Friday 27 December 2019

Narvik 1940...or 1904?


I'm skipping through the habitual Osprey, this time on the destroyer actions at Narvik in April 1940, with a view to some naval wargaming in 2020. I like the idea of destroyer scenarios but with a 'What if?' twist, in this case transferring the Narvik events back in time to an earlier period, perhaps a pre-dreadnought or later Victorian  ironclad setting. I do like these 'camouflaged' counter factual scenario twists, so have come up with some initial ideas.

I can re-imagine a Japanese torpedo boat raid against Russian light cruisers and troopships during the Russo Japanese War, for example, or a similar fictitious scenario involving French Torpedo Boats and British Torpedo Boat Destoyers in the 1890's, albeit in a different location. Added to that, there's scope for a change of scale to 1/300, so that destroyers are translated into MGB's and MTB's against R-boats, S-boats and VP boats...

...or I could just stick to 1/3000 scale and keep it as a historical refight? 

5 comments:

  1. Jim, I am a firm believer in morphing naval games, and think your 1904 morph would work well. I morphed Savo Island to the Med with Italians guarding an anchorage on the Greek island of Savos being bounced by units of the RNs Med fleet.

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  2. Narvik should always be done in 1/1200 :) 1/600 if space is no object :)

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  3. I like these disguised scenarios. You could run a reprise of the Second Anglo-Dutch War Dutch raid on the Medway in June 1667 using French torpedo boats and British vessels of the 1890s.

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  4. Great ideas and there's loads of potential for linking some scenarios together as well.

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  5. I'll have to dig out some old Airfix kits too!

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