Battle of Actium

I took a brief digression from my aviation kick, thanks to Little Wars TV.

I decided to do my own MicroBattle version.

Set Up

In their version, LWTV put multiple ships on a base and called it a squadron. Multiple squadrons formed a division. They ended up with 16 and 24 squadrons for the 2 fleets.

I don't have that many bases so I scaled down. Each base represented approximately 4 squadrons.

I classified the squadrons thusly:

• Octavian's Caesarian fleet - 2 light galleys, 4 medium galleys
• Marc Antony and Cleopatra's fleet - 1 heavy galley, 3 medium galleys, 1 merchant

I represent the different types of galleys this way.

• Light galleys - 6 ships per base
• Medium galleys - 4 ships per base
• Heavy galleys - 3 ships per base.

I was short a base of medium galleys for the Caesarians so I used a heavy galley base. However, I treated it as medium galleys.

The Battle

Marc Antony (with yellow marker) and a fleet of quinqueremes (medium galleys) sally forth from the harbor, shielding Cleopatra (with dark green marker) and her treasure ships (off board). The Caesarian fleet approaches.

Note: Due to the restricted size of the board, I started the treasure ships and half the Caesarian fleet off the board.

The Eastern fleet takes up blocking positions while Antony and Cleopatra make a break for the open sea. The Caesarian biremes (light galleys) pursue Cleopatra.

And overhaul her. But Cleopatra's big galleys wreak havoc among the lighter biremes.. On the left, the Caesarians drive off the defenders and make a beeline for Antony.

The Caesarians block Antony while pushing back on the right.

Antony and Cleopatra under heavy attack.

Then disaster. The Caesarians wipe out 3 of their opponent's divisions, capturing Antony and Cleopatra!

A decisive victory for Octavian!

Game Notes

• Little Wars TV used a variant of Hail Caesar for their rules. This inspired me to use a variant of MicroBattle big battle rules.
• I used the big battle retreat rules. A lot of push backs occurred in the game. I wonder if that would be appropriate for galley battles. 
• The offset squares were a hassle. The counters did not fit inside them when facing diagonally. For fleet battles, I think a regular square grid will work better.
• I also wonder if I should use smaller counters. Maybe 20mm instead of 25mm?
• I need more medium sized ships!

Gaming Status Report

I didn't manage a game last week, but I made some progress on other fronts.

Shipbuilding

A few weeks ago, I mentioned working on some ship counters. Well, here they are.

I happened to find some 1 x 1/2 inch blue bases so I made some single ship counters. I decided to create some very generic ships rather than period-specific. 

Here you see (from left to right), medium, large, and small warships.

For modern era, these would serve as a cruiser, battleship, and destroyer. But I could also use them as different sized galleys, or as various sailing ships.

I also found some 1 inch square blue bases, so I decided to make some multi-ship bases. I used the same images, shrunk them down, and but multiple on a single base.

Battleships (top), destroyers and cruisers (middle left and right), and merchant ships (bottom).

Yes, I know that the formations are not correct. But they're just tokens designed to represent a squadron of ships. This way, I can play some larger fleet actions.

Also note the background in the above pictures. I created a 5 x 7 inch board with offset squares. I plan to use it for quick-play naval battles.

The Micro Battle Box Set
I took a 6 x 8 inch jewelry box and put together a game box.

You can see the box with game accessories - terrain, markers, dice, and some battle boards on the bottom.

I stored a grassland, desert, and ocean battle boards in the box.

I have the armies in a separate box. There are just too many armies to fit into the game box.

Buildings

I also previously mentioned creating some semi-flat buildings for my Micro Battle set. Recently, I was inspired by this town from Grid Based Gaming - But Not Always.

I drew out some walls and other buildings and printed them onto sticky paper. I just don't have a proper backing for them yet.

In the interim, I packed some of my 2mm terrain into my game box. 

I modified some pieces for use with a 1 inch grid. I originally built them for a 2 inch grid so I had to cut them down. For example, the farm buildings (left) were previously combined onto a single 2 inch base. removed the buildings from the base. Then I cut the walls into 1 inch sections.

X-Wing

I also picked up a copy of the X-Wing miniature game.

In lieu of LARPing during the miserably hot summer, I've been tabletop gaming with my LARP buddies. I introduced one of them to Ace of Aces recently. It seemed that he would prefer something more third person. He is also a big Star Wars fan. These two factors made me think of X-Wing so I ordered a copy.

