Naval wargames: probability curves and book-keeping

Why are naval wargames good?

1) They require fewer models, so are more likely to be merciful to your wallet

2) They require fewer models, so it's easier to get (even inexperienced) players involved

3) They are immense fun

What are the hindrances?

1) Even the most basic ones require some sort of charts, stats, sheets etc.

2) This can bog the game down 

3) This can make the game less "portable"

I developed my first naval wargame in my teens. My nephew and I played using poker chits and paper ships. It was fun and it worked. Ships used fix movement and fixed amounts of damage. I tried to recreate that game but it fell back on problem #1, individual ship trackers are still required.

Fighting Sail gets close enough, damage is very straightforward, but still you need to dice against ship stats and it's not enough to look at a ship to know what it's able to do.

The new basic concept of my rules is to be a generic age of sail engine, and have the following features:

• Ship movement is decided by damage and position to the wind (both can be told by looking at the model)
• 'Critical' damage is represented by tokens only (up to three types to make things easier)
• There is a roll to hit & roll to save mechanism, which is where the probability curve thing enters the stage.

A ship getting completely destroyed during a sea fight was a freak accident. This is why the destruction of L'Orient for example is so noted. Read up on the Anglo-Dutch wars, where smaller and weaker built ships (mostly Dutch Indiamen) took extreme punishment and still limped out of the line and went home for repairs. Instead (or at least until Nelson came) ships battered each other until one side withdrew or struck. Due to high buoyancy, a ship could indeed be razed down to the waterline and still kept floating. It was a continuous grinding down of enemy resources, and grand scale rules should aim to represent that.

So my thinking is the following:

- it's easy to hit a ship, especially from a short distance,

- it's also very probable that cannonade causes superficial damage (at least in the short term).

So, for example, a generic 3rd rate should have 4d6 gunnery dice per broadside and 4d6 saving throw. She hits on a 3+ at close distance, and also saves on a 3+. That is a one in six chance to score a hit, if I count correctly. Such attrition rules work well on army-level rules, see Blücher, where only sixes cause hit point loss.

Then we can advance the rules and apply bad visibility penalties to the shooting roll, and a cumulative/cascading effect when there is a stern rake or multiple ships are battering the same target. Some playtesting and tweaking, and it should work.

Cheapo Risk Update

The three main protagonists of my Risk Napoleonic enterprise are more or less done. These are the French, Austrian and Russian armies. If you follow the main blog you might know I'm not a fan of the Peninsular War, and if I touched on the subject earlier I always did the Spaniards instead of the usual Brit/Portugal forces.

This means I'm through six of the ten army boxes that came with the two games. It is time to decide the fate of the rest.

I also ordered some Warlord Epic commanders and cavalry, which are sort of in scale.

Risk:

The remainder is about 160 infantry and 48 cavalry. I'm using eight infantry and four cavalry figures per base and units of two bases per default, so this is 20 bases (10 units) of infantry and 12 (6) of cavalry. I don't really care about the artillery because there is an ample amount of guns for each faction (eight per box, I won't be using all of those).

After doing some calculation I'm omitting the Brits entirely and adding other colours instead.

6 bases infantry in full white - Saxon, Italian allies, Austrian extras (I have figures in green painted as Russians, these can be Württemberger in other theaters for example)

6 bases in cornflower blue - Bavarian and other German allies (or young/middle guard if you squint hard enough)

6 bases in brown - Grenzer, Landwehr, Portuguese, Russian Opolcheniye etc.

2 bases in red - Swiss or core Brit

4 bases cavalry in cornflower blue - allied German cav

4 bases in brown - Cossack, other irregular light cav

4 bases in red - Guard Cossack

Warlord figs:

1 sprue of French Light cav (20 horse), 1 sprue of Prussian Cav (18 horse), 2 sprues of French heavy cav (20 horse), not counting the Prussian jäger and the guns which I'll use somehow.

French heavy cav:

12x carabiniers - 3 bases of Russian, Saxon or Austrian cuirassiers (I'll paint on the front plates only)

12x dragoons - 3 bases of French dragoons

16x cuirassiers - 4 bases of French cuirassiers

French light cav:

I'll do some head swaps and conclude with 2 bases of French/Polish lancers, 2 bases of Russian dragoons and 4 commanders.

Prussian light cav:

2 bases of Austrian uhlans, 2 bases of whatever light cavalry and 2 officers.

5 French officers - I'll copy and recast a few more for Austrians/Russians.

Cheapo Risk Purchases

As you may or may not know, I have a half complete 6mm Napoleonic project, for which I purchased a big bunch of figures from Commission Figurines (see the relevant tag).

