Finally getting Martin Bourne's 'Shipwreck' rules to the table, with a short, yet cracking game, with Soviet Sovremenny and Kynda cruiser/destroyers vs US Arleigh Burke and Kidd class guided missile destroyers.
All minis are old Davco 1:3000.
A pre-planned, radar-directed launch, of Soviet Pipe-Cleaners
Now I tried a test play or two, and reasoned that if the Soviets could get a bearing on the US ships, their heavy missiles could do significant damage - the problem in the bigger game was that the Soviets had great trouble actually detecting the US ships before they had launched Harpoons (which are pretty devastating).
HA! The yanks have pipe-cleaners too!!!
Turn sequence is very subtle - and I made early mistakes assuming that there is one round of combat in the combat phase before moving to next turn - actually this can go on for as long as missiles are in the air and shots are fired - my confusion perhaps stemming from me seeing on p.16 that 'guns' had six rounds of combat, when actually it's explained on p.7. An ongoing combat 'phase' actually makes the game move along seamlessly (and makes it very brutal if you miss a detection or two).
There is also a plethora of modern (80s) naval info for the
uninitiated in the rulebook - right down to how missile radars basically
work. I am sure much of this is supplanted by now, but it was all very
interesting. These rules are from 1999 but still worth supporting.
Guided Missile Cruisers - Harpoons aplenty. Painting courtesy of 'contrast paints from the evil empire'. I know, I know, I hate giving them money too - but I hate painting more!
Game sequence is:
Movement - 3" until contact made then 5" (though with a long combat phase, this can be decisive)
Ship repairs (sometimes you don't get to do this - especially if whacked by multiple harpoons!!!)
Detection - set active or inactive radars - again , be careful what you wish for...
Combat Turn - phases...'continues until no more missiles/aircraft making attacks' - and there is a neat sequence for what attacks when...
Request Air Support.
Lovely ship stats - with weapon loads, AA and Anti ship, arcs of fire - which can be more important than you think, outlines for damage control and helicopter data...all available on the 'wargames vault' download site
Ranges also play a big part in terms of detection, as do helicopters - the eyes of the fleet, especially so here where the US player managed to get the drop on the Sovs, seeing them early, and launching early when info got through (it would appear by the rules that helicopters, bar one, don't get data-link).
Very Short - 4 miles - or 4" at 1" to 1 nautical mile
Short - 4-12
Medium 12 -25
Long 25-85
V Long 85-150 (the harpoon's big advantage)
Extreme 150+
US ships launch Sea Kings
The extra US chopper gains some advantage with radar spots on the Russian task-force, despite attempts to shoot them down
The Soviet helicopter? Not so lucky...
Missile launch. We used a radar 'on' counter in the detection phase, turned to show status after placing, to eliminate the need for notes per ship
That's a lot of ordnance flying toward them, even as the Soviets have real trouble detecting anything yet, they'll know soon enough
"uhhh Komrade Keptain...I think vee hev a problehm!"
Sovremenny goes down fast
An extremely nice game when you get the hang of it - very suggestive of
both the difficulties with detection, and potential for destruction with modern naval.
Excellent!
Far from being a post related to the recent movie based on the waaay back '28 days/months later' skits, previous chat related to naval and 'Shipwreck', reminded me of the 1:3000 Navwar 'Moderns' (1980s) that I purchased 28 years ago...aaand painted yesterday.
A USN Battle-Group. Painting the eyes on the captains on their bridges, was a nightmare...
Now granted some work to do on the bases (including some labels), but once more, contrast paints work their wonders.
Not a painted deck
For anyone without their glasses on, who thinks I painted that deck detail on the carriers! - thanks, but they are printed on paper and stuck on.
1980s Soviet Naval 'Aircraft Carrier Group', led by Admiral Kuznetsov
Pics include US: OHP Frigates, Nimitz, Spruance(s), Knox, Kidd and Bunker Hill. Soviet include: Kiev, Admiral Kuznetsov (currently at the bottom of a dock in reality, being scrapped), Udaloy, Berezina, Kresta, Sovremenny, Kynda and Kresta classes.
It's not rust Komrade!
A game of 'Shipwreck to follow. Now I have to find the ww2 ships that I bought 20 years ago also; Nimitz is calling too...
