Russo - Japanese War Action

public domain

The wishful thinking of Russian propagandists...!

I've had a soft spot for pre-dreadnoughts since I first laid eyes on them; probably because they look like some kids made them from random bits of legos!  The inventive, unusual and even experimental ship styles are interesting to look at, while [depending on the rules] the various limitations of the weapons involved can make for some tough player decisions and interesting fights.

Also, the shorter ranges and slow speeds of pre-dreads means they can realistically fit onto a smaller table with an easy-to-manage time / distance scale. It can be tough to get a battleship with a 36,000m range fighting on an average gamer's table!  Pre-dreads are a bit more friendly, altho ironclads and age of sail are even more friendly, of course.

Even though the most famous naval battle was a disaster for the Russkies, hey, it didn't have to be that way... turn the lights out on those hospital ships for starters! Well, there may have been a few other problems, also.  Still, as a full naval campaign, the Russo-Japanese War  of 1904-5 is quite dynamic and complex, and both sides skillfully scored some victories through a variety of creative means.

My long-term weekly miniatures club has one person who agrees with me. Dave has decent fleets for both sides, and has been experimenting with various rules dynamics and mechanics for a while. This was his latest offering.

It was something of a running fight, with the Russians - in the distance, top - trying to circumnavigate a Japanese fleet - bottom - among an island group. I always pick Russians for their unpronounceable ship names, lacklustre quality, and the low expectations that go with picking the underdog. Still, the bigger the challenge, the more credible the genius if you win!   Plus, I like vodka more than saki, so when the battle goes south, my admiral has a palatable way to wash away his woes as well as his career. 

Above, the Russian cruisers are trying to keep the Japanese from engaging their battle ships. Unfortunately for the cruiser squadron, the Japanese take the bait!

Below, a Japanese battleship squadron supporting a cruiser attack on the Russian cruiser squadron - an island appears just to the right.

Below, return fire on the Japanese has mixed results. Next to the island, boldly handled Japanese torpedo boats lurk to keep the Russians from closing in on the Japanese cruiser squadron. Japanese gunnery being better, they will likely win the dual. Overall, the Russians are struggling with a complicated situation.

Below, most of my Russian cruiser squadron, and a stray battleship apparently beached to prevent sinking. We did take out a Japanese Armored Cruiser, which will be the highlight of my report to the Czar!

The ships are interestingly based on plastic Games Workshop cavalry slotta bases, 25mm x 50mm. This does make it a bit easier to pick them up. The water is cleverly printed from a picture of actual ocean printed in color! The wakes were painted on with white, and look quite realistic, IMHO.

The rules were a modified version of Brian deWitte's "When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Seas". Brian is a great guy and Dave the host had met him at a game he through at Historicon several years ago.  The rules are a good balance of crunchy and abstraction. Dave modified it for hexes and a bit more simplification of gunnery and a couple other things. For an occasional game on a weeknight, it was tough for some of the non-naval buffs to follow. In my opinion, game periods that rely on technical ability are tough to get right: the balance of technical differentiation makes the ships and period what it is, but players get confused by the arcane terminology.

Overall, the game was fun, but a bit too streamlined for me - I like naval games to be plenty crunchy, as that gives them good feel.  I don't like detail for detail's sake, or just to prove we know something. Details need to fit into the command level of the game, and illustrate critical differences in ship design and crew quality. But if it gets too simple, it may be tough to notice what period it is at all, which is not what I'm after..."a battleship is a battleship is a space battleship is an aeronautical battleship..." etc.

Just looking at these pics has me checking out my old Spanish-American war project. I like the boutique nature of the Avalanche Press naval games, they fit into a small space and don't take that long to play out. The abstraction does remove the maneuvering details, but replaces it with a "leadership skill" test that determines if one will fight at close or distant ranges.  That was a neat design trick. I may have to pull those out of a box at some point soon!

