Even More Masts, Even More Spars….

Again, none of the masts are fixed in place - they are merely there whilst the glue dries. Deck fittings next - hatches, funnels and deck mounted artillery - and then sealing and painting.

I seem to have gotten a bee in my bonnet in respect of building ships with masts - incidentally this augers well for the age of sail in due course - and so spent a couple of hours this afternoon making the masts and spars for the remaining pair of sloops. The plan now is to get the hull deck fittings tackled next - that will take all of half and hour or so - before the ‘sealing’ and painting. 

I want to get these models finished in advance of the five that I have half painted for no other reason than it will mean that I will have completed the ‘masted’ section of the collection. 

Wow! That will be the first part of the project done and dusted…(pauses to take a deep breath…)!

For the record I will have built ten ships  - four Confederate and six Union - that have a full sailing rig and yes, I am rather pleased with how they came out!

More Masts, More Spars….

Good to be building masts again for sure!

It has been a mad busy day today so painting was off the agenda but building was not! There are a number of things I could/should have worked on but I had the urge to tackle some masts and spars - the result of which you can see above. It takes around an hour to build three masts and a bowsprit and without a doubt, it is a hugely therapeutic and relaxing way to spend the time.

The usual technique and materials - bamboo skewers for the masts, wooden cocktail sticks for the spars, custom cut MDF fighting tops and lashings of superglue. 

The hull you see is not the final destination for this rig, I was merely using it to hold the masts in place whilst the glue was drying. In fact the final destination for this lot is for the second Union frigate - the rig for the sloops is lighter by comparison.

All being well I hope to get some painting in tomorrow but at least everything with the final batch of models is moving in the right direction, albeit as meandering as the ‘Great Father of Waters’!

This is not the post you are looking for….

Curiouser and curiouser…

This will be a bit of mixed bag of a post as a few things have traversed the crosshairs so to speak.

Should be fun and hopefully generating plenty of naval wargames after action reports across the blogosphere. The picture is courtesy of JJs Wargames 

I have yet to fight the battle mentioned in my previous post but there is a very good reason. August the 6th is the International Naval Wargames Day so I have decided to fight the battle then in keeping with the occasion. Besides, I am not quite ready to fight the action as there are a few administrative issues to tackle first.

I remember reading the book and watching the above TV series and even the film version - basically an edit of the TV series that was brutally short, roughly a quarter of the size of the original.

James Clavell’s epic novel Shogun needs little introduction from me, neither does the 1980s TV adaptation starring Richard Chamberlain and the late, great Toshiro Mifune as lord Toranaga. I note that a remake of the TV series is in the offing, spread over ten episodes and coming out later in the year I believe. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the original TV series and so am looking forward to the new version. Back in the day (late 1970s and early 1980s) the novel of Shogun was hugely influential at the Newham Wargames Club in respect of providing some good background material for use with the Bushido role playing game - it was huge fun and many hours were spent in the company of Ronin, Samurai, Ninja, Shujenga, Yakuza and peasant characters. 

I am still on the hunt for a cheap copy of the Shogun/Samurai Swords board game - the one with four hundred 1:72nd scale plastic figures in.

I was moving a few bits and pieces around in the man cave when I came across the gaming mats you see below. These were originally from the Axis and Allies WW2 collectible miniatures game. They are double sided and with hexes around 3” or so across (I forgot to measure them so will do the next time I am upstairs) - ideal for 15mm which of course they were designed for. I have used them a couple of times for some block based gaming, the last of which was here.

As a reminder this is what they look like.

You can see that there are two distinct styles in respect of the artwork used so the sets do not really fit together well but that is a minor point. There is more than enough variety of layout for my needs though so I shall certainly be hanging on to them.

Work on the ACW ships has moved along slightly and now that my replacement tin of MDF sealer has arrived I can make further progress. I have been looking at some smaller gunboats, mortar rafts and flat boats. There are a few other models to consider so I will need to get some drawings over to Warbases for some bits and pieces.

I reckon that has just about covered everything for now!

Gone, With The Wind….Game Number 73….Part 1

The combatants - at the top the frigate the U.S.S. John Adams, below the two sloops the C.S.S. Tara (left) and the U.S.S. Slattery (right)

Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, a day south of Mobile Bay….

