First Marnon War - Concluded

 As the first week of fighting drew to a close, reinforcements came in, both sides coincidentally having 6 CU available.  Ruberia was able completely to recoup its losses, 4 new Rifle Divisions and a Cavalry being raised.  Less fortunate, Azuria raised a couple of Rifle Divisions, a Cavalry and a badly needed artillery train.
The question then arose: where ought these reinforcements be placed?  I decided they ought to go into a town, and move up to their corps.  This was not a good decision.  They should simply have been placed where wanted, but perhaps with some limitation upon how many per map space, and/or how many troops a map space could hold.

But Azuria was luckier in its roll for the initiative, though, as it happened, only two moves or attacks could be mounted.  With no sensible attacking options available, they contented themselves with moving II Corps up into Dread Moor, and pulling the remnants of III Corps back from Flintshire into Windfor, closer to the besieged town of Cinqueville.   As the turn passed to Ruberia, their anticipation of a multi-pronged attack was rudely disappointed by rolling a 1 for their move/attack allowance.  The weather must have been bad during the week, with only the one battle being fought.

The addition of an extra artillery train in Sixbourg having made the place too strong for a single Corps to overcome, 2nd Corps was given the task once again to strike into Dread Moor.  A Rifle and Cavalry Division with artillery support and ably led (well, a leader was present) gave the Ruberian seven dice to roll ( +1 [rifle] +1 [cavalry] +2 [artillery] +3 [leader, all three arms present] = 7).  The roll was reasonable: an Azurian Rifle Division destroyed.


The weaker  Azurian V Corps did rather better with its 5-dice allocation.  Having just 2 rifle Divisions (+2)  plus a Cavalry (+1) with no artillery support, its commander could add just two for the two arms present (+2).  The Azurians gave their assailants a mauling, and the Ruberians remained in the forests of North Hemp, minus their artillery train.



So the second week ended with little change, Ruberia losing an artillery train, and Azuria a rifle division only.  The question of reinforcements became rather tricky, there being no spares to supply them.  A roll of 5 (on 2xd6) would have recouped all Azuria's war losses (they rolled an 8 in fact); any roll at all supplied Ruberia's wants.  For the sake of bringing the war to a speedy close, I decided to waive the reinforcement rule for the time being.  After a couple more weeks of some desultory action in the north, and rather fiercer battles in the south (including 3rd Ruberian Corps attempted storm of Cinqueville), the respective forces found themselves placed as in the following map.

 Ruberia's main offensive in the south with three Army Corps had been bloodily repulsed, and all three driven well back from the border.  First and 2nd Corps had just one rifle division between them, a sorry remnant (I think I'll enact a rule that only one leader is allowed per space, though, with a 2 space movement allowance, they can pass through a space containing a leader).  Third Corps, though in much better case, was still a mere shadow of its former strength.  But the Azurian III, IV, and V Corps had all taken heavy knocks in defence of their borderlands.  IV Corps had barely managed to remain in Cinqueville at all.

At this point both sides agreed to an armistice.  Reluctant to give up the one significant gain either side had achieved, Azuria was talked into relinquishing hold of Fourborough only by the presence of Ruberian troops occupying most of the Crystal Mountain region and handily placed to strike at Cinqueville.  Brought thus grudgingly to the negotiating table, the Azuria Governor of Marnon somewhat bad-temperedly dashed off his signature to the reversion to status quo ante bellum.

OK, then.  What to make of this?  A number of small issues cropped up:
1.  Attrition.  In commenting upon Bob Cordery's account of his own little campaign, I enquired about both sides rolling simultaneously as attacker and defender, instead of only the attacker rolling.  We agreed that the attrition rate would be much faster, and it is, but it was not such as to cause an overall depreciation of armed forces' strength given 2xD6 'points value' reinforcement at the end of each turn (week).  Mind you, as I was not using the Memoir '44 dice, there was a small difference in combat outcomes, as infantry under 'my' system were lost at just half the rate they would have been (Double-4 and double-5, 5-4s did not count for losses; c.f. two infantry symbols on each of the M44 dice).

