Torpedoes & Tides Has Been Released!

Regular readers of this blog will know that last year I was involved in playtesting a WW2 coastal forces game called Torpedoes & Tides. Written by Thomas Brandstetter, they started out as a three-page set of variant rules for Galleys & Galleons, but quickly grew into their own thing. Late last year Ganesha Games offered to publish them, and they've now been released.

Obviously I'm going to give them a big thumbs up because I helped playtest them and contributed a few ideas to the rules as well. The game does a nice job of translating the G&G mechanisms to WW2 coastal forces, and the rules give fast fun actions that are not overly burdened with technical details or onerous bookkeeping. They emphasis the chaos and confusion of fast-moving fights in limited visibility.

Aside from the rules, which cover all the basics as well as fun stuff like rockets and minefields, the book has four generic scenarios covering the types of missions that small craft would have engaged in, four historical scenarios based on these missions and guidlines for setting up your own missions. It also has around 150 vessel profiles for most nations that operated coastal craft and includes a narrative campaign system. 

Available from:

Lulu (in a range of options)

Ganesha Games

Wargames Vault

Go on. Get out into the darkness and sink some ships!

Balloon Busting In 'Spandau & Lewis'

I have been asked a couple of times to write up my ideas for balloon busting in Spandau & Lewis. It's only taken me two years to do it.

 
They are inspired by THIS THREAD on the Wings Of Glory Aerodrome, which whilst set up for a specific set of rules has some great bits and pieces for WW1 air gamers. Anyway, fire up your engines, put on your goggles and check that the rockets are strapped to your wings. We're going balloon busting!

Setup

Position 2-3 balloons within 12” or so of the opposite baseline. There should be about 12” between each balloon.

If the attackers are Allied and will be using Le Prieur rockets then you need to determine the facing of the balloons which is dictated by the wind. The balloons start the game facing the Allied baseline (the west, from which the prevailing wind blows). Then roll 4D6. Each roll of 1 or 2 rotates the balloons 45 degrees anticlockwise. Each 5 or 6 rotates them 45 degrees clockwise. Obviously each roll of 1 or 2 negates a roll of 5 or 6 (and vice versa).

(If the Germans are attacking and you need to know the facing of the Allied balloons then they should start facing the Allied baseline. But the Germans didn’t use rockets.)

Place 4 altitude markers next to each balloon.

Attacking Balloons

Balloons are static and can take 24 hits. They generally have two crew and count as a large target. Test for criticals as normal. Crew hits will affect the observers in the basket. Engine hits will automatically cause the balloon to catch fire.

In addition, after any attack on a balloon roll 2D6. If the hits came from a machine gun firing regular bullets take the highest score. If the hits came from Le Prieur rockets or from a machine gun firing incendiary ammunition take the lowest score. If the score of the selected dice is equal to or lower than the number of hits inflicted by the attack then the balloon catches fire.

As soon as a balloon catches fire and at the start of each subsequent firing phase roll a D6 for each balloon that is on fire. On a 4+ it explodes and is destroyed. Any plane within 2” of an exploding balloon takes a 3D6 attack, with a 6 scoring a hit.

Lowering Balloons

At the end of any turn in which a balloon has an enemy aircraft within 6", the ground-crew will try and pull it down. Roll a D6 on the table below; if the score for the year is achieved then one altitude marker is removed. When all four markers are removed then the balloon has reached the ground and can no longer be attacked. The rolls are:

1914-15 - 6
1916 - 5+
1917 - 4+
1918 - 3+

(The technology for lowering balloons progressed throughout the war, with the balloons being pulled down by hand at first, then teams of horses, then steam-engines and finally by petrol-driven winches. By the end of the war the balloon could be pulled down in minutes)

Anti-Aircraft Fire

If a plane (regardless of nationality) is within 6" of a balloon it is subject to AA fire, which takes place before regular shooting. This consists of a 2 dice attack on the aircraft, with a 6 scoring a hit. Criticals are tested as normal, but structural hits score an additional 1D6 damage. The attack is reduced to a 1 dice shot if the target is within 2” of the balloon or is a friendly aircraft.

