Iron Ships and Wooden Heads - game report

Following a request from another member* of Sheffield Wargames Society I brought along my Iron Ships and Wooden Heads game.  I mentioned this game a while back - see here for the earlier post and here for the scenario briefing.  The game was set in the 1930s and involved two (entirely fictional...) South American countries. 

This scenario takes place after a period of rising tension between the Basque Republicand the Republic of Castile. The main issue is that of the disputed Purile Islands (Islas Purilas?) which lie some 200 miles east of the mainland, with the Basque Republic to the north-west, and the Republic of Castile to the south-west. This scenario can be played on a six by four foot table, laid out as follows:

The disputed Puerile Islands - two small (no more than 6 inches long) islands in the south-eastern corner of the table, and a small island in the centre of the table.

Jerry, Mark and Kayte led the Navy of the Basque Republic while the Castillian fleet was admiralled by Martin and welcome new arrival and old friend Tim C.  Above is one of the Basque squadrons - a pair of destroyer flotillas lead a battleship, carrier and light cruiser.  All 1/6000 scale Hallmark ships from my collection.

A Basque aircraft searching for the enemy.  A 1/1200 scale Hallmark model.  Maximum visibility was 18 inches.

The Castillian 'heavy cruisers'.  These were in fact pocket battleships with 11-inch guns.

A daring destroyer attack resulted in Crapo being crippled.  She was sunk soon afterwards.

The fleets manouevre.  Apparently all this was part of a plan...

The Castillian cruisers were soon heavily engaged.  At this point they needed a good NIP (Nautical Initiative Points) dice to effect some repairs.  Reducing a cripple marker to a hit costs 2 NIPs.

As a Castillian Admiralty spokesman said at the time - "Bollocks."

By now the next lot of Castillians were closing in - a pair of shiny new foreign-built battlecruisers.  Given the foregoing events Martin decided to "bugger off home."  I wonder if that expression appears in the Royal Navy's signals handbook...

*he didn't show up for the game.  Cheers Mick.

Scenarios for Iron Ships & Wooden Heads - 2

The 6x4 foot table is laid out with a group of four small islands near it's centre.  One larger than the others but none more than 6 inches long.

The Navy of the Basque Republic (NOBER)

All the survivors from Scenario 1.

Er, that’s it!

Enter from the north-western corner of the table, as previously.

 

The Fleet of the Republic of Castile (FROC)

All the survivors from Scenario 1. At sea, within 18 inches of the islands.

1D6 minus 2 Submarines (placed in secret anywhere on the table)

2 Old Battleships                  Clank, Clunk at sea, in the southern half of the table.

2 Destroyer Flotillas             CD5, CD6 at sea, anywhere on the table.

1 Air Wing based on an aerodrome on the largest of the islands. If the aerodrome is crippled, it cannot be repaired and the air wing is grounded.

The Basque Provisional Independent Cruiser Squadron from Scenario 1 - Crapo, Crudo, Cluedo and Completo.

A close-up of Crapo.  Any resemblance to Graf Spee is entirely coincidental...

 

Who won?

The Basques win if they manage to get four transports into base contact with the largest island, and cripple the aerodrome.

The Castillians win if they prevent this.

Scenarios for Iron Ships & Wooden Heads - 1

These scenarios arose from a game run at Wargames Developments’ Conference of Wargamers in July 1998.

This game, called ‘Banana Boats’, concerned a naval arms race between three fictional South American countries (The Peoples Republic of Alicante, The Basque Republic and The Republic of Castile) in the early 1930s. The 40+ players were divided between three admiralty committees and six foreign shipyards. The committee players argued over which ships to order, while fanciful designers and unscrupulous salesmen tried to offload their products. These included the celebrated British 'F**k-Off class large battleships...   Sales gimmicks included the Italian offer of free uniforms and the innovative Spanish ‘buy now and pay after you win the war’ plan.

Scenario 1

This scenario takes place after a period of rising tension between the Basque Republic and the Republic of Castile. The main issue is that of the disputed Purile Islands (Islas Purilos?) which lie some 200 miles east of the mainland, with the Basque Republic to the north-west, and the Republic of Castile to the south-west. This scenario can be played on a six by four foot table, laid out as follows:

The disputed Puerile Islands - two small (no more than 6 inches long) islands in the south-eastern corner of the table, and a small island in the centre of the table.