A quick game of these superb little ww1 naval rules with Steve. I have had WW2 and modern ship lying gathering dust for ages, but now WW1 - so I purchased a handy download of 'top-down' ships from 'Topside Minis' - which are excellent, and nicely detailed.
The Scharnhorst would not last long thanks to a '12' on the torpedo roll
I based everything, including ship cards on 5mm black foam-board, and used pins as markers on the cards. All worked well. We used Coronel 1914 for this one, but larger games with multiple players should be straightforward enough.
The rules 'When Dreadnoughts ruled the seas" were originally released by Brian Dewitt in 2010 and then re-jigged by Battlebox Studios / the great guys at Little Wars TV more recently.
There is also a Russo-Japanese version, which the LWTV guys have played and reviewed/presented on you-tube (below)
For the 270 degree arc of fire on turrets, we simply used the 'reverse' - as finding 90 degrees and sticking it on the 'back' of the turret to gauge firing arc seemed easier. Guns were mainly CS/Cruiser main guns and secondaries - the 2ndrys only ever do hull damage - but quite well as it turned out. A great little game - and very cost effective when combined with printed miniatures.
'Jazz Hands'
The turn sequence is elegant, such that:
Initiative
Side A move 1/2
B move full
A second 1/2
B fire
A fire
Torpedoes (simultaneous - and rarely hit - but when they do!!! oh boy!)
etc.
Now if this reminds you of the X-Wing turn sequence - yep, I thought so too, and funny enough X-Wing came out 2 years later. The turning arcs (sized by ship class) are also a little reminiscent of X-wing, except internal rather than external arcs. I am sure any similarity is purely coincidental..although of course opposing move/firing mechanisms, and turning/flying arcs like this go right back to 1970s SPI stuff, so who knows?
Getting closer...
German light cruisers - who managed to be both annoying and deadly (one torpedo shot each) throughout the game.
GAHHH!!! as torpedoes take down the Scharnhorst before it gets a shot off...
Heavy cruisers - lethal at close range - to each other at least - but hull boxes and turn sequence choices (if you get initiative) have a beautiful game-play element all their own. The German ships had better firepower, whilst the British vessels could take more hits. A nice trade-off for a great scenario.
German heavy cruisers get..too close...
More deadly torpedo action...this time in the Germans' favour, but altogether too late for their fleet
Last stand of the Gniesenau
Of course, this has prompted me to start reading some of the stuff that gathers dust on the bookshelf...
Purchased in 1999; opened today ...what a great looking set of rules.
Some pics from a re-fight of ACW’sChampions Hill again with Volley and Bayonet. The idea in this case
was to get players enthused for a future BIG game.
High ground results in a mod for the MORALE roll - interestingly positioned in the turn sequence - and a natural 6 is not always a fail - therefore you can get your troops into the situation where morale is solid and unbreakable, but this is rare.
The turn sequence is everything here as ever: command, move,
rally, morale, combat, exhaustion…
Reb defensive positions on Champions Hill
One key of course is the morale phase, where there is always a
chance of a unit becoming disordered – with mods for flanking, support etc.
…but if passed then combat can be a 50/50 or better; if failed however, one disorder
can become a rout very quickly in a melee situation. The game also quite
succinctly brings home the value of sustained musketry on one half of the battlefield,
with close range melee on the other. Just like 'Piquet, Field of Battle', it plays as battles read.
Union attack
Key design elements include:
·Scale and Movement: The default ground scale is 1” = 100
yards with a time scale of one hour per turn, enabling units to
march at realistic sustained rates (2.5–3 mph) while accounting for battlefield
friction.
·Unit Structure: Armies are organized into brigades (1,500–3,000
men) to keep command and control systems austere, focusing on player
decision-making rather than complex mechanical modifiers.
·Simplified
Formations: The rules omit traditional
infantry formations like line, column, and square; instead, these are
modeled through mechanics like morale, stationary status, and unit training
levels. A 'faf' to make things simple, or actually genius design?
·Sequential Action: The game uses an alternating activation sequence to
capture the cyclic nature of command and counter-command, avoiding complex
simultaneous resolution systems - although defensive fire can be activated if the attacker fires at same unit - a genius little mechanism, that makes tactical play very interesting.
