Chromatic Chronicles - Another Naval Project

 One of the reasons for the Roman Civil War taking so long to play through and write up had to do with other projects I had going. One of them was the Chromatic Wars, so called because the warring nations were named after colours. Long term readers might recall from late 2020, the outbreak of the First Blacklands War, as newly created nations sought to expand their territories at the expense of the Settee Empire, more generally known as Turcowaz (TURQUOISE).

That campaign had a tendency to grow as one of the nations, Hellenica, had built a navy (based upon the Greek), in order to blockade the Empire by sea. A link to the whole narrative may be found at the top of the column to the right.

The nations Chervenia and Rhumbaba have both acquired very small navies since then, in preparation for the Second Blacklands War.

In the last few days I have resumed the ship building programme that is the subject of the following pictures.

Of the six vessels shown above, all except the two bottom left were made in the last four or five days. The two on the bottom left were inspired by Bob Cordery's articles on flatiron gunboats.  

'Flatiron' gunboats. Modeled on real ones, but 
I can't identify them! I lost my notes.

Compared with the other vessels these are somewhat overscale! I made them a couple of years back. They are based on real examples of the flatiron type, but I find I can not identify them! I think they were British.

HMS Victoria - yes, the one carrying Adm. Tryon's flag.
Ruberian Navy (RED).

All these vessels were built in what I call my 'Chubby Marine' style (the appellation a nod towards the Fujimi 'Chibi Maru' models of IJN ships of WW2). The ships (apart form the Flatiron types) are very roughly scaled at 1:1200 in length, and 1:600 in the beam.

HMS Thunderer - Ruberian Navy

Thunderer comes out as a very small vessel in this scale - just 8cm long. Its sole armament comprises the four early 12" guns; there is no secondary armament.

IZNS Tsarina Ekaterina II - Navy of Izumrud -Zeleniya
(GREEN)

I saw a really nice picture of this vessel and was struck by how elegant it looked. The main guns are barbette mounted. Now, while it is clear that the secondary armament can not shoot across the centre line projection forward or aft, one has to ask, to what extent the main forward guns can. Clearly the secondary armament forward and aft shooting effectiveness must be half the 'broadside'. What about the effectiveness of the main guns firing forward?

Now, my own variant of Bob Cordery's Portable Naval Wargames rules uses his gunnery stats, but, instead of standardising on ship type as he does, I have standardised on 4 guns of each of the listed types. This does complicate matters, requiring special stat lists, but I like the results (as seen in the Blacklands War naval actions).

Now, HMS Victoria (this vessel will probably receive a different name) had huge16.25" guns in its (fatally) massive gun turret. I gather they were installed in lieu of 13.5" guns that were unavailable at the time of commissioning. So let's for the sake of this article, pretend they are the equivalent of the most powerful ordnance in the 'pre-dreadnought' list: the 'modern' 11 or 12-inch guns.

The gun range is 8 hexes; the standard effect 9D6, reducing by 1 for each hex added to the adjacent for range. At 8 hexes range, the effect is down to 2D6. But the 9D6s go for 4 guns; Victoria has 2 only, firing forward or in broadside. So its effect must be halved: 5D6s, reducing to 1D6 at 8 hexes range.

What about the 'Y' turret at the stern? It houses a single 10-inch gun. 
The standard 4-gun shoot has a range of 6 hexes, with 7D6 at 1hex range. As Victoria has but one such gun, it rolls just 2D6 at 1 hex range, reducing to 1D6 at 3 to 6 hexes. 

For this vessel, the stern gun I count as a primary. This vessel's secondary 6-inch guns in broadside casemates shoot at the standard rate. Strictly speaking it should be allowed a 50% extra, but I'll stay with the four guns per side of the model, rather than the historical 6. These guns fire abeam only.

Work in progress: HMS Royal Sovereign (RED)

I admit to taking considerable licence with this ship. Of the eight Royal Sovereigns built, only one, HMS Hood, had turreted main guns. At that, those turrets were cake-tin shaped, rather than the shape I gave them here. The secondary turrets - far more substantial that the barbette emplacements - have been placed slightly nearer the ends of the vessel. Begun today, it now awaits its paint work.

4x13.5" main guns; 10x6" secondaries.

I will have to add in 'Modern' 13.5" guns to the pre-dreadnought ordnance list, for the vessels of my fleet that carry them. This will make Royal Sovereign a very powerful vessel, the main guns reaching out to 10 hexes. An alternative (quite an arbitrary one) is to go with the stats for the 'modern' 12" guns listed in the Portable Dreadnought game. The extra 3 dice at all ranges in broadside would be bad enough at the incoming end...

More pics of the whole group...

If anyone can help me identify what my flatiron gunboats most resemble. I'm fairly sure they aren't monitors...