Brandenburg-class battleships ~ record cards

And so on to the Brandenburg class, Germany's first sea-going battleships. Comprising SMS Brandenburg, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, Weissenburg, and Wörth, the class came into service in 1893, and had an unusual arrangement of three main gun turrets that foreshadowed the armament layout of the Dreadnoughts. The centre pair of guns were of shorter calibre than the others in order to avoid fouling the deck houses. With a respectable broadside of six 11 inch guns, 15 inch average thickness of armour belt and 16.5 knots speed, they could about hold their own against a Royal Navy battleship of the same period. 

Against the wishes of Admiral Tirpitz in 1900 the class was sent in its entirety to reinforce the German East Asia Squadron during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. Commanded by Konteradmiral Richard von Geißler, they arrived too late to do more than contribute to mopping up operations. They served with the fleet until the increasing numbers of Dreadnought class battleships made them obsolete. 

Ottoman Odyessey

When Kaiser Wilhelm II began to make diplomatic overtures to the Ottoman Empire, Weissenburg and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm were sold to the Turks in September-October 1910. Renamed Torgud Reis and Barbaros Hayreddin, respectively, after famous Ottoman admirals, they saw service against the Italians (then nominal German allies) and again in the series of Balkan Wars, providing artillery support to Ottoman ground forces in Thrace and engaging Greek ships during the ineffective naval skirmishes at Battle of Elli and Lemnos. A lack of suitably trained crew led to a steady degrading of the ships' sailing and fighting capacity, and they suffered badly in two encounters with the Greek navy armored cruiser Georgios Averof, leaving them in poor shape just two years after delivery.

Even so, both Torgud Reis and Barbaros Hayreddin managed to give a good account of themselves in the Dardanelles Campaign, shelling ANZAC troops along Gallipoli. Barbaros Hayreddin/Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm was dispatched by a single torpedo from Royal Navy HMS E11, which had penetrated the Sea of Marmara, in August 1915, sinking with half her crew.

After the war the two ships were in poor shape. Torgud Reis was repaired and remained on active duty until at least 1933 and endured as an accommodations hulk for another two decades, only being broken in the late 1950s. With that, I believe she was one of the final 19th Century pre-Dreadnoughts left. Two turrets were removed from her in 1925 and repurposed into coastal artillery to cover the Dardanelles, where they remain to this day

 

Apollo Second class Protected Cruisers

A little more progress with the record cards for pre-Dreadnought games. These are for the Royal Navy's Apollo-class. Under the rules the number of secondary armament guns and any torpedo tubes is halved to represent weapons bearing on each broadside being knocked out.

Technically the class was obsolete by 1903, most of them being laid-up. In 1908 Apollo and six others of her class were converted to mine-layers. I'm giving them a little longer lease of life.

Old School Naval Rules

Wonder of wonders I finally managed to lay hold of my copy of Paul Hague's Sea Battles in Miniature naval rules.

My interest here is the WW1 rules, which covers pre-Dreadnoughts quite handily. They are old school, which suits me fine since I'm not looking for complexity. The scale is for 1/4800, but can be adapted for the larger 1/2400 without trouble.

Hague divides warships into Capital and light ships. Each type has its own style of record card. I made out a set for the German Kaiser Frederich III class, shown below. 

Once I have a few sets of records made up for both sides I'll play a game to refamiliarise myself with the flow of play.

London calling

HMS London, that is, along with Bulwark, Venerable, Queen and Prince of Wales.

A powerful squadron of London class battleships and Cressy class armoured cruisers patrol off Cape Trafalgar of blessed memory.

Three London class ships were laid down in 1898. Comprising London, Bulwark, and Venerable they completed in 1902. HMS Queen and Prince of Wales followed, being laid down in 1901 and completed in 1904. The latter were more properly a sub-class of the London, being identical externally but with a different arrangement of armour plating. The class served in Home waters and the Mediterranean.

All but Bulwark survived the First World War. Bulwark became a casualty at 7.50am on November 26th, 1914 when an explosion ripped her apart as she lay at anchor in the River Medway. The explosion cost the lives of over seven hundred men and was heard as far away as London. At first sabotage was suspected, but as she had taken on ammunition the day before it was later thought that a defective lyddite shell was the culprit.

At the moment I'm trying to track down my copy of Sea Battles in Miniature by Paul Hague. The book was published in 1981, and has a number of rules sets for periods all the way from ancient galley warfare to the First World War. I remember the latter rules give a great, quick game and think they'd be preferable to the overly-complex sets I have now.

Steamboats, Launches and Dhows, and how to sink them.

