Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-05

[paulr]

Those cod & haddock are in real trouble

[Big Insect]

I have some rather nice plastic (unpainted) pre-Dreadnought ships I bought from the US - a few years ago.
It was for a campaign we were all going to play at the club - you know the sort of thing   - that died a death after a couple of games were played, as we all moved onto something else!

I need to try & remember the rules we were using (they were a free internet download - that worked very well). We also played a massive multi-player Jutland game using them - which was huge fun.

I drew the short straw as far as fleets was concerned and got the Chinese. Hence the order to the US manufacturer, as they did all the obscure stuff we 'needed' like Chinese and Turks. I also need to try and remember what scale they were as well - as I found the box of unpainted ships whilst in the midst of a tidy-out of my soldier cupboard a week or so back (& there was no info with them sadly) and thought that I really ought to be selling those to somebody with a serious intent on painting them & playing with them.

Anyway ... I digress! The rules needed you to have 'splash' markers - of different sizes for different caliber guns - as multiple shots at a specific target (indicated by the markers) created an obscuring effect on other enemy fire. A mechanism to avoid massed concentration on single ships. So I was wondering if we might persuade Leon to make some splash markers? Or maybe Litko do some already.
Just a thought.

I'll find out the scale of the Chinese ships - as they might add a bit of a side-dish to the Russo-Japanese stuff & then I'm open to offers from a prospective buyer 
 

[pierre the shy]

Those cod & haddock are in real trouble

well I guess at a strech you could call the 1905 Channel Squadron the RN's first fishery protection squadron    

though "fishery protection squadron" doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "battle squadron" 

I think you will find that Leon already has splash markers covered in the Litko range.....

[paulr]

Continuing the research for this project

Looking at details of weapons layout and other characteristics to develop Ship Damage Summaries (SDS) for each ship. Some 'interesting designs; two of the Matsushima class of protected cruisers have their one 12.6" gun forward while the third has it aft.

Still deciding on the colour schemes for the ships, all will be in wartime colours

Japan
Neutral grey with funnel tops and mast tops on larger ships black

Russia
1^st Pacific Squadron There are three possibilities
Black: the same as the other Russian ships but with a brown tint due to poor quality lamp-black pigment
Brown: Black hulls with khaki upperworks or khaki overall for smaller vessels (used later in 1904)
Green: Olive-drab (possibly just for the Vladivostok cruisers)

2^nd & 3^rd Pacific Squadrons
'Black' with ochre funnels and black funnel tops. The black will be a very dark grey probably with some lighter grey highlights

All with wooden decks and may add some off-white 'sandbags'

[hammurabi70]

Presumably you have consulted the OSPREY books; they have one on the Russian Navy and one on the Japanese Navy.

[paulr]

I haven't consulted the Opreys as yet, can anyone point me at any reviews of them

[John Cook]

I haven't consulted the Opreys as yet, can anyone point me at any reviews of them

You'll see some reviews of these on Amazon - the usual sublime to the ridiculous.  I can't comment on them but I've got the Osprey Russian Batleship vs Japanese Battleship - Yellow Sea 1904-05 which is a reasonable primer but leaves you wanting more really, which is a problem with the small Osprey format generally.  If you want something more substantial you could think about Piotr Olender's two volumes Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-1905 Vol 1 - Port Arthur and Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-1905 - Battle of Tsushima, published by Stratus 2009 and 2010 respectively.  These, in addition to the narrative are replete with photos, most of which I've not seen anywhere else, and have orders of battle, detailed maps of the battles, tables of specifications of all the ships, their captains, details of mining operations, register of torpedo attacks and line drawings.  The only thing they don't have is colour pics though.   They are still in print at about £25 per volume but I see there are Kindle versions at a fraction of that price. 

[hammurabi70]

Japanese Osprey
Amazon entry
Russian Osprey
Amazon entry

[Rhys]

Continuing the research for this project

Looking at details of weapons layout and other characteristics to develop Ship Damage Summaries (SDS) for each ship. Some 'interesting designs; two of the Matsushima class of protected cruisers have their one 12.6" gun forward while the third has it aft.

There was a class of monitors built by the Swedish navy in the late 19th century where 4 had a main (and only) gun mounted forward, and a 1/2 sister with the gun mounted aft to cover the rest during any retirement. Maybe this was the same idea? Would have been usefull in a strean chase if you were being chased (and it doesn't seem that they were fast enough to run away from anything).
Apparently the 12.6" gun had a firing rate of 2 rounds per hour.

[paulr]

Thanks hammurabi70

Just finished my first run through the Japanese Ship Damage Summaries (SDS) including all 21 Torpedo boat Divisions  

I've already done most of the major Russian vessels so mainly Torpedo boat destroyers and Torpedo boats left to do for them

[pierre the shy]

There was a class of monitors built by the Swedish navy in the late 19th century where 4 had a main (and only) gun mounted forward, and a 1/2 sister with the gun mounted aft to cover the rest during any retirement. Maybe this was the same idea? Would have been usefull in a strean chase if you were being chased (and it doesn't seem that they were fast enough to run away from anything).
Apparently the 12.6" gun had a firing rate of 2 rounds per hour.

Matsushima, Itsukushima and Hashidate were armed with 12.6" guns and were the three most heavily armed ships in the Japanese fleet at the 1894 Battle of the Yalu River......I'm sure you remember the refight we did at the Warlords many years ago Rhys when we played as the Chinese and fairly well beat the Japanese as their two squadrons were totally un-coordinated with each other?         

[Orcs]

You could try the following

Janes Fighting shipe 1905-1906 - contains loads of info and an old style set ot wargames rule

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31528502046&ref_=ps_ggl_2039220669&cm_mmc=ggl-_-UK_Shopp_Tradestandard-_-product_id=UK9780715349236USED-_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjw5MOlBhBTEiwAAJ8e1hfXkpq9Ap826ZEk703lypArdBlwQPBJXJSWAh3xSo-MytpKhmaIphoClFoQAvD_BwE


The Imperial Russian Navy - FT Jane

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31422166315&searchurl=an%3Djane%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dimperial%2Brussian%2Bnavy&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2

The Imperial Japanese Navy - FT Jane

https://www.amazon.co.uk/imperial-Japanese-navy-Fred-Jane/dp/9353895162

[Rhys]

Matsushima, Itsukushima and Hashidate were armed with 12.6" guns and were the three most heavily armed ships in the Japanese fleet at the 1894 Battle of the Yalu River......I'm sure you remember the refight we did at the Warlords many years ago Rhys when we played as the Chinese and fairly well beat the Japanese as their two squadrons were totally un-coordinated with each other?         

I do remember that game. Somehow I got put in charge of the Chinese fleet and whatever rules we were using I could only issue 4 word orders. I noticed that the 2 Japanese column were a huge distance apart and so aimed for the nearest column and hoisted " line abreast follow me" (or something like that).
Short story was that the ram and torpedo won out over the quick firing gun, setting naval design back at least 10 years.

[paulr]

Sounds like a fun game that suited Rhys' usual playing style  

[paulr]

You could try the following

Janes Fighting Ships 1905-1906 - contains loads of info and an old style set of wargames rules
...

I have a copy within arms reach of my desk 

It was withdrawn from the reference collection of the Wellington library many years ago.

It also contains accounts of the war from both the Japanese and Russian standpoint and a summary of each of the actions. And this comment on the Battle of Tsushima, "Accurate details of the fight are not likely to arrive for some time and a description is left to next year's issue."