1:1200 Napoleonic Naval - The Battle of Trafalgar or: 'Trafalgarage'

Sylvain here, reporting from my garage. A few years ago, I painted enough sail ships to play the battle of Trafalgar, and since I have been looking for a set of rules that could handle this huge engagement in a reasonable amount of time. "Trafalgar", by Mark Latham, is elegant yet it would take days of gaming to bring the battle to its conclusion. Another difficulty is the sheer size of the gaming surface. Even at 1:1200. Nelson's column is four feet long, making it impractical on any gaming table. 

So I came up with the idea of playing the battle in my garage. I decided to regroup ships in squadrons of three and set them on a twelve inch long block. Each block has been identified with a huge sticker to facilitate recognition from a standing point of view. Movement and firing have been simplified. Ships move at twelve inches per turn, which is exactly the length of a block. Here is an example of a ship display.

Flag Officers. Some ships carry a flag officer. Each die shown beside the name represents an opportunity to re-roll any die roll during a turn. This can be applied to any unit within 12" of the flag ship.

Orange boxes. Every time one or more orange boxes are marked off during a turn, the ship must test for morale.

Masts. Each box represent one hit and the white ones must be marked off  before the orange ones. For the leading ship, each box lost reduces the speed by 2", resulting in the whole squadron loosing movement. For the other ships in the squadron, damage on masts only counts towards a morale check.

Hull. Each box represent one hit, to be marked off from left to right. The number inside each box represents the number of attack dice.

Crew. Each crew box represents one die roll to be used for boarding.

We played during our regular Friday night session. Curt and Jeremy took command of the Allies, respectively as French and Spanish, while Sean and Conn shared control of the British fleet.

The Admirals and the Referee

The Hispano-French fleet, minding its own business, heading for Cadix, just beyond the garage door, already dreaming of the pleasures of wine and love... Many times during the evening I've heard suggestions to paint the garage floor the color of the ocean.

The British fleet, ready to enter from the West wall of the garage. Even my garage was to small to fully accommodate the original disposition at Trafalgar. The next logical step will be to play in the backyard.

Two British columns converging on the French and Spanish ships. In this new iteration of the battle, both Nelson and Collingwood sail in the same super column. But wait! What is the rearguard doing?

Admiral Curt, boldly changing history, tacks his squadrons in the opposite direction, trying to lure the British fleet into pursuit while the vanguard, lead by Admiral Jeremy, would go for a quick exit.

So, if I do this it will really cock-up the game right? Excellent...

Sylvain and Admiral Conn trying to puzzle through Curt's crazy gambit.

Okay, time to pay the piper.

The vanguard is almost at the door! Three British squadrons are close behind. Many ships will be able to escape.

The final, savage, melee for the rearguard.

The game was flowing at a nice pace and four players were able to bring this huge battle to a conclusion during the course of four hours. The gaming experience was satisfactory for both sides, although I should have had established clearer victory conditions at the start. The rules, although simplified to the extreme, produced results compatible with the historical outcome. All in all, I would say the experience was a complete success.

From MilesR: 1:1200 scale British Ship-of-the-Line (15 points)

From Miles:

I wanted to end the challenge with what I consider to be the most challenging but rewarding mini to build - a Langton 1/1200 scale Napoleonic ship.  In this case, its a Brits 3rd rate (74 guns) Ship-of-the-Line.  I have yet to name her but will do so later tonight.

The rigging consists of etched brass rat lines and a very minimalist approach the running rigging.  I've found more elaborate rigging looks great but doesn't last very long on the tabletop.  One of the pictures has a side by side with a 28mm Perry plastic confederate figure to help you see the size and figure out scoring.  I had wanted to complete a few more of these ships but time and work have conspired against me.

Curt - it has been a real pleasure participating in this year's challenge and I want to thank you for your efforts.  I think this event does a lot to bring all of us in the this rather "unique" hobby a bit closer together to learn from one another.  I know my rudimentary skills get a bit better each year by just being able to see all of the fantastic contributions from the other contestants.  It's a grand experience and you should be very proud of your contribution to the hobby

Thanks very much for your kind words Miles. It was a pleasure to have you participate again in this year's Challenge.

I agree, some of the most challenging modelling out there is creating a Napoleonic ship-of-the-line. Your've done great justice to that lovely Langton model, Miles. I really like the well-defined chequering, and the addition of the brass-etched ratlines and proud ensign really set it off. Beautiful work!

This lovely 3rd Rate will give Miles a 1st Rate 15 points. Well done and thanks again.

