Galleys and Galleons

I FINALLY got in a game of Galleys & Galleons this afternoon – a new game under development from Nic Wright and Ganesha Games. (Sorry Nic)!! Hopefully now that I’ve got it on the table and played a game (and all the kids activities are wrapping up for the year!) I should be able to get in a bunch more games over the Holidaze!

Tuesday afternoons we usually play some board games with some other homeschoolificators – but this week I decided to introduce the two that were able to make it this week to miniature gaming! So, while my kids have played lots of miniature games (and a lot of Ganesha Games) , two of the players, not only had no experience with the Ganesha Games/Song of Rules, They had never even played a miniatures game before – so this would be a real test of the system! As it turned out everyone, more or less, picked it up straight away and we were all off sailing, as it were.

SITUATION

The crew of the Red Snapper heard tell of a Spanish merchant ship, heavily laden with New World Gold would soon be heading home to Europe – enlisting the aid of the Snow – an English privateer – they endeavored to take the Merchantman down and share out the booty. The laid in wait, in the lee of some smallish islands in the carribean await the Spanish gold ship to lumber past on it’s way out into the open sea.

SCENARIO

Pirates and privateers set up within one medium of the east end of the table. Their objective was to take the Merchantman intact – gold’s no good at the bottom of the sea.

Spanish Gold ship and escort set up within one medium of the West table edge. Their objective was for the Merchantman to safely make it off the east edge of the table.

Wind started out of the north.

FORCES

Pirates

The Red Snapper – Brig

The Snow – Brig

Spanish

Harfleur – Indiaman

Rapier – Brig

Maybe those aren’t the most Spanish sounding names… I just used those because those were the names I had on the ships from the last time we used them…

THE GAME

To start off I noticed the battery on my camera was noe low and as I have not yet figured out what Amanda did with the other one I tried to take only a few picture hoping it might last at least until the end of the game… So a lot of these were hastily taken – without properly waiting for the canera to focus… sorry…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Initial setup from the North East. On the bottom left of the picture are the Pirates. On the top right are the Spaniards

TURN ONE

Everyone went straight ahead.

Spaniards lumber forward.

The Pirates sail towards their quarry.

TURN TWO

The Harfleur, seeing the pirates rushing towards them thorugh the gap between the islands turned to skirt around the north end of the Islands. The Red Snapper saw this maneuver and began turning about. The Snow also made to come about.

TURN THREE

The Rapier darted forward betweent eh Islands and fired upon the Red Snapper and extreme range – shots all falling very short.

The Harfleur slowed as it turned into the wind a bit.

The Red Snapper, coming about, strayed into the shallows around the island, but safely navigated their way around any rocks there might have been there.

The Snow rolled two failures – a double One which shifted the wind direction.

TURN FOUR

The Rapier ALSO rolled two failures - with a double one – shifting the wind a bit more. I think the change in wind made the Harfleur pick up speed and it almost sailed off the table edge – not being able to maneuver (as the Rapier had rolled a turn-over before it could activate and change course!)

The Red Snapper also picked up speed and so it went tearing through the shallows by the island and sustained TWO DAMAGE due to hitting rocks and whatnot.

The Snow turned.

TURN FIVE

The Rapier fired on the snow – hits, but with no appreciable affect.

The Harfleur did some fancy maneuvering – trying to find that fine line between not going too fast and sailing off the table edge and not sailing into the shallows too close to the island…

The Red Snapper decided to try and repair some damage, but in the process failed to slow the speed of their ship and sustained MORE damage on rocks in the shallows!?

The Snow returned fire on the Rapier – which was equally ineffective and then sailed on past – trying to sail about the island and give chase to the Harfleur.

TURN SIX

The Harfleur… a merchantman… fired it’s bow chasers… at the Red Snapper at the very end of a second long stick… causing no damage at all (surprising no one…).

The Rapier started to come about.

The Red Snapper scored a success and a failure – but not JUST a failure – rolled a one on a coloured die and had to make an “All At Sea” roll – which in the end made her fire on the Harfleur – which she’d been planning to do anyway! No effect.

Snow still desperately trying it give chase.

TURN SEVEN

The Harfleur turned a bit with it’s single action – the two fouble fail rolls turned the wind even further.

The Rapier could only said straight ahead – not being able to activate.

