DANG 2015 - Manning the Ships (Part 2)

In my last post I added photos of some of the crew I had painted up for the Shores of Tripoli game and I mentioned that the Capitan Miniatures figures were not quite done. Well now they are (except for quick dull coat). So I wanted to put up a few photos and comparison shots. I am also testing out ways to attach sails to my ships and wanted to post a photo of that effort too (plus this photo will look better than the figures on other people's blog list).

A scratchbuilt gunboat with a lateen sail

The sail is just paper printed out and stiffened with a wire (I copied the pattern from the Thoroughbred Felucca sails). The wire is then looped over the end of the spar (the spar is temporarily mounted to the main mast). I think this looks pretty good and was easy to put together.

Now on to the figures. The Capitan Miniatures figures are listed as both as 15mm and 18mm in size (depending on where you look). While they are bigger than both the Thoroughbred and Minifigs miniatures, they don't seem out of proportion with those figures. The Capitan Miniatures figures look good, with nice round bases (that fit well in the square bases sold separately, but included in a gunboat crew package), and have a good amount of detail (maybe too much for my painting skills). The only negative is that the metal they are cast with seems to be very hard and brittle. So, it was harder to clean off the mold lines and a few of the figures I received were bent at the bases and when I tried to straighten them some of the figure's legs cracked or broke.

The Capitan Miniatures Barbary Corsairs line has 3 poses for sailors and 3 leader poses (one of my leaders broke at the base, so he doesn't show up in any photos).

Capitan Miniatures Barbary Corsairs

Here is a comparison with some Thoroughbred figures. You can see that the Capitan Miniatures are a little bigger.

From the left, the first, third, fifth, and seventh figures are Capitan and the others are Thoroughbred

 Capitan Miniatures has generic sailors and specific leaders and Marines for several nations, including the U.S., Great Britain, France, and Spain.

Capitan U.S. Marines, leaders, and a couple sailors

The leaders and sailors all fit in well with the Thoroughbred and Minifig figures. 

From the left, the first, third, and fifth figure are Capitan and the others are Thoroughbred

The Caiptan line has two Marine poses, along with a Sergeant and officer (the pack I got did not have the Sergeant), so it is very similar to what you would get from Thoroughbred.

From the left, the first, third, and fifth figure are Capitan and the others are Thoroughbred

The officer is nice, but overall I think I prefer the Thoroughbred Marines. 

I painted up around 200 figures for the game, which is a lot more than I've painted in a long time. That finishes up the figures and now it is on to finishing the ships and guns.

Barbary crew (almost) ready for action

DANG 2015 - Manning the Ships (Part 1)

I've been continuing my work for the Shores of Tripoli game. The work on painting and fitting out the ships is ongoing, but this week I wanted to post a few photos of the figures for the ships.

My figures for the game are a mix of Minifigs, Thoroughbred Miniatures, and Capitan Miniatures. The Minifigs figures were acquired through an eBay purchase, I got some Thoroughbred Miniatures from eBay but most were directly purchased, and the Capitan Miniatures were purchased from Scale Creep Miniatures.

I've mentioned before that I generally have a rough time painting figures (even 15mm). Mainly because I want them to look really good, but my painting skills aren't quite up to that level. My friend Kevin always tells me that painting 15mm figures well doesn't matter, because they are just too hard to see very well (especially during a game). I tried to keep that in mind as I worked on the figures.

I'll start out with the American figures from Minifigs and Thoroughbred (The Capitan Miniatures figures, both American and Tripoli, were not quite done when I started taking pictures, so they will be covered in another post.). The Minifigs sailors look to be from the old Limeys and Slimeys collection and I'm not even sure if they are still available. The figures currently shown on the UK Miniature Figures website are similar to the ones I have, but different. Here are a few shots of the figures mixed together.

A mix of Thoroughbred and Minifigs sailors

Still a mix, but with more Thoroughbred figures in the front

The officer figures all turned out pretty good, but really represent a mix of British, American, and French (how did he get in there?) officers. That said, in 15mm scale they are probably generic enough to pass for any nationality.

Naval Officers

I did pick up some Thoroughbred U.S. Marines for the game. They are in the 1812 uniform and not the one worn in 1804, but sometimes you have to make due (especially since I don't think I've seen any 15mm figures of 1804 U.S. Marines). The Thoroughbred Marines come with 3 different poses, along with a drummer (suspiciously missing from the photo) and officer.