So, the Ozark-class Monitor is now part of my small squadron of steamboats, launches and dhows. The question now is:- what rules do I use when they come into violent conflict?

Back in the day my club in England had the occasional game of ACW Ironclad encounters using the very nice 15mm models from Old Glory. I think the 'beer & pretzels' style rules were called 'Hammerin' Iron,' but may be mistaken.

The rules work well for ACW actions but I wanted something more in keeping with warfare on the vast rivers and lakes of my Colonial-era Hidden Continent. A search of the internet came up with a set of rules by Anton Ryzbak which looked the business. A few tweaks here and there has given me a set to try out - although I've yet to decide whether to include options for early Whitehead-type torpedoes.

For ship-to-shore naval support actions I'll use the TFL Sharpe Practice rules with my home-brew modifications. In SP, artillery divides into small or large guns, which will need a bit of tweaking when it comes to the heavy hitters aboard the Monitor. One or two shots from those mighty 9.2" pieces would flatten most Colonial forces in the field. A restriction on line of sight, and the amount of ammunition fired would do the trick, with so many shots allowed per game as the careful captain would need to husband his supply. After all, 9.2" HE shells aren't usually available off the shelf at that flyblown trading station on the river...

Steam and Iron

"Er, I say, chaps..?" Captain Pettigrew of the RAMC encounters some local wildlife during a boating expedition.

The rainy weather and a stomach bug have combined to prevent me from doing anything much today, so I'm going to briefly revisit my Colonial-era steamboat project. That splendid chap Ogilvie VC asked about potential rules to cater for naval encounters on inland waters. If I recall correctly, he plans to build a gunboat for 54mm figures?! I remembered the Beer & Pretzel: Ironclad rules, produced by Buck Surdu of GASLIGHT fame, which deal with ACW riverine actions. We used these at my wargames club in England some years ago and they proved extremely workable.

The B & P rules are intended for use by Old Glory's range of 15mm ACW vessels. I think with only a small amount of tweaking they might work for larger scales. The record-keeping is minimal and in my experience isn't a problem with a handful of vessels. 

ECW project

There seems to be a trend toward gaming the ECW afoot here in the cyberworld of wargaming. Tradgardmaster is dipping his toes in the water, and Jeff at the Saxe-Bearstein blog has an ongoing ECW project. I did game the period in 1/300th scale years ago, but it fell by the wayside. The occasional game at the New Buckenham club kept a small flame of interest flickering. I decided to fan it to life yesterday by ordering some of the excellent Pendraken Miniatures ECW figures, enough to give me three regiments of foot, a regiment of cavalry and a light artillery piece each. I'll add more foot, cavalry and dragoons by and by.

Rules-wise, I intend to use Victory Without Quarter by Clarence Harrison. Jeff kindly brought these to my attention as they have the facility for solo play. I did consider The Perfect Captain's Very Civile Actions: In the end they didn't appeal to me, but their campaign rules, Tinker Fox, look promising.

I'm quite looking forward to getting my new project going!

"Sands of the Sudan"

The one game and set of rules that really turned me onto Colonial wargaming were to be found at Peter Gilder's wargames holiday center during the 80's. In the same spirit, an excellent two-part account of a Sudan game can be found at Carlo Pagano's blog With Pyjamas Through the Desert.

Carlo and friends have reproduced Peter's rules in a labor of love that keeps the flame alive, and hopefully will introduce more players to a splendid gaming experience. Check out the account of the game - then check out the rules. They're worth it!
 

Renewing old acquaintances

My first gaming night in over three years at my old club was a family occasion. My wife came along as war correspondent, and Amanda, my archaeologist stepdaughter, decided she'd like to find out more about gaming. The club membership has expanded considerably since its early days, with easily four times as many folks in the hall last night. A nice bunch of fellows, they made us welcome, and we settled down to game.

My choice for the evening was a 28mm game set in Spain, 1050 AD - the beginning of the era of El Cid and the expulsion of the Moors from the Peninsula. Amanda is developing her studies into the Iron Age. She and I fielded Christian Spanish/Normans vs. Abussid/Berbers. We used Impetus rules, which I hadn't tried but heard good things about. 

Three gamers contemplate their forces.

The terrain was generated at random and featured two sizable woods and two small but craggy hills. Set-up by both sides used hidden deployment. We decided to concentrate our heavy infantry on our left flank facing the most cluttered terrain. The majority of the cavalry, including my high-quality Normans deployed on our right, where the terrain between woods and hills was more open. From my location I could cover the avenues of approach. Our center had a reserve of heavy cavalry, screened by Basque light cavalry and skirmishers armed with bows, crossbows and javelins. 

