An Age of Sail Mystery

Something that piqued my curiosity - cheap and cheerful age of sail wargame of indeterminate origin, circa 1982. This folds in four with the game components stored within

Yup! It uses squares no less

The rules are on eight pieces of card and on the flip side of each sheet is a ship record card….

Each side has a 64m two 38s and a 20 gun armed merchantman

A series of event cards is included along with the material you see - note the self assembly D6! I was intrigued by the range stick -not something one usually associates with a grid based game

The ships. These are designed to be folded in half with a sea ‘base’ for them to stand up. The pictures had a dash of colour to differentiate the two side - British and French

I have never seen the above until I came across a copy for sale on eBay for a ridiculously low price so I grabbed it for a look. There are some interesting ideas contained within the rules along with a fair degree of tongue in cheek humour and for those reasons alone I am tempted to give it a spin over the weekend.

In the meantime though, I will do some digging to see if I can find out anything about it.

Curiouser and curiouser….

Continuing Flights of Fancy

The Avalon Hill ‘Smithsonian’ board game Mustangs - the successor to Air Force/Dauntless and the Expansion Kit, all designed by S Craig Taylor Jr

Although the base game was quite limited in scope there are some official expansions and a whole pile of fan made unofficial material - including using the core system for WW1, the Korean War and even Vietnam

 

The feeling of lethargy I mentioned previously continues to nibble away at me - for longer than usual this time - and so I have carried on meandering across various ideas and projects in play or yet to be in play. It is at times like this that I often make what seems to be snap and occasionally ill-considered decisions - and this current bout of inertia has been no exception.

Gone is the relatively recently acquired Wings of War/Glory WW1 1:144th collection - all 48 aircraft, 4 gaming mats and an observation balloon - due to a rethink about how I want to game WW1 in the skies. the scale is lovely, as are the models, but I could not see a future with it due to the cost of the available models, the ability to tailor the collection how I would have liked (lots of painting potentially involved), and, to be honest, the game system itself. 

It is a fun game for sure but there are elements that I find a little clumsy - needing a specific deck of cards per aircraft for movement and then using a damage deck for combat for example - but to each their own. It is a popular game for sure but I suppose having fought most of my air wargames over the years I feel more comfortable in a grid based environment!

So what to do then? Well, I want to fight WW1 and WW2 aerial battles using models - essentially swapping cardboard for metal/plastic/resin so the big (or small) question is what scale to use. 

I tried 1:100th via Axis and Allies: Angels 20 - again, great fun as a game but the randomness of the whole ‘collectible’ part of the process (with the attendant price scalping for the rarer models - the same with Wings of War/Glory) is a little tedious -  and also the painting required in order to build a cohesive collection. The models are also on the large side, especially when one starts using bombers.

1:200th via Blood Red Skies was a viable scale but try as I might I could not get on with the rules - again, to each their own - and so the embryonic collection I was building has also been moved on.

That leaves 1:300th and 1:600th as the remaining contenders. I have some history with 1:300th going back to the early 1980s when I painted up a pile of late war German aircraft for ground support using Heroics and Ros. They were surprisingly easy to make a reasonable job of and given that my copy of Mustangs that I got from Mr Fox had a selection of late war US and German aircraft it makes sense to use them. I added a few models to the selection - mainly to ensure that the flights were all of four aircraft and primarily for use with Mustangs.

The Heroics and Ros WW2 models, some of which were included in the game. The US have P38s, P47s and P51s whilst the Germans have 109Gs, FW190As, FW190Ds and Me262s - bear in mind that Mustangs was designed for small numbers - usually two to four models a side.

Mention of Mustangs (designed by S Craig Taylor Jr and in my opinion a worthy successor to the excellent Air Force/Dauntless/Expansion Kit trilogy) brings me to what was is an exciting development. I have scored another copy of the game along with the very rare expansion set and also some additional aircraft counters produced to go with an as yet identified magazine. Also included in the bundle is a copy of the Avalon Hill General magazine covering the game at its launch - I have the digital version of this but it is nice to have the hard copy. I also have the ‘miniatures’ expanded version fan based rules available from WarFlags under the Sky Pirates label - at the time of writing the website appears to be down - for WW2 and WW1 along with Mig Alley for the Korean War so in effect it is one rules system to cover the three periods. 

In addition to Mustangs, I also have plenty of other rule sets - all hex based - Check Your Six, Bag the Hun, Algernon Pulls it off to name but a few. I am rather liking the idea of a single rule set to cover them all (and in the darkness, bind them….) though, keeps things simple for me!

