Last night Sylvain hosted Stacey and I for a game. I was quite happy to finally see my Spanish American War models on the table. These are home scratch builds dating back to 1998 (yes the centenary), so they have been waiting 14 years to see action.
The rules were "Fire When Ready" by fellow blogger David Manley (do yourself a favour and buy a copy there are great ideas to be found and David's a worthy chap). The scenario saw two Spanish Armoured Cruisers and a destroyer running for safety, with one US Armoured Cruiser in a blocking position and two battleships in pursuit. I was kind to the Armada Espanol in that I gave Cristobal Colon her main guns (historically left off due to government cheapness) and didn't apply crew quality modifiers. Sylvain requested the Armada Espanol (brave lad) while I took the USS New York and Stacey the two battleships (Indiana and Iowa). The ships were 1:1200 and therefore we should have measured in inches). However with the smaller table surface and low ship count, we measured in cms as if the models were 1:2400. Therefore max range was 1m (10,000 yds), the cruisers moved 20cm (20 knots) a turn, while the battleships moved 15-16 cms and the destoyer Pluton 30cms (30 knots).
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| Our host provided apt libations of dark rum and pineapple juice! |
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| Vizcaya ranges in on USS New York |
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| Clever move by the Armada Espanol see the New York circle to counter. By this time, a special hit from Vizcaya had caused a flood in the New York, which the crew was having difficulty plugging. |
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| Close up of the New York. Like Tim Gow, Sylvain uses fancy bespoke splash markers. |
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| The destroyer Pluton blocks LOS to and from New York, but Stacey's battlewagons have found the range on the Colon. |
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| Spanish line with USS Indiana and USS Iowa in the distance. |
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| The New York sets Vizcaya afire! I was excited to use my plastic fire markers. Unfortunately for me Sylvain's crew was much faster at damage control than mine aboard New York. |
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| The Vizcaya gets away, with Brooklyn badly disabled after a magazine hit. Stacey's battleships have by this time slowed the Colon down to half speed, so she strikes. Note that the Iowa and Indiana have split apart for better fire effectiveness. |
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| Almirante Rheault looking pleased with the results. He got Vizcaya and Pluton away and came within a whisker of sinking USS New York. |
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteLooks like a neat little action and I would love some details re the models - any chance of some close ups?
Dave M's rules are always well detailed and researched but I have not seen these yet - I will rectify that shortcoming though!
All the best,
DC
DC
DeleteI'll see what I can do on the close ups - that will push my digital photography skills somewhat. I may also decide that my ships look better at long range!
DM's rules can be bought in ebook form from A&A. That's how I got them, and then I got my Uni's print service to print, cover and cerlox them.
Cheers
PD
Ahh yes the days of Wooden Ships , well so to speak, handsome vessels. Congrats on getting them into action at last.
ReplyDeleteRoss
DeleteThe camera hides a lot of flaws but I have to say that the end result meets my goal - representative but not exact. The goofy nature of the pre-dreadnought era is nice.
PD
Thanks Peter for this interesting scenario set in a little visited period. The fact that you built your own ships out of wood tells how strong your passion is for everything that floats.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Sylvain
Sylvain
DeleteBack in the day, that was the only way to naval war-game. I have threatened (actually it's an annual event) to build a sailing dinghy in the back yard too!
PD
Wonderful looking ships and game, Peter. Now I really must drop back twenty years and build the Spanish-America War navies.
ReplyDelete-Steve
Steven
DeleteThanks. I find your posts very inspiring.
PD