Finally, A Foe for the Royal Navy

The pride of Der Kreigsmarine, the Bismarck

After being listed as a dead in the water project on this blog a while back, I resurrected the 1/4800 scale WW2 naval project with (drum roll), some Germans!

OK, and some more British, too. I ordered three additional sets of the 1/4800 minis from C-in-C. I had always liked the ones I had, I just never got around to ordering more. So now at long last, the Hood has the Prince of Wales, and it has someone to fight.

So, of course, the first thing to paint up was the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, followed shortly thereafter by a refight (sort of) of the Battle of Denmark Strait.



Bismarck and Prinz Eugen

I used the venerable Avalon Hill Bismarck rules, and set it up on my coffee table for a solitaire session. Both sides opened at long range, with nothing but misses. As the ranges closed, some bad rolls still resulted in misses. So far, not terribly exciting. Finally, though, Bismarck got the range on Prince of Wales, and started to pummel away, with one turret taken out and several hull boxes.

Then fate intervened, and Hurricane Kate struck! That's her, the other twin, playing with mom's iPad. Until she got bored with that, and decided to move dad's boats around. With that, game over. I'd call it a minor German victory. The British were not able to score any hits of any significance, and it didn't look like they were going to. Still, I'd like to play it again.



The pride of the Royal Navy, Hood and Prince of Wales

I've been painting up some of the other ships, including things like Graf Spee, Ajax, etc., so I'd like to do a Battle of the River Plate. I've also noticed Shapeways offers additional ships in this scale, even Americans and Japanese, so perhaps I will try some Pacific surface actions. I'd kind of like to stick with the Avalon Hill rules, cumbersome though they may be, just because that's what I'm used to and they do give interesting results. I don't think I would try them with more than four ships on a side, though, unless I had plenty of other players who knew the rules.

Closing the range and starting the pummeling.

The calm before the storm - Kate.

In the interim, I am open to suggestions on other rules suitable for this, if you have any!

Solitaire Gaming: Bowl Bound from Avalon Hill

Here's a different sort of gaming for you: college football. That's American football for those of you offshore. I used to play this game quite a bit back in the day when I had a ready opponent, but hadn't done anything with it in about 10 years before digging it out on the long holiday weekend. With a few inches of new snow on the ground, it was the perfect Sunday afternoon to set it up.

For those not familiar with the game, it's a statistics driven game matching up great college football teams from history. Basically, each player takes a team. One picks an offensive formation, the other a defensive formation, dice are rolled and results compared to see how many yards are gained (or lost). The game also takes into account penalties, turnovers, etc. Pretty cool, actually. Being statistics driven, it makes for a good solitaire game, given the right AI algorithms. There are several out there, and after some poking around, settled on one for offense and one for defense selection. It worked very well.

In game 1, I figured I would take a look ahead at what appears to be the most likely national championship game this year, and put 1966 Notre Dame against 1966 Alabama. I controlled Alabama and let the AI control Notre Dame. I lost! 17-13 in a close defensive struggle. Notre Dame returned an interception for a touchdown in the first half, while Alabama returned an interception to the ND 7 to set up its only TD for a 10-10 halftime score. After Alabama got a field goal in the fourth quarter, ND responded with a nice touchdown drive and held on over the last few minutes to win the game.

In game 2, I took 1966 Michigan State against 1997 Michigan. In a wild and exciting game, MSU pulled out a 22-21 victory. It was 3-3 in a defensive struggle early before wacky things started happening. UM got a field goal for a 6-3 lead, then tackled the Spartan in the endzone on the ensuing kickoff return for an 8-3 lead. After the free kick, another field goal made it 11-3. After yet another field goal made it 14-3, MSU fumbled the kickoff, setting up a UM touchdown. At 21-3, things looked grim. I had had some success running early, but down 21-3, I needed to pass. And that just was not going to happen on that defense. I finally got down to the 4 yard line - and came away empty. I did manage one touchdown to make it 21-10, then I switched to an option offense, and that was the ticket. Pretty much let my QB run wild, and the comeback was on. Two field goals made it 21-16, then a final clutch drive led to a touchdown with just 30 seconds to go. At that point, I went for 2 and missed, making the final 22-21 as UM could not come up with a Hail Mary at the end.

Overall, playing solitaire was kind of fun. I've tried computer/video games from time to time, but they just don't get it for me like board/miniature games. I'd definitely play this one again. I also have a Statis Pro Baseball game in the stash that I used to play solitaire all the time.

As for other solitaire projects, I'm looking at Wooden Ships & Iron Men to use with 1/1200 Napoleonic ships. Really that was one reason for playing Bowl Bound, to see how I liked solitaire again. I have HMS Guerriere almost done, and am making good progress on a USS Constitution. Hopefully that gets set up soon.

As for other board games, I also have Carrier in the stash, which I look at now and then and determine to be too daunting. I've also considered purchasing Tokyo Express.

The wife didn't say too much, but I think she thinks it's a little strange. But with no opponent readily available, what else are you gonna do?

Dead in the Water Projects

Excuse the pun, but today let's look at one of those projects that I'm sure all gamers have that is simply dead in the water. You know. The kind entered into with great enthusiasm. One that perhaps struck a chord as one of your primary interests. One that got started, but then never went anywhere.

Such was the case with 1/4800 WW2 naval for me.

The original concept seemed sound. Replace the counters in the classic Avalon Hill game Bismarck with 3D minis. At the time (keep in mind by "at the time," I mean circa 1994. Yikes!), I had dug out the venerable old game from my 80s stash and reintroduced it to some colleagues. We actually had a couple good games out of it. For those who may not know, the advanced rules in the game are for all intents and purposes a miniatures rules set, building on the board game aspects of the basic and intermediate rules.

So somehow, and honestly I don't recall precisely how this small fleet came into my possession, I acquired these C-in-C 1/4800 miniatures. Lovely minis, actually. They painted up well, and look good mounted on thin card, a la the original game counters. I probably used Testors enamels at this stage. Clearly the Hood is in the mix, along with what looks like the Repulse. Then a few cruisers of indeterminate class, and some destroyers. Destroyers never played a huge role in the game, but I figured they could be useful for something.

Problem is, I never got around to acquiring any German ships. So these have sat in a small box all these years, following me on multiple moves. I occasionally wonder, "what's in that box?" So I get them out, look at them, then back they go, tucked into some dark recess of the cabinet. Sad, huh?

I probably should just order some other ships, but then I wonder who would I play? And with so many other projects vying for my time, well, you know. But it probably wouldn't take long to paint up a handful of ships. I just haven't been inspired yet. I mean, all I  really need are a Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, right?

I've always liked ships, and naval subjects. And the Bismarck campaign is nothing if not fascinating. There's also the issue of that Airfix Hood waiting patiently for me to build.



Some day. At least these are small and don't take up much room.