More Romans and Goths for Midgard

Somewhere on the Danube frontier, ca. AD 275

It's taken a couple of weeks but I've completed three units for my 3rd century Project for Midgard. I'd meant to paint them in two batches, but got carried away.

First up is a small skirmish unit armed with bows. It took a lot of trial and error to get the fellow drawing the arrow. 

But it is nice you can build a variety of loading, aiming and loosing poses.

Then a unit of warriors. Because you need a lot of warriors for a proper migrating horde of Goths.

I've included an archer in the back to remind players that they have a shooting capability as well. Gothic archery caused a lot of grief for the Romans according to Simon McDowell.

The chief has a bigger shield, from the Roman sprue, because I gave the Roman Signifer a small, round shield from the Gothic sprue. The shield transfer is from Relic Miniatures as well. The rest of  them have painted shields.

I also did a second cohort of legionaries. I suppose they could be auxilia as well, the distinction had pretty much disappeared by this time. But if you look close there are some markings saying "Legio V."

I'm enjoying being able to make the figures less ranked up with the big single stand units. Especially with the Goths. Barbarian troops always look a bit wrong with the neat ranks and files the you get with any conventional basing. This looks much more dynamic.

Note Signifer with small buckler. I had to hand paint the design to match the transfers on the scuta.

While I was flocking them, I added some more flock to the first cohort to eradicate the golf green look that the static grass had given them.

 

The plastic Roman army now has 4 units of warriors (2 Wargames Atlantic and 2 Warlord Auxiliaries) and a unit of artillery (Warlord). The Goths have 6 warriors, 2 skirmishers, and 4 cavalry, plus 7 heroes.

LAUNCH ALL THE TORPEDOES!!! A Big Game of "Snorkers! (Good Oh!)"

I wanted to try and push the boat out a bit with Snorkers (Good Oh!) and see if I could run a bigger, multiplayer game and try some battleships. The book has a scenario for the 1st and 2nd Naval Battles of Guadalcanal fought over two nights between 12 and 15 November 1942. 

For the Second battle, the Americans, all their cruisers having holes in them from the First battle, sent a force of two battleships with every available destroyer to intercept another Japanese attempt to bring some big ships down to shell Henderson field.

The Orders of Battle aren't exact. Historically the US put out a scratch collection of four different destroyers. Essentially anyone fully fueled, undamaged, and ready to sail. The Japanese should have a couple of light crusiers, and the Americans only four destroyers, but both fleets are matched at 668 points. (New points values for ships can be found here.) Although the IJN have a significant Force Morale advantage: 54 to 44.

Top row is the USN force: two battleships (USS Washington and South Dakota) and six Fletcher class destroyers divided into two squadrons. The battleships will operate as independant units.

Middle row: the Kongo class Fast Battleship/Battlecruiser Krishima, two Furutaka class Cruisers Chikuma and Maya, a squadron of three Kagero class destroyers.

Bottom row, two squadrons of 4 destroyers each. One squadron is all Fubukis, and the other has a Kagero and three Fubukis.

The battle is at night, using dummy markers for initial moves. The Japanese players need to get their Bombardment Group consisting of the Krishima, Maya, and Chikuma off the opposite corner to shell Henderson Field.

DesRon 1 detects the Krishima and opens fire, a torpedo hit causes some flooding and significant hull damage.

The IJN heavy cruisers in the back make some long range torpedo attacks sinking two of the destroyers. The third has been reduced to a floating wreck by gunfire.

USS South Dakota moves up and blasts the Krishima with an effective broadside. The Japanese battleship is crippled with multiple flooding markers and three fire markers, and is now just a burning hulk.

IJN Destroyer squadron wheels around the fiery holocaust and launches all of their torpedoes at the South Dakota. She takes three devastating torpedo hits and goes under.

Meanwhile the IJN heavy cruisers are trying to sneak around the American flank through the fog bank. DesRon 2 moves up and launches all 20 torpedoes at the rear ship, since the lead ship is effectively hidden.

The IJNS Maya is blown out of the water by the first spread! The Americans could have saved themselves some ammunition.

The Washington has moved up and take the IJN destoyers under fire. But DDs are a very small target for 16" guns and the Americans divide their fore, aft and secondary batteries between three different targets instead of concentrating on one. The Japanese commander then deftly brings another destroyer squadron wheeling around the burning Krishima and launches every thing he's got. 35 Long Lances slice through the dark waters. They needed everyone of them. The Washington isn't finished off until the final spread got a hit.

And that, as they say, was that. 

A Pyrrhic Victory. 