The Navy of the Basque Republic (NOBER)

4 Battleships                         Brilliante, Bolero, Bullfighter, Bellona

2 Aircraft Carriers                 Bedknobs, Broomsticks

4 Light Cruisers                    Bongo, Bango, Bingo, Beano

7 Destroyer Flotillas             DB1, DB2 etc

6 Troop Transports               25 de Mayo, 26 de Mayo etc

Depending on the number of players available, this fleet should be divided between up to four squadrons, each led by a battleship. The exception to this is the transport squadron, which may be led by a light cruiser. Sailing orders must specify the composition, route and order of appearance of each squadron. All squadrons enter in line astern, on the northern edge of the table.

Objective: To get the transports safely off the south-eastern corner of the table, between the two islands

 

The Fleet of the Republic of Castile (FROC)

The Castillian Fleet is divided into three squadrons as follows:

Provisional Independent Cruiser Squadron (PRICS). Starts on table, sailing in a straight line from one corner (player’s choice) to diagonally opposite corner until enemy ships sighted.

4 Heavy Cruisers:                Crapo, Crudo, Cluedo, Completo (all with 11in guns - think Graf Spee)

2^nd Battlecruiser Squadron (2BCS). Starts off table, will arrive on south-eastern corner 1D6 turns after PRICS sends appeal for help.

2 Battlecruisers:                   Cortez, Cortege

1^st Battle Squadron. Starts off table, will arrive on south-eastern corner 2D6 turns after 2BCS sights enemy ships.

1 Battleship                           Collage

1 Carrier                                 Clueless

4 Destroyer Flotillas             CD1, CD2 etc

Who won?

The NOBER wins if it is able to exit at least five undamaged transports from the SE corner while having lost no more than two battleships or carriers.

FROC wins if it prevents the above while losing no more than one BB, BC or CV and no more than two of the Heavy Cruisers.

Any other result is a draw.

In the event of a draw or a Basque victory, try Scenario 2…(coming soon)

Iron Ships & Wooden Heads

A DBA-based game, ISWH was written by me in 2001 and was inspired by a pre-Dreadnought game - De Bellis Navalis by Colin Standish - which appeared in Wargames Illustrated a year or two earlier.  ISWH was duly published in the same magazine in 2002 and, on being demonstrated at Wargame Developments Conference of Wargamers that year, inspired original DBA author Phil Barker to design his own pre-Dreadnought game - Damn Battleships Again.

ISWH was designed to cover the 'big gun' era of naval warfare, say from 1910-1940.  It's not really intended for later WW2 actions with all singing and dancing aviation and radar but feel free to try it.
The core period I had in mind was the mid 1920s to mid 1930s, as this can be seen as a transitional period where many new technologies were available - carrier aviation, shore based bombers, ocean-going submarines etc - but no-one was entirely sure it would work in combat conditions.

ISWH also provided a means for playing through some scenarios inspired by an earlier Conference of Wargamers game based on the 1930s naval arms race between three fictional South American countries.  I will post a couple of scenarios later.

For these games we used my 1/6000 ships and 1/1200 scale aircraft - all made by Hallmark.  All ships are mounted on square bases (sizes vary according to ship type), and while this is not strictly essential it does make life (and the game) a lot easier.

A hastily posed photo of some Italian ships, complete with a seaplane on a recce mission.

Faraway Fictional Fleet Frolics

Following recent email exchanges on the subject of 'modern' naval warfare with David Crook and Paul, I was inspired to dig out and begin painting some more 1/6000 scale ships. These join some 1/1200 WW1 & WW2 vessels on the modelling table. Evidently August is 'Ship Month.'  I will post photos of the completed ships as they 'commission.'  Perhaps a 'duffers guide' to ship painting might be in order.

Both David and Paul asked me about rules and I suggested the set by Peter Child-Dennis which I found some years ago on David Manley's website.  These have been revised since I last looked so I shall need to try them again soon. 