Now I got kind of fed up with that project, one because some items were missing from the big order and had not been since replaced, and two because I kind of lost momentum painting everything else. I have some Austrian infantry and cavalry and French GAC table ready, but the rest is not even primed.

I was looking out for something less complicated, and found two boxes of an old edition of the Risk boardgame, with appropriate figures. Now the cavalry in that box is not so good (they are hussar like figures with firearms instead of swords), but the rest is okay and I can deal with that (hat and cuirass conversions inbound).

There are five armies in each box, with 12 cavalry, 8 cannon and 40-odd infantry, so around six hundred figures total, good enough for large-ish armies. I'll base them with 4 cav, 2 cannon and 8 inf per base, while the bases themselves are going to be either 20x40mm or 25x50mm size. 

I think I'll make the major Napoleonic combatants out of them, starting with France, Austria and Russia. At this scale and complexity some of the figures will, of course, be interchangeable. The best thing is I can use the pre-coloured plastic to differentiate between armies until I paint them.

Aurora as it were

Just references for my Carp to Gold project to show how the model originally looked.

 

Meeple Organization

So, true to my word, I ordered a bunch more meeples, small 15mm ones and Carcassonne-sized ones. I'm going to organize them in the 'XXX Rampant' manner, in groups of six and twelve. 

I have 12x cavalry in three colours, blue, green and red, these all will be organized to units of 6 figures, each with a lance and shield, to represent heavy cavalry. I have grey and brown meeples (also I can lift some more from a Carcassonne box) for medium and light cavalry troopers.

In total I have 80 infantry per these three colours and 50 more in yellow, and another few in white and beige. The 80 figure lots are going to have 8 banner bearers, and 2x12 figures of heavy, medium and missile infantry each. I'm not sure about the yellows yet, we shall see.

A Return to Meeple Warfare

While trying to get things on the Super Cheap side, for other real life reasons, I thought more about the planned Lion/Dragon Rampant project, and in the end decided to use my existing army of meeples instead of purchasing more figs, to save space and cost.

So I'm going to buy a few more meeples to complement the existing lot, and perhaps one more container to house the whole thing.

I'll also upgrade the meeples' weaponry with tooth pick bows, spears and coffe stirrer shields. This shall be a minor project that would result in playable armies in no time.

Flashing Steel unit profiles for Italian Wars troops

Note: the full armor/partial armor rules are house rules made up for earlier games I played with FS - they are translated from 17th century half/three quarter armor rules.

I. Cavalry

Gendarme - 94pts

Gendarmes are the heaviest form of Renaissance cavalry, the mounted elite nobility of a kingdom. They prefer the comfort of a camp over going on missions, so they are rare to find in a skirmish.

Q3+ C4 (40)

Cavalry Lance (12)

Dashing (5)

Elite (4)

Full Armor - C+1 when defending against ranged attacks; ignores enemy ‘better weapon’ knock-downs.

Impetus (7)

Mounted (6)

Squire - 53pts

This is a general term for battle cavalry of lesser standing, usually in support of a gendarme or leading a troop of light cavalry.

Q4+ C3 (23)

Impetus (7)

Mounted (6)

Partial Armor - ignores enemy ‘better weapon’ knock-downs. (7)

Sword - other or Pole Arm [short spear] (10)

Jinete - 51pts

Light Spanish horse with nothing for equipment but a quick steed and lots of bravado.

Q4+ C3 (23)

Dashing (5)

Impetus (7)

Mounted (6)

Sword - other or Pole Arm [short spear] (10)

Stradiot or Mounted Crossbowman - 58pts

Mercenary light cavalry, famous for their skirmishing skills.

Q3+ C3 (30)

Mounted (6)

Sword - other or Pole Arm [short spear] (10)

Bow or Crossbow (12)

Reiter - 60pts

Cavalry of lesser standing, drilled the German Imperial way to use pistols, softening up the target before a charge.

Q4+ C3 (23)

Mounted (6)

Partial Armor - ignores enemy ‘better weapon’ knock-downs. (7)

Pistol (10)

Double Pistols (4)

Sword - other (10)

II. Infantry

Crossbowman - 48pts

Rank and file troopers favouring the crossbow instead of matchlock weapons.

Q4+ C3 (23)

Bow or Crossbow (12)

Forester (3)

Sword - other (10) [or just a dagger for a lesser point cost]

Arquebusier - 48pts

Rank and file troopers, well trained in harassing enemy close formations with their firearms.

Q4+ C3 (23)

Forester (3)

Musket Light (12)

Sword - other (10) [or just a dagger for a lesser point cost]

Elite Shooter - 70pts

A veteran soldier skilled in using his firearm.

