Archduke Piccolo's recent tabletop naval battle has set me thinking.
He adapted the rules in GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAMES using some elements from the naval rules in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, and fought an action between two American Civil War-era ironclads (a turretted monitor and a casemate ironclad) and a slightly more modern turret ship.
This happened just as I was coming to the stage in my current World War Two Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project when I was beginning to think about the naval aspects of my campaign. As a result, I went to one of my display cabinets and got our my 'cartoon' versions of a generic destroyer, the German pre-dreadnought Schleswig-Holstein, and Russian Marat/Petropavlovsk. (The latter was a very cut-down version of the original design, and only had two triple 12-inch gun turrets.)
Generic destroyer
The model is 18.5cm long by 2.8cm wide, and using the formula set out in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, she would have 13 Flotation Points/Strength Points. Archduke Piccolo suggests halving this, which would give her 7 Flotation Points/Strength Points.
German pre-dreadnough battleship Schleswig-Holstein
The model is 20cm long by 7.7cm wide, and using the formula set out in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, she would have 77 Flotation Points/Strength Points. Archduke Piccolo suggests halving this, which would give her 39 Flotation Points/Strength Points.
Russian battleship Marat/Petropavlovsk
The model is 24.5cm long by 7.7cm wide, and using the formula set out in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, she would have 94 Flotation Points/Strength Points. Archduke Piccolo suggests halving this, which would give her 47 Flotation Points/Strength Points.
These revised Flotation Point/Strength Point values seem to be much more reasonable when used with larger models, and I will probably adopt this in future.
He adapted the rules in GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAMES using some elements from the naval rules in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, and fought an action between two American Civil War-era ironclads (a turretted monitor and a casemate ironclad) and a slightly more modern turret ship.
This happened just as I was coming to the stage in my current World War Two Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project when I was beginning to think about the naval aspects of my campaign. As a result, I went to one of my display cabinets and got our my 'cartoon' versions of a generic destroyer, the German pre-dreadnought Schleswig-Holstein, and Russian Marat/Petropavlovsk. (The latter was a very cut-down version of the original design, and only had two triple 12-inch gun turrets.)
Generic destroyer
The model is 18.5cm long by 2.8cm wide, and using the formula set out in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, she would have 13 Flotation Points/Strength Points. Archduke Piccolo suggests halving this, which would give her 7 Flotation Points/Strength Points.
German pre-dreadnough battleship Schleswig-Holstein
The model is 20cm long by 7.7cm wide, and using the formula set out in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, she would have 77 Flotation Points/Strength Points. Archduke Piccolo suggests halving this, which would give her 39 Flotation Points/Strength Points.
Russian battleship Marat/Petropavlovsk
The model is 24.5cm long by 7.7cm wide, and using the formula set out in THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME, she would have 94 Flotation Points/Strength Points. Archduke Piccolo suggests halving this, which would give her 47 Flotation Points/Strength Points.
These revised Flotation Point/Strength Point values seem to be much more reasonable when used with larger models, and I will probably adopt this in future.
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Wow! I do like those model ships!
ReplyDeleteThe reason for my halving the SPs was that I considered my 2-hex-long vessels to be the equivalent of your 1-hex-long ships. Looking at your fleet, I might be forced to rethink the construction of my 'Mighty Armadas' home made destroyers, though...
Having said that, I think the FPs of the vessels you evaluate look about right. Looking at the Schleswig-Holstein pre-dreadnought, and comparing with the 1871 coastal defence battleshop 'Thunderer' upon which mine is based, the former's 39FP looks about right compared with the latter's 24.
My 'Fly Class' gunboat came out at 6SP, which, compared with your 7FP for your destroyer, is probably over-generous. In a future action I have in mind its role will be that of a torpedo boat destroyer, the 'torpedo boats' being converted tugboats armed with a light rifled gun and a 'spar' torpedo (with FPs to match!).
Really it will be the late 1870s equivalent of a modern (for then) navy against one that, in another contemporaneous theatre , would be obsolete. Kind of what might be expected in a remote backwater.
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteI am very pleased to read that you like my model ships. The method used to build the Schleswig-Holstein can be found amongst the 'How too' download pages here. The Russian battleship was built using a similar method, and the results are not too bad.
The generic destroyer was built using a cheap wooden model of Titanic for its hull. The model was made by Darice, and I used to be able to buy these from Hobbycraft for less than £5.00 each. They don't seem to sell them nowadays, but I understand that they can still be bought via Amazon.
Halving the FP/SP makes sense, and I will probably adopt this when I write my next set of rules that involve relatively modern warships.
All the best,
Bob