More Dabbling

I already moved on from the terrifying teddies. Now I'm thinking naval actions.

This latest fad is courtesy of Ganesha Games latest - Torpedoes and Tides. They are rules for coastal actions during World War 2.

I'm still reading them, but naturally I don't expect to get them on the tabletop as is. Instead, I'd like to use them to develop some Dominion of style rules.

On the Portable Wargame Facebook page, Mark Cordone posted Dominion of Fighting Sail, a variant that extends into the ironclad era. Perhaps I'll veer towards ironclad torpedo boat actions.

Right now, I just have a few ideas percolating. For example, inspired by TaT's blinds, I thought about deploying the non-player enemy unseen. There could be a surprise when you attack a sector!

Shipbuilding

With time on my hands over the extended weekend, I found my thoughts turning to gaming. But not in any systematic way - just a bunch of random thoughts.

This random thought came courtesy of Bob Cordery, Arthur Harman, and Mark Cordone. Recently, Mr. Cordery and Mr. Harman edited and released the latest compendium for the Portable Wargame.

In it, Mr, Cordone provides an ancient naval variant of the Dominion of series. I decided to give it another run (this variant was initially posted on the Portable Wargame Facebook page. I previously posted about it).

I played a game of it, liked it, but did not like my current counters.

He is a picture from my August battle.

I don't know why I don't like the squares. They just seem bulkier.

Anyway, I decided to rectify the situation. I created two new types of counters: line abreast and line ahead.

I plan to use the line abreast for ancient warfare and line ahead for age of sail to modern. I have two fleets of each (red and green).

As you'll notice, I have 3 types of counters. Dominion of the Oar and Spear has 4 types of naval squadrons, plus a bonus for large ships. I may need some additional markers to indicate the types. I will likely designate the small ships as ambushers. I need to think about the rest of the markers.

A Naval Outing

Thanks to a message from the future, I discovered at the last moment that yesterday was International Naval Wargames Day. Thanks, Kaptain Kobold!

I decided to do a quick naval game. I settled on a Dominion of series variant called Dominion of the Oar and Ram by Mark Cordone. I found it on The Portable Wargame Facebook page.

I used my squadron counters, which come in 3 sizes. In addition, I have a couple of transport counters (such as the top center counter below).

I did not keep a record of the game. It's a generic Red vs Green battle. Red is trying to capture Green's transports.

Here you see the final turn. Red's large galleys flank and  board the transports, ending the battle.

Anyway, thrown together quickly so it did not capture my imagination. Hence the abbreviated report.

Some Thoughts on a Little Lissa

As I was toying with a backstory for last night's game, I thought about doing Lissa. After all, I've been in an 1866 mood. Ultimately, I choose to put Lissa aside for the moment. But now this whole experience has me thinking.

• A Dominion of variant should be able to handle Lissa.
• I'm not sure if my current squadron counters (seen above) work for later naval conflicts. I worked up some counters in line formation. They might work better.

• I also need more flag tokens to mark defeated squadrons.

Battle of Lake Pontchartrain

A naval game based on this "battle."

While Governor Galvez was marching on Baton Rouge, a naval skirmish occurred on Lake Pontchartrain.

Under cloudy skies, the USS Morris (green flag), a schooner, approaches a British brigantine, the HMS West Florida. Captain Pickles of the Morris commands the West Florida to surrender. Instead, it unleashes a broadside. The Morris replies. Both are ineffective.

The clouds part and the sun shines as the Morris maneuvers behind the West Florida. 

Note: This is somewhat literal. I think the first pic is so dark because there was some cloud cover that darkened my room but the flash did not go off, The other pics are so bright because the flash went off.

Its raking shot damages the British vessel.

The Morris moves in for the kill, boarding the other ship. There is a protracted struggle.

Note: No damage for the first round of combat.

Ultimately, though, the Morris's superior numbers prevail. The West Florida strikes its colors.

GAME NOTES

I'm still in search of some good naval rules. For big battles, I'm thinking of a variant of the Dominion of series. It worked for galleys.

For single ship actions, it dawned on me that I could use the maneuver rules from my aerial dogfight / gladiator games (as seen here). I wanted some simple combat rules so I turned to Galleys and Galleons. It's a rules set I've had for years but never played. At the time, I wanted something where I could handle several ships a side solo. G&G seemed a bit fiddly for that. But I essentially used it for the above battle and it worked fine. For simplicity, I assumed that a ship struck at 3 damage.

You may ask: Why not just use G&G? The answer is that I don't really have the room. I'm playing games on a board that measures about 5 by 7 inches. Relative movement, like I've used successfully for dogfights and gladiators, just makes sense.

The big issue I have with G&G combat is that I'm not doing activation rolls, which means I'm not going to the All at Sea table. That's why I made 3 damage an automatic strike. If I play more small actions, I'll need to figure out how to incorporate that table.

Battle of the Ionian Sea

Once again I turn to the campaigns of Pyrrhus using the Dominion series. This time on the high seas.

I used the ancient galley variant that Mark Cordone posted on the Portable Wargame Facebook group.

Background

After his defeat in Sicily, Pyrrhus embarks what remains of his army and sails back to Epirus. On the way, his fleet gets ambushed by the Macedonian navy of Antigonus Gonatas.

Set Up

I used my generic ship squadrons for this game. There are 4 types of counters - large ships (3 ships in wedge formation), medium (4 ships), small (6 ships), and transports (3 in line).

• The large ships naturally represent Large ships. Pyrrhus is the only one with Large ships, and they are rated as Marines (rely on boarding actions).
• Antigonus's medium ships are Missiles while Pyrrhus's are Rams.
• Antigonus's small ships are Ambushers while Pyrrhus's are Missiles.

Antigonus (red, top) is the attacker while Pyrrhus (green) defends.

The Battle

The Macedonian attack on the right fails. Pyrrhus, with the flagship in the center, orders a bold attack. The squadron passes through heavy missile fire, boards, and defeats the enemy squadron.

Then repeats the feat on the Macedonian reserve.

The Macedonians on the right finally break their opponent.

But get overwhelmed by Pyrrhus's reinforcement. Meanwhile, the center squadron continues to run amok.

It breaks through in the center and flanks the Macedonians on the right.

A decisive victory for Pyrrhus.

But his ire is up. He must punish this perfidious action by the King of Macedon.

"Prepare for war!" he commands his troops.

In other words, get ready for some more Pyrrhus land battles.

Game Notes

The rules worked fine; it seems like a great way to get some galley fleets in action.

My main issue will be denoting the different ship types - missile vs. ram vs. boarding. In this battle, I tried to keep each navy relatively consistent, which seemed to work fine. I'm not sure what I'll do for mixed navies.

My Naval Box

Back in December, I consolidated all my gaming materials from a bunch of small boxes into 2 large boxes. Now I'm going back the other way. Previously I put my Dominion game pieces into its own small box.

I now did the same with my Dominion naval set. I'm re-using a box from MicroBattle.

One reason I consolidated was that I could fit a bigger board in the bigger box. With Dominion, that is no longer an issue.

The other issue with de-consolidation is that I need to duplicate some supplies. I found a couple of dice but I need to get some new markers. I have some sunken ship markers to denote defeated squadrons, but they don't stand out well. I plan to make some more white flag markers. I also need markers to indicate crack troops. I could also use markers to indicate missiles, rams, or boarders. Anyway, keep an eye out for progress.

Inspiration

 I found some interesting rules so I'm starting a list. I'll keep adding to it when I make new discoveries.

• Matchbox ironclads (Grid Based Wargaming)
• Ancient naval (Grid Based Wargaming)