Q3+ C4 (40)

Ranger/Light infantry (5)

Hawkeye (3)

Musket Light (12)

Sword - other (10)

Halberdier - 48pts

Generic troops armed with pole weapons - the pike being a formation weapon, these should have been discarded for shorter pieces when skirmishing.

Q4+ C3 (23)

Brawler (15)

Pole Arm (10)

Swordsman - 50pts

Armoured front ranker swordsmen favoured by the Spanish, or basically any trained soldier sent on a skirmish mission.

Q3+ C3 (30)

Maximise Weapon (3)

Partial Armor - ignores enemy ‘better weapon’ knock-downs. (7)

Sword - other (10)

Elite Swordsman or Halberdier - 67pts

A valuable veteran melee professional, usually escorting an ensign or a VIP.

Q3+ C4 (40)

Bodyguard (3)

Elite (4)

Partial Armor - ignores enemy ‘better weapon’ knock-downs. (7)

Strong (3)

Two-handed sword (counted as a Pole Arm) or Pole Arm (10)

Foot Knight - 75pts

A nobleman trained to fight on foot, with excellent gear at his disposal.

Q3+ C4 (40)

Duellist (7)

Fearless (3)

Full Armor - C+1 when defending against ranged attacks; ignores enemy ‘better weapon’ knock-downs.

Sword - Rapier (15)

28mm Ottoman Army plans

Now that I'm about 90% complete with the Cossacks and the Poles, I would like to expand my 28mm Renaissance collection to include Ottomans.

The good thing about an Ottoman army is that they are quite similar, sans a few details, from the early 1500s to the end of the 1600s. 

So the cheap core of my army - which is a provincial type to be honest - should be the Perry or WA Afghan infantry, and the GB Arab Spearmen&Arches plastic sets, which in total would give me about eighty troops, or, using my reduced figure count units for The Pikeman's Lament, ten or so units.

The WA Afghan horse or GB Arab light horse could then be used as provincial spahis for the cavalry element.

With some command and artillery added from the Perry Napoleonic Mameluke/Ottoman sets or the equally good Warfare Miniatures ones, my armies should be ready to conquer (or most likely not). With such an amonut of figures I could even field rebellious factions against each other.

Zinqagur Fleet Programme - Scale Change

Although I love scratchbuilding 1/1000 scale models, the process is very time-consuming, and I wanted to play some pre-dreadnought battles with this shelved project in mind.

So I returned to it, but I'm going to produce the models in 1/2000 scale instead. I already started working on the Charles Martel and three Orlando/Infanta Maria Teresa-class armored cruisers.

Ships of the pre-dreadnought era are generally easy to construct at this scale, as their superstructures are relatively not very cluttered, very boxy so to speak, with a pair of turrets and a big central casemate battery.

I also have four ships of the Iron Duke-class superdreads which only need basing, so I shall go on with that, and perhaps the project will gather enough momentum so I can continue with repairing and rebasing the rest of the collection.

Going Medieval Ep.2, Dragon Rampant

I developed my original ideas somewhat and came to a few conclusions.

First of all, I managed to dig out the remainders of the last Aliexpress package (of the ripped-off Caesar knight figures that everybody likes on the Super Cheap Wargaming FB group), and all in all I could field a few units already. I have four mounted knights (a reduced figure number or half unit of heavy cavalry and a commander), a group of archers, a few standard bearers and foot sergeants, which is a good start.

Superhobby or Mojehobby or however you'd like to call it supplies most of the Dark/Light Alliance 1/72 plastics, and a few more interesting sets in between, so I would be able to field a lots of units cheaply and without having to resort to Chinamen using stolen products. (I wonder though if it's really stolen as Caesar is also a Chinese company and whether they just sold off their existing stock to someone else.)

Thus the setting would be, as in my previous attempt, my World in Chaos fantasy universe, where I could fight battles between various factions without having the need to adhere to historical authencity. If I can duplicate units for historical use, it's just the better.

Here's a few sets I would like:

- one or two box of knights, preferably early types, like the Italeri Teutonic Knights I have. 

- the Orion Vikings box, absolutely ahistorical but I have some toy soldier figures made in their fashion and like the horned helmets.

- HäT El Cid Spanish infantry, good early medieval to about 12th century mixed infantry, 8 units' worth in Rampant terms for cheap.

- Dark Alliance orcs and goblins, to represent the evil foe.

- Light Alliance Rohirrim (both the infantry and the horse), pretty good looking generic fantasy dudes.

When it comes to prices 1/72 scale is still king, most likely because it is unaffected by the rising production cost of metal figures. And the figures being of intermediate size, they are good for massed battles and small skirmishes too.

