Sunday, November 27, 2011

Book Review - 1812: The Navy's War

With the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 coming up, I've been expecting to see a lot of new books covering this little remembered war. Here is my take on the new book from George C. Daughan, 1812: The Navy's War.
This book is sort of a follow-up to Daughan's previous book, "If By Sea," which covered the creation of the American navy from the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812. I say "sort of" because If By Sea did have some coverage of the War of 1812, while the new book is only about the War of 1812.

Based on the sub-title and the author's previous work, you might think that this book would only be about naval actions during the War of 1812. But Daughan also does a good job of providing information about the politics involved (on both sides), the overall strategic plans, and the land campaigns (even those that didn't have a naval component).

The book starts out explaining the causes of the war from the point of view of each side, but mostly from a naval angle (Daughan doesn't talk very much about the issues on the western frontier of the U.S.). On the sailor's rights issue, Daughan even goes into some detail about how if the Royal Navy would have treated its sailors better there would not have been as high of a desertion rate and it wouldn't have had to impress so American sailors. While this is provides some interesting insights into the Royal Navy, I don't think the Royal Navy was ready for the sort of reforms he points out.

One interesting thread that runs throughout the book is the idea that President Madison was taking the expected actions of Napoleon into account when starting and planning for the war. I don't think I've read any other books that play this up as Daughan does. I think that Madison and the other people pushing for war were hoping that England would be too involved fighting Napoleon to take major actions against the United States and would be willing to settle the war quickly. But I don't think they were really making plans based on Napoleon's actions.

After the war starts, the book goes on to describe the major land campaigns and naval actions, with pauses to talk about each side's plans and the political situations. Most of the land actions have enough information that you get a good idea of what happened, with only a few (such as the attack on Baltimore after the burning of Washington and the Battle of New Orleans) covered in extra detail. The book does cover some land actions that other War of 1812 books skim over, such as the actions in Michigan area and Andrew Jackson's actions against the Creeks. On the naval side, the book does a good job of covering the major battles during the war (the frigate actions, the Battle of Lake Erie, and Battle of Lake Champlain) along with lesser known actions by American sloops and privateers. There was also really good information on the U.S. Navy's involvement in the New Orleans campaign, which is often brushed over by most War of 1812 histories. In fact, I really liked the chapter on New Orleans. The book also gives some information about the U.S. Navy's post-war expedition against the Barbary States. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more detail on the what was happening in Lake Ontario, but I have other books for that.

The book finishes with the post-war attitudes taken by each side and the importance of the war in changing the relationship between Britain and the United States.

Overall, 1812: The Navy's War is well written, informative, and I enjoyed reading it. The book does a good job of providing an overall view of the War of 1812, with a naval focus. From a wargaming point of view, the book should provide some ideas for land and naval scenarios for the War of 1812.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

2011 Museum of Flight Game Day Recap

NHMGS had its annual game day at the Museum of Flight on Saturday November 12. We were set up under the museum's Blackbird (really a M-21 variant of the A-12 designed to carry an unmanned drone for intelligence gathering) in the main gallery with four gaming tables and an information table. We had a really good turnout of NHMGS members (around 25), along with museum goers that stopped off to view the games and ask questions. We had between 6 and 10 museum visitors that took the time to play in some of the games and there was at least that many that said they wished they had the time to sit and play.
NHMGS Information Table
Tables all set up under the Blackbird
The morning session had a Wings of War game (which seemed very popular), our home-brew Golden Age Air Racing game, a WWII skirmish game, and some DBA games.
Wings of War ready to play
Skirmish game set up
Air racing in progress
Several DBA games in progress

In the afternoon it there was a Check You Six Jets game, a robot gladiator game, more DBA, a continuation of the skirmish game, and an exclusive premier of the upcoming Wizard's of the Coast/Avalon Hill Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures game (more on this below).
Check Your Six Jets Israeli Phantoms
Robot gladiators
A pair of Axis & Allies Hurricanes

I spent the morning at the information table talking about gaming and generally making a nuisance of myself. After lunch I watched a game of the A & A Air Force Miniatures game and then took up a couple planes myself.
Some museum visitors looking in on the games

The game day is always a good opportunity to show off the hobby to the general public and play a few games. The museum is a really great forum for showing off games and the museum visitors are often interested in talking about the hobby. Everyone seemed to have a good time and our museum contact told us that they like having us there, so expect to be back again next year.

Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures game:
The game designer, Rich Baker, and some other members of the A & A Team showed up at the game day to show off their upcoming Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures game. Here are my impressions of the game.
A Bf-109E and Spitfire from the Starter set

First off, a little about the planes. The planes are pre-painted 1/100 scale (15mm), so they are pretty big when compared to most air games, but are still pretty light. The stands are clear hex-shaped bases, with the numbers 1 – 6 printed on them to represent altitudes, and the post has ball top that fit in the socket of the plane. The Ball/Socket combination allows you to show climbing, diving, and banking (evading in game terms). The models I saw all looked pretty good, with some nice detail (you can see panel lines on the planes), and would be easy to repaint to change squadrons and markings.
A Bf-109E and Bf-110C (the largest plane in the initial release)

You can see how the planes can bank in this photo

The game is played on a hex grid with the planes facing the hex flat. The basic rules are pretty easy to pick up. Game turns have an Initiative, Movement, and Firing phases. Initiative is determined by competitive die rolls (there are some modifiers for these rolls), the side that wins initiative moves second and fire second. Planes are moved one a time, alternating movement between sides, but the side that won the initiative always gets to move last. During movement a plane can do basic turns (one hexside) or advanced maneuvers (tight turns, Split-S, Barrel Roll, etc.) and climb or dive. The basic turns can always be done, but to successfully complete the other maneuvers the player rolls two dice, adds modifiers based on plane type (there are some other modifiers too) and has to beat the maneuver number. Combat is similar to the War At Sea miniatures, with a plane rolling a number of D6s based on plane type and range. The base hit numbers are determined by the aircraft position. The number "hits" is compared to the planes Armor and Vital values. If you get more "hits" than the Armor rating, the plane is damaged and if you get the Vital rating the planes is shot down.
A FW-190 and Bf-109 getting into action

The game was fun and played quickly. There was enough differences between plane stats that you actually felt like you weren't just playing with generic fighters.
A P-40C in Flying Tigers colors

The initial release, called Angels 20, has a release date of February 2012. The Starter Set will have 6 planes (2 Hurricanes, 1 Spitfire, 2 Bf-109E, 1 Bf-110C) and boosters will have 3 random planes. There were 31 planes listed in the set, but some are duplicate aircraft with different stats. The first set will have British, German, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and American planes.
Starter Kit box front cover
Starter Kit box back cover