2. Reinforcement/replacement.  Clearly 2xd6 each turn is too much.  However, I have not included any provision for the loss and/or replacement of leaders.  All sorts of ideas spring to mind here, up to and including the taking and exchange of prisoners of war.  Further, there is the question of where they may be placed, and what, if any, restrictions may be placed upon this, and upon the the number of elements per map space.

3. The Eagle Games Miniatures box came with some interesting other items that looked as though they ought to be recruited into use:
3A - Explorers and Engineers/Surveyors.  The latter I had already decided could perform a military function by assisting in the assault of fortified places (towns).  But they might well be employed in creating fortifications, or bridging otherwise impassible waterways.  On Marnon, the great River Amnon is crossable west of Haven only at the bridges.  An attack from Sheep Meade to Heatherlawn is not feasible unless an engineer(bridging) train is present.  As for the explorer figures, I haven't thought of a function for them yet.  Mineral/water/oil prospector seems to me a possibility.

An Azurian squadron brings
 a smaller Ruberian  force to bay.
First blood to Ruberia, as an Azurian warship is sunk.

3B - Naval squadrons, each of 6 pre-dreadnought warships.  I had worked out an ultra-simple set of rules for these rather similar to the land battles, in that they are decided by dice, but different in that they are - or may be - fought to a finish in one go.

Vengeance is swift!
A salvo sinks a Ruberian battleship.

Now Azuria has the upper hand.
A Ruberian warship had just one turret left in action.

The damaged Ruberian
warship is finished off...

Blooey!  The last Ruberian warship sinks under a barrage of shellfire.

 3C - Infrastructural symbols: sea ports, factories, churches (or educational facilities); steam locomotives (which implies rail transportation and hence speedy troop movements!);  walled and fortified towns.  I used the 'fortified' symbol to indicate fortified towns in the First Marnon War (Fourborough, Cinqueville, and Sixbourg).

There are limited numbers of each of these, and as I don't want particularly to add to them, I'll have to think of sensible ways of employing them.  There are 6 locomotives.  If they were to represent stations or terminals then small representations of track will suffice for a rail infrastructure.  Here is another use for the surveyor/engineer figures, and maybe for the explorers as well.

Some food for thought, here!

The First Marnon War (1869)

Open warfare began in the morning of 1st April, 1869, with the blue hordes of Azuria striking across the border in four places.  Of the five Army Corps, only IV Corps remained inactive, strongly garrisoning the vulnerable though heavily fortified town of Cinqueville, lying between the border and the shores of the inland Sea of Marnon.

The attack upon the desert town of Monoton by I Corps proved an abject failure, handily repulsed by the exiguous garrison (see previous posting).

 But the successful storming of Fourborough by II Corps was an early success that encouraged the Azurian forces.  Destroying the infantry division defending, the attackers forced the surviving artillery to retreat into Portston Moor, where it joined the Ruberian 5th Corps.  (Unfortunately the defenders should have got 7 dice, not 6.  I simply miscounted.  All the same, the loss inflicted upon II Corps of 1 infantry division meant the Azurian victory came at some cost.  As it transpired, this was not the last mistake I made.  However, I will continue the narrative, as we still get something of the feel for this kind of thing).

The fortuitous addition of an artillery train to its strength was a boon to 5th Corps, about to face the onslaught of the powerful III Azurian Corps surging out from  Haven.  Even so the ratio of strength was 3 to 2 (I miscounted again, thinking III Corps had 2 cavalry, so Azuria -again - got the benefit of my inability to count beyond one or two).  Having only one infantry division present, 5th Corps' losses were contained, but a cavalry unit also fell back westward into Heatherlawn.  For their part, the Azurians lost their artillery - a serious diminution of their strength.  It's invasion of Portston Moor a failure, III Corps remained in the Crystal Mountains.

