Of Colds, Ear Infections and Naval Wargames Rules

I left work early today feeling particularly rough - my left ear appears to be the cause of my discomfort as if I move my head suddenly it feels like somebody is sticking a red hot poker in my head - and so spent the afternoon parked resolutely on the sofa, examining the inside of my eyelids. The cold I can put up with put the ear is very wearing to say the least.

This evening though I rallied sufficiently to take another look at the Sea Battles in Miniature rules and how I could adapt them for use on a hexed playing surface. The short answer is relatively easily or so I thought. The only issue thus far is the fact that the rules are scaled at 20,000 yards equals 40". The hit tables are divided into 4,000 yard increments or 8". Conveniently this translates into two Hexon tiles (they are 4" across the flat edges) and so the logical course of action would be to say one hex equals 2,000 yards meaning a maximum range of ten hexes. Now I own sufficient Hexon tiles to be able set up an area large enough to have an action at a 10 hex range (it would be a struggle in respect of finding a table to put it on though!) but to be honest that would be larger than I would like. My ideal playing area in terms of Hexon is 13 x 9 and having a 10 hex maximum range is just too long. I prefer having some room to move around outside of maximum range and so in order to fit my playing area the range needs to come down.

Reducing the range would have implications for the number of hit tables (there are 5) as this would no longer be easily divisible i.e. one for each 8,000 yards. Changing the maximum the range to 8 hexes (which is divisible by 4) is a viable option which gives a little room around the edges for movement. It has meant though that I would need to lose one of the hit tables. I opted to remove the 8,000 yards table on the grounds that the old 4,000 yards table is now 5,000 and the 12,000 yards table is now at 10,000 yards, falling as it does nicely between the 8 and the 12 table.

Phew! The end result is an 8 hex range split into 4 increments equalling 5, 10, 15 and 20,000 yards.

I even managed to make sure that the hits were averaged out between the two tables which was a pretty impressive achievement given the state of my head!

More to follow....