But for who?

The Japanese certainly score on points; two battleships and four destoyers sunk, the USN Force Morale reduced to 4. The IJN suffering a battleship and a cruiser sunk, so their Force Morale is still at 30.

But the IJN Bombardment Group was crippled. Losing two capital ships that can't be replaced is not a Good Thing. And the objective was to get those ships off the table.

The Japanese destroyer commanders can race back to Rabaul for some sake and boosting, very happy with a good night's work sinking two American battleships and four destroyers with no significant wounds to their destroyer squadrons. The two surviving American destoyers will need a lot of therapy and Admiral Halsey is probably screaming into his phone. The Americans are temporarily vulnerable, but would the Japanese have the resources to exploit it?

The Japanese players certainly used their technical advantages, exploiting the range of the Long Lance. Compared to previous games most of the gunnery and torpedo launches were at longer ranges this time. They also "flooded the zone," taking an aggressive "use it or lose it attitude" and going after the American battleships with devastating salvoes of torpedoes, trusting that eventually enough would hit, and hoping they would survive to reload if necessary. We calculated that we launched over 100 torpedoes during the game!

Of course with fewer targets to concentrate on, the Japanese could afford to swamp the Americans, whereas the American responses to the IJN destroyers were too diffuese to make an effect.

When the Americans did launch torpedoes they were pleased to roll quite well for hits and rolled only 1 dud out of 30 or so launched.

New Project for 2026!

 

I'm enjoying Snorkers! (Good Oh!) so much I've bought stls for Italian and British ships for the Mediterranean. 

A friend is closing up his business selling Osprey books so I was able to scoop some relevant volumes at a heavy discount to begin the requisite background research. 

I'm hoping Don will be bringing me some ships next month at Hot Lead. In the meantime I'll be learning more about Italian and British cruisers than I've ever needed. 

Jungle Tractors

I got these 3d printed tanks before any official Quar tractors were available. They are from the Foxhole videogame. I had them painted for my Crusaders in NATO green, dark grey and khaki camouflage and they appeared in all of two games before the Alitheans arrived.

I had been thinking about painting them in some 1940s French camouflage and using them for a Fidwog army. But I've decided to not build any Fidwog. For now at least. 

I decided that they look kind of like WW2 Japanese tanks so I painted over the previous scheme with some more Japanese style camouflage to issue them to the Japanese styled Gloam-Hyyn.

See? Practically identical.

I used Vallejo 70923 Japanese Uniform for the mustardy yellow, 920 German Uniform green, and 70826 German Camo Medium Brown. All were stippled on with a make up brush.

The tracks and fenders then got dry brushed with craft paint khaki tan.

The distinctive bands of brighter yellowish khaki were apparently to replicate splashes of sunlight breaking through the jungle canopy. But it helps give them a distinctive look.

I'm sure that just like in Burma and Malaya, there will be some open areas for tanks to operate in as the Toulmorese and Gloam-Hyyn fight over the jungly parts of Alwyd.. 

The Toulmorese have some more reinforcements coming, once the next box of 3d printing arrives from Don.

Convoy Action

I had Weirdy-Beardy over last night to introduce him to my new favorite game, Snorkers! (Good Oh!). I wanted something different, so I had the Japanese escorting a convoy of 5 merchant ships. 

The IJN had one Tenyru class CL as flag, and 4x Fubuki and 4x Kagero class DDs, all divided into 3 squadrons. They (meaning me) started at one short end of the table with the objective to get the supply ships to the other side.

The USN got 6x Fletchers in 2 squadrons and a Brooklyn class CL operating as its own squadron. The Brooklyn deployed in the far corner with the destroyers in line ahead on either flank.

I was slowed by the lumbering supply ships. Weirdy-Beardy came on fast at Full Ahead to close the range. The Brooklyn turned to starboard to bring her broadside to bare on the Tenyru, scoring some long range hits.

His starboard destroyer squadron zoomed in to attack the escorts. Torpedoes slashed through the waves. I counter attacked but a heavy swell negated the range advantage of my Long Lance torpedoes and I missed terribly. My leading squadron lost both the Tenyru and a destroyer.

Weirdy-Beardy then started engaging the convoy with the Brooklyn. 6" shells and a spread of torpedoes from a destroyer sinking one supply ship. My escorts began looking for torpedo attacks on the big cruiser. Another transport was reduced to a burning floating wreck by gunfire from the Brooklyn. The convoy turned to port to put their escorts between them and the Americans.

