Hoche It!

 I played a game of 4 P Press' Contested Seas yesterday, so I thought I would write up an after action report. Contested Seas uses many of he same mechanics as her sister rules, Naval Mania, but it has been streamlined to speed play. The game moves along nicely and has enough detail to make it interesting.

The Italian Fleet - arrived on the board with the armored cruiser Garibaldi, followed by the battleships Ammiraglio Di St Bon and Italia. For those unfamiliar with Italian battleships, Italia has the largest gun ever floated at the time (17 inch caliber), but absolutely no armor. Ammiraglio Di St Bon is a second class battleship, with armor, but only 10 inch caliber guns.

The French Fleet - contained Hoche, Dupuy De Lome, and six Balny class torpedo boats. Hoche is a battleship so ugly that it was included in 4P's Halloween Bundle last year (2025). She has two 13 inch guns and two 10.8 inch guns, along with some rather serious stability problems. Dupuy De Lome (one of my personal favorites) is an armored cruiser that should have been equipped with a Groucho mustache and glasses. All kidding aside, she is a good armored cruiser (and considered by many to be the first "modern" armored cruiser). The Balnys were supposed to be ocean-going torpedo boats, but that didn't work out and they were relegated to coastal waters. So we will assume this action took place near the French coast around Toulon.

The action began with he French entering from the upper left and the Italians on from the upper right.

Dupuy De Lome's initial shot went wide of Garibaldi. On the horizon, you can see that he three Italian ships also missed the mark.

The French turned to close the range. Notice that they are using their capital ships to shield their torpedo boats.

The Italians turned to head in the opposite direction. Both the Italian and French cruisers missed with their second salvos, but Hoche (Hoche fired on Garibaldi, as did De Lome) and St. Bon connected. Unfortunately, nothing important was hit.

The Italians lost all semblance of order as Garibaldi and S. Bon continued north while Italia turned south in an attempt to get out from behind her two compatriots. Meanwhile, the French capital ships continue in an easterly direction, while the  TB's see their chance and turn around to engage  the Garibaldi and St. Bon.

Garibaldi scored another hit on De Lome, but again it missed everything vital. All the French shots were off target.

Dupuy De Lome turns due east to cross the "T" on Italia while Hoche lumbers along behind. The TBs swarm Garibaldi and St. Bon.

Hoche is hit by both Garibaldi and Italia, taking some unspecified damage to her upperworks. St. Bon also scores a hit on one of the TBs completely destroying its upperworks. Two of the Balnys fire their torpedoes, but both miss.

Garibaldi turns to link up with Italia while Hoche and De Lome close in. Four of the Balnys make some creative maneuvers to line up shots on St. Bon, who is left to fend for herself.

 St, Bon's ATB guns completely miss, but two of the four torpedoes strike home, with one of those sinking her outright.

And here is Dixie's reaction. She was playing the Italians.

In other action, Hoche scores a waterline hit on Italia, causing a palpable hit which took out her pumps. Italia also hit Dupuy De Lome, but again causing no appreciable damage.

The TBs regroup and head toward Garibaldi while De Lome turns to cross Italia's "T" once again.

Italia hits a TB, sending it to the bottom. Garibaldi scores a hit on Hoche, but with minimal effect. Italia is peppered by Dupuy De Lome, whose rapid fire guns do double damage to Italia's unarmored hull. This damage was doubled again due to Italia's lost pumps, Ouch!

Italia turns on the jets and heads for home with several large holes in her side. Garibaldi is, unfortunately, boxed in by Hoche and the TBs.

De Lome and Italia trade punches with little effect  as do Hoche and Garibaldi. But Garibaldi also misses with her close range ATB shot. The TBs fire off their last 5 torpedoes scoring one hit which took out ten of Garibaldi's eight hull boxes and she settled beneath the waves.

So, the French scored a major victory giving a big boost to the Jeune École guys at the Marine Nationale.

The game was great fun and showed the importance of keeping one's station in battle. Also the French tactic of covering their TBs until they could make a dashing attack proved very effective. But how would that work against something more modern?

