WW2 Naval Campaign - The Last Day

WW2 Naval Campaign - Final Day

Well we finally got our Naval Campaign finished this week, shifts have meant a change to game time as Sundays have proved a bit tough to organise, so we have chucked a couple of cheeky Thursday evenings in.

This the final phase of the Campaign sees reinforcements to both sides, the Japanese Convoy has arrived on table, a mix of 12 merchants and troop carriers escorted by the light cruiser Sendai and 10 destroyers.

We got a mighty Convoy, rocking through the night

Added to that was the survivors of the previous games, 3 of the Japanese Heavy Cruisers were looking a bit weary. 2 had already lost their range finders and were on half hits maximum, the other was a bit leaky.

British and US back up arrives

British hopes were raised with the arrival of 2 Heavy and 1 Light Cruiser with 6 escorting destroyers. Of the other ships Repulse was down on speed after a torpedo hit in the last game and one destroyer had limited ammo.

First choice was to determine when the game took place, I let the players decide, if both sides went for day or night it was easy, half each would have led to a day night game however both went for the daylight option with limited air power (3d6 a turn a 6 bringing flight of 6 aircraft on table).

Repulse leaves the action

Things were gradually going the way of the Brits initially, the extra power of Prince of Wales taking its toll on the Japanese Battle cruisers Kongo and Hiei. The Japanese where just about to throw the towel in when Repulse got hit in the bridge, a d10 was rolled, the result the loss of the ships Captain and an immediate withdraw order. That made it a bit more interesting.

Limited air power didn't have much effect in the game

The Brits made a limited attack with three destroyers however the Japanese had separated Sendai and 6 destroyers who met them before they could launch torpedoes at the convoy.

A short and very bloody close range Destroyer action

All three British Destroyers were sunk, Vanity ended up with a Rudder jammed hard left leaving it going round in circles, this lead to a collision with 2 Japanese Destroyers sinking the Vanity and a Japanese ship. Kashmir exploded from a magazine hit the blast taking out the already badly damaged Lance.

Kashmir explodes taking Lance with her

After constant fire from PoW and Repulse Kongo finally sank

With the losses over the turn the Brits didn't have enough to press an attack on the convoy, PoW was getting isolated and Repulse was limping off the table. The withdraw was ordered, smoke deployed and the Brits steamed away. The Japanese Navy had taken a bit of a beating, one Battle cruiser sunk, 1 sunk and 4 badly damaged Heavy Cruisers (one with only 10 points if damage left from 1500) and 4 sunk Destroyers however the convoy was intact. Brits had a badly damaged Aircraft Carrier and Battle cruiser and losses of 2 light cruiser and 6 Destroyers.

A good balanced campaign which seemed to work well, nicely balanced both sides had chances for a knock out blow, everyone who played seem to enjoy the games as well even though Naval isn't their usual bag. Load up the khaki shorts and the Desert Wellies as the WW2 stuff gets its first outing in 2 weeks time.

28mm Desert Italian 75/18 Semovente

28mm Desert Italian 75/18 Semovente with Infantry Support

Well this week more WW2 Armour and Infantry has rolled off the production line here at Castle R. All the vehicles I own (minus 6 Bren Carriers I'm trying to ignore) are at a fit for the table stage of painting, i.e. basic paint with highlights and wash with tracks done. Slowly but surely I will get these finished by adding decals/crew/camo as required. Looking across the room there are another 8 vehicles ready for finishing touches.

These two are from the Warlord Games range which I picked up earlier this year during their big sale, the commander is from Perrys. Decals from Warlord as well. I've gone for the basic un camo version of the vehicle.

Whilst doing these I also managed to finish off a batch of bog standard Italian Infantry. As with the Brits I'm working towards a Battalion size force of these fellows.

Deployed LMG Teams

Google automatically did some changes to this photo, better than the original

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through the Battalion, compared to the AWI stuff these are quick and easy to do, they are quite a nice break from the more complex 18th Century uniforms and a good run on these will get me back in the black with the Lead Mountain.

