Far Distant Ships

This is my first blog entry for a while, so you could be excused for thinking that I've not been up to much. In fact the last few months have been quite busy (and you'll find a brief summary at the end of this entry).

The reason for this entry is to post an update on a project that has been on my books for two decades, and that is a set of fast play fleet action age of sail rules. I've had a number of false starts on this but over the past 6 months this project has accelerated a bit and it looks like it is coming to fruition. The rules now sit within my set of fast play rules, between the Renaissance and the age of the ironclads, and players of my other sets such as "Broadside and Ram", and "Cannon, Cross & Crescent", will be familiar with the mechanics (although they differ in a number of details). The rules have been the subject of some gritty playtesting by a number of groups, not least of which is Bob Blanchett and his antipodean team who have done a grand job highlighting areas for improvement.

My latest play test here was last Monday, wherein my friends in the Berkeley Vale wargames club took to the high seas off the Netherlands to refight the Battle of Camperdown/Kamperduin - Monday was Trafalgar day but I wanted something a bit smaller for this game as it was the first time the BV team had seen them.

As in the real battle the aim was simple - Dutch need to escape to the West, the Royal Navy needs to stop them. And thats sort of how it turned out, although the RN wasn't as successful as in real life. The Dutch vanguard and middle squadron managed to extricate themselves quite nicely, and gave the British vanguard a  bit of a hard time. The British rear managed to get itself out of position and ended up trading shots at long range, but the centre squadron hit the Dutch line between the Dutch centre and rear, isolating the rear squadron which was hammered at close range. As the game ended (and last orders called) the Dutch rear was lost, but they had managed to get their other squadrons into a position from which they could escape, albeit with some damage sustained.

Start of the game. The Dutch (right) decide to close the distance to the British fleet 

Closing, closing......

Battle is joined. The white and yellow puffs are markers representing damage suffered. 

Towards the end of the evening as the Dutch rear is isolated

A fun action, and the BV players picked up the essence of the rules very quickly. The important thing though from my perspective was that they enjoyed it and want to play again. Perhaps we will get Trafalgar done this year after all? :)

Just for info, the models are 1/2400 scale ships from the Hallmark range. I first got these to do Trafalgar around 1995, and Andrew Finch of A&AGE painted up my first batch (plus the Danes at anchor which I bought to do Copenhagen). The last batch of models, which I bought soon after the first, I finally completed earlier this year :)

** So what else have I been up to? Well, in no particular order:

• The Naval Wargames Weekend at Yeovilton
• The Wings of Glory / Sails of Glory weekend at Doncaster Air Museum (I won the naval tournament, came 3rd overall in the weekend event)
• Published "Narrow Seas" at last
• Printed and painted a whole host of 1/600 craft for Narrow Seas, including Finnish and Italian squadrons, and some additional 1/700 PT boats and Japanese "targets" for my Pacific collection. This lot has comprised somewhere in the region of 60 new craft
• and probably a whole lot more :)

3D Fun

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to make a few pennies selling on some GHQ modern Germans that had been sitting on my shelf for too long. Just for one I decided to spoil myself and so a few days later I took delivery of an Anycubic Photon 3D resin printer. This is a nifty device that uses UV light to cure very thing layers of resin (down to 0.02mm) that form the subject of your model print. Since then I've been learning how the thing works, tweaking settings and arrangement of models on the print bed (which rises up out of the resin tank, quite remarkable). I've had quite a few failed prints bu I'm getting the hang of it and I must say I'm very pleased with the results. Obviously the main subjects have been ships and coastal forces models. With the release of Cruel Seas there have been a number of 1/300 scale 3D models put up on free download sites. I've made a few in 1/300, but the joy of 3D printing is that you can scale the models just as you can print a paper document at a reduced or enlarged size. So I've printed out a few new flotillas of 1/600 craft, as well as all seven of the Red Sands "Maunsell" forts that are in the Thames Estuary (essential for a CF campaign, they did trade shots with S Boats on several occasions)

