Skip to main content

A weekend of Wargaming Part 4: 1:1200 Pre-Dreadnaught Naval, A Quick Look

I don’t know what the rule set we have used is called but it’s based around Tsushima, so im going to refer to it as that (Pete may comment with more info). In both games I’ve played the Russian Baltic Fleet, Pete the IJN combined fleet.

Tsushima is a game of two very distinct halves. In the first you move around paper markers trying to out bluff and out manoeuvre each other to cross your opponents T and get your destroyers in close. This is by far the most nail biting time I have had with miniatures.


Paper counters - three real, one decoy remain


Once your two bluff counters have been seen through and your others revealed you swap them out for metal ships (1:1200) and your fleet is on the table. The first half is the initial jockeying for position and the first pass. The second half is the following confusion and then perhaps a second or more passes. The first pass is very much a calculated icy affair of trying to secure the best fire angle for your fleet. After this the game sort of takes a life of its own as your formations break up, ships blow up and strategy starts to go out the window.

I have already described the mechanics in brief in a previous post; http://lestradesgame.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/metal-ships.html.

Firing is a very random affair, one shot could hit a hull, score a critical hit and down your opponents lead battleship. Or you could blast away for three turns and barely make a scratch. The strategy in this game is about maximising your odds of getting either a critical hit, or scoring hits with your biggest calibre guns.  You achieve this by crossing your opponents T, getting your fore, aft and flank guns on to their lead ship and limiting them to their fore deck gunnery or by getting into first port and then starboard (or vice versa) torpedo range to off load your tubes.

In this weekend’s game Pete out scouted me early and forced me into a compromise. One on hand by deploying my battleships second I was able to cross his T, but I had to sacrifice my destroyers to do it. I didn’t win two very tense initiative rolls and he duly sunk my destroyers. My battleships and cruisers did enjoy a superior volume of fire over the first two turns but it did not yield any critical hits or significant damage. Once our lines were parallel the exchange was more or less a draw, he sunk my old battleship and two cruisers out right, and I put his cruisers out of action. I did score a critical hitting his flag ship bridge but the Pete S ‘Togo’ lucked out and sailed away with only scars.   
 
Terrible picture, but my phones battery died. One destroyer sunk (red cone) the other two will soon follow, but my battleships are well positioned.

Having destroyers, Battleships and Cruisers each with their own roles gives this game perhaps a little more strategic depth than Fivecore. You can deploy on one line, or several echelons, you can hold your destroyers back and wait to your opponents secondary gunnery has been reduced in combat, or you can try and gain the advantage early with a torpedo rush. These are the clear cut but difficult decision points that I look for in strategy games. 
Labels:

Comments

  1. Pete.1 January 2018 at 18:51

    Yup the rules are just called 'Tsushima'. BTW- I've found corrected play aids that tell you what advantage evasive maneuvering gives you.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simon Lestrade3 January 2018 at 11:08

    addendum to this article, the scale of these ships was 1:2500 not 1:1200, shows how much I know about minis.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mutant Future RPG, and thoughts on retroclones

I've started GMing a campaign using Mutant Future by Goblinoid games. My campaigns usually only last 2-6 sessions and we are now two sessions in. I've seen many of the games mechanics in action and feel comfortable committing my thoughts on the game to the screen. I say I am using Mutant Future rather than running or playing it, because like many older school RPGs experiences and interpretations of the rules of the game will vary widely from group to group. Equally interpretations of the game setting can vary a lot. I'm not really that into the Fallout, Mad Max, dudes with sharp bits of metal and tentacles protruding from their bodies type of post destruction world. I either like the very grungy A Roadside Picnic, Stalker, or Metro 2033 type world with grimy guys climbing around in rain coats and cheap anti radiation suits with sawn off shotties, or a more low fantasy approach like Nausicaa Valley of the Wind (A great Manga/Anime). For this game I decided to set it in a m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Quick Looks: Cimean War Battles - Tchernaya River

 A quick one today I traded off Across the Narva by Revolution Games (should post something on this) for an oldish (2000) copy of an S&T magazine. The mag came with two battles reprinted from the 1978 Quad game on the Crimean War. The full Quad also contained Inkerman and Balaklava, this magazine version just has Tchernaya River and Alma. Initial setup Early SPI games (and actually GDW and AH come to think of it) of the 70s tend to have lots of rules you already know. I go, U go, movement, fire, melee, rally, and most of the rules are standard. Command and control rules and friction of war arrived a lot later. To couter this I have added a simple house rule. For each division (units are brigates and regiments, about 2-8 per division) roll. On a 1 in 6 movement is halved unless the unit can charge, in which case it must charge the nearest enemy.  A simple easy to apply rule for generating those light brigade charges. You could also easily convert this to a chit pull game by...
2 comments
Read more

Jena Campaign - Debrief - Lessons learned.

On the last Saturday of this past June I enjoyed one of the best learning experiences I have had in wargaming to put a positive spin on it. The day did not start well in character as General von Ruchel I arrived to the field 3 hours late having boarded the wrong train. When I arrived I discovered that my colleagues had spread our forces in a long thin line between the Fulda gap and Gera with no reserve. Control's game map The Jena campaign megagame, designed by Rupert Clamp was devised as a double blind map game. Each side of 10-15 players wrote orders for each division ordering it about a large map of central Germany. When battle was joined a divisional commander collected his regimental level counters and played a simple face to face tactical game. A step up the chain of command it was the army commanders (generals) role to devise the overall strategy for then the divisional/corps commanders and their chiefs of staff teams to implement. Or if you were on the Pruss...
7 comments
Read more