I'd like to wait a little before buying anything, because hopefully I'll be able to round up my 28mm 17th century Western European collection on the next Bloody Miniatures 'Not at Salute' sale, and don't wish to overspend.

Going Medieval

I've had 1/72 scale medieval armies before, and I made multiple attempts to organize the also very famous Aliexpress 200 troops pack into a core army on foot, with little success.

As always, the reason of my failure was a lack of cohesive plan, both rules- and concept-wise.

To start with the latter, my new concept involves a few things:

- late 13th/early 14th century Hungarian topics

- my World In Chaos fantasy setting

- my Schultze-Böhnstadt imagi-world, which can be in conjunction with the first one (I started on this before, my plan is to include noble houses named after German beer brands).

And the rules would be

- SBH for small actions

- Lion Rampant for large skirmishes

- Gudugan Pudugan house-rules for larger battles (I can remove the fluff from this and play as is)

The 1/72 figure market is very broad, and one thing I don't want to do is be especially pedantic, neither with period dress nor the painting. Further, 1/72 figures are at a decent intermediate scale, so they can be used both for skirmishes and big battles.

For small skirmishes I'll use figs on 40x20 cavalry and round 20mm infantry bases, while for larger battles a well tried-out method is to have 3 cav or 6 infantry on a 60x40 rectangular base, my WSS/GNW troops are based this way.

Now back to scouring cheapo kits.

Small Scale Naval Action

As mentioned on the main blog, I purchased one pack of the notorious '72x plastic Napoleonic Sailing Ship Toy etc. etc.' bag on Amazon, and it is due to arrive next week.

Just in time as I was already eyeing some Warfare Miniatures metal ships for pirate actions, and how to cut cost! (Skipping one meal or two was, of course, out of the question.) Sometimes foresight works better than any planning.

Anyway, I plan to convert a bunch of these, much alike Master Crook on his blog, to three-deckers, frigates and Indiamen. And, although I originally bought the lot for fleet actions, I will be free to roam the seven seas as captain of a privateer or pirate hunter man-o-war.

My plan includes converting six ships to 1st rates, six frigates, six indiamen and six hulks (without masts). I might just increase the number of frigates to a dozen, but again, for fleet actions, they are not required. That would still leave me with fifty-odd 'second rate' hulls

This, then, brings the question of rules, preferably for ship on ship actions. For large scale battles I have Fighting Sail and my own diceless house rules.

For smaller actions I own Galleys & Galleons, but had not tried it for duels; and Kiss Me Hardy, which I played a lot and enjoyed, and think most suitable for the task. Another candidate would be Mad for War by the League of Augsburg, which is flexible in engagement scale as far as I know.

I'm not on the lookout for rules anymore on the current market, because I'm a grognard at heart and will just write my own. Of course there is the odd exception, for example the Renaissance rules to be published by Sam Mustafa. This means it's time to re-read KMH! for a while, and wait for the ships patiently.

 

War of the League of Aspico - The Lessons

 

I fought two battles using my mashup rules of One Hour Wargames and Maurice 'Succession Wars' for the Renaissance Italian theater. I think it is useful to conclude the small campaign with a few end notes.

Campaign

The Fransican alliance won with a landslide, decisively beating both the Alliance of Nibeuno and the Papal States. Their campaign was swift and thus brought to a quick conclusion, but luck played a major part in it.

Now the Fransicans have a foothold on this side of the Alps (see map above) - the only question is, will the bickering Italian factions unite to oust them, or do they remain with their age old custom of stabbing each other in the back instead?

What I should do next is 'recruit' a few more armies - Venetian (Contatre), Spanish, Imperial - and maybe, just maybe increase army sizes to eight units per side. Thus a new day shall dawn on the First Truly Great Italian War, maybe triggered by the succession of a weak ruler on the throne of Matedicao.

Succession Wars rules

Simply put, these work great. You basically match up fighting pairs, give point results at the end of the battle, administer the losses in the army, and you are done. Simple and elegant, with a lot of thought put into the design. I don't think I will change anything.

Battle rules

I sort of made a mistake with reducing unit hit points compared to OHWG's original. This means units get destroyed very quickly. Of course this way a battle ends faster, which is a good think for solo games; on the other hand, I would like my units to be a bit more resilient.

So I think I'll add a supplementary mechanism where each unit has a rally score to meet. Hits made against the unit during the turn are added temporarily, and when every fight is concluded, the unit will be able to rally some hits off, rolling a die for each score, and calculate permanent damage. This also means that a unit which has a potential chance to be destroyed can still be activated and remains a threat during its turn. 

If that does not work, I'll keep adding hit points until a satisfactory result is found.