I noticed they have a second edition but I chose to get 1st edition. Second edition seems to focus on the sequels and I would much rather get ships from the original trilogy. I ended up getting a good deal on the A Force Awakens core set so I went that route. If we like the game, I plan to pick up some original ships.

Naval Test Run

I decided to do a test run using my sci-fi rules for a naval action.

Set Up

Here is how I set up the game.

• I found a piece of blue cloth. I cut it down to 9 x 12 inch.
• The board is not gridded so I used a ruler I made for a craft stick.
• I used wood ovals for the ships. I used a marker to draw a flag on the stern and dots on the bow to use for identification.
• I decided to throw a hill on the board to serve as an island.
• I'm playing the game on a footstool, using a laptop tray in lieu of a table.

I'm not using different ship types in this experiment. I treated all ships as cruisers.

The Battle

Some near misses on Blue 2.

Blue 2 takes critical damage (2 hits out of 3). Red 1 and 3 take minor damage.

Blue 2 blows up! Red 3 takes more damage and decides to flee.

Blue 1 takes heavy damage.

Blue 3 comes around to protect Blue 1. Blue 3's salvo damages Red 2.

Red 2 and Blue 1 flee. Red 1 decides its at a disadvantage and also withdraws.

More Maritime Musings

On occasion I find myself drawn to naval gaming. Once again, I find myself pondering some action at sea.

The Inspiration

This post from The Wargames Website peaked my interest in wargaming some dreadnought action, especially when the original poster mentioned Austrians vs. Italians.

The Main Problem

My biggest issue is space. Lately, my games have been using a 5-inch square board. That does not give a lot of room for naval maneuvers. I've been thinking of standardizing my boards as 5 x 7 inches - still small for naval.

A Solution

Rummaging around I found an unused GMT game box. I decided to turn it into my naval gaming box. It's 9 x 12 inches, which allows me to fit a larger board.

I did a test game to see if the board works. it does, and it fits snugly in the box. I just need to add a grid.

Rules

Once again I find myself perusing rules, as I did in January. Back then I mentioned a set of homebrew fleets in space rules. I decided to give them a test run. Expect a battle report soon.

Counters

For my test, I whipped up some ships using wood ovals. These are just a temporary expedient; I will replace them with counters.

Back in January, I made some pre-dreadnought counters - a battleship, a cruiser, and a destroyer. I'm not entirely satisfied with them and will redo them. But this has led to some questions:

• Do I want one ship or multiple ships on a counter? I am toying with the idea of multiple ships for big fleet battles.
• Do I want genre-specific ships or can I make generic counters. Considering how they get scaled down, I think generic counters would work.

Anyway, I have some work and testing to do.

Maritime Musings

Ever since I began my latest kick, I've been researching rules and miniatures/counters. Here is a rundown of my meandering thought process.

What Period?

This is the first question I grappled with. The Dawlish novel I'm reading is set in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. This seems to be on the cusp between "ironclads" and "pre-dreadnoughts."

When I researched "ironclads," I kept finding American Civil War stuff. Not really interested in that. Being an Austrophile, I toyed with the idea of doing Lissa. I even picked up David Manley's Broadside & Ram in my researches. However, pictures of the ships (including this beautiful game) revealed too many sails and masts for my liking.

This post was turning into a wall of text so here is a picture of Lissa.
From https://picryl.com/media/constantine-volanakis-naval-battle-at-lissa-efabee

Another issue is that I want to standardize things with smattering of ship classes. Ironclads just seem to have a widely diverse array of ship types.

I also was drawn to smaller actions, like those in the book. This led me to look into World War 2 coastal actions. I gave a look at Manley's Narrow Seas. However, I don't want to fiddle around with aircraft so I quickly drifted away from WW2.

As a result of these meanderings, I found myself drawn to pre-dreadnoughts.

What Rules?

Next up is finding rules. Actually, it's more of a case of finding rules to use as a model for writing my own. Nowadays, I try to mold everything into my MicroBattle framework. Those rules just work well for me!

Poking around has led me to a few sets that seem helpful.

• Pz8's wargame rules collection, which includes WW2 naval and coastal action rules
• Bob Cordery's pre-dreadnought rules in his Gridded Naval Wargames
• Manley's Broadside & Salvo

I even considered sci-fi rules, which often tend to be WW2 in space. I gave Castles in the Sky a look. Ironically, this led me to an old set that I created! Interestingly, I gamed this on an 8 x 6 grid. Just the perfect size! I think I need to play around with these rules a bit!

Note: I remember initially using range bands for these old rules, a la Pz8.

What Figures?

