Cruel Seas and Tibetans for ADLG

Mark R was keen to try out his night fighting rules for Cruel Seas and I was keen to actually use the PT boats I had painted earlier in the year for the first time in a game. So we played one of the convoy scenarios (scenario 5 from memory) from the rule book.

Mark had two armed trawlers accompanied by an M-class minesweeper. I was lying in ambush with one Elco and three Higgins PT boats (starting the game as blinds, with an additional two blinds to confuse Mark). I therefore started the game with a clear tactical advantage over Mark's slow fleet and my aim was to ensure I kept it by swamping him with torpedoes and machine gun fire. It worked (okay I only had a few successful torpedo contacts).

The night time rules worked well, with the unpredictable visibility distance (potentially shifting up or down in 10cm bands) meant I couldn't hide just inside a magic cloak of darkness, but had to be adaptable. I think they reflected the historical situation well.

And after sinking his fleet (though I came 4 hull points close from losing one of my own boats), I am sure Mark is keen to fight the next scenario with me having to shepherd some cargo ships across the table while he has fun zipping around.

In the afternoon I faced Ian S and his Feudal English in a game of ADLG with nearly painted Tibetans. I was massacred.

I deployed poorly, with my cataphracts not lined up to face Ian’s heavy foot. They were also one combat factor down against his knights, so it wasn’t surprising I only killed two elements to Ian getting 28 (my army break point was 21!). This also included him killing two of my generals.

The surviving general’s report states it was a resounding victory, with the rest of the army taking a well deserved holiday (England is always sunny to a Tibetan).

Cruel Seas - Finishing Off the PT Boats

Edit: you can see part 1 here.

As discussed at the end of the last related blog post (see here), I gave these PT boats a heavy wash of both Vallejo Woodgrain (70.828) and watered down Black (70.950). I also added the (tiny!) American flags to some of the boats, using the flag sheet that they came with.

These were pretty easy to apply: cut the flags out with roughly a 5mm border around the design, folded along the hoist, added a small dab of PVA, fold in half, let that dry, cut out with scissors, glued into place with a small drop of super glue and then painted the edges (red and blue).

Back to the wash; I am very happy with how they came out on the top surface:

But I think I was a bit heavy with the streaking with the brown ink along the sides:

A day or two later I am not concerned now with having to fix this up as you can hardly see it when the boats are laid out on the table. Overall I am very happy how quickly I got this project done from when I purchased them to getting them ready for a game. (Okay, I've got two more to paint, but these don't have to be finished to get a decent sized game in.)

Cruel Seas - Painting PT Boats

Edit: the first part can be found here.

I decided as this was a small project I wasn't going to buy paint to match the exact military colours of the PT boats. However, after a bit of googling, I realised this wasn't really an issue as colours varied wildly (including the effects of weather)! I started off with Vallejo German Fieldgrey WWII (70.830), but it had way too much green in it (even when I factored in highlighting), so I painted over a coat of London Grey (70.836). Much better.

For a (very) brief moment I considered painting some of the boats in dazzle camouflage... but just like the American crews I gave up when I realised how difficult it would be. It looks pretty amazing though.

The base coat was followed by a few heavy dry brushes with white (70.951) mixed in. The weapons were painted black (70.950).

The cabin windows and the crew were painted Dark Prussian Blue (70.899) with some white highlights, with a small dot of Flat Flesh (70.955) for the faces. The missiles were painted a mix of metals and black to differentiate them on the table, including a set to match the ones on the Elco with silver bodies and bronze (70.998) tips.

For markings on the Higgins boats I saw something on the History Channel's documentary (it's on YouTube) on PT Boats that was simple but would stand out.

The decals were from some spare Flames of War Sherman tanks I had and were easy to apply on the flat surface (though I still used decal softener).

I also cut down some 1/72 decals I had for a Flying Tigers P-40 that was a few decades old now. It needed a few goes with decal softener due to the curves in the bow's hull, but I think it's come out alright.

Since taking these photos, I have given these both a heavy black and brown wash, and will post photos once I varnish them and glue their flags in place. Hopefully in the next few days.

Edit: the third part can be found here. 

Last Game I Played - Tupi Battle the Texcala and Cruel Seas

ADLG
Club day at the League and the morning game was 200 points of ADLG with my Tupi (#277) against Andrew's Texcalas (#273). I used the same army list as last month, using the tactic of trying to turn the flanks before charging in the middle. I made a few errors in match ups, but I was able to give Andrew a close enough game, breaking when he was only three units away from breaking himself. It was also amusing to see how poorly his Spanish ally contingent performed. I think the first three turns he rolled '1' for the activation die.

Cruel Seas
After lunch it was an introduction to Warlord Games' Cruel Seas with Mark and the collection he painted over the Christmas break. Lovely little models, full of detail.

The first game was Mark running an S-100 class Schnellboot against my two Vosper Type I MTBs. Setting up on opposite corners, my objective was to escape off the corner the Schnellboot started from.

It plays fast.

Mark took out one of my Vospers with the special "park 5cm next to me special and unload with all your weapons" (that I used to devastating effect in game two). It’s a powerful tactic as the target ship can’t easily strike back (having already activated, or if it hasn’t, it has to move before it can shoot). I wasn't able to take out the Schnellboot in the scenario's five turns, so lost.

The second game had me fielding Vospers Type IIs, upgraded with more weapons and damage capacity. This time I also had the use of torpedoes. They didn't fail me.

The scenario has the Germans escorting a tanker, which has 80 damage capacity so needs two torpedoes to take down. This really means three to four should hit if you take crew skill and duds in consideration (I haven’t done maths on this) to be sure it sinks (in addition to your ship's guns).