Azuria mounted just one attack in the south, where three Ruberian Corps were concentrated.  This was intended as a spoiling attack, in the hope of taking the pressure off the fortified town of Sixbourg.

The V Corps attack was spectacularly successful in that the opposing 2nd Corps was forced - minus one of its infantry divisions destroyed in the battle - to retreat into Marls Gate, deep in the Misty Forest.  But the Ruberian defenders had fought stoutly enough to cause V Corps in turn to come pouring back out of the North Hemp, across Dread Moor and into Dragon Head.  Despite this ignominious retreat, Azuria could count the North Hemp battle as a strategic victory: one half of the Ruberian pincers aimed at Sixbourg had been thrown back.

The initiative now passed to the Ruberians (Side B), who, like the Azurians at the beginning of this turn, rolled a 4 for allowed moves and attacks.

 First off, 2nd Corps reoccupied North Hemp, from which they had recently been evicted.  Meanwhile, 1st Corps launched its lone assault upon the Sixbourg.  That the place was fortified put the odds somewhat in the defenders' favour, yet there remained a reasonable chance that even unaided the Ruberian attackers could take the place (e.g. a triple 6, or any combination of double-1, double-4, double-5 and double-6 would have taken the garrison out of the place.  Mind you, with just the 5 dice available, that's a tall order.).  Unfortunately, for the cost of one of its infantry divisions, the attack failed miserably.

 This was not a good augury for the rest of Ruberia's campaign.  Deciding for the moment that Cinqueville was too strongly held, 3rd Corps marched over the passes into the upper Haven valley, an attack intended to coordinate with a 5th Corps attack into Haven from the lower end.  Thus caught in a pincers, III Corps put up a tremendous resistance, the battle proving the bloodiest and most decisive of the campaign.  The attack by 3rd Corps inflicted losses amounting to 3 infantry and 1 cavalry division, and forced its survivors into a retreat across the mountain range into Flintshire.  But III Corps mauled their opponents badly before giving way: 3rd Corps admitting the loss of an infantry and a cavalry division, and a third - rifle - division falling back into Marls' Gate.  (The sapient reader will have observed that I had forgotten my about cavalry not being counted in fights in mountains, except insofar as they count as an extra arm if a leader is present.  So the Ruberian 3rd Corps should have got 9 dice only; the Azurian III Corps 6 dice.  Never mind.  I may rescind this rule - already provisional anyway.  But a question does arise with one-two attacks like this.  Should all forces roll at once, or should each be resolved separately, the defenders getting to roll against the second attack with the survivors from the first?  For this action I had intended the latter option)

 The hasty retreat by III Corps meant that the 5th Corps' blow fell upon empty air.  Nevertheless, they poured into the Haven, whilst 3rd Corps remained in Pembroke, menacing Cinqueville.   There was precious little left of the once powerful III Corps - a single infantry division with its leader.

 As the first week of hostilities drew to a close, both sides could count the gains and the costs.  Azuria had scored an undoubted success in taking Fourborough.  There seemed little prospect of the town being retaken any time soon.  For the rest, the only really decisive action had been the Ruberian victory in Haven, that had decimated III Corps.

The losses in Horse (1 Division) and Foot (4 Divisions) had been equal, but Azuria had also lost two artillery trains.  When it was learned what reinforcements they could expect, Ruberia was pleased to discover it could recover all its losses (rolling 4+2=6); but Azuria (rolling 5+1=6 also) was much less delighted.  A net loss of 4 CU was not to be sneezed at.  

I am a bit uneasy about the reinforcement rule, for reasons that emerged later in the war.  But we'll visit this issue next time.

To be continued: The First Marnon War, Week (Turn) 2. 

War on Marnon...

