Friday 8 December 2017

Splendid Little War

My latest Wargame Vault production has finally hit the streets after a busy few weeks getting the finishing touches in place. "Splendid Little War" covers the Spanish American War of 1898, and features a short history of the war, a campaign system covering both the Caribbean and the Philippines, and my "Broadside and Salvo" pre-dreadnought rules. The set comprises a 60 page book, A3 copies of the campaign area maps, ship counters for US, Spanish and other nations vessels, and a set of patrol/blockade counters for use on the campaign maps. The approach is based on my earlier "White Bear Red Sun" campaign pack for the Russo Japanese War, but builds on that system in a  number of areas.


Astute readers will be aware that the war at sea ended up being something of a one sided affair due to the poor material state of much of the Spanish fleet, so the campaign allows players to work with the Spaniards as they should have been with well maintained ships and operational weapons, as well as the historical state of poorly maintained ships with inoperable weapons (and in some cases, main armament not even fitted). For added fun there are options to allow British, German and other European national interventions, so plenty of scope for some unusual actions in a historical setting.

I'm rather pleased at how this one has turned out. And it gave me the ideal excuse to spruce up my US pre-dreads and splurge on some of the lovely WTJ 3D printed models!

Splendid Little War can be found here:

12 comments:

  1. Well needed! Any chance you'll go with a print version as well? I just don't do pdf format. :)

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    1. Why not download and email the PDFs to a local print shop of your choice? I do it all the time - coil ring or Cerlox binding with a card stock cover page works a charm.
      Cheers
      Peter

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    3. Copyright issues? My local printer will not print anything that has a copyright on it, which many PDFs do have.

      Updated: Just downloaded a copy for .97 cents. Had a WV credit from my own shop's sales. I see where permission has been given to print out copies for personal use, so I will give it a try!

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    4. The standard answer to that copyright thing seems to be a statement on the company's web site that "making copies of our documents for personal use is allowed".

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  2. Wow .. just when I thought my distractions for the year were over! We (my extended wargame group) were just talking about doing a RJW campaign based on your last PDF ;)

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  3. Buckeye, apparently doing POD through WV is pretty tricky and I don't yet know how to do it. One day I will get to grips with it though.

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  4. I've already downloaded my copy. Looks great so far! Keep up the good work David. Any chance of Sino Japanese, Franco- Sino or Great War of the Pacific games in this series?
    Cheers
    Peter

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    1. Definitely for the first two, they are on the plot along with Russo Turkish. GWAP will probably have to wait until I do a WW1 version (which is likely, we are doing a Jutland game here next year using a development of the rules)

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    2. Cool, I'll look forward to these in the pipeline. GWAP sounds cool too but I realize I referred to the wrong conflict - I was thinking about the Chilean Peruvian War in the 1880s!

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    3. No, my mistake :) Yes, I'm looking at the Chilean Peruvian war, probably for "Broadside and Ram". I have both fleets in 1/1000 (the old Houstons ships; many are -or at least will be - conversions from various US and CS ships. I say "will be" as they've been in the "to do" pile for a few years! Mind you, for a quick start I have most of both fleets in 1/2400....)

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