December Wrapup

I had been planning to save my final 2021 post for the planned DANG games, but the winter weather intervened and I had to postpone the games. 

My front yard after the snow

We had a snow storm on Sunday, with more scattered snow showers over the past few days. But what really killed my planned games was the temperatures. Since Sunday our high temperature was 28 degrees F (that's around -3 C for those outside the US). The low temperature prevented the snow from melting and made the roads a mess, so I decided to postpone the games. I'm looking to reschedule for sometime in January, when the temperatures get back to Seattle normal. So, more on the games in January.

With no game photos to share, I thought I'd show off a couple books I recently received. First up is British Submarines in the Cold War Era by Norman Friedman.

This book came out earlier this year and and covers Royal Navy submarine programs from just after World War II up to today. The book also talks about sensors, weapons, and budgetary concerns. I was never able to see much of the interior of Royal Navy subs while I was in the U.S. Navy (I had a tour set up once, but shifting schedules caused it to be cancelled). So far, I've found the book pretty interesting. It even came in handy during the week as my wife and I watched the BBC series Vigil (we both enjoy a good mystery/thriller and the submarine background is a bonus). My wife thought the submarine looked strange and I was able to pull out the book and show some photos of the Vanguard class. The series was good, but had some weak moments. But it is good to know the BBC has the same issues with the interior of submarines as Hollywood (although maybe the BCC thought the sub was like the Tardis).

Next I picked up a copy of The U.S. Cavalry 1865-1890 by José Antonio Mayoralas.

The book is similar to an Osprey Publishing book and was recommended for its descriptions of uniforms and equipment. The books certainly meets those goals. The publisher, Andrea Press is from Spain and there are a few translation issues, but nothing major. The local group has been discussing a Plains War project and this book will come in handy for that.

That's all for now. In my next post I will do my look back at 2021 and look ahead to 2022.

Some quick thoughts on ARA San Juan

As a former U.S. Navy submariner and general naval enthusiast, I try to keep up with naval events around the world, but I reserve a special place for submarines. This past week I’ve been following the news (and lack of news) on the Argentinean submarine San Juan.

ARA San Juan, a TR-1700 class submarine

For those you that haven’t been following the story, The Argentinean Navy lost contact with the submarine last week. Information about the sub’s last contact and other details have been trickling out all week. Reports of possible satellite contact, flares, life rafts, and underwater noises have raised hope that the crew was trying to contact rescuers. But it has been more than a week since there was confirmed contact and with reports coming out today about an explosion near the sub’s last know position, hope that the sub and crew are okay has diminished.

This latest incident, along with the news coming out of the U.S. Seventh Fleet this past year, is just another reminder of how dangerous being in the military and going to sea (and in particular going to sea in submarines) is, not that we really need that reminder.

I know that submariners are a particularly crafty and innovative bunch, so I still hold out hope that the crew of San Juan (including Argentina’s first woman submariner) will be found safe. But the realist in me knows that time for the search and rescue operation is running out and I expect that it will turn into a search and recovery operation soon.

First (mis)Steps into 2017

The first thing I wanted to do this year was figure out what projects to focus on for the first few months of 2017. I had listed several in my previous post and wanted to talk with others about some joint Enfilade projects too before making any decisions.

While contemplating what I was going to do, I got in my first game of the year. Which was a playtest of a scenario Kevin and David are planning to run at Drumbeat on February 4. It was an Aztecs vs. Conquistadors game using their Quetzalcoatl Rampant variant for Dan Mersey's Lion Rampant rules.

The scenario seemed good, with the Spanish and their Tlaxcalan allies raiding an Aztec village to grab food and trying to get out before the inevitable Aztec counterattack. I was helping to run the Spanish/Tlaxcalan side. We made planned to get some Tlaxcalan units out front to act a speed bumps, while the Spanish would act as "Fire-Brigades" to fill any gaps and cover the retreat.