 The colonial rivalry between Ruberia and Azuria upon the Island of Marnon came to a head when each began to find the other imposing a limit upon their further expansion.    Negotiations failed to shift either side from giving up an inch of the territory they held, despite awkward border anomalies: the respective salients in the north (Fourborough was almost surrounded by Azurian territory) and the Azurians with only the city of Cinqville linking north and south west of the Sea of Marnon.  Talks led to argument; argument to threats; threats to ultimata; after which both sides began hastily to mobilize.  At last, on 1st April 1869, the Azurian army surged across the border into Ruberian territory.

After a recent trade of surplus stuff, I recently found myself in possession of a bunch of figures and symbolic tokens from the old "War: Age of Imperialism" - an Eagle Games supplement for their figures and board game.  Brian (A fist full of plastic) thought they might go with my 19th century Azuria/Ruberia wars.  I thought the figures a bit on the small side, and yet they might  still come in handy.  Bethinking myself of a post several weeks ago by Bob Cordery in his Wargames Miscellany, could the map warfare be adapted to horse, foot and guns?

Ruberian (Red) and Azurian (Blue) armies mobilising along the border.

About to draw up a map from scratch, I recalled suddenly the map board for the old Wizard's Quest game (one of the few board games that I ever really fancied).  Methought a little war between the forces of Azuria (Blue) and Ruberia (Red) might be a useful context to try out a system similar to that developed by Bob.

The Ruberians have concentrated 3 Army Corps in the south,
 aiming to take  Town #5 (Cinqville) and  #6 (Sixbourg)

Wargames rules for Azuria-Ruberia map game wars:
1.  Units and Formations
    -  Each figure is a leader, or an element of one of the three arms, Horse, Foot or Guns.  Foot elements are infantry or engineers, Horse elements are Cavalry, and Gun elements, Artillery.
    -  Each figure of foot or horseman holding a firearm represents a Division of Infantry or Cavalry respectively.
    -  Each gun or engineer figure (on foot with theodolite) represents an  Artillery Train or an Engineer Train, respectively.  
    -  A mounted figure with sword is a leader - general, marshal or field marshal.  He rolls no combat dice as such, but adds to combat depending on arms present.
    -  An Infantry Division costs 1 Currency Unit (CU) to raise, and rolls 1 combat die.
    -  A Cavalry Division costs 2 CU to raise, and also rolls 1 combat die.
    -  An Artillery Train costs 2 CU to raise, and rolls 2 combat dice.
    -  An Engineer Train costs 3CU to raise and rolls 1 combat die in defence only.
    -  An Army Corps comprises a leader and at least 2 other figures (Divisions), a minimum of 1 up to a maximum of 4 foot; and 0-2 horse, 0-2 guns and 0-1 Engineer.
    -  A Cavalry Corps comprises a leader and 1-4 Cavalry Divisions, plus 0-1 Artillery train.

(Note 1: as it happens, the number of figures was quite limited: 15 infantry, 6 cavalry, 5 guns, 5 leaders and I think 5 engineers, for each side.  I am very tempted to make this a design limitation).
   

The Ruberian IV Corps holds Tripolis,
 but only small garrisons defend the fortified city
  of  Fourborough (visible at extreme left) and Monoton (out of picture).
  The Azurian III Corps has been posted in the headwaters valley of the Amnon River...

2.Turn Sequence:
   - Both sides roll 1xD6, higher score deciding whether to move first or second.  Call the side that moves first Side A; the other, Side B.
   - Side A rolls 1xD6, the score giving the number of formations (Army Corps) or independent units he wishes to activate this turn.  An activation may be a move from one territory or city to another; an attack from one territory or city to an adjacent one; or a task carried out by an Engineer Train.
   - Note that Army Corps may detach elements, and or add elements to itself without cost, but if separating, the individual elements must pay to move if doing so.
   - Side A moves each Division or Corps in turn, resolving combats as they occur.  Note that he need not decide at the beginning all the units or formations he is going to move, deciding each depending upon the result of earlier movements or attacks.
   -  Side A having used as much of his allowance as he thinks fit, Side B rolls 1xD6 and follows the same move/combat procedure.
   -  Finally, both sides roll 2xD6 to determine available 'funds' (CU) to raise further units.

