Russo-Japanese War Fleets: Done! - No Wait, I am a Channeling Clark Griswold.....

It was time to take a break from the 15mm Stalingrad project.  Finishing up the Russo-Japanese War project by painting up the ships seemed like a grand idea and last night the labeling of the last ships and flotillas of the Japanese fleet was done.

Sitting back to admire my work - to bask in the glory of my creation I heard a familiar sound playing in my head.  You've likely heard it to.  It was the musical notes played during the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when Rusty asks his dad if he brought a saw after trekking out miles into the wood to  find the perfect Christmas tree.  Here, let me remind you:

I noticed something wrong with one of the labels on a Japanese cruiser - the old 3rd class Niitaka.  There was something off with the flag.  It seems I manage to put 2 flag images on the label and they were slightly offset.

Oh well, its only 1 ship - who cares, right?  Well just to be safe, I checked the others and, well ummm, it seems this double image problem was on every label save one - the Battleship Mikasa.  That's when I heard that familiar Kettle Drum sound.

It seems I was a bit over-zealous with my copy and paste in excel when making the labels and managed to put multiple copies of the image on the labels.  This is a great example of being too focused on completion rather than quality.  Todays project inbetween business calls will be to re-label the Japanese fleet and then double check the Russian labels.

Somewhere, Homer Simpson is smiling.

Liaoyang: Another Go up at the Club

 

At the club last night I re-ran my Battle of Liaoyang game from the Russo Japanese War.  I did expand the table size from 8x4 to 8x6 and that really helped with game play.

Simon and I took the Russians and Steve Ed commanded the Japanese.  We used a modified version of Altar of Freedom that I've been working on which has been very creatively titled "Altar of Empires"

We called the game after 9 of 12 turns were played.  At the point the Russians were slightly ahead of the Japanese on points but my half of the board was getting pushed very hard by Steve's furious assaults and even more aggressive japanese accent.

Simon blunted Ed's attack and did preserve the vital Trans-Siberian Railway.  I think if we had had the time to go the full 12 turns that game would have fliped from a marginal Russian victory to a marginal Japanese one.

I've got notes for 3 other scenarios so will continue plugging away on this project.

Picture Dump From the July 11th Liaoyang Game

 The last half of July has been crazy busy work wise so no time to post about gaming.  Thankfully, at least there was time to game!  Anyway here is a picture dump from the Liaoyong game I ran.  The commentary will be a bit sparse but will be amended over time.

Our Historicon replacement game day was featured in this video

Here's the initial set up from the Japanese left flank. 

A close up on the Japanese 6th and 3rd Divisions which make up the 2nd Army.  These formations would attack the hills directly in front of them for the entire battle.

You can also see the sabot bases I made for all the stands

The Japanese right flank.  Not pictured is the 12th Division, which started the game hidden from the Russians and already across the Taitzu River.

Opposing the Japanese are 14 Russian Divisions (12 Infantry and 2 Cavalry)

The Japanese force consisted of 8 Infantry Divisions, 3 Kobi (reserve) brigades and some independent artillery and cavalry regiments

The Japanese have a slight edge in quality and command but there are a lot of Russians!

Theres a lot going on this 8x4 table.  In hind sight, I should have played on a 8x6 table - I just didn't bring enough terrain squares to set it up that way.  The distance from the Russian front lines and Liaoyang was too small and should have been another 18 inches or so.  Live and Learn. 

We're using Greg's Altar of Freedom rules which I've modified for WW1 by introducing indirect artillery fire, machine guns and longer rifle fire ranges.  The command friction aspect of the rules (Priority Points) was unchanged as that's the heart of the system.  The artillery rules need to be modified but overall I was very happy with how the rules "mod" worked.

 The Japanese attack commences with their lone reserve division (the 4th) committed to attacking the extreme Russian right flank. 

Tony and Greg commanded the Russian forces while I commanded the Japanese.  About halfway through the game Josh was able to join and took command of the Japanese left half - finally getting some competent command to the Japanese forces.

The battle in the center was a see-saw affair with the Russians launching a counter attack that very nearly captured the 4th Army's HQ.  The red pins on the bases reflect fatigue points which is how the rules reflect battle damage.  The magnetic pins worked fantastically.  I'll be adapting a lot of game systems to use them.

The determined assault by the second army finally carries Hill 683, which is a VP location

We used the flashing smoke markers from the Trafalgar game to represent artillery that had fired indirectly during the turn.

