A naval game looms .. the only decision is whether is should be:
- Ancients (new kit required, but I have always wanted to play Salamis with David Manly's Greek Fire and Roman Fury rules)
- Napoleonic (time to bring out Avalon Hills "Wooden Ships and Iron Men" with a small squadron of British versus a mixed bag of French and Spanish)
- World War One (General Quarters II, Dogger Bank or Jutland Battle Cruiser Clash)
- World War Two (General Quarters II, Narvik [done once already] or Mediterranean, or even a "Convoy"?)
- Modern (although this means I would need some new kit, but I always wanted to play Larry Bond's Harpoon)
Thoughts and ideas appreciated
7 comments:
Definitly Napoleonioc for the modelling fun. What are General Quarters 2 rules like ...Ive painted a 1/3000 scale HMS Hood and have quite a few minis but have no clue as to the best 'playable' rules for my first foray into shipping...i dont want too much accounting!
Hi Geordie,
That is a tough one to be sure but I have a few extra ideas for you. The Dutch Wars of the 17th century - loads of ships though! WW1 from the 'hunt the raiders' perspective - not as many ships and games that will be very tactical. The Spansih Civil War - now there is a period of naval activity that would certainly be worth taking a look at. The Balkan Wars - small forces and very asymmetrical.
The former could be 1/1200th (Navwar or Langton) or 1/2400th (Tumbling Dice) whilst the modern periods could all be furnished by Navwar.
I like the playing surface you have shown - any details?
All the best,
DC
Thanks Fraximus,
I think you are spot on for the Napoleonic "urge". I think it will last to put together "another ship" as I find it enjoyable but exhausting when I get down to it
The ships can be delicate and at times when I am doing teh rigging I just want to "cry" :(
But it is worth it in the end
Thanks David,
Playing about with the playing surface and it seems to lend itself to individual slow moving actions. I think Napoleonic (I have Navwar 1/1200) deserve a try out.
Another thought that crossed my mind was 1/300 Skytrex coastal, the only issue I have is that the "board" may not be just big enough.
The origins of the "mat": It is not a commercial product but a 'leaving gift' to me from the commercial large format printers I used to work for. I never could convince them of the usefulness of making things that sold for less than several hundred "widgets" at a go.
Pity as every wargamer needs one, in several colours. Even better if you could make them interconnecting ;)
It is a nice light plastic, much better than poster paper.
PS David, I am "working my way back" to the Dutch wars. My reading temporarily stopped at the Napoleonic period (trying to understand this "wind business" and "tacking")
I have eyed up the Armada and Dutch Wars fleets, thinking cheap and cheerful Navwar versus the Langton "works of art"
Napoleonic ships are one of the things I can never do as well as I want to, half way through I usually want to give up and cry. I put everything down, have a cup of tea and try and keep my sanity, then come back and think - that's not so bad ;)
Tumbling Dice may well be worth a look at
A few years too late, but many moons ago (at least 25yrs) I painted up the WW1 Navwar British and German fleets to wargame Jutland. The game was played at the North London Wargames Club that met at Ponders End and was fought over three meetings lasting about 6 to 7 hours at a time. We broke the game down into "The Run South" Beatty's Battlecruisers meeting the German Battlecruisers and the chase South onto the German High Sea's Fleet. "The Run North" Beatty turning North with the 5th Battle Squadron of 15" gunned battleships being pursued by the German Battlecruisers and the High Sea's Fleet North onto the British Grand Fleet. Then finally the meeting of the two fleets. There were three players each side one commanding the battlecruisers, two dividing the battleships and accompanying Cruisers and destroyer flotilla's (there were a lot of them).
Rules for a game this size was a problem and we play tested a few rule sets beforehand and finally decided on a home set made up from the Skytrex "Grand Fleet WW1 Ruleset" and the "Micro Models Jutland Wargame and Rules" I think these were marketed by TTG at the time. The Micro models ruleset allowed for Squadron firing 4 or 5 ships main or secondary armament firing at a similar target. They worked quite well for the shooting and the "Grand Fleet Rules" were used for damage results but modified to cause more flooding on hull hits resulting in loss of speed through the flooding (The Battlecruisers Lutzow and Seydlitz were flooded down by the bow up to "A" turret with Lutzow eventually sinking).
Range was 1cm to 100yds for range and speed was 1cm per knot of speed per turn (20Knts 20cms of movement) turns were by the "Grand Fleet" ship turning templates. The Wargames table was 12 x 6 for the first two games and 16 x 6 for the big one.
If memory serves me right the game pretty much followed history the British losing a few battlecruisers through exploding magazines but the German fleet suffered a pounding when it ran into the British Grand fleet. Weight of British numbers and higher speed did for the German Pre-Dreadnought Battleships who were left behind as target practice.
Hope that gives some hope of actually wargaming Jutland it is possible. I still have both fleets nicely contained in their respective box files.
Pat McGill
Pat McGill
I just found the rules we used for Jutland they are called "Micro Fleet" by TTG dated 1976. The pack came with card ship counters for sea battles "Dogger Bank" and "The Battle of the Falklands". However with the extension packs of "The British Jutland Fleet" and the "German Jutland Fleet" you could do the prequel to the Falklands "The Battle of Coronel" and obviously Jutland. They also do a "Micro Fleet Napoleonic Naval" TTG 1977 by Steve Birnie and an extension pack "Battle of Trafalgar" with all the Spanish, French and British ships to refight Trafalgar. I was lucky enough to pick it up on Ebay for £10.
Post a Comment