One of the final editions of Strategy and Tactics magazine complete with a game. There were plans to launch a deluxe version of this with some 800 or so counters covering all manner of ships and nationalities of the period. Sadly SPI sank beneath the waves before this happened.
Such is the fickleness of my wargaming temperament that for a couple of days last week all thoughts of Black Seas were very close to being consigned to the scrapheap - I even discussed similar with the sagacious Mr Fox - but good sense has prevailed, at least for the immediate future. The reason for my inevitable fear and loathing simply came down to the quality of the models (which are supremely good) and the work I would need to put in to get them to fighting trim. After much soul searching I decided that as the number of ships I would be looking at would in fact be rather low the amount of work involved should not be too onerous (famous last words? We shall see....).
As my original intention involved mainly frigates, brigs and smaller and would feature combined operations my thoughts naturally headed in the direction of terrain. Now the models for Black Seas are 1:700th (whereas Peter Pig's Hammerin' Iron ACW range are 1:600th) and I am unsure if anyone makes suitable terrain for the scale and period. By terrain I am thinking of such things as buildings, forts, shore batteries, harbours and such like.
Tumbling Dice infantry and cavalry alongside some of the Perry's Travel Battle buildings and Renendra bases.
It suddenly dawned on me that Peter Pig carry a small range of land terrain in support of their ACW naval rules which, although of a slightly different scale, would certainly not look too far out of place with the Black Seas ships. As an extension of this idea the troop blocks that Peter Pig produce could also be pressed into service although my preference would be for the Tumbling Dice range seen above. I also think that the buildings from Travel Battle could be pressed into service (rather like the crews of warships of the period....).
With the direction of my thinking heading into Black Seas and Hammerin' Iron territory I am fast coming to the conclusion that a better option for my ACW games would be to use the Peter Pig ships rather than building my own although I was keen to have some on table fire support for the 30mm figures. Perhaps as an alternative I could build a couple of representative models scaled to fight alongside their 30mm brethren whilst reserving the 1:600th models for purely naval engagements.
More to ponder methinks!
Fighting Sail is a very fine game for actions with half a dozen ships aside. It should be possible to work out the stats fro other ships from what was in the original game. We've been playing it on a large cloth with scratchbuilt ships with removable sails.
ReplyDeleteHi Trebian,
ReplyDeleteThere is a rather nifty development/expansion available on Boardgamegeek called Canvas and Shot which uses a lot of the original ideas and expands the ship lists considerably. I rather like the use of squares for this period and the rules are pitched nicely at the level i am planning to fight at.
All the best,
DC
Fighting Sail had in its counter mix just one First Rate (French) but quite a few third and fourth rate line of battle ships. But its strength was more in its small craft, with heaps of potential for inshore work.
ReplyDeleteOn the matter of scale, my home made ACW vessels were made to 1:300 scale. Strange as it may seem, they seemed to go quite well with my Airfix ACW armies. Years ago I played a two or three combined ops games with land and riverine forces in action against river forts. I think you could go down to 1:600 and they'd still look OK - or at least the major units (e.g. Cairo class gunboats) would.
I think the squares work very well too. I've looked at Canvas and Shot, but not taken the plunge with it. Seems to me he's done away with the squares.
ReplyDeleteHave a look at the Peter Pig pirate ships, the merchant ship is probably compatible.
ReplyDeleteHi Archduke,
ReplyDeleteThat was my thinking exactly! I am undecided about the ACW models - rather I should say I am undecided as to what models I will need - but rather like the idea of using the same terrain for both periods.
I don't know if it a perception thing but the smaller you go with models the less the differences in scale seem to matter. I have a number of 1:1200th scale buildings from Brigade that sit quite nicely alongside 1:600th models.
We shall see how it plays out.
All the best,
DC
Hi Trebian,
ReplyDeleteThat is true but I reckon it would be easy enough to convert back to squares if needed....
....and I suspect i probably will!
All the best,
DC
Hi Nigel,
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention that....;-)
All the best,
DC
As to "scale" of ships v figures, I would think that a general rule of buildings and large items (such as bombers and ships) work really well on one scale down if playing anything other than a skirmish. So, use 15mm buildings with 20-25mm figures, 6mm with 15mm figures and so on. Most wargamers do not realise how big things are. Trees, for example, are really tall.
ReplyDeleteHi Trebian,
ReplyDeleteThat makes a lot of sense and I have seen this in action across the blogosphere.
All the best,
DC