15mm Vietnam Bohica Project: The NVA

 

In advance of my Vietnam 15mm Bohica platoon level project next year, I've ordered a shed load of the Peter Pig NVA figures to form one-half of my forces. I already have some of the older NVA figures but the newer range is much more varied and has a lot more options, so I decided to start from scratch rather than use my existing figures, which I will repurpose with some head swaps as additional Viet Cong or use for AK47. I'm really looking forward to building, basing and painting the PAVN / NVA platoon and its supporting elements including HMG teams, mortars, snipers and sappers. It's all slated for some point in 2023 but, in the meantime, I'm going to spend the next couple of months on more naval projects, including the pre-dreadnought era Argentinian cruisers that I'm now painting.

Dawn of Iron Battle of Punta Pichalo Playtest

 

This was my second War of the Pacific game using Dawn of Iron, this time featuring the rebel crewed turret ironclad Huascar against no fewer than four government warships, which seemed like a non-starter for the Huascar from the get-go. The game was set to last ten turns, but I expected it to end far sooner, given the relative strength of the two factions and the fact that the government forces had a monitor and a broadside ironclad, not to mention a gunboat and a screw sloop. 

However, despite a wobbly start, the Huascar's crew pulled a blinder, outmaneuvering the Independencia, which steamed off the table by mistake, and La Union, which managed to ram herself into the eponymous Punta Pichalo after running out of sea room. This was largely down to my mishandling of the order tokens, which you need to use in a predictive way thinking one or two turns ahead, as well as some over-enthusiastic use of steam power to ramp up their speed. 

The Huascar also blew the gunboat Pilcomayo to matchwood with one blast from her guns, which just goes to show how deadly gunnery can be even with some negative dice roll modifiers imposed by the scenario. The Huascar did take a pounding, however, mainly from the anchored monitor Atahualpa, which had very heavy firepower and good armour to boot. The game ended on Turn Nine, when the Huascar steamed off the table nursing four critical damage cards, while the Atahualpa was out of range and La Union stuck firmly aground with two critical and one cumulative damage cards. 

The scenario victory conditions gave this to the government forces but I can't help but think that the rebel Huascar was the real winner, having dispatched the Pilcomayo and heavily damaged the now grounded La Union, not to mention seeing off the Independencia. I probably mucked up a few things along the way and I didn't understand how the Poor Shooting rule worked, so just fudged it with a -1 DRM, but otherwise it seemed to go quite smoothly. It's definitely a fast system and the movement rules mean that the ships whizz about the table covering quite a distance each turn, although that's enhanced by the use of 1/2400th scale models. 

Good fun!

Dawn of Iron Battle of Chipana Playtest

I played a solo War of the Pacific scenario with Dawn of Iron today, the first game using this set of rules and a steep but relatively smooth learning curve as a result. This was a scenario for the Battle of Chipana, with the Chilean gunboat Magallanes being chase by the Peruvian sloop La Union and gunboat Pilcomayo, the former controlled by the scenario system and the latter by me. I was a bit confused by the order token system to start with, there being no 'bog standard' steam forwards order to use, but as all the ships were at flank speed that didn't seem to matter. I also forgot to apply the scenario-specific 'Execrable Shooting' rules for the Peruvians, which may well have made a difference. 

The game went well otherwise, with the Magallanes inflicting some early critical damage on La Union, but in the end being pummelled with critical and cumulative damage by both of the pursuing Peruvian warships, the most significant effect being a reduction in her speed. Nonetheless, she managed to get off the end of the table and, when the Stern Chase entry turn delay factors were calculated, she managed to make a clean getaway. On points, however, it was a Peruvian victory due to the serious damage inflicted on the Chilean gunboat, which would have been a significant factor in her continued operation if this was a campaign game. 

Overall, I enjoyed the game and quite like the rules, despite the plethora of tokens, cards and other paraphernalia that are involved. I'm still a bit unsure about the order tokens and how to represent normal movement, but other than that, it seems like a fairly straightforward system that plays smoothly and is very deadly. I used the standard measurements for movement and gunnery, despite playing with 1/2400th scale models and that seemed to work quite well. It's a set of rules that you'll either really like or be indifferent about, but I'll need to play some more games to decide which side of the fence I'm sitting on. It certainly looks really good and if you like the cards, tokens and ship cards, which are all very nicely presented, it's probably a winner. Good fun!