The last outing of my 1/6000 ships was documented here but I remembered that I had some pics of an earlier game.  So here they are.  The game featured two of my fictional South American countries - their harbours filled by opportunist First and Second World arms salesmen.  The detail of the scenario escapes me but broadly a Castillian task force was fending off an attack by the Soviet-armed Basque fleet.   1/6000 ships and 1/1200 aircraft models by Hallmark.

Castillian A7 Corsairs attack Basque Kashin class DDGs

The Castillian fleet under way.

Even Wg Cdr Luddite misidentified this as a Shackleton (a proud moment for me!).  10 points for the first correct identification.

The initial missile attack scored hits on the Castillian flagship. 

Admiral Rapier is helicoptered from his stricken flagship....

....just as the Basque airstrike came in.  To save your eyes, they're a Tu16 Badger and Tu95 Bear.

Added 29/08/12:   'Fatman' on TMP has correctly identified the mystery bomber as a Junkers Ju290.

Sheffield Wargames Day 30th December 2009 - Part 2

Our second game was a Modern Naval game using rules I found on the internet years ago. The protagonists were two of the three fictional South American banana republics I invented some years ago. These three countries were invented for a plenary game at COW in the late 1990s. The game took as it's subject a naval arms race in the 1930s and the countries were resurrected for further service as a scenario generator for my Iron Ships and Wooden Heads game published in Wargames Illustrated in 2001. This was a DBA based game which I'll dig out and post if there's any demand.

Anyway, back to South America. Still smarting from a recent reverse over the hotly disputed Islas Peurilas (at the hands of the Castillian Fleet), the Basque Peoples Maritime Defence Force obtained new equipment from their Russian sponsors. This new kit included a Moskva class helicopter carrier and two Kynda class cruisers, together with a squadron of Backfire bombers. The Basques had been hard at work extending the runway on the small island of Isla St.Clair. On account of the quota-based command economy the new runway was actually slightly longer then the island - so much so that the end was submerged at high tide! At the time of the game the development of the island had only proceeded as far as the installation of AA gun batteries and the runway was not yet ready for fast jets. A Basque task force comprising the three new ships (Bolero, Bedknobs, Broomsticks) and three destroyers (Bing, Bong, Bang) was about to set sail for home escorting two landing ships (25 De Mayo, 26 De Mayo) full of marines.

It ws beleived that the Alicante Navy was completing the sea trials of their newly acquired carrier (the Audiquattro, formerly HMS Victorious) escorted by two destroyers (Asta and Aste - US Coontz class). The Audiquattro had in fact finished trials two weeks previously (although like a number of ships in this action it smelled of fresh varnish...) and was cleared for action. The Alicanteans had ordered their task force to intercept the Basque force and had no fewer than 4 submarines in support. These latter had been placed secretly near the islands.

The Basques split their force and while Bolero and Bedknobs escorted the landing ships, the destroyers led by Broomsticks set out to form a screen against any appearance by the Alicantean Navy.




Bolero leads the way with one of her helicopter flights scouting for subs. The flight on deck has another two turns before it will be ready to launch again.

A surprise appearance by a pair of subs did little to delay the Basques' progress and the Kamonov 'Hormone' helis proved their worth by driving off one and sinking the other. Bedknobs suffered a quickly repaired torpedo hit. After the other Basque force was sighted by the Audiquattro's Gannets a Buccaneer strike was swiftly launched. This survived the local AA fire but inflicted only light damage on Broomsticks. As can be seen from the photos, the Alicanteans had not had time to paint over the Fleet Air Arm Roundels on the Audiquattro's air wing... A missile exchange between the Broomsticks' division and the Alicantean destroyers resulted in the loss of a destroyer each and the temporary crippling of Broomsticks.
The Basques then managed to call in Backfire strikes on the carrier, finally hitting it with a full squadron while it's deck was crammed with refuelling Sea Vixens and Buccaneers (again the small dice on the aircraft bases indicate the number of turns until another mission may be ordered). This crippled the carrier and brought a halt to air operations for long enough for the main Basque fleet to make good it's escape.