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| Collections to be started or concluded, but not just yet. The Romano Dacians are over half way completed, the AWI Mohawks less so and the Wars of the Roses and ECW remain to be started, although I built Warwick's band a few years ago to test out some ideas, the rest of the figures are still waiting for the love. |
Thus my habit of deep-dives on a particular theme or era seems likely to be the norm for JJ's Wargames for the foreseeable, with my ambition, God willing, to conclude my collection of Age of Sail models and play some very iconic battles and actions with them, before turning to share the love on some other collections that are an as yet an unfulfilled or incomplete passion, namely my Roman-Dacians, my AWI Mohawks and my Wars of the Roses, and who knows, with a fair wind and an able body, then maybe an English Civil War adventure to finish with.
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| Our big trip to the other side of the globe in 2022-2023 took an amazing and very special four months out of the normal wargaming calendar that has seen 2024 as a period of catch-up on projects started before we went away. In addition I aim to conclude my series of posts covering that trip in the first quarter of 2025 picking up the account from my last post in September looking at the Darwin Aviation Museum. |
As illustrated above, my series of posts covering Carolyn's and my big adventure in 2022-2023, has seen a year of consolidation on projects in 2024 that were planned or started before we went away together with a return to a more normal routine than the previous year that featured a tertial spent living out of a suitcase; and with my last post back in September about the trip, looking at the Darwin Aviation Museum, I plan to conclude matters with a post looking at the Darwin Military Museum in the New Year before finishing things off with the final leg of the trip that ended in Singapore in February 2023.
So as usual, before turning to the plan for 2025, I will take a look at the previous year of 2024, the previous plan and the hobby activity posted about here on the blog.
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| Work commenced early in 2024 on working up a new set of rules for my fleet action games, Far Distant Ships (FDS), which I intended to use with my interpretation of the Battle of Camperdown, and saw myself, Jack and Mike playtesting here at Chez JJ. JJ's Wargames - Battle of Camperdown, The Leeward Division Attacks |
As outlined in my plan for 2024 the focus of activity was to be centred around continuing the emphasis on producing an entertaining blog illustrating the stuff I find interesting and enjoyable in the hobby, with the Battle of Camperdown project front and centre that would see me working up a new set of Age of Sail rules for my big battle/fleet action games to run alongside Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) and To Covet Glory (TCG) for my smaller squadron and single ship actions.
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| Myself, Mike and Jack getting to grips with Far Distant Ships (FDS) in January 2024 |
The project to build the two fleets for Camperdown would recommence with Post Number Six in March 2024 with the completion of Leijden 68-guns, Wassenaer 64-guns and Batavier 56-guns and conclude in August with Post Number Fourteen looking at the last six models, the British 16-gun sloop, Martin, and the Batavian-Dutch 16-gun brigs, Galatée, Daphné, Ajax and Atalante and the aviso Het Hassje.
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| Leijden 68-guns, Wassenaer 64-guns and Batavier 56-guns |
The project would see an additional twenty six models added to it between February and August 2024 alongside other builds, enabling some playtest games to be run on the lead up to the full battle being played in October 2024 at the NWS Meeting at Yeovilton.
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| Two of the last six models built to finish the fleets for Camperdown, the 16-gun British sloop, Martin and the 6-gun Batavian Dutch aviso (dispatch or advice boat) Het Hassje. |
With the Camperdown collection finished I was also able to present a review of the two fleets seen together for the first time, and illustrate the new gaming materials to run fleet actions using FDS
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| Battle of Camperdown Fleet Review August 2024 JJ's Wargames - Battle of Camperdown, Fleet Review |
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| New materials for running fleet actions with FDS included new signal books, range sticks, fleet management cards and ship status markers. I have really enjoyed the games FDS produces for these big fleet action games. |
There is nothing quite like the feeling gained with finishing a project that has consumed over a year's worth of work to complete and it was fun planning and anticipating the games ahead whilst taking the closeups below of the two fleets for my Fleet Review Post.
The culmination of this project would see me running a new scenario for Kiss Me Hardy, 'Nailing the Colours' recreating the attack by Duncan's Windward Division in the battle and played at this year's Clotted Lard, together with a rendition of the full battle played with the Naval Wargames Society at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton.
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| Nailing the Colours, played at Clotted Lard in September 2024 Devon Wargames Group - Clotted Lard 2024 |
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| The table setup to play 'Nailing the Colours' at this year's Clotted Lard - a link to the pdf of the scenario can be found in the link below JJ's Wargames - Nailing the Colours, Battle of the Vanguards |
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| JJ Wargames - Naval Wargames Society Weekend 2024 |
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| The Battle of Camperdown Team - NWS Meeting Yeovilton 2024 |
Alongside the Camperdown Project, work continued to build a collection of other models designed to facilitate my working up a set of Small Squadron and Single Ship Actions gleaned from the glorious works of William James and his Naval History of Great Britain, for which I have completed the writing up of one hundred scenarios this month, for use with KMH and TCG, but designed to be easily adapted for other rule sets if preferred, with playtesting looking to be a theme for the New Year ahead.
