DANG 2015 - The Shores of Tripoli

This year’s DANG (Dave’s Annual Naval Game) was The Shores of Tripoli: U.S. Navy vs. Barbary Pirates. The game will cover the attacks by the U.S. Navy on Tripoli harbor in early August 1804. Historically the U.S. Navy made a series of attacks using (borrowed) gunboats and mortar boats on Tripoli. The attacks were mostly indecisive, but these actions and the subsequent Battle of Derna set the stage for the signing of a treaty between Tripoli and the United States. This action also provided experience for the young American naval officers that would prove invaluable during the War of 1812.

Bombardment of Tripoli (oil painting by Michael Felice Corn)

With the short history lesson out of the way, on to the game. Everyone began arriving at my place around 9:00 AM and we spent the next hour catching up on things, looking at the 15mm ships, talking about the projects we are all working on and planning, and munching on some breakfast snacks. Then we split up for the battle with Kevin, Mark, and Arthur taking the Tripoli side and Dale, Scott, Dave, and George taking the Americans. We did a quick review of the campaign rules, had a brief overview of the tactical rules, and each side went off to plan the first action.

Pre-game Briefing

During planning each side had some initial options to select from to beef up their forces before starting the battles. Each side also had to deploy their forces for the first game day. The Tripolitans had a felucca, a sloop, fifteen gunboats, and a couple forts to defend the area. There were three possible approaches to the city the Americans could take and the Tripolitans had to plan how cover these. They could also keep some ships in reserve, but it would take time for these reinforcements to reach any of the areas. The Tripolitans decided to keep most of their forces in reserve, but to place the felucca and five gunboats in the Jerba and Western passages into Tripoli Harbor (Zone B on the map), where there was also a fort to help with defense.

Campaign game map of Tripoli

The Americans had a carronade armed schooner, six gunboats (which were larger than the Tripoli gunboats), and two mortar boats. They also count on gunfire support from their larger (off-map) ships in the zones near open water (Zones A and B on the map). Their goal was to demoralize the Bashaw of Tripoli by sinking his ships and bombing his palace. They had the initiative and could choose where they were coming from, but there were no obvious good choices. After getting some information on the Tripoli deployment, the Americans decided to launch their whole force at Zone B (which was where the historical first battle occurred). So we set up the battle.

The Tripolitans set up just south of the entrances, with the felucca and most of the gunboats just drifting. The Americans entered from the north edge as one big group. I had told them they could enter in groups, since the close grouping would make maneuvering difficult, but they said they wanted to come on all at once.

Initial set up

View of the American ships from the fort

View of the Tripolitan ships from the fort

The Americans slowly closed and some long range cannon shots were traded. The Americans decided to use the long-range off-map support and some gunboats to attack the felucca, while the others fired on the smaller Tripoli gunboats. The Tripolitan ships all had smaller guns (18 or 12 pounders compared to the 24 pounders on the American gunboats) and had a little trouble getting hits, but the fort (with five 24 pounder guns) quickly found the range.

The American line moves forward

One Tripolitan gunboats decided to close range with the Americans, making him the target of many shots, but not a lot of hits (at least initially). The felucca was feeling some pain from the long-range guns and since it’s loss would hurt the Bashaw’s morale, the captain decided to head back to the docks. But a critical hit starting a fire on the ship as it was pulling away. All of the crew that wasn’t sailing the ship were tasked with firefighting and they were able to put out the fire without much damage. Then the felucca was able to make its way out of the fight.

A single Tripoli gunboat closes with the Americans

The Americans slowly move in

After taking a few hits and returning fire, the felucca decides it is time to head for the docks

But a critical hit starts a fire

The Bashaw won't be happy about this

But the crew douses the flames and the ship is able to retreat

USS Vixen makes a close pass on a Tripoli gunboat

Meanwhile, the fort guns were getting hits on the gunboats and a heated shot from the fort started a fire on one gunboat. As one of their options, the Tripolitans had chosen an expert gunner for the fort, which proved to be a good move as the fort would eventually sink three American gunboats (the last with a magazine critical hit as the gunboat disengaging).

The fort blasts away at the gunboats

Gunboat mast down and on fire

Lifeboats move to pick up the crew from a sinking gunboat

With the exit of the felucca, the Americans began concentrating on the remaining Tripolitan gunboats. The crews on two gunboats were wiped out from a mix of canister and musketry. The Americans captured one without a fight, but the other was holed at the waterline and sank before anyone could get to it. Two other gunboats sank after being hammered to splinters, while the final one had an explosion from a critical hit and burned to the waterline.

Good shooting knocks out the gunboat's crew

A hit causes an explosion on the Tripolitan gunboat

The Americans move in to finish off the remaining gunboats

Gunboats fighting it out

The last Tripoli gunboat sinks leaving the crew to swim

Tripoli sailors swim to shore

With all the Tripoli gunboats gone and reinforcements still off in the distance, the Americans withdrew.

Remaining American ships withdraw

Tripolitan heroes

For the Tripolitans the felucca was heavily damaged, the fort lost a gun and some crew, and all five gunboats were sunk. The Americans lost three gunboats and took light damage on the others. As night fell, the Americans rolled for changes in the Bashaw’s morale. The Bashaw was not happy about the damage to his favorite ship or the gunboat losses, but the American losses (and a poor die roll) were more than enough to offset the bad news. The Bashaw’s morale improved and he was demanding more in ransom and tribute from the Americans.