So...we'll see what happens next time, Adm. Togo!  Meanwhile, I toast you with the last of the *unbroken* vodka as the ship tilts slowly on its side...

Ironclads vs. B Movies

Was fighting your first ironclad scary?

No? Then how about your first Sea Monster!?

One of the regular hosts in the local gaming group has a flair for both historical and non-historical gaming, and occasionally he combines them. I've always missed those games and then regretted it later, so when his "Ironclads v. Mysterious Phenomena" was upcoming, I made sure to get there.

Each of the players got two Ironclads or ACW Iron ships from about 1865. On the other end of the board, a huge archway with dazzling lights within it turned out to be a portal through which monsters were coming. The job of the USN on this occasion?  Destroy the monsters and close the portal!

The first few turns were full of suspense, but only Moby Dick and a Giant Narwhal showed up, the latter ramming a ship but getting stuck for a turn...

However, it was soon joined by Giant Frogs, a Troll and Sea Serpent. The Troll mounted a small atoll and began hurling boulders at the gallant ships opposing him.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a dragon soon flew into the battle, his breath worse than any tarheel to take ship in the Western Hemisphere!

Below, Moby attacks my ironclad, which unleashes a full broadside into it - unfortunately missing 5 / 6 shots!  Clearly, my sailors were at their wits end with terror!

My iron frigate did hit, which made Moby swim off and blubber quietly a while...pun intended.

But that wasn't all!  The Sea Serpent decided my ships looked the tastiest. Rearing it's ugly head and baring its menacing teeth, it charged in my direction!

 

Below, the menace facing the USN - they thought the war was over!  Wait, are these monsters CSA, French or British??  Will they interrupt shipping?

As they reload their broadsides, my ships take up positions to "unleash hell" against the monster next turn.  Moby is blubbering well behind as we slowed him down.

A terrifying view from the deck of the Mohican!

Meanwhile, the Scottish Kraken - Phil Mac Kraken - chases down and attacks the Onandaga, snatching and snacking upon sailors through any opening it can get a tentacle thru! "Tentacally Sir, I don't think his tentacles should fit through those ports" says the officious engineering officer...

In a furious attack, the dragon dives down, huffs and sets an ironclad afire - sailors flambe??

While the surviving frog shoots his sticky tongue claiming the lives of a few more flies, erhm, sailors, crunchy them in his slimy mouth. The horror!  The horror!

In a masterful move, Commodore Alexander circles and then blasts the Sea Serpent, while staying out of reach of Moby Richard. Sheer nautical genius, if I do say so meself...

With an unholy scream, the Sea Serpent gushes his last...

But don't get complacent, laddies!  The Dragon has got us in his sights, and is flying a full cup over the battlefield, too high for our guns to elevate!  Oh, for a slightly more advanced weapon that could fire higher... the AD Gun?  Anti-Dragon Gun?

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the board, the Leviathan sinks a Union ironclad...

In the end, altho the USN was closing with and firing upon the supernatural archway into another dimension, monsters were slightly ahead, having sunk a few vessels while replenishing their numbers through unnatural means.

A fun game!  It would likely freak out some of the rivet-counters who tend to love ship [and tank] games, and would be likely to argue the relative effectiveness of huge sticky tongues and the reloading period for dragon's breath.  But I say sometimes you just have to relax. And that's what we did with this interesting adaptation of "Beer'n Pretzels Ironclads" by Buck Sardu and Michael Miller. Which had some streamlining changes by the host to give it more Beer and less Crunch! 

Pre-dreadnought Project, p.5: 1:3000 Assembly, cleaning

1:1 Ship model - farther along than mine, but it took ten years or so...

Nice image from this great post at video game forum: [CLICK]

Whew! First post since November, 2018. Things have been super-busy but 2019 is hopefully going to be a lot calmer with only a couple of major projects with the family and a lighter work schedule, overall. TY2020 is scheduled to be VERY light so the 1:1 Army will not be too bad, and I just have to await what God does with pastoral work to see how busy I will be or not be. Hopefully, there'll be lots of time connecting with my immediate family and spending time with my almost 10yo who is getting very very active! In any event, this project was from late spring / early summer of 2018, and I hope to get these painted up and experiment with masts, fighting tops and a little rigging.

