Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Second World War => Topic started by: Wirelizard on February 10, 2020, 11:13:37 PM
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Having done a Workshop thread on my coastal terrain (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=121255.0), I figured I should start an actual thread over here on the WW2 forum for the actual games we're playing with tiny boats!
All of my boats so far are from Last Square, the really beautifully sculpted and cast Figurehead range of 1:1200 scale coastal warfare vessels.
Some of my Royal Navy, trawlers in the foreground and various flavours of Fairmile D MTB/MGB behind.
(https://i.imgur.com/sBYCYe3.jpg)
...and some Kreigsmarine Schnellboote and Raumsboote.
(https://i.imgur.com/geSExEM.jpg)
I threw everthing onto temporary cardstock bases with bluetac before the game. Here's all my boats sailing across our breakfast bar countertop...
(https://i.imgur.com/Z01PaBI.jpg)
This last Sunday we ran a test game of Narrow Seas by David Manley, with four Kreigsmarine S-boats attacking a British coastal convoy of a tanker and a freighter being escorted by four RN Fairmile D MGB gunboats.
I didn't get many photos during the game and we got a bunch of rules wrong (and deliberately ignored others to keep the first ever game from bogging down), but it was a good game overall.
This is fairly early, with S-boats approaching from the top of the photo and the Fairmile Ds and their merchant charges right down at the bottom near the coast.
The game ended in a Kreigsmarine minor victory, with one sunk freighter, one sunk Fairmile traded for one S-boat scuttled by it's crew in utterly wrecked condition.
We'll be running more games of Narrow Seas, and trying some other rules options as well.
There's a bit more over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2020/02/09/an-actual-game-of-tiny-ships/
More painted ship pics here: http://www.warbard.ca/2020/02/05/tiny-ships-painted/
...and lots of scenery pics in that thread over in Workshop I linked to at the start of this post.
Any other Narrow Seas (or other coastal naval rules) players out there in LAFland? Curious to know what more experienced naval gamers think of the rules, the entire genre is utterly new to me!
(https://i.imgur.com/E722vbe.jpg)
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So we had our second game of coastal warfare this afternoon, two games in fact, using the TooFatLardies-published Coastal Patrol from their Summer 2011 Special.
Quite a bit faster playing than Narrow Seas, much less dice rolling overall. The turning circles/turn arcs are smaller so the boats feel a bit more agile, and I really like the TFL-influenced "roll for number of actions per activation" thing, which forces some quick and hard decision making.
The rules have some definite gaps, though. Smoke rules are missing entirely, chunks of the rules could definitely have done with a bit of further polishing, but the overall feel is good. I like the damage modelling quite a lot, more so than either Narrow Seas or Warlord's Cruel Seas (which is overly simple, just being "mark off check boxes until you run out, then you sink" as far as I can tell) as it's light on bookkeeping and dice rolling but works well.
No new pictures, because I managed not to take a single photo during either game we played.
More verbiage over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2020/02/16/tiny-ships-a-game-of-coastal-patrol/
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Bringing my own WW2 coastal naval thread back from hibernation, we're getting back into some boating about in mess later today so I've been painting some of the second Last Square/Figurehead order I did back in March, finally.
(https://i.imgur.com/z2d06me.jpg)
The niftiest things in the new round of painting were a pair of German Vorpostenboote or patrol trawlers. Lots of neat detail on them, and the two ships are subtly but noticably different from each other, which is cool. I'm also really pleased with the disruption camo grey-on-grey paint scheme and how it turned out. I'll probably do one more round of weathering and highlighting, but they're tabletop ready now.
There's a few more photos and such over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2020/07/25/new-ww2-tiny-boats/
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Painted up a half dozen impossibly tiny WW2 airplanes this weekend, including doing freehand (recognizable!) national insignia, because wargaming is insane.
(https://i.imgur.com/sMWvFbS.jpg)
Three RAF Coastal Command Beauforts/Beaufighters (the minor differences being totally invisible at 1/1200 scale!) and a matching trio of Luftwaffe Ju-88s, all chosen because they did maritime strike stuff for most of the war in all the relevant Western European theatres.
