Facebook Group: Wargamers
User: Lou Coatney, Oslo, Norway
July 17, 2014
Well, for the first time I went to the Wednesday night miniatures and board games get-together at the big Outland game store in downtown Oslo, right near the Parliament building. I have been over here 5 years and have never been in it!
First, the store is BIG with emphasis on fantasy and roleplaying games and books and on boardgames of all kinds generally. The assembly toy giant Lego recently started Lego games, and Outland has a very large Lego section, including the ability to buy "bulk" quantities of general pieces ... like long white pieces for walls, etc.
There are also stuffed animals and creative toys, and the place was full of families.
The meeting room is downstairs. It is long and sufficiently wide so that good-sized gaming tables stick out along both sides.
I was at Outland, because Endre Fodstad had answered my inquiry on the local 2d6 - two 6-sided dice, you see - Internet forum about whether there were ANY naval wargamers in Norway, and we had planned to get together at 3 PM for a naval miniatures wargame of the historical Battle of Denmark Straits - German superbattleship Bismarck (and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen) vs. untried/unfinished Royal Navy battleship Prince of Wales and "good old" battle cruiser Hood (which, to the world's shock, blew up and sank during the battle. See also the classic film Sink the Bismarck! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFWwPYB74ac (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFWwPYB74ac) starting at 34:00 for one of the finest (large model) ship blowup scenes in cinematographic history. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-atl/batlt-41/bismk-c3.htm (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-atl/batlt-41/bismk-c3.htm) has actual photos.)
I had things all set up when Endre appeared, and he brought out a large, perfectly-sized blue-painted seascape board we set on our table.
For our game, we used the relatively fast, simple Naval Action game rules I've authored. Endre chose to be the British, and we started off. My objective was to get Bismarck (or at least Prinz Eugen) past them (out into the Atlantic to go convoy-raiding). Endre's was to stop me or at least cause significant damage that would enable other pursuing Royal Navy ships to sink mine or curtail their raiding.
So we started off at maximum range. Because of the chronic malfunctioning of the King George Class battleships' longrange 14" guns, I have KGV-class battleships like Prince of Wales first roll 2 or 1 dice (depending on whether or not both bow and stern batteries were clear to fire), to see how many guns are actually functioning per turn's gunfire phase.
Hood's armor was well-known to be weak - I have, from eBay a 1940 German Luftwaffe ship identification book which actually says that - and presumably because of its larger and more dangerous 15" guns, Bismarck historically fired on Hood first before Prince of Wales. (I have read that Admiral Holland (who died with Hood) had planned to have PoW with its tougher armor in the lead, but things didn't work out that way because of the angles of encounter.)
In any case, I told Endre that I would be firing on the nearest ship first, and he wisely had Prince of Wales slightly leading Hood.
Against the odds, I (typically) managed to roll one white-die 6 - Automatic Miss - after another, while - even with PoW's malfunctioning guns and relatively small-(7, in the game )caliber shells (against Bismarck's 9-factor superbattleship armor) he managed to score a penetrating, Damaging hit! This went on, until ... although I scored some damage in return ... both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were very unhistorically sunk!
Not just because he won ... ... Endre seemed impressed by Naval Action's speed and ease of play and urged others nearby to try the game out, so Nima and Ferdinand agreed to try it out. (I sensed some hesitation. Some naval miniatures game systems are VERY complex and slow to play - 3 minutes of real/historical time taking 30 minutes of playtime, in some cases - which can be a permanently discouraging experience. I once had the same experience and decided there had to be (made) something better.)
In our game, Nima took Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, while Ferdinand - even knowing Prince of Wales' problem with its guns - took PoW, and I took Hood.
Nima angled Prinz Eugen to the SSE and Bismark to the SSW, and we accordingly separated - me with Hood angling toward Bismarck, and Ferdinand squaring off with Bismarck.
Initially, Nima had both Bismarck and then PE shooting at PoW, while - once I was finally within range - I had Hood firing at Bismarck ... and rolling one Automatic Miss white-die 6 after another ... of course.
At one point, Bismarck had Prince of Wales Heavily Damaged, but Good British damage control recovered PoW to just Damaged condition, and Ferdinand then switched its fire to now-closer Prinz Eugen, soon scoring heavy damage on that, with the disparity between PoW's 7-caliber guns and PE's 5-strength (heavy cruiser) armor.
I think reluctant to suffer the -2 on the die roll penalty for shifting fire to acquire a new target - and thanks to my 6-rolling inability to score ANY hits, Nima was ignoring my Hood, until H had closed within 1/3 range (10,000 yds)! ... at which time I FINALLY scored a hit, and it penetrated to cause Damage.
Then came Damage Control, and on a 1/6 chance, Bismarck's damage *worsened* to Heavy Damage!
(In the game, as much for play balance as history, I had the British having Good and the Germans Poor damage control, but I now wonder if by May 1941 German damage control had improved over what it had been in Norway in 1940. Maybe I should ask David Manley, Britain's pre-eminent naval wargamer.)
Even at such close range, Heavily Damaged Bismarck could not score a retaliatory hit on Hood (which could have blown Hood right out of the water at that range), and Hood finished Bismarck off, while Ferdinand's Prince of Wales finished off Prinz Eugen for another unhistorical (and against-the-odds) British victory.
Although his Germans had lost, to my happy surprise Nima was *really* enthusiastic about playing another naval miniatures game sometime, as was Ferdinand, with maybe a few more ships and players. So I think I may now alternate going to meetings - Ares for boardgames and Outland for naval miniatures.
However, Endre told me that even at Ares I should get the ships out so that people might try out a game and like it too. He also gave me a few names of others who might be interested. (Fred Forde was one of the names, and I was able to tell Endre that Fred and I are already good wargame opponents and friends.)
For my wargaming interests - both for boardgaming and naval miniatures - I am finding myself to be in an ideal situation, here in Oslo (Norway)!
Not only is this inspiration to continue naval wargaming: I have GOT to get back to finishing my books of cardstock paper model World War 2 warship designs!