A few examples of printed and painted models below; as I type the machine is working on a set of Star Trek ships, and the Moon Base from Gerry Anderson's "UFO" TV series is in the paint shop

SHADO Interceptors from "UFO"

The seven elements of Red Sands Fort

1/300 MGBs and an RAF rescue launch

1/200 Cessna O2

1/600 R Boats and SGB

1/600 MAS and MS boats

1/600 ASRL and HDMLs

1/600 MGBs

 

Finishing off my Napoleonics

Many years ago I got a couple of Figurehead 1/2400 fleet packs covering Trafalgar which I got painted by A&AGE when they offered a painting service I added a few extras, and then got a Danish fleet at anchor to do Copenhagen. After picking up a pile of unpainted models on Ebay I did a few, but then the project languished in a box for ages (th Copenhagen project was in 2001, so we are talking 18 odd years here).

Trafalgar weekend this year was also Rory McCreadie's memorial game which we fought out using his collection of 1/2400s (Tumbling Dice). Returning from the event I reminded myself about the lead pile in my own collection. Inspired by the game (and working on a fleet level set of rules for which 1/2400 is ideal) I resolved to finish off the remaining models. This afternoon I accomplished this as ten new Spanish SOLs, a similar number of Spanish frigates, ten merchants, two American frigates and a host of unrated ships came off the painting table.

These will win no awards if looked at up close but when viewed from a short distance as the wargaming gods decree they look perfectly reasonable.

Galleys and Galleons Playtesting

This week I have (after a game of Fire and Fury at the club - my first for 18 years) been reading through and playtesting "Galleys and Galleons", a forthcoming set of piratical naval rules from Ganesha Games set in the "age of discovery". I don't want to say too much about them as we've been asked not to give away details but suffice to say I am liking these rules a lot. They are quick and simple to play, sensibly realistic within the confines of the game system, beautifully adaptable with all sorts of special features and ship types and - best of all - lots of fun! I've been playing with Peter Pg 1/450 scale models which are ideal for use with these rules, but they are scalable to use with just about any available model scale.

Being the cussed old naval wargamer that I am I have fired off a couple of salvoes of thoughts and comments based on my readings and my first few games. As with any set of rules there are "I wouldn't have done it like that" elements, but mainly requests for clarifications and suggestions for additional bits and pieces to build on the realism aspects whilst maintaining the simple and fun approach.

As you can see, one of my opponents has adopted a very laid back approach to this game and has decided it is his firm favourite (and indeed first) wargame. Ole won this game by the simple expedien of jumping up just after this photo was taken, scattering the ships and batting the dice all over the lounge. Well done Captain Mog!

Anyway, more playtesting later in the weekend. But I must say, very nicely done.

Mediterranean Skirmish

The chaps at the Berkeley Vale club seem rather taken with Form Line of Battle. And quite rightly so, IMHO :) Anyway, for their second outing I thought it would be good to try an action with smaller ships rather than ships of the line. Smaller in one sense, but bigger in others as I decided to try the rules out sing my collection of 1/450 Peter Pig "Pieces of Eight" ships. These are lovely models and I really wish Martin would add just a few new models to the range. They are full of character and have a natural advantage over 1/1200 Langtons in that they are extremely rugged and hence perfectly suited to club evening play. 

The French "line" approaching

Anyway, the scenario was a 3 way battle set in the Mediterranean in the late 1700s. A British landing force and civilians are being evacuated in a couple of transports from an anchorage in the face of an oncoming French force comprising a small frigate and five schooners and sloops. The British force comprises two small frigates and two brigs. Unbeknownst to either a squadron of wiley Algerine pirates is also in the offing, touting a couple of xebecs and two dhows, packed with warriors of Allah. The aim of the game is simple - whoever gets the transports off the table wins.