Gamer at play - contemplating the soon-to-be-destroyed Berber forces. 

My light cavalry are poised to slam into their counterparts to the left of the shot. Stuart presides over all.

Our opponents had more cavalry, but - we guessed - of a generally lower quality. They divided them between both flanks, with the Normans soon facing off against the Berber nobility. 

    A general view of the tabletop. My Normans get to blows with the Berbers nearest the camera. Off in the distance is a Flames of War: Holland - 1944 game.

Impetus relies on U-Go-I-Go movement using initiative dice. The rolls favoured both sides about equally. Firing is more effective within 10" range for bow and crossbow armed troops, although the effects can be mitigated by dice rolls. Both sides found it rather frustrating to get a few valuable hits only to see their opponents shrug them off. 

As the main cavalry thrust developed to our right, I rode out to meet it. It soon became apparent the main Berber infantry attack would develop on our left, once they had found their way through the difficult terrain. That aspect of the battle was in Guy's hands. 

The cavalry melee developed, with my forces winning the roll and charging into contact. It turned out to be a more difficult task than I anticipated. I had every confidence I would win the day, but the opposition put up a good fight. One of my cavalry units succeeded in destroying a (supposedly) less able enemy force, but had to be led, fainting and gasping, to the sidelines after suffering a battering in return. 

On the other flank, Amanda became worried about the developing threat. The Berbers had pushed forward the rest of their cavalry and were bearing down on our largely immobile heavy infantry, backed by their own infantry. (At this early stage of the Reconquest, the heavy infantry of Christian Spain lacked the long spears which later proved so effective against cavalry. The Berber infantry were well-equipped with these spears from the first). Amanda sent her cavalry speeding across to assist Guy's forces, and arrived in the nick of time. 

In the center my light cavalry charged and put to flight a unit of Berber light cavalry that had unwittingly exposed themselves to danger. A follow-up charge put paid to a hapless unit of crossbowmen who had - to that time - posed no real threat to us. This blew a nice big gap in the Berber line, and put worried expressions on the faces of our opponents. They had spent most of the game getting their heavy infantry over the hills. Now they had to stop and turn to face my light cavalry - or risk a charge into their flank. A band of Berber javelin-armed skirmishers in the wood tried ineffectually to harass the cavalry, but wisely decided to lie low and take no farther part in the battle. 

Amanda's cavalry helped Guy ward off several serious attacks which would otherwise have destroyed his infantry, although one unit was caught in the rear-flank and obliterated. A charge by her heavy cavalry caught and destroyed the enemy after a brutal to-and-fro contest.

Over on the right, my cavalry charged and counter-charged. I lost one unit, which put us perilously close to the army break-point. But soon after I ground the Berber nobility beneath the hooves of my Norman heavy horses, and that put paid to the Berber ambitions. Their break-point had been passed. Game over.

Amanda enjoyed her first game and is looking forward to a new meeting next week. Our thanks to Guy, Stuart the umpire, and our opponents Chris and Mark for a great game.

A few thoughts on GASLIGHT rules.

One game doesn't really give enough data for a major appraisal of a rules set. However, some points of the GASLIGHT rules can be addressed.

First, I like how quickly they play. With only three units per side it's probably not surprising, but the resolution of each unit's action took a mere matter of moments to deal with. The rules are card-driven, and I used an ordinary deck of playing cards, with a different denomination of card for each unit. 20-sided die are used for combat, vehicle handling and morale.

The GASLIGHT forum saw some recent discussion about utilizing an end-of-turn card, in the same style as the Sharp Practice 'Tiffin.' For the sake of friction of war I decided to use such a card for this game, and think it worked well. Both sides had turns which saw them steal a move over the opposition before the turn ended.

It did lead to frustration in the native camp when the golems failed to activate before the warband accompanying them. This caused a roadblock, which I deemed made the leader of the warband impatient. It set him off to tackle the Pond-friendly natives near the huts rather than concentrate on his mission, to the detriment of the golems.

GASLIGHT movement rates are set distances rather than random, as in Sharp Practice. Vehicles have their stats rolled at random before the start of the game. In the case of the S-G Mk II Steam Exploration Vehicle used by Willoughby Pond, it rolled rather well.

The golems aren't really covered by the rules, so I counted them in the same manner as vehicles, with some house rules added. I ruled a hit from an artillery piece or fusillade of bullets required each to roll a Sustain die. Failure meant the golem stopped moving. The witchdoctor controlling the things could make just one attempt on her next turn to restart a stopped golem on a successful Start die, but in this game she failed every time. 

