Line of Fire, Path of Light - A Naval Standoff by the Lighthouse in Dark Waters

I see fellow bloggers plays naval wargames from time to time. Some really 'small scale' and others as part of scenarios in larger 'Toy Soldier scale'. This made me want to try out some naval wargames myself. Earlier this year I 3D-printed some naval 'Benchies' for a 'Benchy Battle', which I also used for Battle Benchy Board Game. Despite being Benchies I thought I could use them for other naval games too if I found some interesting budget rules to play.

The Rules

This year I've also played a wargame with 'Basic Battle 2.0' rules by Grey Army Gaming. These are very generic rules which can be used for a lot of different (war-) games. - Even for simple naval wargames as suggested by the game designer. So despite not being specific Naval wargame rules, I think 'Basic Battle 2.0' will work even better for a small naval standoff than my Old West shootout. 

Preparing the game

I already had 2 small Fleets to meet each other in combat. But the sea is an open area so I wanted to add some visual interests and obstacles which the ships needed to avoid, and force them to maneuver around. From my 'Benchy Battle' I already had some 'islands' and wrecks of sinking ships. I wanted to add a some of more obstacles to my battlefield and 3D printed an island with a lighthouse and some more rocks to serve as small island and cliffs (which I probably also can use as desert rock terrain in other wargames):

I also 3D-printed some mine-field markers, which would work as obstacles (but not cover) and force the ships to move around them. These were simply just 3D-printed in 2 colours and kept unpainted:

The Scenario

The Lighthouse in Dark Waters are located in a very disputed border area between The Republic of Benchy (Navy B) and The Free State of Benchy (Navy A). Navy B has moved into the waters and laid mines to claim the waters as their own. The minefields are now guarded by Navy B. The Navy A flotilla will try to gain control over Dark Waters and the Lighthouse by making Navy B step down or defeating them.

Forces:

• Navy A:

From left to right; Gunboat (3 wound number), Corvette (4 wound number) and Battleship (6 wound number)

• Navy B:

From left to right; Battleship (6 wound number), Corvette (4 wound number) and

Gunboat (3 wound number)

Mission:

• For both navies; To eliminate the opponent to gain control of the waters of the Lighthouse outside 'Benchy Islands'.

The Game

Time:    1 hour and 30 minutes 

Turns:   21

Result:  Technically a win for Navy A in turn 13, and a definitely win for Navy A in turn 21.

The Republic of Benchy's Navy (Navy B) has positioned their ships around the Lighthouse to protect the minefields they have laid in the waters as to claim the waters as their own:

The Free State of Benchy also make claims to the 'Dark Waters' surrounding the lighthouse, and send a flotilla (Navy A) to force Navy B to retreat and leave the waters:

When the Navy A's Gunboat tries to break through the outer minefield, Navy B's Battleship and Gunboat instantly opens fire. -And scored a hit:

This did not prevent the Navy A's Gunboat to return the fire against it's equivalent foe. As did the Navy A's Corvette and Battleship as they were approaching. The incoming fire was massive and Navy B's Gunboat got hit and changed course to seek cover behind an island:

The Navy A Gunboat decided to pursuit the fleeing Gunboat from Navy B, but received another volley of fire and another hit by Navy B:

The Navy A Gunboat opened fire again against the Gunboat B as it was maneuvering into Line-of-sight, but missed. By this time The Navy A Corvette was sneaking around the island from the other side:

Both Navy A' Gunboat and Corvette decided to ram the Navy B Gunboat from both sides, and succeed:

The Navy A Corvette decided to reverse into cover and out of LoS, as the Navy B's Battleship was approaching the scene:

When the Navy B's Battleship entered the scene it immediately opened fire on the Navy A Gunboat, but missed:

The Gunboat tried to outflank the Battleship by going further into the minefield. -But it didn't move fast enough and received a direct and final hit:

Both Navies had lost their Gunboats now:

Meanwhile the Navy A Battleship had entered the waters east of the lighthouse, and opened fire on the Navy B's Corvette; And scored a hit:

The Navy B Corvette returned the fire but missed:

This was developing into a duel as Navy A's Battleship opened fire again, and scored a critical hit to Navy B's Corvette:

While Navy B's Corvette was returning fire again, the Navy A's Battleship moved towards the Corvette and it's shot missed:

Moving into point-blank-range the Battleship fired at the Corvette again but missed:

The Corvette returned the fire again and did not miss:

The Battleship was still moving and rammed the Corvette bow-to-bow:

It was a success as the Navy B's Corvette sunk:

Now Navy A's Battleship could take up the hunt for Navy B's Battleship (which had recently sunk the Navy A's Gunboat at this point), but the shell fell short:

Navy B's Battleship was now fighting this battle alone, and opened fire against Navy A's Corvette and scored a hit:

It opened fire against the Corvette again before it managed to move away, and scored another hit:

But Navy A's Battleship was closing in from behind and opened fire again. Another miss:

After receiving two hits Navy A's Corvette decided to maneuver away and get some distance to Navy B's Battleship, which opened fire again but missed:

Navy A's Battleship was closing in on it's foe equivalent and opened fire again, but missed:

Since Navy A's Corvette was not to be seen, Navy B Battleship turned around and opened fire on Navy A's Battleship on point-blank-range and scored a hit:

The distance between those two Battleships was very short by this point, so Navy A's Battleship rammed the other bow-to-bow unsuccessfully. By this time the Navy A Corvette had re-entered the battle and was closing in on Navy B's last ship:

Navy B's Battleship saw the risk of being outflanked and turned around and was hastily steering out of Dark Waters:

Both Navy A ships gave the Navy B's Battleship a salvo and scored one hit. The game was technically over at this point as the Navy B was driven away from the waters:

But the Navy B's Battleship was still in pretty good condition, and it knew that both the Navy A ships was starting to take a toll, so it decided to return to have another try to fend the intruders off:

Navy B's Battleship opened fire on the enemy Corvette as soon as it got in sight, but the maneuver was too fast and it missed:

Now both Navy A ships opened fire on the B Battleship, and scored a couple of hits:

As the Navy B's Battleship seemed to be outflanked again, it turned around and rammed Navy A's Battleship...

...but did not manage to cause any damage to it. Being danger close the Navy A's Battleship set full reverse and backed out of this danger situation while firing (but missed):

Then the Navy A's Corvette opened fire and managed to hit with a shell:

Navy B's Battleship tried to move out of the situation again, but was moving very slowly. Perhaps it had taken too much damage already. Navy A's Battleship opened fire one more time and hit with another shell:

Navy B's Battleship was so heavily damaged now, so the Navy A Corvette gave full throttle and rammed the Battleship mid-ship:

It was a successful attack, and made Navy B's Battleship sink. It seems that the flotilla sent by The Free State of Benchy completed it's mission with minimum loss, and re-claimed sovereignty of Dark Waters by the lighthouse again.

Conclusion

Don't be put off just because these rules are named  'basic' and originally targeted at kids. I've played by these rules before, but then with figurines. I think these rules worked great, almost even better, with vessels or objects as well. I had a great time playing them, and really recommend you to try them out as well. The rules for Basic Battles 2.0 can be found on this link.

Benchy Battle

This summer I visited the Norwegian Naval Museum in Horten, and got inspired to do more maritime modelling or wargaming. As with most wargames I play I wanted the rules to be free and easy however. I am a member in a Fb-group called 'Super Cheap Wargaming', which is right up my alley regarding my interest for wargaming on a budget. Earlier this year another member uploaded his home brewed naval rules called 'Benchy Battle'. I've never tried naval wargames before, but this seemed so easy that I decided to give them a go. Besides the rules was based on 'Benchies', which you're going possess some of if you're into 3D-printing (which I am).

What is a Benchy?

A 'Benchy' is a 'tugboat' and is likely to be the most 3D-printed object in the world as it is a model to test accuracy, calibration and print-quality of 3D-printers. 'Benchy' is described as "the jolly 3D-printing torture-test" by it's creator (Creative Tools). The 'Benchy' is actually 10 years old these days.

Preparing the game

I needed a ocean battlefield. -On a budget off course. I could have used ordinary blue cloth or fabric for this, but I found a dead cheap plastic tablecloth with printed ocean pattern and wanted to try that for this wargame:

It looks like the 'Battle mat' is approved by Linus

Even if I do have some Benchies after calibrating my own 3d-printer, I decided to go fancy here and 3D-print some naval-versions of them as this is originally a naval wargame. These are certainly not 'scale models' and I wanted to print them quickly, so these are 3D-printed with a lower resolution (0.18mm layer height) than I usually use for my print-settings (<0.10mm). I think they turned out just fine:

With these results of a 'Benchy calibration test' I'll guess some of my readers will tell me that the settings on my 3D-printer are all wrong... 

I think there is a new company owning the licence to the original Benchy now, and a lot of Benchy re-mixes, like those I printed, are removed from some sites for free 3D models and files. So get them while you can.

