The Battle of Angamos

After our Target Locked On! clash today, my daughter wants to have another game of something so that she can wipe the floor with her dad yet again. I've decided that the re-match will be the somewhat delayed Battle of Angamos scenario for Dahlgren and Columbiad, which I wrote a while back but didn't have time to actually play. I gave her the choice of which side, explaining that the Chileans outnumbered the Peruvians two to one, at which she exclaimed that I better be the Chileans as it would give me a fighting chance, as I always lose when I'm playing against her. This could all go horribly wrong? 

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-battle-of-angamos-1879-dahlgren-and.html

Condor War Strike Jet Skirmish

I played a game of Target Locked On! with my daughter this morning, which for a change involved two pairs of A37 Dragonfly light strike aircraft, meeting on patrol over the jungles of the Cordillera del Cóndor range in January 1981. I decided to try a game without any missiles and at very low altitude, using aircraft with high manoeuvre ratings and with equal pilot skill sets. This turned out to be quite good fun but very difficult for both sides when it came to actually hitting, let alone damaging the enemy armed as they were with out a single GAU-2 minigun. 

In the end, after quite a lot of twisting and turning, the Ecuadorian flight leader managed to get a couple of close range hits on his opposite number, the latter of which caused a critical hit resulting in a wounded pilot. This was too much for the Peruvians, who decided to bug out as they were flying on fumes anyway, bringing the game to a neat conclusion and an FAE victory. It's a good set of rules for this level of game and works very well but I think the addition of missiles makes it more decisive, with less chance of dogfighting but more of actually shooting things down. 

Find, Fix and Strike

I had a look at these WW2 fast play naval rules when they were published but somehow never printed out  a copy for a proper overview. This has now been resolved and I've spent an interesting hour or so running through the tactical rules, which look eminently playable, but also the operational, strategic rules which to my mind are the really exciting element of the system. These would be ideal for my early war Norwegian project, with a few twists to make them fit the campaign, so I will definitely be thinking about this some more.

Indonesian Fleet Steam Up

Pre-wash but blocked in

I've finally got around to adding some paint to my 1960's Indonesian naval fleet, with the decks blocked in and an overall wash in an 80/10/10 mix of water, Indian Ink and Future floor polish. The next stage will be to tidy up the hull and deck paintwork, then add some highlights before a final coat of matt varnish. They won't win any prizes but I should be able to get them based and labelled, ready to deploy in relatively short order.

Holiday Reading

This time of year I get the chance to catch up on my reading, which I normally have to squeeze in to the gaps between work and family things. If I'm lucky, I can sit down with a good book and enjoy a couple of hours of uninterrupted historical background research, in this instance on the early war naval campaign, with a particular focus on Norway. I've read a couple of the author's other books and thoroughly enjoyed both of them, so this one should be equally gripping.

Matchbox Memories

I was planning out my 1/600th scale Tumbling Dice aircraft shopping list for the Norwegian project, when I realised that most if not all of the various types were once Matchbox kits that I made as a teenager back in the 1980's. I had a regular model kit habit at the time, with purchases made in the local newsagent on a weekly basis, topped up by occasional visits to the toy section at Trago Mills, where you could get the kits for half the price. I particularly remember the vivid box art and the two tone colour of the sprues, which didn't always match the real thing, although I painted my models with Airfix enamels before hanging them from my bedroom ceiling. I made all of these except for the Dornier DO G-1, which was a bit too expensive for my pocket money budget. Happy days!

Santa's Sukhoi Strafes the Shagpile

I'm now on holiday for a couple of weeks, or perhaps more if the school is shut for last minute Covid-19 testing, so I'm definitely going to catch up on some wargaming, which I've been forced to side line for the last month or so due to extra work. I realised that I haven't played any aerial games for ages, so I'm planning to dig out my 1/600th Peruvian and Ecuadorian aircraft for the Alto Cenepa War, so that I can brush up on the Target Locked On! mechanics and also try out AirWar: C21. The great thing about this is that it needs minimal terrain and logistics aside from the jungle green shag pile rug that I've used before for the jungles of the Alto Cenepa range. I may also have a fiddle about with MiG Alley, but that's a little bit more involved, so I'm not going to make any promises!

Norwegian Naval Notemaking

I'm going to get hold of a digital copy of this supplement for the Admiralty Trilogy naval rules, to use as a planning and scenario tool for next year's 1/3000th scale WW2 early war Norwegian campaign project. It was suggested to me by one of the gamers on the Naval Wargames FB group, so should be very useful even if I don't plan to use the rules system itself.

Les Chevaliers du Ciel

I'm familiar with the BD series that this film is based on but didn't know about the film itself. It's a great video clip either way and reminds me that I have some very nice Oddzial Ozmy 1/600th scale modern fighters that would be perfect for Target Locked On! and Airwar C21, not to mention CY6 Jet Age. Anyway sit back and enjoy.

Galactic 40K Heroes Mash up

The lad has almost finished painting a squad of Tau for 40K and very nice they are too, give or take a little bit of basing to make them really good. As a result and with the holidays in a couple of days, I thought it would a good idea to dig out my copy of Galactic Heroes for a few squad level skirmish games in a grim, dark dystopian future. I've given him the rules to read through, so that he can work out the profiles for his Crimson Fists and Tau squads, with an initial playtest scheduled for the weekend. The best of both worlds!