MiniatureWars.Com
A wargamer’s journal….
So What Good’s an iPad?
Jun 24th
My family is now the owner(s) of 2(!) iPads. Why two? Because we found that my wife and I were not the best at sharing even after knowing each other for forty-two years.
I love this little thing.I must confess that I was a big sceptic at first but it has almost changed the way I do a lot of my computing. Here are a couple of “for instances”:
I can do a website post from anywhere, even the local MickeyD’s as they have free WI-FI. This is much easier to use than a notebook or a net book (and we have both).
The battery life is a hefty ten hours, meaning I can take it places I could not take my other machines.
The iTunes store is impressive, and I’ve been able to acquaint myself with a number of old SF favorites which are now free from Project Gutenberg. It has been a long time since I last read “The Cosmic Computer” or “Lone Star Planet” by H. Beam Piper. I also got free editions of On War and a couple of bios on Frederick the Great and his campaigns and family.
Apps are so inexpensive as to be laughable. C’mon, a word processor for $9.99? (Yes, I do use Open Office on my other computers.)
It runs a Kindle app so I can also troll the Kindle store for dirt cheap classics.
The PDF reader that you can get for what, $3 or so, allows me to take the huge backlog of PDFs I have along with me so I can read them when I have the time. I can also annotate them (I’m one of those that reads with a high liter in my hands) and the notes get passed along to my computer when it syncs.
(and how can you dislike a machine that allows you to carry around copies of “Little Wars”, word documents of “Charge” and “The Wargame”.)
It’s a great, but spendy, night light. I can now read in the dark and so not disturb anyone.
And there’s something obnoxiously cool about your email having a “sent from my iPad” tagline!
Splendid job, Apple, and at a reasonable price point for capability and ease of use!
Making more changes…
Jun 10th
I decided to switch back to WordPress as that is the focus of my business. There have been some.. glitches… with the importing of data from Joomla and the upgrading of the database to the 2.9.xx version.
The posts content were there in the previous version of the upgrade but now for some reason only show in the backend. I guess the posts are now classified!
I’m working on it.
Italians and Turks
Jan 3rd
I picked these two fleets to start with as few other folks were planning on doing the Aegean and I thought that these would be unique (and on that I was right).
The Turks are basd on German Aeronefs, many of which Brigade Models already had in their stables. As you can see, this is a poor man’s navy with a number of easily repairable dig platforms. The vessels in front are *very* light and have only two damage points apiece. They are mainly good for pursuit and polishing off damaged enemy craft or for use in support of land engagements. The real powerhouse of the fleet is the battleship which lies in the back of the fleet. I gave these all Turkish names based on important individuals in Turkish history.
- One Abdul Aziz class Dig Battleship Abdul Aziz
- One Sultan Selim class Battlecruiser Tewfik
- One Muin-I-Zaffer class Dig Cruiser Mahmudieh
- Two Assari Shevket class Dig Destroyers Abdul Hamid, Rehberi Tewfk
- Three Keyk class Patrol Digs Kandiya, Retimo, Sinub
I made nameplates for each ship and pasted them on Plasticard and glued them to the bases so I could track each vessel. As my fiend pointed out, I should have placed them on the back so the player could see them instead of the opponent!
The Italian fleet has a beautiful color scheme (which *I* did not choose as I just aped the Brigade Models miniatures.) This is a more Western style fleet and when put straight up against the Turksih fleet, it clobbered the Turks. I’ll have to go back and do some research on the points to make sure I have them evenly matched. You’ll notice that the lighter ships in the Italian navy outweigh the Turks. In front are 2mm figures from Irregular miniatures which I intend on using with Land Ironclads.
This fleet is composed of the following:
- Two Re d’Italia class Battleships Venizia, Roma
- One Guilo Cesare class Light Battleship Di Vinci
- One Pisa class Cruiser San Marco
- One Carlo Alberto class Dig Colombo
- Two Palestro class Destroyers Espero, Ziffiro
I have included some PDFs here for those who desire to use them.
If folks find this interesting, I’ll be happy to post more on my Aeronef gaming.
Grand Fleet Actions in the Age of Sail
Jul 31st
The rules are not simple but are very straightforward. The turn sequence is based on a modified alternate move system as follows:
1. Determine Initiative by using a D10 and adding in command modifiers – highest score decides to go first or let the other player go first. Determine if the wind changes or not and what the change will be.
2. Alternate movement and actions with each player alternately selecting a commander and his vessels to activate . Vessels that are in the command radius of their commander may undertake certain actions such as beating to quarters, firing, boarding and other actions. There are actions that may be carried out even if a ship is not within command radius – fighting fires, passing a tow line, picking up survivors, and so on.