As often happens, our plans didn't survive contact with the enemy. The plan probably wasn't too bad, but our die rolling to activate units was pretty bad. On my half of the table, by the end of turn 4 I had only been able to move 5 units.

Slow moving for the Spanish

I was able to get one Tlaxcalan unit into the planned position, but it was quickly overwhelmed by counterattacking Aztecs.

My high-water mark as one of my Tlaxcalan units makes a stand in front of one of the grain stores

Overall, it was pretty much a fiasco. You can read a little more about this action, and see some better photos, over on David's blog. I will point out that David's post will back up my claims of the bad die rolls:

"Dave and Bailey were plagued throughout the game by the most abysmal die rolling in the history of dice."

Which was followed up by:

"I'm not sure how to figure the Spanish/Tlaxcalan loss. Their die-rolls were legendarily bad. In the hall of shame for all-time poor rolling, they'd be on Mount Rushmore. They just couldn't get their units to do anything."

I'm just hoping I've gotten all (or a really large percentage) of my bad die rolls out of the way for the year.

I was able to come up with my plans for Enfilade, which will be my main focus for the next few months.

• First up, Kevin and I will do a joint "what if" air game on the Cuban Missile Crisis covering a U.S. Navy airstrike on a Cuban/Russian missile site. It will be similar to the one we ran at the Museum of Flight, but with more options. I'll be painting up some Navy F-4Bs for this and handling the scenario set up, while Kevin takes care of the other aircraft. 

MiGs, missiles, and Skyhawks from the Museum of Flight game

• I'm also going to do a "Cold War goes Hot" naval game. This will be a solo project and I'm going to use a variation of the Captain's Edition Harpoon rules with 1/6000 miniatures. For those of you that know the game, the rules are pretty simple and I think it should work pretty well in a convention setting.

On another note, between Christmas and New Year's I ordered some more submarine models from OKB Grigorov and they arrived not long after my Spanish got trounced. I ordered four American subs (most of which will just be used as display models) and a Russian Delta IV SSBN (which will be used with my submarine rules).

Cold War subs USS Tang, USS Barracuda, USS Cavalla (a long-hull Sturgeon) and USS Thresher

Soviet Delta IV (Project 667 BDRM)

I probably won't work on these until after my Enfilade projects are well underway, but it was nice to get them.

A Slight Diversion

I took a slight detour in my preparations for DANG 2016 to finish up a semi-stalled project. For a couple years, I’ve been collecting 1/700 scale submarine models with two projects in mind. 1 – I want to create a set of modern submarine rules, and 2 – I want to have a set of US submarine display models to take to some of my submarine veteran events.

Part of my US sub collection

Last week was the holiday lunch for my local submarine veterans group, so I took the opportunity to put together and organize all the kits I’ve been collecting. My assembly of US subs was a hit at the luncheon. Most of the people attending didn’t even know that companies made so many submarine models.

My display at the submarine veteran's lunch

Most of the kits were straight out of the box from DML/Dragon, Takara, Hobby Boss, and OKB Grigorov. I did do one conversion to make the 1950s GUPPY II. I started with a Hobby Boss Balao class sub, modified the hull (mostly reshaping the bow and adding the sonar) and then added the Cubera sail from the Kokoda Trail Models store on Shapeways. The frosted ultra detail sail fit right in with the plastic kit and I was really happy with the final result. Here is a photo of the conversion and some of the other subs

My Balao to GUPPY II conversion

A late-war Gato class sub

USS Nautilus kit from OKB Grigorov

Hobby Boss Los Angeles class (flight I)

George Washington class SSBN from OKB Grigorov

DML/Dragon Benjamin Franklin class SSBN

DML/Dragon Ohio class SSBN

Some of the subs will (probably) show up when I complete my sub rule, but for now they are serving at least one of their planned purposes.

With that out of the way, I'll get back to working on the ships for DANG.