All of these are approaching 50 years old and for sure there is probably more updated material to be found but for all that they are hugely useful. The two titles in the bottom row are recent hardback editions.
No, not THAT Nelson, rather it refers to Richard Nelson - author of the three titles you see above and the inspiration fr my MDF trireme project, focusing on the Battle of Salamis during the Greek and Persian War.
All of these titles are useful in their own way and the book on Salamis is one of my favourite wargaming titles. The Warfleets title also includes the authors ancient naval fleet action rules so again, is pretty helpful in respect of my Salamis project.
Two rather more modern works. The Persian War title fuses extracts from the great historians of the period with a modern overview of the war.
These five titles form my entire ancient naval library although I shall add the relevant Osprey titles in due course to round it out. It is nicely compact and largely self contained.
Ancient Naval Thoughts
Although my initial plan is for a refight of Salamis I can see no reason why this set up should not cover other actions in the period and indeed, I fully intend to look at other ancient match ups - the Punic Wars could be fun - although I will need to adjust the design for such things as the use of the Corvus or fighting towers and similar. The triremes have been designed without masts but it would be a simple matter to adjust the hull to accommodate them - simply drilling a hole would suffice - and to make some drop in masts and sails. I could not have the holes pre drilled as the hull section is in effect on its side - the top surface of the model is actually the cut side of the MDF. For now though, I will make do with counters to identify if a galley has the sails deployed.
The hexed playing surface will need to have hexes that are 2” across the flat sides for the models (these are 40mm long and designed for one model per hex) which will be handy for when I tackle my 1:2400th WW1 stuff - these models will occupy two hexes.
Plenty of stuff to be getting on with then - I wouldn’t have it any other way!
I am quite interested in seeing how you work this out - I have my own stash of ships waiting!
ReplyDeleteLove to see this on the table. You could do that battle at the top of Eubea too - the one concurrent with Thermopylae.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing them in action. A suggestion for another battle for them would be Actium.
ReplyDeleteI still have my original G & P wars book, though I sold the Salamis one as I didn't get into trireme warfare, too early for that perhaps for me. Both good books for their time
ReplyDeleteHello there El Grego,
ReplyDeleteI have in my mind’s eye an idea of how it will work but am a way off realising it! First step will be the models themselves which, all being well, will happen over the holiday season
Progress will be reported as and when there is any!
All the best,
DC
Hi Nundanket,
ReplyDeleteNow that the models are here it has all gotten real! I am hoping to get the mass effect on the table so the first order of business will be to get them assembled and painted. I fully intend exploring some of the other naval actions of the campaign as well as a few hypothetical ones for good measure.
It has even gotten me thinking about 15mm DBA armies for the period and as I am only 20 minutes from Essex Miniatures it may prove to be a temptation too far!
All the best,
DC
Hi Khusru,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right about being good books for their time. I am sure that there is more up to date material available but I wanted to do this ‘old school’ just to see how it stacks up.
All the best,
DC
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteActium will be on my ‘to do’ list but not for a while though. The next likely conflict would probably be the Punic Wars but I shall content myself with the Greek and Persian for now.
All the best,
DC
Hmm, I have a soft spot for this one too!
ReplyDelete