Attack on Pola No.2

I described the scenario and reproduced the briefings for this fictional engagement in an earlier post and so here is the battle report for the Attack on Pola.

Russian forces comprised five ironclads plus two blockships, which they would try to sink at the entrance to Pola Harbour (just the blockships, that is).  The Austrians also had five ships, plus three shore batteries at their disposal.  The map below (done in MappingBoard) shows the playing area, which is supposed to be located on the Croatian coast in the Adriatic.  Not a lot of detail really, but then it is mostly sea.

The Russians entered at the southwestern corner of the board keeping well away from the coastline in order to avoid alerting the shore batteries.  Despite this, the Russians' first act was to fire on the shore batteries, thus alerting them.  This also had the effect of setting the clock running for when the Austrian ships would appear, which they duly did.

Getting closer to the harbour mouth the Russians started to turn towards the objective and the Austrians also turned to starboard in order to try to cross the Russians' T and bring all turrets to bear.  The Austrian ships and shore batteries were starting to get the range and quickly put Captainski's (i.e. HMS Captain's) after turret out of action (if you have Paul Hague's Sea Battles in Miniature you'll know that the Russians seem to get hold of British Admiralty blue-prints rather readily....), whilst the Russians kept firing, and missing.

A few turns further on and the Russians managed to destroy a shore battery but Captainski was still suffering damage and sank by a deck, thus losing headway.  The Austrian ship Edelweiss (the one with all its washing still up) crossed the Russians' T and poured more fire into Captainski, whilst the rest of the Austrians sailed southwards and parallel to the Russians with the intention of getting full broadsides in (not entirely successfully).  Meanwhile, the other Austrian squadron, which had been sitting with steam up in Pola Harbour, appeared on the table behind the headland.

Nevertheless, despite the Captainski falling out of line to starboard, shadowed by the now damaged Edelweiss, the Russian van continued its inexorable progress toward its objective (destroying another shore battery in the process) whilst the Austrians continued to sail past them the wrong way!  Turn round dammit!

A move later and the badly damaged Edelweiss finally sank the Captainski!  At last, a result for the Austrians (me), although with the rest of the fleet either heading the wrong way or not yet clear of the headland things were perhaps not going that well.

Meanwhile at the mouth of the harbour the situation was getting awkward with the Russians trying to get in and the Austrians trying to stop them.  With enough speed now gained, the Austrian battleship Liszt rammed and sank the blockship Spirit of Dunoon.  However, the other blockship (Frieda) and the Russian box-battery Carolinski managed to slip into the bay between the headland and the otherwise occupied Liszt.

As if this wasn't bad enough, the Russian box-battery Polanski got a direct hit on the Edelweiss and finally, after a very long run of dud die throws, the Russians managed to ignite her magazine and she blew up

Always slow burners, the Russians were now getting into their stride and, despite taking some last minute damage, opened the sea cocks on the Frieda and sank her right across the entrance to Pola, exactly where the scenario required.  To add insult to injury the Austrian breastwork monitor Silesia was sunk close to the headland as she raced back towards the harbour mouth, too late to do anything about it anyway.

Totting up the scenario victory points the Russians had got one blockship in position, sunk two battleships and destroyed two shore batteries, earning 60 points overall.  In contrast, despite getting first blood, the Austrians only managed 15 points by sinking a battleship and a blockship before it could get into position.

Overall, it was a successful game - from the point of view that we had a scenario that was interesting (I think, anyway), had a clear objective and was worth fighting for - and also from Geoff's point of view specifically because he won the battle so emphatically.  Furthermore, the simplified version of  Paul Hague's ironclad rules allowed us to finish the game in one evening even though there was a bit of re-familarisation to be done.

Finally, the ships fought well, including the old cardboard ships (some now 30 years old, such as Caroline, above) as well as the newer vessels made especially for the occasion. So, look out for further clashes in this era, although perhaps it's time to get back onto dry land after all this naval stuff and get some toy soldiers out again for our next outing.

Attack on Pola No.1

Here are the briefings I prepared for the naval battle we fought this week using Paul Hague's Sea Battles in Miniature ironclad rules.  Battle report to follow.