I rather like the idea of WW1 in 1:300th although I have it good authority the Heroics and Ros range are a little uneven in terms of quality and are also fiendishly fiddly to put together.I may buy a couple of models to see for myself but I am thinking that I will have to look further afield methinks. As I recall Davco produced a small range of WW1 types ‘back in the day’ so I will take a look and see what I can find.

In respect of 1:600th there is a pretty good range of WW1, WW2 and modern types available from Tumbling Dice. I am in two minds about this as from a cost, storage and price perspective they would seem ideal but they are small - perhaps too small for my eyesight!

So there it is then, the deliberations etc about what I am going to do and how I am going to do it or even when I am going to do it. For now though, this is all a ‘project or projects in being’ kind of thing.

Thoughts on Wind and Water

As well as being a magazine cover this image was also used on the box lid of the Battleline version of Wooden Ships and Iron Men. 

I have been feeling fairly lethargic over the last couple of weeks and despite having a gazillion things to do I have really struggled to get motivated. I suppose this is off the back of my prolonged chesty/throaty thing and is sure to pass soon. It usually does!

Anyway, whilst in this meandering state, I decided to browse through the recently rediscovered CD of the Avalon Hill/Victory Games Naval Games and, for no particular reason, settled on the folder of articles about Wooden Ships and Iron Men. 

I was certainly glad I did!

The Avalon Hill board game Wooden Ships and Iron Men is a simplified version of the original Ship ‘O’ the Line miniatures rules (one of my favourite rule sets for the period) and uses hexes rather than squares. The original miniatures rules were some eight years in the making and started life as a very detailed set of ship to ship rules, not the fleet level version of later.

Contained within the folder of articles there is a whole lot great material ranging from scenarios, mini campaigns, tactical discussions, additional and alternative rules and much more besides. The Russo-Swedish War and the Russo-Turkish War both feature with plenty of varied actions to be fought. There is also some really interesting background to the game design and its evolution from a miniatures set to the award winning Avalon Hill board game version penned by the designer himself, S Craig Taylor Jr.

Pirates feature, along with a series of scenarios based on the actions featured in the Richard Bolitho stories  written by Alexander Kent, the pen name of Douglas Reeman.

All in all then, there is plenty to get one’s teeth into for the period - which leads me quite nicely into the next bit!

Age of Sail thoughts

I own Wooden Ships and Iron Men (the Avalon Hill version), Flying Colours, Seas of Glory (more of a strategic game based on the 1805 campaign ending at Trafalgar) and also Micro-Fleet Napoleonic Naval so am well served in respect of board game options. Would I use models? The short answer is yes, I would and indeed, having built ships with a full sailing rail for the ACW project I am sure I could make a good fist of it. The only downside is time and in all seriousness I could not see myself undertaking what would be a significant building program anytime before 2027. The board game options will have to suffice, at least for the foreseeable anyway.

Of course there is always the range of 1:4800th scale models available from Tumbling Dice….

I think I need a lie down…. ;-)

A Disc that Slipped (the mind, that is!)

A Disc that had slipped from my mind….

No, I haven’t injured myself - I am instead referring to a CD I purchased way back in 2010! The CD is a compilation of PDFs of the components from the Avalon Hill and Victory Games Naval Titles. Also included are all the appropriate articles from the Avalon Hill General magazine associated with a particular title.

There are scanned copies of the rules, counter sheets, map boards, record logs/plot maps as well the aforementioned AG General articles.

At the time I purchased this solely for the Jutland content but upon rediscovering the CD I realised that there is a whole lot more good stuff to plough through. To give you a flavour the list of games covered is as follows:

Attack Sub

Submarine

Bismarck (1962 and 1978 versions)

Trireme

Carrier (Victory Games)

Flat Top

Midway (1964 and 1991 versions)

Peloponnesian War (Victory Games)

Tokyo Express (Victory Games)

Pacific War (Victory Games)

War at Sea/Victory in the Pacific

Wooden Ships and Iron Men

I own a few of these - Submarine, Bismarck (1978), Flat Top, Midway (1991) and Wooden Ships and Iron Men. Jutland I no longer have although I do have the Avalanche Press Great War at Sea version.

The big advantage of this is having the magazine articles in one place and already I have seen a whole pile of stuff that will be useful - not just scenarios and additional rules but designer insights etc. For example, a couple of articles in the Wooden Ships and Iron Men folder were penned by the designer S Craig Taylor Jr. I shall look forward to reading them and the series of scenarios covering the Russo Turkish war during the Napoleonic era.