I was lucky that my guns and only one torpedo were enough, as the moment you pass the tanker your turning circles are a bitch. So you need (like X-Wing) to be careful in that first pass.

Finally, as the League's new home is an RSL club, the Queen's image is almost in every room. This is over the tea station the games room.

She seems like a happy warmonger. (She's German after all.)

Cruel Seas - Gluing Together PT Boats

So I was weak. I have already been distracted by something shiny and new.

Last week I bought the January edition of Wargames Illustrated that included some articles of interest, along with two free US PT boats for Warlord Games' Cruel Seas game. I liked how well they went together that a day later I bought the US Navy PT Boat Flotilla box set to give me a total of four Higgins and four Elco PT boats.

Overall they were pretty easy to put together, though due to the small parts there was more flash than I would've liked. They also didn't include an instruction sheet, so I had to watch some YouTube clips and search through historical photos to see which way round the torpedoes and rocket launcher were meant to be positioned. But these are just minor criticisms once you see what the flotilla looks like all lined up.

One thing that wasn't too easy to do was add a magnet (as I'll be storing these in a tin) to the bottom of each boat. Although there was a cavity, this was sloped on an angle. The simple solution was to add a little block of card about 7x7mm to the deeper end and then glue a strip of sheet magnet strengthened with card so that it was flush with the bottom of the boat. (The photo above also has all the boats with a magnet strip added.)

Painting-wise I'll keep things simple - the Higgins and two of the Elco boats with be in a simple grey scheme similar to this:

While the remaining two Elco boats will have additional camouflage:

Hopefully they'll be done in a few weeks. I also have my first game of Cruel Seas lined up next Sunday and have been watching a few of the play through videos that are online.

Edit: you can see part 2 here and part 3 here.

Wargaming Shops in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan

I'm back from my two weeks in Japan (Tokyo, a little town close to Nagoya and Osaka). The little town obviously had nothing of note, so I'll give a comprehensive review of each of the cities below.

Tokyo
Shinjuku
Yodabashi Camera - didn't make it here. Wish I had though after going to the one in Umeda, Osaka.

Shibuya
Tokyu Hands (north west of the station on Inokashira Dori) - top level has a whole floor of N scale railway stuff (large range), 1/72 & 1/48 Baidai Star Wars (full range), mecha kits (large range) and other bits and pieces. The toy section on another floor is also worth checking out. I have been to this store on a previous trip; the other Tokyu Hands locations aren't that great wargaming-wise. (http://www.tokyu-hands.co.jp/foreign.html)

Akihabara
Yellow Submarine - Great range of plastic sets, mainly mecha and related. There's a whole lot of other stores in the same building and adjacent area (behind the Sega building where Kotobukiya is, etc). (http://www.yellowsubmarine.co.jp/)

Aomi
Toys R Us (at Decks Odaiba) - Tamiya sets (small range, cars and a few 1/48 modern Japanese tanks), mecha (medium range), Tomica diecast cars (full range), 1/72 & 1/48 Baidai Star Wars (full range). (http://www.odaiba-decks.com/)

Full-size Gundam Statue (at DiverCity Tokyo Plaza) - two tiny shops with plastic kits and other Gundam-related toys. (http://www.divercity-tokyo.com/en/)

Toy sections in various department stores are also worth checking out for cars, trains, mecha and dinosaurs. They won't be cheap but not overly expensive.

Osaka
Namba
Joshin Super Kids Land (on Sakai-suji east of Namba Parks) - There's two locations, one with mecha, the other location further south is mainly electronic goods, but on a higher floors there's model kits, train sets and remote-controlled cars. Tamiya sets (large range from naval, vehicles and planes), mecha (large range), Tomica diecast cars (full range), lots of other bit and pieces. The area between Sakai-suji and Namba Parks is full (similar to Akihabara) of places like Kotobukiya, etc.

Umeda
Yodobashi Camera - A lot of stuff. Like a lot. Will have to go to the Tokyo location next time. Tamiya sets (large range from naval, vehicles and planes), mecha (large range), Doyusha 1/350 samurai castles, Tomica diecast cars (full range), lots of other bit and pieces. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodobashi_Camera)

So what did I buy? We travelled light as it was with a budget airline and a spur of the moment decision to go on the trip. Therefore I was limited to 7 kilos in carry-on, with an additional 15 kilos check-in on the way back (using one of our carry-on size bags). This didn't give me a lot to take back (as I wanted to bring back a bit of sake, etc in the check-in as it was going to be heavier).

Wargaming-wise I got:

• Bandai 1/48 AT-ST for ¥2000 (~US$16) from Toys R Us, everywhere else was selling it for ¥2400. Yodobashi (when I got there) had it for ~¥1800. Will be used to make a Simon Stalenhag inspired mecha.
• Bandai 1/144 MS-06F Zaku II for ¥292 (~US$2.35) from Tokyu Hands. Will be converted for sci-fi neo-noir/anime gaming with its twin, below.
• Bandai 1/144 MS-06S Zaku II for ¥226 (~US$1.80) from Joshin Super Kids Land.
• Doyusha 1/350 Gifu Castle for ¥1360 (~US$11) from Yodobashi. The other castles in the range were up to ~¥2000. Very nice (large box!) kit. Perfect for 15mm terrain piece.
• Tamiya 1/100 MiG-19 for ¥432 (~US$3.50) from Yodobashi. Just couldn't say no at that price and I was using up coins on my last day.
• A few of the Tomica diecast cars for 25/28mm Japanese-themed gaming (I have a growing collection). This also includes a DeLorean time machine from Universal Studios in Osaka.

I think if you can make it to a Yodobashi or Joshin you'll be set. Everything else is slightly more expensive with a much smaller range.