The loss of half the American force and the improving Bashaw’s morale meant that it would be tough for the Americans to win the game. With only a couple more hours of game time available, we decided to call the game for Tripoli. Each side talked about what they should have done during the set up and battle. Overall, I think everyone enjoyed the game and the 15mm miniatures were much more impressive to play with than the usual ships we have. Compared to history, both sides took more casualties (which is to be expected with gamers) and the result was fairly inconclusive.

2015 DANG crew

From the referee point of view, I was hoping to see some boarding actions (no one even tried to grapple) and I would have liked to get in another battle. If I do the mini-campaign again I’ll have to think about ways to make things move a little quicker (which it true for almost all my mini-campaigns). I’m going to think about running the historical gunboat battle for Enfilade, but it might not happen for the next one.

DANG 2015 - Fleets Assembled

With just a couple more days until DANG (Dave's Annual Naval Game) 2015, I thought I'd give one last update. In my last two posts I showed off some of the 15mm figures for the game and in this post I thought I'd show the final pre-game photos of the ships.

Starting off with the Tripoli forces, the fleet has seventeen ships and a fort available.

There are fifteen gunboats each armed with a single cannon on the bow. Five gunboats are from Sea Dog Studios (maker of the Sailpower rules). These are actually older models that aren't sold through the store any more, but I was able to get my hands on them by going directly to the owner. Next are the eight gunboats I scratchbuilt. They are a little smaller and sit lower than the Sailpower boats. I got the dimensions and other inforamtion for the boats from a short paragraph in Chapelle's The American Sailing Navy and I think they turned out pretty well (although I should probably add a deck hatch or grating). The last two gunboats are Old Glory's Gunboat #5 models. For 15mm scale, these should be about the same size as the other gunboats, but, as you can see in the photo, they are much smaller.

Here are the gunboats (Old Glory on the left, scratchbuilt in the center, and Sailpower on the right). The sails are printed on paper and are held on with wire. The sail pattern comes from the Thoroughbred Felucca, which is shown a little further down.

Tripoli Gunboats

Next is a sloop. This is the Bermuda Sloop from Sea Dog Studios that I got as part of their Kickstarter a couple years ago. It is armed with six guns and is a nice kit (although it did need a little work to smooth out everything). It is a nice addition to the group and does have a pirate look.

Tripoli Sloop

Next up is fleet flagship, a nice Felucca from Thoroughbred Figures Sea Eagles line. This is a good kit that went together pretty easily and painted up nicely. The ship has eight guns and came with several swivel guns that I did not mount. There are a lot of extra details (anchors and such) that come with the kit to dress it up a little more, but I chose to go with a simple gaming layout. Just having the sails on is about as fiddley as I wanted to get.

Tripoli Felucca, a little larger than my backdrop

Finally, the fort. This is from JR Miniatures 15mm Middle East line (but doesn't seem to be listed on the website anymore). It is a really nice model and I've mounted five Thoroughbred 24 pdr guns on top.

The front side of the fort

and the back view

Here is a group shot of all the Tripoli forces. I don't expect them to all be on the table at the same time, but it could happen.

Tripoli fleet assembled

Now for the Americans. The American's will have nine ships available to them.

There are six large gunboats armed with a single 24 pdr bow cannon. Historically, these gunboats were borrowed from Naples to provide the Americans with some shallow-water craft to attack around Tripoli. All of these were scratcbuilt by George Kettler. They are really nice pieces (much better than my little gunboats).

George's American Gunboat

These gunboats are much larger than the Tripoli gunboats, as you can see below.

Tripoli gunboats on the left and the American on the right

Next are the mortar boats, which were also borrowed from Naples. These were also scratchbuilt by George (he was a busy guy), but he was still working on these so I only have a photo from him.

George's mortar boats

Finally, there is a Thoroughbred Figures sixteen gun schooner. I'm using this to represent the schooner USS Vixen. The paint scheme is not really accurate for the 1804 battle (the white stripe would have been natural wood and the interior would not have been green), but fits with the paint schemes for the War of 1812, which will probably be where I will use it again. The colors do fit with most gamer's idea of American ship colors though, so I doubt too many people will call me out on this.

American schooner

Here is a group shot of all the American forces I have (so the mortar boats are not included). Unlike the Tripoli ships, I do expect them to all be on the table at the same time.

American squadron ready to go

Now all I have to do is finish up all the paperwork for the game and set up the tables. I expect it will be very different from other DANG games, but still a lot of fun.

Old Ironsides

While looking around the internet for more information and pictures for the upcoming DANG Shores of Tripoli game, I came across a lot of interesting stuff.

One fun item I found was a post on the Naval History blog about a 1926 movie on the USS Constitution called Old Ironsides.

The post had a link to the final battle scene between the Americans, on the Constitution, and the Tripoli pirates. While there are a lot of non-historical items in the film, there are some interesting historical references, including a nod to the legend of Reuben James and the use of the captured Intrepid to try to blow up some Barbary gunboats.

If you have about 20 minutes, it is a fun watch. Here is the scene:

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.