Fleet review - January 2017

After a fair bunch of work, this weekend I managed to get all of the warship models I reasonably plan on using painted.

Therefore, I decided that it was time to place all of these minis together and see how they looked.
I do own a handful of random additional Axis & Allies sculpts and a couple of spare Asashio-class destroyers, but I'm not really counting those.

What am I counting then, you ask?
Well, pretty much this:

Let's take a bit of a closer look at those things.

Kriegsmarine:

Only two vessels for my small German force: Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, both from matt_atknsn on Shapeways.
Some of the most recently painted and only fielded once so far. And that was against me.

Royal Netherlands Navy:

Another rather small force, but that's historically correct for my home country.
The Dutch navy was in a rather bad state in WW2, as can be seen with this pair of subpar light cruisers which met their ends in the Java Sea.

From left to right, we have light cruisers Java and De Ruyter and a pair of Admiralen-class destroyers.

The Java model is another Shapeways purchase, the other three are Axis & Allies minis.

US Navy:

A bit more of a force available here, though it's still rather small considering the large role the US Navy played in WW2. This US force is the most likely candidate for major expansion.

Going from left to right the top row contains fleet carrier USS Wasp, heavy cruiser USS Houston, a pair of Cleveland-class light cruisers and a Brooklyn-class light cruiser, USS Phoenix. Closing out the row is the landing ship dock USS Gunston Hall.
On the bottom row, we have the old submarine S-37 with its submerged marker, a trio of Fletcher-class destroyers (including the least fortunate vessel in the US Navy) and a quartet of Clemson-class destroyers.

In terms of sculpts, we have another mix of Axis&Allies and Shapeways sculpts here, with many of the A&A ones being kind of poor.
And yes, I know USS Houston historically never had this colour scheme. I decided to accept some historical inaccuracy for the sake of looks.

Royal Navy:

We increase the scale a bit further as we reach the Royal Navy, including other Commonwealth vessels.
My second-biggest force and a classic one with the King George V battleship and the pair of battlecruisers.

From left to right on the top row we have the battleship Prince of Wales, the battlecruisers Hood and Repulse, the heavy cruiser Exeter and the light cruisers Achilles and Perth.
On the bottom row we have three E-class, two J-class, one Tribal-class, one S-class and one V-class destroyer. Closing things out we have a cute little Flower-class corvette.

We have another mix of Shapeways and A&A stuff here, with HMS Exeter actually being a converted York model since I was having trouble getting my hands on a purpose-sculpted Exeter one.

I decided to stick to a handful of colour schemes which work decently well together, even if that means that some ships aren't entirely historically correct when put next to each other.
I mostly stuck to the simple gray North Atlantic colours and the dark and light gray used at various points in the Pacific.

Imperial Japanese Navy

Finally, we reach by far the biggest force in my collection.
Most of this one is Shapeways stuff, but with some exceptions.

We start with the big ships: aircraft carrier Shoukaku, followed by the battleship Nagato and her sister ship Mutsu. Finally, we have the Kongou-class "fast battleship" Kirishima.
All of these models are from Shapeways, except for the turrets on Mutsu.

Next we have the cruisers, starting with the Myoko-class heavy cruisers Haguro and Nachi.
They're followed by the light cruisers Agano, Ooi (she with 20 torpedoes per side) and Sendai's sisters Naka and Jintsu.
The last two are Shapeways here, the others A&A.

Subs. I-19 and I-25, with another submerged marker for the latter. Both are A&A, from the second starter set like both Myokos.

Destroyers. Not even all of them since they won't fit properly into a single picture.
We start with three Fubukis and six Shiratsuyus, recognizable by their fairly bright lifeboat covers.

In the second half, we get a trio of Kagerous, a pair of Asashios, a pair of A&A Akizukis, another Shiratsuyu (this one, Shigure, an A&A sculpt), an A&A Matsu and finally an A&A T1 landing ship.


