PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 2

"Christ! We are in for it now, Number One!"

"She will want to concentrate on us as much as she can, before Ajax and Achilles get into range."

"Helm – Starboard rudder, ahead full!"

"Gunnery – Fire as she bares!"

"Signalman – Signal Ajax and Achilles – Come on fast. Can’t take much more of this. Need assistance now!"

The Admiral Graf Spee swung to port away from the Exeter, but Captain Bell ordered his ship ahead full speed and have the guns ready to take aim on the Graf Spee. Commodore Harwood responded to the call to close in after the Exeter had taken a hit, and the Ajax and Achilles steamed in line to the south.

Ajax lined up her A and B turrets (rear turrets not being in arc), and fired off ranging shots. (Liam had elected to roll his own dice, but at the time was only able to find one easily. He rolled the dice and told me the results. The excitement has been recreated for posterity.

All shots miss!

The Graf Spee's turrets slowly rotated to port to meet the threat. First the secondaries responded, but all not enough to succeed (needing four successes).

But then the primaries opened up ('Anton' and 'Bruno'), and their combined fire was more successful.

A hit on the midship, but for now the Ajax was undaunted.

The noose was closing, but the Graf Spee had only begun to fight.

Next post, turn 3.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 1

"Helm, starboard – Ahead full."

"ACTION STATIONS, NUMBER ONE!"

"Guns to bear, 060 - Fire when the target is in range."
 
"Radio – Message to Flag – Have sighted the Admiral Scheer, I am closing to engage."

The Admiral Graf Spee and Exeter turn in starboard towards each other at full steam. Ajax and Achilles both turn to port to close in on the Graf Spee.

The gunnery officer aboard the Graf Spee sees that the Exeter has strayed just into range for her main 28 cm (11 in) guns. Both turrets open fire.

A hit! (Each 4 and 5 counts as one success, while a 6 counts as two.) The Exeter takes one point of hull damage to the forward upper deck.

Can the Ajax and Achilles close in to provide assistance in time?

Next post, turn 2.

PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Deployment

Before the game I provided every player a briefing to the battle, that included the His Majesty's Stationery Office (HSMO) chart for the battle:

Along with the initial deployment positions (the ">" indicates direction of travel), based on the rough positions at 6:30 am:

Free reign was provided to the players on how to tell me their movement orders (giving the option for Brett and Liam to confer before notifying me). Remember rotation happens first (though players could choose to rotate at the end of a ship's turn if they chose to not use the ship's full movement).

Lieutenant-Commander Richard Jennings, HMS Exeter's gunnery officer remembers from the battle:  

"As I was crossing the compass platform [to his Action Station in the Director Control Tower], the captain hailed me, not with the usual rigmarole of 'Enemy in sight, bearing, etc', but with 'There's the fucking Scheer! Open fire at her!' Throughout the battle the crew of the Exeter thought they were fighting the [sister ship] Admiral von [sic] Scheer. But the name of the enemy ship was of course the Graf Spee."

Movement was limit to the map above, though in a virtual environment I could do a floating (hah! get it?) map. I also left victory conditions vague - as each captain would have their own idea of success. Let's see how this goes. (Steady, I hope.)

Next post, turn 1.

Battle of the River Plate using Email and War at Sea

Like many wargamers COVID-19 has thrown up some interesting challenges to being able to play games. At the League meeting in March there was a slight unease in the air, and isolation and lock-downs that followed weren't that surprising given the developments of the virus globally over the last couple of week and months.

The WWII Eastern Front Play By Email (PBEM) game that Brett was running has stalled for this reason (games to be played on the tabletop), but it gave me an idea to run a game of my own. There were a fair few blog posts, forum threads and YouTube videos that gave me some ideas.

I settled on WWII naval, using a Hotz Hex felt mat that I bought years ago for running WWII aerial games at Little Wars Melbourne. Ara, Brett and Liam expressed an interested on testing whether my ideas would work.

While we had all played WWII naval games together in the past with Mongoose Games' easy to play 'Victory at Sea' (no one mention the train wreck that Warlord Games' refreshed version appears to be), I decided to use a beer and pretzels game I played around 10 years ago - Wizards of the Coast's Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea. It's a collectable miniatures game (CMG) that I have a lot of ships for. They're bendy plastic, but I love them as it introduced me to WWII ship classes quickly. For that I will always have a soft spot for the game and the miniatures.

