(Naval Wargaming - 5) - Napoleonic Naval - 1/1200th - The Scenics

The final post in this series, and probably the most appealing to those with no interest in this period, the scenics.

The scenic pieces are all Langton and the Merchantmen are from Navwar:

Coastal Fort:

Harbour & buildings, along with blockship and floating battery:

Another Coastal Fort:

Telegraph station and shore battery:

Lighthouse:

Sinking Ship marker:

Martello Tower:

 

Harbour Boom:

Harbour:

Everything:

 

A couple of Merchantmen for scenario purposes:

Well that's that project completed, two fleets an a load of scenics, as an added bonus the whole lot stores very easily and doesn't take up much space, both factors being very important to me.

I am currently still working my way through my Epic Imperial Guard and hope to have them finished fairly soon.

(Naval Wargaming - 4) - Napoleonic Naval - 1/1200th - The French

Following on from my last post here is my French fleet for Trafalgar:

(Naval Wargaming - 3) - Napoleonic Naval - 1/1200th - The British

Welcome to the first of three posts each briefly showing my Napoleonic naval fleets and scenic pieces.

Firstly let me say that I do not consider myself either a Napoleonic or Naval wargamer, neither am I particularly well read on these subjects. I do however have a fascination with the ships of the period and had wanted to do some gaming with them for a while but had been put off by rules that require you to have actual sailing experience or vast amounts of nautical knowledge to play them. Also a number of the rule-sets I looked at appeared very tedious or drawn out and slow. That's when I stumbled across the Trafalgar rule-set from the now defunct Warhammer Historical line and my prayers were answered.

Now Trafalgar gets quite a bit of grief from actual naval gamers, they don't seem to like it, but for us non-naval types its ideal. Its fast playing, it incorporates the wind, sail settings etc without the need for a manual or hands on experience, yes it does simplify things and is generous with its "attitude to wind" template but these are plusses in my opinion, and even with all the allowances the game is still heavily dependant (as it should be) on your ability to manoeuvre your ships.
 I have introduced a number of our gaming group to this system and it has met with universal approval, so much so that a number of players have tracked down their own copies of the rules and everyone has bought their own fleet, this despite none of us considering ourselves naval wargamers.

Anyway enough of that and on to the pics, all models are either Navwar or Langton:

Unrated ships (brigs, cutter, bomb vessel and gunboats):

Frigates:

 

3rd & 4th Rates:

1st Rate:

The Whole Fleet:

Ships Boats:

The French and scenics in the next posts.

(Naval Wargaming - 1) - Fire as she bears!

I got elected to bring my Trafalgar rules and ships last week at the club, so I duly dug them out to discover to my dismay that a good number of mast, bowsprits and sails had fallen off since their last outing (over 3 years ago). Undeterred, I cracked on and made the necessary repairs which was quite satisfying and much easier than initially thought.

I quickly re-read the rules, which fortunately are relatively straight forward and don't require any great nautical knowledge, prepped some ships rosters, and came up with the following brief scenario outline:

The Action of the 9^th of July 1810

A British Squadron led by HMS Fury (74) was dispatched to the West Indies Station to provide reinforcements following renewed French activity. On route the squadron was scattered by inclement weather, leaving the Fury without its escort of frigates, now almost in sight of port, a French squadron is bearing down, in the hope of picking off the lone ship of the line.  The few ships stationed at the port have been dispatched to provide an escort and to hopefully deter the French from attacking.

The British

HMS Fury – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 250pts

HMS Clarence – Cutter – 30pts

Commanded by Rob.

 

HMS Gloucester – Razee Frigate – 140pts

HMS York – Brig – 60pts

HMS Middleham – Brig – 60pts

Commanded by Craig.

 

540 points

 
The French

Toulon – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 225pts

Le Petit Rouge – Corvette – 45pts

Commanded by John.

 

Le Glorie – 3^rd rate (large) equipped with bow & stern chasers – 225pts

Le Mans – Corvette – 45pts

Commanded by Andy.

 

540 points


There were 4 players and I acted as referee, Rob took HMS Fury and Clarence, whilst Craig took the remaining British ships, Andy and John split the French equally between them. Only John was familiar with the rules, so after briefly going over the basics, action commenced. I decided to keep things simple, so that the wind was blowing in a northerly direction and that wind direction and strength would not change throughout the course of the game.

The two groups of French ships started to either side of the HMS' Fury & Clarence on the Western edge of the board heading in an easterly direction, with the remaining British Ships at the opposite side of the board heading in a westerly direction hoping to come to the rescue.