·Merit-Based
Performance: The system rejects "national
modifiers," arguing that unit performance is determined by training,
leadership, and combat experience rather than inherent national
temperament (and leadership mods are not there - relying instead on the temperament of individual players).
·Scenario Flexibility: The rules support both historical re-fights and fictional
battles through an innovative scenario system, with specific period hacks available (of note is J.D. Glasco's fantastic AWI stuff).
…and to quote Frank Chadwick and Greg Novak
themselves (these design notes are considerably expanded in both editions of
the rules):
‘One
of the first things new players notice – after the large movement rates – is
the lack of the familiar column line and square infantry formations. In the
original edition of these rules I said that you don’t need them because that is
not the job of corps and army commanders; the decisions on formations are
handled at lower levels, and the game assumes that troops are in formations
appropriate to the tactical situation in which they find themselves – or
perhaps not, in the case of less capable troops, which in part accounts for
their lower morale ratings. ‘
20mm artillery with some old 'Minifigs' gunners - supplied by 'Steve the Wargamer' many years ago
This game is for big battles – yes, there have
been concessions made to ‘playing with toy soldiers’ – no commander ratings, no
formations at the micro level, BUT much is made of the big corps movements,
division exhaustion, and putting yourself in Lee or Napoleon’s seat…and even
enabling a scale-less approach to big basing, and big battles - that’s what I
want for my toy solders.
Union troops close on the Confederate positions on Champions Hill
More interesting is the fact that multiple
scales are available for differing levels of battle – yes, of course the game
is designed for big battles, and sensible games with toy soldiers – that notwithstanding,
tweaks and hacks are always there to use same system across multiple sizes of
battle – does it work at reduced? Well, we shall see, as I have several AWI
re-fights in mind…as example consider (taken from recent ‘Storm in the Valley’
supplement::
Regiment
Scale
100 yards per inch
1hour per turn
500 men per strength point
6 guns per strength point
Battalion
Scale
·50 yards per inch
30 mins per turn
200 men per strength point
4 guns per strength point
Wing
Scale
·25 yards per inch
15 minutes per turn
80 men per strength point
2 guns per strength point
2nd edition - some changes to light infantry / skirmishers, and clarification that 'combat is sequential, not simultaneous' - this is actually quite pivotal, especially so with low strength units
The seminal and ground-breaking 1st ed. I always loved the fact that AWI units on the cover have a very economic three figures per base...outstanding!
With normal service in the week-end RPG group postponed, we blew the dust off the old 'Zombies' boardgame from 2002 for a cast of 3 (we literally had to blow dust off this - I think the last time I played it was actually 2002).
Post 'dust-off' - last opened 2002
A great game where the town is randomly generated, the heli-pad does not appear until the last card, and sabotaging the other players' efforts is not only encouraged...but essential.
Three players at start - with just the town square - I can imagine the chaos that will ensue with six players...
Victory goes to (1) whoever kills 25 zombies or (2) first to get to the heli-pad- which directs you down two particular 'play-styles' - either focus on gathering weapons and hit points and taking down the 'Zee's, or evade as much as possible and wait for the heli-pad to emerge, then run!
The crap starts to hit the fan - Zombies will be appearing today, in grey
The cards sometimes add weapons or enablers, but for the most part are there to move zombies toward your friends, slow them down or (quite literally) trip them up.
As part of the player turn, you can move 1D6 zombies one square - this can help or hinder the other players, as you choose
Some great little mechanisms at work here, and we had 3 players today - but with the full 6 that can play I can imagine all sorts of 'breakable pacts' at work.
Now the problem with buildings with resources appearing, is that they will be full of Zee's
The players stay away from the infested areas, whilst trying to grab precious resources - hit points (granting re-rolls) and bullets (a dice mod to the standard 4-6 to hit)...oh don't worry, you will 'never' have enough tokens to use...
Don't get trapped!...the other players want to win too.
Toward the end of the game, two of us were trying the clear the helipad for a mad dash...
...until we realised that the youngest player, was a 'Zee Killer Extraordinaire' and had won with 25xKills...game over in about 2 hours - great little game.
The PvP aspect is VERY much in tune with the original movies, and of course, there is only one tune that we could play on repeat during the game, right?
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