Thoroughbred 1812 U.S. Marines

Overall, the old Minifigs are less detailed than the ones from Thoroughbred, but still useful and all painted up well. The mix of figures will help the ships look pretty nice.

The Tripoli pirate figures from Thoroughbred are pretty nice. They are sold in packs of 20 with about 12 different poses (which includes 2 officers types). The figures in the front of the below photo show the different poses.

Thoroughbred Tripoli Pirates

And here are the two officer/leader figure poses.

Tripoli leaders

While one pose is a good fighting pose, the other looks more like the leader is considering his options.

The Captain in a thoughtful pose, maybe he is wondering if being a pirate is really a good professional choice or maybe he is just wondering what's for dinner

I like how the Tripoli Pirate figures turned out. They have enough detail to keep them interesting, but it was a bit of a pain having to figure out good colors for them.

I'll get more updates on this DANG project, with photos of the other figures and ships, up soon.

DANG 2015 - Planning

As I mentioned in my previous post, this year’s game for DANG is The Shores of Tripoli: US Navy vs. Barbary Pirates. The game will cover the attacks by the U.S. Navy on Tripoli harbor in early August 1804, which was after the capture and subsequent burning of the frigate USS Philadelphia. To get things rolling I started figuring out the order of battle for each side in the game.

Order of Battle Thoughts

During the time in question, the Americans had a squadron that included one frigate (USS Constitution), two brigs (USS Argus and USS Syren), and three schooners (USS Enterprise, USS Nautilus, and USS Vixen) along with six borrowed gunboats, two borrowed mortar boats, and a captured ship (which had been renamed Intrepid). During August, the gunboats and mortar boats bore the brunt of the action, while the other ships provided long range gunnery and crews for the smaller ships.

It was little harder to come up an accurate list of forces for Tripoli for this battle. But most places I looked said that Tripoli Harbor had a brig, two schooners, two galleys, and nineteen gunboats providing defense. There were also a number of forts and shore batteries protecting the city.

So my plan for the American forces was to go with the six gunboats, two mortar boats, and one schooner. For the Barbary forces I decided on one brig (actually a felucca substituting for the brig), a schooner, ten to fifteen gunboats (depending on what ships I could find), and a fort.

Overall, this seemed like a good amount of ships for the game, especially since I don't expect all the ships to be on the table at one time. I also thought I was in pretty good shape for having or easily getting most of these ships. My friend George offered to work on the American gunboats and mortar boats (more on that later), so I started working on the Barbary ships.

Barbary Ships
For the brig, it was an easy decision to use the Felucca I had already purchased from Thoroughbred Figures Sea Eagles line. The schooner is the Bermuda Sloop model from Sea Dog Studios, although I might give it a temporary lateen rig for the game. The gunboats are going to be a mix of scratchbuilt and purchased boats. I built eight of my own gunboats, have five on order, and will use the Old Glory Gunboat #5 models I purchased this summer for the others. Below is a photo of the mostly painted Felucca, Bermuda sloop, and a couple of my scratchbuilt gunboats.

The felucca (back), Bermuda sloop (left) and scratchuilt gunboats

All these ships still need a little detail paintwork along with their guns and masts, but they are shaping up quite nicely. The felucca is really nice kit that is easy to work on. The sloop is a little rough, but still a nice ship.

A closer view of the sloop and felucca

A view of the sloop's stern

I think the Barbary ships are coming along nicely and even if I don't get the five gunboats that are on order, I should have a nice force.

American Ships
As I mentioned above, my friend George offered to build the gunboats and mortar boats for the Americans. Originally he was going to make one model of each and then get someone he knew to cast the boats in resin. That part fell through, but he was still up for building the boats. Here are a couple photos of the work so far.

Work in progress, the mortar boat (back), a gunboat (center), and one of my gunboats (for size comparison) in the foreground

A bow view of the work in progress

For the American schooner I was planning on using the Old Glory Vixon model I purchased earlier this summer. However, when I pulled out the Old Glory kits and started comparing them to the other stuff I had, I realized that they did not seem to fit with my other kits. My other kits might be a little big, but after measuring the Old Glory ships again I'm convinced they maybe really 10mm or 12mm, but not true 15mm. The gunboats kits will still be usable (they will just be really small gunboats), but I don't think the schooner kit will work. It is just too small for the 15mm figures. Just to give you an idea of size, I've included a photo of the gunboat with one of the guns from another kit.