I have a similar CD that covers the Avalon Hill version of Air Force and Dauntless - I already have the Avalon Hill Generals devoted to Mustangs and Guadalcanal.

That will be my reading material sorted for a while methinks - in between painting ironclads that is!

WW1 Naval - Micro Fleet style

A boardgame without a board - a tactical game with more weight than Avalon Hill’s Jutland 

The components - play sheets, move/damage record charts and counters. The rules are in the cover and are 21 single sided pages long.

Well this is a blast from the past and no mistake! My good friend Mr Fox was having a tidy up of, I believe, his Area 51 1/2, when he came across his copy of the above, along with the Jutland Fleet packs. Having no further use for the same and knowing my interest in the period and old gaming systems, he very kindly passed them on to yours truly.

Published in 1976 by Tabletop Games, the game was part of a series which included Napoleonics, ancients, Colonials, Sci Fi, WW2 naval, Napoleonic naval and I believe Medievals. Contained inside the cover were the rules, playing aids and record pads along with counters to represent the units. There were additional army packs available and for the Napoleonic naval version the fleet packs for Trafalgar. As I recall the WW2 naval version covered the Denmark Straits and the River Plate with an expansion covering Matapan. 

For the WW1 naval edition the base game features ship counters for the Goeben incident, the Falklands, Dogger Bank and the battlecruiser actions from Jutland. The two expansion packs add the remaining ships to the Jutland order of battle. the rules were very much of their time - chart and factor heavy with written moves.

I remember playing many games with this system, including Jutland, with an old friend of mine using his lounge floor. It was great fun but limited as to the variety of ships available - British and German only. I never knew who designed this but I had many a cracking action with it. Would I use it again? Possibly for nostalgic reasons but as an inveterate rules tinkerer I would probably look to, ahem, borrow some of the ideas and put my own spin on it.

I would be really keen to reverse engineer the ship specs just to see how the designer got to where they got to.

My thanks to Mr Fox for passing this on to me - as ever much appreciated!

BTW, if any readers have any of the other editions of this series they no longer need then please let me know - especially the other two naval titles, WW2 and Napoleonic.

A Tale of Two Assault Cannons

Two types of Assault Cannon to inflict the Emperor’s vengeance upon his enemies. The unmounted version looks more business like in my opinion.

Whilst the latest paint on the ironclads is drying I took the opportunity to take a look at the Terminator Assault Cannons I had recently acquired for use with my copy of Space Hulk. As you can see there are a number of differences between the two types. The model I converted uses a simpler looking AC whilst the newer version has rather more detail. I have opted to use the latter for a number of reasons. To begin with, the weapon looks better balanced with several millimetres of the weapon effectively behind the marine. It is also a couple of millimetres shorter so will not stick out quite as far as the first version. Finally, the weapon has a better muzzle finish - the ring that the barrels are mounted in is missing from the first version - and so looks more business-like.

The same conversion technique will be used to fashion the three models I need and I am hoping that I shall be able to re-convert the original model to the new standard. 

I also plan to convert some sergeants and a captain figure so as to round the selection off. 

Painting Progress

The ships of the Sublime Porte. The main hull sections are at the top - as you can see they are painted black. The two white sections you see are undercoated as they are a visible part of the main deck and so will be painted as such.

The Royal Navy. You can see the red layer that will be on the waterline. The black hulls need masking tape before I tackle the white ‘boot strapping’.

 I had some good news this morning in that Warbases are now on the case with my small order - I was expecting to wait another couple of weeks or so - meaning that I shall be able to get to the Royal Navy sooner rather than later. To this end I decided to increase the pace with the Turkish ships so these will be definitely finished first. The pictures illustrate the state of play so far with the lower hulls.

My plan now is to paint the Turkish ships main decks over the weekend so they will then be ready for the deck features and masts etc. 

The pieces I am waiting on from Warbases impact five of the Royal Navy models - numbers 2 until five along the bottom row from the left and also number eight. For the first four ships (2 to 5) I am waiting on the main deck whilst number eight has some bespoke pieces needed. 

For the Turks I have a number of masts already assembled but I need to see if they are of the correct dimensions first - I will tackle this once the lower hulls and main decks are as complete as they can be first of all though.

Mr Huband will no doubt be delighted at the progress being made with the Turks, Mr Fox less o with the RN!