More pictures, painting details, and such over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2020/07/27/tiny-boats-and-even-tinier-planes/
Curiousity question: I can tell this is series of posts is getting looked at, but I feel like I'm talking to myself. Is there that little interest in coastal warfare here on LAF?
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...... but I feel like I'm talking to myself. Is there that little interest in coastal warfare here on LAF?
lol
Don't take it to heart, your boats and shorelines look great but small scale games don't get much love on LAF, and as far as WW2 coastal gaming goes, if it isn't the new shiny junk from Warlord it doesn't seem to count anyway.
We play coastal battles in 1/3000, so even smaller than yours and too small to bother with pictures. Using David's old "Schnellboote" rules, the forerunner of Narrow Seas. I have not picked up the new ones yet so am interested in seeing your thoughts on how they play.
You could do with a decent blue cloth rather than the pale grey though!
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I'm sorry, brother, just not my cup of tea, I fear. I think something like this is always going to struggle for attention against some of the more photogenic scales and genres to be found on LAF. I don't think there's much to be done about it, really. Those flashy 28s are always going to hog the glory.
But don't give up. I do like your little planes. Do you have any Sunderlands? Suppose they aren't really "coastal", or are they? Anyway, I'd like to see a Sunderland. After the Mozzie it is probably my favourite WW2 plane.
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It happens all the time in various sub-forums. The smaller the scale...the less interest there is in photos, etc.
You'll occasionally stumble into someone who's also a die-hard fan of your scale and game, etc. I pop into threads like this to take a look, but I rarely have anything to say - short of "nice work", which seems a bit...lazy? :D
Generally speaking, even scales like 3mm, 6mm, 10mm etc...really struggle to captivate someone who doesn't play the game/scale. As stated above they just aren't particularly photogenic or awe-inspiring in photos. Naval games suffer even more because of the general lack of terrain. Even my 15mm WW2 thread gets scant attention because I don't have pretty models or tables most of the time. My other threads where I post more nicely painted minis and crazy tables...they get far more "traffic".
My blog doesn't get a heap of traffic, but it's a fair amount. I just use the blog to motivate myself - the lack of comments etc. doesn't bug me. Just keeping plodding along!
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Only just seen your thread and seems excellent. Off to check out your blogs posts. I’m pleased to see small scale ships as I have recently become interested in WW2 naval and have General Quarters 3 for big stuff but would like to do some coastal. Have you played Action Stations? I believe it’s a more complicated and earlier version of narrow seas but don’t have any real experience of either.
Keep it up,
BALM
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I own Action Stations. Is it very different from Narrow Seas?
And another question, not directly related, but...
Who makes torpedo boats and the like at 1/600?
Milo.
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We’ve played Narrow Seas, and had good fun.
(https://i.postimg.cc/WbqMX86B/F67-C0-C5-C-E470-43-F3-AECB-E4024-E3336-A2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/8jDJChY4)
(https://i.postimg.cc/3xqh27zv/E3-FF4316-F2-D4-469-C-B02-D-41-BD65-A09702.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/w1DnpKqq)
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OK, I no longer feel like I'm talking to myself. :D
I hadn't actually heard of the Action Stations rules before, might have to snag the PDF off Wargame Vault to test and add to the collection. Having just looked at the sample rules visible on the WV site, I like the fact that it has Crew Morale rules front and centre.
I've also just rediscovered The Quick and the Dead over on WV, which looks like an interestingly different system. Any opinions?
We found Narrow Seas to have a really dice-heavy fire resolution system that slowed the game down significantly, although I really like just about everything else about it as a rule set.
Coastal Patrol has a really elegant fire resolution system but is woefully incomplete in a bunch of other ways.
There is no such thing as a perfect rules set.
Nice looking boats, flatpack. What scale are they? 1/300? 1/600?
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Just stumbled my way onto this thread, really interesting, love the planes, great work on them! Just getting into small scale wargaming myself, 2mm stuff, so this is a very interesting thread. :)
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Thank you for the nice comments on my boats. They are 1/600th.