Quite a few minis that I've collected over the last year or 2. Not the greatest quality level of painting, but I feel it's decent enough to put on the table.
I might still go back and touch up a bunch of these, though. That would probably be quick and worthwhile.

Now to decide what I'll allow myself to grab next.
One important consideration in that is that the local store might be able to get 1/3000 scale stuff in stock. That might cause me to shift some of my focus to that instead, especially if that allows us to get a bunch of additional locals interested.

Naval War battle report 4: Denmark Strait

After far too long not playing, I finally managed to get in my first proper game of Naval War using the current version of the rules.
While most of my games so far have been cruiser battles in the Pacific, with an occasional carrier appearance, for this game we will be fighting a battle at the other end of the world.

We head over to the northern Atlantic ocean, where the German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen are trying to get clear of the Royal Navy so they can massively threaten Allied convoys between the USA and Britain.

In their way are the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Hood.
Although Bismarck herself is superior to either British ship, a battleship and battlecuiser together should be able to vanquish a battleship and heavy cruiser.

Here we have the situation early in the battle.
The British force played by myself is at the bottom of the image, with HMS Prince of Wales (which had not moved yet during this turn) to the right and HMS Hood to the left. I have both of them operating as single-ship squadrons, which provides me with a total of four orders per turn: one for my fleet flagship (HMS Prince of Wales), two for the two large ships and one for my fleet commander, a Rear Admiral. He also gives me an extra disruption token each turn, which means I will always have one more disruption token than the German opposition has orders.

At the far side of the table we have the German force played by the owner of the local gaming store, de Purperen Draak. Bismarck is the larger vessel to the left, with Prinz Eugen by its side.
The German vessels have been put into a single squadron, giving them four orders per turn as well: one for the fleet flagship (Bismarck, of course), one for the single large ship, one for a squadron of two or more ships led by a flagship and finally one provided by the German commander. Being together in a squadron also lets one activation order activate both vessels, but at the cost of needing to stay close together. The German commander also provides a disruption token, giving both of us four orders and five disruption as long as we don't take any losses.

Let's skip forward a few turns since we deployed a bit too far apart. Seeing some pretty straightforward movement does not generally provide great tension.

Here, we can see how things are turning out: I'm sort of splitting my forces, leading off with the much sturdier Prince of Wales while Hood, which has powerful (but slightly short-ranged by battleship standards) guns but weaker armour hangs back a bit. This is a gamble, since it might leave Hood out of the fight for 1 or 2 crucial turns getting into range.

However, the Germans outrange me and have decided to turn ahead of me, hoping to deliver broadside fire against my front arcs.

To make matters worse, HMS Hood is in fact already in range of the Bismarck, which scores a solid hit among her first ranging volley. Fighting at these ranges, Hood's lackluster deck armour is really proving to be an issue.

As the Brits maneuver in on the next turn, their ranging fire fails to find the Bismarck.
Prinz Eugen finds the range of HMS Hood as well, though, and with the plunging fire her eight-inch guns are actually a fair threat.
Of course, Bismarck herself also unleashes a devastating broadside:

Two turns of fire at extreme ranges, with part of that spent ranging in, have clearly shown how Hood's iconic weakness has been exploited by the Germans.

Considering how close she was to the edge of the battlefield, I decided to use my commander's once-per-game ability to automatically pass the command check caused by this damage. I can't have this battlecruiser just running off without dealing significant damage.

As for the British return fire, it has still failed to find its mark despite the considerable number of 14- and 15-inch shells being flung towards the German battleship.

Of course, the next German volley proves equally devastating  despite British attempts at evasive maneuvering and causes another command check.

I try to re-roll the failed check using the "England expects every man to do his duty" special order, but German disruption prevents it from taking effect.
Of course, this means that HMS Hood breaks off. Being so close to the edge of the battlefield, she has no chance to rally before leaving the fight.

