I am often drawn to oddball periods or one-off games because of the unique circumstances surrounding the event. A number of years ago, I first learned about the Cod Wars, which were a series of commercial trade wars between Iceland and Great Britain about fishing rights off the coast of Iceland and the extension by Iceland of their exclusive economic zone to 50NM.
There was exactly one death, an Icelandic engineer, who was electrocuted whilst making a repair. But several ships were damaged, some severely. It strained NATO relations to the point where Iceland was ready to leave the alliance (not a Good Thing, as far as ASW is concerned). And it had a negative impact on the economy of the UK.
The great naval rules author, David Manley, wrote up a set of rules for the "conflict". And Shapeways had 3D printed vessels for sale....until they shut down.
Then roaming around the InterWebs, I found that "Decapod", the person who created the STL files for the ship models for the Cod Wars, had put them on Thingiverse. So....I downloaded them. And bought David Manley's rules from Wargames Vault.
The ships:
Above, from closest to farthest: Two Icelandic Coast Guard Vessels, three side trawlers, and then a large support tugboat
More ships:
From left-ish to right-ish: Two more ICGV patrol vessels (Aegin or Odinn) and three stern trawlers
And yet more ships:
Two Support Vessels, then an HMS Exmouth, then an ICGV modelled after the Baldur or Tyr
Finally, a Leander Class frigate:
I plan to paint this up as HMS Leopard. A friend of mine served on her as a Junior Seaman during the last Cod War, so as a tribute to him (and as a focus for some games) I'll make her the Leopard.
Well, time to get these cleaned up and then primed. I'll probably do grey primer, then go from there.
HMS Leopard,
ReplyDeleteready in peace, defiant in war.
Great stuff Eric.
Willz.
Very interesting! Look forward to seeing how you attack this obscure conflict
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