War of the Pacific Refurbishment

I have a couple of weeks of holiday time left and will be back home, so I am going to refurbish my 1/2400th scale Chilean and Peruvian ships by repainting the bases to match my sea cloth. When I painted these a few years ago I made them too dark and I've never been happy with the end result. It's something I've done before with other fleets and although a bit fiddly, I'll be able to make greater use of them afterwards. If I have time, I'm also going to refurbish my Cold War Indonesian Confrontation 1/3000th scale warships to use with the recently published supplement for Find, Fix and Strike. 

Winding Up Algy

My holiday in France is almost over and I'll be back home in a couple of days, so I'm winding up my Algernon Pulls It Off! wargaming and will be moving on to some naval projects at the end of the month. It's not a complete stop, however, as I'm going to be working away on the write ups for both the WSS 'Dawn Patrol' article and the 'Raben's Ravens' Jasta 18 scenarios for this year's Lard Mag. 

In other news, the Algernon Pulls It Off! Facebook group has now got almost 200 members and is ticking over, so I'm also going to step away from posting stuff and let other people contribute more, which will hopefully lead to some new content that isn't my usual guff. My original aim was to get people talking about and playing the rules, which I think I've achieved. I'm now looking forward to a shift of focus and getting back to some naval wargaming for a change!

Lake Tanganyika WW1 Project

Long Face Games has made the old Northhead Miniatures 1/600th scale range of models available as STL files on Wargame Vault and David has also  added some additional models of Belgian boats and shore defences. This means that I have an alternative source of models for my Lake Tanganyika WW1 Steamer Wars project in addition to Tumbling Dice. Unfortunately, they are not yet available from Big Jim Prints, so I'll have to wait until he gets them added to his catalogue. In the meantime, I have the old river terrain tiles to modify into modular shoreline sections, which I'm planning to tackle when I get back home from France next week.

AK47 People's Edition.pdf

The PDF version of the new People's Edition of AK-47 is now out and I've got myself a copy to see what it's like. First impressions are that this is definitely not the old 'classic' version with a few more army lists, nor is it the much maligned Reloaded version despite having some definite similarities, but a new set of rules drawing on the best bits of both and a good dollop of other RFCM rules, especially Square Bashing et al. I need to read through the rules properly but I'm thinking that it will be a relatively big job to get everything prepped for an actual game, especially on the terrain front, so I'm going to leave it until next year before getting to grips with the work required. It's even got me thinking about a change of scale to 10mm or even 6mm, both of which are included as options in the rules, just so I can try out the system before I take the plunge from 'Classic' to People's Edition in 15mm.

Tour Vauban

A day trip to Camaret included a return to the Tour Vauban, which I last visited about fifteen years ago. It's an impressive coastal fort built to defend Camaret against the English in the late 1600's. This time I didn't go inside as we had the dog along for the trip but it was worth an hour and a bit drive nonetheless. 

1/300th Dawn Patrol Painting

Ltn.W.Steinhauser (Jasta 11)

Ltn.H.Weiss (Jasta 11)

I'm going to have to have a go at painting some 1/300th 3D printed aircraft for the Dawn Patrol article at some point soon, as I've been asked to provide some good quality photographs to go with the text. I could submit some photos of my 1/600th scale models but I don't think they would do the job, so 1/300th is the better option. The 'B' Flight No.43 Squadron Sopwith Camels are relatively straightforward but the two colourful Jasta 11 Fokker Dr.I's are a bit more of a challenge, especially Ltn.Werner Steinhauser's striking yellow and red striped machine. I haven't painted any 1/300th scale aircraft for a while but at least they will be easier to see while painting than their half size equivalent!

USS President / USS Adams

That's tha last of the American frigates that I brought with me on holiday assembled and based, ready for painting. The 44 gun heavy frigate USS President was originally going to be the USS Chesapeake but was flipped so that I can use her for both the Quasi War and Barbary Wars. The much less powerful 28 gun frigate USS Adams saw extensive service and will be a very useful addition to the fleet. I have ordered some more models from Tumbling Dice to add to the project, with quite a few frigates, sloops and brigs as potential additions. This will obviously be a small action focussed project rather than a fleet level one, so some simple but fast playing rules are in order.

INWarD25

Unfortunately I'm on holiday in France, so no naval wargaming for me today, with an ironclads bash scheduled for next week when I'm back in Blighty. Not sure what yet but I haven't played any War of the Pacific scenarios for ages, so might dig out an old one for a bit of Chilean and Peruvian ironclad action?

USS Essex / USS Philadelphia

I've not had time to get on with the Quasi War project over the last week but have made up the time by assembling two more frigates. These are the USS Essex and USS Philadelphia, both built from the same Tumbling Dice ASN10 5th Rate Frigate 38/40 Guns pack. I only have a couple more of the USN ships to glue together but may well add a few more from the lead pile when I get back from my holidays including the 24 gun sloop USS George Washington, the 14 gun schooner USS Enterprise, the 18 gun brig USS Argus and the 44 gun frigate USS President.

Dawn Patrol Stripped Down Scenario

I played a stripped down version of the Dawn Patrol scenario today, removing the blinds and lengthening the game to twelve turns to compensate. The aim was to test out the scenario for a Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine article, where it would need to be flexible enough to be played with rules other than Algernon Pulls It Off!. 

The game went very well, after a few muck ups on my part when I wasn't paying enough attention. There was plenty of action, with both sides manoeuvring for advantage, firing off rounds, a lot of jamming and some moments of tension. The Sopwith Camel and Fokker Dr.I are evenly matched, so it really came down to pilot skill and luck, or in some cases bad luck.

The RAF lost one pilot to engine damage, wounds and black out, but he did put up a good fight. The other two pilots only suffered minor damage and returned to their airfield intact, give or take a few bullet holes and a fuel line leak. The Jasta 11 ace pilot got away without a scratch but with no ammunition left, while his wingman only suffered minor damage. 

A good game and I think it will work well for the magazine article, being neither too complicated nor too simplistic. However, it's probably my last game of Algernon for a week or so, as I have other things on the go.