Had a fairly busy day at work, but got a little gaming in - a couple chess games in which I got badly trounced, and a quick solo round of Bob Cordery's Portable Naval Wargame - the old free version. Though hex-based, it wasn't hard to modify it for squares.
As today is the birthday of Fred T. Jane (International Naval Wargames Day), I was inspired by this:
Our system has most of the reprints from the '60s. I borrowed this for the original Jane rules in the back, but while they're too complex for my purposes the clean line drawings work great for hasty squadrons. I copied a couple Portuguese cruisers and Austrian torpedo boats at 50% and taped the side-ons to the top-downs. They turned out to be smaller than necessary:
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| Turn 2: The cruisers are still out of range, but the torpedo boats launch ordnance at each other and hit. My opponent is sunk, my own is damaged badly enough to retreat from the board. |
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| The cruisers pound each other for a couple turns. Here my opponent (left) is not in position to broadside, so rolls half dice in exchange for my full four. |
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| By the time I'd done four of six points damage to my opponent, he'd done three to me. That forced him off board, while my own miniscule paper ship proudly sailed the seas... |
Happy INWarD!
This is a clever way to get ships onto the table quickly. WoFun Tsushima? This is new to me!
ReplyDeleteI bought their version of Peter Dennis' Trafalgar, which are nice and solid. The paper method is from Featherstone's Naval Wargames, though I printed them too small so they were rather fiddly to make. It felt appropriate though!
DeleteA very pleasing battle report!
ReplyDeleteThe Junior General also has suitable ship silhouette/side view ships you could download and use.
All the best,
Bob
Thank you! That means a lot. I've used JG in the past for this, but thought original Jane's illustrations would be appropriate.
DeleteI like the look of those paper war ships. One thing about using a chess board - I've tried it, and finding myself looking at a chessboard! Can't get past it (I also play chess - though only online - haven't faced a physical opponent for well over 20 years). But you might look at doing simple balsa scratchbuilds - something along the lines of my ships in this posting.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6650770985225450559/3796332529588746023
The 'naval' label will lead you to more of these (among others, include uber-simple naval games using 'Age of Imperialism' war ships)
http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2013/05/battle-of-jasper-roads-part-2.html
Cheers,
Ion
I've just discovered Heroscape terrain, and am thinking of buying some of their tiles, including water ones. Thanks for the tips on the scratchbuilds.
DeleteI love the idea around how you have done this naval battle on a chess board.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fairly normal size for Portable Wargames, though 3x3 has become popular too.
DeleteInspired and really clever.
ReplyDelete(Seeing Bob's comment; I forget about Junior General. Such a brilliant site).
Regards, James
Just the simplest possible model, as suggested by the late great Featherstone - well, I could always draw it with a pen!
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