Both Fury & Clarence maintained their course, seeking the safety of the other British ships, whilst both French squadrons veered off, one captained by Andy heading NE and Johns heading SE, Craigs British reinforcements headed in a NW direction and with the wind assisting them they soon closed in.

The corvette Le Mans, struck the first blows, with a stern rake on HMS Fury which managed to cause considerable damage including taking out the carronades, a single shot in reply hit Le Petit Rouge, causing rudder damage which saw this little ship heading off to the NW unable to steer that was the last we would see of this ship(or so we thought).

 The British had now managed to get all their ships together and showing some great seamanship managed to isolate and gang up on Le Glorie which had taken some shelter behind a small island. This cover proved insufficient to the British whose manuevering was quite impressive, a broadside from HMS Fury followed by a further broadside from HMS Gloucester saw Le Glorie not only crippled but completely sunk. However HMS Fury had taken further damage in the exchange and was now down to Light cannons only.

In the centre of the table the smaller ships had a bit of a set too as HMS Middleham took on Le Mans, things again went the British way as HMS Middleham took only very minor damage whilst managing to both de-crew and cripple Le Mans, leaving it floating in the middle of the table. HMS Middleham now tried to rejoin the main fleet, being somewhat isolated and with the Toulon now coming up from the South seeking some revenge.

Before HMS Middleham could escape however, a sail was spotted ont he horizon as the plucky corvette Le Petit Rouge, had just managed to make a repair of its damaged rudder (just before it went off the table) and turnabout heading straight for HMS Middleham. The French now out for blood, de-crewed HMS Middleham with a single broadside leaving it floating next to its earlier victem(Le Mans) in the middle of the game board.

With Toulon heading in from the South and Le Petit Rouge moving East from the centre of the table the remaining British ships where clustered around a small island still celebrating the victory over Le Glorie. Finding themselves a little tight on manuevering space, they just about managed to turnabout to face the danger presented by the still unscathed Toulon.

Whilst Le Petit rouge sailed around the centre of the table considering whether to take HMS Middleham under tow, Toulon finally managed to bring her guns to bear on the British, further minor damage was inflicted on HMS Fury and the cutter HMS Clarence was totally crippled by a broadside from the large 3rd rate. manuevering in the small space between the island and the edge of the board proved problematic as firstly HMS Fury went "over the edge" quickly followed by Toulon, at which point we decided to end the game with the result a British victory. the Final tally was as follows:

Le Glorie – sunk

Le Mans – crippled and no crew

Toulon - sailed off the edge

Le Petit Rouge - survived

HMS Fury - sailed off the edge with major damage incurred

HMS Clarence - crippled but still crewed

HMS Gloucester - survived

HMS Middleham - crippled and no crew

HMS York - survived

Rob's HMS Fury with HMS Clarence almost hidden behind it, in the background you can just see John's French 3rd rate, coming in from the South.

 

 HMS York, Middleham and Gloucester heading to the rescue.

 

Craig's Brig's rendezvousing with HMS Fury and HMS Clarence, the razee frigate HMS Gloucester trailing behind in the foreground whilst in the background Andy's 3rd rate tries to put an island between it and the British.

 

 

Le Petit Rouge sails off to the NW with a damaged rudder, whilst Le Mans(in the centre) is about to be blasted by the two British Brigs (bottom right). Le Glorie seeks the shelter of an island shadowed by HMS Fury and Clarence.

 

 

Everyone claimed to enjoy the game and the rules, and somewhat surprisingly we actually managed to finish the game.

 

 

 

 

Odds & Ends (4) - What I've got and what I play

The Purge:

Its easy to get distracted as a wargamer, when the latest ruleset or miniature release takes your fancy it's hard to resist and before you know it you have an eclectic collection of half built, half painted forces. Well at least thats how I was, but when my first child was born (nearly 5 years ago) I soon realised that my gaming time was going to be severely reduced, so I started a much needed cull of the miniatures/rules that I either no longer cared for or knew I would never get around to painting up. I also intended on moving on to smaller scales to save on scenery/storage space, so out went my:

28mm Ancients.
almost my entire collection of GW's Warmaster range (I was lucky with these having bought almost everything when they were initially released).
my three 40K armies.
entire legions of 6mm Epic Orks, Space Marines and Squats.
2 Blood Bowl teams plus spare Star players and the like.
the majority of my really old early 80's pre slotta stuff.
all my GZG starships and Battlefleet Gothic stuff.
my 20mm WW2 British Infantry.
several boardgames.

By doing this I narrowed my focus and was actually able to crack on and get projects moving again, it also funded my wargaming purchases for 3 years, mainly due to some of my Warmaster stuff being very rare, I got over £100 for a packet that cost me £5. So now nearly 5 years on from the start of the purge, I am much happier in my hobby, as the unpainted lead mountain has shrunk drastically, and I'm getting more gaming in, on the games I've focused on, which brings me to them.

