The Russian War in 1/2400

I spent last weekend in deepest darkest North Devon taking part in a campaign based on the 1855 Anglo-French operations against Russia in the Baltic. The game was put on by the NWS chairman, Stuart Barnes Watson using his extensive collection of 1/2400 models from Hallmark and Tumbling Dice. Stuart was using my "Iron and Fire" ironclad rules and so he asked if I'd be happy to umpire. I&F is written from an 1860-80 ironclad perspective so I devised a set of period specific rules to cater for the slightly earlier time period, and also to cover the campaign specific elements.

Day 1 saw the British and French repeating their 1854 attack on Bomarsund. The scenario that Stuart had devised had the Russian rebuilding the defences that had been destroyed in 1854, whilst the allies were seeking to occupy Bomarsund to establish a forward operating base for the blockade of the Gulf of Finland. The main differences between this battle and the 1854 campaign were the completely steam powered nature of the allied fleet and the Russian use of ships to defend the islands as well as shore batteries. Alas for the Russians the allies attack was very competently handled; light defences on the outer islands were rolled up by the British Inshore Squadron, the main defences and anchored ships engaged and defeated by mortars carried in the small fleet of bomb vessels. Realising the game was up the Russian steam ships escaped, leaving the islands to face their fate.

Attachment 7204

Day 2 was to have been an Allied attack on Sveaborg, but this would simply have been a rerun of day 1, so we recast the day as a fleet encounter in congested waters on the approach to Kronstadt. To win the Russians had to sink or burn the majority of the Allied bomb vessels, which were the primary threat to the Russian fortress. unfortunately again, the Allied players proved too canny for the Russians who, despite many clever ideas and subterfuges (including offensive minelaying) were unable to crack the very well organised Allied squadrons.

Attachment 7205

All in all a very enjoyable weekend (even the Russians thought so, despite having their heads given to them on a plate twice). The rules and amendments worked well, even with 100+ ships engaged. Oh, and much beer was consumed at the rather excellent local pub in the village of Lee between days 1 and 2!

The weekend did, however, reinforce my thoughts that the Russian War (aka the "Crimean" War) is a tricky one to wargame. Both fleets are large - but both have good reasons not to get heavily engaged. The Russians, with the vast majority of their ships reliant on sail power, are at a severe disadvantage in a fleet action (and as day 2 showed would most likely get chewed to pieces). meanwhile, the Allies, lacking many specialist inshore craft, would be mad to attempt to force the very strong defences of places like Sveaborg and Kronstadt (behind which the Russians, if they have sense, will be sitting). So one has to develop rather contrived scenarios in order to force an action, run a counterfactual where the Russian fleet has a far higher proportion of steam ships or (as I may do in the future) run a campaign set in 1856 where the Allied have the benefit of the massive 1855-56 inshore warship building programme. It is, of course, an ideal setting for skirmish games based around British landing parties in Finland - ideas of converting the Airfix Great Western into a gunboat for 15mm figures are forming in my mind :)

Very cool...Any close up of the action?

Thanks for your input on the campaign:hatsoff: but, I'd need your binoculars to identify the ships if I was standing at the table.

No close-ups I'm afraid. fortunately Stuart has the names of the ships written on tabs on the ships' bases

Wargame enthusiast at work. :salute:

Looks like a great map for SoG games, too.



I think for such a combat simulation every gamer needs a good knowledge of the rules.

You'd think so, but half the players had never seen the rules before the game. They picked them up very quickly indeed.

It's always impressive to see something at this scale come to life. Thanks for the photos and recap.

Great looking table and a nice gaming space as well!

Very impressive that you have created your own rules. I see you have done quite a few scenarios and rule sets. http://www.aandagames.co.uk/product_list.htm Do you think you will be working on scenarios for SOG as well?

The game looks quite complicated with all those ships, but as you say, people were able to pick it up really quickly. This map does look like it would be good for SOG. I Will have to try and set up something similar for SOG in or around Bristol next year. Dave or any other local Brits, if you can think of some people that would be up for Battling on the high seas, then let me know and we can attempt to book in a date. A few of us in Bristol have in the past spent days playing axis and allies, so it should be easy to convert them into wanting to play something faster paced like SOG instead.

It should be interesting to see what scenarios people start comming up with once SOG released. I must admit that the simplicity of SOG is appealing to me, as it will be much easier to introduce new people into AOG games and then increase the realism over time. Making scenery for the land as you have here though seems like a good idea.

one of our typical giant axis and allies games
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0dakeH49YQ

Not sure about scenarios for SGN - it should be fairly easy for anyone to knock them up from existing scenarios or from a little background reading (actually a pet hate of mine is wargamers who insist on being "spoonfed" with scenarios rather that doing a little reading for themselves to devise the settings for their games, if for no other reason than they miss out on a whole range of deeper understanding - and with the internet at most people's fingertips these days its even easier to do your own "research").

