Kortenaer) in the bottom right corner, the two remaining Germans heading away, two Japanese groups (in the top center), and the Brits. The US force is somewhere off-pic to the left (!). Witte de Withe has sunk earlier, previously undamaged, by a German torp. The lead German DD was sunk by concentrated Dutch and Brit gunfire and a Brit torp. The British force is taking massive damage from very close range fire by the two Japanese flotillas. In the pic you see blue poker chips; Mark uses these to cover the torpedo launches.



A Japanese flotilla closing in on Java. The torpedo launch chips astern the Japanese have sunk Kortenaer and things look grim for the Dutch. I'm not going down without a fight though! Java has a lot of guns, and can dish out a lot of damage at close range. The Japanese CL gets peppered by a broadside, and is severely damaged. In the exchange, Java gets scraped paint and splinters (more hits on non-existent systems).



Java turns to starboard to keep the maximum amount of weapons on target. Off the pic, off Java's bow is the late-arriving US division. I decide to turn in and follow the US ships, although I should just open the range.



Here is what I get for following the US destroyers - a spread of 3 US torps heading directly towards me! The torps were intended for the Japanese flotilla, but I plotted my move just perfectly to intercede. Fortunately the torps missed; gave me quite a scare though!


Soon after this, we had to pick up the game. I had a blast! I really like the way that General Quarters has been improved in its third edition - I ordered a copy of the WW1 version later that night.

Many thanks to Mark Serafin, for coming to Drumbeat despite his troubles; and thanks to the other players - Chuck (Japanese), Jeroen (Japanese), Dantae (German, and perhaps 12 years old), Dale (US), and the Brit player whose name I did not note.


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A note about the links...

I am adding links to the sections on this blog almost daily. Believe it or not, there are a great many links out there that are pertinent to naval gaming! I am trying to be as specific as I can with the links in each section, but there will be some overlap between the individual sections. A good example is Navwar - the links in the Pre-dreadnought/WW1 sections and the WW2 section are the same, since the catalog listing on the Navwar site is a compilation of the entire range.

Hopefully the links are of use and not too confusing - please feel free to suggest links to be included that I have accidentally missed!


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Dutch BC mini

Ken Hall has made a nice conversion for a never-constructed Dutch BC, the pic is here - link



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Roman Seas

Here is a pic of a Roman Seas game in progress:




This was taken during one of Eric Hotz's games during Enfilade 2006.


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