The Japanese left flank continues to prepare for the attack.  In the upper right corner you can see parts of the 12th division which was revealed to the Russians - they are moving to cut the trans-siberian rail way (the grey road)

 Tony commanded the Russian right flank

 Finally Josh arrives and not a moment too soon!

 The Japanese Guard division carries the hill and allows the 2nd Infantry division to cross the river in support of the 12th

 2nd Army's attack stalls under the weight of Russian defenders but the 4th division continues to push back the Russians

 more commentary to come.....

Liaoyang Game at the Club: Initial Set Up

 Originally I had planned to be at Historicon this weekend, as had most of my fellow club members.  Unfortunately, a certain virus had other ideas and that convention (along with many others) was rightfully cancelled.  With the easing of some restrictions the club decided to have a very limited game day on Saturday - albeit with all the new norms of face masks, hand sanitizers and social distancing.  While some of those measures can be awkward, they are needed to protect other people and with the right attitude really don't intrude on having a good time.  As you might guess, I ran my Liaoyang game and thought it went well.  There will be an episode of LWTV about the day so no details on the battle for now.

 The battle was fought on a 8x4 table using 6mm figures.  All units were at the regimental level, which during the Russo Japanese War a regiment had anywhere for 1,000 - 2,500 men.  It would be the equivalent of a brigade in ACW terms.

All of the unit stands fit into a 3D printed sabot base that has a label along the back for unit ID tags.  They also have a thin strip of ferrous paper along the labels so they tags can accept magnetic pins....

Here's a close up of the units in their sabot bases.  The ID tag is 10mm wide which has enough room for a printed label (attached with double sided tape and room for magnetic pins). 

Artillery units had limited ammo which I tracked with green and blue pins.  Shoot indirect artillery, remove a pin.  Fatigue (damage) is tracked with red pins. 

Overall, the basing method worked great and really streamlined play plus I think looks pretty sharp.  I will be adapting this method for just about all the games I play that require some form of unit status tracking.

The rules we used are were an adaption of Greg's ACW ruleset "Alter of Freedom" that have the working title "Alter of Empires".  I'm hoping to use them for both the Russo-Japanese War through WW1.

Overall, they worked well.  Indirect artillery fire needs some tweaking but these did seem to simulate the R-J war really well.

I will likely run this game gain - maybe even for a formal episode of LWTV or at a war game convention when they eventually return (I'm betting no sooner than summer of '21, by the way).  In addition to tweaking the rules, I would play the game on a 8x6 ft table - I had to squeeze the battle down a bit given space limitations and poor planning by me.  Still it was a really fun game and I really enjoyed seeing my R-J project make it to the club for an outing.

I do think it's time to move onto another project.  Maybe terrain for an upcoming episode........

Liaoyang Game: The Russian and Japanese Armies

Both the Russian and Japanese armies are ready to be packed up for the up coming Liaoyang game Saturday.  I still need to add a few flags but not much more is needed to be done.  All of the units are based in #D printed sabot bases which have a thin metal strip across the base label.  This will allow player to track unit status with tiny magnetic map pins.

Here's a picture showing the pins in use - the Divisional artillery unit has 3 rounds of ammunition (3 green pins) and the 4th Regiment from the 3rd Division has taken 2 fatigue points.  In past games I used round disks or paper to track status and it became confusing - hopefully this method works better and keeps the table less cluttered.

 The Russian army at Liaoyang consisted of 12 Infantry and 2 Cavalry divisions organized into 6 Corps.  It is a formidable force that was lead by shall we say not the most talented of officers.

The Japanese forces at Liaoyang consisted of 8 Infantry Divisions, 3 Kobi Brigades and a number of independent formations.  The only are where the Japanese had a material numbers advantage is machine guns plus they were employed in a much more flexible way.  I think I've come up with a simple rules construct to represent this advantage.  I guess we'll find out on Saturday!

Liaoyang Terrain

 The city of Liaoyang and three outlying village markers are complete.  These will all be used as objectives for Saturday's Liaoyang game at the club.

I still need to finish up some hills that will run south of the city.  These are pretty good approximations of the actual hills.  I suspect the Japanese players will not like them very much

Battle of Liaoyang: Terrain Prep

 With the club now re-opened (in a socially distant way), it's time for me to run a big game.  Given my current infatuation with the Russo Japanese War, the game in question will be the Battle of Liaoyang.  One of the defining battlefield terrain features is the city of Liaoyang itself as it had 30 foot tall walls. I've decided to 3D print a representation for both the city and 3 villages that will serve as objective markers.  These are not architectural models (I made up the layout) but size wise and shape its how the city is represented in period maps.  I found some 3D model files for Chinese buildings and fortified walls on the Wargaming 3D site and downloaded them.  I experimented with printing sizes and settled on using a print scale of 15%.