Le Prieur Rockets

Certain Allied aircraft carry these weapons on their outer wing struts.

Rockets fire at close range only (up to 3"). They are treated as normal gunnery, and get the regular deflection modifiers for shooting into the balloon's front or rear arc. A plane has two volleys of rockets; you can fire one of them or both. The red dice for a single volley hits on a 5+, whilst that for a double volley hits on a 4+. White dice shoot with a -1. 

Scenario Ideas 

If you just want a simple solo game then you can fly one or two planes against balloons. Make it more challenging by having one or two enemy planes turn up at random. I'd limit their willingness to chase the attackers home though. If the attackers break off from attacking balloons (or shoot them all down) and are flying for home, end the scenario once they have got a certain ditance away from the scene of the action.

Action Off Kinsale

I played this Galleys & Galleons scenario a year or so ago, but decided to give it another go at the weekend because I wanted something quick and easy to occupy a Saturday afternoon. It's really a simple four ships a side action, with a thin veneer of history thrown over it.

So in 1649 Prince Rupert's Royalist squadron is in the port of Kinsale in Ireland and about to set off privateering. Baturally the Commonwealth government are not happy about this and have dispatched ships to deal with him. Historically there was one near miss between the two flagships (which I have run as a scenario elsewhere). This scenario assumes that Rupert's ships are brought to batle by the Commonwealth squadron.

The Royalists have: Constant Reformation (Flag), Convertine, Swallow, Satisfaction

The Commonwealth Squadron is: Assurance (Flag), Constant Warwick, Phoenix, Greyhound

In both cases the flags are C4, the next two ships are C3 and the final ones are C2. The Royalists have the Trained Gun Crews trait on their three largest ships whilst the Commonwealth vessels with their larger crews have Drilled Soldiers. Satisfaction and Greyhound have neither of these, but Satisfaction has Carronades (better gunnery) and Greyhound has the Razee trait (speed).

The two squadrons came at each other head on with the wind on their beam - Royalists on the left and Commonwealth on the right. Entry points were semi-random, hence the ragged Royalist line. 

The Commonwealth vessels. They have red labels. 

Blue labels for the Royalists. Swallow had to turn to avoid colliding with the flag. 

First shots at extreme range. 

More gunnery. A shift of wind left the Royalists unable to close with Parliament, but that was really to their advantage as their long-range gunnery was better. However the advantage didn't convert into actual hits 

Even more gunnery. And still no significant damage.

A long-range shot from Swallow damaged Phoenix. 

Swallow was on the end of the Royalist line and the Commonwealth ships began to close there. 

Phoenix got onto Swallow's stern

Meanwhile the lead Royalist ships poured fire into Constant Warwick and brought down a mast.

The Commonwealth began to focus on Swallow.

Swallow surrounded. She was soon completely battered. 

The little Satisfaction engaged Phoenix. 

Swallow dropped out of the fight as a further change in the wind made it unlikely she would be able to get back into action even if she managed any repairs.

Both sides had turned for another pass.

Commonwealth gunnery was beginning to tell, and the Royalists took a few hits. 

The two flagships exchanged broadsides.

Convertine took concentrated fire from Phoenix and Assurance and was soon in trouble. 

Assurance ran aboard Convertine, and grappled. Convertine would be able to cut the grapples and escape however, taking no further part in the action. 

Greyhound grappled Satisfaction.

Constant Reformation came up in support, grappling Greyhound, but too late as Satisfaction quickly struck to Commonwealth boarders. 

An attempt to board Greyhound was repulsed by dogged resistance.

Convertine leaves the action. 

Assurance and Phoenix, whlst not badly damaged, were also currently seperated from the action and unlikely to get back in very soon.

