1:2400 Age of Sail: The Algeciras Campaign 1801 - Progress

Hi all,

Just to let you all know that progress is being made on this lot:

There will be painted for me by the brilliantly talented Richard Phillips!

Thanks for looking!

Peter

1:4800 Naval Warfare: Jutland 2? part 2 - Naval Thunder

Hi all,

Well, I gathered our merry band of wargamers together to play out the campaign section of our scenario!

The Germans began by sortieing with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau from Brest and making a high speed dash in to the southern Atlantic - which caused a bit of consternation for the RN players who were not expecting this! A few convoys were rearranged but since the RN could not really spare many ships to chase them around, the German's distraction did not pull any home fleet units away.

When the Tirpitz and Bismark did sail (with Prinz Eugen tagging along), they were tracked all the way up the Norwegian coast through a variety of means. The Home Fleet set sail with King George V and Prince of Wales heading towards Iceland and Hood and Repulse going further in to the North Atlantic, the Royal Navy players deciding to try to take the initial engagement on the battleship's chins.

The Germans headed through the Iceland-UK gap at speed, hoping this break with historical deployments would through off the RN. Sadly for the Germans, as per history, they were spotted and shadowed by cruisers and were unable to shake them off.

The Germans decided to use Prinz Eugen as a sacrificial lamb, and ordered her to turn back to chase off the shadowing cruisers whilst the battleships changed course and speed.

Such a move would never have been approved in real life by the Germans but we decided that it would make for a reasonably interesting game so we played it. HMS Manchester and Birmingham are in line astern heading WSW with orders to shadow the battleships (which will be just off the table with Prinz Eugen heading the other way).

Thanks for reading!

1:4800 Naval Warfare: Jutland 2? - Naval Thunder

Hi all,

Well we have an epic clash coming up soon in the wargames room!

The scenario - it is 1941 and the Royal Navy is worried about the massing Kriegsmarine heavy units in the Baltic. Rumours abound that Bismark and Tirpitz are going to sail together into the North Atlantic. Prinz Eugen is going to look very small next to these two...

To oppose them, we have Hood, King George V and Prince of Wales at Scapa Flow. Queen Elizabeth is at Rosyth and Repulse, Ramilles and Rodney are convoy escorting.

The plan is to run some map based campaign moves to see where an interception will take place...

Thanks for reading!

Peter

1:2400 Age of Sail: The Algeciras Campaign 1801

Hi all,

I have recently decided to go completely insane and build and rig a couple of fleets for the Napoleonic period...

Anyway, these will be for the fairly balanced (in terms of the number of ships involved) battles around Gibraltar and Algeciras in 1801.

The plan is to do the full orbat and the initial purchases are:

Rear-Admiral of the Blue Saumarez's squadron

HMS Caesar, Third rate, 80           Royal Navy          Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez

Captain Jahleel Brenton

HMS Superb, Third rate, 74           Royal Navy          Captain Richard Goodwin Keats

HMS Spencer, Third rate, 74           Royal Navy          Captain Henry Darby      

HMS Pompee, Third rate, 74           Royal Navy          Captain Charles Stirling

HMS Hannibal, Third rate, 74           Royal Navy          Captain Solomon Ferris

HMS Venerable, Third rate, 74           Royal Navy          Captain Samuel Hood    

HMS Audacious, Third rate, 74           Royal Navy          Captain Shuldham Peard              

HMS Thames, Frigate, 32           Royal Navy          Captain Aiskew Hollis     

Carlotta, Frigate, 38           Portuguese Navy             Captain Crawfurd Duncan            

HMS Calpe, Brig, 14           Royal Navy          Commander George Dundas      

Louisa, Brig, 14           Hired                     Lieutenant William Truscott        

Vice-Admiral Moreno's squadron

Real Carlos, First rate, 112         Spain     Captain Don J. Esquerra

San Hermenegildo, First rate, 112         Spain     Captain Don J. Emparran              

San Fernando, Second rate, 96           Spain     Captain Don J. Malina

Argonauta, Third rate, 80           Spain     Captain Don J. Herrera

San Agustín, Third rate, 74           Spain     Captain Don R. Jopete

Formidable, Third rate, 80           France  Captain Amable-Gilles Troude

Desaix, Third rate, 74           France  Captain Christy de la Pallière

Indomptable, Third rate, 80           France  Captain Claude Touffet

Saint Antoine, Third rate, 74           France  Commodore Julien Le Ray

Santa Sabina, Frigate, 34           Spain     Vice-Admiral Don Juan Joaquin de Moreno

                                                                  Contre-amiral Charles Linois

Muiron, Frigate, 40           France  Captain Jules-François Martinencq

Libre, Frigate, 40           France  Captain Proteau

Vautour, Lugger, 14           France  Lieutenant Kémel

Perla, Frigate, 34           Spain     Unknown

1:4800 Naval Warfare: History repeating itself - Naval Thunder

Hi all,

Well I almost could not believe it, everytime I play this scenario it ends up being a slugging match and the result (as it should have been) tends to be the defeat of the Germans.

This one did not go that way...

The Germans are sighted heading towards the open Atlantic

Hood leads the RN formation

With Prince of Wales following

Hood starts by firing some accurate shots at Prinz Eugen

Whilst PoW lands some damage on Bismark

Both Germans dastardly target the Hood

Hood quickly takes a lot of damage, and just as she hauls out of the line with crippled engines and a fire...

History repeats itself and her magazine goes up

A shocking result tbh, I can only imagine how horrible it would have been to have seen it in real life!

Thanks for reading!

Peter

1:4800 Naval Warfare: Battle of the Denmark Straight - Naval Thunder

Needed for Saturday: one opponent. Must be prepared to be used as target practice by the Royal Navy and to speak in a corny German accent!

Going back to my favourite wargaming subject this weekend, naval warfare!

Peter

The Anarchy of the 12th Century : 28mm Gripping Beast & Black Tree Normans

Hi all,

This is a little bit of a nostalgic post of my painted Norman army - these are now on Ebay and will be sold off to buy a larger force with more later period equipment ready for gaming the 12th century a bit more accurately.

The force was a pretty balanced list (I think) of 24 spearmen, 2 groups of 12 missile troops and 12 milites.

For my next force I will be trying a few more colours on the tunics...

But it did look good though in games!

Peter

The Anarchy of the 12th Century : 28mm Lion Rampant Test Game

Hi all,

Had a fun game using my Normans in a test run through of the Lion Rampant rules.

It was a little frustrating in that most of my units did not move at all for most of the turns but it seems to be a quick and easy rules set that I will be able to pick up and play!

Forgive the WIP terrain!

Peter