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Only just seen this. Hmm, very tempting. I like this size for coastal forces action. I see they are available from Magister Militum in the UK. I have a lot of 1:600 aircraft, but I could use those in forced perspective...
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Cmdr.Roj there is always Heroics & Ros that do a coastal range in 1:600 and is one of the few ranges that they have available currently.
Flat pack: being new to this bit of WW2 can you recommend a small selection of ships for Germany and Britain to get me started.
BALM
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Cmdr.Roj there is always Heroics & Ros that do a coastal range in 1:600 and is one of the few ranges that they have available currently.
Flat pack: being new to this bit of WW2 can you recommend a small selection of ships for Germany and Britain to get me started.
BALM
That is true BALM, and they are nice, but I am very interested in The Solomons campaign at the moment. H&R are sadly lacking Japanese vessels, with only one.
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Only just seen this. Hmm, very tempting. I like this size for coastal forces action. I see they are available from Magister Militum in the UK. I have a lot of 1:600 aircraft, but I could use those in forced perspective...
It's a fun scale, 1/1200. I was a bit wigged out by the tiny size when I first started painting them but it's actually been good for my painting chops overall to force me to change focus! Edge highlighting becomes much more important, because an inch-long ship without edge highlighting (especially if it's partially camo'd) is just a fuzzy little blob but proper edge highlighting means that, suddenly, it's recognizably a SHIP again![quote
Flat pack: being new to this bit of WW2 can you recommend a small selection of ships for Germany and Britain to get me started.
If you want to do North Sea/English Channel stuff, I'd start out with a pack or two of Vosper torpedo boats, a pack or two of BPB motor gun boats (all "short" boats, 70 to 73 foot), a pack or two of S-boats for the Germans, and two to four merchants of some flavour or other. You could add some RN trawlers or German Vorpostenboot (also trawlers) which both sides used for coastal convoy escort, minesweeping, and such, or some slower less glamourous patrol craft - RN Fairmile B motor launches or German Raumboot (R-boats). Something like that mix will give you both offensive and defensive setups for both sides.
If you want to do later war, Fairmile D motor torpedo boats for the RN are pretty much mandatory, but they're terrifying opponents and will make life very, very difficult for whoever is playing the Germans.
For the Med/North Africa/Adriatic/Aegean ops I've not done much reading yet, there were more American boats down there which I know less about.
That is true BALM, and they are nice, but I am very interested in The Solomons campaign at the moment. H&R are sadly lacking Japanese vessels, with only one.
Americans and Japanese I've read only a little bit about, the Japanese seemed to have very few "true" coastal warfare boats the way all the other combatants had. Destroyers, armed landing craft, and various powered barges seem to be the order of the day for the IJN.
Last Square's Figurehead line has lots and lots of American options in 1/1200 and what looks like enough Japanese stuff for a good game. http://www.lastsquare.com/zen-cart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=103_146 (http://www.lastsquare.com/zen-cart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=103_146) All the ships and boats I own so far are Figurehead and they're all really nice figures, cleanly cast and nicely detailed for the size.
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Americans and Japanese I've read only a little bit about, the Japanese seemed to have very few "true" coastal warfare boats the way all the other combatants had. Destroyers, armed landing craft, and various powered barges seem to be the order of the day for the IJN.
That sounds about right to me. US MTB’s attacking sub-chasers, destroyers and cruisers.
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Cmdr.Roj - Apologies I’d seen the category heading but not actually looked at it. I’ve been chatting to Andy from H&R a little over email recently - I’ll be brave/cheeky and ask him if he intends to do more at any point soon.
Wirelizard - Thank you that is brilliant, just what I wanted. I’m good when it comes to land based WW2 and just learning about the bigger naval things (hoping to do Solomon’s and Guadalcanal using GQ3 as my next big project, in 1:6000 if I like the figurehead DDs in person) but am only just beginning when it comes to smaller boats. I have various Ospreys and background reading but this will give me a head start and allow me to buy a few things to work on and play with during my seemingly never ending house arrest/COVID-19 lockdown shielding.
