The Battle of Imbros. HMS Ark Royal & HMS Manxman took part in the final seaplane carrier mission in Mediterranean, which took place in early 1918.
On 20 January, HMS Ark Royal and the converted ferry HMS Manxman (carrying Sopwith Pup fighters) dispatched their aircraft to attack the Turkish Battle Cruiser Yavuz (formerly the German SMS Goeben - the ship that had brought Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers).

When the Yavuz ran aground on a sandbar at Nagara Point near the Dardanelles, during a sortie into the Mediterranean having hit a mine earlier, several attempts were made to destroy or damage the ship by gunfire and with aircraft. There was no serviceable Allied submarine available at the time.
12 × aircraft took part (one shot down & one damaged) with 8 × Short 184/Sopwith Baby floatplanes from Ark Royal scoring several hits from multiple bombing missions on the Battle Cruiser, but the small 65 lb and 112 lb bombs were insufficient to cause significant damage. Additional Allied aircraft flew in support of the bombing missions from Mudros Airfield (on Lemnos)  'F' & 'G'  & 'Z' (Greek) Squadrons of the 2nd Wing were stationed there at the time. Reconnaissance aircraft (DH9s) flew from from Imbros.
Turkey provided air cover with 10 × (German-manufactured) aircraft of its own (3 × shot down by a Greek pilot in a Sopwith Camel).

More detail is available at Wikipedia

Do you like our latest article on and extra bits & pieces (downloads) on Basic Impetus 2.0 rules by Dadi & Piombo? The article can be found here: Basic Impetus 2.0 - a review, a QRS and some extra Ace-in-the hole cards

We are currently looking at Naval Warfare during WW1 & WWII and testing out various rules and like the look of the Great War at Sea series by Avalanche. We are also trying Naval Thunder & (the computer-moderated) Battleships Zenith rules...

We have posted helpful gameplay files and our take on making the basic game more enjoyable (using a number of suggestions from player mods and a few of our own). Have a look - we are interested in your views...

Block wargames are not restricted to any one publisher but Columbia Games are the one who produces a vast and varied range of only Block boardgames. We find that they are a simple and effective method of generating a level of fog-of-war not present in many other boardgames and this in turn leads to a game that is both enjoyable and tense (and more enjoyable for that). You could easily delete 'tense' and insert the word 'stressful'.

Block games within the Isle of Man's wargaming community do tend to create a certain love it or hate it polarised viewpoint however those who love them rarely find satisfaction with other boardgames nowadays (though perhaps surprisingly tabletop figure gaming is still popular across the board so to speak).

So what are your thoughts? Have you ever played and found them wanting? Do you too enjoy them? What about other manufacturer's Block wargames?

If the current speed of publication by Columbia Games is anything to go by they most certainly are popular....