Keeping Myself Busy 9

Not many figures painted at all this week. I have been spending more time working on the new Sellswords & Spellslingers campaign book, and when I did get to the painting table I got distracted by some 1/300 ships!

Four more Alfar for my Jotunheim project, these are old Phil Lewis elf sculpts from Heartbreaker. That's "old sculpts", not "old Phil Lewis".

This is a skirmish project that still hasn't really got beyond "a vague idea" in the planning stage, Considering I've already painted 72 28mm figures for it, I really should progress it, perhaps once I've finished the Sellswords book.

Way back last year sometime, I picked up a shedload of 3d printed 1/300 WW2 little ships for Cruel Seas, unfortunately, they all came without weapons. I had a few spares kicking around and thanks to the kindness of a couple of chums on the Pendraken Forum, I have gathered together most of what I needed. I painted up some Fairmile Bs and a HDML for a scenario idea, undercoated a bunch more and stuck them all in a drawer next to my painting table.
I am currently reading "Flag 4" by Dudley Pope, which rekindled my interest so I opened the drawer and pulled some little boats out!

The first batch, a small tanker, a couple of freighters and a RN Steam Gun Boat.

 A surfaced U Boat, not a lot of used in a coastal forces game, but could come in handy for a scenario.

Finally a F-Lighter. I was going to paint this up as an Italian Motozattera MZ800 and the start of my Italian fleet, complete with the red/white stripes for aircraft identification. But I decided to make it a bit more generic so I can also use it as a German vessel in the Channel or in the Adriatic/Aegean after the Italian armistice.

Cruel Seas Final Game Against the Japanese

Colin came over so we could finally get around to playing the third scenario in the mini-campaign set in the Far East.


Scenario 3 Resupply
The Japanese must move their sampans and barges out of one river mouth and across an area of shallow water to a second river mouth.

Japanese
3 gunboats (replacements are Inexperienced).
4 x Barges
2 x Sampans
Ground support 2 x 57mm guns with inexperienced crews
Air support – 1 Dive bomber arrives from the Japanese starting edge (Turn 1 roll 1-2, Turn 2 roll 1-4 Turn 3 automatic) once a bomber has left the table/been shot down roll again in the next turn for a second bomber. 
NB, if the tanker was sunk in scenario 2, only one bomber is available.
A dive bomber will only come on on a roll of 1-2 and once an aircraft has left the table the Japanese must wait one turn before rolling for the next aircraft. If the aircraft is shot down there are no replacements. 

British
3 x Fairmile ML (replacements are Inexperienced).
3 x Vosper MTB (replacements are Inexperienced).
If the support ship was sunk in Game 1, replacement MTBs do not have torpedoes.

The water between the sandbanks and the coast is very shallow.  If any medium vessel (ie the Fairmiles) moves into the area it has a chance of running aground.
At slow speed it gets stuck on a 6, at combat speed on a 5+ and at full speed on a 4+. Once stuck the boat must make a command roll to get itself free.

After the two previous games the Japanese had one inexperienced gunboat and limited air support. The British had two inexperienced Vospers by a full load of torpedoes.

The end of turn 1. The Japanese are just emerging from their starting river in the bottom left hand corner (they have a 57mm gun placed at each river mouth). The British  Fairmiles are moving forward to engage the far 57mm whilst two of the Vospers are moving up to position themselves in front of the Japanese convoy. The last Vosper is cutting back to try and get a torpedo run in whilst the Japanese are still bunched up in the river mouth.

Colin got air support in turn two (he seemed to roll a lot of 1s and 2s for air support, he got at least 5 bombing runs in) but it failed to hit the target!

Having got behind the Japanese the Vosper launches torpedoes, just in time as a gunboat scores a direct hit, knocking off half it's HPs and inflicting a Critical Hit on the crew.
At the far end of the table, my Fairmiles neutralise the land-based 57mm for no loss.

As the Japanese move forward the inexperienced gunboat pulls across to engage the daring Vosper.

One torpedo runs straight through the Japanese, missing everything. The second hits the aft of a gunboat, but runs under the hull without exploding. Small boats are much harder to hit than tankers, I was starting to think my torps would not be of much use in this game.

With the crew unable to change speed or direction my damaged Vosper runs into a cross fire from the Japanese gunboats and, as expected, gets sunk!
I lose a second Vosper to combined long range fire from the second land-based 57mm and the leading gunboat. I also have to fend off repeated dive bomber attacks, but the Japanese bombardier seems to be having a bad day.
Overall it's not looking good for the British.

The Fairmiles move closer, engaging the gunboats in a head on duel. My leading Fairmile takes damage from two hits, but one of the little gunboats explodes under return fire.

One Fairmile attempts to bring all it's guns to bear on the oncoming Japanese by moving closer to the shore, but runs aground. It takes another hit from a gunboat and now badly damaged, but fortunately is just out of range of the land-based 57mm.

A broadside from the grounded boat and a lucky shot the the 3 pounder on a second Fairmile take out another gunboat.

The grounded boat switches to target the sampans and sinks one, while the other two Fairmiles gang up on the last gunboat, sinking it.
Joined by the Vosper, the now defenseless transports are rapidly taken out.

The end of the last turn. With just one barge still afloat we called it a day.
It is not as one-sided as it looks, two of the Fairmiles are down to only 1 and 2 Hit Points apiece. Just one more hit with even a light mg would have sent them beneath the waves.
And of course if just one of the dive bomber's attacks had hit it would have been a different story.