The French commanders, Rodger and Andy, plot their next moves

Brevity and the passage of time precludes a detailed account of the action, but the key points were this. The French attempted to work around into the bay to attack the British from the rear, whilst the Algerines (bravely, but rather uncharacteristically) mounted a full-on charge. This was met with thundering broadsides, but some clever manoeuvring did get one of the xebecs into a position where it could slow the progress of one of the transports. However, by this time the French were assailing the British rear and were in a perfect position to scoop up the delayed transport, the British warships having been drawn ahead of this ship and thus not in a position to support. As the evening drew to a close I surveyed the state of the table and called a narrow French victory. Well don Rodger and Andy!

The Algerine squadron braces itself for a broadside from the leading British frigate

The game worked just fine with the Peter Pig models and so its likely that the majority of our FLoB games will be those featuring smaller ship actions. Next on the order of play - gunboats and cutting out missions

Towards the climax of the battle - the French squadron (left) closes on the British rear

An earlier phase of the battle, as Steve drives the British squadron towards the oncoming Algerines

Forming the Line at Slimbridge

A few weeks back I introduced the Berkeley Vale club to the full version of Sails of Glory. In the post game discussion a few of the chaps mentioned Form Line of Battle and suggested we give them a spin as well. Not wishing to dissuade my erstwhile colleagues from the joys of naval wargaming I agreed. Last night at the club we fought an introductory action, a British squadron with a 100 and five 74s (two with veteran crews) against a Spanish100, two French 80s and three Spanish 74s. We rolled for commands, Mike and I driving the Brits, Rodger the Spanish led squadron and Shaun the French. It was a sizeable action for a "first try" of the rules (and I must admit I was a bit rusty, confusing a few rules between editions, but nothing too serious).

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the guys picked up the rules. So much so that they were running their own commands without me having to provide much guidance on the rules after about the third turn.

The action began in linear style with both fleets trading long range shots, but after a while Mike's training British squadron (which included the 100 gun "Death Star") took advantage of a developing gap between the leading Spanish and the French squadron. Meanwhile my vanguard British squadron and Rodger's Spaniards closed to point blank range, exchanging broadsides in a gunnery duel where the Spanards came off second best (my die rolling was uncharacteristically good, Rodger's annoyingly bad).

By the time last orders sounded a British victory was called. One of the French 80s had struck in a boarding action, the Spanish 100 had escaped through a squall and the remainder of the allied fleet was looking decidedly second hand. in contrast the British ships, whilst suffering a bit in the gunnery department, were still stout hulled and shaping up to bock the escape of at least two of the remaining allied ships.

The players' verdict? "Good stuff and can we have more please". so it looks as though Berkeley Vale will be following the FLoB route for age of sail gaming, at least for a while.

Still, all being well its Sails of Glory at the Mall tomorrow night :)  

The Plan – 2014

Having reviewed progress in 2013 yesterday, today I set out my plan for 2014. As a cursory look at the last 2 years will show I achieve between 50% and 75% of my objectives so I am confident I will be reporting a similar ration of success and “deferred success” in 364 days time J

1 – 15mm Colonial. Sort out those blasted Bashi Basouks and some river boats. Then look to see what we need extra (if anything) for the hinted-at Berkeley Vale campaign.

2 – Form Line of Battle. A surprise entry, but here because (a) I’ve remembered how much I love the rules and (b) Rodger at the club wants to give them a try. The plan here is to renovate the fleets and complete at least six ships from the “lead pile”

3 – Project X. Mysteriously referred to over the last 2 years, PX has three elements to it. I will complete at least 2 of them this year. You’ll know when I do J

4 – 1/600 Coastal. Resurrecting last year’s objective, I will renovate the existing fleets, finish any odd models that have yet to be completed, sort out soft copies of ship data cards and get some games in! A stretch target will be to do the same for my 1/1200 models.

5 – Armada Invencible. Another surprise entry, but 2014 should see the rules for this hit the streets. I have a couple of the ships already and it looks like my stock of old Airfix galleons might work with them at a pinch. The objective here is to get a copy, knock up small English and Spanish squadrons and try them out. And if they don’t work then an Armada variant of FLoB may be on the cards J

6 – Games. I’m well set up to run a number of games, including Wings of Glory, X Wing, Sails of Glory (of which more in the coming days I hope), War Rocket and a few others so the plan here is to get a number of games of each in. I’ll also try to run a one day campaign, maybe two. These may or may not be connected with Project X.

