Soviet Naval What If

In reading in one of my Cold War histories I found an interesting tidbit, although I cannot find the source now, oh bother. That  is Stalin was concerned that he was to need a ocean going fleet to fight a war with the United States between 1955 and 1960. This was not to happen as Stalin was to die in 1953.

It is relatively easy to keep him alive until the early 1960s. In doing further further reading (see below) it is possible with a few points of departure (POD) to come up with a plausible naval time line with a war occurring in the late 1950s. 

My personal library is rather extensive, consider it a profession liability, when dealing with the Cold War and the Soviet Navy. Here are a few.

• Russian Submarines in the Artic by I Kolyshkin
• Stalin's Ocean-Going Fleet by Jurgen Rohwer and Mikhail S. Monakov
• Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies, 1718-1990 by Norman Polmar and Jurrien Noot
• Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001 by Norman Polmar
• Assorted Jane's Fighting Ships and Conways 
• Polmar's Guides to the Soviet Navy 

So I may have a new project, new a few miniatures and a suitable rule set and I should be off. 

Oil Platforms

Today Britain stands tall in my wargaming universe with these latest acquisitions. We now have two oil/gas platforms to be based in the North Sea. Why you ask? Every country and navy needs secure access to Petroleum, Oil and other Lubricants (POL). We now have the means of getting it out of the North Sea. That also means we will need to defend it.

These were a recent purchase from Shapeways. For those not familiar with Shapeways, they work with 3D designers in creating interesting products that until recently required access to molds and casting tools. Now you can create in plastics, ceramics and metals. A simple search based on scale will reveal miniatures that can help fill out the missing slots in your collections. That is what happened to me, I was looking for “X” and found it, but also found I needed to buy “Y” as well. Happens all the time.

These will be used mostly as scenery and objectives on the table. Normally there is not a big call for scenery for naval games. While purchased for North Sea games these may make an appearance in both the South China Sea and Persian Gulf. Can you say Fast Attack Craft (FAC) gentlemen?

New Commissions

Latest additions to the fleet:

3 1/6000 scale Missile Corvettes - A69 type Avisos for the Falkland War
2 1/3000 scale British Battleships for post WWII era - HMS Anson and HMS Vanguard
1 1/3000 scale R-80 British Airship
1 15mm scale Gunboat for the Colonial Era to WWII

 

Crews for the gunboat are on the painting bench right now.

The 1/6000 scale are Figurehead, 1/3000 are from M.Y. Miniatures and the 15mm gunboat is Peter Pig's WWI line.

Battle of Riga

Why in the world would gamers be more interested in fighting battles in the Baltic instead of the North Sea during The Great War? The North Sea has the Royal Navy standing guard. We even have those awesome American battleships arriving at the end of 1917.  There is Jutland, Dogger Bank and a number of possible battles.

Yet I am more dawn in by the situation faced by the Russians. Supporting the Army as the Germans march east the Russians were facing the bulk of the German High Seas Fleet. For the Russians the great equalizer was the mine and the torpedo.  The Baltic is where the historical actions occurred. These are smaller actions but interesting in the difference in tactics used.

There were a number of battles fought in and near Riga were parts of the German High Seas Fleet engaged the shore batteries and navy of the Russians. Often mines and British submarines held the Germans back. In three occasions the Russians sortied their heavy units with mixed results.

As Tony is building up the German navy it is only fair I build the Russians in 1/6000 scale. The Russians followed the Jeune École school were the emphasis is on the mine, torpedo and fast cruisers. As students their ships more often came from French designs and what student of naval history cannot appreciate those outlandish designs. We will see if I have any luck here defending Mother Russia’s coast.

While waiting for the ships I will be testing out the history as a game using Avalanche Press Jutland. Please follow along on the reports that will appear here. Your comments are welcome.

Naval Additions and Tanks For Sale

For this week I have only finished up three warships for my British Fleet. These will see action at Coronel and possibly the Falklands. One can only hope. Lack of painting comes from waiting on bases and paints. Some of which I will pick up at Cold Wars tomorrow.

I also see this week from the BBC that the Littlefield Collection is up for auction after the death of Jacques M Littlefield. This is the premier armored collection in private hands. The article can be found here. This collection is often see on TV including the Mythbusters.

It is hoped that the collection will find a home in one of the major armor museums, than again for $300,000 I can get that M50 as a second car.

Hunt the Goeben

This battle report was a test run through of the rule system Grand Fleets by XII Majestic Twelve Games.