Yes - the rules are relatively simple, but this means larger fleet actions could be manageable in the future (I'm a wargamer, I am already thinking of campaigns). However, this meant the players would have easy grasp of the rules quickly in isolation. The only main changes I am going to make is to the movement ability of ships, their shooting arcs and stacking limits. At Ara's suggestion we added blind movement (one thing that would be harder to do on the tabletop). The change from the offset grid to hexes made no difference to the game.

For movement a ship can't move in any direction as per the rules, but instead its facing dictates its options. Turning doesn't expend any of a ship's movement allowance.

In the example above the ship is facing towards 0707. Turning of 60 degrees left or right is allowed before moving a hex. So with a movement of 2 the ship in the example could turn to face 0706; move into 0706; turn to face 0705; move into 0705. I decided on turn then movement (as opposed to many rules that require forward "energy" to be expended before allowing turns) as the ground scale is larger for this game and add some level of unpredictability for the opponent. Destroyers would be able to turn up to 120° as they would be more nimble.

Modification to the shooting rules would have the number of dice for shooting (including torpedo attacks) directly over the bow or stern halved (rounding up). Refer to the diagram below (noting that some ships get a range of 4 for their main guns).

For stacking limitations each player would be allowed to only have one ship in each hex, but two destroyers. Movement through a hex by either side would be allowed.

Some of the players questions included whether we'd be doing group emails or just ones between each player and myself. I was planning on an email chain for the Axis and one for the Allies. [edit: this became a email to all players with current positions and I received individual responses and then I'd send out again for targets and post a link to the relevant blog post for outcomes, etc.]

While all of us have other commitments, I assured everyone that I wanted this to be fun above all else turnover time for email responses weren't expected on the same day, I was imagining 1-2 days per turn.

Players wouldn't need to track their own turns as I had converted the felt mat (6' x 4' with 4" hexes on a 12 by 18 hex grid) in Photoshop to a virtual one with hex ID numbers using a Battletech template I had found online. I would email every turn the map with every ship's current position.

Brett and Ara were happy to have me, as GM, roll their dice. As Brett put it: "Happy for you to do all my die rolls for me and applying them to the target - A Captain doesn’t get involved in the aiming and the firing of the ships guns. That is the Gunnery Officers job!"

For something easy, and a popular introduction scenario for WWII naval gaming in many games, we settled on the Battle of the River Plate, with Ara commanding the Admiral Graf Spee, Brett the Exeter, and Liam the Ajax and Achilles.

Next post, deployment.

New Banner for the Blog

So it's been nearly five years since I started this blog, and the banner for the blog was looking a little dated.

This is what it looked like:

I can't remember why I chose the name for the blog. Probably because it has several meanings (Christmas, the thunder of war, lightning assaults, etc).

Arthur Rackham has always been an illustrator I have liked, and when I was searching for images of Donner/Thor, I found this one that he drew for a set based on Wagner's 'Das Rheingold', the first dramas that constitute 'Der Ring des Nibelungen'. It was perfect, covering both ancient and fantasy wargaming and what was one of my first historical wargaming armies - Ancient Germans for DBA back in 2005.

For the "Blitzen" I went to the other extreme with something modern. I immediately thought of German WWII tanks (Blitzkrieg) but also something fun. At the time I had discovered 'Girls und Panzer', and the StuG III in the show was simply beautiful. I have still ideas to recreate the tanks on the tabletop.

So what did I want to update? Well the overall quality of the banner, but also that wasted grey space in the middle could do with something more interesting.

In about 30 minutes I created an updated version:

The name stays the same, but I used an online font generator to create the text (Fette Unz Fraktur) and gave it a stroke (white outline) in Photoshop. I also spread it out a bit more.

I found a better quality version of Rackham's Donner. This would represent both the early period and land-based wargaming.

For the middle section I chose something that represented both the middle time period (roughly 1500 - 1900) in historical wargaming, and also sea-based wargaming. The painting is John Thomas Serres' 'The Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801'. I have a connection to Copenhagen, and the tones used match the greys in the blog's background.

Finally there's the Kawanishi N1K (allied reporting name "George"). The Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden (紫電 "Violet Lightning") was the land-based version of the N1K. It covers the semi-modern period and air combat part of my wargaming. The blue tones in the sky also tie in with the blue I use for this blog's theme, so that was a bonus.

Anyway - there you have it, some insights to my design choices in updating the banner.

Rangers of Shadow Deep - The Broken Stairs

After a quick bite to eat (potato wedges, as Mark and the others were keen to get started), I settled in for the next instalment of the Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign.