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| JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Scenarios for Light Squadrons and Single Ships |
The layout for each scenario is based on the idea of starting the sequence of play as a 'Meeting' or 'Chase' setup with the opportunity for the game to change to the other should a player decide to run from a Meeting turning the situation into a Chace or by a twist of fate suddenly getting the upper hand in a Chace to decide to turn and fight a damaged pursuer.
With the setup comes a points weighting of the combatants, in terms of the vessels they have, the situation they find themselves in and the damages and losses suffered and inflicted to gauge the level of victory or defeat, always able to make a comparison with the historical outcome.
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| Scenario 1 of One Hundred Small Squadron and Single Ship Actions adapted from William James' Naval History of Great Britain, I have composed for use with KMH and TCG. |
My intention in 2025 is to edit the collection and start running some playtests of the ideas written into them with the range of actions that James recounts offering the historical wargamer a very special insight into the challenges faced by the respective commanders of the vessels involved, trying to identify the enemy and then decide whether to run or to fight, with the addition of other situations such as cutting out operations and actions at anchor all adding to the mix, and likely requiring some additional terrain building such as that constructed for my Bantry Bay game in 2023.
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| The Bantry Bay game in 2023 was my first venture in constructing coastal terrain for my age of sail games and the Small Squadron and Single Ship Actions presents additional opportunities to construct suitably aesthetic coastlines to go with shore batteries, gunboats and anchored ships. |
With the advent of a growing collection of 3D prints of specific ship types becoming available to compliment the range from Warlord Games, the opportunity to produce very specific ships that capture the look of their historical counterparts mentioned in James' history allows for a more compelling look to these games on the table, where the individual ships are much more apparent than in a fleet action.
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| JJ's Wargames - HM Brig Speedy and the Xebec Frigate El Gamo |
Thus in May of this year I embarked on putting together some of these 3D printed models supplied by Only Games from the catalogue of Turner Miniatures, with the addition of masts, sails and other fittings from the Warlord range of plastic models that saw two very specific vessels built for one of the scenarios I had compiled, namely the famous action between HM Brig Speedy and the Spanish Xebec Frigate, El Gamo fought on the 6th May 1801.
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| The French frigate La Coquille JJ's Wargames - French Frigate La Coquille |
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| HMS Glatton JJ's Wargames - HMS Glatton |
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| La Virginie JJ's Wargames - French Frigate La Virginie |
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| Magicienne JJ's Wargames - French Frigate Magicienne |
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| French 16-gun brig Vigilant JJ's Wargames - French Brig Vigilant |
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| USS Constellation JJ's Wargames - USS Constellation |
All these specific models will coincide with the completion of the scenario collection together with specific ship record sheets for each, for use with KMH or TCG, and at some stage I will compose a list of the models used that will work for the ships featured in each action.
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| The ship record sheet for USS Constellation designed for Scenarios Nos. 73 and 86 for the actions versus the French frigates Insugente and Vengeance |
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| HM Cutter Entreprenante JJ's Wargames. HM Cutter Entreprenante |
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| The RN Lugger Speculator and my French privateer. JJ's Wargames - Let's Build a Lugger |
Finally, as far as the All at Sea focus of the blog is concerned, this year also saw the commencement of my 'Revenge in the Name of Honour' collection of War of 1812 models that has started with a look at the key frigate actions that captured the imagination of both the British and American public from this period, with a plan going forward, and with more appropriate models becoming available, to include the under the rate vessels for both the open-sea and great-lakes actions.
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| The Macedonian in action with the United States - Derek Gardner |
The naval war of 1812 is a very separate and distinct theme from the Napoleonic naval war that Britain
fought against France and her other naval allies and has always been on my agenda to include a specific collection of models to facilitate the playing of the actions from it.
fought against France and her other naval allies and has always been on my agenda to include a specific collection of models to facilitate the playing of the actions from it.
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| The USS United States and HMS Macedonian kicked off the Revenge collection of War of 1812 models in November. JJ's Wargames - USS United States |
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| HMS Macedonian JJ's Wargames - HMS Macedonian |
The All at Sea theme of the blog this year has seen the addition of forty new models as part of the Camperdown project, the Light Squadron collection and the Revenge 1812 project, finished off with a proof of concept build of my French 74-gun ship at anchor to prepare my ideas for the next big fleet build in 2025, namely a collection to facilitate the Battle of the Nile and First Algeciras with both French and British models at anchor to be a part of those games.
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| My new generic French 74 at anchor, alongside the Lorient model built earlier, part of the plan build in 2025. JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Battles of Nile and Algeciras |
In addition to my own stuff I have managed to include some work for friends with a naval enthusiasm that saw some 17th century 1/1200 Dutch fireships featured this month, and four 1:700 merchantmen and Indiamen built for Jack and his son Charlie, to be featured in a new post for 2025.
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| Fireships for Xmas saw me finishing off 2024 with work for friends collections. JJ's Wargames - Fireships for Xmas |
Other activities have also featured here on JJ's with the Wargame Show circuit featured with a trip up to Partizan in May of this year, which combined with the sunny weather, great games and convivial company of Steve M and Mr Steve.