3. During the end phase the players remove all markers and determine if the victory conditions have been met. If not, play returns to phase 1.
One of the things I like about the rules is that they break down the Age of Sail into three periods – Early (16th Century), Middle (17th and 18th Centuries to 1720), and Late (post-1720). Each period has certain distinctive characteristics which means that the later the period, the more distinct the difference between ships and nationalities. Ships are classified by four game factors: Speed, Gunnery, Hull, and Crew. Multiplying these together yields the points value for each ship (if there is a ship with a zero for one of these values, use one instead). Here are some values for the period we played:
|
Nationality |
Type |
Speed |
Gunnery |
Hull |
Crew |
Cost |
|
French |
74 gun |
6 |
7 |
3 |
4 |
504 |
|
British |
74 gun |
6 |
7 |
3 |
3 |
378 |
|
British (Slade Design) |
74 gun |
8 |
7 |
3 |
3 |
504 |
|
French |
44 gun F |
8 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
96 H |
|
British/U.S. |
44 gun F |
8 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
96 H |
The "F" means the vessel counts as a frigate while the "H" means the ship is "Handy" and makes better turns. Frigates may act (after 1720) as independent vessels or as signal repeaters, extending the range of the commander’s command. The values listed in the table above can be modified by crew or hull quality.
There are only three templates in the game. The first is the wind gauge which determines the ship’s attitude to the wind and determines what part of its speed is available. The second is a turning gauge. The third is the gunnery template which is a rectangular overlay two by six inches. There are three range bands. The first is one inch and is point blank range, the second one to two inches out for short range, and the larger band is normal range. To fire, take a D10 and roll it, add to this value the gunnery factors of the ship(s) firing, various modifiers (such as raking, range modifiers, crew quality) and subtract the target ship’s hull rating. If the score is above a ten it is a damaging hit of effective, telling, devastating, or(more?) devastating….
The latter result also entails a roll on the disaster table. This will not occur very often but when it does it can literally be earth-shattering. In our game, I took over a command from someone who had to leave early. His commander was on a ship that was fouled with a British ship. When hit again, right after I assumed command, the nefarious British player rolled a one on a D10 and caused my ship to explode killing me outright! In addition to the vessel atomizing, the turn ends immediately and the vessel fouled with it catches fire. (Earlier in the game I was in command of a Spanish four ship formation with an admiral on board a 130 gun ship. The Victory rolled up, gave us a broadside and killed me outright…. My time as a Spaniard was not very productive as I then had to give up command to my son who was in charge of the nearest formation that could communicate with the survivors!)
Battle photos courtesy GAJO Minis….
|
French and Spanish Battle Line |
Allied Van Turns About |
British Break Line |
|
HMS Victory Catches Fire |
My First Ship Prior to My |
British Right Wing Moves |
There are rules to cover boarding actions (to be experienced sparingly as in real life), shore forts, prizes, striking ships, breaking the line, and more. All are elegantly simple and allow you to play a fleet action in a reasonable amount of time. I intend to use these rules for my naval gaming from now on. Although aimed at fleet actions, I think they could be used for actions involving a dozen ships per side. There is a companion set entitled Form Line of Battle for smaller actions that is more complex but I have not had a chance to review them yet.
Rules are available from A & A Games Engineering and Wargame Vault.
Major Reinforcements have arrived…
Mar 11th
Here is our first grand daughter. Arriving at 4:56 PM Monday in a C-Section she weighs in at 6lb 7oz. Her orderliness is already impressive. We are referring to her as Baby Malan now because the parents have not named her yet. Mother and daughter are doing fine… the father is still being treated for shock….
Loudon’s Frei Corps
Jan 26th
I picked up the Crusader figures to see how the 7YW stuff looked and am pleased with how they painted up. I chose Loudon’s unit because of the uniform color but later found out that Loudon was a Scot who had served in the Russian army and then in the Austrian army against Frederick the Great. Another great character for an OSW Imagination!
Toorkish Lancers
Jan 25th
The figure I selected had a helmet on rather than a turban. The lance is one I purchased from VVV a few years ago when I was working on an ECW army.They are made from brass wire and have a flattened and pointed tip (and you *do* have to be careful reaching for them as they are sharp!) The pennant was made from cutting up an aluminum pie pan and glued together with superglue.
I tried to carry over the same color scheme I used for the infantry and like the look of them so will probably add some to my universe!