BALM
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Sorry you feel like you've been talking to yourself! I've been dropping in to keep an eye on the log because small scale always tickles my fancy. I've always been keen on more modern naval engagements, with the current situation in the South China Sea providing a tempting source of inspiration. I'd probably go with 1/3000 for my gaming however...
I'll try and be better at commenting in future ;)
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Hi,
Another who has just "discovered" your thread!!! I think the problem is not so much size/scale, as naval wargamers are used to "going small" - it's the subject matter. Even amongst naval wargamers, coastal warfare is very much a niche subject - which is a shame, as it provides endless scenarios that are much easier to play out in an evening than another Jutland, Midway or death ride of the Yamamamamoto.
I got into this about a year ago, but still haven't played a game yet. I decided on Coastal Patrol as I'm a big fan of TFL rules generally (but had also heard better things about them than I had about Cruel Seas from folk who had tried both); I was also thinking of trying Narrow Seas as I've heard good things about David Manley's approach to naval warfare (he apparently used to run an annual Naval Wargames Day at one of the RN establishments down on the South Coast). I got a load of 1:600 vessels from PT Dockyard in the US (a friend brought them over for me), and some other bits and bobs from H&R and Tumbling Dice. However, a cheap offer of a Cruel Seas starter set in the "For Sale" thread on here means I now have some 1:300 vessels for a basic "learning game"; I think H&R also do some duplicate 1:300 vessels, but only the "small stuff". This is the first thread I've seen about 1:1200 vessels for this sort of game, though, and obviously it allows you to use larger vessels and also have a bigger scrap (and maintain proper scale weapon ranges).
I like the slightly larger 1:300 scale for the smaller (as in fewer vessels) games, which are perfect for learning the rules, but once you get past the torpedo/gun boats level, you tend not to have much spare room on the table for tankers, flower class corvettes and the like, never mind destroyers, and you really have to go down to 1:600 (or indeed 1:1200) to maintain a sensible perspective, as opposed to the game looking like a scrap in an overcrowded dry dock.
Rather oddly, I've seen the phrase "needed more play-testing" used about every set of coastal-based rules I can think of. I wonder what it is about the genre?
Anyway, with my 1:300 vessels as a listed lockdown project, I shall be keeping an eye on this thread and possibly even weighing in occasionally with ill-considered, irrelevant - and irreverent - nonsense.
Splice the mainbrace!
BvW
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Right, let's heave this thread up out of the briny deeps too, as I've finally been doing some new stuff in the WW2 coastal naval department around here.
Had a chance to run a game at a local game event in early November and wound up with seven players when I'd planned/hoped for maybe three or four. It was glorious chaos - four people each running a single RN Vosper MTB and three people each running various parts of a German convoy. The Germans lost two of their four cargo vessels and had a couple of their escorts badly damaged but it cost the RN all four of their Vospers - three blew up outright and one abandoned by it's crew in sinking condition, survivors taken aboard one of the German R-boats... "For you zee war iz over..."
A few weeks ago I discovered a new source of reasonably priced 1/1200 ships, 3d printed resin sold by Antics out of the UK under the John's Model Shipyard name. I ordered a few and will definitely be getting more in the future, although a lot of the range is aircraft carriers, cruisers, and the like, not really in the coastal warfare line but there's some nice freighters and destroyers.
I've put up an unboxing review on my blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2022/12/02/3d-printed-1-1200-ships-from-antics/ (http://www.warbard.ca/2022/12/02/3d-printed-1-1200-ships-from-antics/)
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/jms_6_nov22-1024x561.jpg)
Partial view of most of my order - a T2 tanker at the back, passenger liner back left, RN destroyer in the centre, and two more freighters in the foreground. I also got a quartet of U-boats, just for the heck of it.
I've also done a small order to Last Square for a few things from the Figurehead range - an RN Hunt-class destroyer escort, a similarly sized torpedo boat for the KM, and half a dozen packs of airplanes just for the heck of it, because absurdly tiny airplanes are awesome.
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I just found out about this discussion too.