Inevitably there will be some mission creep. I can guess where the mission may creep to over the coming months (those 15mm Vikings would like a day out, as would my 7^th cavalry and Plains Wars Indians, and then there’s the “not the Spanish Civil War” stuff…..). So expect some variation.

However, one very firm target – NO NEW PERIODS!

And now to end, the first completed models of 2014 (which don’t fit in to objectives 1-6) – a pair of Zvezda 1/100 T-35s. They really are quite imposing! 

Sails of Glory - Mind That Island!

As some of you may know I have been lucky enough to get hold of a production copy of "Sails of Glory" - as far as I know the first such copy in the UK!  I must say I am impressed at the quality of the finished article. The card components in particular are thick and nicely cut, and the box provides ideal storage for the game and components once its all opened up and punched out. I also received the five damage chit bags that were available through the Kickstarter - again very nice. Of course, having put the counters in the bags the volume of the ensemble is too great to fit in the box but I'm using a second box for other bits and pieces, a laser printed copy of the rulebook, mats etc. so tats no great shakes.

Anyway, I took the game along to the Berkeley Vale club this week. A couple of the guys there have played before using the pre-production set. This time I had six players plus me umpiring. Two frigates, one SoL each side. The Brits took a quick look at the stats and realised they were on a sticky wicket (those cunning Euros have used nice weak British frigates and SOLs as their first releases, and they generally don't stand up too well to the bad guys), and so they started calling for carronades and higher rates of fire (knowing that I have devised house rules for these aspects). However, the evil umpire insisted on "rules as written". 

We played on a 6' by 8' table, just a few small islands and rocks - four small pieces. Of course these acted as ship magnets. The RN moved to secure the weather gauge, the French firstly thought it would be good to ran their SOL with one of their frigates, park said frigate alongside the British SOL and then run their second frigate argound. Brits at this point realised that lower ship stats can be mitigated by fighting enemies who (a) can't drive and (b) ignored the briefing at the start of the game, which included "keep away from islands", "keep frigates away from enemy SOLs" and "don't hit each other.

In the end the poor French SOL commander decided discretion was the better part of valour and headed for the hills once his mobile frigate struck and his second supporting ship was stuck on the putty.

Interestingly, whilst we were using the full gunnery rules, no-one wanted to use any ammo other than roundshot.

Anyway, another four players who hadn't tried the game were sucked in and we are now planning an episodic campaign, hopefully running irregularly through 2014.

"Sails of Glory" - The NWS at Colours 2013

Yesterday the Naval Wargames Society ran "Sails of Glory" at Colours (one of the main wargaming events in the UK). The small but intrepid team of four stalwart naval types  (myself, Simon Stokes, Rob Hutton and pressed man Paul Ewins from my local wargaming club) assembled at the show at 0800 Sunday morning, set up and in very short order got straight into action. We played an initial game amongst ourselves to give the newbies a chance to get up to speed. Even this game, kicking off before the show started, attracted considerable attention from the gamers and traders present. The show opened officially at 1000 and the public appeared. We were kept busy right through the day, playing through six games, all of which were hard fought and very enjoyable actions, and in fact we were just about the last game still playing on the day.

The reaction to the game was amazing. Everyone who played it loved it. And it worked just fine for all ages. I think our youngest player was 10, but we had a visit from a 6 year old who was very well acquainted not only with pirates, but with Admiral Nelson and Trafalgar, and who grasped the style of play very easily - no prizes for guessing what is on his Christmas list this year! The table was often surrounded by observers If we'd had copies on sale on the day we could have cleared dozens based on the numbers of players and observers who were stuck by the quality of the models and the speed and ease of play. We had a few "old salt" naval gamers playing as well who thought the system was ideal for those quick "club night" games, and for small ship actions (we are already kicking off thoughts for period and other variants using the basic system).