The Italian squadron, below. I've doubled down on Italia and Lepanto on the fictional assumption that Italy had the desire and resources to produce additional ships. Next to them are the plastic fighting tops. Overall, smaller is better for these, and if one has to err in a certain direction, get the smaller ones instead of the larger ones.

As noted before, these lovely little white metal ships are from Wartime Journal's now extinct metal line of 1/3000 ships. As they are totally gone, there's no point in a review. However, it should give you an idea of the kind of work done there and more confidence in the line of 3D plastics that are rapidly being produced [and which continue to be a sore tempation for me!].

My wargame tendancy for 1/3000 is to have squadron battles using variations of Portable Wargame rules, so groups of 3-4 ships are most suitable. I can also pair them into small "squadrons" of two ships each for games where extra players show up. The balance of captain business - allocating resources of crew, steam, and navigation - is what I find players to be most interested in, so 2-4 ships is just fine. Also, fighting squadrons per player instead of just a ship or two gives some space for lucky shots and accidental blowups.


Another view. Casting was excellent, but there's a bit of flash spiraling off the area where I supposed the metal is injected into the mold. Note that the plastics don't have any flash.


1/3000 ships are available from several sources, so altho I don't have any intent to add to this project at this time, the possibility is always there. Top view shows the interesting layout of the Italian ships. Altho the guns are supposed to be able to fire nearly 180 degrees, in practice the muzzle blast made this very difficult, so I'd probably restrict the ship to a much smaller angle, say 120 or something, just to differentiate in a rule set.


Flash removal was performed with a sharp X-acto blade, bracing the ship against a wooden ruler. Despite the cutting, there was still a bit left upon the stacks that had to be smoothed with a file. Still, this was just a few minutes of work per ship.


This "q-tip" appearing thingamabob is actually a bit of soft-sanding material on a plastic blue stick. I used it to gently rub off the mold lines and such. For some of the ships, they actually had a deck line halfway down the hull, so it may not be a flash line at all.


The four Big Ships, 2 x Italian class, 2 x Lepanto class [really, the same class, same designer, Benedetto Brin]. These are larger and easier to clean up.


The four smaller ships. Calabria PC [CLICK], cruiser Dogali [CLICK], 2 x Etna-class Protected Cruiser [CLICK]. The selection was based upon availability from WTJ. However, all four of these ships were similarly armed and could easily be a squadron with identical stats, or differentiated for more individualized play in a game. 

The nice thing about the pre-dreadnought era is that so many ships were singular, even eccentric and quirky in their design and even maintenance, that any amount of individuality can be argued as historically accurate! Let's here it for creativity and imagination: "huzzah!"

Some interesting model comparisons from the Italians to the Spanish Squadron, BELOW. 

The three Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi Armored Cruisers are only a minor stretch of history. The Italians built ten which went to four countries [CLICK]. The Cristobal Colon was delivered to Spain [CLICK] but Pedro de Aragon was cancelled, and certainly one or two could've been acquired or loaned from Argentina during the occasional Spanish naval panics of the 1890s. The Pelayo [tilted on the file] is an early pre-dread BB design [CLICK]. It's a French design with some tumblehome, and the most powerful ship in the Spanish navy; some argue that had she and Armored Cruiser Carlos V entered action during the Spanish-American war the history might be different [insert grain of salt here].

Some flash sticking out of the ends or various deck projections of the ships. Easy removal.

Below, torpedo-boats, destroyers, who can tell? Tiny ships that can be a pain to work with but useful on the tabl. They can also be fought as squadrons or individuals on the table, depending on player numbers, so these little guys add a lot of flexibility to a host's game. All you need is two sets of player aids on hand. 