I've got some of the wonderful little Figurehead vessels, and even a few of their aircraft, though the latter are getting crazy expensive for small packs. I prefer the 1/600th scale aircraft from Tumbling Dice, and Oddzial Osmy/Pico Armor for value, and a forced size perspective. They're actually cheaper than their smaller cousins, and you get twice as many planes in a pack too.
I think these are best for larger battles with merchants, and/or larger vessels than the small MTBs/MGBs, S-Boats, and PT Boats, given their small size. They're less impressive on the tabletop than their larger cousins, but the detailing on them is superb.
Hard to take good photos of the smaller craft though, and they aren't as impressive visually compared to their larger cousins, but gun and torpedo ranges can be more realistic.
I have a decent collection of them. Time to pull them out and commit them to battle again.
Been wanting to do this for a while, so need to get cracking.
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Been slowing painting up those 3d printed 1/1200 ships I showed off in the post from December, and they're going nicely. I'll get pics of them soon, possibly tomorrow.
This afternoon I sat down and tried out plastic broom bristle for (slightly more) gamer-proof masts than either pewter, 3d printing, or wire would allow for, and I think it's been a success!
http://www.warbard.ca/2023/02/11/masts-with-broom-bristle/ (http://www.warbard.ca/2023/02/11/masts-with-broom-bristle/)
I built one tripod mast on a pewter Hunt II destroyer escort, and added a stub of topmast to a 3d printed O-Class destroyer, and both seem to have worked out really well.
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/masts_side_11feb2023-577x1024.jpg)
The plastic bristle takes superglue well, and you can put a bend in it that will stay put, which I had to do for the Hunt's tripod mast.
Next challenge is, just how much of the clutter of booms and extra cargo handling masts do I feel like adding to my various merchant ships?
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Cmdr.Roj there is always Heroics & Ros that do a coastal range in 1:600 and is one of the few ranges that they have available currently.
Flat pack: being new to this bit of WW2 can you recommend a small selection of ships for Germany and Britain to get me started.
BALM
Sorry BALM, I’ve only just noticed your question, just two and a half years later…gulp.
I would suggest a couple of British MTB’s and a couple of German E boats, just to get you going.
This has actually reminded me that I should dig the boats out of my garage, and have another game.
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WireLizard: those look great, the mast is the perfect mix of thin enough to be real yet still resilient for me (I’m colourful - I couldn’t think how to describe the spectrum! lol - and can really struggle with fragility and damage in/to models). Looking forwards to seeing them against the smaller stuff.
Flat pack: don’t apologise sir, this is exactly the speed I like my conversations :D
Thank you for the suggestions, I’ve read up a little more since and it seems that you could do such actions with a good range of scales as the action is usually close range and often involving limited numbers. Does anyone have any suggestions for reading involving such conflicts in the Med?
Thank you for posting, looking forwards to seeing the finished ship,
Andrew
Balm
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I got cargo booms added to two of the merchant vessels today with more broom bristle but haven't gotten pix yet. I also painted up the masts on the Hunt DE and the O-class and they look good and seem solid.
For Med reading, Dudley Pope's Flag 4 is long out of print but easy and cheap to get through various used book sellers (lots on ABE), and Mediterranean MTBs at War by Leonard Reynolds & Herbert Cooper is more expensive and harder to find but well worth it. All three of Reynold's Coastal Forces histories (Dog Boats At War, the Med book, and Home Waters MTBs & MGBs at War) are well worth tracking down. Dog Boats seems to still be in print, the other two aren't.
If you haven't already found it, the Spitfires of the Sea website is worth a look, especially his Publications page: https://spitfiresofthesea.com/publications/
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Thank you sir that small list should do a good job of replacing insomnia for a while, much appreciated.
Balm
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Let me add to the chorus of "Oooh! Only just found this!"
Inspirational stuff!
I do coastal stuff in 1/600, H&R and Tumbling dice, and larger vessels in 1/3000, mainly Navwar. My paint schemes are very basic as, at the rate I paint, I'd never get anything on the table otherwise!
I'm currently using Cruel Seas for coastal stuff but must investigate the other rules mentioned here.
