Regia Marina

I've been a little slow in working on my projects, due to various reasons, but now I can report some progress on one project. 

Back in January, I had posted that I was working on the World War 2 Italian Fleet in 1/6000 scale. The Figurehead pack come with 77 ships, including all the major Italian warships and 40+ destroyers. 

A Littorio class battleship with an escort

I did a basic paint job on the ships in February, but it took a while to do some detailing and get the recognition stripes done. Part of the detailing involved putting camouflage on the ships, but with the ships being so small, it is pretty hard to see. I looked at several ways to do air recognition stripes (those are the red and white "barber pole" stripes normally on the bow of the ship). It was especially challenging to think about doing the destroyers, most of which were only a millimeter wide. After failing to consistently paint stripes, I finally settled on using a marker to do the stripes. I think they turned out pretty well, even if it felt a little like cheating. 

 

Here are some photos of the completed ships. My camera did have some trouble focusing on small ships with my lighting conditions, but hopefully it gives you a good idea of the final look. The mat in the photos has 2 inch squares, so you can get an idea of the ship size. 

Littorio class battleships

Conte di Cavour and Andrea Doria class battleships

Italian heavy cruisers

A representative group of Italian light cruisers

A few destroyers

The whole fleet

While the photos aren't that great, I think the ships turned out pretty well. I'm planning on mounting the ships on some clear plastic stands. That will give players something to grab when moving the ships and a place for me to put ship names.

 

I'm hoping to get the ships out for some action this summer.

2019 International Naval Wargaming Day

In 2017 David Manley, well know rule writer and naval gamer, kicked off the first International Naval Wargaming Day as a day to "Celebrate the birth of the father of naval wargaming, Fred T. Jane, by running or taking part in a game of your own!"

With August 6 being a weekday (and due to my own poor planning), I played a solo naval wargame again this year. My idea was to try out a relatively new set of World War 2 naval rules by the aforementioned David Manley called Find, Fix and Strike. I took a quick look through my ship miniatures and decided to use the Second Battle of Guadalcanal to try out the rules. Here is the setup and special rules I used for the scenario. 

My setup for the battle (click for a larger image)

Before I get to the game, here is a little more about the rules. Find, Fix and Strike is available on Wargame Vault. It is a fast playing set of naval rules designed for use with models from 1/2400 to 1/6000. Bookkeeping is minimal, with damage recorded through a series of levels rather than keeping track of damage points. The rules also include a set of operational level campaign rules that provide a framework for linked battles and club campaigns.

The turn sequence is:
• Initiative Phase
• Ship Movement
• Air Phase (launch and move aircraft, resolve air-to-air combat, resolve air-to-ship combat)
• Gunnery combat
• Surface ship torpedo attacks
• End Phase (Resolve damage control and Remove dispersing smoke screens)

The rules are pretty easy to get into and most naval gamers will have them down in a couple of turns. Gunnery and air attack combat is resolved by competitive D6 die rolls, which are modified by the attacking ship's attack factor and defending ship's defense factor, along with some other modifiers for damage, range, etc. If the defender's modified roll beats the attacker, there is no damage. If they are equal, the defender is straddled and has a temporary negative modifier for attacks. If the attacker beats the defender, the defending ship is damaged with multiples of the defender's roll doing more damage. The levels of damage are Light, Heavy, Crippled, and Sunk, and there is also a chance of special (i.e. critical) hits. Light and Heavy damage still allows a ship to move and fight, but with negative modifiers for combat and, for Heavy damage, movement. Ships with Crippled damage cannot move and shoot with large negative modifiers. Players roll to repair ships during the End Phase. Players can use various methods to track ship damage, from keeping notes on paper to using markers. For my game I used some Litko explosion markers to show each level of damage.

For torpedo combat, the attacking player first rolls for a hit. It a hit occurs; a competitive die roll is made to check for damage. There are special rules for the Japanese long-range torpedoes.

Now, on to the game, I used 1/6000 scale miniatures for the game and my camera had trouble focusing on the small ships. So apologies for the fuzzy photos. Looking at the special scenario rules, I chose to have the Japanese Screening Unit enter on turn 4 at area B and the Bombardment Unit to enter on turn 6 at area C. I was thinking that this would give the Japanese a chance to catch the Americans in-between both forces. 