From PeterD: 1:2400 British Naval & 1:1250 Aircraft (39 points)

Peter apparently shares the same writing style as myself in believing 'why use 10 words when 10,000 will do' ...

From Peter:

HMS Renown c1917.  These were part of the grab bag that I acquired from Sylvain.  Although CinC lists these as WW2 models, they in fact represent the Renown and Repulse as built in 1916-7!  Even in WW1 these two went into dock for upgrades so often that they were dubbed HMS Refit and Repair.  The fact that they were armoured on the same level as the I class battlecruisers that had blown up at Jutland didn't help their reputations either!  Between the wars they became very different ships - in fact they were far more valuable fleet units when 20 years old then when they were brand new.   The CinC casting is a complete failure for WW2 but works very well for WW1.  In fact I think they are the only 1:2400 models of these ships for WW1.

HMS Renown

In response to the air fleets launched from HMS Eagle, I've finished some elements from the Italian opposition.  Here we have a formation of 6 SM79 Sparvieros accompanied by two Macchi C200 Saetta.

The SM79 was likely the best Italian aircraft of WW2.  Originally designed as a passenger aircraft, it served in the Spanish Civil War, WW2 and into the 50s.  It was used as a medium bomber and as a torpedo bomber and was especially effective as a TB.  The MC200 Saetta was a fighter than was able to take on the British Hurricanes and P40s and served ever where that the Italians did in WW2.

These are all Cap Aero 1:1250 models mounted on florists wire (visible beneath one of the SM79s in the lower photo).  While the wire looks clunky in unpainted form, I find that you can acheive a disappearing act by painting it blue to match the bases. 

In these photos we see the Regia Aeronautica in action with elements of the RN's Mediterranean fleet (both of WW1 vintage but heavily modified for WW2).   We have HMS Warspite (a ship that should need no introduction) and the C class AA cruiser HMS Cairo.  The ships are of course GHQ 1:2400 models.

HMS Warspite

Finally we have two elements of the Regia Marina at sea, in the form of the Battleship RM Guilio Cesare and the cruiser RM Luigi Cadorna.  These two have been shadowed by two FAA Walruses (single bases) who have vectored in a flight of RAF Beaufort  torpedo bombers (reported piloted by Lts "Brutus" Smith and "Cassius" Jones). The ships are GHQ and the planes CAP Aero.

RM Guilio Cesare and RM Luigi Cadorna

The Cesare was a WW1 design that was upgraded (ok considerably rebuilt) in the 30s.  She served at the Battle of Calabria, where she set a record of sorts thanks to the long range hit that HMS Warspite scored on her.  She also sortied numerous times to intercept British convoys, notably the First Battle of Sirte.  After the war she was transferred to the USSR and served as the Novorossiysk before being sunk by ex-German mines, Italian frogmen or random gamma rays from Mars.  She had two sister, the Leonardo Da Vinci (sunk in WW1 by unstable ammo) and the Conte di Cavour (sunk at Taranto by FAA Swordfish).

The Luigi Cadorna was part of the second group of Condottieri cruisers.  She served in the Spanish Civil War and WW2 and was present at Calabria.  Being considered too weakly protected for fleet work she was assigned a range of more dangerous tasks!  These included minelaying and serving as a fast fuel and ammo transport.  She also took part in attempts to intercept RN convoys.  She served in the RM until the early 50s.  A sister the Armando Diaz was sunk by a RN submarine on the Libyan transport run.

(Falls sleeping from chair.) Right!  Oh, are we done? ;p  Seriously, great job on these Peter. I don't know if you need to rework any future flight stands with a pin vise etc. as these look brilliant to me. It's interesting how the difference in scale between the ships and aircraft really makes no difference in the overall aesthetic.

This group of ships and aircraft will give Peter 39 points. Nice work.

From PeterD: 1:2400 British Carrier HMS 'Eagle' & 1:1200 Aircraft (25 points)

Peter actually sent in this submission early yesterday but the reason for the delay in getting them up is that his pictures looked like they were taken from a Japanese reconnaissance plane under heavy flak. Since we were getting together for a game last night (more on that later) I offered to take a few shots of them after a steadying shot of eggnog (and perhaps something else added, can't remember).

From Peter

This is HMS Eagle circa 1941, a GHQ 1:2400 scale model, with air cover provided by 10 1:1200 models from Cap Aero (Fairey Fulmars and Swordfish).  The Eagle was started as a Chilean super-dreadnaught.  Work stopped during WW1, but the incomplete hull was purchased by the Royal Navy and converted to a fleet carrier in the 1920s.  She served nobly in the Med during WW2 until sunk by a U-boat on the Pedestal convoy of 1942 that saved Malta during its darkest hours.