Cruel Seas Two Games Against the Japanese

Colin came over for a gaming day to fight through a mini-campaign I'd put together. The scenario is based around a Japanese invasion of a British colony. It was an opportunity for Colin to get all his various Japanese craft on the table. Unfortunately he forgot the box that had his little gunboats in!

Game 1: Dawn attack
Japanese small craft, with air support, launch a surprise attack on a British naval base.

The unsuspecting British base at dawn, 4 Fairmiles and a support ship are moored up, whilst a little Harbour Defence Motor Launch patrols up and down. The gunners of the two shore batteries are dozing by their guns, looking forward to their relief.

The view from the Japanese scout aircraft.

The sneaky Japanese boats approach the target undetected (despite appearances, it's actually 3 MTBs and two gunboats with 57mm guns). But where's the air support, there isn't a plane in the sky, apart from the scouting aircraft? Colin had rolled for when his 3 dive bombers would turn up, turns 5, 5 and 6!

AS the British sound the alarm the first MTB launches it'e torpedoes.

Just in time, as the first shot from one of the shore batteries hit's home. When a 3" shell hits one of these little boats there isn't much left by way of wreckage even!
The inexperienced shore battery crews were outstanding in this game (I mean I kept rolling 1's for their shooting!).

Some British vessels get underway, others are still waiting for their crews to show up.

Two more MTBs launch torps, to catch the British in a crossfire.

Meantime the Fairmile crews try desperately to get out of the way of the incoming steel fish.

The second shore battery fires it's first shot, who would have believed it!

And the first spread of torpedoes pass harmlessly between the Fairmiles. Relatively harmlessly, they are probably going to make a mess of the dock in a few moments!

Now things are looking dodgy for the British, in trying to get out of the path of the torpedoes the HDML is on the verge of colliding with the leading Fairmile.

 Two torpedoes hit.................

..............one misses, passing under the hull of the target, but the other hits. Boom, scratch one Fairmile!

Now the Japanese gunnery is improving and a second hit from a 57mm gun sinks the little HDML.

 The first two dive bombers turn up and target the escaping support ship (belatedly Colin realised that as I was trying to protect the ship, it might be worth sinking).
One bomb is a near miss, but the second hits!
A critical hit takes the rudder out, so it's just as well no-one has any torpedoes left.

As the last MTB heads for home, one of the covering gunboats takes a hit from a 3" gun and heads for the bottom.

The final blow, the last dive bomber hits the stricken support ship, but the damage isn't enough to sink it.

End result, not a shining success for the Japanese. They lost 3 boats and the British lost 2, but the support ship is still in play and that will help the British in the third scenario.


Game 2: Invasion.
A minesweeper, MTB and a gunboat are escorting two troopships and a tanker to the invasion beaches, when a cobbled together British task force (a Flower class corvette and 3 Vospers) try to intercept them. The Japanese objective is to get the troopships and tanker across the table.

As the British are sighted, the convoy scatters and the minesweeper moves forward to engage the enemy.

The last time I encountered Colin's minesweeper I lost three Vospers in two turns, so two of the MTBs launch torpedoes as soon as they can.

The first salvo from the minesweeper knocks out the runner on the corvette, then to add insult to injury a dive bomber turns up and scores a direct hit! The corvette is still in the game, but not looking healthy.

The first wave or torpedoes close in on the minesweeper. Can the Japanese ship outrun the fish?

The Japanese MTB has a worrying encounter with another torpedo, but it passes harmlessly underneath it's hull.

By increasing speed the minesweeper not only outruns the torpedoes, but pits itself in a position where the Vosper cannot avoid a collision. 

The Vosper takes a dive, barely scratching the minesweeper's paintwork.

A torpedo lines up on the tanker........

................Boom! It's a hit. The tanker is still afloat, but it's taking on water and it catches on fire!

The Japanese MTB launches it's torpedoes at the corvette, which was stationary, fixing it's rudder. Fortunately I got to activate first in the next turn and somehow maneuvered between the two torpedoes (I really don't know how). We had to resort to the laser pointers for this one, but they both missed me.

Can't say the same for one of the troopships, but the torpedo missed!

But the second torpedo did hit the other troopship. It took heavy damage and also started to take on water.

At this point the minesweeper took a lucky hit from the corvette (I rolled high dice!).....

....and with accumulated damage started to sink.

The tanker crew failed to put the fire out and it too started to disappear beneath the waves.

A second dive bomber hits the corvette, but it's still afloat!
Interestingly it would have sunk if I hadn't taken the time to make repairs. We don't normally take the time to repair damage in our games. I only did it this game because it's rudder was gone, but perhaps I'll have to think about repairs in future.

As the last Vosper tries to make it's escape the damaged troopship sinks. But a blast from the Japanese MTB, just out of shot, finishes the already damaged Vosper off before it can get away.

Game end. The corvette and two of the Vospers have escaped. The Japanese have lost the minesweeper, tanker and one of the troopships.

I think that was an outstanding win for the British.

We ran out of time at this point, so our third game will have to wait for a while.

The next scenario will be Japanese gunboats trying to protect barges moving supplies alone the coast to the invasion beaches, whilst a force of Vospers and Fairmiles are hunting them down in and out of islets and sandbanks (with a risk of the larger boats running aground!).
Any losses from the previous games will be replaced, but with inexperienced crews.
Because the British support ship survived, the Vospers will have been able to replace their torpedoes, but the lose of the tanker means that the Japanese will not have air support in the last game.

I'm looking forward to it!