WW2 1/1200 Naval Action

Roy Scaife has done a spectacular job getting his 1/1200 WW2 naval collection done.  He has fleets and ships for all the naval forces in WW2, along with 1/600 aircraft.

Roy developed a set of fast play rules called Dark Seas that are based off of Victory at Sea.  These rules play great.  The game below saw the first use of fighter wings in our games.  I love how Roy has based them in the V formations.

The larger scale (most WW2 naval is done with 1/2400) is really nice.  It brings out the detail in the ships and makes for a visually beautiful naval game.

Here are pictures from the first game we played ...

More gaming to come!

WW2 Naval Action: Battle of the River Plate

I headed over the Roy Scaife's place on Saturday afternoon for a WW2 naval game using Roy's rules entitled Dark Seas.  Dark Seas is a hybrid between our Beat To Quarters naval rules and Victory At Sea.  Roy has a collection of 1:1200 ships that are just beautiful!

We played through the Battle of the River Plate scenario that pitches the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee against three Royal Navy cruisers, the HMS Ajax, HMS Achilles and HMS Exeter.

The great thing about naval games is the setup --- roll out the blue mats and put out the ships and you're done!

The Admiral Graf Spee makes a run for the far side of the table - can the Royal Navy ships sink her before it can escape to a neutral port?  Yes, we pulled it off - just barely!

I ran the HMS Exeter which started the closet to the Admiral Graf Spee and also was isolated from the other Royal Navy ships.  Fortunately I was playing against Roy and he has fairly terrible dice so he was unable to sink me before making the run through the other Royal Navy ships.

Pictured you can see the ship card that covers the weapon systems, special rules, speed/turning, and damage tracking - templates - and the ship itself with the wake marker that is used to set the current speed of the ship.

The other two Royal Navy ships pictured above with their ship cards and the QRS for the rules.

Below are some action shots of the battle.  All together we played through this game in ~2 hours at a leisurely pace.  Rules are streamlined and very fun. 

Just to give you an idea of the size of the ships.  Normally WW2 is played at 1:2400 - but we like larger ships.  Below you can see the USS Missouri (US Battleship) and the German Bismarck along side a regular D6.  The rules are designed to be easily played on a 6 foot by 8 foot table.

Very nice ships and the larger size adds some real visual depth to the game that is so often missing from games using 1:2400 scale ships.

KublaCon 2019 Convention Report

Another KublaCon has come and gone along with a weekend full of top notch miniature gaming.

The Toulon Harbor crew ready for action!

I continue to be impressed with the quality of miniature gamers that show up at KublaCon.  Across the board we had great players throughout all of our games - which as a GM makes running the games much easier.

Here's is what we ran:

• Battle of Roncevaux Pass - This is a scenario Roy Scaife put together.  28mm Napoleonic game with British, Spanish and Portuguese fighting against the French.
• Battle for the Forest Moon of Endor - 32mm Star Wars Bolt Action (Legion).  Dan Kerrick brought this battle to life.  Rebels have landed on the forest moon of Endor to bring down the shield generator that is protecting the orbiting Death Star.
• Charge of the Haradrim - 28mm Lord of the Rings SBG.  I expanded scenario covering the Mûmaks charging against the Rohan forces just after they've run through the ranks of Orcs laying siege to Minas Tirith.  I add more Riders of Rohan and Royal Guard, as well as Haradrim Raiders and Mahûd Raiders.
• Toulon Harbor - Adam Clark, Roy Scaife and myself came together to run this 1:300 (6mm) Napoleonic sail game.  The British occupation of the port of Toulon is no longer tenable as Napoleon has captured 2 of the 3 forts covering the harbor.  The British are breaking out against a combined French and Spanish fleet.

In addition to the above games ... we pulled out the ships on Friday night after the Roncevaux Pass game and played a smaller engagement just for some ad-hoc fun.  Tons of pictures presented in the order of the games being played at the con below.

Battle of Roncevaux Pass

This is a great game that has the French coming through two openings in the Roncevaux Pass to meet a combine force of British, Portuguese and Spanish.  While a meeting engagement, the French pushed a little too early and it ended up costing them dearly in the long run.  British victory.

This is a scenario where it is critical for the French to create a defensive line with their leading divisions until the rearward division can catch up, pass through and make their assault.

Pictures below ... first my fancy SLR camera ... then phone :-)

Phone pictures ...

Pictures below courtesy of Alan Sissenwein (thanks Alan!) ...

Battle for the Forest Moon of Endor

Dan Kerrick ran this SPECTACULAR game.  Really, this game captured the "forest moon" really well.  Both sides fought over a central bunker that housed the control room for the shield generator.  The Rebel scouts pushed early and quickly gained the bunker - then dug in like ticks!  The Imperial forces advanced too cautiously and didn't regain the bunker.  Rebel win.

My highlight was Chewbacca jumping up out of the forest and firing his bowcaster in overload to take down an AT-ST --- I needed a 5+ to-hit (success), then a 6 to damage (success) and then rolled a 5 to take it down.  The other great point was when the Ewok ambush was sprung.  Hilarious.

We used Boba Fett --- he selected a Rebel character to kill for extra VPs.  He choose Han Solo.  Unfortunately he didn't get close enough to take out Solo so failed to collect his bounty.

Phone pictures ...

Charge of the Haradrim

Love some of the "table level" pictures I got of this game.  It's always hard to capture that aspect of games when you take pictures.  Pictures at "eye" level don't do many of our games justice when you see the details or sheer number of figures involved.

I should have had the Haradrim cavalry deploy in front of the Mumaks ... or at least in between ... putting them behind was a disadvantage for the Haradrim.  Will correct that in the next run through the game.  I've also decided to add Easterling and Khandish forces for the next round of this game.

Rohan pulled out a victory at the end of the day ... although the Haradrim did much better than before since the supporting cavalry helped.

Phone pictures ...

Toulon Harbor

Finally we see Toulon Harbor here.  Managed to get a full 16 players for this EPIC game.  Actually it was 20 if you count Dan, Roy, Adam and myself helping run the game and forts.

Doing sum splain'in!

Anyways, this was a grand game that ran along smoothly.  I'm really happy with the rules and only some minor things need some cleanup before I call them really solid to play.

I have taken the Volleyfire lights from Warlord Games and I use them for broadsides and forts to create a nice effect during the game ... video of that below (direct YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1DPB1cISg)

The British managed to pull out a victory at the last minute with a lucky critical hit on a French 3rd rate that had it's powder magazine explode!  A hard fought and close game.

Finally, we played a smaller "ad-hoc" game on Friday night ... some pictures of that below ...

So there you have it.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures of the games.