Here, they are being gently scrubbed down with a soft toothbrush and mild dish soap, removing any release agent from the ship. Note that these have no mold, flash or other bits to be removed.

Note that these really need to be mounted on something for ease of handling, not to mention speed of painting!

Drake - Class cruisers below [CLICK]. From about 1902, they are really at the tail end of the project, but provide a glimpse of the future. Their 23-knot speed and 9" and 6" guns offer some variety in tactical play that will presage WWI choices. For gaming, a bit of variety in speed, gunnery and armor provides players with different challenges on the table. I see these operating similarly to the WWI British and German battlecruisers in my earlier fictitious Mediterranean naval flare-up!

Flash was not too bad, similar to that of the Italian BBs, and the mold lines actually appear to be almost natural. Big pic from Wiki shows a bit of shadowing there. Can't remember if I sanded them down at this point or not, but you get the idea. Internet pics are definitely our friend when it comes to working on these little guys.

Well, there you have it - a long wait for this post to go up, I think the pics are from June 2018. Just putting up the post makes me want to get moving again on this project. The question is who should fight whom first? Italians v. French for ownership of Sardegna? Spanish v. Italians over the Baleric Islans? Hard to say, but stay tuned!

Portable Naval Wargame Pre-dreadnought Playtest 4: "Battle in the Bay!"

Colonial Wars can be a real growth enterprise, and the hats get better and better!

https://www.sutori.com/story/opposition-to-the-spanish-american-war-5197
But it should be remembered that "Pigs get fat while hogs get slaughtered"...

Was eager to try these rules with the changes listed in Playtest #3, so you didn't have to wait very long for Playtest #4! This time I pushed the Spanish farther back and gave them sea room. I also made a bunch of choices for expressing the ships in game terms.

Ships from history stats to rules::

• Spanish ships had "older" guns [their own guns were noted as being slow, inaccurate, etc, inferior to the latest in general].
• US ships had "modern" guns
• Flotation Points were 1.5 x Displacement / 1000 [with some rounding]. For example, the Pelayo displaces 9,750 tons x 1.5 / 1000 is 15 FP.
• Furthermore, a bonus FP or two were given if heavily armored, e.g. Pelayo and Olympia got 2 bonus FP, Boston and Raleigh 1.
• An FP or two were taken away if there was no armor, e.g. Castilla.

Not used but worth noting:

• Tertiary guns were noted as a "Yes / No" Y/N if plentiful, or y/n if just a few. They will be used against Torpedo Runs by torpedo boats and destroyers.
• Speaking of which, a Torpedo boat of 500 tons would have one FP [barely]. So I made a "torpedo boat" three boats so they'd have 3 FP altogether. Also, rather than give a penalty to hit / range in on a small target, I just added a couple of FP for being a small, fast target. This is the same mechanic for the same effect as armor, i.e. survivability. This will have to be tested more in the future.

I felt a lot better with some sort of historical system in place, rather than just working by game types, which don't necessarily suit the older, Spanish, ships.

Game Changes to Portable Naval Wargame as used in this post:

1. Turn sequence changed to: Initiative, Move, Shoot.
2. Target Acquisition. Before rolling Gunnery dice v. a Target, it must be acquired. Roll a 4+ on a d6 so succeed, with: 
• +1 for Short Range [3 hexes or less], 
• +1 for each previous attempt to Range in on the same target, and 
• -1 v. targets that are evading, obscured or have multiple shooters against it.
• -1 Poor / +1 Excellent Gunnery
3. No secondary batteries - each ship has one broadside.
4. Squadron Quality. Squadrons were rated by Quality against which 2d6 added together would be rolled - success was equal or less. The Spanish were a '7' [58% chance] and the US a '9' [83%]. Quality was rolled for passing a ship's Critical Point 'band' [about 75% of Flotation Points lost]. A failure causes the ships to retreat from the battle. Also, to enter or remain in Close Range of 3 hexes or less, ships had to pass a squadron "Q" roll or move out to >3 Hexes.