As Dr. Vesuvius commented on the previous post, GASLIGHT tends to be one-sided when natives face off against Colonial Powers equipped with VSF trappings. There were instances in the recent game where the natives could have given the Pond Expedition a severe drubbing.  The S-G Mk II can be a clumsy beast when presented with more than one target, and those spaced well apart. Had the witchdoctor recovered control of the golems, or had the warband accompanied them instead of haring off on their own scheme, things might have turned out differently.

On reflection, should I play the scenario again, I'd add another golem or two to the native force, or increase the Start and Sustain attributes of the existing three. I could also ensure the native warband leader minds his duty so he accompanies the golems into contact with the enemy. 

I've yet to play the rules in an armor-vs-armor encounter. Other gamers (Hello again, Dr. V!) report rather odd results which are hard to explain away in game terms. I've a few ideas for another steam vehicle, which I hope to build in the fullness of time. 

So, on the whole I like the rules. They seem to have some idiosyncrasies, but I need to play them through a few times to get a better feel for them. As for the next game, it'll probably be the beginning of the Sharp Practice mini-campaign, as mentioned previously. At the moment I'm busy working on a commission for some Very British Civil War structures, the first of which can be seen here.

 Boer War veteran Brigadier-General Sir Robert fFyfe-Robinson, KCB, inspects a blockhouse defending the boundaries of his village against all comers. The stovepipe shows provision has been made for that most British of institutions - a nice cuppa!

I've kind of watched AVBCW from the sidelines, unsure whether the genre appealed to me or not. It's not that I don't already have enough on my plate to deal with before starting a new period, oh no. But it does look awfully tempting...
 

Sharp Practice Game - Prelude 2

Another, non-gaming project is taking longer to complete than expected, but I'm on course to play the Sharp Practice game tomorrow. In the meantime, on this stormy coffee-fueled morning, I should add another few thoughts about the rules. 

Under the system, infantry can be Line or Light, with different tactics pertaining to both. This is fine for the more rigid maneuvers of the Napoleonic era, but by Colonial times tactics had evolved somewhat. I decided to rate all British infantry as Light to reflect the greater flexibility.

Firearms are rated on the firing range table as Musket, Baker Rifle, and Minié Rifle (running from shortest to longest range). I see little point in interfering with these. All things being equal, they serve quite well for the ancient smoothbore and rifled muskets used by natives, and the modern Martini-Henry et al used by British troops. In any case, there'll be plenty in the way of vegetation and so on to act as line-of-sight blocks, so no British force can sit at one end of the table and pick-off poorly armed natives at the other.

The native tribes will use a mix of Native American and Wallah rules. They get the extra pip per dice for movement through their home terrain. Bonus cards include Shadow ('Vamose') under the rules, meaning a native group that is out of the line of sight from an opponent may revert to Blind. Bad Medicine remains the same, i.e a native group that has lost the most dead can be forced to withdraw. I've added Good Medicine which gives a native group a Big Man bonus move. Tzeee! is a Zulu war cry. When this card is played the native group loses 1d6 Shock points. Talking Drums causes all native guides and bearers working for the British to take fright and run away. They can only be stopped by a Big Man.

Since SP doesn't have stats for spear combat, for Fisticuffs, natives rate as Wallahs with Big Choppers (stop sniggering at the back there!), gaining an additional dice per three men fighting.     

Sharp Practice thoughts - 2

Some further thoughts on animal encounters to fit the Colonial variant of the Sharp Practice rules.

Under the rules every area of cover such as scrub, jungle or tall grass can be considered a blind in its own right. As such they can hide animals of various descriptions. Encounters are triggered by a group or formation moving close enough to the area and the type of animal is then rolled on a d6.

A score of 1-5 means whatever was in the undergrowth has run off and won’t pose a threat. A score of 6 means something nasty this way comes. Roll a further d6 to see exactly what creatures are encountered.

Scrub and tall grass:
1 = Lions
2 = Baboons
3 = Rhino
4 = Hyenas
5 = Ants
6 = Bees

Jungle:
1 = Gorillas
2 = Chimps
3 = Snakes
4 = Bees
5 - 6 = Ants

Rivers and Riverbanks:
1 – 2 = Hippos
3 – 4 = Crocodiles
5 = Snakes
6 = Bees

Unless driven off by the sound of gunfire lions and hyenas will lurk and watch for three moves, waiting for wounded, stragglers or small parties to separate from the main group or formation. On a roll of 5-6 they will attack such parties. After the third move the animals can be assumed to have decided to seek a meal elsewhere. For Fisticuff purposes lions count as Aggressive, Grenadiers or Guards, and the encountering group is considered Ambushed.