Maybe we'll find out in the next game.

Until then, thank you for dropping by and happy gaming!

It's Gold Bugler!

 

About a year ago, I started working on a model of the Kali Temple from "Gunga Din". Well I finally got a printer big enough to handle it. So a good part of last week was spent doing just that.

For reference, here is a photo of the movie set. I believe they have the copula covered in this photo.

Now, I only had the movie to go from, no production plans or anything like that, so I used Cary Grant (at an even 6') as my ruler.

And those are my 15mm Cary Grant stand-ins. As much as possible, I tried to duplicate the features of the building in my version of the temple. I think I did a pretty good job on those columns at the entrance.

Here's a full front view of the temple.

And here are some exterior details. The main structure was printed on an Elegoo Neptune 4 Plus FDM printer. The detail work (elephants, the copula, and interior and exterior columns) were printed on an Elegoo Mars 5 SLA printer.

So, let's see what is inside.

The movie is rather scant on interior details, so I had to do a lot of improvising here.

On the back wall, I decoupaged some Hindu temple art I found on the internet. Originally, I was going to 3D print some friezes, but I think this was the better choice.

Judging from the interior scenes in the film, I determined that the guru's niche was on the side wall.

Turning around to the front wall, there are two elephant/dragon columns and two plain columns. The elephant/dragon columns were pieced together from numerous bits and bobs I found on Thingiverse.

There were no shots identified as any of the upper storeys, so the second and subsequent floors are all guess work. The photo above is the second floor.

And here is the third floor. Originally, I had 6 rooms on this floor, but that part of the print didn't turn out. I am rather glad that it didn't.

I put the snake pit on the fourth floor. Probably not the obvious choice, but from the movie, there appeared to be direct access to the roof from the snake pit room so it landed on the 4th floor.

And, the roof again. The items around the copula were from Scan The World , which I found on Thingiverse.

So there it is, Kali's temple from the movie Gunga Din.

I hope you like it and Happy Gaming!

Peking - 1900

 Something over a year ago, I got the wild idea to build the Legation Quarter in Peking for the Boxer Uprising. The inspiration for this project was a map I found drawn by 1st Lt. H. B. Ferguson, U.S. Army Engineers, Peking Relief Expedition, 1901.

Now, I knew that I could not do a 1 to 1 representation, as the main street would only be 3/4" wide and buildings would be even smaller. So here is what I came up with:

The black grid lines show 1'x1' squares, which are the size of the MDF boards I've got to do the base. The Magenta lines show the grid lines for the 11"x17" paper that I printed it out on.

I figured out that mounting everything on 1' square MDF wouldn't really work out so far as storage goes, so I re printed everything and mounted each contiguous block on 2mm floor tiles, which is a better solution as I can make the same block as both destroyed and whole then swap them out, if needed.

 

Here is the mostly completed Legation Quarter. It is what is needed to do the siege proper, starting on June 20, with the major areas labelled.  However, after reading "Women Of The Siege - Peking 1900", by Susanne Hoe, it turns out that there were some interesting events going on in the weeks prior to the 20th that would make for interesting problems. So, I will also be building up the area south of the Tartar Wall (the foreground in the above picture).

But, for now, I will elaborate on the areas that were the main focus of the siege.

Here is a view looking south from the Imperial City walls. On the far left is the Su Wang Fu, which will be talked about later, next is the British Legation and the Imperial Carriage park. On the far right are buildings of the Yamen, Chinese governmental buildings. The British Legation housed most of the foreign ministers and their families during the siege and would have been the last defense, if things would have come to that. There were several attacks on the British Legation throughout the siege, many from the carriage park next door. These attacks mainly included sniping and attempts to undermine the walls of the legation complex.

 Directly to the north of the British Legation is the Han Lin Library, which was burned by the Chinese, destroying many priceless objects that were stored there. The Han Lin University complex was also a scene of much fighting which also saw the mostly British defenders attempt to save what they could from the Han Lin. 