So, all in all a very successful day. And with luck more demos and parti games upcoming at events in the next couple of months (I'm planning to bring it down to Stuart's Crimean campaign weekend). The game was a big hit, highly popular and, if today's reaction was anything to go by, assured of great success in the near future!

I posted  a similar summary to the Sails of Glory forum and was asked by a member there for any advice in running games of this type. I posted ten "hot tips" and thought, as a bonus, some readers here might like to see them too.

1) Have a good team of players with you. It can get rather wearing running game after game after game so you need to be able to swap between umpires. It also allows those not directly running the game to hover around the players to help them out if they get stuck remembering the rules or wanting advice. It also lets the "spare bodies" dash off for a short while to see the rest of the show.

2) "Battlespace management" is more important with a sailing game than most others I think, due to the effects of the wind. The action will naturally flow downwind, so be aware of that and have your scenario starting points clustered towards the upwind part of the table. and think about how the terrain (if any) is going to help and hinder the game. We had an island that, if at the downwind end of the table, was a real pig to sail around due to its proximity to the corner**. So we swapped ends and it was now at the upwind end and much easier to negotiate.

3) If you are playing with the four starter set ships, impress upon whoever gets the frigates that they ARE highly vulnerable to incoming fire from the SOLs. We had two games where frigate players (despite this advice) went SOL hunting in frigates. Their games were short. But tell them anyway, some of them might listen.

4) Practice. Set the game up some time before the event and play it through with friends o make sure your scenario works. I didn't get a chance to do this on this occasion as the kit arrived just the day before, if I'd had the chance the issue with the island would have been spotted before game #1 rather than during it :)

5) Have an on duty "caller" - a floating person who spots interested people (or even vaguely disinterested ones) in the crowd and passers by and hooks them in for a chat and to inveigle them into the game. You need to have a separate person doing this, not the umpire (they are busy keeping the game going)

6) Remember, keep clutter to a minimum. Nothing looks worse than a table strewn with drinks, lunch, random stuff that someone has bought and dumped on the table edge, odd papers etc. A tidy game is an efficient game :)

7) Bring glue - although not required on this occasion I always have some superglue and/or plastic cement (as demanded by the models) on hand to conduct running repairs during a game. Especially relevant in this as you only have four ships to work with and, had one been damaged and out of action, that would have seriously compromised the game.

8) Prepare yourself as well as the game. I take a sports water bottle to shows so can have a crafty drink to keep me going through games - all that talking through rules and the game with players causes havoc with your throat.

9) Practice your rules summary - you need to get the key concepts of play explained to and understood by your players in 5 minutes or less. So work out in advance what you want to say and demonstrate.

10) Above all, have fun! Although you are Ares unofficial PR department on the day remember its a hobby, not a job. and if you aren't having fun, chances are your team and your players aren't either.

** why place an island there, you might ask. The reason being that we had no "official" game mats (they didn't make it across from the US, neither did the display material or packaging) so I ended up using a playing surface made from a roll of John Lewis heavy duty underlay. its blue, flexible and non-slip so ships don't slide around. The night before I sprayed and dry brushed it to bring out the texture as waves and spray and left it to dry - only to find 5 minutes later that the cats had decided it was THEIR mat, had sprawled out on it and, in stretching had clawed the surface in two places. The damage was OK for a club game, but not for a demo at one of the UK's most prestigious gaming events, so islands were placed to strategically cover the tears!

The Naval Wargames Weekend 2013 - Report

The Naval Wargames Weekend has come and gone for another year, and this year’s was the best yet. Thirteen games over two days, with nine games running on day 1, and seven on day 2.

On the Saturday I ran my Cod War game from Salute 2013. The rules were developed slightly from the original game and, as always, much fun and merriment ensued as frigates rammed coast guard vessels and vice versa. Highspot of the day was the “death ride of the Leander” in the final game as she rammed and sank a coast guard cutter, then immediately sideswiped a trawler and also sent her to the bottom. Instant RN loss! 

