Wednesday 19 August 2015

Pre-dreadnought game Russia v Japan.

The lads at the club used these ships in a game the previous week and after expressing my disappointment at missing it they brought them back the following week.

The two fleets consist of pre dreadnought battleships and the Japanese ships are of particular interest as many were built here on the Tyne.

My mothers family was from the Elswick area of Newcastle and at the beginning of the last century most of the menfolk worked in the yards on the Tyne building mostly warships, many of which were for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship i chose to command was the 'Hatsuse', a Tyne built ship which, quite possibly, my relatives helped to build.

The Hatsuse

Completed on 18th January 1901 the ships main armament consisted of 4 12" guns mounted in 2 turrets. She displaced over 14000 tons.

She had a short but active career participating in actions against the Russian navy during the Russo-Japanese war as part of the 1st fleet under Admiral Togo. On 15th May 1904 as part of the fleet blockading Port Arthur she struck 2 mines the second of which set of her magazines sinking her with the loss of 335 of her crew.

Being prepared for launch at the Elswick works, Newcastle upon Tyne.


Th Russian fleet.

IJN Hatsuse




Th Japanese fleet







Japanese open fire

The Russians return fire

The discs are damage markers.



Japanese maneuver to bring rear turrets to bear.




More hits on the Japanese

and the Russians
















Damage markers are beginning to appear next to ships.




These represent hits to the bridge.

Me, Darren and Carl survey the table during a particularly violent change in the wind state.

Most Russian ships are damaged now.

Naval Doctrine is rewritten as the Russian fleet forms triangle!


The fleets close to short range.






















The Hatsuse at the bottom of the picture is the only undamaged ship.




Caught in crossfire this Japanese ship is taking serious damage.

Ships are now using torpedo attacks.











Crippled under the weight of fire this ship has also done great damage to the Russians.










Now under torpedo attack the Hatsuse is about to start taking damage.




This Japanese battleship need to take 59 damage point before it sinks and ended the game on 57!

The Hatsuse, also 59, ends on 12

All of these were hits on the Hatsuse.




The Hatsuse goes in for the kill needing a 20 to blow up the Russian ship,

and Darren obliged , the last throw of the game is the only 20.

Totaling up the damage points the Russians had 163 while the Japanese had 116, nearly half on one ship. A convincing win for the Japanese.

Thanks for looking.

Mick/Carl







11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes they are Old Glory with wire masts replacing the ones supplied which are too thick.

      Cheers

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  2. Wonderful! A most impressive array of ships on a great sea mat. I particularly liked the clear like bases for the ships.

    A most enjoyable report and photos. Many thanks.

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  3. Another great battle report Mick. Your photos look excellent.

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Some of the photos are yours of course!

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    2. Have you done a tutorial or can you do one on how you painted your ships?

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  4. The ships look amazing. Have you done a tutorial on how you painted these?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Victor. The Japanese ships belong to Chris Johnson who has commented above you on here if you want to reply to that. He may well have.

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  5. Yeah, the Japanese ships are mine. The Russian ones belong to Steve White. I don't have a painting tutorial for my ships but suffice to say that they started out with a black undercoat then dry-brushed with several tones of grey. The decks were painted white first, then a yellow ink wash with a light brown ink wash over that. I think Steve used dry-brushing techniques throughout for his Russians. Hope that helps.

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    Replies
    1. They look fantastic. How many times did you go over the ships with the dry brushing? I'm going to have to give this a try.

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  6. No specific number of times. I just keep dry-brushing with lighter shades until it looks OK. No worries if you overdo the dry-bushing as you can always add a black ink wash to darken things down again. Glad you like the ships.

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