15mm Bohica Vietnam War Project

I bought the Bohica platoon-level Vietnam War skirmish rules at Colours last month, as I'd heard good things about them and liked what I read on the FB group. The plan is to do this in 15mm using Peter Pig figures and vehicles, with Hexon terrain tiles to make things easy to set up and manage for terrain. I'll need to paint a couple of platoons, one USMC and one either VC or NVA, for which I already have some figures in the lead pile, together with some vehicles, civilians, buildings and terrain pieces. It's not a lot but at my usual slow ace it will probably take quite a while to get sorted, so I'll be spreading it out over several months rather than trying to do it all in one go. This will likely be one of the two land-based projects that I'll be tackling next year but I'm already sorting out the planning for this, so that I can get in up and running as soon as possible in 2023.

Protected Cruiser Proxy Models

 

One of the problems when tackling the Argentinian and Chilean pre-dreadnought project has been the limited number of models available in 1/2400th from Tumbling Dice, at least at the moment. The Chileans are fairly well catered for but the Argentinians have to be assembled from various proxy models, with the Garibaldi Class cruisers being the obvious example. I have, however, been able to raid the Japanese range for two protected cruisers, both Elswick designs that are useable as Chilean and Argentinian warships. 

The Japanese cruiser Chitose is close enough to the Chilean cruiser Chacabuco to be useable, especially as a very similar design, a sister ship of the cruiser Takasago, was sold to Chile instead of to Japan in 1902. In a similar fashion, the Japanese cruiser Yoshino is a reasonable match for the Argentinian cruiser Nueve de Julio, being itself an improved design based on the Argentinian cruiser Vienticinco de Mayo of 1891. I've now assembled and based both of these models ready to paint alongside the Garibaldi class cruisers.

Argentinian Armoured Cruisers

 

After a brief holiday break in Barcelona, I'm back at the workbench to base and paint the four Garibaldi class armoured cruisers for the Argentinian squadron. These are now drying out after the base texturing and will be undercoated when they're ready, so that I can start painting them tomorrow. The aim is to get them done by the end of the weekend, when I'll be starting the next naval project for November. 

A Change of Tack

I've got a bit carried away with the US pre-dreadnought project, so much so that I now have fourteen models to paint, which is far more than the three or four I originally planned to do. I've now decided, in the interests of actually getting something finished by the end of the month, to change tack and paint the four Argentinian armoured cruisers that I now have on the workbench instead. 

This is a lot more manageable and will also mean I can actually play a game or two against my Chilean squadron before the end of the year, if it all goes according to plan? The US pre-dreadnought warships will be put aside for the moment but will return in 2023 as a full project in their own right, probably with the Spanish or even the Japanese as a counterpart for some pre-dreadnought wargaming. 

Spanish Civil War with Find, Fix and Strike

 

This is something I've thought about for quite a few years, as an obvious extension of my early war French and Italian naval projects, but an after-action report on the Naval Wargames (Historical) FB group yesterday really caught my attention. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/171377469665350/permalink/2703018393167899/

This was a scenario played out using Find, Fix and Strike, my preferred set of rules, and Navwar 1/3000th scale ships, so exactly the sort of thing I like to do. I'm away at the moment, in Barcelona of all places, but will be ordering the Republican and Nationalist fleets when I get back. This is a relatively small outlay with lots of destroyers, a handful of cruisers and a couple of battleships, so cheap, quick to paint and easy to use for small scale 'skirmish' level scenarios. Excellent! 

Happy Trafalgar Day

 

... with apologies to the wife and the in laws and the half of the kids. I really should get those 1/2400th ships painted up! 

US Pre-dreadnought Battleships

To round off my US pre-dreadnought squadron, which is now quite a lot bigger than I originally intended, I have assembled four battleships in addition to USS Maine and USS Texas which I had already based up. 

These are the three Indiana class battleships - USS Indiana, USS Oregon and USS Massachusetts - together with the single USS Iowa. These will add some firepower to the squadron and open up some interesting ideas for scenarios. In fact, it's looking like this project is turning into a Spanish American War one by default!