I've painted Eagle in a camouflage pattern based on pictures off the interweb.  These all showed her starboard side, so I had to wing it on the port side.  The Cap Aero models are mounted two to a base to represent a flight of aircraft with florist's wire supports.  When I get around to the float plane scouts I will mount those one to a base.  The Cap Aero models are beautiful but fiddly, especially the bi-planes which need their top wings glued on.   There are 3 bases of Swordfish and 2 of Fulmars for a total of 10.

Excellent stuff Peter! While the carrier is great I really like the aircraft bases and the you did a super job on the aircraft themselves. 

I'm going to give Peter 25 points for this lot. 

Wargaming Against the Weather: Outdoor Naval Wargaming

'Sorry Curt, I can't really hear you from the howling wind and my pulled-down touque. Did you say something about someone looking like a dork?'

Sylvain again here. (With unwarranted photos and editorial comments from Curt.)

Not long ago, I presented some newly painted 1:1200 ships on this blog, along with some crazy plans to play outside. I came up with an hypothetical scenario: 

7 December 1941 - Because their crews were involved in a bar fight the week before, the Admiral decided to send at sea the USS Colorado and the USS Arizona, for a gunnery practice involving lots of healthy drilling. However, after a day at sea, the two battleships stumbled upon two Japanese battleships, part of the Japanese Fleet sent to attack Pearl Harbour.

AMERICANS: USS Colorado, USS Arizona

With their slower units, the Americans know they are in trouble. The American player's objective is to inflict damage to both Japanese ships in order to slow them down and then try to escape in order to participate in the defense of Pearl Harbour.

JAPANESE: IJN Ise, IJN Kongo

Banzai! The goal of operation Tora Tora Tora is to eliminate as many American capital ships as possible. The Japanese player wins by sinking at least one American ship and then escaping.

All the models are from Superior Models.

After a week of being harassed, Curt and Peter kindly agreed to give the game a try. The weather was as to be expected for the season, but a little challenging for wargaming: cloudy, about +8C, very (VERY) windy.

Peter: 'Right, and who's idea was this again?'

Admiral Peter, of the US Navy, in command of the USS Colorado and the USS Arizona, about to spot the Japanese intruders.You can read his report of the game here.

Curt: 'F*ck, its cold! This is not the South Pacific, its the bloody Murmansk Run!'

Kaigun Taisho "Kaato" (Japanese pronunciation of Curt), maneuvering the IJN Kongo toward Pearl Harbour. He is holding a turning gage, formerly known as a paper plate.

This picture gives a sense of the firing distances. Ships were firing at 20', and they were about 40' apart. Hits happened at about 30', which is about 12,000 yards. "Real" naval engagement, according to what I have read, would take place at about 18,000 yards (45' at this scale).

Sylvain cutting quite the dash in his wargaming toolbelt - Ooh, TRES sexy!

Peter rangefinding with his... iPhone... obviously the Americans have a leg-up in gunnery technology.

Shells from the Colorado are getting dangerously close to the Kongo. Captain Peter proved to be very effective at guessing range. On the following turn, the Colorado scored a hit on the Kongo while the Ise hit the Colorado in return. Both ships lost a main turret.

Kongo's fire ranging in on one of the American battlewagons.

A hit! A palpable hit!

Peter running madly after a turn gauge being blown away in the wind. I'm sure there's a song somewhere in there...

Sylvain is having waaay too much fun with his monster tape measure.

Curt's Kongo getting 'bracketed' by American fire. Ouch!

Bullseye! Guessing the exact range, directly onto a a ship's base translates in 2 hits. The Kongo, at this point, had lost a main turret, half the secondary armament, AA guns and was crawling at a speed of 14 knots. The Japanese commander decided at this point that bombarding Pearl Harbour with battleships might not be worth that much trouble after all and decided to rendez-vous with the main fleet. Admiral Yamamoto, a little busy right now, might not find the time to read the battle report before a few days. The American ships, hearing bomb explosions in the distance, decided to head back home to see what was happening.

Because of the heavy wind, there was no way to keep the "splashes" upright. The wind even knocked down my tool box full of playing equipment!

Playing in this crazy weather felt like a combination of cross country skiing, paragliding and wargaming. Afterward, Curt and Sarah treated us with delicious hot tea and pie.

How to describe this kind of gaming experience? "Different" comes to mind. It really gives a feeling of how distant modern dreadnoughts were when exchanging shells. Using "distance evaluation" replaces the luck of the dice with the evaluating skill of the players. There might not be another game before next spring, so I will have plenty of time to make some adjustments.