Salute Pics

[Is that a bandwagon driving by?!? I must jump on it!]

First of all apologies for yet another extended absence.  I've not been motivated to do much of anything lately, but having been to Salute last Saturday (and yet again missed the bloggers' meet), I'm feeling slightly more oomph to get things done.

So, as a first step, I thought I'd follow the latest trend in wargames blogs and post some pics I took on the big day and next time, I'll post some pics of my new toys (including what I got when I got just a teensy bit carried away at the Otherworld Miniatures stand); anyway, the pictures ...

As we all know, wargaming has its own fads - and judging by the games at Salute, it seems that the latest is Victorian Science Fiction.  As that is something that I'm very interested in, my pics are of those games as I'm sure there are better pics and reviews on other blogs ...

A non-VSF pic; the 36' monstrosity that was
the Warlords' Hammers' Slammers game ...

The "In Her Majesty's Name" (Osprey's forthcoming
Steampunk rules) game (IIRC!)

Detail shot of the IHMN game; this alley is
at the bottom centre of the previous  pic

Other than being VSF, I'm not sure what this game was ...
Wolsung (another steampunk skirmish game) I think ...
it didn't come across as particularly ... 'memorable' unfortunately ...

Or this might have been Wolsung ....

I don't know what this game was either, but it is much
more striking than the previous 2 games; the simple, but very
innovative terrain was very striking

close-up of the swan flying over the building
in the centre right of the above pic

This game really caught my eye just as I was leaving; this was a
Fantasy (not VSF) game by the Ilford club that used homegrown
rules and 'Uncharted Seas' ships - v.v. impressive 

One of the ships from the above game

Dragon ship from same game; in the background
is one of the floating islands that looked very good

Warfare

I  made it along to Warfare on Sunday (just gone) lunchtime with my new friend and had a stroll round the various stands.

I bought far less toys than I would normally have, but as I said in my last post, I am attempting to de-clutter somewhat; so what did I get?

Well, I succumbed to the 10% off offer and bought a copy of 'Empire of the Dead' and the Hansom Cab from Figures in Comfort, who are West Wind's show agents.

Then, as I was leaving, I saw a copy of 'Leviathans' by Catalyst Games, reduced from £70 to £50 and folded on that as well!  I like games involving flying ships as anyone who visits here regularly will know. Although the game includes miniatures, I'll probably use my aeronef models for it.

All in all, I had a great time at the show, but have yet to resume any hobby related stuff in my new place ...

Aeronef Model Conversions

Well, work progresses on the altitude bases - I'll do another post on them later in the week - and more aeronef models have arrived from Brigade Models to use with them.

A couple of the models I've got I'm converting and I thought I'd put a post up on them and one conversion that I've done that I'm changing.

First the Rochefort Class Heavy Merchant. This is a pic of the 'vanilla' model from Brigade that I got from here:

 and this is what I've done with it so far:

The broadside guns are from Brigade's Russian Secondary Gun Mounts pack, the turret at the nose is from the US Single Gun Turret pack. As you can see I've moved the superstructure to the front and using plasticard as the surround am building up a rear deck to be a flight deck. The crane in the pic is going to be mounted there and am toying with the idea of suspending a wingcraft* from it.  The model is going to be a combined carrier/sea-wingcraft tender for my Greek 'nef squadron. I'm pleased with how it's going so far, but need to get a better glue! I've knocked the turret off the nose twice already!

Second is the Ottoman Barbaros Heyreddin Battleship; again a 'vanilla' photo of the model that came from here:

You can't see it in the above pic, but the model has 2 turrets on the underside. They are a bit too close together for the altitude stands I intend to use, so I'm changing the model to have the turrets on top:

There are also some gaps between the superstructure and the dig balloons which I filled with DAS clay. I've also used the clay to create a platform for a turret at the front of the model and lengthened the superstructure with plasticard to add the second turret at the superstructure's rear. I'm liking the way it looks so far.
And finally the conversion I'm changing. The base model was the German Köln Armoured Cruiser, a 'vanilla' pic follows, from here:

In the pic below you see the conversion as was on the left and on the right how I've changed it:

I changed the turrets and added a bit of MDF as a flight deck for wingcraft* but was never really happy with it - it didn't seem long enough and the model wasn't deep enough to be a convincing carrier. With the acquisition of the Rochefort I no longer needed the Koln to be a carrier, so I've removed the 'flight deck' and it will now simply be a cruiser.

*- wingcraft is a term introduced in Nick Hawkins' Full Nef rules;I like it and it seems, IMO, to have a more period feel than 'aeroplane' and 'aircraft'

So, that's it for this post. Already got the next couple of posts lined up - Altitude Bases 3 and Another New Project; until next time ...

