Project Jutland - A Grand Day Out

FIASCO Leeds Royal Armouries 2016

SMS Derfflinger in action.

A quick update on the Project as this week saw the first public outing for the game, my local wargames club in Leeds has run the FIASCO show for many years and it seemed like the perfect place to get all the models on the table for the first time, after all most of the committee have been involved in the playtesting at some stage getting a table wasn't going to be an issue.

There was never any real intent to game the action on the day, club members are busy with various bits and pieces during the course of the show so dedicating time to rolling dice would be a bit difficult.

I had ironed the cloths before hand but that and an uneven table weren't ideal, we also had an issue with our projector which didn't work as we would like as it was too bright in the corner we were in but Soldier on we did.

The table is 8 Foot wide at the flag end and then 12 ft deep before a 12 ft x 4ft end T to allow the end of the German line to fit on. Even with this size of table there wasn't much space left, you can see how close some of the British Ships are to this end and the rear of the German line was 3cm from the far corner.

The set up was based on the above map showing the Fleets at 18.30 just as the big guns opened up prior to the first turn away by Scheer, it's the best time for getting the maximum amount of ships on the table on the table at one time. Queen Mary and Indy sadly stayed in the box so their are just 248 ships on the table.

The 5 Minute Fleet hoping it doesn't see action

Our gunnery ground scale is 1cm = 125 yards and with Marlborough opening fire at 13000 yards this is how the actual game will look. With visibility being a key factor in the refight we can afford to flatten the T out to make a 18 x 8 game for the attempt at this action. It will mean about half of the German High Seas Fleet will start off table but as it can't be seen anyway it's not really an issue.

We had lots of people come up and chat about various aspects of the game. It was great to talk to people who had followed the progress of the Project on this blog, I think there was only about 20 minutes in the day when I wasn't chatting to someone. I did notice a few people who came up whilst I was mid conversation and my apologies to those I didn't get to speak to.

British Line

German Line

So next time out it will get "for real", back at the Royal Armouries for their WW1 gaming weekend where we will be hoping to do some gaming ! If your around come and say hello.