U.S. battleline ready for action

On the first turn the Americans won the initiative, closed with the Japanese light cruiser and destroyer, and caused heavy damage to both ships in the gunnery phase. 

Japanese light cruiser Sendai takes the first hit of the game

On turn 2, the other two destroyers from the Screening Unit entered, but, seeing the fate of their comrades, decided to keep their distance and move toward the Screening Unit entry point. The American finished off the two damaged ships.

American radar gave them an initiative and combat advantages. On turn 3 they were able to use those advantages to damage the remaining sweep Unit destroyers, putting the out of the fight, and get into position for the Screening Unit. The Screening Unit finally got some hits on the leading American destroyers with guns and torpedoes. But they had no luck against the battleships. 

U.S. destroyers (foreground) take damage while the lead Japanese ships take hits

At the end of Turn 5 most of the Screening Unit ships were damaged or sinking. The Americans left their damaged destroyers behind and moved to intercept the Bombardment Unit.

Japanese heavy cruisers (left and center) and battleship Kongo (right) move in for action

As the two forces engaged, the Japanese attack dice got better, and they were able to hit the battleship South Dakota with torpedoes. But it only resulted in light damage. Meanwhile, the Japanese battleship Kongo took heavy damage from the American 16” guns.

View from the Japanese side as Kongo (foreground right) and Takao (foreground left) take damage, while South Dakota (background left) and Preston (background right) are also hit

The two forces continued to slug it out, but the damaged Kongo and 8” cruiser guns weren’t able to do any more damage to the American battleships.

The view from the American side as Kongo (left background) and Atago (center background) take damage

With all the Japanese capital ships heavily damaged and unable to do anything to the Americans, I decided to call the game in favor of the Americans. The Americans did a lot more damage than they did historically, while taking close to historical damage.

The game played quickly, finishing up in a little more than an hour. The American dice were hot throughout the game, while the Japanese started cold and moved to average. With the limited visibility range, the American radar really helped out with initiative, spotting, and combat. The Japanese used searchlights during combat to negate some negative modifiers, but they could not effectively use their long-range torpedoes.

Overall it was a fun little game and the rules lived up to the fast play promise. I'm a fan of David Manley's rules, so you can take my comments with a grain of salt. The downside for the rules is that they could use a little more editing to clear up some confusing parts and clarifications around fighting night battles. I also wonder if torpedoes are a little under-powered (it seems like it is really hard to get hits), but I'll need some more playing time to really determine that. The rules work well for moderately-sized and large battles, where record keeping can really slow things down, but might not be good for small battles with small ships (although I expect they would play quickly). The campaign rules look like they could be fun to try out. 

Enfilade 2017 Recap: Part 2 - My Games

For Enfilade 2017, I was involved in two games. The first game was a Captain’s Edition Harpoon game on Saturday morning and then a Cuban Missile Crisis turns hot game on Sunday morning.

Note, you can see pictures from the other Enfilade 2017 events at this blog post.

Strike North! Captain’s Edition Harpoon 
For a while I’ve been thinking about good ways to cover Cold War era naval battles with US carriers against Soviet surface action groups and air power without bogging down too much and using miniature. I came up with the idea of using Captain’s Edition Harpoon as the basis for the rules and some 1/6000 scale miniatures for the ships. So, I put together an operational level map of the Norwegian Sea (the same area covered by Captain's Edition Harpoon) and went to work on adapting the game.

The GIUK Gap and Norwegian Sea

I added a few ships and aircraft types that weren't in the original game and expanded the number of ships available for each side. I organized the ships into different missions for each side and let the players pick what they wanted to do. NATO chose two US carrier groups and a Royal Navy carrier group with the missions of supporting a reinforcement of Bodo, Norway, blocking any Soviet submarine breakout, and destroying all the major Soviet ships in the area. The Soviets chose a carrier (Admiral Kusnetsov) and two Kirov class battlecruisers. For their missions they decided to bypass Norway, sending an invasion force to Iceland, while also preventing NATO from getting any submarines into the boomer bastion. I used the northwest corner of the map to hold the task forces (since it was out of play due to ice).