The net stats for each squadron:
- Spanish 41 Flotation Points v. US 31 Flotation Points
- Spanish 24 Gunnery Dice v. US 28 Gunnery Dice
- Spanish speed '2', US speed "3" [exc Boston "2"], so 50% faster.
- Spanish Quality '7' w' 2d6 v. US '9' [58 v. 83% chance to pass]
- Spanish Gunnery is "Poor" [acquires targets on 5+] v. US is "Average" [4+]

Playtest #3 results...a debacle of 4 Spanish to zero US ships lost, altho the Boston and Raleigh were at their Critical Point and would have to depart the fight. Hoping for improvement here for the Spanish, but not with a lot of hope!


At turn 1, US is entering Manila Bay, with Spanish building up steam to the South.

Unprotected [and small] Cruisers Castilla and Reina Cristina are to left, the pre-dreadnought Battleship Pelayo and Armored Cruiser Emperador Carlos V to right.

Turn 1, US forces the minefield. Again, no mines in the first hex, but a '3' in the second! So each ship has to roll a 4+ to spot and evade mines, or else they will be attacked. The Raleigh rolls a 2 and fails to spot a mine in time, taking 1 Hit with the '4' roll [all PNW hit dice are '4-5' 1 Hit, '6' 2 Hits]. This is the best the Spanish have done with mine placement yet!

Note that the facing of the ships - to the spine - gives a free small turn in that they can turn  to 60 degrees left or right, or 'zig-zag' and basically go "straight". It also gives a fairly accurate broadside of about 140 or 150 degrees.

Turn 1, Spanish check to see if they were caught napping - but they weren't! Only a 1, 2, or 3 chit would've resulted in a delay [of 1, 2, or 3 turns] to get up steam.

The Spanish move a hex forward and pay to turn a full 60 to the next spine to Port.


Turn 2, the US continues to force the entrance; the Baltimore evades but the Olympia passes too close to a mine and is attacked! Fortunately, she suffers no damage [faulty fuse?]. Only the Boston needs to clear...

The Spanish continue closing in. 
I'm torn between attacking separately and attacking together... It might be useful to force the US to attack up the middle between the two Spanish divisions. As I want an "open sea" playtest, I decide not to be clever. Besides, the US ships are faster and might outrun the lagging Castilla and Reina Cristina, resulting in the Pelayo and Emp Carlos taking them all on. With several weaknesses, dividing up seems like a bad plan for the Spanish.

Turn 3, the Boston safely passes the mines [rolling a 4+] but the lines only advances one hex to get the Boston in formation. Despite having good guns, I don't want the Boston to be lagging behind, giving the Spanish an opportunity to overwhelm her alone.

As for the Spanish, I decide to begin pulling them into a Line Ahead. As everyone is still out of their 6-hex range, the turn ends.

Turn 4, the squadrons continue to close on each other. The Spanish lose Initiative, but it's pretty obvious what they'll do, anyway. The ships don't have the speed to turn fast enough to do anything radical. The Baltimore and Olympia are in range but fail to acquire the Emp Carlos and Pelayo as targets, respectively [they'll get a +1 next time]. The Emp Carlos also fails, but the Pelayo redeems her poor performance last game by acquiring the Baltimore on the first try! She has a 7-dice broadside, -1 dice / hex, so at 6 hexes fires with 1d6 but does get a hit on a 4 - first blood to the underdogs, Viva Espagna!


Turn 5. ES lose IN again and must move first. Neither side rolls low enough to enter close range. However, the Spanish move in forcing the US to end their move within close range as you have to move one hex forward before making one 60-degree turn. I like this, as it presents some interesting possibilities and makes the IN matter, even if you lose.