Azurian I and II Army Corps are poised to attack Monoton and Fourborough.  
The weak Ruberian V Corps  keeps the enemy III Corps bottled up in its river valley...

3. Move distances and rules:
   - Infantry Divisions, Engineer Trains and Army Corps move 1 map area (territory) per turn.
   - Cavalry Divisions, Cavalry Corps and Leaders may move up to 2 territories per turn.
   - Cavalry Divisions and Cavalry Corps can not attack in mountains, but may move therein unopposed, and can defend.  If present in an Army Corps, they add no dice to the attack, but the leader can still count its presence in determining how many dice he adds (this reflects the limited - but not negligible - capability of cavalry in this sort of country).
   - All troops spend 1 movement point entering and another exiting mountains.

   - Cavalry Divisions may move 2 territories in woods only if neither requires an attack.

Having 'won' the roll for first move (5 to 3), Azuria begins hostilities.
To open the ball, I Corps (Azuria) attempts to storm the stronghold of Monoton

4. Combat:
   - Each division and/or Army Corps rolls 1xD6 per infantry and cavalry unit; and 2 per artillery.
   - In addition, the presence of a leader adds 1xD6 per arm present: Horse, Foot, and/or Guns.
   - Finally, an Engineer Train rolls 1xD6 only if part of a defending force (or is attacked when unattached); OR if part of a force attacking a walled or fortified town, subtracts 2xD6 from its defence value.
   - A unit or formation defending a city may add the equivalent of 2 infantry divisions (2xD6) for an unfortified, and 2 Artillery Trains (4xD6) for a fortified city.

A sharp repulse for I Corps at Monoton.  It receives 3xD6 for the 2 horse and 1 foot, plus, having a leader, an extra 2xd6 for the two arms (Horse and Foot): 5 dice altogether.  They fail even to dent the defences.  As an unfortified place, the Ruberian garrison adds just 2xd6 to the 3 it gets for the foot and guns.  There being no leader present, there is no further addition to the number of dice.  All the same, one of the Azurian units will have to retreat...

   - A combat is resolved by both sides simultaneously rolling the number of dice determined as above, with the following outcomes:
     For each Double-1: 1 Artillery Train destroyed;
     For each Double 2: No effect;
     For each Double 3: 1 Cavalry division destroyed;
     For each Double 4: 1 Infantry division destroyed;
     For each Double 5: 1 Infantry division destroyed;
     For each Double 6: 1 Division retreats (whether independent or part of a Corps; if the latter, owning player chooses) to nearest unoccupied or friendly territory or town;
     If a Triple 6 appears, the whole formation retreats 1 map space, after other losses taken off.

Note 2: The sections in red italics represent rules I'm not 100% sure about yet: whether to add them at all, or maybe modify them.

To be continued: an account of the First Marnon War, 1869.

Species War 2 (War of the Roses)

It has occurred to me that perhaps I ought to show how I modify flag downloads from the standard square or rectangle into something more like a rhombus or parallelogram.  I have found that rhomboidal paper flags 'drape' in much more realistic fashion once you fasten them to their wire pole.

Paul of 'Paul's Bods' having mentioned the Grimsby Wargames Society's free download, I availed myself of their resource.   Here is the first page of the House of Lancaster as it appears on site and when downloaded.  Nicely coloured and shaded.  Now, normally I don't bother with shading flags, figuring that they are self shading.  But that depends upon how much trouble you take to obtain a realistic looking 'hang.'   But since the shading is there, I'll take it.  With thanks.