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Did some more detailing work with broom bristle over the weekend, adding cargo booms to two of the merchant ships I've been painting up, and got paint on all the mast/boom work so far.
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/booms_3_feb2023-1024x576.jpg)
Kind of fun but very fiddly, made easier by the pair of superfine curved-tip hobby tweezers I picked up semi-randomly before Christmas.
There's another three of the Antics merchant ships that I will be adding at least a few booms and masts too, and at some point I need to pull out the entire collection and do the masts on my main group of pewter Figurehead ships up in broom bristle. Many of the Figurehead ships come with cast pewter mast assemblies and I have added exactly zero of them to any of those ships because they're so incredibly fragile. Copying them in plastic bristle won't take long and will be much, much more wargamer resistant!
Couple more photos and some more writeup over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2023/02/14/masts-booms/ (http://www.warbard.ca/2023/02/14/masts-booms/)
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Really excellent work that has bought them to life and made them truly ship shape!
Balm
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Really excellent work that has bought them to life and made them truly ship shape!
Thanks!
I pulled out the rest of my 1/1200 collection, all pewter from Figurehead, and added masts to all the ships that had come with pewter masts (which I'd never glued on because they are terrifyingly fragile!) and this is the result:
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/masts_2_22feb23-1024x576.jpg)
There's just the one larger T2 tanker left to add masts and booms to, and of course paint on all the new stuff.
I've also based up a set of five tiny Ju87 Stuka aircraft to give the Luftwaffe something else to menace surface shipping with! A Stuka in 1/1200 has a wingspan of about 12 or 13mm, in case you were wondering...
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/stuka_22feb23-1024x576.jpg)
There's a couple more photos and some more details over on the blog, too: http://www.warbard.ca/2023/02/22/masts-booms-part-two/ (http://www.warbard.ca/2023/02/22/masts-booms-part-two/)
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I'm really enjoying this thread and your progress. Please keep the posts coming. There aren't enough naval threads on this forum -- so thank you!
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Needed a storage solution for my slowly growing fleets of tiny boats, tiny airplanes, and not-quite-as-tiny ships, so sat down last weekend to do that.
Came up with a solution that uses the acrylic bases all my stuff is based on to hold everything in a way that should keep paint jobs, masts, and other tiny details all intact for storage and transport.
I used the box that Last Square had shipped one of my orders to me in, added dividers of mat board cut 25mm tall, then put foam strips on either side with slits cut at intervals to hold the two far ends of the bases.
My standard bases are either 40mm long by 20mm wide, or 60mm long/20mm wide; the bigger ships have bases pieced together as needed. There's usually at least a couple of mm of empty base at either end, so most of the boats are held in place without the model even touching the foam at all.
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/storage_3_mar23-576x1024.jpg)
Couple more pix over on the blog, as is often the case: http://www.warbard.ca/2023/03/07/storing-the-fleets/ (http://http://www.warbard.ca/2023/03/07/storing-the-fleets/)
The airplanes are still a bit random, tucked into that lower right corner, but 1/1200 single engine planes weight basically zero so I don't think they'll damage themselves for the few months they'll be stuffed there before I come up with a proper storage & transport setup for the planes as well as my slowly expanding fleets.
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Great job on the storage! I have been thinking about a similar racking solution for terrain tiles, and wish now that I had started with acrylic bases for my ships and could do the same.
One question on the masts, are you measuring out the bristles before gluing them in, or putting a whole one in and then cutting it to size after the glue dries?
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Excellent idea for very suitable storage, that’s also recycled? Take a bow sir. That work’s brilliantly and looks perfect.
Balm
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Great job on the storage! I have been thinking about a similar racking solution for terrain tiles, and wish now that I had started with acrylic bases for my ships and could do the same.
One question on the masts, are you measuring out the bristles before gluing them in, or putting a whole one in and then cutting it to size after the glue dries?
Put them in long then trim, although not usually "full length" as these bristles are from a floor broom so can be over six inches long.
I have a pair of light precision snips (Tamiya, I think) that work nicely to trim to final length after the superglue has set.