Gunboat 5 vs the gun

The gun on the bow of the gunboat is supposed to be a 24 pound long gun, while the gun on the left would be an 18 pound long gun. As you can see, there is a little size discrepancy.

I decided to go ahead and spend the money on a Thoroughbred schooner, which should arrive this week. But that sort of shot a hole in my budget for the project.

Next up I'll be talking about the 15mm figures for the game.

Back to some blogging

I’ve been neglecting my blog somewhat lately (only two posts in the past few months). I have been busy with work and other stuff, but I’m planning on getting back to posting again. I actually have things to post, but just haven’t finished writing them all down. I have a couple partially finished book reviews, a review of the Hell Hath No Fury rules, and a few other odds and ends.

But instead of trying to finish some older post, I will start off with something that is currently in the works. Those of you that follow my blog know that this is the time I’m usually busy preparing for DANG (Dave's Annual Naval Game) and that is the case this year too.

Earlier this year the DANG group voted on the game and, after a close vote, this year’s game is The Shores of Tripoli: US Navy vs. Barbary Pirates. The game will cover the attacks by the U.S. Navy on Tripoli in early August 1804. The primary combatants will be gunboats, but there will be some larger ships and shore guns too. I’m expecting the mini-campaign to have two or three gunboat battles and possibly a shore action.

Decatur Boarding the Tripolitan Gunboat, by Dennis M. Carter (from Wikipedia)

The game will use 15mm scale figures and ships, which is a major difference from other DANG games. I think the 15mm scale will make the gunboat battles more interesting and allow for some boarding actions (like the above picture). Over the past several years I have been collecting ships for this and similar actions. So, while I’m happy to finally plan on getting these models into action, it does mean I have to actually put them together.

I’ll be posting more about the mini-campaign and my work on ships and figures shortly.

This is DANG’s fourteenth year. Here are links to recaps of games from before 2010, the 2010 Lepanto game, and the American Civil War river game from 2011, the 1812 Lake Ontario game from 2012, the Operation Landcrab game from 2013, and last year's Cogs of War game.

2015 NHMGS Game Day at the Museum of Flight

NHMGS held our annual game day at the Museum of Flight on November 8. We were originally schedule for the previous week, but an unexpected scheduling conflict forced us to move to the 8th. Unfortunately, the schedule change lowered gamer turn-out for the event.

We were back in the museum’s main gallery under the Blackbird (not a standard SR-71, but the last surviving M-21 version). We set up our information table and four gaming tables around the Blackbird. I spent the most of the day at the information table, but took time to grab some photos of the games.

This year's information table (we forgot the banner)

The morning session had a Wings of Glory World War 1 game, a Check Your 6 World War 2 raid over Rabaul game, a Golden Age Air Racing game, and an All Quiet on the Martian Front game.

The busy Wing of Glory game

The object of the fighters attention

The Check Your 6 game getting underway

Corsairs and Zeros square off

The running (flying) start for the air race

The field was pretty spread out at this point, but I understand the finish was pretty close

All Quiet on the Martian Front starting off

The Martians advance, but were taking heavy damage

In the afternoon we only had two games going, a Thunderboats hydroplane racing game and a Star Wars Armada game.

Hydroplanes on display(the checkboard pattern in the front left was hand-painted)

The new "pickle-fork" boat takes the lead

A busy Star Wars Amada game with a few museum visitors participating

As with last year’s event, there were fewer people at the museum on Sunday than we have seen at Saturday game days. A lot of the people I talked with had never heard of miniature wargaming before, so it was fun to try to explain it from the ground up. This year I remembered to add some websites with free rules to the information handout, so I was able to direct to those when they asked about getting started. We did get a few people to join in the Wings of Glory and Armada games. So maybe we will get a few membership inquires.

The game day is always a good opportunity to show off the hobby to the general public and the museum is a really great forum for it.