Here is the result of my attentions using the Microsoft  'Paint' software - a utility I have found very handy for wargame projects.  You 'select' the shape of left-hand side, and skew it vertically at an angle of your choice.  Then select the right hand side, and skew the same angle, but negative (actually, I generally do the right hand side first, but that's neither here nor there).  Note that the images are skewed from the centre, not from the edge.  So if you have left a narrow centre strip to accommodate looping around the wire flagstaff, select that and slide it into position.  It's not easy to do it accurately (less when cataracts render one eye dysfunctional), but I don't worry overmuch about it.  Any flaws can be touched up.

In the above, the top 4 flags were skewed 20 degrees, the next two 10 degrees, and the bottom, 15 degrees.  The fourth row has one skewed 10 and the other 15 degrees.  The choice is entirely arbitrary. and there is nothing against going as high as a 30 degree skew.  More than that may involve unwelcome distortion, but I've never tested it.

Species Wars...

Well, the species in question are in fact floral, to wit: Roses.  This was one of those projects that I began full of enthusiasm and gung ho about ten or twelve years ago.  I don't know anyone who manufactures Wars of the Roses figures as such, but it seemed to me that the Hundred Years' War fellows would do.  

 The pictures that follow depict where I reached in a fairly short time and have done nothing with them since. Based, modified and ... unpainted.  We begin with the mounted knights and commanders.  This is a Yorkist army commanded by King Edward IV, with Richard of Gloucester as his sub-general, and William de Hastings classed as 'Ally-general'.  The whole army was build along DBM lines, although I was already becoming disenchanted with that rule set (too many ill-considered amendments, to my mind, that wrecked a fine concept).

 The banners are my usual wire and paper types, hand drawn and coloured with OHP pens.  Incidentally, I will regret the passing of the dear old Overhead Projector, because the pens - water soluble and insoluble both - are great for colouring paper flags.  A disc of sprue with a generous dollop of glue gives the flagstaff a vaguely lance-like look.

 Above is the contingent of Burgundian pikemen.  These were adapted from halberdiers or billmen.  These were already a good pose, but the only ones really adaptable as pikemen.  A flag bearer and a knightly fellow on foot eked out the limited number of figures available .

 One troop type absent from the Revell set, as you can imagine, was the currour - a lance armed cavalry less well protected and armed than the ponderous men-at-arms. I selected a foot figure already standing rather aggressively with feet apart, trimmed off whatever weapon he was holding and added a wire lance.  A couple of other figures gave me a command element, although they don't sit their mounts as straight as they might. The horses I nicked from the Airfix Napoleonic Royal Horse Artillery set.

 The lances are probably overlong, but I quite like them that way.  I have always felt the the Revell knight lances could have benefited by half a centimetre's extra ... erm ... longitude.

 Now we come to the guts of the army:  the Yorkist foot.  The Revell box had rather a limited number of bowmen, so some other figures were issued with wire bows.  As I have been given to understand that the English long bow was, unstrung, scarcely distinguishable from a big stick, I didn't worry overmuch about appearances.  

 I further eked out limited numbers by placing on every other stand a knightly figure in plate armour and a standard bearer.  Two stands, then, required just 6 bowmen.  I could perhaps have placed 3 figures per stand, but, aside from being not 'per spec', would have looked too sparse.

The flags will be replaced.  Now the famous Warflags site, very useful source though it is, is rather limited in it's Wars of the Roses range.  The bad part is that on several flags, the pattern on the reverse side has not been mirror imaged from the obverse.  Many wouldn't notice, and most that do probably wouldn't worry over it.  I do.  But my own efforts, based on information I had about distinguishing badges and symbols, I've never been satisfied with.

 These final pictures show a line of skirmishing hand gunners, in the distance a body of billmen, and closer to a smaller group of dismounted men-at-arms.  Owing to the limited number of mounted knights in a pack, I was pretty much forced to leave these men-at-arms on foot, 'paying' for Bd(S) (9AP) as Kn(I) (10AP).  

 But then, I'm not into wargames competitions, the motivation for which I have been for well over thirty years at a loss to understand.  Also in the pipeline, though less well advanced is my Lancastrian Army.  Having acquired a few 'Sheriff of Nottingham' figures, I'll have a few 'levy' type stands, and some Italieri 100YW figures I bought several years ago will provide several of the bowmen and knights.