Background
It is 1897 and the Greeks and Turks are fighting for control of Crete. The fleets of the Great Powers keep station in the Aegean warily watching the outcome of this conflict....and each other. Meanwhile, in the confusion, the Russians see a chance to get their revenge for the humiliating defeat previously inflicted on them by the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Navy by striking at their very heart in the Adriatic (I don't know what the Royal Navy was up to letting them slip out of the Black Sea - must have been the cuts).

Russian Briefing
Your mission is to mount a surprise attack on the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola (now Pula) on the Croatian coast (across the Adriatic from Venice).

Your force will consist of a large squadron of battleships (5 No.) plus two blockships (Frieda and Spirit of Dunoon) that you must try to sink across the narrow entrance to the great harbour at Pola.

Austrian forces are likely to consist of a similar number of ships which are expected to be at anchor at Pola, if that is, you can get there without alerting them. There are a number of shore batteries comprising 10” guns (or so your spies tell you) on the headlands around Pola which are perhaps not as watchful as they should be.

Russian Winning Conditions -  If you get both blockships in position and close the entrance to the harbour (at the narrowest point) then you have an outright win (30 points per blockship plus a 30 point bonus). If you get one blockship in position then you will be awarded 30 points. 10 points are awarded for each Austrian warship sunk or incapacitated. 5 points are awarded for each shore battery put out of action.

Austrian Briefing
The Russians in their usual manner have not been subtle in their approach through the Adriatic and have been spotted coaling off Corfu. You surmise that they may be making for your main base at Pola (again, so far so predictable) and therefore you have been keeping one squadron patrolling in the Adriatic whilst the other remains on standby in Pola harbour with steam up for immediate sailing.

At the start of the game the Adriatic squadron (3 No. ships) will secretly dice to see when it appears from the north, rolling a d6 at the start of each move to see whether it comes onto the table that move, adding +1 for each additional move to the score (a total of 6 or more is required to enter). This squadron will enter at maximum speed.

The same is done to determine when the shore batteries spot the Russians and open fire, starting dicing from when the Russian fleet first comes into long range (60cm in this case) (assuming they're actually trying to be stealthy).

For the squadron in port (2 No. ships) throw a d5 from when the shore batteries first open fire. This is the number of moves before they can be placed on the table as they start to exit the harbour. They can only come out line ahead starting at minimum speed (2kts).

Austrian Winning Conditions: 10 points are awarded for each Russian warship sunk or incapacitated and 5 points are awarded for sinking a blockship (that doesn't block the harbour).

Ironclads in the Adriatic

After seeing my post on the rather one-sided tussle between the Russians and Austrians in the Adriatic, Geoff suggested that we give Paul Hague's Sea Battles in Miniature Ironclad rules another outing this week, perhaps to allow the Russians a chance of revenge.  In case you don't know Sea Battles in Miniature, it looks like this:

The rules are rather simple but I like to think of them as the naval equivalent of Brigadier Young's Charge! or Donald Featherstone's rules that 'classic' wargamers are understandably fond of.  Furthermore, the ship designs included within the book for scratch-building are also rather stylised (although based on Fred T Jane's drawings), which fits with the simplicity of the rules. Nothing wrong with that (it makes them easier to construct for one thing) although my ships are nowhere near as fine as this chap's.  Speaking of which, here are a couple of merchantmen I made this weekend for this week's scenario.  They are about 90mm long.

Hulls are balsa and the white bits of superstructure are pieces of polystyrene pizza-base, shaped to fit.  Add some cardboard hatch covers, match-stick funnels and pins for masts and voilà!

And here you go, a basic paint job as is befitting.  One or two other things to make but these shouldn't take long.  By the way, I can't tell you more about the planned scenario as I don't want Geoff to know what he's up against until he gets here....

An Incident in the Adriatic

I bought Paul Hague’s Sea Battles in Miniature in July 1981 (with my birthday money) from the famous but now sadly defunct Edinburgh bookshop James Thin’s (it's a Blackwell's now at least). It’s another one of those overlooked wargame classics, in my opinion, and has some cracking rules for various naval periods. One of the sets of rules is for Pre-Dreadnought / Ironclad games and as I still have the various turning circles and reference cards (made of salvaged cardboard), and even some old models we’d made to hand (ditto), we had a quick game to try out the rules.

