Monday, 28 July 2025

The Duellist Returns






The final Algernon Pulls It Off! game of the month for the Facebook group July Challenge....a replay of The Duellist. The RFC Top Ace, Capt.Higgins won the day with veterans Oblt.Schmidt and Lt Becker being shot down, the first due to structural damage and a Total Loss of Control, the second due to a black out at low level as a result of wounds sustained. I think I might tweak the set up in future to prevent Top Aces being rolled up...a simple re-roll if a 1 is rolled should do it - as they are flipping lethal.

Shortcut to Lake Tanganyika



I had one of those very rare moments of inspiration the other day, while thinking about adapting some old river terrain modular sections for 1/600th scale ironclad wargaming. I realised that I could probably use these for Lake Tanganyika for the Steamer Wars project, and a quick Google to check the geography backed this up. In fact, in some ways it's a better use of the old river terrain, as the foliage and static grass I've used is a pretty good match for the East Africa, perhaps with a bit of additional foam foliage added and some beaches modelled along the shore. Bingo!

Sunday, 27 July 2025

Steamer Wars Surprise


I mentioned to David Manley the other day that some additional models would be really handy for Lake Tanganyika, as he is the author of Steamer Wars and also a prolific 3D sculpting expert, with an extensive range of STL files available from his Long Face Games range. He replied with a thumbs up and then, much to my surprise, arranged with North Head Miniatures to re-release their range of 1/600th scale models in the Long Face Games range. This is excellent news even if I don't yet own a 3D printer myself, as the Lake Tanganyika models and the extra ones will eventually be available from Big Jim Prints, if it all turns out as usual. In the meantime, I will carry on with the Tumbling Dice range, which is pretty good and almost complete, then eventually supplement or replace selected vessels with the North Head ones. Happy Days!

Friday, 25 July 2025

Holiday Reading


I thought I'd give this a read through to tie in with my ongoing early United States Navy project, which is focussed on the Quasi War of 1799-1800, but could easily be stretched to cover the Barbary Wars too. It's a subject I'm a bit sketchy about, to say the least, but has potential for a range of historical scenarios and even some counterfactual 'what-iffery'?

Thursday, 24 July 2025

USS Boston 1799


We have a guest staying at the moment so I haven't had time to get any Algy games played or make much progress with the 1/2400th scale United States Navy models. I have assembled one frigate, the 32 gun HMS Boston, which was launched in 1799 and saw action in the Quasi War and against the Barbary pirates. Hopefully, I'll get a few more of these ships built and based in the next couple of days?

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

United States Navy Underway



A few summer showers today so time to get started on the 1/2400th United States Navy ships. Here we have USS Enterprise, USS Delaware, USS Constitution and the previously assembled USS Constellation, using the Tumbling Dice codes most appropriate for each ship. I have plenty more to glue together but the weather's looking up this afternoon, so they'll have to wait!

Tuesday, 22 July 2025

Fly Flight Win: Honcho First Game

I tried out Fly Fight Win: Honcho today, which was interesting and a bit unusual in terms of game mechanics. It's different in that you plot speed and altitude at the start of a turn, then perform movement and manoeuvres in the next phase, most of which have no effect on speed or altitude, all in initiative order based on standard playing cards (very much like the Fistful of Lead approach). 

I enjoyed the game but there were some question marks over exactly when you can make a manoeuvre following forward movement, how hits stack or not when criticals are involved and what happens when two aircraft end up on the same hex at the same height? The rules are a bit ambiguous on these points but I'm sure there is an obvious answer, not that I want to wing it and get it wrong.

In the game I played two of the pilots went at it and caused each other four damage points each, one short of the five required for a shoot down, while the other two more experienced pilots didn't do much at all. In the end, the two MiG's collided in mid-air after a fluffed jet move, which brought the game to an early end after about six or seven turns. I'll give it another go later in the holidays when I have the answers to the questions and a better idea of what I'm doing!

Monday, 21 July 2025

Number Crunching Ammo for Algy


I was rolling up the ammunition depletion numbers for the 'Biggles and the Black Ravens' scenario today, when I realised that I'd undercooked things by only using 1D10 for the forward firing Vickers. This gave several results of less than four seconds, which is hardly realistic and not in line with the observer's minus 1D4-1 drums for the Lewis gun, even allowing for the fact that the rear gunner would be more likely to have been involved in defensive firing. 

I've now modified the system to be minus 2D10 seconds of ammunition for the pilot's machine gun, which is a far better ratio than before. I've also removed the option for observers to have twin Lewis guns mounted, as this just complicates tracking the spare drums and has minimal effect on the overall fire factors. This all sounds a bit inconsequential but it does need to be right for the scenario to work in a realistic, historically accurate way. 

1/600th ACW Ironclads River Terrain




A few years ago I scratch built about a seven foot length of modular river terrain for an ACW ironclads project, using converted and scratch built 1/2400th scale models. In the end, after playing a few games, I realised that the 30cm wide boards were too narrow for this to work, as the turning circles of some of the larger boats was too wide. The games were good fun, using the  Dahlgren and Columbiad rules, but I packed up the boards and haven't done anything else with them since.

I'm now thinking of adapting them to use as modular river back sections for 1/600th scale ACW ironclad games. This would involve using a jigsaw to carefully cut off the river banks with about an inch of the river surface, then filing down the edges and repainting then as mud flats, giving me two 30cm / 12" river bank lengths from each board. It would also give me some river bends and islands, so a good selection of modular pieces with which to edge a table, with a terrain cloth underneath for the actual river channel. 

This would save a lot of bother making new terrain and help kickstart a 1/600th scale ACW ironclad project this year, something I've been meaning to do for ages. Not only that, I have stockpiled plenty of metal and resin models in 1/600th scale over the years, so the outlay would be absolutely minimal. I'll give this some more thought but I reckon I might be going down another naval project rabbit hole again, rather than a land based one, which is much more my cup of tea in the first place!

Sunday, 20 July 2025

'Biggles and the Black Ravens' Play Test





I've just finished getting everything sorted for the next Algernon Pulls It Off! Jasta 18 scenario play test - 'Biggles and the Black Ravens' - which I'm going to kick off on Tuesday, if it all goes according to the plan. This scenario is a tough one for the RAF as the DH4 crews of No.55 Squadron start the game out of formation, with depleted ammunition and worst of all with battle damage, so they will have to really fight their way though if they are going to pull it off. 

The Jasta 18 boys don't have it all their way either, as their victory objective is to shoot down all of the RAF bombers, not just some of them, before they get away. I'm hoping that I'll get to try out the 'Springen!' card at some point, which is the Algy equivalent of the 'Bail Out!' card in Bag the Hun, just so I can see if it actually works?

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