Well, the rules search is shaping up. I just need some mins to test rules ideas.

I had some miniatures from Irregular's 2mm 20th century boats, but it appears that I got rid of them in last year's purge!

How about counters? Most counter sets are for specific ships and I just want generic ones. This leads me to making my own. I just need some models for inspiration. While researching, I came across Bob Cordery's fleet. Just what I want!

Just when I thought I knew which path to take, my wife threw a curveball at me. She gave me a 3D printer for my birthday. Once I figure out how to use it, I can print my own miniatures!

Scenarios

I'm still leaning toward small-ship actions, so expect torpedo boats, destroyers, and maybe a cruiser rather than battleships!

I'm also leaning towards a fictional Austro-Italian War in the 1890s.

Anyway, that's where the project stands right now!

To the Sea!

Just as I was getting a set of gladiator rules in order, GADD struck again and I've moved on to other interests.

This time, the culprit behind my GADD is a book. Specifically this one.

This book is chock full of action scenes that just beg to be wargames. It's given me a hankering for some naval action. I envision a campaign of small ship actions. Perhaps a couple of torpedo boats attacking enemy shipping, bombarding coastal emplacements, and tackling the opposition's counterparts.

Rules?

As I careen down this rabbit hole, the first question I have is what rules to use. More specifically, I ask what rules can I modify. Nowadays, I tend to take ideas from other rules and plug them into my MicroBattle framework. Works best for me.

My main issue is lack of space. I generally find myself with about 1 foot square of gaming space. That generally is not enough for full-scale naval maneuvers. For air combat, I solved the problem by using abstract relative movement. I'm not sure how to do that with naval.

I'm also not sure what era to use. I kind of prefer ironclads, but most rules in this era are American Civil War (no interest) or fleet battles. I'm not really finding much for smaller ships. I could use rules for coastal actions in WW2. I'm not sure it will have the ironclad feel. I suppose I should look into ACW.

Anyway, I'm still searching for rules.

Figures

The next question is what figures to use. 

I have a small selection on Irregular Miniatures 2mm modern ships. I could dig those out. I'm not sure I have all the ones I need for my desired games and I don't really want to order more.

I'm also thinking of making counters. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Finally, there is the possibility that I could convert this project to a sci fi game - essentially navies in space.

Naval Gazing

The Inspiration

As I've been going through boxes looking for stuff to purge, I came across these scratch-built ships.

I have 12 of them, split into 2 sides - 6 red and 6 blue. I built these in the early 1990s. They managed to survive multiple purges because I am quite pleased with how they came out.

The Rabbit Hole

Finding these ships suddenly piqued my interest in some Age of Sail gaming. However, my current gaming space is limited to 22 by 16 inches. Can I find a set of naval rules that will fit into this space?

For air wargaming, I solved the space problem by using relative motion. Based on maneuver rolls, aircraft move relative to each other. For example, rolling double puts you on your opponent's tail. This mechanism allows me to play out dogfights with multiple planes on an 8.5 by 11 inch board. 

I wonder if I can do something for ships. It doesn't really seem possible because ships should not be as maneuverable as planes.

Still, the idea beckons.

Eastern Med Action

Introduction

After completing some naval counters, I decided to get them in action.

I set up a quick hypothetical action between the Byzantines (red) and Arabs (blue)

Background

A Byzantine convoy is taking supplies to northern Africa. Arab galleys intercept it.

The Battle

Opposing light galleys engage in missile fire (upper right). The Byzantines take damage.

The light galleys engage in boarding actions, Meanwhile, the Byzantine heavy galleys (bottom right) overwhelm more Arab light galleys.

The supply ships turn right in an attempt to escape.

But the Arab heavy galleys overtake them.

There is a mad scrum, but the supply ships are forced to strike.

Arab victory!

Notes

• I used a variant of MicroBattle that I quickly ginned up. Some highlights
• Each counter represent a squadron of ships
• Squadrons move 0-2 spaces per turn
• There are 3 forms of combat:
• Missile fire (range 1-2 spaces)
• Ramming - attacker needs to move into an opponent's space. Roll for success depends on the angle of attack.
• Boarding - for ships that begin in the same space. This uses an opposed die roll
• A successful attack does 1 damage. Squadrons strike on 2 points.
• I made the counters by
• creating the top-down ship images in PowerPoint. They are stylistic instead of realistic
• printing the images on cardstock
• Cutting out the images and gluing them to some 1" wooden tokens I had lying around
• Overall, I like the counters. They especially make it easy when squadrons share a space.
• I want to make some damage counters. I just need to decide on a design.

