Modern Naval - Update Feb 2014

Oh well something new.  As if that was not going to happen.  The messing around we did with MNB:GW a while ago left several unpainted NAVWAR 1/3000 Ships unpainted and unloved.  With all the rain over the last couple of weeks I thought about getting them painted.  

So I did and as a result ended up adding a modern Chinese Starter fleet from NAVWAR plus a Liaoning carrier; two Ticonderogas and 3 Arleigh Burke Flight IIAs.

I took the existing Sovremmeny as well which had a soviet scheme and added that to the PLAN fleet as well.

The  bases of most of the ships is now a strange 25mm x 60mm size which sort of fits my current storage. Given a base coat of the Old GW Fenris Grey, which I am now nearly out of so need to find a replacement, and then used some of the Vallejo Heavy Gel 27.591 which is a brilliant gloss.

The US Carrier has had a bit of messing around with as well with deck markings, elevators and catapults all now marked out.  I also took a file to some 1/3000 F-18s which arrived and added them to the flight deck.  Will add more over the next couple of weeks as this goes.

The Liaoning in progress with the gel just applied. Need to look at the deck markings and see what I can make up.

Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare in Miniature

Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare is a card based naval combat game from DVG.  It is fantastic.  So good that I have both the ship expansion and the Campaign module and we have played on a regular basis at home.

The youngest is a keen gamer and has helped out in a lot of games and has come up with some good ideas himself.  He wanted to play MNB with models and I had seen someone else take the idea forward as a starter.  Okay what did that mean.  The fleets themselves do lend themselves to miniatures play.  There is some fantastic work out there with 1/700th ships which picqued the interest.  This MNB:GW 1/700th Game Report is an excellent example of the larger scale.  My budget and eyesight however don't go that big so we have downscaled somewhat to use NAVWAR 1/3000th scale ships together with 1/600th scale airpower (and possibly missiles).

We haven't decided on playing surface as the idea is to introduce some concept of movement into the game which seems to be possible (thinking here of a straight double the range indicators and use a hex system)  and then allow ships to move 2 hexes per turn.  This might allow the land based targets and amphibious warfare ships to have some context.  But to start with this will be RAW.  I think we might use the "Passive" defense option to locate a submarine in the opponents half of the table though which does seem to be a viable option.

Anyway early days.  Our starter pack has about a dozen or so ships in an eclectic mix.  US CVN, JMSDF DDG, Krivak III FFG, OH Perrys, Knox Frigates, French Lafayette etc.  The idea is for a small outlay we can gauge the size of the table/model to get a general feel for what may or may not work.  Current thinking is 4" hexes and a 3' x 3' board which is plenty of sea room.  Another one of those lets see how this develops.

Photos etc to follow and more updates once the metal arrives.