The Solent Wargames Association ran two games each day. On the Saturday Mark Backhouse ran his popular “Hail Agrippa” ancient naval participation game based on the battle of Actium. An innovative set of rules based on the “Hail Caesar” land rules, emphasising the similarities between land and naval warfare of the period.

Solent’s other table ran a WW2 coastal game in 1/1200 using Action Stations rules, with lovely models and some exquisite coastline and harbour terrain pieces that prompted much discussion. They also ran a developmental game covering piracy off Somalia.  

Mark Barker and the Inshore Squadron presented the 1797 battle of Camperdown. The battle was split into two phases, with the Southern Phase played out on day 1. As always, Mark’s models were awesome.

Wayne Pocock ran the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1/3000 using War Times Journal minis and Naval Thunder rules. Naval Thunder has become something of a favourite with Wayne’s team within the NWS.

Jeff Crane ran the second NWS game, this time a fantasy action with another battle from his continuing  “Keshian Civil War” campaign (which must have been running for over 20 years

 now).

Rob Kirk and his team brought another WW2 coastal game, this time in 1/600 and again using Action Stations. The setting was the Mediterranean, with allied convoys beset by waves of Stukas and axis torpedo boats.

Another Mediterranean setting covered George Street’s 1/6000 modern naval game set off the coast of Crete using a variant of Shipwreck. This was an intriguing game played at the task force level.

Last but not least,  Mongoose Publishing brought along their revised Victory at Sea WW2 naval rules and samples from their new 1/1800 resin ship range. MGP played through several demo and parti games based on the Battle of the River Plate, and the new rules seemed to go gown well.

Although not run as a trade show Mongoose brought along their trade stand and they were joined on the trading front by Stuart Barnes Watson’s “Anchorage” 1/1200 ship dealership, both of which prised some cold hard cash from the hands of the captive naval wargamers present J

Saturday evening’s barbeque was cancelled due to the inclement weather, but an intrepid cadre of NWS veterans slept over at the museum after holding the NWS AGM. So we were able to reset the hall bright and early for Sunday’s games.

For me, Cod War gave way to the age of sail, with a demonstration through several participation games of Ares Games new “Sails of Glory” miniatures game. SOG is similar in concept to Wings of Glory, with simple yet effective rules using prepainted models. Many games were played, much discussion had, and the publication version awaited with great interest. As an aside the NWS will be running this game at Colours in September.

Solent continued with the WW2 coastal and Somali pirate theme, but also brought a lovely 20mm Sudan-esque riverine game. This was a characterful game with some lovely scratch built riverboats, which always seemed to be having a hard time against the Dervish horde!

Mark Barker’s Inshore Squadron  moved on to the Northern Phase of Camperdown. As with the previous day’s action it seemed the British were getting the rough end of the stick for a change!

Rob Kirk’s team brought along their “Cockleshell Heroes” parti game, with canoes converted from Airfix 20mm Commando figures, scratch built “targets” and the dastardly Hun appearing from the shadows. I didn’t get a chance to play this one but I spoke to some that did and it was a lot of fun.

Ian Armstrong, one of Rob’s team, also brought along his “work in progress” – fleets of scratch built Tudor era warships, fully rigged, fully crewed, which had to be seen to be believed. This is a project that has been running since 2001. With luck the fleets will be completed ready for a game at the next show in 2014.

So, more games than ever, more games than we used to have at the old NWS show at Fort Brockhurst and, as far as I am aware the biggest naval themed wargames event in the UK, Europe and (maybe) the world. The aim of the show was to give naval wargamers an opportunity to get together, play games, try each other’s games and to swap ideas and techniques. In that I think it worked very well. The feedback from attendees has been great with everyone planning to come back in  2014. The tentative plan is to hold a slightly bigger event the same weekend, so pencil in the 21^st and 22^nd June for next year J