Collecting & painting 'pre-Dreadnought' warships (part 2)

Three months since my first blog on pre-Dreadnought collecting & painting… What are the achievements so far?
My Japanese Navy is build up around 3 pre-Dreadnought battle ships, 2 armoured cruisers, 4 protected cruisers and 10 torpedo boat destroyers. And there are several new ships in the yard… My Russian Navy consists of 7 pre-Dreadnought battle ships, 3 armoured cruisers, 6 protected cruisers, 1 armed merchant cruiser, 5 destroyers and 1 icebreaker. And their yard is also very busy…
        While reading about & collecting participants of the Russian-Japanese naval war of 1904-’05 I got interested as well in the following timeframe in the Mediterranean: the skirmishes between Italy and Türkiye (1911), the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, the skirmishes between Greece and Türkiye (battle of Elli; 1911) and the battles in the Adriatic between the Austrian-Hungary navy and Italy (from 1915 onwards). So many naval clashes! Especially the navy of Austria-Hungary got my attention. They developed and built their own ships, like the Italians. Anyhow, I started to collect them as well..  
        And it was about time to try out a rule system in a Naval Wargame; to figure out if I really liked the Period of pre-Dreadnoughts. So I studied my copy of ‘Broadside & Salvo’ (David Manley; Longface Games) and decided to mimic a Russian break-out of Port Arthur in 1904 with the limited number of ships I had painted so far.

Set up:

The Russian Squadron consisted of a Division of 2 Peresvet battleships (Peresvet & Pobieda), led by the Tsesarevich. The cruiser Division was an armored cruiser (AC) Bayan (4 pipes) and protected cruiser (PC) Askold (5 pipes), supported by 3 torpedo boat destroyers (TBD). The Japanese Squadron (photo) consisted of the battleships Mikasa, Shikishima and Chin Yen. The Japanese cruiser Division consisted of 2 Asama-class armored cruisers (Asana & Tokiwa), supported by 4 TBD.

The ‘Broadside & Salvo’ Rules.

All rules are written down in approx. 20 pages. D6 dice are used and a ruler (in inches). A turn represents 5 minutes of real time; a ship can only fire 1 salvo on 1 target per turn. The suggested ground scale is 500 yds to an inch and the game assumes that at the beginning both sides have each other visual (there is no scout or detection phase). For each ship type (from battleship, armored cruiser, etc. to gunboats and minelayers) there is generic data for attack factor, defense factor, max. gunnery range, cruise and max. speed. There are 6 levels of damage (hit, critical, damage, silenced, crippled and sunk) which can be calculated, based on the result of dice, in combination with some modifiers, attack factor of the attacker and defense factor. You can choose either Gunnery Combat, Torpedo or Mine attacks. There are additional rules on mine laying, mine sweeping, use of smoke screens and night actions (use of searchlights). Although the rules don’t use specific armamant and speed statics of individual ships, there is a system to adapt these generic statistics and take into account older ships (‘obsolete ships’) or brand-new ships (‘superior ships’). So, within the Rules, 2 of the 3 Japanese battleships were considered ‘Superior’; all other ships were ‘standard’. The game also uses ‘Action Points’, which you can use to perform specific tasks with your ships.
A turn consists of the Initiative Phase, Movement Phase, Gunnery Phase, Torpedo Phase, Repair & damage Phase.

Turn 1 (initiative: Japan)

Both Russian Divisions collected quite some action points (AP). The Japanese Battleship Div. collected only 1 AP; their cruiser Div 5 AP's.

Movement Phase: The Russian squadron tried to break out of Port Arthur in line astern, with cruising speed '4 inch'. The Japanese Battle ship Div. accelerated to max speed (costing 1 AP) and the cruiser Div. accelerated to max speed and changed course as well (costing 2 AP's). The Japanese units manoeuvred to prevent the Russian break-out.

Gunnery phase: Japanese battleship Mikasa (on the right in this photo) couldn't reach the Russian battleships with her front double 12-inch turret, as they were at 20-inch distance (max. distance 12-inch guns: 18 inch). Instead she opened fire against the modern armoured cruiser Bayan (left in this photo) at range 15 inch. The geometry of the engagement (only her forward 12-inch turret had a good field of view) is not part of the rules. Anyhow, Mikasa missed. Bayan fired back at Mikasa and damaged her (first level of 'damage'). I assumed only 1 engagement per squadron/per turn was allowed, although later on I realized this limitation was on ship level: 1 engagement/per ship/per turn.

Repair phase: Mikasa couldn't repair her damage because it was only the first level of damage and she had run out of action points... 

Turn 2 (initiative: Japan)

Both battleship Div. collected a limited number of AP's; both cruiser Div. collected only 1 AP each.

Movement Phase: the fast sailing Japanese squadron split up: the fast moving destroyers maneuvered for a torpedo attack towards the Russian battleships, while the Japanese battleships manoeuvred for a gunnery broadside towards the Russian cruiser Div. (at a range of 9 inch). The Japanese cruiser Div. tried to outflank the Russian cruiser Div.  The Russian Squadron proceeded with cruise speed, although their destroyers turned towards the Japanese imminent TBD attack. Which triggered a thought with me: 'how to conduct gunnery between 2 torpedo boat formations?'

Gunnery Phase: anyhow, the Japanese (superior) battleship Shikishima opened fire against the Russian flagship Tsesarovich with her 12-inch guns at a range of 14 inch, scoring one hit (without a damage level). I chose Shikishima this turn, as Mikasa was damaged in turn 1 (and I assumed a negative modifier because of her damage). Tsesarovich returned fire not to Shikishima but to Mikasa, resulting into a hit.

And then I run out of real world time to continue...

Verdict

At an engagement range of 18 inches, skirmishes between fleets can be played at tabletop size. Within 5 to 10 turns the skirmish probably comes to a clear result. This Naval Wargame is a little bit more play than realism because of the generic speeds, lack of shooting geometry and lack of a search & detection phase (although you can use the Campaign feature for this). Although the shooting-, damage- and repair rules are simple, it provides realistic decision challenges for players. Look at this game: although Japanese 12-inch battleships are considered superior, within 2 turns Japan already got 2 hits on her flagship Mikasa. Studying afterwards I found that every 'hit' has only negative effects in the turn it occurred. So the first 'damage' on Mikasa (turn 1) had negative effects on her during the whole game (until rectified) but her 'hit' had only effect in turn 2. 

Together with the options for mine warfare, torpedo attacks and night encounters I reckon I still have lots to learn with these Rules. And I still like the pre-Dreadnought Periode (especially the colorfull ships and the technology leaps during that period)! So carry on with collecting & painting...