At the moment on the go I am halfway through the next 20 fig AWI unit, I have some EotD Civilians started, I am also building my a box of 28mm Desert Rats. Enthusiasm remains high at the moment. On the gaming front shifts mean I haven't been at the club for a while, the Naval Campaign at Castle R will complete this week, so expect a write up on that soon.

28mm WW2 Italian Cannone 90/53

28mm Italian Cannone 90/53 su Autocarro Lancia

This thing has taken me ages to put together and paint, bought from the ever helpful Bob at Wargames Command Post it comes in a thousand pieces.

"Is that a 90mm shell or are you just pleased to see me !"

Only problem is I now need to build an extention to the games room to use the beast at long range. Hope to get a Desert game in after the Naval game concludes.

Empire of the Dead - The Police

Empire of the Dead - The Police

Woop Woop here come da Police !

I picked these figures up in true Yarkshire fashion, on't cheap on t'fleabay. Not from West Wind who do the "official" figures, these are old Foundry figures very nice too. However unlike GW I don't think West Wind will try and sue me for using none "official" figures. They aren't as detailed as the WW sculpts and are quite broad shouldered giving them a cartoon feel, however for Steampunk that ain't a bad thing.

I've used milliput to make the cobble street effect on the bases, thanks to Simon Quinton on the Carry on Painting group on facebook for the idea. There is quite a big mould line on the Sgt figure holding the lamp, I didn't notice it while painting, in the flesh its hardly noticeable.

Quite straight forward and quick to paint, after all its just one main colour. Main difficulty is getting the right shade, I used a 50 50 mix of Dark Prussian Blue and Black (vallejo) as a base and built it up by gradually adding Dark Blue Grey to the mix.

Spookily whilst putting this blog post together my main EotD order arrived at the front door, get ready for more weirdness over the coming months.

28mm AWI New Unit 22nd Cheshire Regt

28mm AWI - New Unit - 22nd Foot (Cheshire)

After a couple of posts of weirdness it was back to some more normal fare, on my days off this week I managed to rattle off the last 12 of these and get the unit based and varnished ready for the table.

Being born in Cheshire I always have a "home" regiment in my British Armies, of course they will always be at least Elite as well ! These are the plastic Perry figs with GMB flags, first AWI unit I have done with Buff facings, so they also have Buff kit as well, happy with the results again, I really like the photo directly above looking across the rear of the unit.

2 battalions down from this Brigade, with other stuff on the go I hope to have the lot done by year end, new projects permitting of course.

Empire of the Dead - Gallows Hag

Empire of the Dead - Gallows Hag

Reet into these figs, this one was picked up on cheap on fleabay, great figure to paint it actually looks scary.

My armed Cricket team have showed up for my Yarkshire Gentleman's Cricket Club faction, they will of course be led by Sir Geoffrey of Boycott with able support from Sir Dickie of Bird, Sir David of Bairstow, Sir Martyn of Moxon, Sir Herbert of Sutcliffe, Sir Frederick of Trueman to name a few.

Wayland Games have emailed me to say they haven't got the stuff I want and delivery will be delayed, what a surprise !

Didn't realise how popular EotD was, the Professor Erazmus post last week had more hits than any of the stuff I've done in the past.

Empire of the Dead - Professor Erazmus

Empire of the Dead - Professor Erazmus

This is very much not my usual fare. Things have been quiet on the gaming front at the mo here in Castle R, working shifts myself limits the time I am about when "normal" people are around. Various people dropping out has meant no gaming for a while, added to that the painting is a bit slow, I am in the middle of a 24 man AWI unit which always takes me ages and I have 14 28mm Desert vehicles on the go at the same time. I'm getting all of them to a gaming standard ie plain desert yellow, before putting camo and decals on. Not much to blog about as a result.