The Survivors:

So this is what I currently play:

6mm World War 2 using H&R miniatures and BKC2 rules (I have both a British Brigade and the German equivilent at a scale of 1 stand = 1 platoon).

(Some of my 6mm WW2 Late war British)

(German Panzer Grenadier Battalion)

(German Armour)

6mm War of the Roses using Baccus miniatures and Impetvs rules (I have around 90 units based for Impetvs).

(A game of 6mm War of the Roses, at the club)

15mm/20mm World War 2 using either my own 20mm SHQ miniatures (about 2-300 of these plus a dozen or so vehicles) or my mates 15mm FOW miniatures with the Rules of Engagement ruleset.

(20mm Para's defending a casino)

X-Wing, I have everything bar the latest large ships that have just been released.

6mm Napoleonic using Black Powder and my mates miniatures (I have nothing at all to contribute to these games).

(6mm Napoleonic Black Powder at the club)

1/1200th Napoleonic Naval, using Langton and Navwar miniatures with the Trafalgar ruleset.

28mm Old West, using a variety of miniature companies and the Legends of the Old West ruleset.

(Red's Gang)

 

(Red)

(Big Dick Bowdre)

(Evil Eli)

(Lightnin' Joe)

(Little Dick Whiteley)

(Injun Joe)

Wings of War/Glory, not played this for a while but still one of my faves for which I have around 20 airplanes including a Balloon and Bomber.

28mm Pirates, not got very far with this, as I only have around 6 crew and a small ship I converted from one of my sons wooden toys, lack of opponents has kept this on the back burner for now.

10mm Warmaster Medieval using my own homebrew Game of Thrones lists and figures from Magister Militum and Kallistra, this got put aside again due to a lack of opponents, but has now been picked up again as I've managed to get a mate interested in it.

28mm Judge Dredd, picked these up at Xmas, not done anything with them as yet, I only have a Justice Dept team ,and I'm looking for some good 28mm Post Apoc ganger types to use as opponents.

10mm Colonial Marine vs Aliens, Im using the Pendraken miniatures, but haven't decided on a ruleset as yet, I was tinkering with my own home brew rules, but have now moved on to converting ROE for this purpose.

 

 



(10mm Aliens & Marines from Pendraken)

 

6mm Sci Fi, mainly GW stuff - Space Marines to be exact and loads of them including a few original metal titans, I have a bunch of stuff from other companies too, and have been thinking of getting back into this genre as I've not played for a long long time.

28mm Samurai, always wanted an excuse to pick up some of the Perry Miniatures Japanese miniatures, and the Osprey's release of Ronin allowed me to do this.

Pirates CSG, I have around 200 ships for this, and at least 1 of every type of ship released, not played for a while, but I intend to use this to introduce my son to gaming.

Blood Bowl, still got 4 teams and a bunch of star players/cheerleaders.

Car Wars- bought this on a nostalgia trip, but still intend to play it at some stage.

(Irregular miniatures 6mm Post Apoc cars)

Most of the above get at least one play a year, whilst some get far more than that, ROE for EG being a current favourite, I think I've played that at least 6 times in the last couple of months.

I also play a number of different boardgames, such as Axis & Allies, Richard III, and Zombies to name some.

The Future:

I'm intending to add to my 6mm Sci Fi stuff at some stage with some CinC & GZG mini's, but their's no particular rush for this. I also want to add more to my 10mm Sci Fi collection as this is currently quite small and I need more guns and bugs, but again, until I get some rules sorted, no big hurry.

As for my WW2 stuff, no plans on expanding my 20mm armies, but I intend to get some suitable 6mm tanks to represent an early war BEF contingent.

I'd like a few more figures for my Ronin game but no great expense (or rush), maybe 1-3 packs from Perry's.

I'll try and keep up with the X-Wing releases but the large ships are currently beyond my gaming budget.

I need to pick up a couple of the more recent releases for Wings of War, the Brisfit inparticular.

I am also really desperate for scenary for  Ronin, Judge Dredd and the 10mm Sci fi stuff, but should be able to cobble together most of what I need apart from the Ronin scenary which is beyond my ability to knock together.

Finally, I have been really tempted recently to start a 15mm Dark Age force for use in a skirmish/warband level game, quite possibly using the free Age of Blood rules, and whilst browsing Khrusan Miniatures 15mm Vikings, I stumbled upon their extensive 15mm Sci Fi range and I now want almost everything they put out....must resist the temptation.