Otranto 1917: Early Stages

I'm about 3/4s through reading The Battle of the Otranto Straits:Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in World War I by Paul G. Halpern, and perhaps to no one's surprise, this has led to an irrepressible urge to pay a naval wargame. Never mind that outside of "battle ship" and a game or two of the basic version of the Axis and Allies naval game a few years back, I haven't played any.

Image from goodreads.com

The "battle" such as it was a race up the Adriatic with a few shots fired and even fewer causing real damage. It's not exactly a fierce naval exchange. It's also pretty small (Jutland it isn't). Interestingly, both sides fielded flying boats which were useful as reconnaissance, although they were not entirely accurate in their reporting, and far less useful in attacking enemy ships. Subs were present, sort of, but not involved in the main action (though the threat of their presence was a factor in decision making) which means the action is essentially limited to surface vessels and some air support if desired.

It is entirely possible to field nearly all of the ships involved with 1/2400 models from Panzerschiffe . You could field some of them with fancier models from GHQ, but for what amounts to another side show for me, Panzerschiffe is the way to go, if not cardstock.

By way of example and to make this post useful, I have shared below the lists I made. Please note, these are based on Halpern's book - the Wikipedia article puts the Aquila with the Mirabello group, whereas Halpern has it as the lead ship, due to its speed, in the Dartmouth group.

Austria -Not listed are the two M-class torpedo boats, and the pre-dreadnaught Budapest. The former don't seem to be available, and the latter can be had from other suppliers. In any case, they add little, but would be fun to have for "what-if" scenarios.

Ship	Class	Panzerschiffe Code
Novara	Novara	L-128
Helgoland	Novara	L-128
Saida	Novara	L-128
Csepel	Tatra	D-109
Balaton	Tatra	D-109
Sankt George	Sankt George	L-145
Tatra	Tatra	D-109
Warasdiner	Tatra	D-109
84f	F class torpedo boat	D-111
88f	F class torpedo boat	D-111

Italian - "Substitions" - such as using the Pilo class for the Sirtori and Indomito classes - are based on readings of posts on The Miniatures Page, Lead Adventure Forum, and others. Also note, the Pilo class is under Panzerschiffe's WWII offerings as they were used in that war, too.

Ship	Class	Panzerschiffe Code	Group
Pilo	Pilo	D-042	Bristol grop
Mosto	Pilo	D-042	Brisol group
Schiafino	Pilo	D-042	Dartmouth group
Acerbi	Sirtori (similar to Pilo)	D-042	Dartmouth group
Aquilla	Aquila	D-113	Dartmouth group
Mirabello	Mirabello	D-112	Mirabello group
Racchia	Mirabello	D-112	Marsala group
Impavido	Indomito	D-042	Marsala group
Indomito	Indomito	D-042	Marsala group
Insidioso	Indomito	D-042	Marsala group
Marsala	Bixio	L-127	Marsala group

 British

Ship	Class	Panzerschiffe Code	Group
Bristol	Town	L-107	Bristol group
Dartmouth	Town	L-125	Dartmouth group

French (these don't appear to be available, but, in any case, due to their slow speed, don't play a role in the main action in any case.)

Ship	Class	Panzerschiffe Code	Group
Commandant Riviere	Bouclier	n/a	Mirabello group
Bisson	Bisson	n/a	Mirabello group
Cimeterre	Bouclier	n/a	Mirabello group

I haven't ordered any miniatures yet, however, I did start collecting rules.

Bob Cordery's Gridded Naval Wargames had been recommended to me by more than one person, so that was a no brainer. Also of interest are the freely available Archduke Piccolo's Ultra Simple Naval Games.

Both are grid based. The former using squares or hexes, the latter using hexes. 

Martin Rapier has a One Hour Wargame naval variant that looks intriguing, no grid required.

Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnaughts gets mentioned a lot on discussion boards (or did, some of the messages go back a decade or so) . It's out of print, but there are copies to be had and so I ordered a copy (you can get the PDF on Wargame Vault - the print edition was a little less expensive).  It hasn't arrived yet, but I will undoubtedly post when it does.

I bought a PDF copy of the supplement, Far Flung Seas,  with the Austrian and Italian navies (the print copy of the supplement not being readily available). It happens to handily include a campaign map for the Adriatic with Italian and Austrian bases and targets indicated. I believe the campaign system is included in the main rule book.

Apparently Warlord has released an updated version of Victory at Sea (the WWII version of the rules). Perhaps an update of Age of Dreadnaughts will follow?

Great War Salvo! 3rd ed. was 50% off on Wargame Vault this past weekend, so I grabbed that too. 

It's more of an abstract game, and not minis based. Although based on what I've seen of it, you could use minis if desired. Most of the ships involved in Otranto are not represented on the counter sheets, but there are several "close-enough". I have been eyeballing this one for awhile based on BoardgameGeek reviews and at 50% off it was too good to pass up.