So as a treat I painted this gadger up in one go just to get something finished. My lad, 14 has expressed an interest in EotD and the figures and concept is great. This is a free figure I got with the rules book, it was quite fun to paint as a one off, usually I'm painting a unit of figs in batches of 6 to 10 so just concentrating on one fig at a time was something new.

I've ordered some more (from Wayland Games, cheap but very slow), I'll keep you updated on the new project after promising not to start any new projects this year, oh shiny why hast thou taken my money again !

28mm WW2 Desert Rats

WW2 Desert Rats - New Unit

On the back of last weeks Italians, I finished off another box of Perrys Desert Rats and have got them based up and ready for the table. These have a 2nd South African Div Patch on their arm and are to represent the Royal Natal Carbineers. Not strictly accurate but adds a bit a character to them and makes them easier to spot.

Full box contents all done.

These figs have been around for a few years now so most of you will be familiar with the wonderful work of the Perrys and this the first of the WW2 Desert range, a box responsible for the "skirmish" project I started last year which is now creeping up to 400 finished figs with at least another 100 on the production schedule. Add to this the 30 ish vehicles and that box of Perrys I got a while back is to blame for a lot.

Each box contains 38 figs (or 40 If like me you got an extra hq sprue in one box) we are using a box to represent a company, a hq of 3 figs plus 3 groups of 10 and an attached Boyes AT and a baby mortar. 4 boxes plus support for a battalion.

Boyes and Mortar

This is the fourth box of Perrys I have done, third for myself and l have one in the ready bay so I have got in a bit of a groove with them. Only one complaint not enough prone figs to do a deployed and moving bren team. There is no easy way of sorting out the problem, no one makes a deployed gun team on its own which doesn't cost an arm and leg so I will be getting at least one if not two extra boxes to make up the missing bases and then painting and flogging the rest on fleabay to fund the next project.

You can easily pick a box of these up for £16 (or less if you know the right people) great value and a great way to build up you re basic troop types, love em.

Front and back view, realised from the photo I need to re touch the rifle bolt.

28mm WW2 Italian Bersaglieri

28mm WW2 Italian Bersaglieri (Desert)

These guys were never really part of the plan, I was going for a Battalion of standard Italian Infantry plus the Giovani Facisti I featured in a previous blog. However I went to the Recon show last Xmas near my home in Leeds and couldn't find anything I needed, in danger of being cast out for not buying something at a show, I went for the "oh, they are nice" option and bought the Warlord Games Bersaglieri box set.

The box contains 21 figs, 15 foot, a light mortar with 2 crew and an MMG with 3 crew, also shown is a 47mm ATG l bought over tinterwebnet last month.

Basic Infantry types

Breda MMG and crew, sandbags added by me

Pea Shooter and crew

47mm ATG looked a bit bare with no gun shield so I added some sand bags

Front and rear view of one of the figs

They have painted up quite well, I prefer the Perry stuff, they have that touch more detail and character but will certainly get some more of these to make up enough for a company (or 2, or a battalion, I know !)

Certainly looking forward to getting a big game on with the Desert stuff, I have the next batch of vehicles half done so when the current Naval Mini Campaign is done (see other posts and the background of the top photo, oops) that might be next.

In general wargame world it was a pleasant trip to Triples a couple of weeks ago. My lead mountain was on the way down but I ended up buying a couple more boxes of Perrys desert stuff, some Panzer 1s for SCW and a box of the 28mm Agema Romans to try out. It might just be me but I find the current venue for Triples "soulless" its a big sports hall at the end of the day, to me things just get lost in the enormodome.

The old Octagon had character, lots of different rooms lots of soul, it was a pain to park near, even a bigger pain if you were a trader or putting a game on but it just had something about it. It might just be nostalgia but I genuinely used to look forward to Triples now I can take it or leave it, for me York is now the best show in the area and one I always look forward too (its near my birthday as well so usually have lost of figure tokens to use up). Sheffield Wargames Society do a great job organising the thing its not a criticism of them, its horses for courses and I'm running at York.