But Constant Warwick moved up and grappled the Royalist flag, which now found itself fighting two enemy ships.

Despite fierce resistance Constant Reformation was captured.

Whilst both side had damaged ships, the Royalists had suffered the worst, with two ships struck and catured and two crippled ships leaving the battle. And with Prince Rupert captured the seas were probably safe from Royalist interference for now. 

Jutland Battlecruisers

Thursday's club theme was naval, so four of us played Broadsides: Empires Of Steel. The game was some phase of Jutland involving battlecruisers. Ralph and I were the British with six fairly good ones under our command, whilst Caesar and Stuart played the Germans who had five less good ones, but some supporting light cruisers as well. 

The Royal Navy, looking very organised. 

The Royal Navy looking less organised as we decided how to deal with the approaching light cruisers and their torpedoes.  

Ralph used his big guns to pound the German battlecruisers, and caused a couple of fires on the German flagship. 

We took very little damage back, but  those dastardly light cruiser started to move into torpedo range. This one missed with its first shot. 

It didn't survive long enogh for a second. 

We had to finish the game at that point, with a second wave of cruisers descending on the British, who were checking the rules for firing secondary guns.

I had a couple of older battlecruisers at the back of the line, so got to fire pot-shots at the cruisers. But I didn't get a single shot on target. Still, it wasn't for lack of trying.

Gaslands - Capture The Flag

We had four players for Gaslands last night. This meant that we were happy to go with a 50 can game. And three of us brough single 50 can vehicles.

We rolled Capture The Flag, which is an interesting scenario with just one vehicle. You have to have a flag on one of your vehicles (obvious choice if you have just one) but it's deposited in the arena if you wrecked. It can then be picked up. You win if you have two flags on one of your vehicles. Obviously harder to do if you have multiple vehicles, but fun with one vehicle.

Anyway, Daniel has a single flamethrower-armed truck from the Order Of The Inferno. Craig had a Scarlett truck, but hadn't really read through how Scarlett works, so had a less than optimal design. Caesar had two trucks, sponsored by Rutherford and both equipped with front-mounted tank guns. And I bucked the trend with my James Bond Aston Martin DB5 - a Verney sponsored performance car. 

After some early moves there'd been a bit of shooting. Biond had inflicted a hit with his machine-guns, whilst one of the tank-guns had failed to make an impression on the DB5 (it's tough).

The DB5 in action. 

Daniel chased down Bond and set the DB5 on fire. 

It took some speedy driving to get to a unfrequented part of the arena and put out the fire. You stay on fire so long as you have hazards, so I had to dump them fast. Best way to do that is to wipe out, which I did in such a way as to stay in the game for that gear phase.

Daniel did a slick turn around an obstacle with his truck. 

Caesar shot him, and his vehicle wrecked. This dropped the flag.

You can just see the purple flag tucked in behind the obstacle. And Bond had a plan. Of course. 

Meanwhile Craig's mini-gun armed truck was hunting Caesar's other truck. I think Caesar was taking a bit of damage. 

Back to Bond's plan. Caesar was lining up for a run on the flag (out of shot). So I had to be faster. Being in a perfoamnce car, that was easy. The rest was pure Gaslands. Step One: Ram the obstacle. 

 

Step Two: On the next gear phase, ignore the obstacle, drive through it and pick up the flag. A win!

Also drive through oil and loose gravel. The hazards were stacking up. 

We finished the activation phase. The DB5 was wildly out of control, but Bond had already won. However his move finished next to Caesar's truck, so it would have been rude not to use the Eureka! perk to magic up a one-shot tank-gun, and blow his truck to smithereens. 

Bond then wiped out. And flipped ...

...  over the arena wall. 

Technically that disqualifies a vehicle, but the game was won once the flag was picked up, so the later bits were just extra chrome. Bond grabbed the flag, took out an enemy in passing with a gadget and then escaped into the night. 

What a hero!