First of May

...But the greatest fight in history was fought on the first of May, By Commodore George Dewey, the hero of Manila Bay.
THE HERO OF MANILA BAY. Copyright, 1898. by Tom J. Quigley.

Latter this month my club will meet for our monthly get together. We often play games as diverse as WWI air combat, battles near Caen during Normandy and last time fighting in and around Peking during the Boxer Rebellion. But this next meet-up will be onboard the USS Olympia, flagship of Commodore Dewey and the Battle of Manila Bay. The event is being held on April 30^th to the morning of May 1^st, the anniversary of the battle.

Now as venues go this is awesome, we not only have a protected cruiser but a diesel submarine that fought in WWII and than in the Cold War as a GUPPY Ia class of boats and across the river the battleship New Jersey.  I promise to write more about the event after this overnighter.

What has me most excited about this weekend event is the ability to play games from the Spanish American War on this pre-dreadnought period vessel.

I have in my collection at least three games that cover this period. Remember the Maine is the name of two games dealing with the Spanish American War, a conflict that was to move America from being a regional power to an international player. A third is a land based supplement called Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain.  It appears there is not a lot of originality in naming games.

While all are great games and designs for their periods, what has me coming back to them again and again is the technology of the conflict, or specifically the wacky ship designs. We have the Spanish battleship Pelayo (a real ironclad), the American monitor Amphitrite (not a great deal of freeboard here) and a favorite of many the USS Vesuvius a dynamite cruiser. All push designs based on new (or old) techniques and materials. We have different propulsion systems, armor placement covering important areas heavily and in other cases covering the entire ship in light armour.  Gun designs go from being in armoured turrets to barbettes.

Tactics were also influx.  In The Great War and again in World War Two warships were put into squadrons based on warships being of the same class or having similar characteristics, often have a group of four to six battleships in the same squadron. In the pre-dreadnought period warships were often designed as one offs trying to determine if they were going to be useful for fleet actions. This made for squadrons and fleets with interesting characteristics once ships went to sea to do battle.

Do I look forward to commanding the Vesuvius, Texas or Carlos V at our games day, absolutely. I also hope I am given a warship that I am unfamiliar with and that I will have fun learning more about it. Wish me luck.

WTJ Miniatures

With more snow on the way what can we do?

Well I put my fleet to sea hoping the Royal Navy will be able to find the elusive SMS Goeben. Well they did. Currently the HMS Duke of Edinburgh has taken it on the chin with two critical hits one of which is a fire from the opening salvo. As it looks to be a long game, I took a time out to take pictures of a recent purchase that showed up yesterday.

On Saturday arrived 16 new ships for the American, Spanish and German pre-dreadnought navies. I now have Dewey’s squadron done to a higher quality than my ancient 1/2400 miniatures purchased in 1985. These new ships from WTJ need to be based and primed but I want to give you my initial reaction. WOW!!!

These are crisp and clean and look spot on for the scale. The dimensions are not chunky as many resign and white metal castings can be. While in the raw they do not photograph well I have included a few images to show off their quality.

The pictures include the USS Olympia with an older resign cast next to it as well as the armed merchant cruiser St. Louis and the predreadnoughts Pelayo and SMS Braunschweig.

I have always liked the look of the Pelayo and look forward to paining her. How will she do against the Americans, I am not so sure.

The SMS Braunschweig was a surprise as it is a new release and is currently not on the WTJ website. She will be an asset used in the Baltic as soon as she is based and painted. She will also get her own blog post once she is primed. 

Over all I have to say that WTJ will be my preferred method of buying 1/2400 scale ships. Currently their fleets are limited but they are adding to them faster than most other companies. The company is accessible and they respond to inquiries quickly. Packaging and shipping was fast and efficient, with little chance of damage to these 3D prints. The ships were in sealed bags. I will write more once the bases I ordered show up. Not all companies are as fast as WTJ.

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.