His port side destroyer squadron, which had been hanging out along the far table edge, then made a hard turn and raced through the battle to cross the Japanese path. Meanwhile my port flank squadron did the same, passing behind the burning merchant ship to unleash a devastating attack on the American destroyers punishing my other destroyer squadron. Two Fletchers went under, their hulls split by multiple torpedo hits. I then got a torpedo attack on the Brooklyn from my two surviving destroyers in the center, who launched a total of 7 torpedoes at her. Two struck home and detonated with devasting effect, sinking the cruiser.

Weirdy-Beardy's port side destroyer squadron, now on the starboard flank, now had a clear run at the exposed convoy, launching their remaining torpedoes. The center transport ship was damaged by gunfire, but the other two were rocked by devastating explosions, rolled over and sank.

Climax of the game! The Fetchers fire torpedoes into the convoy, sinking two of them. One supply ship remains, but my surviving escorts are out of position in the back ground of the photo.

As it was getting late, we called it there. We were half way through the second run of the deck, but rolled Force Morale anyway. With their flag gone, the surviving USN units retired, feeling pleased that they had butchered the vital supply convoy, and leaving the lone cargo ship to the mercy of subsequent air attacks. The Japanese pressed on doggedly, anxiously scanning the sky for waves of American dive bombers. So tactically a marginal victory for the USN (loosing the Brooklyn and two destroyers to the Tenyru CL, a Fubuki and a Kagero, plus four out of five cargo ships), but strategically I think a much bigger victory for the Americans.

I was so engaged with playing the game and helping Weirdy-Beardy (I plotted his final attack, because I was closest, to get him good torpedo arcs) that I did not take lots of pictures, like I do when playing solo, when I live post each development to a thread on my Bluesky account. Which is a nice record the next day when I do an AAR for the blog.

As usual some things were forgotten in the excitement, but I don't think the overall outcome was effected.

I should have made smoke to give the convoy more cover.

Squeak!

"Kill the Man-things! Yes yes!"

I now have Skaven. 

I'd been noodling around, kicking tires on the Next Project, now that Quar are winding down, and contemplating Skaven (I was also contemplating 3d printed NSFW Tau and Slaneesh cultists for Xenos Rampant. Maybe later). I've always liked Skaven, even when I didn't care for the rest of the Warhammer scene. They were unique, and always seemed kind of fun. Then seeing what Brett did with Warhammer meeting Midgard last fall put the germ of the idea in my noggin, where it festered.

Scott had bought a couple of Age of Sigmar boxes (the Skaventide set and the Skaven Spearhead box) on blow-out (AoS means "Always on Shelf") to help his local game store and said "Hey you want some Skaven?" So I am now in possession of a ridiculous pile of plastic now. It has been a long time since I've encountered any GW plastics (the High Elves from the Warhammer Fantasy 4th edition starter set back in 1992) and these sprues of clanrats just seem unnecessarily complex to me. Why can't the two body halves be beside each other on the sprue? Granted, the poses are incredibly dynamic, but there's almost too much complexity. I can see why folks in the Warhammer sphere paint on the sprue before assembling.

Being used to Gripping Beast and Wargames Atlantic plastics with just torso and choice of arms  and heads so you can have some variety in how the weapons are positioned, the GW plastics are very fixed. You can only assemble most figure in just one way. With three figures on the clanrat sprue you have the option to make one carrying a banner and the other two musicians, or you can just assemble them as regular sword carriers.

That's it. There isn't any room for conversion work or different weapons.

Drummer 

Fellow on the right can also be swinging a bell I think

Note normal rats at his feet

Of course I made the mistake to assemble the Grey Seer from the Skaven Spearhead box first. Hoo-boy! that was frustrating. No locating pins or slots. Figure assembly as jazz. Parts just kinda sliding around until you kinda felt a vibe.

His staff is supposed to be more upright. But damn me if I could figure that out, and get his head somewhere near where a head should be. 

But I got things to sort of line up in what looks like it makes sense. Maybe.

I'm told the Grey Seer from the Skaventide box will be better. I hope so.

But each sprue of clanrats will give me 2 1/2 units for Midgard, and between the two boxes I've got 3 sprues. So 7 units plus a few extras to fill bases beside the Rat Ogres or artillery.

The Rat Ogres in the Spearhead box are very steam punky with cannons or drills where hands should be, but in the other box at least there is the option to just give the poor tortured beasts choppy implants.

They do look rather tortured and maddened. I feel rather sorry for them.

No wonder he's angry

I'll make each one a unit on it's own and fill the base with swarms of giant rats.

With these 10 Skaven, I think I've now tripled the number of painted Games Workshop figures in my collection.