In my previous post And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part One I summarised the action in game one set in the North Atlantic, and I also covered the forces being deployed for game 2, which was set in the pacific at night. You can see the detail of the 2 fleets in part one, but in summary the Imperial Japanese Navy had 1 (dreadnought era) Battleship and 3 Cruisers (2 heavy & 1 light) versus the United States Navy’s 1 (modern) Battleship and 2 heavy Cruisers (1 USN & 1 Australian). So in the Solomons, somewhere around Guadalcanal, at night, the IJN had the advantage as the forces approached each other…
Continue reading “And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part Two”Category: Pacific/Far East 1941-45
And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part One
Well it’s been over 10 months since I posted “NIMITZ: A New Take On WW2 Fleet Action” so its taken a while to finally get around to getting some game time on the table! However I’ve been looking forward to having a crack and finally managed it this week, with a couple of buddies from the local wargaming scene. So here’s a brief run down of the 2 games we got in and a few related thoughts…
Continue reading “And We’re Off! Nimitz On Table Action, At Last: Part One”Rethinking Japanese HMGs in Crossfire
I’ve thought about the Japanese HMG representation in Crossfire for many years. Specifically why did Arty & Rob decide to make them fire with only 3D? Here’s my latest thoughts and a proposed revision…
Continue reading “Rethinking Japanese HMGs in Crossfire”NIMITZ: A New Take On WW2 Fleet Action
It’s great to see Sam Mustafa’s latest ruleset “NIMITZ” come out – it’s Sam’s take on WW2 Naval Fleet Action. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this released – Sam always has a fresh approach to rules writing that I enjoy and I find usually gets a good balance between playability & fun, and realistic outcomes (i.e. is this how you’d expect such and such an encounter to turn out) with minimal gamey tactics, etc. An expansive campaign system, Halsey, is also included that can incorporate as many players as desired.
Continue reading “NIMITZ: A New Take On WW2 Fleet Action”Blindés de Combat Magazine
Back in 2010-2013 I was talking about the Combat Tank Collection series (of 121 different models), and subsequently Altaya released a second magazine series Blindés de Combat which featured another 62 models, and a much greater variety of non-tank military models in 1/72 scale.
Continue reading “Blindés de Combat Magazine”The Confusion of British 2pdr & 6pdr HE in WW2
Over the years there has been a lot of confusion around British HE for 2pdr and 6pdr guns – especially in the early part of the war. e.g. The 2pdr didn’t have HE, yes it did originally in 1940 but they stopped making it, no it didn’t, yes it did and they even had 11,000 rounds of it siting in storage at the outbreak of World War II – they just never issued it to the troops! Anyway I thought it might be useful (for my sanity and anybody else’s) to collate the facts as known (at least as I now know them), given a lot more information has come to light in the last 10-15 years on the subject. This was partly sparked by a recent YouTube video I watched (on the Matilda) that quoted quite inaccurately the claim that the British had 2pdr HE (in storage in 1939-1941) and never issued it, either through incompetence or criminal negligence!
Continue reading “The Confusion of British 2pdr & 6pdr HE in WW2”US Marines in Crossfire 1942-43
Quite some time ago I developed a US Marine force for Pacific Theatre operations, especially for my favourite campaign (Guadalcanal & the Solomon Islands) but also designed to cover the subsequent campaigns through 1943 to early 1944 (e.g. Gilbert and Marshal Islands). This covers the period of the “D” and “E” organisations of the US Marine Divisions & Regiments, primarily the first three Marine Divisions. The next restructure “F” occurred in May 1944 prior to the Marianna & Palau, and Philippine, Campaigns which all kicked off around June-July 1944. So this is my take on US Marines for Crossfire for the first 18 months these divisions existed and the initial campaigns to ‘retake the pacific’…
Continue reading “US Marines in Crossfire 1942-43”Pacific Theatre Reading List
Back in late March 2020 New Zealand went into it’s initial (ultimately 5-week) lockdown to stop the spread of the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of that lockdown I took the opportunity to try and catch up on some reading on the pacific theatre (as I have accumulated a reasonable collection of books and had read only a few) – this is the reading list I put together for April 2020…
Continue reading “Pacific Theatre Reading List”USS Hornet: Mutiny & Mayhem at Midway
The traditional history of the battle of Midway briefly covers the USS Hornet’s Torpedo Bomber attack and then dismisses the remainder of the air group as flying too far south and missing the Japanese carriers, but the truth is quite a bit different! In fact the air group was a dysfunctional formation, led by a poor performing commander that went on a ‘flight to nowhere’ that resulted in actions that amounted to mutiny, the loss of numerous aircraft without seeing action, and the near-suicidal lone attack by the torpedo bomber squadron from the group.
Continue reading “USS Hornet: Mutiny & Mayhem at Midway”D-Day New Guinea
“Java is heaven, Burma is hell, but you never come back alive from New Guinea” – Japanese military saying…
This book covers a little known and possibly not well documented portion of the Papua-New Guinea campaigns of World War II. While the desperate battles for Papua and the Kokoda Track are well documented, and MacArthur’s focus on getting to the Philippines as fast as, and by any means possible is well known, the (primarily) Australian led capture of Lae in New Guinea is not so well documented and perhaps under-rated – along with the privations the Japanese troops suffered in their eventual retreats over the mountains that equal (and perhaps exceed) those of the Kokoda campaign.
Continue reading “D-Day New Guinea”How Not To Play Crossfire Video
Following on from the “Operation Crossfire: Smoke & Close Combat” video is yet another useful introductory video by Nikolas Lloyd, covering How Not To Play Crossfire! This gives a quick introduction to what not to do tactically when playing Crossfire – the rules do not introduce artificial constraints such as arbitrary ranges, so you have to use real-life tactics to be successful… Continue reading “How Not To Play Crossfire Video”
Crossfire Smoke & Close Combat Video
Following on from the “Crossfire: Movement & Reaction” video is another good introductory video by Nikolas Lloyd, covering Smoke and Close Combat in Crossfire. This gives a great quick introduction to basic infantry movement and reactive fire in Crossfire. Continue reading “Crossfire Smoke & Close Combat Video”