The Battle of the Yellow Sea was refought Sunday afternoon . . . and resulted in a stunning and decisive Russian victory. (Click on thhe photo below for a glimpse of the action.)
While it is true that three of the Czar's battleships slipped beneath the waves, the Japanese lost not only three of their remaining battleships, but two heavy cruisers as well. Indeed, as three Russian battleships sailed to meet up with their Vladivostok cruiser squadron, the sole remaining but heavily damaged Japanese battleship was seen to have fires burning as it disappeared in the distance.Pete, Murdock and Murdock's son Alex joined me in my game room for our initial trial of the "Naval Thunder: Rise of the Battleship" rules.
I gave Alex his choice of which Division he wished to play and he chose the Japanese 2nd Division (again, click on any photo for a much larger image):He also wanted to play on the same side as his Dad . . . so Murdock took command of the Japanese 1st Division . . . pictured below:
The Japanese plan was for the First Division (Mikasa, Asahi and Fuji) to take the lead and to cut off the Russian attempt to break out.Meanwhile the Second Division (Shikishima and the two Heavy Cruisers, Kasuga and Nisshin) was to hang back as a second line.
Pete chose to assume command of the Russian 2nd Division (Peresvyet, Poltava and Sevastapol).This meant that I was left to command the Russian 1st Division (Tsessarevich, Retvizan and Pobieda).
My "battle plan" must remain a state secret due to its success . . . and due to the fact that my command disappeared beneath the waves with no survivors.Indeed, Pete's complete 2nd Division survived with little damage . . . so he will get the credit for this stunning Russian victory.
-- Jeff
5 comments:
Looks good Jeff. I'm still waiting for someone to game the Russian navy shelling the Scarborough fishing fleet as it sailed up the North Sea!
Now that's a reversal of fortune for the Russians. It looks like you had a fun game, loss of command besides. Makes me want to revive my interest in those wonderful old pre-Dreadnaughts.
Have you considered running a mini-campaign based on the war? I have Paul Hague's "Sea Battles in Miniature" somewhere, published in the early 80's which has all kinds of useful tips.
Jeff,
Nice to see that a different set of rules resulted in a similar result! How did you like Naval Thunder rules?
Your ships look great, as do your shell splash markers. How did you make them (or did you get them pre-made from someone)?
It is sad that we live much too far apart. At least we have these wonderful blogs of ours to keep in touch.
Jim
Jim,
We had a lot of fun with the Naval Thunder rules. They can be purchased as .pdf downloads from "Wargames Vault" (or RPGNow, etc.).
Thanks for the comments on the ships. Like yours they are 1/2400 Panzerschiffes. I've mounted mine on 1/4" thick balsa strips (1" wide x 3" long).
Labels were made on my color laser printer. On 16 pixel high blue backgrounds, I used white bold 10 point Ariel font for the lettering.
The splash markers were from "Great Endeavors" (from the Houston ships line). I got a package of 20 and white-glued them to pennies. I painted the splashes white and the pennies a lighter, greyer blue than the sea surface (vinyl from the fabric shop, 54" wide x 12' long -- I have a big table).
If you look at all of the splash marks carefully, Jim, you will see that most have a substantial "white spot" on the ocean surface . . . but it is much smaller for others. This is so the latter can be used for lesser Main Battery guns (8" or 10" as opposed to 12").
And, yes, it would be nice if we were living near each other . . . but at least we have our blogs.
-- Jeff
Good to see some toys seeing action, especially such attractive ships! I like the vinyl sea as well. (Another idea to file away...)
-Ross
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