Edinburgh Wargames Journal

Issue 11  - April 2007

Periods featured in this Issue:  Second World War (20mm), Second World War Naval (1/2400) ,

Russian Civil War (28mm) and Pirates (28mm)

This hasn't been a particularly busy month for wargaming. I've been away on two wargame nights because of film work, and the games we've been playing have reflected our attempt to take a break from the Seven Years War for a week or two. Of course this hasn't meant we've stopped painting and rules writing, but its been good to get our ships and tanks out for a change.  

It was also Salute this month, a great show despite the jaw-dropping presence of a gaggle of 30 or so Nazi (actually SS) re-enactors, complete with swastikas, Nazi attitudes and even children dressed as the Hitler Youth. "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers had nothing on the sheer offensive folly of their presence at the show. Did the South London Warlords really imagine they would improve the public image of the hobby?!  The show organisers really need to make a grovelling public apology for this one ...  and shame on them for presenting us with such a "Nazi Salute".

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Pirates, Indian Ocean, c.1700 (In the Heart of the Spanish Main) 28mm

Every so often we run a ridiculously big all-day mega-game, usually in the dining room of a Club Member's veggie guesthouse in Edinburgh. This time we brought out our pirates, but instead of setting it in the Caribbean, we opted for the coast of India in 1700, around the time of the "Red Sea Rounders" like Henry Every, Edward England and Captain Kidd.

Everyone commanded a faction - the East India Company, the Portuguese, the local Maharajah or Indian rebels, and everyone commanded a ship - Indiaman, Indian Treasure Ship, Privateer, or both Indian and European pirate ships.

The result was completely silly, utter chaos, and great fun. The Gujarat rebels attacked Surat, the settlement of the East India Company, but were repulsed when they stormed the breach. The Maratha rebels attacked the local Maharaja's stronghold, supported by their Portuguese allies, but neither faction really got anywhere. The exception was the all-woman crew of the Portuguese privateer Esmerelda, which captured and sacked the Maharaja's town.

Meanwhile the Angrian pirate stronghold in the bay served as a base for assaults on the Delhi Merchant (the Maharaja's treasure ship) and the East Indiaman Sweet William, which beat off the Indian pirates only to fall victim to the pirate Dan Tempest, and the crew of his brig the Sultana. Victory was measured in plunder (well, actually we used gold-coloured jelly beans), and the clear winner was the Angrian pirate king, followed by the Gujarat rebels and their ally Captain Tempest.

Great fun was had by all, and we all swore to swash our buckles again some time soon. For rules we'd cobbled together a set called In the Heart of the Spanish Main (a home-grown variant of Chris Peers' In the Heart of Africa Rules) which included both land and sea fighting rules. I'll post 'em on this site in the next week or so, but first we need our rules lawyer to give 'em the once-over, just to plug any gaps an' loopholes.   

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Russian Civil War, c.1918 (Red Actions) 28mm

This week we played a little Russian Civil War game using Red Actions, the freebie rules set from The Perfect Captain. this was unusual, as we usually game the period using the simpler Back of Beyond / Contemptible Little Armies set. It was a straightforward enough encounter - German interventionists v the Red Guard, with both sides having a small mixed force of infantry, supported by an armoured car, a machine gun and a field piece, with the Bolsheviks also having a unit of cavalry.

The Bolsheviks had some early success, but half-way through the game the German Erhardt armoured car saw off its Austin-Putilov counterpart, and a unit of Red Guard were routed by machine gun and rifle fire. The Red players never managed to regain the initiative, and the Germans were helped by some lucky die rolling by their Minenwerfer section.

As games go it wasn't one of our best - a late start and a lack of familiarity with the rules meant that we never reached a proper conclusion - even though it was pretty clear that the Bolsheviks were on the ropes. Worse, the terrain wasn't up to our normal standards, mainly due to lethargy, with the result that some nice figures are shown here against an altogether mediocre backdrop. My apologies, and we'll put more effort into it next time!

Mind you, some of Dougie Trail's Bolsheviks looked pretty good:

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Second World War Naval (Guadalcanal) - Battle of Tassafronga, 1942 (General Quarters) 1/2400 scale

Sometimes there are nights when you don't really want to haul file boxes filled with 25mm figures across town for a game. You want something laid back, where the lead is light, the rules unchallenging, and the games stimulating enough to cut through the lethargy. That's really when the naval kit comes out. Naval gaming is always a minority interest, but its good to have as a reserve. Mainly because we hadn't games it for ages  - in fact since we got our sea mat last October - we opted for WW2 in the Pacific.

     A Digression

This week the naval connection was reinforced by meeting Jim Prentice, who came round to show me some scratch-built 1/1200 scale warships he was selling on behalf of the widow of his friend Mike Earll, who passed away recently.