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So it's been all quiet on the gaming front for the last while as we've been moving into the condo we started the process of buying back at the beginning of February!
We got keys mid-March and are now moved in and mostly settled, and last night I finally got my painting/modelling desk fully functional in the new space.
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/workbench_28mar23-1024x576.jpg)
Decided to start on the rest of the 1/1200 airplanes, beginning with five Bf-109 and three Me-110 for the Luftwaffe to cause mayhem in. I'm also going to repaint the Stukas I did a quick paintjob on earlier this month, as I really don't like the colour scheme they wound up with.
After the Germans are done I've got three more Beauforts/Beaufighters, five Hurricanes, and five Spitfires to expand my RAF forces in useful ways.
That'll give me a couple of strike/light bomber options for each side and a bit of fighter cover, which given these tiny airplanes are intended to be adjuncts to naval-focused gaming should be enough... until I decide to go entirely mad and do up entire air wings in 1/1200. Playing fighter games in that scale would certainly emphasize the "big sky, small airplane" thing, wouldn't it?
(realistically, I'm likely to add a few scout/recon type planes - a Condor and a Sunderland or PBY, say, for offshore naval games, as I gradually expand my forces away from purely coastal theatres.
Couple more pix over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2023/03/28/the-workbench-this-week-28-march-2023/ (http://www.warbard.ca/2023/03/28/the-workbench-this-week-28-march-2023/)
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Let me preface this post with with a comment. I have never been into naval warfare and most likely will never get into naval warfare. Saying that, I just had a mill around your blog and am dam well impressed. For a subject that has to date not interested me, your postings and photos have been top notch and kept my interest throughout. Very nice work all around and keep it up.
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I have been playing Coastal Patrol for a few years in 1/600 concentrating on the eastern front. So even less popular than other theatres! The nice thing about TFL rules is that they are easy to adapt and modify.
Any one in the SE USA interested in playing? I would love to get more people involved with this really fun period and system.
Some pics from past games Most minis are from PT Dockyard Great service and huge selection.
Mark
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Let me preface this post with with a comment. I have never been into naval warfare and most likely will never get into naval warfare. Saying that, I just had a mill around your blog and am dam well impressed. For a subject that has to date not interested me, your postings and photos have been top notch and kept my interest throughout. Very nice work all around and keep it up.
Well thank you, glad you're enjoying this naval stuff! I didn't think I'd ever do naval either, and had minimal interest in WW2 as a whole a few years ago, so never say never?
I have been playing Coastal Patrol for a few years in 1/600 concentrating on the eastern front. So even less popular than other theatres! The nice thing about TFL rules is that they are easy to adapt and modify.
Very nice! As far as I can tell, nobody is currently doing Soviet ships smaller than destroyers in 1/1200 and there's darn few of those. No G5 MTBs, none of the other Soviet boats and landing barges and such in my current scale of choice. It's unfortunate, because the Soviets had some unique equipment and the mix of stuff on the Axis side, especially in the Black Sea, was also quite different than what you saw in the larger theatres. (I think it was the Bulgarians who started the war with half a dozen British Vosper MTB... on the Axis side!)
If someone started doing Soviet coastal forces in 1/1200 in either pewter/resin or as 3d prints/STLs I'd snag them immediately to give my Germans some variety.
The Luftwaffe airplanes I mentioned in my last post are all based up, priming is delayed because I've managed to clog the nozzle on my white primer rattlecan again! The nozzle is currently sitting in acetone but I might need to buy another can of the same paint to get a clean working nozzle and then just switch it back and forth as needed. Frustrating, and the Krylon primer cans seem more prone to clogging their nozzles than other random spraypaint brands.
I'll also be running a Kreigsmarine S-boat attack on a British coastal convoy at the Trumpeter Salute 2023 game convention in about two weeks, so I need to do up ship record cards for that and get at least one test game in - planning on running a Hunt-class DE for the RN with radar and a gun director station, neither of which we've ever played with before, so a test scenario seems in order!
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When you have tiny airplanes, you are clearly in need of appropriately tiny decals for them!