Aeronef by Wessex Games - A Review

Well last time, I put up some pics of my Brigade Models' Aeronefs and was asked for a review of the rules, so here goes. Note that, although I do have a paper copy of the rules, all comments in this review are based on the pdf version that can be downloaded from Wargames Vault.

Description
Aeronef is 18 pages long (including the cover), in colour with plenty of colour photos throughout. Of the 18 pages 4 are background/rationale and 2 - without photos - are the basic rules of the game itself, 3 introduce 'Advanced' rules, such as aeroplanes, poison gas, etc.. 4 scenarios, designers' notes and bibliography make up the balance of the page count.

Aeronef defines ships as being in 5 'classes' (1 the biggest and 5 the smallest) and has hull points, gun dice, bomb dice and speed dependent upon that class. Turning and fire arcs use a hexagon shape - the rules stating that models should be based on hexagonal flying stands to enable this.

Movement is handled by writing orders and then each ship, from slowest to fastest does a half move each and then all complete the second half. A ship can fire once per turn at any point in the move using the common 'roll-a-six-to-hit' handful of dice mechanic. The rationale used by Aeronef that 'all vessels are assumed to be armed with a combination of machine guns and quick firing light artillery'. results in all vessels having the same range, same arcs-of-fire and same modification to dice through those arcs.

The advanced rules introduce airships, bombing, aeroplanes, poison gas, how to modify the standard size designs and taking-off and landing of aeronefs.

Personal Opinion

Aeronef is exactly what it claims to be - a set of simple, fast-play rules, although therein lies the problem for me. They are too simple - the lack of an altitude system, IMHO, reduces the game to a naval wargame with strange ships - and is quite poor for that given the lack of armour and gun variations. That said I like the background material and timeline in the rules.

So I guess to sum up, I will not play them again and am not sure if I'm glad I got them!

Another review can be found here (more positive than mine) on Boardgamegeek and a description of the supplement Aeronef Captain's Handbook is there as well

Aeronef

Well as I said in yesterday brief post, I wanted to take advantage of Brigade Models phase 3 of their annual summer sale. So, logically enough, I had to work out what I wanted to get, which meant checking what I already had, so I took some photos of the models at the same time. First up are group shots:

Austro-Hungarian Squadron

Greek Squadron

Italian Squadron

Russian (unpainted!) Squadron, purchased at Salute

Turkish Squadron (incl unpainted reinforcements from Salute)

As you can see, I'm going for an Adriatic/Aegean/Black Sea theatre of operations. All the models above are from Brigade, and all of them are sold as the nationalities I have used them as except the Greek Squadron. That has a German Koln cruiser that I've modified to be a carrier, 2 modified French Le Brouchet frigates and a modified French Formidabile light cruiser.

Now on to photos of the painted squadrons in more detail along with details of what I have ordered for them

For the Austro-Hungarians, rather than get aeroplanes, I've ordered 4 Lussin class Rocket Patrol Nef as small attack craft to beef them up a bit.



I've not ordered any extras for the Greeks. I've got some more fighters to do and intend to put 1 or 2 onto the flight deck of the HHMS (His Hellenic Majesty's Ship) Helle



The Italian squadron is going to get some aeroplanes in the shape of R-22 Seaplane Fighters, Rosatelli BR-88 Bomber and a Rochefort class Heavy Merchant. The Rochefort I'm going to convert (using Russian Secondary Gun Mounts and US Single Gun turrets) to be a seaplane tender for the aeroplanes. I'm hoping it will look great when done and will post again on it as I make progress.

As you can see the Turks already have the most vessels in my collection and once the war balloons and the new battleship are painted I reckon that will be enough - for now anyway! I do have some unpainted Kindjal fighters but no intent to give them an aerial base at present

 

I have to say that I really, really like these models. I think they are fantastic, full of character and very evocative of the period (as much as they can be given that it's fictitious!). Unfortunately, the rules for which these models are made - Aeronef - are, IMHO, too simplistic. Brigade also sell the Iron Stars rules for Edwardian space combat which I have and I intend to create a hybrid of the two for my own use, which I will post on as I develop them.

Regarding terrain: in the pictures I've used my Hexon stuff from Kallistra which I'm very pleased with. Next steps are to make some 'SprueTowns' as inspired by Steve Blease's blog.

Edited: As a footnote, the Austro-Hungarian and Italian colour schemes are based on Brigade's own schemes, but the Greek I created and the Turkish I changed the main colour. Not sure how to do the Russkies atm. The ship names all come from a copy of Janes' Fighting Ships of WW1.