The US move one hex forward, and doesn't turn [I should probably have said they must]. Gunnery starts to really pick up at this point. Raleigh has total fail but the others all acquire targets, inflicting 3, 4, and 4 hits on the ECV, Pelayo and RC respectively - ouch! Looks like this will be another US success story... The ES reply with two failures to acquire, but the Pelayo hits the Baltimore for 2 and the RC acquires but then fails to hit with 1d6. 11 to 2 hits is not a sustainable gunnery exchange for the Spanish - the US has to run out of luck!

With turn 5 ending, the Reina Cristina is nearly sunk, altho the Baltimore is getting there, too, and it a much more important ship.


Turn 6, the US loses IN and moves first, pushing forward to cross the "T" of the ES squadron. The ES can't have this as they are already weaker in gunnery and will have to re-acquire targets or suffer halved broadsides.

Ergo, the Spanish move a little forward and start running parallel to the US. They can't willingly move within 3 hexes, but they must move forward a hex to turn and so end up at close range, anyway.

Gunnery is pretty heavy. The US hit down the line for 3, 2, 2, and 4 respectively, sinking the Reina Cristina and probably killing any survivors floating in the water, too! The ECV acquires Olympia and deals 5 Hits to her! Unfortunately, the Pelayo then entirely misses the Baltimore, ugh! The RC and the Castilla failed to acquire. Hit exchange is 11-5 this time.

Status end of Turn 6 shows the US still having a bit edge, but Olympia is hurting a bit. Another turn like that and she'll sink! The Dons can only hope - and shoot better!



Turn 7 the ES win IN, and there's some interesting issues. The US again fails to roll low enough to have the option to close [I decided to make it very hard - you must roll less than half your Q value or 5 US and 4 ES] so they must move first and away from the ES squadron.

I move them forward 1 and the Boston 2 to close up the gap. I'm still trying to decide if they should have to actively seek more distance or force it upon the other fleet if they move first.

Spanish don't roll low enough to remain close in, either, so shift forward and to starboard.

All gunnery is now at over 3 hexes. The ECV pounds the Olympia for 3 while Pelayo misses again and Castilla fails to acquire - AGAIN - needing to roll a '3' is all. The US gunnery is better, despite the Raleigh experiencing total failure to acquire - someone dropped the Stadometer overboard?? - inflicting 2-2-1 hits on the Spanish.

Turn 7 status: Olympia and ECV may have to leave Castilla and Pelayo are OK. US still has a big advantage at this point. I think the Spanish are cursed by history - and fate.


Turn 8, the Spanish lose and must move first. They have no option to close and get Castilla into better range [rolling an '8' and needing a 4 or less], but the ECV decides to continue fighting [by zero margin of error, I might add - noticeable lack of enthusiasm here]. They advance one hex, not wanting to risk the range lengthening.

The US rolls low enough and closes in, with the Boston aiming to finish off the Castilla in one turn if possible! Even Raleigh should be effective now...


Turn 8 Gunnery is pretty violent. The Pelayo finally gets it right and smacks the Baltimore for 4 Hits, while the ECV sinks the Olympia with a hit to spare!. Unfortunately, the Baltimore in a vengeful fury over the Olympia, apparently, blows ECV out of the water with 5 Hits! Castilla finally acquires but misses while Boston plugs her for 4 in return for splashing her decks. An ignoble performance, I'd say.

Turn 8 status: Olympia sunk [forgot to mark] is a new milestone for the Spanish - Hooray for them! Baltimore is almost sunk [makes two turns of missing even more annoying]. But the Castilla, ECV and RC are all gone, leaving Pelayo to fulfill its nickname of "Solitario".


Turn 9. The US loses IN and neither side is able to remain close up - can't blame them after the horrible destruction of last turn! - so a bit of distance is tacitly agreed upon. Perhaps it is time to end the slaughter and pick up survivors??


Turn 9 gunnery. US manages 2 Hits, Pelayo none. Fatigue perhaps?

Turn 9 status: Pelayo is approaching her Critical Point, and must roll some hot dice to finish off Baltimore and two more unscathed - if smaller - ships with 12 total Flotation Points!