He's got boxes of the things, and I haven't even seen a fraction of the collection, which all needs a good home. It ranges from pre-dreadnought to WW2, plus a few more modern ships in 1/600.  His prices are reasonable, ranging from £6-20 depending on the size and complexity of the model. If you want to see more, then visit the Mike Earl Collection page. If you're seriously interested in buying some of these puppies, then you can e-mail Jim at  jprentice23@yahoo.co.uk . However, please steer clear of the semi-dreadnoughts until I've had a good look through all of Jim's boxes!

         Here are a couple of 1/1200 ships from Mike Earll's WW2 collection:

The idea behind the Tassafronga battle was that a group of eight Japanese destroyers commanded by R. Admiral Tanaka were bringing much-needed supplies ashore to Guadacanal - the last of the regular supply runs known as the "Tokyo Express".  The way it worked was pretty clever - they streamed long lines of oil drums filled with supplies behind the destroyers, and when they came close inshore they were handed over to a beach party, who towed them inshore. Well, they Japanese were busily doing all this when the Americans turned up - a mixed force of cruisers and destroyers commanded by R. Admiral Wright.

The game started when the Japanese destroyer "lookout" sighted the American battle line - and before it could react it was blasted out of the water.  That's the picture at the top. However, the American radar couldn't spot the Japanese destroyers closer to the land, although dawn was breaking and visibility was improving. However, the Japanese could see them, and unleashed a storm of Long Lance torpedoes which ripped into the American cruisers, damaging two of them (the Minneapolis and the Salt Lake City). They pulled out of line, and the Americans then detached their own destroyers, sending them in closer to the shore.

Having unloaded their supplies the Japanese tried to escape, but they'd left it too late. One after another they were picked off by long range gunfire from the cruisers, while the two groups of destroyers blazed away at each other at close range. In the end only four Japanese destroyers made it off the table to safety, and only one of those was undamaged. However, honour was saved on the final turn when a last flurry of torpedoes struck the cruiser New Orleans, which sank almost immediately.  The Japanese might have sacrificed their destroyers, but at least they got the supplies through, and left the American cruiser fleet a battered and depleted force.

We used the old set of General Quarters. While we have the latest version of the rules (Version III), nobody had the inclination to read them in time for the game. One of the delights of the original set is their simplicity. I said before we wanted a simple, un-taxing game, which is exactly what you get with GQ. Its also pretty good fun!

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Second World War - France 1940 (Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier) 20mm

We hadn't played a WW2 game for a while, so we thought it was time to get the tankie toys out again. The idea was that a small French force was launching a counter-attack against a German-held village. However, after a few turns of shelling the French player discovered that it was actually held by the British - who were a little irritated by the friendly fire! Worse was to come, as a powerful German attack was also underway, and soon the two Allies were fighting for their lives.

Fortunately the rules allow for fluke shots. When your opponent declares he wants to fire a 2" mortar at a panzer, the last thing your should say is "its not worth it - you'd need a double 6". Cue one burning panzer, and an utterly dumbfounded British player! The funny thing is, this luck held throughout the game... Just look at the two pictures below, taken two turns apart. Of the four German tanks in the field, one was taken out by an infantry assault, another by the light mortar, and a third by a hidden 2-pounder. Even the French player managed to destroy a Panzer III with his Somua, even though it took a whole evening!

By the time the British reinforcements arrived (a weak squadron of cruiser tanks and a carrier platoon), the German advance had well and truly stalled.  However, the Germans still had one trick up their sleeve. Their air support finally showed up, and a Stuka destroyed one of the two British tanks. However, as it came in for its second run the British opened up with their only form of anti-aircraft - a Bren gun mounted on a stick. The only way the German plane could be stopped was by rolling a "double 6". You can guess what happened...! 

As usual the rules we used were the excellent (though dreadfully named) Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier.

                                       You can check out the playsheets here

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Seven Years War update

Soon it'll be back to the Seven Years War with a vengeance. Although I missed the last game between the Prussians and Dave Imrie's French, the Leib Battalion of the Archbishop Elector of Köln made their first appearance on the battlefield, and according to all accounts they didn't disgrace themselves. I've now added a second unit - the Wildenstein regiment to my small Reichasrmee force - which makes up for its lack of Prussian efficiency by the colourful array of its flags and uniforms! OK, I know some people will point out that the uniforms are too "French" (thanks Phil), but when you're presented with free figures you take what you can get, and use 'em where you can!

The business of playtesting and writing Die Kriegskunst is also coming along nicely, and during Salute we'll be having a good team talk with Dave Brown, the author of the original General de Brigade rules. 

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