The Snapper rolled another two fails – including another one on a coloured die – the result was that they were to strike their colours and surrender. We figured it was more likely that they’d just sail on by and make for cover hoping the Indiaman made a run for it out to sea and not stick around to rake them up the stern!

Given the speed of the Snapper – it would likely have sailed off the table edge that turn anyway.

So the only actual damage done to any ships was due to hitting rocks or reefs in the shallows around the Island... Well, we got to practice moving the little ships about... and we've pretty much got that down. NEXT game we'll get down to some serious gunnery and boarding actions. 

I like the game so far. Definitely looking forward to having another go. It definitely has the right feel for a naval game in the age of sail – but still has the uncomplicated, streamlined, fast-play of other Ganesha products.

I think the only real problems were caused by my placement of the islands in the middle of the table – which turned out to be just way too big for such a small table and made it hard to ships to maneuver around them without accidentally sailing off the edge of the table. Probably tried too ambitious a scenario for the first time around – should have just had some open sea and said, “there they are, go sink ‘em!” 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Well now that the kids have had a taste of that salty sea air we’ll be have a few more game reports to post! Ya-HARRRR!

I also have some Great War stuff I’m just finishing up. 

Greek Ships

I finally got around to starting some ships I've been meaning to build for a Greek Mythology campaign. I had meant to start with two merchant ships and two warships, but after cutting the main birts for one of each I severely bent the last scrolling bit I had for my jigsaw... drat... Anyway, the two are coming along nicely, but I'll have to set them aside as I have a few other things to get ready for the weekend.

(remember: click on the pictures to see a bigger version)

I threw a few 28mm figures (I think they're all from the Foundry) on there to get a sense of scale...

Hopefully get back to work on those next week.

The Battle of Coronel, 1914

We played a game on Friday night this week instead of the regular Thursday as my friend Curt from Regina was in town. He ran a lovely little Great War naval action using the new General Quarters III "Fleet Action Imminent" rules (and his BEAUTIFUL 1:2400 scale GHQ ships). It was quite good fun and quick to pick up.

The Battle of Coronel, 1914

SITUATION

At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 Admiral von Spee, commander of German naval squadron in the Far East, found his command in a very tenuous position. Germany, while having significant influence in the European theatre of operations exerted very little power in Asia and the Pacific. Germany had only the pretense of an Asian 'empire', only holding a naval station at Tsingtao China and this provided no guarantee of supply from the Fatherland. Spee's ships required large quantities of coal in which to operate and this could not be relied on by the German possessions or allies in the region. Due to the demands of re-coaling Spee felt compelled to either order his ships to operate individually as privateers in order to take supplies by force, which would break-up his command, or to stay together and attempt to break out of the Pacific and make their way back to the security of the High Seas Fleet in Germany. Being a naval officer from the 'old school', Spee decided to keep his forces together and attempt a passage back to home waters.

Conversely, the British, while commanding a huge fleet, possessed a far-flung empire, which divided both its resources and attention. The vast majority of England's most modern warships where husbanded in home waters to face the German High Seas Fleet and to secure the critical Atlantic convoy traffic supplying Great Britain. It therefore fell to a polyglot force of mismatched assets under Admiral Sir Christopher Craddock to face the challenge of tracking down and confronting Spee's squadron. Craddock held no illusions to the chances of his success but hoped that with a little luck he could maul Spee's force and give a good account from his command.

On the afternoon of November 1, around 100 miles offshore of Coronel, Chile, the two squadrons sighted each other, closed and engaged.

SCENARIO

The action will start upon the opposing fleets first sighting each other at approximately 26000 yards. Spee's German squadron is composed of the two modern armoured cruisers Scharnhorst (his flagship) and Gneisnau, along with three light cruisers Leipzig, Nurnberg and Dresden. Craddock's British command is made up of his flagship, the old armoured cruiser Good Hope, two other armoured cruisers, the Monmouth, and the Defence, along with the light cruiser Glasgow and an armed merchantman Otranto. (Please note: the Defence has been added for greater play balance as historically it was not at the engagement, being in transit at this time to support Craddock.)

THE GAME

John and I played the Germans. I took the two armoured Cruisers, and John took the three light cruisers. Gary and Curt played the British. Gary had the Good Hope and Monmouth, while Curt took the Defence, Glasgow and Otranto.


