One reason I do not paint as much as I want.

So I have played Wargames in a number of forms. While I have not been able to play and or paint many of the Miniatures and Miniature wargames I would want I have been messing around with a few computer games.

One that I will talk about now is contently being updated and improved. Rule the Waves, is a great game and it allows you to chose a nation, or create a nation and be the Secretary of the Navy.

You design and deploy ships all around the world and you wage war against other nations while trying to work within a ever changing budget and political situations that are unique to each nation.

I tried out a custom nation, a hypothetical Sweden that consisted of Norway, Sweden, Finland, The Gold Coast and the Virgin Islands.  This custom nation was created by a person named Skold and his mod can be found on the Rule the Waves forum, along with other custom nations. The game started in 1900 with a small fleet of old ships and a small budget. I fought a short war against Italy and did not win any territory. I later fought a War against Austria and I did well. I was able to win Ireland as part of the terms to end the war.

The views are not very flashy but it is very deep and you can research a lot of different technical advances which allow you to build bigger and more powerful ships.

Here is the Swedish Fleet at the end of the Game. I started the game with a small fleet option which limits the number of ships you can make over time. Next time I will chose the large fleet option.

The game is a lot of fun, you can check out YouTube to see what the game looks like live as there are a number of videos to help people navigate this deep game.

Well if you have any questions or comments please leave me a message below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mark

First Game of 2016

Happy New Year!

I got to play my first Wargame of 2016 yesterday in a great part of Sweden. Black Powder (Soren) and I got together at his home in Uppsalla to play the first game of the year to help up prepare for the games we will be running at DFFCON 2016 in Copenhagen.

It was a snowy day in Uppsala

We played our favorite WW1 naval rules, Naval Thunder Clash of Dreadnoughts. I will not go into too many details about the scenario but the US Battleship squadron force was intercepted by a force of German Battle Cruisers and one Battleship.  BLUF: It did not go well for the US!

The Rules

The game was fun and Soren did very well. I had a hard time with my dice roles and twice during the game I rolled 20 on two D10 dice to resolve critical hits.  So needless to say the results were a magazine explosion on the USS New York and the ship the battleships were escorting.

The upside down ship will be a TBD ship that is being escorted by the US Battleship Squadron

The initial setup

The ships start to maneuver

The German battle line

The Germans had speed on there side and were able to force the US ships to maneuver where the Germans could do the most damage.

The beautiful ships that Soren has painted up for WW1

The US Battleships on the move

Disaster strikes the US Fleet early in the game when the USS New York blows up!

Yes I did roll those dice.....

More gun fire and damage to both sides stats to add up

The USS Florida had some issues with flooding....

Near the end of the battle

Disaster strikes again. The ship being escorted by the US Ships explodes after being hit one time by the German guns.

I obviously did not give the dice Gods a satisfactory sacrifice before the game as I rolled that 20 as well.

Well I hope my dice rolls improve as the year goes on!
Have a good week. I will have more posts this coming week.

Happy New Year!!!

I wish all of you a Happy New Year!!!

I did get a chance to finish my gift from my Secret Santa! So again Thank You and you can enjoy the pictures of HMS King George V.

I also got a package in the mail today from Russia with the six 28mm figures that I ordered from Warhansa miniatures.  I have to say that the figures are very well made and the poses of the miniatures are full of action. These will be a pleasure to paint up.

I will post pictures of the miniatures as I get them done.

Well have a great New Year!!!

Good by 2015 and welcome 2016!

Thank you to my Secret Santa!!!

Well the gifts are all unwrapped and I must say I am very happy with my gift from my Secret Santa!

From the GHQ Website

Thank you for the GHQ King George V Battleship miniature! It will be painted up as the HMS King George V.  I have painted up her sister ship HMS Prince of Whales.

My painted version of HMS Prince of Whales

This will be a great addition to my WWII Naval collection!


I also got a great gift from my Fiance Cathrine, She got me a Gold Membership to the Vasa Museum here in Stockholm! It is a great gift and I am very glade to be able to go to this amazing museum free at any time during this coming year. If you would like to know about the Vasa or the membership check out the information here: Friends of the Vasa

The Vasa on my second visit to the museum, I have been here 3 times so far.

In two years I will be able to go on board the Vasa! Wow that will be a memorable day!!

Scale model of the Vasa!

Again Thank you to my Secret Santa!!
I hope to find out who you are!
Merry Christmas!!!

Mark

Finishing up the US Battleship Division Nine of the Atlantic Fleet from WWI

Hi everyone.

I am surprised I was able to paint with the news of yesterdays attack in Paris. I think it was the only thing that I could do to take my mind off the events of yesterday.

So I have finished up three more GHQ Ships for the WWI Period of Naval History.

The ships are:

USS Delaware

USS Florida

USS Wyoming

The three new ships

These new additions along with the USS New York, which I painted last year will make up the historic Battleship Division Nine of the US Atlantic Fleet.  This squadron was sent to assist the British in late 1917.  The four ships served with the Royal Navy as the Sixth Battle Squadron of the British Royal Navy.

The Complete Battleship Division ready for action

Top down view of the ships

I hope you can take some time and look on line to get more details on each of the ships if you are interested.

These ships should be making an appearance at gaming convention in the near future. Details are to follow.

Be safe and try to have a safe weekend!