I suspect the Avon Wing of the Aerodrome will also become the Avon Squadron of the Anchorage once the rules and models appear (most of the Avon players have been exposed to the game in demo kit or playtest form already); with luck i will reclaim my Wednesday nights for games up at the Mall so expect to see the ships appearing there soon. There's also an excellent club a bit to the North of Bristol at Slimbridge; they too have been well exposed to SGN and are keenly awaiting the arrival of my KS package so that they can get on with some big games. And there's quite a few naval wargamers in the Bristol and Avon area; we used to have an NWS regional group based first in Trowbridge and then in Bradley Stoke. that group is dormant just now due to various non-wargaming commitments, but there are still quite a few active players around. So there should be plenty of opportunities for a significant gathering of naval gamers in our region on a regular basis :happy:

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Originally Posted by David Manley

Not sure about scenarios for SGN - it should be fairly easy for anyone to knock them up from existing scenarios or from a little background reading (actually a pet hate of mine is wargamers who insist on being "spoonfed" with scenarios rather that doing a little reading for themselves to devise the settings for their games, if for no other reason than they miss out on a whole range of deeper understanding - and with the internet at most people's fingertips these days its even easier to do your own "research").

I suspect the Avon Wing of the Aerodrome will also become the Avon Squadron of the Anchorage once the rules and models appear (most of the Avon players have been exposed to the game in demo kit or playtest form already); with luck i will reclaim my Wednesday nights for games up at the Mall so expect to see the ships appearing there soon. There's also an excellent club a bit to the North of Bristol at Slimbridge; they too have been well exposed to SGN and are keenly awaiting the arrival of my KS package so that they can get on with some big games. And there's quite a few naval wargamers in the Bristol and Avon area; we used to have an NWS regional group based first in Trowbridge and then in Bradley Stoke. that group is dormant just now due to various non-wargaming commitments, but there are still quite a few active players around. So there should be plenty of opportunities for a significant gathering of naval gamers in our region on a regular basis :happy:

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I do agree that its good to come up with ones own scenarios, but remember there are part time wargamers out there like me who would love to have the time to put into the kind of detail your talking about, but simply don't have the time to do research into making scenarios anymore. I for example run a very busy photo studio full time, then spent a minimum 20+ hours a week of shooting freelance work as well. Getting to spend what time i have left with my wife, baby son and our pets has to come first as time is very precious! (hence the victory build is at the office) As such having pre determined scenarios that have been play tested already by others and i can just play is rather nice. From being able to play games every week in the past, like in the axis and allies video from a few years back, that could often last 6-7 hours. Now i'm now lucky if i get to play a game every other month.

This is why i'm excited about SOG, I can turn up play for a few hours possibly play a couple of different scenarios, then go and have a beer and head on home again. It's simple and fast paced. perfect for a time pressed wargamer like myself, rather than more in depth rules such as signal close action etc. The bunch of us that used to do the long gaming sessions in the past have now mostly gravitated towards fast paced board games like settlers of catan etc. SGN should allow us to move back into wargaming and still keep our free time.

I had no idea there were so many naval wargamers around this area. Thats great news, i will have to look somer of these groups up once the game has been released :happy:

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Originally Posted by Moideeb

play a couple of different scenarios, then go and have a beer and head on home :

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Now here's a man who has his priorities straight.:beer:

OK, so I have to ask in your A&A game, what exactly did the American's do that surprised the Japanese? I have most of these games, but no one around wants to invest several hours (or more) to play them.

Fortunately, I can usually get a gaming fix at GenCon. . .two years ago that's all I played for several days. Awesome and exhausting!

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Originally Posted by Nightmoss

OK, so I have to ask in your A&A game, what exactly did the American's do that surprised the Japanese?

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From the sound of it: The Japanese player got a bunch of s***ty die-rolls, and lost Pearl Harbor (and possibly the Philippines as well), giving the US that much more time to get building.

Ask me about the time I played _A&A_, and stopped Japan with *China*.... ;)

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Originally Posted by David Manley

he asked if I'd be happy to umpire.

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How feasible is it to play such a campaign without a non-playing overseer?

Very nice setting and weekend.

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Originally Posted by Nightmoss

OK, so I have to ask in your A&A game, what exactly did the American's do that surprised the Japanese? I have most of these games, but no one around wants to invest several hours (or more) to play them.

Fortunately, I can usually get a gaming fix at GenCon. . .two years ago that's all I played for several days. Awesome and exhausting!

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Originally Posted by csadn

From the sound of it: The Japanese player got a bunch of s***ty die-rolls, and lost Pearl Harbor (and possibly the Philippines as well), giving the US that much more time to get building.

Ask me about the time I played _A&A_, and stopped Japan with *China*.... ;)

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Im pretty sure the japanese (me) tried for an attack on the US (pearl harbour), then by a lot of bad luck on the japanese part, got pretty much animated almost immediately by american the much smaller american force. wiping out the entire japanese navy and airforce. It was a while ago now, but after that turn alone, the whole game became a relatively quick and easy win for the Allies.

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Originally Posted by Moideeb

Im pretty sure the japanese (me) tried for an attack on the US (pearl harbour), then by a lot of bad luck on the japanese part, got pretty much animated almost immediately by american the much smaller american force. wiping out the entire japanese navy and airforce. It was a while ago now, but after that turn alone, the whole game became a relatively quick and easy win for the Allies.