Force selections by each side

While each side could see what ships were available, they didn't really know where they were. Each side set up task force markers on the map, with the identity of the ship groups hidden.

NATO Task Force and patrol plane set up

The Soviets move out

The Soviets started off the game with a major air strike, Tu-22M Backfires escorted by SU-27s, on Bodo, Norway. The Norwegians only had a few F-16s and were quickly overwhelmed. The missile strike on the base took out the airfield.

Attack on Bodo

With that, NATO decided they didn't really need to reinforce Bodo and sent their amphibious group to Iceland.

Both sides continued to advance into the Norwegian Sea, with the Soviets getting some early good results as a Tu-142 Bear F Anti-Submarine patrol plane detected and sank an American submarine.

Naval force closing with each other

NATO returned the favor by sinking a Soviet sub with a P-3 Orion from Iceland. Then the Soviets took a risk and flew their patrol planes far south, detecting two NATO anti-submarine task forces (one with the Royal Navy carrier). The detection was followed up by a full regimental air wing attack on the two task forces.

Air Strike Inbound

With only a few Harriers on CAP and no Aegis missile cruisers, the defenses of both task forces couldn't knock down enough missiles. Only one ship from each task force survived (one damage American destroyer and one British frigate).

At this point the Soviets seemed to be feeling pretty good. They had only lost a sub and a few aircraft, while disabling Bodo, sinking an American sub, and sinking a British carrier and escorts.

However, things would start turning around as the American got their carriers into place. Some lucky chit pulls (the order of task force activation was determined by random chit draws) allowed them to detect the main Soviet task forces and launch air attacks on the Soviet battlecruisers. American air power made short work of the battlecruisers and then turned on Admiral Kusnetzov.

Kirov class battlecruiser Kalinin taking hits

With all their major surface units gone, the Soviets made one last attack on the American carriers, launching almost a full regiment of Backfire bombers at the carriers. American CAP and deck-launched interceptors got some of the bombers and missiles, but then it was up to the Aegis cruisers and other ships. The Nimitz battlegroup had some hot die roles and knocked out the last of the missiles before they hit the carrier. But Eisenhower was not so lucky, taking several missile hits. Note that I sort of egged on the Soviets to split their forces to attack both carriers. If they had focused on only one, I'm pretty sure it would have gone down.

Eisenhower on fire

At this point the Soviets decided they weren't going to be able to get their amphibious force to Iceland and threw in the towel. We decided that the Americans had pretty much achieved their victory conditions (although they didn't reinforce Bodo) and were declared the winners.

The game ran pretty smoothly (although I'm sure I messed up a couple rules) and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I'll have to look at doing this again, but maybe in a different or more modern theater. There probably needs to be some ammo limits for the number of long-range missile attacks that aircraft can make during a game, but everything else seemed to go pretty smoothly.

13 Days Goes Hot - Cuban Missile Crisis air game
Sunday morning game Kevin and I ran was an American attack on the Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We used the AirWar C21 rules for the game. The rules are really great for fast-play convention games. Each side was given a number of aircraft from which to choose and the Cuban also had a SA-2 SAM site and some light anti-aircraft guns. The Americans went with a mixed force of A-4 Skyhawks (some armed with bombs and the others with Bullpup missiles), F-8 Crusaders (some armed with Zuni air-to-ground rockets and the others with Sidewinder missiles) and a pair of F-4 Phantoms. The Cubans went with a pair of MiG-19s and four MiG-15 (two flown by good instructor pilots).

A pair of MiG-19s flies over the MRBM base, with the missiles getting ready for launch

Soviet/Cuban SAM site

The Americans enter the board

On the way in, the Bullpup armed Skyhawks took a couple shots at the SAM radar, but were unable to destroy it. The SAM site returned the favor, but missed with its initial shots.

SAMs firing at Skyhawks

The Phantoms tried to engage a pair of MiG-15s, but the slow, low-flying MiGs made tough targets.

Missiles miss MiGs

The Zuni-armed Crusaders zoomed in toward the MRBMs, but couldn't score any hits with their rockets. But they were able to dive low and use their guns to strafe the missiles.

