It has been an eventful week for a number of reasons. To begin with our cul de sac resembles a building site as all the exterior gas pipes have to be dug up and replaced - lorries, compressors, tracked diggers and jackhammers at the bottom of the drive is a head splitting experience for sure! To add to the carnage we had a burst water main at the bottom of our road which stopped all of the gas works due to risk of flooding! This meant we had two four hour stints without water as the pipes were encased in Asbestos Concrete so the crews had to wear what looked like full NBC suits - it looked something like the setting for a doomsday/apocalypse movie! To cap it all today Laurel is out with a friend and will be unable to get back into our road for at least another hour as there are yet more holes being dug and pipes being laid. All essential works but tedious to endure all the same.
….and the back.
“Some are born to a project, some achieve a project after diligent application and reasoned argument whilst others have projects thrust upon them. This is the way.”
Anyways, on to the good stuff.
You may recall that I received amongst the batch of boardgames I recently purchased - most of which are now winging their way to their new homes - that I had two standalone expansions for the Flying Colours: Age of Sail fleet action series. The two cover the South American Wars of the early 19th century and the Russian Navy in action in the Baltic and the Black Sea and Mediterranean. After having decided that I would keep these two it only remained for me to (re)purchase the base game which includes the British, French, Spanish, Dutch and Danes. I say “repurchase” as I have owned a copy of this previously, back in 2020 but, for a variety of reasons now lost in the mists of time, I disposed of it. Well, a quick trawl through eBay later I am now the proud owner of a pristine and unpunched copy of the base game with a whole pile of extras included in the price and at a really good price - in fact less than half the RRP!
The customary ‘back of the box’ shot
The extras included in the game are bound copies of the rule book, the scenario book and also a compendium of scenarios from the C3i magazine. The original versions are unused as the chap selling must have obtained these copies to use rather than the originals - very handy indeed and will be going into a folder shortly. There are also additional copies of the main play sheets as well a series of national gunnery charts designed for use during the American Revolution or earlier. I am not sure where these came from but I can only assume that these reflect naval gunnery as being less efficient than during the Napoleonic Wars.
So I now have three age of sail boardgames to play around with (and about a gazillion counters to punch out) which is a project I always intended to look at only not just yet and certainly not as widely! Still, you can’t always get what you want but sometimes, you might find, just what you need….
A campaign system would by nice to go with this and so lo and behold, on the recommendation of that well known naval rule author and all round good egg, Mr David Manley, I have also managed to score a copy of 1805 - a boardgame that covers the naval warfare during the Napoleonic Wars at a strategic level - in other words, a useful campaign scenario generator.
Joking aside the total cost of this project that has been thrust upon me is a little over £50 for which I have four pristine quality boardgames and more ships than I could shake a large stick at.
A wise man once said, buckle up, it’s gonna be a wild ride!
(That is because I thinking about models for this….)
2 comments:
All for just over £50 sounds a very, very good deal indeed David. After my recent visit to my local IPMS show and seeing some naval models, I'm tempted for some ACW or pre-Dreadnought games, with a few ships aside, probably using 1/2400 models or thereabouts. Yet more temptation my way comes:)!
Hi Steve J,
I was really pleased to have gotten a copy of both the Flying Colours core set and the 1805: Seas of Glory campaign game for the afore mentioned £50. The latter arrived after this post and whilst punched is in top drawer condition. It would be simple to generate games on this that could then be realised into Flying Colours tactical games.
I have always said that the great thing about naval games, regardless of period, is that you do not need a lot of expenditure to have a cracking set up. Storage is easier than for armies of figures and of course, for the most part you can usually ignore terrain! ACW naval is great fun, as is the pre-dreadnought era and Tumbling Dice have some lovely models to be going on with and some handy starter packs.
All the best and good luck with whatever you path you take - you will have a lot of fun!
DC
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