A couple years ago now I got a 4"x2.5" sheet of custom-printed waterslide decals from Misc Minis for my 1/1200 project, saw that they were awesome, and promptly put them away in the dreaded 'safe place' and did absolutely nothing to them.
Well, this morning I pulled them out (they got found while packing for our recent move!) and applied them to some of my Luftwaffe aircraft. They do indeed look awesome, although decals these tiny are really, really fiddly to deal with - fine-tip tweezers and a sewing needle were the tools of choice.
(http://www.warbard.ca/files/decals_2_8apr23-575x1024.jpg)
That's a 1/1200 Ju88 Stuka with a 12mm wingspan sporting a Luftwaffe cross just over 1mm across, and awaiting the second one on the other wing.
Couple more pix, as usual, over on the blog: http://www.warbard.ca/2023/04/08/decals-for-1-1200-miniatures/ (http://www.warbard.ca/2023/04/08/decals-for-1-1200-miniatures/)
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This last weekend I ran a game of a Kreigsmarine S-boat attack on a British coastal convoy one dark night sometime in ~1942.
The British were sheparding a mixed convoy along the coast including a huge ocean-going freighter that dwarfed the tiny coastal freighters and escorts. A pair of M/S trawlers were supplemented by one of the brand-new Hunt-class Destroyer Escorts, pride of the escort fleets and eager to destroy German raiders!
The Germans had a quartet of Schnellboote and started sneaking in at moderate speed, but were spotted by the Hunt DE and one of the S-boots was clobbered hard by a couple of shells at long range very early, crippling it badly.
The other three S-boats pressed inward, and the Hunt DE, HMS Atherstone, came out to meet them. Lucky gunfire from one Sboat crippled the Atherstone's driveshafts and before her crew could do anything, a pair of torpedoes slammed into her and sent her down into the mud.
The two RN trawlers did their heroic best to protect their charges but the huge ocean-going freighter, the Fort Concord, also collected a pair of torpedoes into her flank and she was sinking fast as the Schnellboote roared off into the dark.
A solid German victory, one crippled but still moving (barely!) S-boat for a brand-new Hunt DE and a rare prize for the S-boats, an entire ocean-going freighter!
We had four German players, one per S-boat, and two folks running the convoy between them, and everyone agreed it was a good game.
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Just joined and good to see some coastal forces in action. I too have a Russian coastal fleet but can't find a set of rules. I tried cruel seas, narrow seas and coastal patrol. What mods have you made to coastal patrol?
Thanks
Joe
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I haven't made really any mods to Coastal Patrol. I do have several books that help with specifics and boat stats including the recent Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939-1945, vol 1 and 2. I think 3 is just now coming out. The PT Dockyard site has some info and the owner is also a great source of info.
Mark
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Question to everyone -- what rules have the best torpedoes rules?
I have played regular naval games where ships always seem to maneuver so a torp misses. Or the torp hits but damage is negligible.
Thanks
Chuck
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Mark, Interesting. I have used clash of arm Baltic Arena as my primary source. You have inspired my to try coastal patrol again.
Chuck, great question! I haven't found a good set of torpedo rules especially for solitaire play. I finally wrote my own. You don't track their movements you trust that your boat knows how to aim torpedoes just like you trust they aim guns. You might have to wait a turn but then you roll to see if it hits. Simple.
Unfortunately I have it bundled with some other rules for cruel seas. I titled it Crueler Seas and it is available for the princely sum of 50 cents. At wargame vault. [ 100% of money I make goes to the local food bank.] Sorry for the commercial but it is an honest answer to your question and I make no money.
Thanks
Joe
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Hi Joe!
I thought I had your Crueler Seas rules already but no. Downloaded and will peruse them later.
Thanks
Chuck
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Thanks Chuck. They are targeted at cruel seas but will work for any tactical system as I also give measurements in yards. The hit rate it a bit high but that takes into account the dud rate resolution that will then lower it . If you really think it wasn't worth 50 cents let me know and I will refund you my portion. Not out to swindle people. : )
Questions let me know here or on the blog.
Cheers
Joe