Crusaders on the attack

There was some good dog-fighting action as both sides tried to maneuver into place for good shots. 

Aircraft "Conga Line" as everyone tries to get into position

The SAM managed to shoot down one Skyhawk, but had pretty poor die roles for the rest of the game. The Americans swooped in the the MRBMs, destroying most of the missiles on the ground. The Americans did take pretty heavy casualties though, losing three Skyhawks and a Crusader.

Mass destruction as American Bullpups take out the MRBMs while Sparrow missiles chase a MiG-19

Overall, I thought it was a fun game and it really came down to the end as the Americans had to make some good die rolls with their final weapons to destroy the MRBMs. Both sides had good and bad luck, but I think the players all enjoyed themselves.

Thus ends my Enfilade adventures for another year. Kevin is already working on plans for some games for next year. I'll let you know what he has in mind once we get a chance to talk it over.

U.S. Ships for Enfilade Game

I'm continuing to work on my Enfilade 2017 projects. This week I completed the 1/6000 scale American ships for the Captain’s Edition Harpoon game.

The US ships came together and painted up quickly (I know it isn’t really that hard to paint dark gray on light gray, but it does take time). So, as of right now, I would say the project is ahead of schedule.

I painted up a couple Nimitz class carriers, some modernized Iowa class battleships, some amphibious ships, along with lots of escorting cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. I painted up all the ships in the packs, even though most won't make it into the game, which works out to 2 carriers, 40 other ships, and 8 subs. After taking the photos, I realize that I need to improve my camera work, since I was having a little trouble getting the camera to focus in on the ships. Here are a few photos of the different task groups.

A Nimitz class carrier (center) with (from left around the top in a circle) a Spruance class destroyer, Bunker Hill class cruiser, Knox class frigate, O.H. Perry class frigate, and A Burke destroyer

A Surface Action Group with an Iowa class battleship, a cruiser, destroyer and pair of frigates

The Amphibious Group with two Whidbey Island class LSDs and a couple Newport class LSTs with destroyer and frigate escorts.

U.S. subs to round out the force

I also painted up some air bases for the operational-level map. These are 2 inch modern airfields from Fight’s On.

Fight's On Modern Airfields

Next up is work on the task force, aircraft, and missile markers.

More Soviet Ships

Work on my Enfilade 2017 games continues with the completion of the Soviet ships for the Captain’s Edition Harpoon game.

Since my last post, I completed the Kiev and Kirov classes, along with completing the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, some Ivan Rogov amphibious ships, and a lot of escorting cruisers, destroyers, and frigates.
Here are some photos of the projected Soviet battlegroups for the game.

Kuznetsov battlegroup

With a penny for size comparison

Kiev battlegroup with a Slava cruiser

Kirov battlegroup with a Udaloy DD (right), Sovremennyy DDG (left) and Krivak II frigate (forward)

Amphibious battlegroup with a couple Ivan Rogov LSDs (center and rear), led by a Krivak I frigate (forward) and escorted by two Kresta I cruisers.

The 1/6000 Figurehead carrier pack with Admiral Kuznetsov comes with two carriers. But since the Soviets/Russians only finished one, I’ll follow their lead and convert the other into the Chinese carrier Liaoning.

I also painted up some Soviet subs, but the black on ocean blue just isn’t that impressive to look at.

Silent (and hard to see) but deadly

With the Soviets done, I’ll move on to working on the Americans next. I’m also working on some terrain for the operational-level map (airbases and coastlines) and thinking about how to work with the aircraft needed for the game. There will be a few other odds and ends for this game, but everything seems to be coming along.

DANG 2013 – Operation Landcrab Recap

DANG (Dave's Annual Naval Game) for 2013 was “Operation Landcrab – The American Invasion of Attu” with American and Japanese forces squaring off in the Aleutian Islands. The game was based on a General Quarters 3 mini-campaign (available for download to registered owners of the game). The GQ 3 game sets the stage for a hypothetical battle between American and Japanese battleships, but if you exclude the hypothetical forces (the Japanese battleships and carrier) you could still have an interesting more-historical scenario.

