Jono's world: the Raesharn Navy...

In my last posting I indicated that I was beginning building navies for the belligerent powers. The biggest of these is that of the aggressive, expansionist island nation of Raesharn.

Rather than write a whole bunch of stuff about it all, here are some pics of where we are at so far. About 2/3 of the Raesharn Navy is complete, barring a fair bit of touching up...

Heading posting, the flag battleship of Hideo Sokituya, Admiral of the Red. Here is the same vessel from a dive-bomber's point of view.

A battle squadron steaming through the Straits of Omez. Fortunately the skies are clear of Kiivar aircraft...

Two carriers of the 1st Carrier Squadron. Two more need to be built to complete the squadron. Chances are, though, that the present squadron organisation will be abolished in favour of 'Carrier groups', though nobody has many carriers...

Three cruisers of 4th Cruiser Squadron. The Cruiser Squadrons will each comprise 5 units, rather than the 4 in the heavier squadrons and the destroyer flotillas.

A comparison of the sizes of the Battleship vs Cruiser. Actually the differences aren't apparent, here, on account of the smaller vessel being much closr. The Battleship is 6cm long by 1.5cm in the beam; the Cruiser 5cm by 1cm.

A destroyer leader of 6th flotilla. These were made from what were going to be battleship pieces for a version of the Auckland students' 1970s 'War Game'. Rather than waste them, I narrowed them to about 5-7mm, their length remain at 40mm and modified the crude superstructure. Having made 3 2-gun turrets before, a couple of destroyers kept them (including this one), but most get single-gun turrets, one forward, one aft. Of course, all destroyers count the same...

Having built 4 destroyers, I felt they were a little high-sided, given that the battleship hulls have the same thickness. I left these ones flush decked - the 6th Destroyer Flotilla...

Destroyers of 7th Flotilla. These are split decked... Not sure the improvement is all that marked, really... Here they are sailing in the company of a Raesharn cruiser. The size difference is quite noticeable, here.
Destroyers of 7th Flotilla escorting a convoy of tramp steamers and tankers plying the strait between Raesharn and Omez.
Comparison between Battleship, Cruiser and Destoyer...
Elements of the Raesharn Battlefleet on pre-War manoeuvres: 1st Carrier Squadron, 2nd and 3rd Battle Squadrons, part of 4th Cruiser squadron; all flanked by 6th and 7th Destroyer Flotillas.

The Squadrons and Flotillas are numbered sequentially, beginning with the carriers. It tends to disguise, or inflate, the actual numbers of the smaller craft. I don't really want to make 32 destroyers...

This is all intended to make up Raesharn's as a very large navy. The Kiivar navy, by contrast, suffered steep losses at the outset of the war, and its entire Battlefleet (when I've built them) will comprise a single carrier, a couple of Battleships, 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers. They will also have a number of submarines in operation (as will Raesharn, of course; though the Straits of Omez are dangerous waters, even for submarines.

Meanwhile, Jono has agreed to construct the Sarbian Navy - also smaller than the Raesharn, but, together with the Kiivar, should be able to contest the oceans.

The possibilities of an imaginary world...

It has been a long time since my last posting: we've had another pretty hefty earthquake, which once more sent some of my wargames stuff hurtling floorwards, but fortunately casualties remain pretty light. Last week we had a pretty decent sort of snowfall - a bagatelle for Northern Hemisphere types - but rare enough in Christchurch to be interesting to us. Here's the view of our front yard....

Meanwhile, work is still being done on Jono's World. The thing with an imaginary world developed to the extent Jono has, it allows for all sorts of ways one might handle the campaigns and wars. The 'big figure' forces are being painted and organised; but we have also looked into the campaign as a whole as a board game. Sort of like Axis and Allies, or SPI's Global War of the 1970s.

I am reminded, however, of a delightful invention by a bunch of students in Auckland in about 1972. The 5ft by 5ft playing board was made from a soft wood-based product called Pinex, painted blue, and divided into 1-inch squares. Upon this, a couple of continental land masses and a couple of large islands formed the world. The whole thing was so large it had to be transported by trailer.

This world was the political arena for the aggrandizement of 6 warring nations: America (White), Britain (Blue), Germany (Grey), Japan (Yellow), Russia (Red) and New Zealand (Green). The colours were those of the playing pieces for each nation. These were not bits of card, but representations of each item: an Army, Naval and Air Base for the three services; aircraft (bombers, fighters and air transport); warships (Battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers and submarines); army units (Tanks, infantry, AA). You also had a merchant marine, which served a special function.

The appearance of this thing, called by its makers simply The War Game in midgame had to be seen to be appreciated. The units were made from wood, cardboard, matchstick, wire - whatever was easy to work with. For instance, bombers were all 4-engined, the fuselage being an unignited matchstick (the bulbous head, painted a contrasting colour looked like the perspex front turret/cockpit arrangement; a wing with two match heads (painted black) on each side; and the twin rudder tailplane, like that of a Lancaster bomber, finished the thing off. The whole was pierced with a pin with the appropriate coloured bead, which could be poked into the pinex board by way of a stand.

For all its magnificent appearance, though, at the time I played the game (once or twice) the thing did need a fair bit of development work. The sole provision for growth lay in the merchant marine, but lack of reciprocity tended to stymie their real potential. The handling of aircraft needed a look as well. All the same, it was a mighty conception, and even 40 years later, I recall it with a certain wistfulness.

It with the view that the game was viable that set me to thinking of creating my own, a project that proceeded very slowly until brought to a halt, pretty much, by Axis and Allies. But the advent of Jono's world has revived the whole project. As were were building land forces already, I bethought me of some toys I bought 'on spec' several zillion years ago. Under the brand name 'Mighty Armada' there were several battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines, along with merchant vessels as well. But what made these things so interesting was the addition of seaport facilities, with docks, cargo sheds, fuel storage tanks and cargo-handling cranes; breakwaters and moles to create a snug harbour; and tugboats to bring vessels safely to their moorings. An example of one of the battleships - recognisable as Bismarck - heads this posting. I've added the white paint here and there, as well as the masts.

But I also wanted playing pieces for a board game. These were to be slightly more elaborate than the ones I had had in mind for my version of The War Game, and the result (unpainted), is what you see here.
More than somewhat 'cartooned', what you see is a battleship: 6cm long by 1.5 wide. Cruisers will be 5cm; destroyers 4cm.

To be continued...