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



28mm Napoleonic game

 The club has recently welcomed several new members recently and one of them, Chris Johnson, was keen to quickly get into the swing of things by bringing up some of his excellent and huge Napoleonic collection. He wanted to use his heavily amended version of Black Powder so i brought up my 5th Division British 1812 figures and he brought his French.

Each side had one infantry Brigades and a cavalry brigade. Richard and Steve, also new members participated in the game and i also took a brigade and the cavalry on the British side.. 

 The fine terrain boards also belong to Chris and he wants to store them at the club premises to release space at home. They will therefore be available to use on club nights and Saturday games.
 so thanks to Chris for that gesture.

The British setup.

The French set up.

French cavalry. (Of course the British never faced Carabiniers in the Peninsular)

British cavalry, Light Dragoons and Dragoons.

Action quickly got under way as Chris ordered his infantry forward 3 moves and succeeded with his command roll.

French cavalry advance

And are charged by the British

The Light Dragoons cover the French heavies.

Steve attempts to outflank the French infantry.

and charge home

Skirmishers engage.

The French win this 3-2

and are force back leaving their supports to cover their retreat.

The French follow up with a sweeping advance and push the supporting squadron back also.

The remain in position to reform.

This doesn't look good for the French

The French were indeed pushed back but the flank attack failed to destroy them as might have been expected.

The other cavalry units clash.

The two infantry brigades shorn of their skirmish screens prepare to engage.

The French columns go in.

One of their columns fails to charge home due to the weight of fire against them.

The cavalry combat

leaves the British withdrawing.

Column v line...

With the column thrown back

The British then charge the exposed remaining French column. The situation looks untenable for the French.

The British cavalry are reforming or removing stamina.

The French column was indeed thrown back but crucially not destroyed.

The French column opens fire on the British line.

French lancers take a chance and, exposing their flank to the British cavalry. turn to support their infantry and dispose of a unit of British skirmishers.

The infantry are successfully reforming.

and are ready for the British charge. Due to a lack of space to deploy they remain in column.

Following a disastrous failed command roll the British cavalry remain uncharacteristically  inactive having been presented with a perfect target to charge.

The British charge fails

As time ran out the battle was still in the balance but French casualties were much higher than the British and close to being a broken brigade for the infantry. Victory was given to the British but i suspect another couple of moves could have resulted in some very interesting cavalry action by one side or the other.

The game was very interesting and many of the amendments worked really well. I particularly liked the opportunity to charge during the opponents move.

We have a big all day Napoleonic game planned for 22nd August and we will be using these for that so it should play to a conclusion. I will be doing a report for that also.

Cheers

Mick