Everyone began arriving at my place just after 9:30 AM and we spent a little while catching up on things, talking about the projects we are all working on and planning. After that we split up into the sides with Mark, David S, Arthur, and Paul taking the Japanese while Dale, Scott, Kevin, Dave C, and Charlie taking the Americans. Each side got their briefing and began planning their actions.

The US Navy players

Japanese Navy players

To set the scene, the Americans were already ashore on Attu with a supporting Task Force (which included three older battleships and an escort carrier) at the island. The escort carrier only carried fighters, which could only be used to support the troops ashore and to defend the ships from air attack. They also had two cruiser covering groups (one with light cruisers and the other with heavy cruisers) patrolling west and south of Attu. The Americans also had a good number of land-based bombers, fighters, and search aircraft spread over two airfields, although none of these were really equipped to attack enemy ships. The primary missions for the Americans were to support the landings (off-loading supplies and ground support) and maintain control of the area around Attu. The Americans also had the option of adding a cruiser Emergency Reinforcement Group to their forces, but decided not to expend the victory points needed to bring them in.

The Japanese had three main naval groups – a battleship group with three older battleships and a light carrier, a cruiser group with three heavy cruisers, and a resupply group (made up of a seaplane tender, heavy cruiser, light cruiser, and escorting destroyers) for the island of Kiska. The resupply group was trying to from some A6M2-N ‘Rufe’ and F1M ‘Pete’ floatplanes to the island and historically turned back for port when word got out about the American invasion of Attu. The Japanese also had some supporting bombers and search planes back at Paramushiro (off the west edge of the map). The Japanese had an optional resupply group with a light cruiser and some destroyer transports that could enter on the second day to take supplies to Attu or Kiska, getting the supplies through would give victory points and the Japanese chose to take the group and planned to send it to Attu.

The map below shows the basic starting positions for the starting forces on May 15. The game would run until May 20, but I think everyone expected it to be over before then.

Operational map with starting positions

The basic Japanese plan was to have the battleship and cruiser groups make their way toward Attu while the Kiska group sent planes to Kiska. Then all three groups would converge on Attu and attack the American forces there. The Americans planned to keep the support Task Force around Attu, with the covering forces patrolling west and south of the island, while land-based air and submarines searched for the Japanese.

American planning session

Japanese planning session

On the first day of the campaign poor weather grounded the planes from Amchitka. During the morning the Japanese loaded torpedoes on their G4M ‘Betty’ bombers in Paramushiro and sent them to attack the Americans around Attu. The bombers were able to avoid the fighters from the American escort carrier to make attack runs on the battleships, carrier, and transports. But the anti-aircraft fire from the ships was heavy, shooting down or driving off most of the bombers and only one transport was sunk. Meanwhile American search planes from Adak found the Kiska group and part of the battleship group during the mid-day turn, but there were no spare bombers available to make attacks.

In the afternoon the Americans sent their southern heavy cruiser group toward Kiska to watch for the Japanese cruisers reported in the area, while the light cruiser group operating southwest of Attu turned to stay close to the island. The Japanese spilt their light carrier off from the battleships so it could launch an air strike while the battleships moved south of Attu. The air strike caught the American light cruiser group southwest of Attu. Nine B5N ‘Kate’ torpedo bombers attacked the four cruisers (one Cleveland class and three old Omaha class) heavily damaging the new Cleveland class and sinking an escorting destroyer.

In the east, the Japanese split the Kiska group sending the seaplane tender on toward Kiska, while the other ships turned to rendezvous with the battleship group. (On a side note, the seaplane tender would be sunk by an American submarine shortly after arriving at Kiska.) Late in the afternoon, the American heavy cruiser group picked up contacts on their radar, launched their floatplanes, and turned toward the contacts; setting us up for the Battle of Kiska.

Japanese forces consisted of the heavy cruiser Maya, the light cruiser Kiso and three destroyers.

Japanese ships for the Battle of Kiska

Low visibility conditions allowed the Americans force, with the heavy cruisers Wichita, San Francisco, Louisville and four destroyers, to surprise the Japanese.

American ships for the Battle of Kiska

The first American shots caught Maya unaware and caused flooding that would eventually sink the cruiser. The Japanese tried to get off some shots, but quickly decided it would be try to escape than to continue a losing fight and turned to retreat, launching torpedoes as they turned.