 With all the components printed out, I cut some bases from thick cardboard and glued the pieces down.  I found PVA glue worked best as I am printing with PLA.  These were then primed (all i have on hand is tan) and left out to dry.

The battle itself was a rather long affair running from August 25th to Sep 5th, 1904.  We'll be refighting the climatic part of the Battle during August 30 to Sep 1.  The opposing armies were fairly evenly matched.  The Japanese had 8 infantry divisions and roughly 125K men pitted against a Russian force of "approximately" 135K in 12 Infantry and 2 Cavalry divisions.  The historical reference materials have fairly large variances in reported Russian troop strength - from 128K all the way up to 245K!  Some of the Russian troop counts are suspect as their sources are various Russian commanders who either supported the Russian CIC (Kuropatkin) (lower counts) or despised him (higher counts).  "Alternative Facts" seems to have existed far before the Trump administration.  I'm going with a troop count that matches the formations present.

Another terrain feature of the battlefield was a low ring of hills to the south of the city and along the eastern edge of the map.  I've got a number of hills that are large but decided the game needed some smaller ones that fit better with 6mm figures.  The terrain on the Western side of the side was pretty open but did have lots of fields of Sorghum, which was just about ready to be harvested and approached 9 feet in height (think cornfields from the ACW)

Speaking of ACW, the rules I'm planning to use are based on Greg's wonderful ACW ruleset "Alter of Freedom". I really like the command mechanics in AoF and think they are a great way to simulate the command issues the Russians faced without making then "no-fun" to play.  This will be my second outing with my modified ruleset and I'm hopeful they work out well.  The first outing was another R-J War battle Tashinchiao - which was fought in July of 1904 with about half the forces we'll be using for Liaoyang.

For those of you who are familiar with Alter of Freedom, the scale of Liaoyang is a little bigger than Gettysburg.  If you are not familiar with Alter of Freedom well you're living a life of unnecessary deprivation - below are some links to some videos from the club about a game staged with AofF and a rules review.  Its a great set of rules that you should go out and buy.  Go ahead, treat yourself - you deserve it.

Battle of Antietam

AofF Rules Review

Normally this time of year (late June / early July) is filled with frantic preparations to put on my game at Historicon.  With this years convention cancelled, it's actually very calming to have to have something to frantically prepare for - it's a reminder that things will get better eventually.

Be safe everyone - and don't be an ass, wear a God-Damn mask in public.

Russo-Japanese War Fleets

I finally got a little painting mojo back and started to paint up the ships I got from War Times Journal for the Russo-Japanese War.  First up are the Russian fleets based in Port Arthur (upper left) and Vladivostok (lower right).  These will have the following paint scheme (all Vallejo paints)

Hull: Olive Drab
Deck: Deck Tan
Superstructure: Khaki Grey
Funnels: Ochre Brown
Life Boats: White

The ships will get a very thin black ink wash and then get based up.

The second picture shows the rest of the ships, well I picked up models for every ship involved in the conflict - On the right side is the Russian Baltic fleets that came over to reinforce their Pacific forces in the form of the 3rd and 4th Pacific Fleets.  These fleets will have a paint scheme of:

Hull: Black Grey
Deck: Deck Tan
Superstructure: Medium Grey
Funnels: Ochre Brown
Life Boats: White

Of course, if one has Russians, one also needs a Japanese opponent, which you can see on the left side of the second picture.  These have just been primed grey and had their decks painted (Iraqi Sand).  I used a different deck color form the Russians to make it easier for players to identify the two sides.  The Japanese paint scheme will be a medium grey for both the hulls and superstructures and white for the life boats.

In addition to the Japanese Warships, I purchased 8 freighters/transports which can be seen at the bottom of the line of Japanese ships.

These models are 1/2400 scale and are resin prints.  They are superb and paint up really well.  I highly recommend War Times Journal - these little ships are fantastic.

The WTJ line is extensive for this period and I have a model for every capital ship in the War.  I also have models for all the Destroyers and Torpedo Boats but those are still in their bags and will get painted when the bases arrive.

At 1/2400 scale, each capital ship is 2 - 2.75 inches long.  The destroyers and torpedo boats are .75 - 1.0 inches long and still have a lot of detail.

Once these fleets are done, I'll need to finish up the land armies - I'm a little over halfway there. 