Gaming at the Columbia River Maritime Museum

Earlier this year Lloyd Bowler, from Astoria Oregon, had proposed a game day at the Columbia River Maritime Museum.The idea was to have something along the lines of the NHMGS Game Days at the Museum of Flight (here is a report from our 2014 game day) in Seattle. But since it was the first year and there are fewer gamers near Astoria, it would start a little smaller.

The event date was set for Sunday, September 6. I had an event with my veterans group on Saturday in Portland, so it was relatively easy for my wife and I to go to Portland, spend the night in Astoria, and for me to attend the game day on Sunday.
Here are a few photos from the event.

The information table with some figures and rules

There were two gaming tables and an information table at the event. The museum is very nice (although I didn't get a chance to go through all the exhibits) and provided the tables in a good space with lots of passer-by traffic.

Wings of Glory setup

One of the tables had the Wings of Glory WWI game going on part of the table and other other part had a display of ACW figures.

Explaining the hobby and showing some of the Civil War figures

I was over at the other table most of the day, playing in a Battle of Memphis game using the Steam and Sail Navies rules. I like these rules, but it has been a little while since I played, so it took a few turns to get up to speed. 

Battle of Memphis, squadrons closing with each other

I was on the Confederate side, running a couple sidewheel gunboat rams. My plan was to sneak around the Union rear and then use my speed to hit them from the flanks. Unfortunately for my plan, the Union forces were disorganized early on when one of their ships ran aground on sandbar in the in middle of the river. The caused them to turn directly into my ships and I had to go head-to-head with a could City class ironclads. Luckily for me, I survived the pass-by broadsides and got one of my ships in position to ram the Union ram Switzerland.

CSS Bragg rams Switzerland

We had to wrap up the battle shortly after my successful ram. Both sides had taken some damage and the battle was really still up in the air, but I felt pretty good that I was the only one to sink an enemy ship.
In the afternoon, I joined in the Thunderboats hydroplane racing game (another game I haven't played for a while). Most of the racers were new to the game, so I had a slight advantage once I remembered how to play the game. I had a bad starting position, but about half-way through the first lap I decided to push my luck and was able to get in front of the pack.

My boat takes the lead in the first lap

After that, some good die rolling kept me in front for the win.

It was a fun time at the museum and it is always interesting to share a bit about the hobby with the general public, most of whom had never heard about wargaming.

Thanks to Lloyd and the Astoria crew for putting together the event.

Summer Solo Project - Operation Battleaxe

I'm finally getting around to posting the initial battle reports from my Summer Solo Project.

Just to recap, my choice was to play tank actions from the World War 2 Western Desert Campaign using the Hell Hath No Fury (HHNF) rules from Two Hour Wargames. Because the HHNF rules only cover the European Western Front, I had to come up with stats for the tanks and force availability tables for the missions.

I will do a full review of the HHNF rules in a different post, but as a quick overview the rules are similar to a lot of Two Hour Wargames rules in that they are quick-play, use d6s, and units (tanks in this case) are rated for Reputation which determines how well they take actions during the game. The game system is fairly interactive, giving each side a chance to keep in the action. The rules are also very solitaire friendly, with tables for determining enemy actions and forces.

I decided to use Operation Battleaxe as my starting point and got all the tanks ready to go for a mini-campaign. The recommended play area for HHNF is a 3 foot by 3 foot space divided into 9 squares. I have an old DBA desert board, which is 2 foot x 2 foot. and decided to use that as my play area (I reduced the movement ratings appropriately for the smaller space).

Operation Battleaxe:
This operation was launched to relieve the forces in Tobruk and open up the coast road by retaking Halfaya Pass (aka Hellfire Pass). Historically the battle was fought over three days. The area around the pass was heavily contested, while away from the pass British forces made some headway on the first day, then were forced on the defensive on the second day, and narrowly avoiding encirclement on the third day.

I decided to cover the tank battles away from the pass using 3 missions that essentially each covered a day of the historical operation (I had the option for a fourth mission if things went really well or really bad).

My core unit for the campaign is a troop (platoon) of three Crusader I tanks. I used a Rep 5 for my troop leader/tank commander (higher Rep is better) and randomly rolled for the Reps of the other two tanks in the troop and for the crew of my tank. Everybody ended up a 3, except for the loader on my tank, who came up Rep 4 which really helped out during the fighting.

