Clubbing it! Cruel Seas- Channel Dash

Last Thursday at the club saw me, with my usual coterie of friends, playing another game of Cruel Seas by Warlord Games. This is actually my third game so one would think I would have digested the rules by now, but not so! The game was another learning experience and I was largely playing follow my leader with fellow Kriegsmarine kameraden Matt. I do really enjoy this game, which came as a the first time I played as, having played a veritable prethora of Naval wargames in the past at SESWC organised by Naval historian Angus Konstam; despite the elite company at the time they were not games that really hit home with me. 

So, the scenario..... the Germans were to get their tankers across the playing area and to safety whilst the Royal Navy would be doing all they could to stop them from doing so!

The Tankers Set Out

Immediately the British Vospers spring an ambush and start to swarm the Germans.

The German Tankers lumber forward protected by the S100's in the centre and the S38's  to their left.

Another view of the German S100 Protecting the Tankers.

The RN Vopsers swarm, moving into position to spring their ambush and set their torpedoes away.

A view of the game from above

Torpedoes away! The British Boats release their load. The British had clearly learned from pervious encounters with the more heavily armed German S38's and S100's. By releasing their torpedoes as soon as they were within effective range and settling on a tactic of letting the Germans try to manoeuvre out of their deadly predicament.

British torpedo bombers screams in and drops their payload. Luckily, neither of the tankers take a hit as the torpedoes fail to go off. 

Normally I don't go in for lazers in wargaming (reminds me too much of DBA PTSD) but Neil's toy came in very handy when trying to trace the movement of the torpedoes! They seemed to move every time we looked at the table top!

The Brits Vospers fill The Channel with torpedoes!

All we can do is manoeuvre the Tankers, hoping for the best and plenty of dud torpedoes whilst blasting away with out superior firepower. As for blasting away? We did minimal damage due to some quite crappy dice rolls. This enabled all the British vessels to release at least two torpedoes a piece!

By the time it came to hit the pub; turn three I think(?); I think it had to be called a marginal win for the Brits as the game still leaned heavily on the German Tankers being able to avoid being hit. It would have been interesting to play another turn or two and to have reached a conclusion. I expect we will next week. 

Other Club Games....

Another Naval Game- WWII

Bloody Big Battles

Chain of Command; Cold War

Gaslands

Lion Rampant; Crusades

Cheers for now

It's arrived!! BP- Blood on the Nile!! And a Free Fred Burnaby!!

I guess that I've let the goose out of the bag  but here are my first impressions of the book and the Perry Fred Burnaby mini that came free with the order from Perry Miniatures.

Firstly, the book is lavishly illustrated with diorama style pics of beautiful that really capture a glimpse of what some of the action Perry Miniatures with some cameo appearances from Foundry Miniatures, Empress Miniatures (?), Castaway Arts (?) and a few others I spotted that I did not recognise.  As I've said, the photo's are all set up vignette style and give a flavour of the action that's lacking in some rulebooks. Overall, the production quality in on a par with most of Warlord's black Powder, Hail Caesar products but this one seems especially good.

I ordered from the Perry's as I was really taken by the free mini of Fred Burnaby at the Battle of Abu Klea. This miniature is very understated considering the gallant and somewhat futile mess he got himself into during the battle that lead to his untimely demise. I really love this figure and getting an early casting is certainly worthwhile as the quality is always better no matter who you order the miniatures from.

Colonel Frederic Gustavus Burnaby was a very interesting man....  He joined the Royal Horse Guards at a young age and was prone to searching out any reason to go on Shooting Leave, but of a life of adventure. He was a pioneer of ballooning for example as well as travelling through Spain and Russia. His Russian adventures are described in his book, A Ride to Kiva.

In 1879 he began to develop an interest in politics and ran unsuccessfully for Birmingham as a Tory Democrat. He is noted as crossing the English Channel in a hot air balloon (certainly a more successful enterprise than his political career!) and by 1882 was on active service involved in the Egyptian Campaign and later in the Sudan. He fought at the battle of El Teb and acted as political officer to General Valentine Baker. He met his death fighting in a heroic attempt to save his countrymen at Aby Klea. and his loss was much mourned by the army. 

A giant of a man, said to be able to carry a polo ponies under each arm(!), he was larger than life when he lived and goes down as a living legend in his time.

I'll talk much more comprehensively about Fred Burnaby in a later post.

Cheers for now.