We were up to mission 3, scenario 1: The Broken Stairs. Basically the table was at a 60 degree incline, and the warband would have to descend the winding staircase slowly, because if you made a second move (i.e. run) you'd have to pass a climb test. Again if you missed it: if you made a second move you'd have to pass a climb test. Pass a climb test. Problem is that we only had 10 turns to make it and the whole time we'd be swarmed by giant flies. There were three fly holes that they would spawn from (that could be destroyed with fire), along with one tantalising chest off the path. Tantalising. Off the path.

This time I'll be playing Magog - a knight with a crossbow and sword (I may be wrong - it's been a busy week), while Jono T would control Caitweazel the sorceress. Dave T and Mark R would also be controlling their respective characters.

Things started off well enough, but Jono decided to start off the path. Way off the path. I was getting a sense of déjà vu.

As the random event cards were drawn, it became clear that burning the fly holes (that were off the path), wasn't worth the effort as a lot of the cards allowed the flies to restart particular fly holes. So we just went ahead and (easily) killed the flies that were in our way. Sometimes, when they swarmed, did they become more than a nuisance.

Then I realised I was ahead of schedule in making it off the table and had a chance of getting to the chest as well.

I got greedy and went off the path.

I failed my climb test and fell over. Jono (who had managed to see the folly of his ways and got on the path halfway down), had been pretty good with his tests. He got greedy too near the end (or was he role playing?) and his companion who left the path for the chest, fell 6" down the slope and thereby made it off the table in time.

But we made it. A simple scenario, but while you think you have options, you really don't due to the tight turn limit. Looking forward to the next game.

War of the Thorns Battle of Honey Knob Hill

21 August 1471: Edward of Westminster forges an alliance with the Scots and fails in his bid for revenge against Edward IV.

Where things diverge:
You thought it was amazing that young Edward survived at Tewkesbury? Somehow the young prince managed to get James III and John of Islay to reconcile their differences. Convincing that Edward IV didn't care for them or their interests was a contributing factor, and the young prince offered favourable terms with estates and trade should they fight for the Lancastrian cause.

The defection of the Duke of Brittany to the Yorkist cause is not one that's fully understood at this time, particularly given the presence of German troops, but may be that Francis II is moving against Louis XI. Edward IV has an alliance with Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold. War between Louis and Charles would break out in 1472.

In the afternoon we played a BBDBA game, with the sides being (left flank, centre, right flank):

Karsten (Y) - Diether von Isenburg, with a German mercenary army (IV/13c)

Daniel (Y) - Edward IV of England (IV/83a)

Django (Y) - Francis II, Duke of Brittany (IV/8)

Peter (L) - Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (IV/83a)
Lyle (L) - John of Islay, Earl of Ross (III/78 )
Stephen (L) - James III of Scotland (IV/16)

The events were chaotic, with myself being destroyed by Stephen's Scots fairly quickly after a futile charge, and then the rest fo the armies breaking in turn.

In the end only one was left standing, I can't remember if it was Lyle or Django - but the first time I've played BBDBA with 6 players - there's not much room to site and play when you're that close to one another.

And a plague is stalking the land, with most of us working from home now. Let's see how long this will last.

War of the Thorns Battle of Aspatria

13 July 1471: A Scots Common army is able to prevent a French invasion in the north.

Actual events:
Only after the Battle of Tewkesbury did Duke Francis II become involved in the events of the War of the Roses, when he unexpectedly became the protector of England's House of Lancaster in exile.

At the time, the Tudors had tried to flee to France but strong winds in the English Channel forced them to land at Le Conquet in Brittany, where they were taken into the custody of Duke Francis II. Henry Tudor, the only remaining Lancastrian noble with a trace of royal bloodline, had a weak claim to the throne, and King Edward IV regarded him as inconsequential. However, Francis II viewed Henry as a valuable tool to bargain for England's aid, when in conflicts with France, and therefore kept the Tudors under his protection.

James' policies during the 1470s revolved primarily around ambitious continental schemes for territorial expansion and an alliance with Edward IV. While an alliance (and the marriage of his son to one of Edward IV's daughters) might have been a sensible move for Scotland, it went against the traditional enmity of the two countries dating back to the reign of Robert I and the Wars of Independence, not to mention the vested interests of the border nobility.

Where things diverge:
With Edward of Westminster still alive, and mounting a resistance, Francis II has sailed to England to take part in the war. He may or may not be harbouring the Tudors. Unfortunately he tries to be a little too cunning and lands in the north west of England, at Maryport. James, eager to show his allegiance to Edward IV, marched out of Scotland to meet the threat.

