War at Sea Game

Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to apologize for being away for so long!  Work and family have really taken over this summer and kept me away from the gaming table, and the painting table.

But we are back on an even keel (no pun intended as you will see) and I am back at the hobby to a degree.  The game to get me back into the swing of things was to host an Axis & Allies War at Sea game for my club game night last month.  The game was supposed to be for four players each controlling a small task force from the British, American, Italian or German forces available.

Due to a lack of attendance at the event, only one other club member and I were available to play the game so I took the Italians against Ross with the Americans.

In a word, Ross gave me good drubbing!  I only got away with the Roma (my battleship) and one cruiser meaning that I lost two cruisers and four destroyers.  I only managed to sink two of his destroyers and two cruisers. Additionally, I lost three of my four aircraft and Ross didn't loose any aircraft.  Oh well, we had a great time and it was good to play the game again.  It reminded me that it would be really fun to run a campaign using this rule system for the battles.

Here is a link to my friend AJ's blog with some photos of my game and other games during the event.

AJ's Blog - August 2016 Game Night Photos

Huzzah! 2013

I had a chance to attend the Huzzah! Wargame Convention in Portland, ME this weekend.  It was a pretty good sized convention with 20 miniatures games and various board games and card games each gaming session.  There were sessions on Friday evening, Saturday morning, afternoon and evening and Sunday morning.

I ran two A&A War at Sea games during the convention.  Both of these games went very well.  The first game was my "Changing Teams" scenario and the other was my "Convoy to Malta" scenario.

The "Changing Teams" scenario has a small French fleet trying to escape from the Mediterranean while being chased by Italian and German fleets and air units.  A force of British ships is coming out to help support the French.

The "Convoy to Malta" scenario is a standard convoy game with the Allies trying to push a four ship convoy through strong air attacks and an attack force of cruisers, destroyers and submarines.  The British send out a battleship and supporting ships to reinforce and protect the convoy.

I will post photos as soon as possible.

War at Sea Game

Friend and fellow Northern Conspirator Dave Bostwick came to the house today and we played a small War at Sea game to introduce Dave to the rules. Well Dave quickly figured out the rules and about turn 2 Dave's dice rolling came around. The results - I had my butt handed to me and Dave found a WWII Naval Game that he really liked!

We played a British vs. Italian game with each side at approximately 160 points. Each side had one Battleship, three cruisers and some destroyers. The Italians had one submarine. Each side also had a small mix of A/C to illustrate the rules for Dave.

I will not bore you with the turn by turn results of the game, but suffice it to say that the British suffered greatly at the big guns of the Roma! The British ended up losing all four of their destroyers (Witte de With, Javelin, Cossack, and Vasilissa Olga) and all three cruisers (Kent, Sydney, and de Ruyter). Only the Prince of Wales survived to fight another day.

Dave and I talked about starting a Mediterranean campaign. We have plenty of ships and with just a few additional units we should be ready to go! Dave has decided to look into War at Sea in more detail and said that he may want to get into the game system with some Pacific forces as I have the Atlantic and Med pretty well covered. Sounds good to me!

Here are some photos of the game for you to take a look at:

This photo shows shows the Italians in the right foreground with Roma, Gorizia, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Scipio Africanus. The British have de Ruyter and Prince of Wales on the left. The Kent and Sydney along with two other destroyers are out of the picture at the upper right hand corner.

I took this picture as I had finished off an Italian destroyer (ship with orange explosion). Little did I know that in just a few short minutes HMS Kent (and two British destroyers) would join the Italian at the bottom of the Med!

The Italian Navy

Here are a couple of pictures of the War at Sea Italian Naval Forces that I have collected. I like the boats to be on stands instead of just using the ships themselves on the table. By having the stands I can put the name of the ship and a national flag on the stand which I think really adds to the look of the playing pieces.

The ships I am showing are: Aircraft Carrier Aquila, Battleship Roma, Cruiser Gorizia, two destroyers and a stand of MTB's. Note that I identify the type of aircraft and which carrier they come from by their own stand.

Here is a close-up of the Roma