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The starting position of the German Far East Squadron lead by my two armoured cruisers; the Gneisnau and Scharnhorst.


The British Squadron.


Close up of the Defense – aren’t they just lovely little ships?! Bravo, Curt!


The Monmouth and Good Hope.


The Gneisnau and Scharnhorst


The first couple turns we spent turning our line around and trying to close the distance between the squadrons to give ourselves a bit better chance of hitting. The Light cruisers with only 4.2” guns would have to get quite close.

Looking back we (John and I) probably could have each taken one of the Armoured Cruisers and a couple of the Light Cruisers and just stood off and pummeled the British Squadron from a distance. I was surprised how quickly they actually closed….


The British broke their line-ahead formation and came at us as a gaggle.


For the first half dozen turns or so – which were closing and maneuvering we had a line down the center of the table that represented 10000 yards – this is taken shortly after we had closed enough distance that it could be removed. In the foreground is the British Squadron. In the distance are the Germans.

Around this time we stared exchanging long range shots.


Now the germans have finished turning and are in a full line-ahead formation and the Gneisnau and Scharnhorst are starting to pound the British.


The Gneisnau and Scharnhorst have turned to give the British broadsides and the lighter cruisers are carrying on ahead to close the distance some more.


The British are taking a pounding – that’s four penetrating hits on the Defence from the Gneisnau on Turn 11– resulting in Main Turret damage, Bulkhead damage, and an Engineering Critical…. OI!!!

The next turn the Gneisnau scored another 5 hits on the Defence, including another main turret hit and THREE more bulkhead hits. The Defence went down with all hands…


I think this is the Good Hope taking hits from the Scharnhorst. Their first volley caused ammunition and BRIDGE criticals – Killing Craddock!!! Luckily they flooded the magazine and the whole ship didn’t go up on the first volley… but they were essentially done at this point.

The next turn one of John’s ships, the Nurnberg, got a shot in on the Good Hope causing a Fire Control critical – not sure what the effect was… but it sounded drastic!


This must still be turn 12 because the Defense is still out there… not for long though…


This is probably Turn 13 – the Glasgow, the one with all the big sploosh markers in the background) is being pounded by the German Light Cruisers. The Leipzig (in the immediate foreground) took some serious damage from the British. I can’t remember if it sank…

The Gneisnau and Scharnhorst, in the middle of the picture are actually firing broadsides at the Good Hope and the Monmouth which are off to the right.


The Good Hope taking some more hits.


This is Turn 15 – the last turn we played. Having sunk the Monmouth the previous turn the Gneisnau started firing back at the Glasgow (which had been firing at it for a couple turns).

On this last turn the Scharnhorst sank the Good Hope and we called it a game….

I was the Bulkhead sniper I don’t think there was a turn that I wasn’t causing bulkhead hits on one ship or anther once the shooting started – and they seemed pretty nasty; if you damage control parties didn’t seal them off in the damage control segment they just kept filling up your ship. In a couple of instances I caused multiple bulkhead hits on the same ship in the same turn and only one could possibly be repaired each so it was guaranteed further damage in the following turn – which sank t least one a ship…

CONCLUSIONS

This was a totally fun game (THANKS CURT!) …and I’m not just saying that because we utterly destroyed the British Squadron – we all pretty much knew it was going to work out that way from the get-go. I would have had just as much fun playing the British – seeing how much damage I could do before heading to Davey Jones Locker.

I have to say when Curt busted out the play sheets the tables and charts all looked rather intimidating! Once we actually figured out what they all meant (which wasn't so difficult as I initially imagined) it was really rather simple and played very quickly. Four of us (three who had never played the system and were completely ignorant of Great War naval combat), playing with about 5-6 ships, all picked it up rather quickly and played out the engagement in 3-4 hours (and there was a lot of side discussion taking place). The scale of the action seemed about right. I'm not sure how really large actions would play out; I could see it bogging down a bit.


It’s got me thinking again about making my own little generic looking Great War ships… (in the same vein as my sailing ships - except they’d be skinnier, grey and lacking sails…. Maybe I’d even try modeling some of the larger turrets… (Stay on target! STAY ON TARGET!!!)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’m thinking I might take the next week or two off painting and modeling figures to finish Taking Stock, and maybe work on a bit of terrain…