Meanwhile, what to do about the flags?  A couple of years back, an advertisement appeared on TradeMe in which the booklets featured in the pictures below were going for what to me looked like a song and a dance.

Heraldic Banners:
 the open pages belong to a third of the white covered  booklets by Thomas Coveney.  

 So I bought all four; no one else seemed interested in placing a bid.  Good luck for me.  The numbered flags are cross referenced to the associated nobleman or knight, with a brief comment on their affiliation.  The top booklet (by Pat McGill and Jonathan Jones) opens to reveal (inter alia) leaders' standards, beginning with Henry Sixt, and prominent members of the House of York.

The first half-dozen of some 36 banners depicted in this wee volume.

The plan is to scan down the flags and select several for each side (York and Lancaster).  There are ways of 'mirror-imaging' to obtain a two-sided flag or banner; and of skewing the image in the vertical plane to give the printed out paper flag a better 'drape'.  I left the mottos off my hand drawn banners as being too difficult to render well in the scale I had designed them.

The banners of Edward as Duke of York (before becoming the fourth King of England of that name);
  Richard, Duke of Gloucester (the future Richard III); and Richard, Duke of York, their father.

'Mighty Armadas'

The mighty Yamato

Naval subjects have been the topic of recent postings on several blogspots I follow.  Having mentioned my 'Mighty Armada' collection in a comment on 'Pauly-Wauly's' Other Blog,  it occurred to me (because he suggested it) that it would make a fine topic for a posting on this one.  I think when they turned up (this was the late '70s or early '80s) at a then well-known Wellington bookshop, I bought the entire stock, though I never did form any clear plan on how I was going to use them.

Yamato and Mushashi.
  The latter was modified using a third Yamato for parts (a move I now regret).

These look rather like Bismarck and Tirpitz

I have recently considered using them for Jono's World, but much longer ago had another possibility in mind.  It seemed likely that my mid-20th Century Imagi-Nation, Gran Bolivaria, would have acquired some sort of blue water navy, perhaps surplus ships of the greater powers as World War Two was drawing to a close.

...but these two I've never been able to identify.
 I think they might be  American vessels

Of course, it was too much to expect that a small, none too wealthy, Latin American country could get hold of large battleships (which were at the bottom of the sea anyway), but suppose these were cruisers?  The Yamato class might be thought of as heavy cruisers, the others as light.  As it happened, I also had a model of Prinz Eugen, which was of a size with these vessels.  Cruisers, then, they were.  Orotina purchased the Prinz Eugen for a song (that it participated in the Bikini Atoll nuclear trials is a myth...).  So Orotina has a navy in being to ensure that Gran Bolivaria does not rule the seas in their part of the world.

Mighty Armada came with aircraft carriers.
  Unfortunately, the aircraft are jets.

These aircraft carriers are, therefore (in my 'Latin Wars' terms), quite small ones - escort carriers, withal, each with a complement of, say 20-25 aircraft.  In Jono's World, however, they would be (are) fairly large, and carry perhaps three times the number of aircraft. 

The Merchant Marine

But it was what follows that drew me to the whole collection: the merchant marine, and  the sea port.  These gave a whole new dimension: the possibilities of commerce raiding, attacks upon escorted convoys, raids upon the docking facilities, 'Pearl Harbour' type operations.

The only ocean liner in the collection.
 It is missing its masts, which always were a bit loose.

The size of these merchant vessels also tend to indicate we aren't dealing with large warships, here.

Wolf pack!

Altogether, the whole collection seemed to me replete with the promise of hours of endless fun.   Pity I never really got round to doing more with them...

A tanker being guided in to dock by a flotilla of tugboats.
Already docked is  a vessel  loading export  goods for North  America.

 The Sea Port with wharfs, cranes, fuel storage and holding sheds.