Here we have a very common game match up between the Goeben, the Breslau and Rear Admiral Ernest Troubridge’s 1st Cruiser Squadron. Based on points in the system Rear Admiral Troubridge has the edge. Well that is if there was no fire control conflict of four armored cruisers firing on one target. If they can only fire effectively two ships at a time the SMS Goeben’s 11” guns will have the edge. And in this game she did.

The speeds were similar so initially the Goeben turned and let off a broadside against the HMS Duke of Edinburgh. She was very unlucky getting hit hard and receiving two critical, one of which was fire. She was out of the game and Rear Admiral Troubridge had to shift his command.

The HMS Gloucester attempts a torpedo run.
The HMS Defense was next in line and headed towards the Goeben with the rest of the squadron. Over the next 30 minutes the British and Goeben traded broadsides with the Defense taking substantial damage. By the end of turn four the Goeben decided it was unwise to tempt fate and exited the board.

At a strategic level I see the Germans head to Constantinople with the HMS Gloucester following. The HMS Duke of Edinburgh and Defense will be heading to the naval base at Malta for repairs and the reduced 1st Cruiser Squadron will maintain its watch on the Austrians.

Even in a game defeat Rear Admiral Troubridge will come
out better than the historical results.

Official results, Germans acquired 52 victory points and left the table. The British acquired no victory points.

As for the rules, they were average. I had to change from inches to centimeters to keep the action more like a naval battle than a knife fight. I will play them again as I like the DIY rules for ships, but I will keep looking. Any suggestions? Oh Toney, which side do you want in the next game.

5 Reasons Why To Have Monitors In Your Fleet

 
As I have been going through old miniatures and trying to get them painted up for Vis Lardica painting contest I have come across a bunch of 1/2400 scale monitors. These are than added to the completed 1/6000 scale monitors I painted up last week. To be honest, I have monitors in several scales and classes.

These pre-dreadnought wonders have seen battle in several of my games of Seekrieg 4 and Frank Chadwick’s Ironclads and Ether Flyers. Often they came out of these battles with the accolades of their commanding Admiral, but not always.

These warships were common not only in the New Navy of the United States but also had a part in the battle line of the Royal Navy and the Czarist Navy. Even a cursory glance of the first two volumes of Conways shows monitors in many of the navies of this era.

And they should have a place amongst your miniatures as well. Here are five historical and operational reasons why you should think of adding them to your fleets.

Fire Power - When you want to level a fortification or turn back a raiding force fire power is what matters. Monitors are able to bring heavy guns to bear on a small platform and a limited draft.

Pesky Governors - The Governor's of coastal United States during the Spanish American War (and other fictional wars) often demanded ships to defend their coasts and ports. Instead of using battleships and cruisers, which were in short supply, the Navy Department would release monitors for protection.

While they cannot with stand a battle line they and torpedo boats could cause sufficient damage to make the enemy think twice before raiding the east coast.

Support - Monitors were able to bring fire support in most conflicts in the late 19th century and early 20th century. From the Philippine Insurrection to The Great War monitors had a place in the line. During The Great War they were used to protect the British left flank along the English Channel as well as in the destruction of the
SMS Königsberg.

Cost - As a defense vessel these are very affordable. These ship carry a similar weapon to most pre-dreadnought but at a fraction of the cost. The initial New Navy Monitors were built over twenty years and used old Civil War era monitors for scrap. The savings from these were applied to the new classes.

As these were designed to be cost defense vessels, they operated with reduced crews. There was also only limited comforts for the crews as they were rarely away from port.

	"New Navy" Monitors	USS Kearsarge BB-5
Cost	~ $250,000	$5 Million
Crew	150-210	550
Firepower	10" or 12" Guns	13" Guns

Retro - Lastly these ships are so retro. They looked retro in the 1890s compared to the vessels in the American Civil War. Even more so when they were used during the First World War. There is something special (at least for me) with these ships.

So what do you think? Do these ships have a place in your navy? Let me know.

Period Battleships(1/2400 scale) to the left. Monitors in
both 1/2400 and 1/6000 scale to the right.

TFLGRC

I am very pleased to be part of the 2014 TooFatLardies Game Ready Campaign started by Rob of the blog Vis Lardica. It has me painting through miniatures that I primed in 2013 (some in 2012) but never finished. You should take the time to get involved. I am sure you have some unpainted stuff you need to finish. Check out Rob’s blog to see what other Lardies are doing or email Rob @ admin@vislardica.com.

