More Enfilade Preperations

I finished up the last playtest for the Enfilade games I'm running/helping out with for Enfilade 2012. I'm planning on running two games this year, a Strait of Hormuz game using the Bulldogs Away rules and a War of 1812 naval battle on Lake Ontario (I was planning on a Vietnam air game, but it didn't work out, more on that later). You can see the Preliminary Event List at the Enfilade link or just click here for a direct link.

Last weekend Kevin and I ran through the Strait of Hormuz game (called "Tripwire" on the preliminary event list), but I didn't have my camera and didn't get any pictures (you can see some photos and a description at Kevin's blog). The game played out really well and I'm only planning on some minor tweaks for the real game.


My previous post had some group photos of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy (IRGN) ships, but here are a few more, with some comments about their roll in the test game.

The Thondor class is a decent little missile boat with four good anti-ship missiles. It doesn't have as good of secondary weapons as some missile boats (with only twin 30mm and twin 23mm guns), but they weren't really designed to get into gun fights. As I mentioned in my previous post, the PT Dockyard models are good, but I had a little trouble with the guns.

Thondor class in profile

Thondor class in 3/4 view

The C-14 "China Cat" boats did a job against the American LCS in our playtest. Gamewise, they have some limitations in that the C-701 missile used has command guidance, so only one can be fired/guided at a time). A lot of the stuff I've seen on the C-701 missile says that a radar homing version is available, but I decided to limit the Iranians for the scenario. Interestingly, a lot of the recent real photos I've seen of this class in Iranian service show them with rocket launchers mounted atop the cabin, which makes me wonder if the IRGN is having trouble getting the missiles. I really like the PT Dockyard version of this ship.

A trio of C-14 missile boats

The Tir class torpedo boats are interesting ships and models. There aren't too many countries that still use straight torpedo boats, especially ones without much secondary armament (the Tir only has an aft facing heavy machine gun). These didn't get into our game, but could be an interesting option.

Tir class torpedo boats

The Boghammers are just good at making a nuisance of themselves. In our game, they were able to get in some good hits on the smaller Allied ships (they have to be at close-range to really achieve anything) before being knocked out.

Boghammers underway

Yesterday, I had a chance to play out the War of 1812 Lake Ontario game. Originally, I had planned on running a Vietnam War air game, but work and other items kept me from finishing up my aircraft and other items needed for the game.

So, I decided I wanted to run something a little different and contacted my friend Mark to see about borrowing his Lake Ontario ships for a game using the Sail and Steam Navies rules, slightly modified for the sail end of the action. The scenario is based on the battle on Lake Ontario in early November 1812 where the inexperienced American squadron (with the corvette Oneida and six small schooners) tried to intercept the largest British ship on the lake, Royal George, before it returned to Kingston harbor. Historically, the Americans pursued Royal George for a couple days, before breaking off the action after coming in range of the shore batteries near Kingston. For my game, I decided to add in a couple more British ships to make the scenario more interesting.

The game started out with the Americans moving to try and cut off Royal George.

Americans enter the board

Meanwhile, Royal George was putting on sail to get closer to the shore batteries.

Royal George on the move

The Americans had split their flotilla into two groups; one with the four light ships that sped ahead to set up a blocking position and stop any reinforcements, the other group moved to catch Royal George.

The American light ships move forward

Royal George ended up in a precarious situation between the American lines, while the British reinforcements entered the board.

Royal George caught between the American lines

British reinforcements (Prince Regent - aft, Earl of Moria - forward) enter

Neither side had been able to do much damage at long range and instead of running for the edge of the board, the British decided to close and mix it up with the Americans. The Americans had the edge in number of long guns, while the British had the edge in shorter range carronades.

Earl of Moria closes on the American light ships

With the action moving to close range, the British advantage started to tell. In quick succession, the long gun on one American ship was destroyed and two other ships were heavily damaged and started to sink. With the American force whittled down, we decided to go ahead and call the game for the British.

Overall, the game worked out really well and I'm happy with the modifications to the Sail and Steam Navies rules to make the game more sail oriented.

Enfilade is only a couple weeks away and I have a few more things to finish up. But overall I feel like I'm in a good position for the convention.