Turn 10, I finally forget to turn over the Blue Dice! Still, I manage to track things much easier with the Move-Shoot turn sequence. Spanish lose but have no cunning plan. The US moves Baltimore off to force Pelayo to make hard choices - weaker shot v. Baltimore, or attempt to acquire a new target [and risk failure]? That's a cunning plan, cursed Yanquis!


Turn 10 gunnery, an annoyed Pelayo, with just one dice, rolls a ''4' and sinks the Baltimore! Honors to Solitario! In return, she takes two Hits from the Baltimore and Raleigh.

Turn 10 status: Pelayo has almost reached her Critical Point. The two strongest US cruisers are sunk but the remaining two, albeit smaller ones, have 11 Flotation Points left between them, which is quite a lot compared to Pelayo's 4!


Turn 11. The US wins IN. The Pelayo passes Q and moves slowly ahead. The US close to within killing distance.

Unfortunately, the Boston [the heavy-gunned of the two] doesn't acquire Pelayo as a target, and the Raleigh inflicts no damage! The Pelayo Acquires Boston and hits her for 3 - Viva!

Turn 11 status - the Pelayo can accept this exchange - Boston half sunk for no damage in return.


Turn 12, the US wins IN but there's not a lot of choice with the big guns on the table. Pelayo rolls a 2 to stay in the fight - must like the sight of Boston taking hits!


Turn 12 Gunnery. Boston has a critical failure to acquire Pelayo! Pelayo has no such problem and sinks her [barely]! Raleigh hits for 2 on a long shot!

Turn 12 status: Pelayo has little left and is now sinkable, and qill have to pass Q to avoid retreating. Still, Raleigh doesn't have great gunnery at this range so anything is possible. Heck, at this point the ES has done their best showing ever, and can float back to Manila with honor for all they care!


Turn 13. Spanish win IN, Raleigh starts to cut her off and cross her T. Pelayo fails Q [as badly as possible - sudden panic?] and veers off to Starboard. BUT, in the gunnery phase, Raligh again misses while Pelayo squeaks out just 1 hit.

Turn 13 status: Pelayo has two Hits, Raleigh 3, but is outgunned badly at this range.


Turn 14. US wins IN, but can't close the range. Pelayo continues retreating, and blasts Raleigh out of the water with 4 Hits. Not to be outdone, Raleigh sinks her with 2 Hits rolling a '6'! Note that the '4' shouldn't even be there...


Final Butcher Bill [well, Fishmonger's Bill, anyway]: a tactical tie, but a strategic win for the Spanish who've several small ships more than the US in the area. Also, with the Home Port advantage, they've a better chance to float one of their ships sooner.


Wow, great and grueling battle! 

I'm happy with the changes, and the decisions available to the Admirals. There's an ongoing tension to enter close and deadly range and remain there, and important decisions about which ship to target, switching targets, etc. I feel like these rule additions influence tactics and choices in an historical manner that make it worth a little more complexity. 

Much will be eased if I make splash markers with ship identifiers on them. I really like the ones in David Manley's "Fire When Ready!" as well as many of his scenario and other detailed rules. I just want a rule set that streamlines the mechanics while preserving the decisions! 

I do need to get more detailed on the Q rolls and perhaps nuance the roll a bit. Much like Manley's "Broadside and Salvo" rules, I'm looking for squadron leader decisions for a player while allowing the "non-player" ships to provide friction for their own side in this era of "lesser" communications.

Future Work:
- Nuance the Q rolls a bit,
- ditching hexes for table top,
- torpedo boats, torpedo runs and defensive fire!
- critical hits!
- optional: differentiating guns by rolling 1 dice per gun?
Happy to take suggestions as well!

I hope these playtests have given you an opportunity to learn about these lovely set of simple rules that you can have fun with your newbie friends and family, and add details as you see fit for your serious gamer pals.

"Remember the Maine!"