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I"m guessing you meant "eliminated" rather than "animated"?

Here's the account of my one (and only) playing of _A&A_, from http://www.bidalaka.com/picofarad/pf17/games.html :

After dinner with the SO (who had turned up for the weekend section of the con), I moved on to my first Axis and Allies game ever. Fortunately, there were at least two other first-timers there as well, so perhaps any screwups on my part would be mitigated by their errors. The experienced hands were quite polite and helpful, giving me the time I needed to read the rules, figure out what was going on, and generally not look quite so newbie-ish.

Then it came time to draw for which nation we'd be playing -- I got the USA, the economic powerhouse of the game. No pressure there, then.... (The saving grace was the US always plays last in a turn, so I could watch the experienced hands and see the game being played before having to do anything myself.)

The Allied side went in with a plan -- the USSR would be the focus for Axis attacks, while the UK swept the Italians out of the Mediterranean, and the US [cough] built up its navy for an eventual assault on Japan. I'm not sure what the Axis plan was -- but the game sure-as-hell didn't go according to it.

In reality, the Germans invaded Russia, and made it to the suburbs of Moscow before having to stop; in our game, the Germans barely made it out of Byelorussia. Meanwhile, a German invasion of Gibraltar was casually crushed by UK troops; the UK then blew Italy off the African continent. My role in this consisted of a suicide-bombing-run which demolished most of the Italian fleet at the cost of a mere two bombers and one fighter; the UK then finished off the Italian navy and moved into southeast Europe (for once, Churchill's "soft underbelly" nonsense actually worked).

This was as nothing compared to what was going on in the Far East, though.

The US player, in the edition we were using, also controls China's army. China's forces, to put it mildly, suck -- apart from a single US Fighter piece (representing the Flying Tigers; this unit can't be replaced if lost), China's forces consist entirely of Infantry, which score a hit on a 1 on 1d6. Meanwhile, the Japanese get Infantry, Armor, Fighters, Bombers, Subs, Destroyer, Cruisers, Battleships -- you get the idea. The job (in the more-common and the pro-wrestling senses of the term) of the Chinese is simply to slow Japan down until one of the major powers can come along to support it.

Under my control, China did not slow Japan down.

China stopped Japan dead in its tracks.

Right now, every A&A player who reads this is screaming "No way", or more-profane versions of same. Yet it happened -- China went on the offensive, attacked Japan's forces, and beat them -- TWICE. China actually retook territory; in fact, when the game ended, China controlled more territory than it started with (only one more territory, but still more than it started with). According to the A&A players I asked about this, this had never happened before in the history of the game. Next stop -- Milliways.

Coupled to this unprecedented kanchoing at China's hands was the utter failure of Japan's navy -- it took them three attacks to finally clear the US Navy out of Hawaii, and even then they never managed a landing (in fact, the extent of Japan's territorial gains at US expense were the Philippines -- as usual -- and Wake Island; and this failed to affect the income bonus the US got for Allied control of islands in the Pacific!). Even when Japan "won", it lost -- Japan got the One Epic Naval Battle they'd been looking for, off the west coast of the US, and even succeeded in wiping out the US Pacific Fleet; however, Japan exited that battle with a single battleship, and a carrier with no aircraft. Oh, did I mention that I'd taken advantage of the Research and Development rules, and had acquired the ability to build ships at a discount? I could easily replace my losses -- a point I illustrated to him by cranking out seven submarines in one turn to go after his BB and CV (which couldn't attack the subs unless either the subs attacked first, or he had a Destroyer with those ships-and he didn't have any Destroyers at that point...). That the UK had built an Industrial Complex in India, and was using that as the deployment point for a full-scale assault into Southeast Asia, was simply icing on the cake. I think it was about the time I showed the naval forces I was going to build after the subs -- three Cruisers, two Aircraft Carriers, and Fighters for those CVs -- that Japan's player announced his unconditional surrender. Germany and Italy followed suit.

So, at the end of the game, we had the following: The USSR parked on Germany's border with overwhelming force; Italy cleared out of all territory save Italy proper; and Japan shorn of most of its navy, and stopped cold on the continent; the USSR was looking to become dominant in continental Europe; the UK retained most of its colonial empire intact; and the US was queueing up to invade the Japanese home islands (annoyingly, I didn't get a chance to put the US on the offensive myself; my plan was to bypass the various islands and attack Japan directly).

Oh, by the way: The surrender occurred in mid-1943. History really got ripped a new one in that game. Harry Turtledove, eat your heart out.

For my first game, I consider A&A decent -- it would be nice if I'd had more to do than just generate income and air power. However, I did commit the impossible in my first outing, so I'll consider that a Major Victory.

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Originally Posted by Moideeb

Im pretty sure the japanese (me) tried for an attack on the US (pearl harbour), then by a lot of bad luck on the japanese part, got pretty much animated almost immediately by american the much smaller american force. wiping out the entire japanese navy and airforce. It was a while ago now, but after that turn alone, the whole game became a relatively quick and easy win for the Allies.

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Thanks for the report. Sounds like Chris was right on with his call! Bad dice are bad dice!!! I hate bad dice!