 

This shot looks north over one of the larger bastions of the Tartar Wall, showing the Russian Legation (top center)  and the American Legation (middle center). Also of note is the Water Gate (far right under the wall). The Russians defended the western end of Legation Street (running east/west) and saw their share of action there. The Americans defended the road directly behind the wall, the bastion at the top of the wall, and the Water Gate. Keeping the wall clear of Chinese was a major effort, as Chinese guns mounted on top could shoot down anywhere into the legations.

The Dutch Legation, on the south side of Legation Street (on the left of the picture) was evacuated prior to the siege proper. The Water Gate is where the British forces of the relief column entered Peking upon their arrival.

Again, looking north from the Tartar Wall, are the Spanish Legation, the Japanese Legation, The Peking Hotel, and the French Legation, are on the north side of Legation Street. The German Legation is on the south side of Legation Street in the center of the shot. I've found no mention of any Spaniards participating in any actions during the siege. The Japanese, along with the Italians were tasked with defending the Su Wang Fu. Both the French and German Legations were hotly contended during the siege, in fact, half the French Legation was destroyed when the Chinese exploded a mine underneath it.

The Hotel De Pekin (on the north side of Legation Street, in the center of the shot) was owned by a Swiss national, Auguste Chamot and his American wife Annie Elizabeth. During the quasi-siege, the Chamot's, together, led two rescue missions; one to rescue some Belgian railroad workers outside of Peking and the second to rescue Chinese Christians and European missionaries from the South Cathedral, south of the Tartar Wall. 

In addition to rescuing stranded Christians and Europeans, the Chamots also ran flour mills and bakeries to keep the legations supplied in bread. Annie, an excellent sharpshooter, also did her turn at the barricades and took out several Chinese snipers.

The French Legation is in the center of this shot. The Italian Legation is to the right of the French Legation. To the north of the Italian Legation is the Methodist mission. Both were occupied through the quasi-siege, but after the murder of Baron von Ketteler, these people were moved inside the final lines. The Germans were tasked with holding this end of the Tarter Wall.

This is the Su Wang Fu, or "The Fu". The Chinese Christians were housed here. The Japanese and Italians were tasked with defending "The Fu". Some of the toughest fighting during the siege took place here. The Boxers and Imperial Chinese were able to break in to "The Fu" but were ousted by determined counter attack. Captain Shiba was instrumental in the defense of "The Fu"

This is a look, from east to west, down Legation Street. The Italian Legation is the large building on the right. There will be barricades on the far side of the intersection. The Chinese will also be building barricades on their side of the lines.

Here is an "aerial" view bordered by the Tartar Wall on the left and Legation Street on the right.  There will also be barricades on top of the wall, between the wall and the American and German Legations, and across Legation Street.

This is a picture to give the viewer some idea of the scale. The figures on the wall are 15mm Kansu Braves. The entire table is 8' north and south and 6' east to west. All of the buildings are cardstock models designed by myself and colored by Patrick Wilson. Some of the destroyed structures are 3D prints. The walls (Tartar and Imperial City Wall) are foamcore covered with a brick pattern. The legation walls are from Fat Dragon Games - EZ Dungeon series.

The next steps are to define the tables that will determine the scenarios.

I hope you like what I've done.

Thank you for looking in.

A Bad Day At Veripore

 It has been a while since I have played a game, so I decided to set up a Northwest Frontier situation for "The Sword and the Flame". It was also a chance to use the Solo Game Aid I've been developing. During the game, I found a few programming errors in the game aid which I was able to correct. First, I will describe the Solo Game Aid, then I will recount the action at Veripore.

Set Up Sheet - This is where all the units are defined. Aside from the Table ID, all of the items used to define a unit are accessed through drop-down menus.

You may have noticed that Side B (the Pathans for this game) have a number of incomplete entries. These are to accommodate the hidden unit markers that are used for them. Since the entries are only needed for movement, I left the other data off. Additional units can be added later, if needed.

Hidden Unit Module - Above is the hidden unit module. There is room for up to 60 hidden unit markers. To use this module, enter the number of hidden unit markers in the second field from the right and the percentage of markers you want to be dummies in the far right field, then click the create units button. The program randomly determines whether a marker is an actual unit or a dummy and writes that information to a hidden sheet. So, I don't know which markers are real and which are not. I lay out the markers after I've deployed Side A's troops. When Side A is able to view of a hidden unit marker, I toggle the Spotted colum's cell next to the spotted card's number to "Yes". Only then do I find out if that marker is for a real unit or not.

The Wattie-Hootie Roll determines a radius from the spotted unit that any hidden unit markers within that radius are also activated. This is to keep the player from maneuvering his forces so that they only spot one hidden unit marker at a time so as to only engage the one unit and defeat the enemy in detail. Wattie-Hootie is a term an old gaming buddy of mine would use when he sent his units into a charge.

Movement Module - This module determines the number of movement dice roll based on the factor that apply.  User input is required for Formation, Charging, on a road, or in rough terrain. The program also looks at the casualty roster to determine if a Leaderless to Move check is required. It then generates the appropriate number of random numbers and displays them on the selected unit's row.

Shooting Module - The Determine Shooter button randomly determines which side gets to shoot with one unit. Drop-down menus are used to assign the firing unit, number of shooters, target class, and target unit. Click the Take The Shot button to determine the number and figure types hit.

The results of shooting are transferred to the casualty roster (sheet Side B in this example). The Leader is always in column B. If you are using my unit roster generator, the casualties will have to be transferred to those by hand.

Melee Module - In the Melee Module you select the two units involved (Side A to the left and Side B to the right). Then press the Populate Units button. This marks off previous casualties or, in the case of cavalry, numbers 13 through 20 (to represent a 12 figure unit). Any charging stragglers are entered by the player. The player also toggles to 'Yes' any modifiers that apply for each side. Then click the Calculate Modifiers button to Show the dice roll modifiers. Click the Fight Round button to see who wins and who loses. Once a winner is determined, casualties are applied to the casualty rosters.

Morale Module - Here, you select the side and the unit that needs a morale check, the click the button for the type of test needed. The Morale Status column tells you the results (results are also displayed in a message box). And that's it for the solo game aid.

The Battle at Veripore

Veripore is a small village set up between the arms of an escarpment on the northwest frontier. And reports have it that the local tribes are behaving in a most ungentlemanly manner. So, Captain Will Gordon and a platoon each of the 18th Lucknow and the 42nd Bengal Infantry (Gurkhas) along with a troop of 12th Bengal Lancers were sent to investigate.

As they moved into the valley, they could feel eyes upon them.

(From the opposite end of the table, showing the placement of hidden unit markers.)

Lt. Jess Barker, of the Bengal Lancers, sends out a scout  to reconnoiter the copse of trees to the right. At first, he finds nothing.

Meanwhile, the 42nd, led by Lt. Wilson Taylor, scope out the trees to the left.

Taylor and his men spot a band of Pathans lurking nearby.

The Pathans charge straight away. The steady Gurkha reply with a volley, downing 4 of the tribesmen.

Continuing into the grove, the lancer scout spots another band of tribesmen.

The Pathans going against the Gurkha lost their nerve. The Gurkha followed them up with a charge of their own.

Back on the right flank, this band is not content with going after a single lancer and move toward the main body of troops.

After defeating the band on the right, the lancers move into the valley. They spot another band of Pathans to the left!

That band's Wattie-Hootie check activates all units on the Pathan end of the table.

Four Pathan units now join in the fray.

The 16th forms up next to the lancers as the 42nd rushes back to get into the action.

The Sepoys exchange fire with the Pathans, giving better than they received.

The Gurkhas get back to protect the right flank as the Pathans crash into the 16th.

The sepoys are bested by the wily Pathan.

The Gurkha fill in for the retreating 16th, while the lancers take on another Pathan band.

The Gurkha are hit by to units at once. They beat the first, but are too depleted to vanquish the second. Only one man survived.

The Lancers are forced to fall back and retreat off the field. The day belonged to the Pathan.

I hope you enjoyed this rather lengthy post.

Thank you for dropping in.