WWII Naval Project Complete

It has been a good weekend.

I was able to finish two projects, the Space 1999 and the Battle of Denmark Strait project.

The last two ships to finish the Battle of Denmark Strait were the HMS Hood and the HMS Prince of Whales. These two ships have been sitting in my to paint pile for over a year now, so it is good to get them done.

Here are some pictures of the two British ships and also the entire force for the game.

Let's see how the battle fights out when we play at the club.

I hope everyone was able to get some painting done this past weekend or the chance to play some games.

Have a good week.

First game of the year!

Hi everyone!

Well this past Wednesday I played my first game of 2015.  It was a good game of Naval thunder with Soren, Jesper and myself.  We played a what if scenario with the US and the British fighting a German force that included two Zeppelins.  Soren came up with the scenario and also the rules for shooting down the zeppelins.

The scenario description

The rules for shooting and hitting the Zeppelins

The map

We meet up at our favorite burger place near the club and then we headed to the club and dove straight into the game.The initial set up had was per the map and the US player, me came in on turn 3.

The German force of two Battleships, two Battlecruisers, and two Zeppelins

On the left side of the zeppelins are the Battleships Fredrich Der Grosse and Ostfriesland. To the right are the Battlecruiser Derfflinger and Moltke

The USS squadron coming on board, USS NY in the lead followed by USS AZ and in the rear is USS RI

The British squadron of Battlecruisers, with HMS Indefatigable and HMS Lion

We started to maneuver our ships and the British was set to take on the zeppelins that were being protected by the two Battleships as the Battlecruisers broke formation and headed out to slow the American squadron coming on from the NE corner of the board.

The Germans starting to break up there fleet

The target for the Zeppelins

 I was not long until we all started to fire and find our targets. At long range there were not many hits, but that was going to change soon.

The shells started to rain down early and often in this game

US Ships under fire for the first time

The British did a great job of holding off the Zeppelins and the Battleships

Still steaming along heading to the coast

 First blood was scored by the British on the Battleship Fredrich Der Grosse and a normal flooding situation turned bad for the German Battleship. Because of heavy flooding she began to list to port and this reduced her speed and ability to accurately hit targets.

Massive flooding damage!

Here you can see the British and US Force at the far end of the board, the coast on the left of the picture and the two groups of Germans as they head to the coast

 Because of the flooding and reduced speed the Battleship Fredrich Der Grosse had to break out of formation to allow the zeppelins the speed they needed to reach the coast before the American Battleships could get close.

To slow!!!

Wrong turn!!!

 This is the first game we experienced Rutter damage and it added some unique situations for both the British and German fleet! in the end the US Squadron was the only ones able to maintain formation throughout the whole battle.  The USS NY started to take damage and an engine room hit meant the US squadron could only move at a rate of 3 instead of 4. This prevented the US from getting to the coast to help the British deal with the German force.

Steady as she goes!!!

The British also lose control of there steering.

Here you can see the British Battlecruiser Indefatigable with 4 rudder damage markers, that was the least of her worries as she was taking massive damage from the German Battleships

 As you can see from the image below the British were trying to slow down the German force heading for the coast and the US Squadron was engaged in a gunfight with the German fast Battlecruisers.

A view from the American Battle wagons on a German Battlecruiser

The Zeppelins are getting close to the coast. The HMS Lion moves in to shoot at the zeppelins

 With damage adding up on all sides the ships started to sink, the first was HMS Indefatigable. Here you see one of my newly made sunk ship markers being used.

Abandon ship!!!

The Germans keep coming on!

 After some time the HMS Lion was able to score some hits on the Zeppelins and eventually one of the blew up and created a second sun for a short period of time.

One of the Baby Killers is taken out of action!

Only one Zeppelin left to complete the mission!

 The US Squadron was having a hard time hitting the fast German Battlecruisers and they were slowed down again from additional damage to the USS NY.  Things were looking like the British would not get any help from the US Squadron.

A view from the German side on the American Line of Battle

 Shortly after scoring a killing shot on one of the zeppelins the HMS Lion is also sent to the bottom by the German battleships. At this point two British Battlecruisers had been sunk and only on Zeppelin had been destroyed by the allies.

The British grave yard

 Soon things were going to change the German Batlleship Fredrich Der Grosse had another problem with flooding and the ship capsized ending the German winning spree.  Here is a shot of the sunk ships near the coast.

All three of my new markers in use. I should make more.

At this point we were all tired since it was the first day back to work here after the holidays and it was getting late. We tallied up the damage and it was agreed that the Germans would have lost the two Battlecruisers as they had taken a lot of damage from the American Battleships.  It was also agreed that the last German battleship would survive and the Zeppelin would reach her target and make it off the board.  The US Squadron was too slow and too far out to stop the battleship and zeppelin from going off board.

We tallied up the points and it ended as an allied victory. I did not look so good for the allies but the point value of the lost Zeppelin and the Battleship and Battlecruisers made it an Allied Victory.

Here is a chart with the starting and ending hull points for each ship in the game.

Here is the German Data

British Data, not so good for the British....

Here is the US Data

Here is the overall starting and end hull points for all the forces involved in the battle.

You can see here the Germans lost the most Hull points in this battle.

Well thank you for reading my blog and have a great weekend.

Cheers!!!!
Mark