Merry Christmas

 

Santiago Light an After Action Report

 My visit to USS Olympia rekindled my interest in the Spanish American War, so I now have fleets ordered from Tumbling Dive in 1:2400.  However, this week we had a test game using Broadside and Salvo (B&S) from Long Face Games and my 25 year old 1:1200 scratch builds.  Long story short, it was great fun!  The rules played fast, worked well, gave reasonably historical results and were easy to pick up.

It was aa scaled down version of Santiago.  Two Spanish armoured cruisers and a destroyer group were trying to break out past a dispersed US squadron of two battleships and an armoured cruiser.

Sylvain contemplates his moves as he inspects the US fleet blocking his squadron.

US Admiral Curt

Spanish breakout in the background.  USS Indiana moving to counter.  The green mat to the right side is land.

 

Cristobal Colon followed by Vizcaya

TBDs lead the Spanish line while Indiana steams into close range, New York gets closer and Iowa chugs along in the background.

An attempted torpedo run driven off by quick firers!.

A second attempt foiled!

The Colon begins to suffer from the Indiana's big guns.

Vizcaya tries to run but New York moves to counter while the Colon is crippled.

USS Olympia, A Spanish American War Veteran

Last month I visited Philadelphia for a meeting about professional Actuarial exams.  Unlike W C Fields, I quite like Philly which has a lot of history in its downtown core.  This was my second visit and last time I visited many of the museums relating to 1776 and all that.  This time I used a free afternoon to visit the Independence Sea Port Museum.  The big attraction for me wad the Protected Cruiser USS Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manilla in 1989

Gloucester Moose and I looking for Nicholas Cage at Idependence Hall. 

USS New Jersey on the Jersey side of the Delaware River

Olympia looking very smart in her white and buff trim.

Aft superstructure and turret.  Five inch guns in the case mates with light Quick firers above and below.

Wardroom with a 6-pounder QF

My wife sews so I took pictures of the vintage singers on board.  

Close up of the breech of a QF gun.

Loved the story of the quaranteened sailors in the main top. 

A five inches.  Love the brass work and the close proximity to the hammocks.

Another shot of New Jersey from on deck.

View from the bridge over the fore turret and f'csle.

The bridge with Binnacle and engine telegraphs/. Would have been very exposed in battle.

Another shot from the bridge forward.  There's a WW2 sub alongside as part of the musum and a couple of tall ships nearby/

1 pounder QF on the upper deck and looking very exposed/

Exiting the ship a shot of the forecastle and for turret.   There's a pair of 8" guns in each of the two turrets plus 5 5" secondaries in the casemates between them.

This view shows the bridge, pilot house and masts.  Not a lot of room for quarantined sailors in the fighting top.

Barquentine Gazela (1901) tied up close by.  I can remember her visiting Halifax during various Tall Ship tours, and she looks great under sail.

Late Roman AAR Reinforcements on The Table

Yes this makes too AARs in the space of a week and a half.  This week Curt's been hosting Phil H, a British gamer who's been based in the US for a few years and is now on his way back to Blighty.  Phil wanted to get as many games in as possible, so we've been taking turns to run games.  This Tuesday was my turn and I ran a To the Strongest game featuring my Late Romans vs Barbarian Conspiracy Armies.

I went for a favourite scenario from this well thumbed chestnut from the 1980s

I've played this one many times with many rules and in many eras from Hoplites to Desert Rats.

The Romans had a division isolated commanded by Phil on the ridge line which was rough ground, and I had the bulk of their forces coming from the town.  The Barbarians were led by Curt and Stacy and had a 4:3 overall advantage in points and needed to capture the ridge line.  

It can be a nail biter as the race to get to the ridge first heats up.  The activation system in TtS added to the tension as units (or divisions for that matter) might move one move or two or maybe not move at all.   Early on it looked like the Roman reinforcements had the jump on the Barbarians with a couple of good turns worth of activations.  Meanwhile Phils' defenders had some good rounds of missile fire, disordering Stacy's Irish hordes.  

Stacy's Irish advance on the ridge,

My reinforcements exit the town and hasten for the ridge.

My cavalry looks to be closing the gap fast enough to turn the tide.

However, as is often the case the tides of battle swing from one side's favour to the other and Curt and Stacy started to even out the activation luck.  Stacy did well to push on with all of his Irish to wear down the defenders and his Picts and  Curt 's Attacotti advanced swiftly to threaten the reinforements.

