INWarD 2019 - Save the Whales

My offering for INWarD 2019 was a run through of my "Whale Wars" game. In this scenario a trio of Japanese whalers has its sights set on a small pod of whales, whilst the ea Shepherd organisation is out to frustrate their efforts. An Australian patrol boat stands by to observe the action.....

The start of the action. Japanese to the bottom of the picture, Sea Shepherd to the top left, RAN centre right, whales in the middle.

The Japanese whalers steaming in formation - whales ahoy!

George and Gracie blissfully unaware of the peril that is about to befall them

Meanwhile the Aussies look on...

 Sea Shepherd dashing to the rescue - The Steve Irwin and Brigitte Bardot head towards the danger zone

As the Japanese close in the Steve Irwin slows and launches inflatables

Boats away!

The inflatables streak ahead of the Steve Irwin as the Brigitte Bardot closes on the Kaiyo Maru 3

Interception to the South as Brigitte Bardot crosses the bows of Kaiyo Maru 3

Collision! Kaiyo Maru 3 hits Britte Bardot. Both ships heave to and a vigorous "debate" on the application of COLREGs ensues 

Meanwhile the first inflatable group swarms the bows of Kaiyo Maru 2

 

The inflatables swarming Kaiyo Maru 2 attempt to daub slogans on the side of the ship, appealing to the world's media (embarked on the Aussie ship), whilst the whalers retaliate with fire hoses

Kaiyo MAru 2 and Brigitte Bardot continue to bounce off each other and trade insults

 

chemical bombs thrown from the inflatables distract Kaiyo Maru 2, whilst the Steve Irwin amkes a run at Kaiyo Maru 1 

Steve Irwin and Kaiyo Maru 1 collide. The Sea Shepherd ship is temporarily disabled, the whaler undamaged 

Kaiyo Maru 1 slips past the Steve Irwin and heads towards the whales, a pair of inflatables positioning themselves between the Japanese ship and George 

Meanwhile, Kaiyo Maru 3 gets under way again and heads for Gracie

 

The Japanese continue to close, the inflatables marking George get into position btween the whale and the ship

Kaiyo Maru 1 fires its harpoon, but the inflatables crossing her bows distract the gunner and his harpoon falls wide of the mark

as the Steve Irwin gets under way again the whales decide it is time to make deep dives. As they disappear from the surface the game ends. A victory for the protesters and the whales.

This was a fun game that lasted a couple of hours and which threw up a few improvements needed to the text of the rules. It also reminded me that I need to knock up some markers to show the various attacks taking place, such as fire hose sprays, stink /chemical bombs, harpoon shots and slogan daubing. Some thoughts on that needed over the next few days.

Spare Ribs

I was reminded/embarrassed by Brian Weathersby's blog post about the RIBs I was supposed to do for "Whale Wars" some time ago but which I had completely forgotten about. Inspired by Brian's lovely examples I knocked these up last night,combining a few models on Thingiverse to create a craft with three crew (I have a few 1/700 models for my "Bulldogs Away" collection but they seem a bit odd charging into action with nobody aboard). I'm working on another one with a "rollbar" just now, but these will do nicely to be going on with. They are deliberately overscale to give them a bit more presence.

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