Mission 1 - Breakthrough
In this mission my troop was on the attack, with support from another troop of Crusader I tanks. I put out some terrain, randomly determined my entry side and moved my tanks onto the board. Then the PEFs (Possible Enemy Forces) were placed.

Overview of the battlefield for the first mission. My tanks are on the left with the PEF dust clouds in the center and right

My troop was trying to move up the center to get to the big ridge, but there were a couple PEFs nearby. You don't know what the PEFs are until you make visual contact.

Dust clouds on the horizon as see by my tanks.

The Germans won initiative on the first turn and the center PEF moved up to the narrow ridge in front of my tanks. The PEF turned out to be a Panzer IVE (Rep 4). I diced off the sighting test, narrowly wining the first shot. I hit the Panzer IV, but unfortunately, I couldn't get a good penetration roll.

In HHNF, most attempts to do an action (other than basic movement) are rolled against your Rep. Usually you roll two dice and check the number of passes (dice equal to or less than your Rep) to determine the result. But when checking to see if you destroy an enemy tank, you take the difference between gun penetration and armor value to check for successes. My gun's penetration was a 4 while the German armor was 3. I needed to roll two 1's to destroy the Panzer IV or one to disable it.

The Germans did a reaction check, passed and fired back, but also couldn't get penetration. we kept firing on reactions, until our loaders failed their reload checks.

My Crusaders face off against the lone Panzer IV

On my turn I activate my troop, moved to get around the side of the German and let my other tanks fire.I was able to get a disabling roll that put the German out of action.

I was a little worried at this point, because the second PEF was moving up on my right. But when the PEF came into sight, it turned out to be a false alarm.

On the left, my supporting troop moved up to a hill and saw that the third PEF was four Panzer IIIFs (Rep 4, 4, 3, and 3). 

This doesn't look good.

The supporting troop was able to draw the attention of the Panzer IIIs, while I moved my troop around the flank.

In the end, I was able to flank the Germans and catch them in a crossfire to successfully complete this mission. I only had one of my troop's tanks get disabled, while the supporting troop had two disabled tanks. I was able to recover my tank and return it to service after the mission (Yes there are tables for checking on that). I also checked for any Rep improvement and got my gunner to up his Rep to 4, which would be a definite help. With the offensive starting out well, it is was on to mission 2.

Mission 2 - Seize and Hold
I randomly rolled for my next mission based on the success of my first mission (I made up my own mission flow charts for this mini-campaign. For the base rules you just roll randomly). In this mission my troop and another supporting troop were supposed to take and hold a small oasis on the map.

My supporting troop moved up one side of the map and quickly ran into a group of three Panzer IVEs (all Rep 4).

Not a good position for the Crusader tanks

The Germans made short work of the supporting troop as my troop tried to move up the middle to the objective. 

I sighted the other PEFs. The first group turned out to be three Panzer IIIFs (Rep 4, 4, and 3) and the second was four Panzer IIIFs (Rep 4, 4, 3, and 3). Badly out numbered, I decided that it would be better to make a hasty retreat. 

I was able to retreated with my command tank, leaving behind one destroyed and one disabled tank from my troop and three disabled tanks from the supporting troop. Needless to say, this mission was not successful. However, I was lucky enough to get my troop back up to full strength for the next mission. I also checked for improvement on my tank, but no one moved up in Rep this time.

Mission 3 - Defend
For mission 3 I was on the defensive. I had another supporting troop, but they would not arrive until the 4th turn.

I watched the PEFs advance across the map and moved to try to engage them one at a time. The first PEF turned out to be a false alarm. The second turned out to be four Panzer IIFs (Rep 4, 4, 3, and 3). But because I was on their flank, I was able to take them out fairly quickly.

Flanking the Panzer IIs

The supporting troop showed up to help block the final PEF, which turned out to be two more Panzer IIFs (both Rep 4). Between my troop and the supporting troop we took out the remaining Germans with no losses.



Luckily I was only facing a recon unit this time and was able to stop the German advance.

Mini-Campaign Outcome:
Because I didn't win or lose all three missions, there was no fourth mission. 
With two successful missions, I considered the overall operation a success from my standpoint. That said, it looked pretty historical in the results.

Overall it was a pretty fun mini-campaign. Each battle took two hours or less (so the rules really lived up to the company's name). With a couple more weeks until the traditional end of summer, I expect to get in a few more battles with the rules and tanks.