Saturday 20 July 2013

Fletcher Pratt on Grass - part 2

As we join the action again gunnery has broken out - and the 3 V/W class DDs from Gibraltar have joined in by opening up at really rather long range.  This is a ploy best avoided as it annoys the umpire team by making them adjudicate ineffective shooting!
 The outdoor firing arrows are plastic plant markers - £3 for a big bag them- with ranges written on using an OHP pen.
Several hits were scored on the French cruisers - but mostly from small calibre DD guns.
As usual my collection of bespoke hand carved hit markers was in use.  Reds were hits, yellow misses and white torpedo hits.  And yes, to the untrained eye they can look a bit like plastic golf tees...
Before long there were a number of torpedoes in the water.  I marked these using 12in lengths of dowell - 
one for each salvo rather then one for each torp due to dowell shortages!
Even the mighty HMS Renown lumbered out of port to join in the fun.
Some of the ships were so bunched that a decent salvo of shells was likely to hit something!
A scrappy melee soon ensued!
There were a lot of torps in the water at this point....
...and some found targets.  One French cruiser went down while the rest decided to press on.  We decided that probably 1-2 CLs and 2 DDs were likely to have made it through, and Renown wouldn't want to mix it with all those big DDs!
So a pretty successful game and a further vindication of the F-P system.

17 comments:

Conrad Kinch said...

Looks like tremendous fun - I'm looking forward to a spot of garden gaming myself.

David Crook said...

Hi Tim,

The golf tees, ahem, carefully hand carved hit markers certainly had me fooled....;-)

Looks great fun and I have been having similar notions concerning my back garden.

All the best,

DC

Tim Gow said...

Conrad Kinch
It worked really well but I was so hot that had we continued longer than 90 minutes there might have been real casualties!

Tim Gow said...

DC
Ooh - how big is your garden?

Don M said...

I never would have thought to mount ships on bricks then play on the grass, intriguing! Did look quite allot of fun...)

Peter Douglas said...

Tim

Wonderful looking stuff. I do love your bespoke hit and splash markers.

Cheers

PD

Tim Gow said...

Don M
The bases are lengths of 16x44mm wood - much lighter and easier to cut!

Tim Gow said...

Peter Douglas
They took weeks to carve, but worth It in the end i think!

Paul said...

Nice! We have a blue water navy, a brown water navy and now a green grass navy!

Good show!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Very Very Cool

I must get a copy of FP from John Curry's web-site

Just a pity Father's day has come and gone

Still there is always an autumn birthday request to get in early ;)

Tim Gow said...

Paul
And as an added bonus, no risk of sea sickness!

Tim Gow said...

Geordie
Did I just hear a door slam as the last of your self control left the building?

Peter Douglas said...

Tim

There may be no risk of sea sickness, but there is the risk of minefields laid by neighbourhood dogs and cats!

Cheers
PD

Tim Gow said...

PD
Happily this wasn't a hazard on the well kept lawn at Knuston but it does explain why I can't use my own garden! I did however, suffer a big insect(?) bite while watching a Little Wars game. Does this make it a war wound?

Peter Douglas said...

Tim

I'd say play up the bug bite for all it's worth - but I know how much sympathy I'd get at home and I'm guessing you'll not do much better.

PD

Milgeek said...

Oh look! Little ships! ;)

Tim Gow said...

Stephen Beat
Yeah, like that'll ever catch on....