(Greek) Fire on the Med

Once again, I find my attention blown off course. I'm not abandoning the Byzantines, but I am toying with a different theater of war - naval! Yes, I've been thinking of doing some naval wargames featuring the Byzantines vs. Arab or Turks. 

Now I have a few Renaissance galleys from Tumbling Dice, but they are not entirely accurate for medieval Byzantines. I found that Navwar does some Byzantine dromons in 1/1200 scale, but this a little bigger than I'd like.

I have also been looking for rules. I have a copy of Osprey's Poseidon's Warriors, but it is designed for classical naval warfare. I was interested in finding something that would cover medieval Byzantine sea battles. I found a couple by promising titles by David Manley on Wargame Vault. One in particular caught my eye. Called He Hemetera Thalassa, Mare Nostrum (hereafter MN), it is a set designed for fleet actions with multi-ship bases. 

The concept intrigued me, so now I am considering this approach. But I want a base to fit into a 1 inch square. I would need really tiny galleys. A little searching led me to Outpost Wargame Services, who offer a range of 1/3600 galleys. SteelonSandBlog has a nice overview of these minis. They are ancient rather than medieval galleys, so the look is off. But at that scale will it matter? I think these will work.

Right now, here is the plan I have in mind:

• Order a pack each of quinquiremes, triremes, and merchant ships from Outpost
• Base multiple ships (2-3 depending how they fit) on 1 inch square bases
• Borrow from MN to create a galley war variant of my MicroBattle rules.

Navy Blues

I previously posted that I placed an order for some 16th century ships from Tumbling Dice. Well, they have arrived, and I have some mixed feelings about them.

First some pictures of the unpainted product (sitting on my new sea mat)

First up - caravels. The one on the left is tipped on its side so you can see the profile a little better.
Note that my mat has a 1 inch grid. That should give you an idea of the size of the minis.

Some small galleys. I did not remove the flash from the two on the ends.

Two large galleys. The one on the left is on its base while the one on the right shows the base separate from the galley, and the galley is tipped on its side.

Finally, a galleass (left) and galleon.

Note that the above pictures do not show the separate sails, which need to be glued on. The galleys include a selection of furled and unfurled sails.

Thoughts

So what do I think about these miniatures?

Pros
The ships themselves look nice. I expect they'll paint up well, even for a bad painter like myself. I am especially pleased by the size. The galleass is slightly bigger than 1" but all the rest will fit into my grid well.

Cons

• Flash - compared to Tumbling Dice planes, these seem to have more flash. I suspect that it is easier to mold planes than ships however. I just finished prepping the caravels and small galleys and it wasn't too onerous.
• The bases - the bases are just too bulky and long for my 1" grid mat. Before seeing the figures, my plan was to ditch the bases and mount the ships on clear Litko bases. Alas, some of the ships are molded directly onto the bases. On others, the galley oar banks are molded directly onto the metal base! If I dump the base I dump the oars, too!
• The sails - the last time I bought sailing ship minis (back in the early 90s I think), they had the sails molded to the masts and I just had to glue the masts to the hull. Well, TD minis have the masts molded to the hull with the sails separate. It seems a bit fiddly to glue the sails onto the masts.

The Plan
I decided to start with the easiest and work my way through the rest.

• Caravels - these require minimal prep work. The bases fit into a 1" square so I can leave them be. Everything is molded in one piece so no gluing required. I just cleaned up some flash and will paint them.
• Small Galleys. the bases are a bit long so I chopped off the ends (the middle ship in the picture above show one with the ends removed). The ship is molded to the base so no gluing there. The sails are separate, however, and will need some gluing. I may just ignore them. After all, galleys generally used oars rather than sails in battle.
• Large Galleys - generally the same strategy as with the small galleys. The bases are separate so some gluing is required.
• Galleass - the base definitely needs to be chopped down; right now it measures about 1.5" while the ship itself is only slightly larger than an inch. Sails are a bit bigger and therefore less fiddly than the galleys so I may add them.
• Galleon - the base will get chopped. I definitely want to add sails; the galleon just looks bare without them.

MicroBattle at Sea

Now that my MicroBattle rules for land and sky are shaping up, my mind has turned to the sea. My initial thought was to gin up some rules of Age of Sail battles. This seems a bit tricky for a MicroBattle sized board (8 x 10 squares). In my experience of AoS rules, the ships tend to travel in the wind direction, often running off the board.

What kind of naval battle would work on a small board. My thoughts next turned to galleys!

