This weekend I 've been having lots of fun messing about with the small ships play testing some scenarios I've been working on and getting the pleasure of seeing how they play with lots of new ideas added into the rules we've been using, Kiss Me Hardy and To Covet Glory.
These historical small ship encounters are really fun to play and the detail from William James' accounts of them throw up lots of factors to try and include to challenge the players with factors their real life counterparts had to deal with before getting to grips with the enemy.
The three games were quite distinctive and recreating actions fought in the first year of the Revolutionary War with France, featuring a classic frigate duel, a chase in the Caribbean between a small packet ship and a privateer schooner flying the 'red flag', no quarter given signal, and finally a night action fought off the north coast of Spain.
With only a couple of models on the table the 1:700th scale comes into its own by providing presence, that many empty sea naval games struggle to offer when compared with terrain heavy large figure games on land.
However I think these small historic scenarios provide buckets of drama and in a very small way put the players on the quarter deck deciding the next order to issue to the helmsmen.
If you would like to know more and see how our games turned out then just follow the link to the club blog below.
Excellent account of the game. I much prefer this level of naval game to big Fleet actions... much more evocative of Hornblower and Aubrey in my mind.
ReplyDeleteHi Alastair,
DeleteThank you and glad you enjoyed the read.
Well I used to think the same way with a leaning towards the smaller actions, but now I love playing or perhaps better still running both types with the change in emphasis from the role of a captain to that of an Admiral presenting very similar and yet very different challenges.
I think if the rules present those challenges in an intriguing way, both types of game can provide that drama and intellectual challenge that makes wargaming such a fun way to explore history.
I am hoping to bring some game reports to the blog in the proceeding months capturing games generated with our club campaign using Sovereign of the Seas, and recreating a year of war at sea in each turn from 1793 to 1805, which will provide context to both larger squadron and fleet games and some smaller single ship engagements, with the results directed towards defeat of a large group of the enemy or control of a maritime space in the case of the larger action to simply protecting commerce from enemy raiders in the case of the small actions.
These battle outcomes will then impact on the wider war at sea.
It will be interesting to see if some players excel as ships captains or admirals and commodores.
Cheers and thanks for your comment
JJ