Miniature Wargames

Check Your Six WWII Air Game Photos

Saturday the local HMGS-South group played a game of Check Your Six at the Dogs of War shop. The 1/300 scale planes involved were:

2 Blenheims
2 Spitfires
2 Hurricanes

4 Me109
2 Me110

The Blenheims were to cross the table and bomb invasion barges prior to the planned 1940 invasion of Britain.

The Blenheims and escorts crossing the channel.

Ultimately, all three Blenheims were destroyed. One Me109 and one Hurricane were destroyed and several other planes were damaged.

Napoleonic Naval AAR

On Saturday the local HMGS-South group played a Napoleonic naval game using Ship ‘o the Line rules (by Battleline) and 1/1200 scale miniatures.

Nine French and Spanish ships defended the grounded French 1st rate Orient from an approaching British squadron of six ships.

The grounded Orient, with French and Spanish in the background.

The allied ships split up to double the head of the British line.

The Temeraire, leading the British line, comes about.

As the Temeraire engages several allied ships, the two following British 74s weave through the Spanish ships. Red dots have been added to indicate British ships.

The Temeraire is surrounded by six allied ships.

HMS Conqueror is captured by the crew from the badly damaged French 74 Pluton, but is recaptured. TheTemeraire is lost.

SAGA Dark Age AAR Vikings, Normans, Saxons

On Saturday the local HMGS-South group played a dark age skirmish game using SAGA rules at the Dogs of War shop. This four-way game pitted the Normans defending a village against two Viking and one Saxon warbands intent on loot. There were also individual objectives (or grudges) for the warbands and a few strange characters in the village who could influence play.

The Norman warlord rushes into the village to rescue his lady. The two Viking bands, wary of each other, approach the village. The Saxons hide in the trees.

The Normans are forced to waste time by the lady they ‘rescued’. The Saxons form up and advance on the village.

The Vikings go at each other, with one side losing two units.

A Viking warlord is killed and his sister captured by the other Viking (a secret objective).

The surviving Viking warlord retreats off the table with his captive, avoiding the oncoming Normans. We called the game at this point due to time constraints. The intact Saxon and almost intact Norman bands could still dispute the village.

WWI Naval – Grand Fleet Deployment

Theoretical deployment of the Grand Fleet in accordance with the Grand Fleet Battle Orders, page 41, Dec 1915 (Volume III Jutland, from Clash of Arms). Page 40 states that “the order of the High Seas Fleet is that shewn in the O.X.O. papers.” What the ‘O.X.O. papers’ were is unknown.

There are fewer German flotillas than the diagram, but Jellicoe overstated the number of boats that might be present. He expected that his destroyers would be outnumbered by as much as 2 to 1 (GFBO Destroyer Addendum page 1, 1/10/15). Also left out are the German “4th and 5th Battle Squadrons” which are on the diagram on the disengaged side of the HSF. These were older pre-dreadnoughts that probably never sortied with the HSF in the North Sea.

The ground scale is 1 inch = 500 yards or 1/18000. The ships are 1/6000 scale Figurehead miniatures and as a result the spacing of the ships is about 1/3 of what it should be.

British at the top, German at the bottom

Annotations roughly similar to GFBO diagram

WWI Naval – 1/6000 Scale Aircraft Carriers and Wrecks

1/6000 scale WWI ships. The SMS Santa Elena is a modified tramp steamer by Figurehead miniatures. The HMS Campania is scratch-built from styrene. Also some wreck markers.