In the meantime, Prince of Wales has finally found the range on the Bismarck and is trying to deliver as many 14-inch shells as she can, trying to utilise a sustained fire training order two turns in a row.
However, things keep going wrong (thanks to German disruption) and unfortunate accidents instead reduce the effectiveness of her rear primary gun turret and her secondary guns. The shots that do connect are not as effective as one might hope thanks to quality Krupp armour (a German special order allowing you to re-roll saves).
She does deal a little damage to Bismarck and causes some flooding, though.

And then Prinz Eugen manages to get a decent firing angle for her starboard torpedo tubes as the battle is starting to turn into more of a brawl, with three torpedo hits and some pretty nasty damage as a result:

The die to the right of Prince of Wales indicates the amount of flooding, which is pretty bad.
One good thing in this turn is that the German leadership did not have enough orders to have Bismarck fire at Prince of Wales after her evasive action.
One bad thing is that a full broadside hit of 14-inch shells gets mostly saved through solid rolling and proper application of the Krupp armour special order. Making the opponent roll eighteen saves feels quite good, though.
Still, a quality volley could still get rid of Bismarck in one turn.

...and then I try to repair the four points of flooding I have.
Yup, one fixed with that 4+, but each result of 1 adds another flooding effect instead.
All of this damage ends up crippling HMS Prince of Wales, but her crew stand firm and choose not to flee just yet.
Sadly, Bismarck also passes her command check, which makes a lot of sense considering the current state of the battle.

On the next turn, the British side gets to activate first, but all of the clore-range fire only slightly dents Bismarck while secondary shots mostly bounce off Prinz Eugen.

Then the Germans get to shoot.

Bismarck's point-blank range volley with all guns brings Prince of Wales to the brink of destruction and sets her afire in addition to the flooding, after which some lucky hits from Prinz Eugen manage to finish her off despite desperate evasive action.

In the end, we get something fairly similar to the historical outcome, but probably even a bit worse; a seriously battered Hood makes it back home, but a brand new King George V-class battleship has been lost.

The damage caused in return was also rather limited: Bismarck took some serious dents but is still fully operational in terms of mobility and weaponry.
Assuming her fuel stores have not been damaged (as happened historically) the German pair would be more than capable of hunting down convoys while avoiding British warships trying to hunt her down.

Overall, quite an interesting little battle, especially considering that we had only two ships per side.
Initially, I was afraid that the British side would outmatch the Germans a bit too strongly, but as it turns out the Germans had some advantages that proved more important than they seemed, like their superior range which allowed them to start shooting a turn before the British.

Dice rolls this game were pretty even; both sides had both good and bad rolling, with a few stand-out moments like that full broadside hit and that total cock-up at flooding prevention.

For my first game using battleships, I feel they add an interesting factor to the game and look forward to using them more, especially in combination with more ships of other types.

I do have HMS Repulse and IJN Nagato waiting in the wings, with IJN Mutsu, Hiei and Kirishima still on the painting table as well, so that should provide some interesting options for the future.

About Naval War:

Naval War is a free living ruleset (which means it gets regularly updated to correct errors and clarify issues) that can be found at https://www.naval-war.com/.

If this seems interesting, do head over there, grab the rules and get some ships (or even just printed tokens to represent them) and head into the fight.
We in the community also really enjoy reading about your experiences with the game, no matter how glorious or horrendous they may be.

Flames of War Battle Report 8; Heer Grenadiers vs Desert Rats Lorried Rifles

Our local Infantry/Mech is still going strong and I was able to take some pictures of my most recent game in it.

This time, I would be playing Germans against the slowly-growing British force of one of our local players.

We're in the second round of our league, which means 700-point games where Support Platoons are allowed but can't capture or contest objectives.

Keep that bit in mind; it'll be relevant.

This is the battlefield we'd be fighting over.
The mission would be No Retreat.

Flames of War Battle Report 7; Red Army Strelkovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

Well, it's time for some more Flames of War, this time for the Infantry/Mech escalation league we just started at out local store, De Purperen Draak in Groningen.

In fact, this was the first game played for it, with six more played over the course of the day by a bunch of our local players.

In the first month, we're playing 500-point games on smaller tables, with no Support Platoons allowed. Only HQ, Combat and Weapons platoons.