While my mountain of white metal is going down, I have picked up a few 3D printed ships, but I promise I will paint them soon. Actually most are based and or primed. That has to be a record for me. These include monitors and protected cruisers for 1902 as well as a few moderns to play around with.

One of the moderns that lingered in my shopping cart for most of last year was the Arsenal Ship. One of the all time daftest naval designs. Here is a ship larger than most WWII aircraft carriers with a crew as little as two-dozen and the firepower of a battle group. The ship would have the ability to launch multiple land attack cruise missiles from 500+ vertical launch cells.

As a Cold War concept it is a good idea as it could suppress an area prior to an invasion. Unfortunately the idea came out after the Cold War and before the War on Terror. So the Arsenal Ship and all of its cousins (DDX Zumwalt, and the SC21s) were cut and I am glad as with its small crew it was a perfect target for terrorists.  But that does not mean I cannot have it on my table. Only problem is they came in a set of four and that is three to many. So does anyone need a modern/sci-fi 1/6000 scale Arsenal Ship? Let me know.

Kaiser’s Navy

The Kaiser’s Navy has added two new warships and four auxiliaries giving even the pre-dreadnought Germans limited abilities for power projection outside the North Sea.

While the colliers are the work horses (or should this be draught horses) the real sexy ships have to be the battlecruisers. The first out for scouting, always in the thick of things and a choice position for all officers of the Kaiserliche Marine.

Here we have the SMS Moltke (sister of the SMS Goeben) and the SMS Seydlitz. Both armed with 28cm (11”) guns and able to do better than 28 knots. These were left overs mioniatures from a playtest I did on catching the SMS Goeben.The SMS Goeben always seems to get away.

Both of these battlecruisers will be available for all of the raids and battles in the North Sea including Battle of Dogger Bank and the Battle of Jutland. These are often the largest vessels in the early war raids and make for quick and enjoyable games.

Odin Class @ Sea

Here we have two new additions to the Kaiser's Kaiserliche Marine. The Odin Class were follow ons to the to the Siegfried Class coastal defense ship. These will be useful in defending the peaceful German ports along the North and Baltic Seas.

The Odin and Agir Underway.

Painting of the Agir.

Naval Reinforcements Part II

For you Mark, here are images of two of my recent purchases. The little one is the HMS Endurance from the Falklands War and the other is an Arsenal Ship a concept that has a certain coolness factor but very misguided.

The figure is a 15mm camera man from the Peter Pig line.

The Endurance is not the smallest of the lot but the easiest to get based.

Naval Reinforcements

Today the USPS made me happy.  The postman brought me a box from Shapeways the 3D Printing people. Often Shapeways boxes are light but this is incredibly so. And it has ten different types of ships here. I think the packing weighs more than the models.

As I still need to base them I can only share a list.

1901 Project
USS Amphitrite
USS Cincinnati
USS New York
USS Baltimore (C-3)
USS Montgomery (1890)

Falklands
HMS Endurance (1967)

Cold War (to current)
Nanuchka + Osa
Grisha & Poti
Arsenal Ships
022 Missile Boat

As you can see I have three naval projects going, although only 1901 is active. In my gaming workshop/studio I have two naval campaigns going on. 1901 is for a joint project (more on that latter) and the other naval campaign is Force Z. We are trying to see how well the Brits can do against the Japanese in 1941.

The Endurance has been in the purchase queue for over a year and has to be the smallest miniature I have ever seen. I should have the 1901 and the Endurance ready to be based by the end of the week. Have to clear out some Imperial German pre-dreadnoughts and colliers first.

New Toys

This has been a busy day. After cleaning up from the snowstorm, a trip to the gym, and a romp in the snow with the wife and dog, I got a call that an order of miniatures was in. So I was off to Leigh County and pick up my World War I naval miniatures.

These 1/6000 scale beauties have become my go to scale for naval games. This goes for pre-dreadnought to the Cold War periods.

These will allow me to run the cruiser battles of 1914 were the British Empire (with French and Japanese assistance) hunted down the German raiders, as well as Falklands and Coronel. I will also with the Brandenburg and Siegfried and the colliers and tramp steamers I will be starting on a pre-dreadnought project that is also connected to a writing project. Time to get them to the painting table.

US Navy and a Little Snow

Well we are getting a bit of snow here in the Northeast. The trip home from work instead of being 15 minutes was an hour. Never did see a snowplow or a salt truck. Hope it is better were you are located. So what is a guy to do, well go off to the painting bench.

As I am waiting on the rest of my Figurehead miniatures to bring my navies into the mid-1980s I am switching gears to my 15mm figures. As I am trying to clean up the painting backlog I am starting with two T-62s and a few pieces of terrain.

