Save the Whales!

Around about 25 years ago I kicked off my Cod War project with a set of rules for an NWS participation game at the naval museum in Portsmouth. In 2006 I wrote a variant set covering the "whale wars", as Greenpeace and (more latterly) Sea Shepherd's attempts to frustrate Japanese whaling fleets hit the news. This was a fun, if somewhat controversial set but it was fun to play and I even had a marine biologist in New Zealand send me some feedback on how to make the whales (controlled by the game process) more realistic. I think they played it at the university in Auckland.

The big problem was models. Nobody made wargaming models of the ships involved. There were one or two 1/1250 collectors' models but they were hellishly expensive and of such fine construction that they would never stand up to the rigours of the wargames table. The release of Decapod's "Cod War" range on Shapeways gave me hope that perhaps some Whale Wars models would follow but alas not. Cardboard counters for ships and whales would have to suffice, as they had for many years. And so this part of the project languished.

Until now.

With a half decent 3D printer on hand the way was open if models were available. Whales - not a problem, loads of them out there. Some of he more unusual Sea Shepherd craft were available as well, notably the Ady Gill and the Brigitte Bardot. Further hunting around revealed a 3D graphics model of a Japanese whaler available for a very reasonable price. Downloaded, the model was converted into a format that I could work with by a good friend and was set up for printing. I wanted at least one of the larger Sea Shepherd ships and I found that Decapod had posted his "St Giles" trawler on Thingiverse (an online repository for free 3D models). Not white the right ship for what I had planned but I used it as a training opportunity in basic 3D modelling, cutting out the middle quarter of the ship and reattaching the bow, adding a flight deck and adding boats and davits to the working deck to make a rough approximation of the Steve Irwin.

So now off to the printer and after a few days (I was burning off Jem Hadar fighters and German R Boats in 1/600 and 1/300 at the same time) I had a decent collection of whalers, protester craft and whales, and the project is back on. The models aren't to a consistent scale - the whalers and the Steve Irwin are roughly 1/850, the smaller craft printed to a slightly larger scale to give them more presence, and the whales similarly larger. I'm quite leased with the results and I'm fairly certain that what I have just now is a pretty unique little set.

I need to make a few additional bits and pieces, some icebergs and one or two helicopters, but the main bulk of the collection is done.

Japanese whalers close in on a pod of whales as Sea Shepherd craft move to intercept

A trio of Japanese whalers

The Sea Shepherd fast craft fleet

"Almost" the Steve Irwin

Another view of the Steve Irwin

The Ady Gil - like something out of a science fiction film so I added the red light bridge windows

Th Sea Shepherd squadron

Another view of one of the Japanese trawlers

Scallop Wars!

Readers in the UK and possibly farther afield will have been aware of a fracas off the Normandy coast between British and French scallop fishermen in an incident described as the "Scallop Wars". Of course this was too good an opportunity to miss for the creation of a special scenario for my "Cod War" rules, and so a couple of days back I posted this on Wargame Vault. Its just a bit of fun, but watch out for updated versions if and when the story develops.....

Find it here (its a free download)

"Scallop War" - Wargames Vault

"Cod War " - Wargames Vault

Odds and Ends

Hectic events in "real life" mean I've not had much time for modelling recently, so what I've done has been mostly just "odds and ends". But some focus was generated by a game this last weekend at the Abbey Wood Irregulars where a Cod War game was run using my rules (available on the NWS website) . I spotted some handy markers on Angus Konstam's blog from when he ran the game recently and decided to make my own using sculpted sea bases and those handy drawing pins with round coloured heads. 

I also found the old Nimrod (in 1/700) and Fokker F.27 (in 1/600) that I bought years ago to supplement the game; whilst the played no formal part in the game on Saturday they did look nice!

Also recently finished, three 1/1200 cogs from Outpost Wargame Services. These were painted in the black hull / red sails scheme of Jeanne de Clisson,a  noted French woman pirate who, following the execution of her husband by King Philip, terrorised French shipping in the English Channel for many years.

Mermaid

A quick blog entry tonight as I'm in "Fawlty Towers" in Bournemouth after the "Beachhead" wargames show at the BIC  (more onews this in a blog entry next week). Suffice to say I've finished the latest and probably last model ships in my 1/1200 Cod War collection, HMS Mermaid.

The model is a resin kit from Mountford - the kit actually comprises a one piece resin hull/superstructure, with a white metal mast and 4" gun mount. Detail is good although smoothed off in some areas and the anchor detail is completely wrong. It's not a cheap model either, maybe they've taken pricing guidance from Games Workshop :)

That said it is a decent model of an unusual subject and paints up nicely. So a worthy addition to my Cod War fleets.

