Floor Wargames?

 

I guess I'm not alone in always wanting to go up a scale in my wargaming. But with naval games, once you go beyond 1/1200, table space becomes an issue...

So why not dispense with tables and play on the floor? Well, knees for one thing! Anyway, the idea of playing with 1/700 scale waterline models on a large floor area has long lurked in the back of my mind.  

With the idea of trialling the comfort aspect of the floor game, I set up a small game using some available 1/1200 models - a night meeting engagement of a couple of cruiser squadrons. All the photos in this game are taken from head height. 

The floor tiles are approx 18 inches square. Obviously 1/700 models would be roughly twice the size of these ships.

In my night action games I like to leave an EMILY stooging around, presumably chucking out flares on a regular basis. This babe is a 1/144 scale model, just to confuse things even further - I think it works well in terms of perspective. EMILY's role is simply to remind me its a night action...

My favourite set of WW2 rules are by Sam Mustafa, but they are currently still under play test so I can't go into too much detail. Suffice it to say that for this experiment all distances and ranges were doubled - not that these are huge at night anyway, even when fighting the Imperial Japanese Navy!

After an unsuccessful long range torpedo launch, the IJN cruiser formation closed and split into an anvil to launch torpedoes at close range. These also missed!

The USN then gained the advantage and concentrated their fire on the Aoba, inflicting severe damage.

In response, Mogami and Mikuma caused even heavier damage to the Portland. However no damage was caused to steering or propulsion and both squadrons sailed on past each other into the night, the EMILY having gone off task...Just another 1942 summer night in The Slot!

So what conclusions did I come to about the ergonomics of floor wargames? I don't think a lack of 'sea coloured' backdrop is a huge issue - I can't think of a shade of primary colour I haven't seen the sea reflect at one time or another. My knees and back survived, but a large desk or table to throw dice and conduct book-keeping on is essential. I would also confine floor actions to just a handful of units per side,  just to avoid any ship-foot collisions!