Here is my US Navy so far. With 47 ships I think it is respectable in size. Still need a few to get it to the Reagan 600 ship Navy. Have to do another count once the order comes in.

 Destroyers, Frigates and Submarines - Both sides of the ASW Equation.

 The Heavies - Carriers, Cruisers and Support on this side.

A Happy Find

As this will be my last blog post for 2013 I wanted to go out on a high note. As I am waiting on my order from Figurehead for my Soviet and American Navies I have been rebasing my existing ships and cleaning things up. I knew there were a few extra ships not used for my Falkland forces and a pack of US Command Ships from the 1960s and 70s (think WWII Heavy Cruisers and Light Carriers with a lot of antennas) but to my surprise I found a pack of OH Perry class frigates to add to the US Navy.

So they were based primed and the painting has begun along side four Essex carriers (was looking to use them as Commando Carriers) and the four command ships. I found the antennas to be as fiddly as I thought. Only had minor issue with the glue.

So the Perry’s will be useful in the New Year but what of the command ships. I can see USS Wright CC-2or USS Northamton CC–1 being a target of a Soviet submarine.  We will have to wait and see.

USS Northamton CC-1

GUPPY

These are boats are little seen on the gaming table, and that is a shame. The Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) and their Fleet Snorkel were the US Navy’s response to the surprise found in the German Type XXI U-boats.

When the war ended in 1945 the US Navy and Royal Navy both had large battle tested fleets. Unfortunately the American vessels had experienced four years of war while the British ships were battered by an additional two years of war. The designs were tested but old.

The US started the GUPPY program in 1947 and the British followed a similar upgrade with their T and A class boats. The reason for the conversions was that the submarine hulls existed and were needed. The down side was the cost. Congress was not willing to spend to bring all of the existing submarines to the higher standards.

While there is an alphabet soup of conversions (GUPPY I, GUPPY II, GUPPY IA, Fleet Snorkel, GUPPY IIA, GUPPY IB, and GUPPY III) they all involved improvements in hull and battery life.  The GUPPY II had the snorkel and improved radar. Only nine of the GUPPY IIs were converted to the GUPPY III with the improved BQG-4 PUFFS passive ranging sonar. Once again it was a budget issue.

This link will be helpful to anyone interested in the GUPPYs. Also I suggest looking at U.S. Submarines Since 1945, it is a great reference that I use often.

Do not worry about the stats when designing a scenario, as there are few out there that know of all of the differences between the seven groupings or even the quirks within them. Now gamers, why do you need this ancient submarine? These were the front line boats in the 1950s into the 1990s with our allied navies. One was even active in the Falkland War, but that is another blog post.

Miniature is 1/6000 scale from Figurehead.

USS Coral Sea doing an Unrep

Here is the USS Coral Sea along with the USS Wainwright doing an underway replenishment.  The Coral Sea was the third of the post war USS Midway Class. A class of carriers that was greatly influenced by British carrier designs that included thicker belt and deck armor. Both the Midway and Coral Sea served for the entire length of the Cold War, and even a little after, as the Midway was part of Operation Desert Storm.

I knew her from her time in the Mediterranean as part of the Sixth Fleet. There she took part in freedom of navigation operations involving the usual suspects (Libya and Iran with Lebanon and Syria thrown in for good measure).

Currently I only have two carriers in my US fleet. Than again I do not think the Red Team will ever get real close to them.

The miniatures are 1/6000 scale from Figurehead.

Give the Sturgeon a Chance

The Sturgeon Class (SSN 663) was conceived as a quiet under-ice boat that could take ASW operations to the Soviet bastions within the pack ice. For the sailors they were so much more.

While designed in the 1960s they were found as a complement to the more modern 688 class. The 688 class boats were often assigned to the carrier and Surface Action Battlegroups as escorts. The best ASW weapon was found to be another submarine and not the more commonly thought destroyers. This allowed the 637 class to be given other tasks. Much more interesting for their crews (and todays gamers).

For naval games set in the 1980s the Sturgeon Class will be operating under ice, on spook ops, or waiting at choke points for passing Soviet shipping. With a sonar suite or par with their more modern kin and a weapons suite better than most these boats have a place on any gamers collection.They have at their disposal in the 1980s Mk48 torpedoes, Harpoon cruise missiles and Subroc. A very powerful mix.

While this blog deals mostly with the land and air war during the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 operations, this boat was part of the American response to the conflict.

The miniature is 1/6000 scale from Figurehead.