The Naval Wargames Weekend 2013 - Report

The Naval Wargames Weekend has come and gone for another year, and this year’s was the best yet. Thirteen games over two days, with nine games running on day 1, and seven on day 2.

On the Saturday I ran my Cod War game from Salute 2013. The rules were developed slightly from the original game and, as always, much fun and merriment ensued as frigates rammed coast guard vessels and vice versa. Highspot of the day was the “death ride of the Leander” in the final game as she rammed and sank a coast guard cutter, then immediately sideswiped a trawler and also sent her to the bottom. Instant RN loss! 

The Solent Wargames Association ran two games each day. On the Saturday Mark Backhouse ran his popular “Hail Agrippa” ancient naval participation game based on the battle of Actium. An innovative set of rules based on the “Hail Caesar” land rules, emphasising the similarities between land and naval warfare of the period.

Solent’s other table ran a WW2 coastal game in 1/1200 using Action Stations rules, with lovely models and some exquisite coastline and harbour terrain pieces that prompted much discussion. They also ran a developmental game covering piracy off Somalia.  

Mark Barker and the Inshore Squadron presented the 1797 battle of Camperdown. The battle was split into two phases, with the Southern Phase played out on day 1. As always, Mark’s models were awesome.

Wayne Pocock ran the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1/3000 using War Times Journal minis and Naval Thunder rules. Naval Thunder has become something of a favourite with Wayne’s team within the NWS.

Jeff Crane ran the second NWS game, this time a fantasy action with another battle from his continuing  “Keshian Civil War” campaign (which must have been running for over 20 years

 now).

Rob Kirk and his team brought another WW2 coastal game, this time in 1/600 and again using Action Stations. The setting was the Mediterranean, with allied convoys beset by waves of Stukas and axis torpedo boats.

Another Mediterranean setting covered George Street’s 1/6000 modern naval game set off the coast of Crete using a variant of Shipwreck. This was an intriguing game played at the task force level.

Last but not least,  Mongoose Publishing brought along their revised Victory at Sea WW2 naval rules and samples from their new 1/1800 resin ship range. MGP played through several demo and parti games based on the Battle of the River Plate, and the new rules seemed to go gown well.

Although not run as a trade show Mongoose brought along their trade stand and they were joined on the trading front by Stuart Barnes Watson’s “Anchorage” 1/1200 ship dealership, both of which prised some cold hard cash from the hands of the captive naval wargamers present J

Saturday evening’s barbeque was cancelled due to the inclement weather, but an intrepid cadre of NWS veterans slept over at the museum after holding the NWS AGM. So we were able to reset the hall bright and early for Sunday’s games.

For me, Cod War gave way to the age of sail, with a demonstration through several participation games of Ares Games new “Sails of Glory” miniatures game. SOG is similar in concept to Wings of Glory, with simple yet effective rules using prepainted models. Many games were played, much discussion had, and the publication version awaited with great interest. As an aside the NWS will be running this game at Colours in September.

Solent continued with the WW2 coastal and Somali pirate theme, but also brought a lovely 20mm Sudan-esque riverine game. This was a characterful game with some lovely scratch built riverboats, which always seemed to be having a hard time against the Dervish horde!

Mark Barker’s Inshore Squadron  moved on to the Northern Phase of Camperdown. As with the previous day’s action it seemed the British were getting the rough end of the stick for a change!

Rob Kirk’s team brought along their “Cockleshell Heroes” parti game, with canoes converted from Airfix 20mm Commando figures, scratch built “targets” and the dastardly Hun appearing from the shadows. I didn’t get a chance to play this one but I spoke to some that did and it was a lot of fun.

Ian Armstrong, one of Rob’s team, also brought along his “work in progress” – fleets of scratch built Tudor era warships, fully rigged, fully crewed, which had to be seen to be believed. This is a project that has been running since 2001. With luck the fleets will be completed ready for a game at the next show in 2014.

So, more games than ever, more games than we used to have at the old NWS show at Fort Brockhurst and, as far as I am aware the biggest naval themed wargames event in the UK, Europe and (maybe) the world. The aim of the show was to give naval wargamers an opportunity to get together, play games, try each other’s games and to swap ideas and techniques. In that I think it worked very well. The feedback from attendees has been great with everyone planning to come back in  2014. The tentative plan is to hold a slightly bigger event the same weekend, so pencil in the 21^st and 22^nd June for next year J

Cod War at Salute

So I ran the "Cod War game at Salute yesterday on behalf of the Naval Wargames Society. And the event was a blast (although of course not literally as in the game no-one is shooting at anyone). We played four games over the day, with about 30 punters taking part driving Icelandic Coast guard Vessels (ICGVs), warships and defence tugs. We left the trawlers as umpire controlled, which worked well. It was mayhem from the start, with collisions both accidental and deliberate on a regular basis.

