The other project that has captured my attention is how to do a combined arms campaign for WWII. By this, I mean something involving naval, air and land forces. I was looking for an action to model that would allow games using Chain of Command or IABSM as well as Bag the Hun and Coastal Patrol. This provides a number of challenges. What sparked my interest for this was a random Google search that came across Operation Agreement (September 13-14, 1942). This was a failed British landing to attempt to capture Tobruk back from the Germans and Italians.
This led me on a search around this time period. What became clear was the importance of Malta in 1942 and the fuel oil situation for the Italian navy. On paper, the Italian naval assets should have dominated the Mediteranean. But oil shortages kept their major surface units in dock rather than patroling the sea. The actions around keeping Malta in the fight make for some amazing reading. Operations Julius, Vigorous, Harpoon all in June, the proposed Operation Herkules (not attempted), Operation Pedestal all vital to the survival of Malta. With Pedestal being a very costly success for the British, this operation kept Malta alive and a threat to all Axis operations in the Mediteranean.
In each of the Malta convoys, both naval and air actions happen continuously. My first step will be to work out how to make a campaign that integrates the air and sea elements. To work on this, my Amazon purchases after Christmas have been mostly on naval actions in the Mediteranean and getting overviews of the situation. Finding good orders of battle for the Italian, German and British naval and air forces in the area has proven to be difficult. Some web searches has given me some good information on the German U-Boats in the Mediteranean for the period.
One of my playtests will be adding submarines to Coastal Patrol. I have miniatures for Coastal Patrol in 1/1200th scale. I have discovered some wonderful miniatures in 1/600th scale that I am 3d printing. Printing in PLA doesn't look great but it is passable in 1/600th. The larger the ship, the better it looks. The small Italian MAS 500 boats get sketchy looking torpedoes. There are options from PT Dockyard in 1/600 as well.
Anyway, this is what is kicking around in my brain currently. What are your plans for 2021?
