Post by afilter on Apr 19, 2011 19:12:37 GMT -5
As Promised.....
On Saturday 9 April 2011 I participated in The Battle of Tsushima at Little Wars in St Charles, IL using NT RotB rules. The event was run by Dave Himm using his beautiful 1/1000 Houston Models. This event was a follow-up to the "Prelude to Tsushima" game I ran on Friday evening. The OoB was per the scenario except that it excluded all the Protected cruisers and DD flotillas.
There were a total of 10 players and 3 of us were veterans with the other 7 playing for the first time. All the rules were per RotB with the exce[tion that we used the actual model to determine range and LoS instead of center of the model. Due to the size of these models this is almost a must, but does change the game a bit.
I had the honor of commanding the Japanese Main Battle line with direct command of Mikasa, Shikishima. I also commanded the two Armored cruisers Kasuga and Nishin due to being short one of the planned players.
Initial Deployments
Russian Fleet:
IJN Fleet:
The game was set up with the two fleets closer than the scenario to eliminate several turns of closing the distance to get into range.
The first couple turns were still spent closing the range and manuevering for position. The IJN basic strategy was to split the two lines and try and take the Russina fleet down the middle.
The Russians countered as best they could by splitting in three directions.
The Russians scored a very lucky hit early on the Shikishima causing rudder damage forcing her out of line temporarily.
As the lines continued to close the IJN started scoring some critical hits on the elder Russian Coastal defense battleships.
Despite the hits scored the initial damage was not as bad as it could have been and it took the IJN much longer than planned to reduce the Russian line which was well handled by an experienced admiral (Mike).
Shikishima failed to control the rudder damage the first turn and continued to move haplessly out of line theatening to ram the ships following behind.
Mikasa and Asahi finally found the range and made the Russians pay for their boldness.
Finally Shikishima repaired the rudder damage and was able to manuever back into line. The rear of the IJN line started to focus on the Russian center column making the Oslaba pay with a couple of crucial hits at range.
Meanwhile the outgunned IJN Armored cruisers started trading fire with the cream of the Russian force the 4 Borodino class batttleships.
Despite being outgunned and under powered the Russian caostal defense group made sure that the IJN line felt their sting scoring several hits and even starting a fire on Mikasa.
The Russian commander displayed extreme bravery, but they were no match for the IJN main line. Meanwhile the IJN Armored cruisers were being pounded by the very capable Russian Battle line. Togo quickly realized he could not be distracted by the inferior Russian Caostal Battleships and began to turn the line across the beam of the two Russian colums so he could bring his big guns to bear on the Main Russian line while continuing to rake the remaining Russina 2nd class ships with opportunity fire and secondaries.
As The IJN Manuevered across the remnants of the of the Russian and 2nd and 3rd columns took a withering fire that continued to reduce their ships and scatter their lines. While all this was happening the Borodinos continued to pound the cruiser line, but were eventually forced to start shifting fire to the new threat that was approaching.
The action ended as the Russian 2nd and 3rd colums were decimated and the Borodinos started to take some severe punishment from the IJN Main line.
The Battle was declared a IJN victory. Togo definately paid a higher price for thsi victory than he did hsitorically. for the price of a couple Armored cruisers the IJN will be adding some state of the art Borodinos to the fleet.
Overall another excellent RotB game that exposed several new players to the game and I am sure converted a few to Naval Thunder.
The only change I would have made to the event is using the optional double the ranges and movement rule.
Altough impressive these models are just a bit big for the standard rates as published in the rules and it causes a few issues especially at close range and when performing tight manuevers.
Dave and his group always run quality events and if given the opportunity I will always seek them out at a con as I have now played with them several times.
The Houston models always make an impressive display. If I had the room I would definately consider them as the models are of a very high quality and Leslie did an excellent job painting them.
On Saturday 9 April 2011 I participated in The Battle of Tsushima at Little Wars in St Charles, IL using NT RotB rules. The event was run by Dave Himm using his beautiful 1/1000 Houston Models. This event was a follow-up to the "Prelude to Tsushima" game I ran on Friday evening. The OoB was per the scenario except that it excluded all the Protected cruisers and DD flotillas.
There were a total of 10 players and 3 of us were veterans with the other 7 playing for the first time. All the rules were per RotB with the exce[tion that we used the actual model to determine range and LoS instead of center of the model. Due to the size of these models this is almost a must, but does change the game a bit.
I had the honor of commanding the Japanese Main Battle line with direct command of Mikasa, Shikishima. I also commanded the two Armored cruisers Kasuga and Nishin due to being short one of the planned players.
Initial Deployments
Russian Fleet:
IJN Fleet:
The game was set up with the two fleets closer than the scenario to eliminate several turns of closing the distance to get into range.
The first couple turns were still spent closing the range and manuevering for position. The IJN basic strategy was to split the two lines and try and take the Russina fleet down the middle.
The Russians countered as best they could by splitting in three directions.
The Russians scored a very lucky hit early on the Shikishima causing rudder damage forcing her out of line temporarily.
As the lines continued to close the IJN started scoring some critical hits on the elder Russian Coastal defense battleships.
Despite the hits scored the initial damage was not as bad as it could have been and it took the IJN much longer than planned to reduce the Russian line which was well handled by an experienced admiral (Mike).
Shikishima failed to control the rudder damage the first turn and continued to move haplessly out of line theatening to ram the ships following behind.
Mikasa and Asahi finally found the range and made the Russians pay for their boldness.
Finally Shikishima repaired the rudder damage and was able to manuever back into line. The rear of the IJN line started to focus on the Russian center column making the Oslaba pay with a couple of crucial hits at range.
Meanwhile the outgunned IJN Armored cruisers started trading fire with the cream of the Russian force the 4 Borodino class batttleships.
Despite being outgunned and under powered the Russian caostal defense group made sure that the IJN line felt their sting scoring several hits and even starting a fire on Mikasa.
The Russian commander displayed extreme bravery, but they were no match for the IJN main line. Meanwhile the IJN Armored cruisers were being pounded by the very capable Russian Battle line. Togo quickly realized he could not be distracted by the inferior Russian Caostal Battleships and began to turn the line across the beam of the two Russian colums so he could bring his big guns to bear on the Main Russian line while continuing to rake the remaining Russina 2nd class ships with opportunity fire and secondaries.
As The IJN Manuevered across the remnants of the of the Russian and 2nd and 3rd columns took a withering fire that continued to reduce their ships and scatter their lines. While all this was happening the Borodinos continued to pound the cruiser line, but were eventually forced to start shifting fire to the new threat that was approaching.
The action ended as the Russian 2nd and 3rd colums were decimated and the Borodinos started to take some severe punishment from the IJN Main line.
The Battle was declared a IJN victory. Togo definately paid a higher price for thsi victory than he did hsitorically. for the price of a couple Armored cruisers the IJN will be adding some state of the art Borodinos to the fleet.
Overall another excellent RotB game that exposed several new players to the game and I am sure converted a few to Naval Thunder.
The only change I would have made to the event is using the optional double the ranges and movement rule.
Altough impressive these models are just a bit big for the standard rates as published in the rules and it causes a few issues especially at close range and when performing tight manuevers.
Dave and his group always run quality events and if given the opportunity I will always seek them out at a con as I have now played with them several times.
The Houston models always make an impressive display. If I had the room I would definately consider them as the models are of a very high quality and Leslie did an excellent job painting them.
Hopefully it can be easily repaired. 
Anyone that builds appreciates the effort that goes into making a nice model. 