Final result was Stephen (Y) 4 v 3 Django (L).

War of the Thorns Battle of Chelwood Common

21 June 1471: Edward IV defends against a Scottish Isles invasion in the south.

Actual events:
In February 1462 representatives of John of Islay, Earl of Ross concluded with Edward IV of England the Treaty of Westminster-Ardtornish, that envisaged nothing less than the conquest and partition of Scotland. The treaty was remarkably vague, saying nothing about the nature, scale and timing of English support. For Edward it was a diplomatic coup and it should have been perfectly clear that Edward was trying to create a diversion. Sadly for John it was not.

Even before the agreement was concluded the Islemen took to arms, advancing eastwards under the command of Angus Og, John's illegitimate son. The rebellion had the desired effect. The Scottish government, faced with rebellion in the north, and fearful of attack in the south, dropped the politically embarrassing Lancastrian connection. John, presumably now aware how worthless the Westminster agreement truly was, backed down.

Where things diverge:
With Edward IV back on throne in England, but weakened due to war, John saw his chance to seek revenge. He sailed with his large fleet and landed at Newhaven, marching north to London. Edward faced him on the fields of Chelwood Common.

Final result was Daniel (Y) 4 v 3 Lyle (L).

War of the Thorns Battle of Loddington

9 June 1471: While attempting to flee to France, Edward of Westminster is ambushed by a German mercenary army.

Actual events:
After several years in exile in both Scotland and France, Margaret of Anjou (young Edward's mother) took the best opportunity that presented itself and allied herself with the renegade Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker). King Louis XI of France wanted to start a war with Burgundy, who are allies of the Yorkist King Edward IV and Louis believed if Lancastrian rule was restored then he would receive help conquering Burgundy.

In September 1470 Warwick returned to England and deposed Edward IV, with the help of Edward IV's younger brother, the Duke of Clarence. Edward IV fled into exile to Burgundy with his youngest brother the Duke of Gloucester, while Warwick restored Henry VI to the throne. Edward and Margaret lingered behind in France until April 1471. However, Edward IV had already raised an army, returned to England, and reconciled with Clarence. On the same day Margaret and young Edward landed in England (14 April), Edward IV defeated and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. With little hope of success, the inexperienced prince and his mother led the remnant of their forces to meet Edward IV in the Battle of Tewkesbury. They were defeated and Margaret and Edward were killed.

Where things diverge:
Against the odds and various rumours of his death, Edward survived the battle of Tewkesbury and was able to muster the remnants of his army in an attempt to make an escape back to France.

It is unclear the reason for the presence of Diether von Isenburg and his army in England. While it could be for religious or political reasons, most suspect Diether is there to raise funds to restart his conflict with Adolph II of Nassau for the Electorate of Mainz. He therefore fights for Edward IV, at least until the gold lasts.

Diether von Isenburg had been staying in Cambridge since Edward IV's coronation, to further his studies and quietly raise support for his cause back home. He had been invited to England by Edward IV, and was keen to ensure he stayed on the throne. When Diether's spies informed him that Edward of Westminster had survived the carnage of Tewkesbury, and was attempting to flee the country, Diether saw this as a perfect opportunity to gain favour from the king.

He ambushed the young Lancastrian on the outskirts of Loddington, west of Kettering. Both forces were relatively small, only a few hundred men per side. Eager for a quick victory, the knights charged the Lancastrian centre.

This would end up being a mistake as Edward's bodyguard and archers were able to stop the assault in its tracks.

Diether was lucky to survive, and fled back to Cambridge. Young Edward, against the advice of his minders and wanting revenge for the death of his mother, decided to remain in England to continue the fight to reclaim the crown.

Final result was Karsten (Y) 2 v 4 Peter (L).

War of the Thorns Introduction

The DBA players at the club decided to play the campaign this year that's slightly "what-if" and have it story driven (so no map). After discussing some ideas for a setting/time period we settled on the War of the Roses for the backdrop. I would GM, and christened it the 'War of the Thorns'.

To add flavour, whoever was crowned as the current King would be allowed to add one extra element to their army (either x1 stiffened billmen (4Bd) or x1 archers (4Lb)). If 24 or 36 elements in a BBDBA game two extra elements to their army (either x0-2 stiffened billmen (4Bd) or x0-2 archers (4Lb)). This would represent the extra resources the King has access to.