Hopefully, there will be a bunch of additional battle reports in the next few weeks.

If people are interested, I could also do a series where I showcase the different forces used by the various players in the league.

My apologies for the mediocre quality of some of the pictures; I only had my phone camera available.

In this game, we ended up playing Breakthrough.

I was playing the following list:

Strelkovy Batalon (Red Army) - Confident Trained

HQ: CC Rifle, 2iC Rifle, Bat Kommissar, 4 PTRD AT Rifles. (2 PTRDs attached aan elke Strelk unit)

Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 SMG

Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 Rifle/MG

HMG Company: Cmd RIfle, 3 Maksim HMG

Mortar Company: CMd Rifle, 6 82mm mortars

My opponent was fielding the following:

Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadierkompanie - Confident Veteran

HQ - 2x Cmd SMG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x MG42 HMG

Weapons platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x observers, 4x 8cm GW34 mortars

We rolled off to determine attacker/defender and the Red Army would be trying to break through a German encirclement to connect to their troops in a pocket.

German infantry units are trying to close the gap, but the troops in the pocket are moving in to reinforce.

Flames of War battle report 6; Guards Strelkovy vs Panzerspähkompanie

Last weekend I co-organised and played in a local FoW tournament at de Purperen Draak, the place to be for miniature wargaming in the northern Netherlands.

We were playing 1500 points, Late War.
I ended up playing in the first round only, but that game was pretty interesting.

The scenario was Free-for-all.

I was playing the following list:

Strelkovy Batalon (Guards) - Fearless Trained

HQ: CC, 2iC Rifle, Komissar, 4x PTRD

Strelkovy Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, Komissar, 7x Rifle/MG, 7x SMG, Maksim HMG

Strelkovy Company: Cmd RIfle/MG, 7x Rifle/MG, Maksim HMG

Scout Platoon: 5x SMG

Heavy Mortar Company: Cmd Rifle, Observer Rifle, 6x 120-PM-38 mortar

Guards Heavy Tank Company: 3x IS-2 obr 1943

Tank Destruction Company: Cmd Rifle, 4x 57mm ZiS-2

Flames of War battle report 5; Guards Tankovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

After our previous game ended pretty quickly, my opponent and I decided to have another go after dinner, this time on another scenario which would probably be used in the upcoming tournament.

This time, we would be playing Breakthrough.
Neither of us had played this scenario before, so this was going to be interesting.

Flames of War battle report 4; Guards Tankovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

Another week, another couple of games of FoW played.

This week, me and one other local player played a pair of games as preparation for an upcoming local tournament which will be 1500 points Late War.

My apologies in advance for the poor quality of some of the pictures; I had to use my mobile phone to take them this time.

In our first game, we played Hold the Line.
He was using a FHH Panzergrenadierkompanie from Grey Wolf Revised, I was using a Guards Tankovy Batalion (Guards quality) from Red Bear Revised.

Flames of War Battle Report 3; Red Army Strelkovy vs Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadiers

During my previous 500-point Infantry Aces style game, one other local player had sown up, willing to have a go at a game at this scale as well; my opponent in my first battle report.

He didn't have his minis with him, so we decided to put something together using the models we had standing in the store and some proxies.

He decided to go with a FHH Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers force from Blood, Guts and Glory.

The scenario would be Cauldron.

Flames of War Battle Report 2; Red Army Strelkovy vs SS-Panzergrenadiers

This week, I played a couple of 500-point games testing for a possible Infantry+Mechanised Aces league.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Aces system: it's a small escalation league style campaign, ideal for new players to start grasping the rules.

I brought along a Red Army Strelkovy force from Red Bear Revised while my opponent would be using a SS-Panzergrenadier list from Atlantikwall.

Flames of War Battle Report 1; Hero Motorstrelkovy vs Grenadiers

Time for a battle report for a game of Flames of War I played last week. 1650 points, Late-War.

This battle would be fought over a railway station in one of the more rural parts of eastern Europe, 1944.