Baboons may attack if disturbed. Roll 4-6 for them to launch an immediate attack on the encountering group. Otherwise they run off. For Fisticuff purposes they count as Aggressive, Defending light cover, and the encountering group is considered Ambushed.

Rhinos will generally move away unless defending young. For Fisticuff purposes they count as Aggressive, Grenadiers or Guards, and add 1d6 for Fervor.

Ants will render an area untenable if a group or formation remains in place for more than one move. The group or formation suffers one Shock point and must retire one move away. Ants cannot be killed or driven off but the area may be passed through after the encounter is tripped.

Bees will render an area untenable immediately they are disturbed. They cannot be killed or driven off, the group/formation suffers one Shock point and must retreat at speed for at least three moves before the bees withdraw. The area cannot be passed through again during the game.

Gorillas and chimps will generally move away unless defending young. For Fisticuff purposes they count as Aggressive, Grenadiers or Guards, Defending hard cover and add 1d6 for Fervor.

Snakes will attack on a 6, otherwise they’ll just slip away. For Fisticuff purposes they count as Aggressive, Defending light cover.

Hippos will attack on a roll of 4 – 6. For Fisticuff purposes they count as Aggressive, Grenadiers or Guards, add 1d6 for Fervor, and the encountering group counts as hit in the flank or rear.

Crocodiles will lurk and watch for three moves, waiting for wounded, stragglers or small parties to separate from the main group or formation. On a roll of 5-6 they will attack such parties. After the third move the animals can be assumed to have decided to seek a meal elsewhere. For Fisticuff purposes lions count as Aggressive, Grenadiers or Guards, and the encountering group is considered Ambushed.

Combat will last for one round then the animals are considered driven off or killed.

Of course, the above depends on what animal models the player has available. Bees and ants don’t require representation as models but a card marked as such would be useful.

*

Another couple of National characteristic cards for Tribes.

Witchdoctor = Removes 2 Shock points and adds 1d3 points of Fervor on top of any tribal Big Man’s Initiative. # in deck = 1

Talking Drum = Summons reinforcements within 1d3 rounds. # in deck = 1

Sharp Practice thoughts - 1

I'm getting close to the time when I can actually run a game to try out the Too Fat Lardies' Sharp Practice rules in a homespun Colonial variant. After looking through the rules I've come up with a few ideas for bonus cards and effects to help or tax the players in Daftest Africa. Some of the effects listed below are the same as in the main rules but with a suitably Colonial flavor.

Cards:

Bhisti-wallah! Supplies water for drinking, cleaning fouled barrels, washing off unpleasant things and putting out fires. # in deck = 3

Stand fast! A Big Man may rally 1D6 shock points from a Group/Formation. # in deck = 3

Ammunition. Replenishes stocks of ammo. # in deck = 3

Fouled ammunition. The cartridges or powder are contaminated in some way. Lose 1D6 from fire effect until replenished. # in deck = 1

Forced march. Any Colonial or Colonial-trained Group or Formation on a road, track or trail may take an additional move in column or on a blind. # in deck = 2

Local knowledge. A native Group may take an additional move in column or on a Blind. # in deck = 2

Breech-loader. Troops equipped with these fire again this round. # in deck = 3

Tschzeee! Natives lose 1D6 shock points. # in deck = 1

Oh blast! The layer must immediately surrender all his bonus cards but one. # in deck = 1

At the double! One Group or Formation may add one dice to its movement. This may not be played if they are attempting a formation change. # in deck = 2

Mad minute. Poor fire discipline. If the player commands troops with poor fire discipline that have not been activated in this turn one Group or Formation must fire a ragged volley at the enemy, irrespective of range. If all his troops have been activated he may discard the card.

If the player does not have any such troops he may retain the card and play it when an enemy unit with poor fire discipline fires, removing any Big Man bonus they would normally get.

Any unit firing on this card will end its turn unloaded. # in deck = 2

Ambush! Any troops uncloaking from a blind and firing or entering fisticuffs may, for this turn, count as ambushing their opponent. # in deck = 2

The heat! The flies! This counters any card with extra movement drawn by a Colonial player. # in deck = 2

Pitch black. Included for night fighting games. One Group that is not firing or illuminated may return to a Blind. # in deck = 2

National characteristics - British.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Counters the heat card. # in deck = 1

Men of Harlech. British troops defending a barrier lose 1D6 shock points. # in deck = 1

* * *

There are a few categories that I've yet to come up with an idea for. Vive l'Empereur cries out for an equivalent in Colonial gaming. Perhaps the player with the most luxuriant moustache gets a bonus move for a Big Man..?