The Picts advance to counter the Roman cavalry.  This was the cavalry's furthest advance as they need to evade back several times.  Note the Pict archers which Stacy cleverly placed in his back rank to fire over the spearmint, and then forgot about.

Meanwhile there's a scrum on the hill.  Phil's auxiliaries had a couple of good turns helped by good saving scores.  But eventually, hits had to strike home.

Roman Cavalry vs Attaccati fanatics,  That's Phil in the background.

By this time the defenders on the hill were broken and the cavalry reinforcements were pulling back.

Around this time Phil and I had a turn of Epic activation fails (significantly right after Stacy left for the evening).  We managed to do enough to get us out of position and not enough to get ourselves re-positioned.

The foot units from the fort did make it up onto the ridge and managed to push bask a unit of Picts, but it was too little too late.   

TtS let us play a game with reasonable sized armies and a fair bit of manoeuvre and play it out to a conclusion in the space of a school night evening.  Plus it seems to give a reasonable result while being fun and fast to play.  I was worried that the random activation system might throw the balance of timing off, but in the end it worked well and added to the drama and tension.

Late Romans vs Barbarians AAR

 I knew it had been a while since I posted anything, but didn't think it had been as long as five months.  I had a busy end of term (176 students in a first year calculus class with many suspected cheating incidents) and then a busy spring with Garden prep and travel.

A week or so back I ran a To The Strongest game over at Curt's clubhouse feature my late Roman era British toys.  Player numbers were down due to stomach issues (must find a better place for the latrine) but we had Curt running a conspiracy of Scots-Irish, Picts and Attacotti vs Sylvain's Romans.  it was a straight up class with roughly equal armies and no particular scenario objectives.

After deployment.  The mass of barbarians to the left, the defenders of Britannia to the right.

Close up as the Roman cavalry commander gives a pep talk.

The Irish on Curt's right.  We had to adjust things a bit as his war bands are deep and he couldn't fit two of them in the same box. 

Sylvain ponders his moves.  The hills were gentle but the woods were rough terrain, as was the stone circle.  Note the cup with the victory medals.

Sylvain pushed his luck and advanced his cavalry.  We pull numbered chits from a bag rather than roll dice but the gods were definitely with Sylvain this game.  Note the blue marker marking the edge of the world which Sylvain is using to advantage - I'll be making the battlefield wider and deployment areas narrower to counter this cheesiness in future.

The Pict commander rides past the stone circle in his chariot along side accompanying a unit of light cavalry.  This warlord had disastrously bad luck.  Kudos to terraformer Sylvain who sculpted the neolithic monuments for me.

Another shot as the cavalry ride along the edge of the world.  Sylvain sculpted the dolmen too, which we also classified as difficult.

Things were looking good for Curt here, he swung a war band into the side of the cavalry before they could turn.  The cavalry were disordered but Curt missed several chances for the kill thanks to Sylvain's saving rolls.

The Picts advance.  Sylvain refused his right flank ala Freddie the Great.

The Atacotti charge the fortified Roman camp.  They took out the original ballista crew defenders but by that time Sylvain moved some veteran Auxiliaries in behind.  Again Curt was inches from glory but couldn't quite get the kill.  Note that the camp should have been back a grid row on Sytlvain's baseline. 

Curt's javelin men occupy the dolmen as the cavalry rushes by,

The melee with the Cavalry wing gets messier.  Having held on the lead unit turns, and the following unit advanced up to take one Irish unit after another in the flank, taking down Curt's senior general in the end.

More glory for the Attoctti who have eliminated some archers and are coming on the flank of an Auxiliary unit.

I somehow managed to miss the key moment, the end of which can be seen behind the camp in the last photo.

Curt brought the Pict Light Cavalry up with their attached general to skirmish with and threaten the Roman missle troops to the right of the camp. Unfortunately they halted just short of caring, but had time next turn unless Sylvain achieved a miracle.  He made two difficult maneuvers running to charge the lights with an infantry unit.  Curt failed to evade (needing 3+ out of 10) and then doubled down by failing the reroll afforded by his general.  Sylvain hit and Curt missed his save, killing the unit.  He then had to roll for the general needed a 3+ to survive, and if course failing that two.   

There was lots of drama and it was at times a close run thing, but in the end Curt couldn't overcome the loss of two generals on top of his other unit losses.  A victory to Sylvain who best not push his luck with the dice gods (or his GM) next game.