A player becomes King when they defeat the player who is the current King in a game. For multi-player BBDBA games there's a C-in-C selected amongst the players if they don't have the King present. Otherwise the King is the C-in-C for that army. Alternatively, if a player personally kills the General element of the player that's currently King they become King.

Players can switch sides at any time (even during a battle).

Players are free to play their games as normal games of DBA or BBDBA (BBDBA games may have up to three people on a side) by mutual agreement. We did this as many hadn't played BBDBA before or (like myself), it had been a long time.

The campaign's starting date is 1471, after Edward IV (House of York) resumed the throne after being victorious at the Battle of Tewkesbury in early May of that year.

The two sides and cast of characters are:

House of York

Daniel (Carriage) - Edward IV of England (starts campaign as 'King of England') (IV/83a)

Karsten (von Lucky) - Diether von Isenburg, former Archbishop of Mainz with a German mercenary army (IV/13c)

Stephen (Stephen_C) - James III of Scotland (IV/16)

House of Lancaster

Peter (Spitzicles) - Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (IV/83a)

Django (leadgend) - Francis II, Duke of Brittany (IV/82)

Lyle (LyleD) - John of Islay, Earl of Ross (III/78 )

The first meeting of the campaign I allowed players to play each other randomly to set the scene and drive the story.

A contemporary map of England to give an idea of who historically fought on which side and locations of actual battles:

Core Space Introduction Game

...or a game that was 'The Orville' meets 'Farscape' meets 'Cleopatra 2525'.

I should've known Jack and I were in trouble when we took on the characters of Renton and Beck respectively when David T invited us to take part in an introductory game of Battle Systems' Core Space boardgame.

I had heard almost nothing of the game, but David was keen to show how it worked. Firstly, the miniatures and the terrain are beautiful and Battle Systems have done an excellent job through the Kickstarter to get this out. Jonathan T (he's been playing this with his father at home) took the role of Jace, our boss and captain of the Black Maria.

We were a team of traders, our sole objective to survive in a dangerous galaxy! Jack and I found it would be Jace that would be a large part of this danger.

To win the rules recommend we follow the trader credo: salvage, trade, adapt and survive... we managed none of these. But I'm jumping ahead.

The game starts with Renton and Beck on the Black Maria. Things apparently didn't go too well in the last game and Jace had to be rescued by the crew of David's characters, the crew of the Ion Hope: Arianna, Roykirk and Gak (Gak is an alien Quell and is Arianne's gun man with a quick mind and dry sense of humour).

So our captain started the game on another ship. Jonathan (consciously or not) played Jace as a cross between Chris Pratt's Star-Lord (Guardians of the Galaxy), Nathan Fillion's Mal (Firefly) and Seth MacFarlane's Captain Ed Mercer (The Orville).

It was hilarious. But not. As we all died.

After getting on the ship, we raced to see which NPC had the information we were after (I was hazy on the details of the mission).

Things started off peacefully enough, as can be seen with Gak strolling the corridors:

But the game (that can be played solo) has a threat tracker (like Mantic Games' The Walking Dead), and so I had to deal with some Harvesters. Luckily I found a rifle that blasted one away (that was all the luck I would have in the game):

The other one survived several shots and so I ran... towards the shooting and grenade explosions.

I should've known it was because of Jace. He claimed that he didn't start shooting first. Apparently it was warning shot to Arianna and her crew, as they were getting too close to the NPCs. He then admitted a warning shot to the face wasn't really a warning shot.

Best quote for the game: "Regret is a tomorrow problem."

I tried to assist him and Renton by shooting Roykirk in the back. Unfortunately my gun jammed and Roykirk took me swiftly down.

So at least I missed out on some larger Devastators causing headaches to the others. Renton joined me in taking a nap mid game.

What’s the minimum size for a crew? One. The captain.

We called it a game, and realised that the way to win was to sometimes cooperate with other crews to take on the Purge robots.

The rules are fast, easy to remember and a lot of fun.

Next month we're going to have another game, but we all get a crew. Mark R will join us, as he too witnessed the train wreck that is (was?) Captain Jace and the crew of the Black Maria.

Tusk!

I had promised Jack a game of Tusk, so we really only went through the mechanics. In hindsight I shouldn't have set up a large table (instead of something like a 2' by 2' board), so it was initially a lot of running around and not much hunting. We increased the activation dice to two and that made things flow a little faster.

But soon we got in close range and the animals did what they do best - mauling and trampling the cavemen.

Next time I'll write up some stats for all the animals I've painted now and make it a lot more intense.

Jenga! I mean Tumbling Tower!

Barbecue at friends' place. Best brisket ever.