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| JJ's Wargames - Partizan Wargames Show 2024 |
The other show to feature was from the other end of the year with a trip up to Newbury Racecourse in September to visit Colours, celebrating their 50th Anniversary.
The show circuit was somewhat curtailed this year compared with previous given that the February, July and October were taken up with holidays and a significant wedding, but I shared the fun Carolyn and I had in Madeira and Iceland this year, two very different Atlantic Ocean, volcanic islands, with very distinctive history, culture, scenery and food.
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| JJ's Wargames - Madeira 2024 |
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| JJ's Wargames - Iceland, Land of Fire & Ice 2024 |
In addition to holidays and the odd wedding, a few other adventures took time out from the show circuit and were featured here on the blog, namely the special 'Legion Life in the Roman Army' exhibition presented by the British Museum in London, a visit to the Newark Air Museum and their collection of Cold War military and civil aircraft, a day out on the historic Paddle Steamer Waverley in the Bristol Channel, and a visit to the historic ship building village of Buckler's Hard in the New Forest, a place where several of the ships, seen as models here on the blog, were built.
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| JJ's Wargames - The British Museum, Legion Life in the Roman Army |
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| JJ's Wargames - Paddle Steamer Waverley |
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| JJ's Wargames - Bucklers Hard |
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| JJ's Wargames - Newark Air Museum |
These activities combined with a few posts covering games with friends formed the digest of activities in and around my hobby for 2025 with one glaring omission from a normal year on JJ's, namly my book review section for which I posted my most recent review back in November 2023, looking at 'The Frontier Sea' by Dave Watson, covering the Napoleonic Wars in and around the Adriatic Sea.
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| JJ's Wargames -The Frontier Sea, Book Review |
I should say my reading habit has been somewhat taken up in the last twelve months with what I would call personal developmental reading, coupled with constant dipping in and out of several reference sources for my All at Sea project work, with little or no time for some new books I intend to highlight here on JJ's when finished.
I have some ideas about the book review side of hobby reading to look to include a wider scan over my library as a whole, which includes many tomes from a few years back, some now probably out of print and available only second hand but well worth obtaining none the less.
At this juncture I suppose I should turn my attention to plans for JJ's Wargames in 2025 and likely themes to feature over the next twelve months.
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| Will, Ben and Tom in my Wargaming Room with the Romano-Dacian collection on the table in 2019 |
The first big thing happening to JJ's Wargames in 2025 is that my Wargames Room is getting a much needed and postponed 'face-lift decorating job' done on it in January, which is long overdue and intended to add more comfort, space and better lighting to my home hobby area. This work will see a new ceiling with recessed lights running the length of the room on both sides, new carpet, wall paper and comfortable stools together with additional shelving and the removal of the old gas fire which will make moving around the table so much easier than now.
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| My table coming together in 2013 with the help of Tom. The eleven years of gaming on it have been much fun, but I'm hoping to use the time my room gets during its rebuild to do a similar upgrade to my table with a few alterations and refurbs to complete the overall refit. JJ's Wargames - New Wargames Table 2013 |
Work has commenced to empty the room of stuff prior to the plasterer and electrician moving in in the New Year, and the six weeks of upheaval will put model making on hold as space is given over to models that formerly occupied my room.
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| The first job for the New Year is emptying my wargames room in preparation for its 'face-lift' - more anon. |
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| The display cabinets along with the table will be coming out and this is the last time those wall lights will be on show. |
So I will use this time to complete several pieces of outstanding work that will include additional rule tweaks to KMH/TCG, new materials for running my small squadron/single ship scenarios and the final editing of the scenario collection, whilst I intend to use the time on the blog to finish off my outstanding series of posts from Australia and Singapore together with other wargames related posts planned for the start of the year.
The content of the blog is set to continue pretty much as always, with a post a week on hobby activities, associated travel, shows and other stuff to vary the diet of reading here on JJ's, with a focus on the project build for the Nile collection and bringing my Light Squadron Scenario Collection to completion with some play testing of ideas in the new look Wargames Room.
The year will also include pulling together another big Trafalgar game in 2025 in commemoration of the 220th anniversary of the battle using Far Distant Ships in time for the Naval Wargames Society Meeting at Yeovilton.
These activities have put on hold my ideas about shifting the age of sail focus into the American War of Independence era as previously mentioned in last years plan, but never say never.
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| As the old DJ's used to say, 'a rave from the grave' with a JJ's Wargames theme from previous years very much focussed on Wellington's early years in the Peninsular War, with the Battle of Oporto seen here. |
Additionally one other planned adventure in February will give me an opportunity to reacquaint myself with Wellington's time in the Peninsular and I hope to have some interesting material to post about then.
I have a feeling the New Year is likely to be a rather turbulent one away from the hobby, and so even more than in other times the creative pleasure that historical wargaming, and its associated activities offers, will be a very important relief from all the other noise going on and I hope JJ's Wargames might provide a bit of a sanctuary to those of us who enjoy this rather unique pastime.
I'm really looking forward to 2025 with much anticipation for the wargaming year ahead and I will close by wishing everyone a very happy, peaceful and exciting New Year.
JJ