Highspots included a "jolly" discussion between opposing players in the first game over the interpretation of the IMO Collision Regulations in trying to determine who's fault a particularly vicious ram had been, a defence tug that seemed to be working for the "other side" as it rammed a friendly tug, cut his nets and then took out the side nets of a second trawler, and Cdr "Bumpy" Hewitt's "red mist" charge at the end of the game that saw him drive HMS LEANDER head on into the ICGV Tyr at high speed with "porcupine" rails deployed; a combination of circumstances that, when coupled with a maxed out die roll left the poor coastguard ship in a sinking condition (and which turned a drawn game into an instant British loss!) So, over the day the score was 3:1 in victories to the plucky Icelanders.

 Of course the other high spots were all about the people we met. In one game we had the joy to meet a US Navy veteran and former sailor in the destroyer Charles F Adams, and he'd been based in Keflavik during the final Cod War in 1976. And it was great to meet "Decapod" and his children who took part in Game #3; I hope he thought I'd done his lovely Shapeways models justice.

Extreme thanks to Drew Jarman who made an excellent "Master of Ceremonies", and to the rest of the NWS team who turned up to help with the game.

As always I came away thinking of various tweaks and adjustments that'll make the running of the game better and easier, and we got some useful pointers in designing scenarios to maximise the playing area and increase the action - very important for a game at a show where the aim is to go from explaining the rules to ENDEX in an hour or less.

An added bonus for the day was that I was able to see the demonstration set and the models for Ares' new game "Sails of Glory" (on which I shall be posting in the future) in the flesh for the first time. For those that don't know the game uses prepainted 1/1000 scale models - very nice. Also had a chat about the new Zvezda "Armada Invencible" game, probably hitting our shores in the Winter.

Alas, and as usual the coverage of naval gaming at Salute was thin, with only one other game there, based on the 1942 battles around Guadalcanal. Something for dedicated naval fans to think about for next year....

Something Fishy!

A set of Cod War models on Shapeways and a chance remark on TMP and now here I am busy looking to adapt my "Cod War" rules for the Canadian-Spanish "Turbot War" of the mid-1990s. Yes, there really was one:

Wiki Link

Yes, back in 1994 Canada and Spain nearly came to blows over fishing rights on the Grand Banks. The EU staunchly backed the Spaniards, In true EU style the UK and Ireland came out in favour of the Canadians and for a while British and Irish fishing boats flew Canadian flags in sympathy with their friends across the Atlantic. Although the extent of the confrontation was fairly limited there is considerable scope for Cod War style "engagements" between the Canadian Coast Guard, Spanish (and other European) trawlers and OPVs of the Spanish Navy.

Provided I stick with the simple coast guard / trawler / OPV kind of "action" this should be fairly straightforward to do. Sourcing the models may be a bit more tricky without having to spend gazillions on something from Navis or another of the European 1/1250 collectors manufacturers. Still, its a challenge!

I'm also hoping that, since that nice Mr Decapod is making a couple of sets of Cod War ships to use with my rules for that conflict, that he might also decide to do some Japanese whalers and a Greenpeace ship or two - fingers crossed!

Preparing for Gosport

The NWS games weekend is at the Explosion museum at Gosport this weekend. I've just about got everything I need together for this now. I'm taking an interesting (I think) collection of games to play over the two days.

1) Medieval naval - Fleet action and small scale actions, probably running a scenario based on the 1217 battle of Sandwich. I'm using my home brew rules for this, using 1/1200 models from Outpost Wargames Services rounded out with GW "Mighty Empires" cogs, and some navwar transports.

2) Privateer - An age of sail variant of "Man o War", using Peter Pig 1/450 models (see my previous entry). I've run this at shows several times and it is a lot of fun.

3) Cod War - 1/1200 non-warfighting off Iceland in 1973. Again, I've run this a few times at shows in the past and it is a lot of fun. I might try one or two of the more "aggressive" scenarios between the Icelandic Coast Guard and some of the UK support ships that don't involve trawlers (but planty of ramming and "firing" at each other using fire hoses!)

Icelandic Coastguard Vessel "Aegir"

UK Protection and Support Vessel "Lloydsman"

4) Wings and Waves of War - Wings of War with seaplanes versus Coastal Motor Boats. 1/144 models from (the now defunct, sadly) Nexus, Riviresco (W-29 seaplanes) and F-Toys  (Albatros D.IIIs converted into W.4s), and CMBs from Rod langton

5) River Plate - Using the NWS freebie rules (which hopefully should be available sometime after the show), 1/600 models outside on the lawn, with the ground scale equalling the model scale. Intended to give players and viewers an impression of the rea distances involved in WW2 naval warfare. Thinks - maybe we should do this with moderns one day, 1/3000 Harpoons fired out to 60 metres or more!)

Hopefully the weekend will be a lot of fun!