The engagement we fought was a ‘what-if' (or ‘what the heck’) action between Austrian and Russian squadrons, somewhere in the Adriatic, perhaps off the Dalmatian coast, circa 1880, in a particularly green sea. We used a slightly simplified version of the ironclad rules that didn’t require the use of percentage dice to determine where on the ship hits landed (if at all).

Here is the situation early on. The Russians have already damaged an Austrian battleship, lurking beside an island.

Here is the Austrian Admiral getting the measure of things and about to put his superior numbers to good use.

And here are the Russians blithely steaming into trouble.

I’m not quite sure how but all hell broke loose almost immediately and, although the Russians initially scored some long range hits, the Austrians closed and rammed. Before I knew it I was two warships down and the third had fled.

I think he won.

Note that the rather ropey ships we were using were made many years ago, following the scratch building principles included in the Sea Battles in Miniatures book (substituting cardboard for balsa).

When we got them out of the tin we found that they were somewhat the worse for wear having been in storage for a long time. However, they were still serviceable and steamed, fought, rammed (and sank) just as well as they used to.

Yet another thing I’m planning is to scratch build some more warships so this is yet another possible project to add to my growing list of things to do. And I may use balsa this time as it probably floats better than cardboard.

Russo-Japanese War

The first time I came across the word 'Tsushima' was in Paul Hague’s Sea Battles in Miniature.

It had never occurred to me before (it was a long time ago, I was young, I was innocent, what can I say) that there would be wars out there in which the British weren’t involved (that is if you discount the little Dogger Bank Incident where the Russian Baltic Fleet opened fire on British trawlers, mistaking them for Japanese torpedo boats – in the North Sea? I ask you.... ).

Anyway, yet another long term project of mine is building up fleets and refighting the naval aspects of the Russo-Japanese War. To this end I recently found this excellent map of the Japanese Empire in 1904/05.

I’m going to work this up in the Berthier Campaign Manager to hopefully try to run it as a campaign (at some point) so I’ll let you know how I get on with that.

The Wishful Wargamer

Hello there.  This is my first ever post in my first ever blog so bear with me. 

I spend a lot of time thinking about wargaming but very little time actually playing games, hence the Wishful bit in my blog title  (I toyed with 'Wistful' but that made me seem a bit poignant and sad).  That said, I wanted to make a record of my various activities related to thinking about, planning and preparing for wargames and, hopefully, occasionally reporting on such encounters.  And as blogging is essentially a self-indulgent and potentially egotistical pastime, I may make the odd non-wargame related post, but only if it’s relatively interesting, in the scheme of things.

So, as is traditional, here is my version of that oft heard tale about "how one got started in the hobby".

I've been pretty much involved with wargaming since the early 1970s, playing with Airfix soldiers with my brother (British Commandos, Romans and Ancient British being the earliest that I can remember).  From basic, last man standing style, 'wars', which involved lining all our troops up behind defences and then throwing lego bricks at them (graduating to firing matchsticks from Britains field guns) my brother, and then I, discovered the existence of wargame rules.

The first of these were the (still enjoyable) Airfix guides, principally Bruce Quarrie’s WW2 and Napoleonic wargaming books.  Amongst many others, subsequent and influential books that I have to mention include Operation Warboard by Gavin Lyall and Sea Battles in Miniature by Paul Hague.

Oddly, it was only later that I discovered Donald Featherstone and all the rest of the greats.  To be honest although I’m not a classic wargamer (I’ve never read Charge or relied on Don’s earlier works, preferring his Advanced Wargames and Wargame Campaigns) I’m still a bit old fashioned and need a lot of convincing to change rule sets (doesn’t stop me buying and reading them though).

So, with regard to rules I’m a bit of a stick in the mud and I generally like to stay with what I know (WRG, I salute thee).  I’m going to post my thoughts on the various rules sets I’ve tried (or more likely just read), in later entries, so you can all look forward to that (or not, as the case may be).

Anyway, I’m looking forward to this blogging lark and I hope you are too.

Cheers

Brian