Dartmouth Castle

The weather was really good yesterday, which was a bit of a change and a good reason to get outdoors. As we are down in South Devon we took a trip to Dartmouth, not realising it was jam packed with tourists for a food festival. To get away from the crowds we walked over to Dartmouth Castle, which was only a mile away, taking time to enjoy the fine weather. The castle site is actually in two sections, one a Victorian coastal battery and the other a late medieval, Tudor and Civil War era defensive tower. These are both very well preserved and presented, so well worth a visit. 

Torcross Tank Detour

A detour down to Torcross today on the way to Dartmouth, to see the Slapton Sands DD Tank memorial, which I've wanted to visit for years. I read Ken Small's book about the disaster prior to D-Day many years ago, so this was a worthwhile visit, even if there's not a lot to see. The weather was also much better than yesterday, with a nice walk on the beach and a cup of tea in the local cafe, so a good trip all round 

Second Hand Book Bargains

It was chucking down with rain and very windy yesterday, which meant visiting a couple of historical sites was a good idea. A trip to the local National Trust Georgian pile meant a chance to browse the second hand bookshop, where I found these three books in immaculate condition. I was expecting to pay at least twenty quid just for the Friedman but the whole lot was only eight quid... bargain!

Fort Charles

We're down in South Devon for a long weekend and today visited Salcombe which, despite the imminent arrival of Storm Austen, was actually quite sunny. After some local advice we took a walk along the coast road and passed the remains of the Civil War fortifications covering the entrance to the estuary. There's not a lot left after the fort was sleighted and exposed to the elements for four hundred years but it's still pretty impressive. 

Skin Shades for Death in the Dark Continent

 

In the past I've used Foundry Bay Brown Shade and Bay Brown for African skin, which I think gives a really good effect and is easy to use as a basecoat and highlight layer. Unfortunately, my very old pots of paint are now on their last legs, so I've been looking for an alternative. A trio of Foundry paints would put me back sixteen quid including postage, which means other options might be better value. I ordered some Vallejo Game Colour paints that are supposed to be equivalent but they are not quite right, so I'm now thinking of trying one of the Army Painter sets. The front runner is the set based on Obsidian Skin, which is the closest to Bay Brown by the looks of it, although you can never tell just from the photo....worth a try out anyway and a better bang for your buck!

Death in the Dark Continent Nyamwezi Army List

Here's the army I have based up and will be painting next month for Death in the Dark Continent, based on List 1: Generic Villagers.

1. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24 

2. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24

3. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24

4. Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (6 bases) @ 30

5. Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (6 bases) @ 30

6. Skirmishers, with bows (4 bases) @ 16

7. Skirmishers, with bows (4 bases) @ 16

8. Arab nobles, Skirmishers,Elite,Untrained with breechloaders (4 bases) @ 48.

9. Swahili Wangwana, Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (4 bases) @ 20.

Stratagem: Witchdoctor @ 50 points

Total Points: 298

It's a bit light on close combat capability but does have some decent short range firepower and should be useful when there's plenty of cover to flit in and out of. If it turns out to be a bit fragile, I can replace the last two units with warriors or just swap out the Arab Noble skirmishers for their soldier equivalent. 

Happy Trafalgar Day

.... especially to all my Royal Naval friends and relatives and, of course, the French side of the family 😜

Observer Twin Gun Rules in Algernon Pulls It Off

I've made some tweaks to the rules for the latest scenario featuring the Brisfit and RE8. I would be interested in any feedback you might have.

1. Observer Lewis guns fire in Left, Right and Rear arcs, not just Rear.  This brings it into line with the German aircraft in the data lists.

2.Twin Lewis gun mounting has a FF of 4 instead of 3 (equivalent to a scout with 2 forwards firing guns)

3. Ammo is expended in exactly the same way as if a single gun i.e. treat twin guns as equal firing bursts from both drums and don't track each drum separately.

4. When reloading or unjamming, both drums are reloaded or a gun unjammed at the same time. No single weapon firing or unjamming.

5. A -1 penalty on the reload / unjam roll as two drums are more work than one.

6. Six spare drums carried giving three reloads per game (the Brisfits actually had a seven drum rack, so seems reasonable..other aircraft might only have four drums / two reloads)

All this is designed to avoid book keeping and speed up the game.

Incidentally, the Aussie Brisfit twin mounts were a game changer in Palestine and twin mounts were widely adopted by the RAF in 1918, so a FF of 4 seems justified, I think.

Feedback very much appreciated 👍🏻

Incidentally...some quick googling and a bit of an AI search reveals that RE8 observers could fire to the side quite easily:

'While they couldn't fire straight ahead over the wing in standard level flight, observers could fire broadly to the front-left or front-right (obliquely) past the wingtips if an enemy aircraft pulled up alongside them'. 

An observer in a Brisfit, however...

'...could elevate the Lewis gun high enough to shoot forward over the upper wing, nearly horizontally. The Scarff ring allowed the observer to manually swing and rotate the machine gun a full 360 degrees, covering the entire rear hemisphere as well as wide lateral (sideways) and elevated angles'.

Almost there...

I'm on holiday next week and want to start painting the Death in the Dark Continent army, or at least a test unit or two, so I've decided to leave the Tuta Warrior unit aside for the moment to get the army finished this week. Instead of the Tuta, I'm going to add four more bases of archers to fill up the last space on the workbench shelves and to bring the whole army up to a total of 298 points, just shy of the 300 required for some of the scenarios in the rules. I'll set out the army list and points another time. The plan now is to paint up the Nyamwezi / Generic Villagers by Xmas, which I think is probably a good target to aim for, assuming I don't get side tracked!

A Sting in the Tail

I have now drafted the third scenario for the Algy Flies Down Under project, aptly titled 'A Sting in the Tail' as it features the first successful claim by the No.1 Squadron Bristol Fighter in January 1918. In this dogfight an RE8 under escort by an F2B was bounced by a pair of Albatros scouts of Jasta 1F but both of the German pilots got the worst of it, with one shot down and the other forced to break off the attack. A key feature of the action was the defense fire from the observers, who both put fifty round bursts into their targets at close range. 

At the time, the Australians were up-gunning the Brisfits and RE8 two seaters with twin Scarff ring mounted Lewis guns, giving them a real sting in the tail and the opposition a nasty surprise. I've factored this into the scenario by including a bonus card for the observers, which allows one or other of them and extra chance to fire, in addition to their Fire card, which I've allocated for each observer. I've done something similar before and it does make for a more dynamic game.