Tumbling Dice ancient galleys
photo from their website

But I'm not so keen on ancient galleys; I am more interested in the Mediterranean battles of the 16th Century. I decided to emulate these, with some sailing ships thrown in. The upshot is that I just ordered some galleases, galleys, caravels, and galleons from Tumbling Dice's 1/2400 naval line.

Happenings

Some notes on gaming-related stuff occurring over the past week:

Coastal Warfare

I decided to play around with the Cruel Seas ships I picked up recently. I whipped up a super-simple, not-intended-to-be historically accurate set of rules and then went at it (because I don't have a big enough water battlemat they fought it out on the Glass Sea).

One of the ships gets hit by a torpedo (black puffs indicate damage)

But it gets revenge. After repairing damage it returns to the fray and in one devastating salvo it sinks the enemy ship.

I actually enjoyed the game and am now intrigued by the topic. I'm not sure if I want to get into another period, though. Even if I did, I would not use the Cruel Seas ships; they are just too large (these German boats are 4.5") for my coffee table. This has spurred a search for appropriate minis, leading me to Irregular Miniatures. I like their generic take on the topic, and the sizes are workable (1/900 I believe so the patrol boat is listed as 22m with the largest, the destroyer, at 40mm)

In the past when I wanted to do WW2 style naval battles, I actually used spaceships instead. I would actually like to do that for this topic; I just haven't been content with my scratchbuilt minis and I'm struggling to find minis that I like.

Organizing
On New Year's Day I mentioned that I wanted to organize my boxed games. I took a few steps in that direction recently.

My completed air war box, contained in a Tiger brand wide Tuff box.

Inside are rules, dice, markers, an erasable battle-mat (10 x 16 spaces) and containers with 1/600 scale miniatures.

I also started a sea box. My two Cruel Seas ships are in it.

Onyx decided he wanted to play.

Krawling
I've done some work on Kevin's Krawl. Recently I ran a second dungeon, this time investigating the catacombs under a church. There they find that death has taken control, and all manner of ghastly abominations prowl.

Here they take out the boss, a skeleton mage

And here is the final dungeon map.

A full report will be forthcoming on Tales of the Templars.

Recruiting
I went on a small miniatures spending spree mid-week.

From Irregular Miniatures:

• Vessels for coastal naval actions - specifically some patrol boats, a gunboat, and a merchant (yes, I succumbed to temptation)
• 10mm fantasy for dungeon crawls - a crusading knight, a dwarf, a wizard, an archer, some orcs, and wolves. Planning to convert my dungeon crawl to 10mm.
• 1/900 scale aircraft - a few 2-engine bombers for my bombing raid campaigns

From Pendraken:

• 10mm fantasy - some necromancers and some monsters

I also finished painting and basing some 1/900 biplanes. Looking forward to getting them into action.

The Redgrave War - Part 4

The next target of the Redgravian offensive was the port of Southcoast. Expecting an attack, Lester sent a contingent of Marines by ship to help the beleaguered Imperial garrison. Commodore Plotkin of the Redgravian navy, attempted to intercept Admiral Netherbottom’s relief force.

Plotkin had four ships: Mako, Barracuda, Narwhale, Moray (flag)

Likewise, Netherbottom had four ships: Tiramisu, Schnitzel, Escargot, Tarragon (flag)

The van of the Redgravian squadron descends on the Imperials

Once the squadrons were in sight, Plotkin raced forward to intercept his enemy. Netherbottom steered away, but the weather gage favored the Redgravians. Mako and Tiramisu engaged first and the Imperial vessel was subjected to a pounding broadside. Barracuda sailed up and added to Tiramisu’s misery. Soon, the Imperial vessel was a floating hulk. Other ships joined the fray and a general melee ensued.

As gun smoke obscured the battle and the warships swirled about each other, Netherbottom realized that he now had the wind advantage. He signaled to his fleet to break off the engagement.  His flagship, Tarragon, and Escargot managed to slip away. Schnitzel was not so lucky. The heavy pounding had taken down a mast; she could not outrun the Redgravian. Alone and outnumbered, Escargot had no option but to strike her colors.

Plotkin had won a significant tactical victory, taking two enemy ships while only sustaining minor damage to his fleet. However, Netherbottom managed to get reinforcements to Southcoast.

• Redgrave (Comm. Plotkin) – Mako, Barracuda, Narwhale, Moray*; minor damage to 2 ships
• Imperial (Adm Netherbottom) – Tiramisu, Schnitzel, Escargot, Tarragon*; Escargot heavily damaged, Tiramisu crippled