My goal is to put on a Russo-Japanese War convention game with both land and naval engagements.  The next big convention here in the US is Fall In, which is scheduled to for October 22-25 of this year.  I've got hotel reservations set for the con but think it's a 50/50 chance it can be held.  I actually need two things to be true (1) The Convention can be held and (2) My lovely, yet fierce Dr Wife grants me the OK to attend for health reasons.  If Fall In isn't viable there's always Cold Wars in March'21.  The main point is I have a lot of time to both get ready and procrastinate.  I  wonder which one will be in the majority?

Virtual Gaming Attempt 2: Some Conclusions are Emerging

 Last Monday, I put on my second attempt with virtual gaming for the club.  Overall it went better than the first attempt but that was more due to the smaller scale in terms of units and the rules.

I re-ran the same battle as last time (Tashinchiao from the Russo-Japanese War) but used Greg's Alter of Freedom rules, which move the scale up from Battalions to Regiments.  That cut the number of unit bases in half and reduced the table top from 6x4 to 4x4 in  size. 

I made some changes to Alter of Freedom to include indirect artillery fire and machine guns but tried to keep the tinkering to a minimum.  I may have failed but I did try...

The Japanese were able to stage an effective attack and the outcome of the game was still in doubt after we called a stop.  I had four players (2 for each side) and we managed to get in 5 turns of a planned 12 during a 3 hour game session.  Had we all been playing in person, I am convinced we would have gotten all the turns in.  As for the outcome I think it was a toss up.  One Japanese division was chewed up at the cost of 2.5 for the Russian formations.  The game could have gone either way.

To me this is the biggest issue with staging a miniature game with lots of bases - it's just inefficient as one person me has to move all the pieces, roll the dice.  It's also frustrating for players as they try to communicate where to position units for maximum effect and I often misunderstood their instructions and needed to constantly tinker with placement.  There were some comical moments with exasperate players constantly telling me to move unit "over-there" or "where I'm pointing" only for me to remind them I cant see them.

 Because I was so busy running the game, I couldn't take any pictures during play so have posted some end of gaming session pictures.

The Japanese (Greg and Josh) elected to attack the center- left flank of the Russians where they saw a gap in the defensive setup.

The attack pushed the Russians off the hill but reinforcements moved in to stem the Japanese tide.  Both sides launched attacks and counterattacks - its was a swirling battle and was really fun to watch.

The Japanese left flank saw no action during the game but that may have changed had we gotten more than five turns in

Indirect artillery was an important factor in the game but it wasn't over-powering.  I still need to tweak the rules to make it more streamlined its use in the game.

While Zoom is a good platform, we still experienced some issues with players have a hard time keeping the map camera they wanted pined (visible on the main screen).  This could have been my fault as the host, Im just not sure.  Given my general level of technical ineptitude, it probably was but there will always be issues with people using different types of bandwidth and devices.

So what have learned after putting on 2 "virtual games" and playing in two others.

1) Game Type Matters
Games with lots of bases and free form movement are very difficult to stage.  It's exhausting for the GM and frustrating for the players as they just don't have the same control over unit placement.  Games that have movement grids (squares or hexes) will be a lot easier to put on as unit placement options are limited.  I'm hoping we can try "Rommel" or something like "Too the Strongest" in a future game to see if the gridded movement speeds things up.

Naval games where a player commands one or two ships also should work well - again you need rules that have gridded movement like "Fire as She Bears" (octagons) or "Hammering Iron" - ACW ironclads (hexes).

The next game I try to put on will likely be a Napoleonic naval game using Fire as She Bears.

2) Games with lots of Bases / and lots of different unit types/capabilities are hard to stage.
Camera resolution and your players bandwidth can limit the visibility of units and often results in players mistaking unit x of superior infantry for unit y of conscripts.  I tried to manage this by color coding unit labels and keeping all the units of a formation the same quality but there still were points of confusion.

3) Multiple Cameras are a must and you need at least one "mobile" camera to zoom in on key spots.  I had two cameras up and running - a mid-level logitech webcam and my I-phone on a tripod.  The I-phone provided far superior image quality and about halfway through the game I started placing it on the table to zoom in and that worked well.  One I-phone tip I learned is the camera on the back of the phone is superior to the one on the front.

4) Is it worth the trouble - Hell Yes.  Despite all of the technical and gameplay issues being able to spend time with my gaming club is more than worth the effort to stage a game.  Trying to keep some semblance of out Monday night traditions is important and something I'll continue to be working towards.