Nimitz - Sam Mustafa Wargame Rules .. is it "The One"?

Is it the .. "The One Set of Naval WWII Rules" .. (to rule them all) that I have been waiting for all my wargaming life (pass me my Hood and Rodney and bring out your Bismarck models)? Now I am a man who has collected a few set of naval rules over the years (and that is an understatement of sorts). I am a grizzled fifty plus year old with a large ship collection - some of which are even painted - in various scales. Post my Paul Hague "Sea Battles (in miniature)" adolescent gaming, I was weaned onto General Quarters I (for WWII) and General Quarters II (for the Great War, aka WWI) .. which were very close to very damn, damn good IMHO - bar time consuming for large fleet actions [but don't ask my opinion on General Quarters III as I think it "went the wrong way" counting turrets rather than abstracting firepower and they broke it .. sniff]. Then there were many such as Sea Krieg that had oodles of charts [but killed playability IMHO]. There were the insanely simple ones (from Full Thrust variants to one brain cell rules, akin to Victory at Sea and Victory in the Pacific Avalon Hill board games - and no I am not forgetting AH Jutland). The great David Manly produced some fine sets of Russo-Jap, WWI and WWII (which I bought and meant to really get into .. but time needed and the urge to learn yet another set, while "feeling around" for the native intuition of what the rule writer wanted to convey - left me cold) .. but what I really, really [Spice Girls] want, is to find the sweet spot of a "pick up an play" set of rules which give very reasonable [but not deterministic] historical results - quickly (as in quicker than the historical battle took) .. that lead into extended campaign play, of multiple scenarios - without premature umpire brain death. I am a man who discovered Fletcher Pratt very late in life, thanks to Wargames Developments [Nugget articles] and the History of Wargames Project [collating, then editing, reprinting and selling the rules]. There I see the beautiful analogue ingenuity of the firing mechanisms [hell it is a damn close to the same set of rules used by the professional US Naval War College in their inter-war years re-fights of Jutland and Sable Island [the latter being the hypothetical USN against the RN action], but for all its historical accuracy and fun suffers from the "mass is mostest and bestest" paradigm .. 48,000 tonnes of Hood could take on the 45,000 (or was it 50,000) tonnes of the Bismarck. No critical hits and punctuated equilibrium, but graduated damage. So back to Sam Mustafa's Nimitz (see below, a good book cover with the great man himself looking out over a battle scene with the USN's finest DDs doing battle, with the backdrop of a historical map): 

I went for the Amazon local print option and am currently digesting it. So far and so good, it is really two sets of rules in one - Nimitz for the tactical and Halsey for the campaign, which I like. Watch this space for further details and hopefully an AAR soon ;) 

Naval Book Wish List: Mal Wright

 Author. British and Commonwealth Warships WW2 Camouflage.

http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/British-and-Commonwealth-Warship-Camouflage-of-WW-II/p/6818/

http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/British-and-Commonwealth-Warship-Camouflage-of-WW-II-Vol-2-Hardback/p/10930

http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/British-and-Commonwealth-Warship-Camouflage-of-WW-II-Hardback/p/12168

Imperial Japanese Navy 1932-1945. Warships and Colours. Nimble books.

Colours of the Battle of the Atlantic. 1939-1945. (In preparation)

Journey to the end of the earth. https://www.amazon.com/Journey-End-Earth-Wargames-Frozen/dp/160888006

Rising Storm. https://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=3&sub=6&game=13423

Atlantic Convoy. https://clashofarms.com/Convoy.html

Sighting Alert! Bismark Sighted in Norwegian Waters

Spotted in Norwegian waters by an RAF reconnaissance plane on a routine mission. Two sinister, dark ships in convoy (1/3000 - Navwar Bismark and Prince Eugen).

Concentrating on the larger ship, the question is who is she? Positive identification needed (still at 1/3000).

Spiralling down, cleverly using what cloud cover there is to its maximum advantage and making a pass over her in the opposite direction, in so doing so revealing her as the (1/1200) Bismark:

The Bismarck!!!! (again in 1/1200) The other smaller ship ahead of her being one of the German Hipper class cruisers.

No doubt about it now, she is a murderous looking beast (Revell 1/1200).

You could even start counting the flak guns. Save that for the RNAS Swordfish later on. Time to inform the Admiralty at once and get back to Scotland for a smoked kipper.

And so the deadly chase begins.

The smaller 1/3000 ships are Navwar, the larger Bismark the 1/1200 Revell offering. Painting Note: I have gone for an all over Atlantic grey without the dark black/white markings (which I think were greyed over on her fateful maiden voyage).

Quite a satisfying little modelling project to do. Now I think I should get back into more active naval wargaming mode.

KM Scharnhorst 1/1200

Sitting opposite the KGV's of Scapa Flow biding its time lies the convoy hunter KM Scharnhorst.

Fast (she almost got away from HMS Duke of York, cruisers and destroyers at North Cape), well armoured but her 11" armament is too light to tangle with a true battleship, she is after all still a battlecruiser.

A beautiful ship nevertheless.

Again, painted a while ago now so the paint scheme is lighter than I would have liked it and the Ardo float plane needs some crooses, however no complaints about the model. Revell also produced a 1/1200 her sister the KM Gneisenau, nicely fitted with a second float plane as per her historical difference not just a different box cover.

Footnote: I have a nearly completed 1/700 waterline KM Scharnhorst from Tamiya tucked away in some loft space still calling to me :)

German recon over Scapa Flow: 1/1200 KGV

Following on from the urge to paint something meatier than 1/3000 naval I came across some of my earlier 1/200 Revell efforts. Sitting at anchor in Scapa Flow is HMS King George V (KGV) guarding the convoy routes from attack by heavy units of the KM.

Some daring Luftwaffe recon pilot(s) I am sure was tasked to skim low dodging flak and Spitfires with a good camera to make sure what they saw was not a clever dummy (cf HMS Centurion pretending to be HMS Anson in the Med)

A simple model to make but one dislike I have is the (IMHO) poor job they did with the 14" guns in the turrets (too chunky) compared to the good job they did with the other models in the series.

In retrospect the paint job is also a bit too light grey for my liking and lacking Atlantic weathering and that Walrus needs an attempt at some British roundels!

 
However the KGV class were the mainstay of the Home Fleet and in the thick of it, being in at the kill for both the KM Bismarck and KM Scharnhost (and continually hunting the KM Tirpitz). In this series I also have, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Duke of York, both assembled and under coated ready for a paint job. Although externally different boxes, internally the kits are the same.

Footnote: I also have the Airfix 1/600 KGV, assembled (though not fully glued together as it has to be painted in sections) ready for a good under coat, but that is far too large/daunting  project for me to tackle at present!