Japanese turn and launch torpedoes with the burning Kiso at the end of the line

The American cruisers, not wanting to lose a chance to inflict damage on the Japanese, turned to follow. Just as Maya was sinking, the torpedoes reached the pursuing Americans. The Americans tried to comb the wakes of the torpedoes, but there were too many of them and both Wichita and San Francisco took multiple hits, sinking the cruisers. Louisville was able to finish off the damaged Kiso, but this was definitely a Pyrrhic victory.

As night fell and we started the second campaign day, the Japanese moved their cruiser and battleship groups together and headed for Attu. The Americans moved their battleships to meet up with the remnants of the cruiser groups and headed west of Attu, leaving on the escort carrier and several destroyers at Attu, but hoping to stop any Japanese force before it could reach the island.

Around 0500, the American met up with the Japanese west-southwest of Attu. Both sides spotted each other at about the same time (thanks to US radar), so neither side was surprised at the start of the Battle of Attu. Both sides set slowly converging courses toward Attu. The Japanese were looking to get into position to shell the American beachhead in the morning, while the Americans wanted to block the Japanese.

Getting the US ships ready for the Battle of Attu

The Japanese battleships and escorts

The Japanese battleships Yamashiro, Fuso, and Mutsu traded shots at long range with the American battleships Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Idaho, with each side taking some hits and slowing the battleline. Each side had battleships catch fire, making them prime targets at night. The Americans were able to put out their fires relatively quickly, but one Japanese battleship would burn for several turns. The lighter forces skirmished around the edges resulting in several damaged and disabled cruisers and destroyers. The Japanese tried to close for torpedo shots, but even with their long-range torpedoes, they were finding it hard to get close enough for a good shot against the American battleships.

Fuso lighting up the night

Japanese taking their torpedo shots

US light forces maneuvering to keep the Japanese destroyers away

As game time was running out and players needed to leave, we decided to abstract the final battleship and torpedo shots. Two American battleships each took one torpedo, but the damage was not as heavy as it could have been and they were able to stay with the formation. The Japanese continued to take hits from the American battleships, but they too were still able to stay in formation. Since there were no decisive blows by this point, I made the referee decision to have both sides roll for morale to see if they would continue or withdraw (I used the standard GQ3.3 morale ratings, which gave the Japanese a slight advantage). Both sides rolled - the Americans passed but the Japanese failed (obviously, the American admiral remembered what happened to the men in charge after US Navy withdrew from around Guadalcanal the previous year and decided it would be better to fight on).

The chaos of battle as the Japanese fail their morale roll

With the Japanese forces retiring, we decided this game was a Japanese tactical victory (since they had damaged or sunk more American ships) and an American strategic victory (since they still controlled the battlefield).

Putting this into a historical context; Attu would still fall, both sides would have lots of ships to repair (although only the Americans had the shipyard capacity to really do it), and the timetable for the Kiska invasion would be thrown off a little (still allowing the Japanese to evacuate the island before the actual invasion). The Japanese battleship Mutsu would still blow up in port in June (only now it would be blamed on poor ammunition handling after reloading from the Battle of Attu instead of sabotage) and, due to damage sustained at the battle, Yamashiro would miss being sunk at Surigao Strait only to be sunk by American bombers near the end of the war. The American battleships Pennsylvania and Nevada would stay in the yards the next few months, delaying their participation in some campaigns, but still end up being sunk during the A-Bomb tests after the war.

Overall, I think everyone had an enjoyable time with the game. There were enough decisions to keep the players involved in the game and the two battles were interesting. The onus was on the Japanese to force the action and they did. The Americans could be more passive, but still needed to have a solid idea of how to react to Japanese moves.

From a referee point of view, most things moved along pretty smoothly. I was happy that we got in two battles and two air strikes (although I was hoping for more of those), which wasn’t too bad for a one-armed referee. I do need to figure out better ways to handle decisions and record keeping for aircraft for future games (I think this task was tough for the Americans), while still letting players feel they have control of those assets. On another note, the photographer for the day (my lovely wife) asked that we use larger ships in the future so she can get better pictures.