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.

A short Swiss Campaign

While our trip to Northern Italy to visit the Hobby Model Expo 2025 in Milan, we were so close to Swiss border that we decided to visit a couple of places with 'Garden Railways' in Southern Switzerland too:

Galleria Baumgartner

Galleria Baumgartner is located in Mendrisio in Southern Switzerland, just on the Swiss side of the Italian border. Galleria Baumgartner is a hughe collection of 4000+ model railway locomotives and rolling stock from many different manufacturers in many, if not all, scales and gauges, but mostly larger gauges like O, 1 and G. The collection is based on the late Bruno Baumgartner's private collection and spans from the dawn om railway modelling to modern items. There are some naval and military models and miniatures in this big collection too along some few model railway layouts in different scales and gauges:

This is a view from the mesanin at the upper level and down to the ground floor:

This is also from the mesanin but from the other side. Everything seen along the walls and in the midle of the ground floor is not an old 'telephone central' but display cabinets full of exclusive models. More than 4000 of them. Many of them are limited editions made in Switzerland:

On the lower floor there are even more display cabinets with models, but here they're also about to build several layouts:

Some of the ships in their naval collection:

They were also displaying old Swiss miniature soldiers and military toys:

Here are some impressions of what to see in some of those cabinets:

It's incredible that these 'small' pre-ballasted tracks in 10mm and 13mm gauge are made just after WW2. These models was ahead of their time

Very old 1 or 0 gauge military rollingstock. These might sparks some ideas to modelling-projects in G-scale or 16mm scale 

A much newer but really expensive locomotive in 0 gauge

As mentioned they were building some new large layouts on the lower floor, but they also have some operating layouts already:

A H0 layout by the entrance to the museum

0 Gauge depot display 

0 Gauge. Narrow Gauge to the left and Standard Gauge to the right

A Z-scale (1:220) layout

A H0 layout. The Z-scale layout is integrated in it as a 'background'

A N-scale layout

Here are some short videos. The first layout was  G-scale and running a top of the display cabinets between the ground floor and upper level:

A very simple but yet a classical 'German layout':

These images are from the Gauge 1 layout currently under construction on the lower level:

The Postman is not having a good day

There were also a small exhibition on Swiss Postal Service. This one was from WW2:

They also had simple layouts kids could operate with remote controlls:

The Museum shop:

And a lovely Café (with not only coffee):

Despite displaying very exclusive models in the collection, I found and bought a very cheap Chinese copy of a LGB G-scale tank wagon in their shop. I'll guess I'm going to cover this wagon in another future blogpost. 

SwissMiniatur 

Just a couple of stations further north from Mendrisio is Melide. In Melide the SwissMiniatur exhibition park have been located since 1959. SwissMiniatur is a open air collection of signature and famous Swiss buildings in 1:25 scale, connected with a scratchbuilt 1:25 scale garden railway:

Look close on this photo and you will se the prototype for this model in the background

Zürich airport from which we travelled through when we were in Friedrichshafen last year 

Swiss Narrow Gauge railways in the mountains:

This should be familiar

The public could go behind the scenes to see how they scratchbuilt their trains...

...and the buildings:

Yet another busy day on our tour, but we all agreed that it was a good one!

When I came home from our club-tour to Italy and Switzerland, I saw that I've been receiving a package in the meantime. Matchbox 1:76 originals found on a Norwegian online market site for only £ 32, $ 42, or € 36. I think some of these are small to be 1:76 scale (especially the Americans) and that they look good next to H0 scale figures: