Battle of the River Plate

 For this weeks game we went round to Nigel's house where he hosted a game of General Quarters, replaying the battle of the River Plate. It should be noted here that Nigel has hundreds of 1/3000th scale battleships from WW1 up to modern times; all labelled and on nicely textured bases. It was a little ironic to then only use 5 of them in our first game but they proved to be enough. . 

With Nigel acting as the rules master for this game he took on the role of the Admiral Graf Spee with Phil commanding our force aboard the HMS Cumberland. I was in control of HMS Achilles and Ian was commanding HMS Exeter and HMS Ajax. We were also using Nigel's new sea cloth, a terrific bit of kit. 

Phil's HMS Cumberland took damage from the Graf Spee in turn one... 

...as did one of Ian's ships. 

Meanwhile our shots landed all around the Graf Spee but without any direct hits... 

...and we missed again on turn 2. 

The Exeter, Ajax and Achilles start to land broadsides on the Graf Spee, 

finally causing some damage. 

Ian plotting some torpedo fire-he missed!

After a few more rounds of distance firing the British Fleet although badly damaged them selves; managed to cause enough damage on the Graf Spee to prevent it from escaping and so Nigel gracefully conceded defeat. The Graf Spee had better weapons and armour but the British had superior numbers which finally took their toll on the Graf Spee. 

The rules give a good game although they took a few turns to get used too. We also only scraped the surface of what the rules can cover as we missed out things such as mines, aircraft and therefore anti aircraft fire etc... .  I foresee some great games ahead.  

Finally, a few photo's of recently painted figures. First up I am now over 500 points of 10mm Riders of Rohan using the Copplestone figures. 

I have also been painting up some of the new Wiglaf miniatures for the Early Dark Ages (or Early Medieval period). Designed by Dan Mersey and sculpted by Mark Copplestone these are their Early Saxons which I am painting up as King Oswald's Northumbrians. These are super figures, authentically detailed and the open hands take the wire spears very well. 

 

First Shieldwall unit...

...add a few skirmishers...

...and compare for size against some of the Forged In Battle Vikings I have painted recently. 

They seem a decent size match to me (and yes I know the Vikings came a couple of hundred years later than when these Saxons were designed for).