I wanted to add some 'islands' that one of the sides has to defend and the other navy tries to take control over. Here I just used some rocks I 3D-printed back in 2021, but I wanted to add a little 'scenery' and visual interests to them so I 3D-printed a couple of buildings to place on one of them. Printed in white PLA  and simply just 'blackwashed':

Now I was ready  for my very first naval wargame.

The Rules

The rules seems to be 'home brewed' and a 'father/son collaborative' by John Christopher Sr. and Jr:

The Scenario

The rules suggest that each player can activate up to 3 Benchies each turn, so to keep it simple I decided to do it easy and play this wargame with 3 Benchies each side. Navy B are protecting the water of the coast of 'Benchy Islands', while Navy A will try to defeat them and gain control of 'Benchy Islands'.

Forces:

• Navy A

From left to right; Gunboat, Corvette and Battleship 

• Navy B

From left to right; Battleship Corvette and Gunboat 

Mission:

For both navies; To eliminate the opponent to gain control of the coast of 'Benchy Islands'. Navy B in top of the photo and Navy A below:

The Game

Time:    36 minutes

Turns:   7

Result:  Navy A by achieving both it's mission and by points (7 pts. vs. 0 pts.)

As Navy A was keeping a steady course towards 'Benchy Islands'...

...Navy B was hesitating and slowly maneuvering into defensive positions to meet the potential threat:

When coming into firing range, Navy A immediately opened fire... 

...and scored a (unsaved) hit:

Excited by the success, Navy A became more offensive:

Navy B was still hesitatingly moving into engaging positions:

- When Navy A suddenly opened fire again...

...and scored another (unsaved) hit:

The entire Navy A flotilla was now changing course for the last remaining Navy B ship:

Aroused by earlier success both ships from Navy A opened fire at the same time against the last Navy B ship. One shot missed and the other was 'saved':

When trying to move into a even more favorable position, a ship from Navy A accidentally rammed the last Navy B ship bow to bow...

...Successfully (!)

This was a superior victory for Navy A which without any losses now controlled the waters of Benchy Islands:

Pros

• The rules are free.
• The rules are very fast to learn and easy to play.
• Despite the name of the game, you don't actually need Benchies to play it as you can substitute with other ship models.
• Fewer miniatures and terrain items takes less time to set up.

Cons

• Limited maneuverability. Activated Benchies can only move in a straight line, and must move the full number of inches you rolled on your D6. Therefore it can not stop before an obstacle ahead as an island, reef, mine-field, a sinking ship or the edge of the tabletop, but will run straight right into or over it. I belive a ship commander would adjust speed and course to get into a favorable position for his mission,  and at the same time try to avoid other problems instead of steering straight into them. For instance getting close to an obstacle (because it can provide some cover), stop, and maneuver around it the next turn.
• No different stats for different ships  regarding weaponry, firepower or armor (health)

The Race

These wargame rules also opens to play this game as a 'Race' between ships, so I'd thought I should try those parts of the rules as well in this review. Here it is an advantage to move the 'Fully D6" move' since all vessels are going in the same direction as fast as possible. I'll let my 2 navies race each other, and at the same time be able to ram and shoot at each other during the race:

Time:    19 minutes

Turns:   7

Result:  Navy A by achieving both it's mission and by points (7 pts. vs. 0 pts.)

Ready, Set, Go!!

Navy B gets the initiative by sailing it's Battleship at full speed and letting the 2 other ships protecting it's stern. Navy A accidentally and successfully rams into Navy B's rear guard and sinking one of the ships:

While the second rearguard ship from Navy B is hit by fire from Navy A:

Now there was only one way to win this, or break even by points, for Navy B; And that was to go full ahead:

But Navy A was closing in, and soon the last ship of Navy B was in shooting range. Navy A opened fire...

... and scored another unsaved hit:

The Race was now become an internal race within Navy A to see which ship would be first. So no more shooting at each other as they were all on the same side:

The Battleship already had the most favorable position: 

But after a short while the smaller Corvette was closing in:

Really close on the end...

...But the Battship finally won at last!

Conclusion

Making larger 'Battleship Benchies' for the initial wargame was a tactical blunder as all ranges are short and probably fits the original small Benchy better. The larger ships simply became bigger targets and easier to ram. 

The limitation in the maneuverability which can force you to run into objects you normally would have avoided is such a big 'Con' for me, that I'm less likely to play these rules again. But even if I made Naval Benchies for this wargame I might use them again for trying out other easy to play (and not too serious) naval wargame rules. Time will show, so please follow this blog to find out.