Captain Butler, commander of the Confederate commerce raider the C.S.S. Tara, surveyed the two rapidly approaching Yankee vessels with trepidation. His ship had been racing along under full sail, bound for Mobile Bay, until earlier in the day when it dropped away to little more than a breeze. Initially this was not a problem as he had planned to make the run into Mobile under cover of darkness so as to avoid any patrolling Yankees. That plan had been scuppered by the appearance of a pair of Yankee warships - a frigate and a sloop by the look of it - and so he ordered the engines started and full steam ahead.

It was not long before not one but two problems arose. To begin with his chief engineer informed him that the remaining supply of coal in the bunkers was dangerously low - there would be sufficient to get to Mobile but that would be about it - and that any attempt to out run the Yankees would deplete it entirely. The second problem was that the shortest route into Mobile from their current position would mean having to break through the Yankee patrol lines in broad daylight - right across the path of the approaching  enemy ships.

Captain Butler pondered his limited options. It was a big risk but if he could slow one or preferably both of the oncoming enemy ships he could then make straight for the extensive defences at Mobile. He was confident that the C.S.S. Tara could outmanoeuvre the frigate but the sloop would be a different matter. Taking on two ships would be a risk but he was confident in his ship, his crew and more importantly, his gunnery. The approaching enemy formation - line ahead - was better for sailing than for fighting and so he reasoned that the C.S.S. Tara should be able to get her blows in first. With his decision made he ordered the guns manned and the helm put hard over. 

Starting positions.

Captain Wilkerson, commander of the sloop the U.S.S. Slattery, had spotted the Rebel raider heading towards the north east and had immediately deduced where she was heading. A quick exchange of signals with the closely following frigate, the U.S.S. John Adams, meant that both Union warships were now heading on an intercept course with the enemy raider. Captain Wilkerson fully expected the rebel ship to run before them which would lead her straight into the path of other friendly patrolling ships. He felt confident that the Confederate ship was heading into a trap.

Neither Captain Wilkerson, nor the commander of the U.S.S. John Adams, were quite prepared for what happened next….

Action in the Gulf of Mexico

Overview

I wanted to fight a quick action using my newly renovated 2ft square gaming board - now with 4” squares and with models occupying two rather than just the one. I opted for the high seas rather than the rivers for the simple reason that I had the models to hand! Seriously though, battles at sea usually have the potential for more manoeuvring than the rivers so this would make a better test for the change in the rules. Besides, it would be fun to do!

The action itself will be fought tomorrow so expect the AAR on Wednesday at some point, all being well. 

To be continued….

Dotting the Skies and Crossing the T’s

Now a 6 x 6 board but with ships occupying two squares rather than one so would still work for 3 x 3 style games - probably better than using the original 8” square grid. Note the ‘T’ being crossed….

The two ships again showing the ‘increased’ playing area.

OK I know it is not really a board for use in aerial games - I will be doing so though - but as a small footprint playing area it has stood me in good stead! Following on from the decision to revert to using two squares per model rather than one I took the opportunity this afternoon to add the additional dots to the board. Now it is not perfect by any means but this is really test bed until I organise something a little more permanent. The ships on the board are of course the two sloops I refurbished earlier in the week and are there just so you can see how it looks.

Downstairs Work Station

Whilst the majority of the collection resides in the man cave I took the decision to organise some bits and pieces that I could tackle in the lounge at my temporary work station. Just a tray full of bits and pieces as I have a mast and spar building session planned. The three ships you see will be replicated so I needed to measure the masts and spars and get them assembled as these will be the next batch of models after the ones I am currently painting are finished.

The tray of goodies. A knife, ruler, cutters, emery board, superglue, bamboo skewers, wooden cocktail sticks, MDF fighting tops and the obligatory cutting mat.

My temporary home office with a view out on to the garden

The view from the patio doors. If you look closely you might see one of the cats - clue: they are black and white!

Not shown here but also dragged out of the man cave my copy of Dahlgren and Colombiad and By Sea and By Water so that I can make a start on the new ship specification charts.

All in all then, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday.

The Scale of the Revision

David Manley’s excellent campaign supplement for his Dahlgren and Colombiad rules - both are available from the Wargames Vault, as well as the rest of naval wargame rules.

I was able to spend some time yesterday going through the draft of my ACW rules to see what needs to be done to incorporate the two square per model revision. As expected there is a fair amount of work but I have managed to trim a lot of the incidental text within the rules. The main areas of revision that are left are firing arcs and the ship specification charts. The former I am prepared for and the latter will give me an opportunity to expand them quite considerably. As you may recall the original list of these was modelled on those contained in David Manley’s excellent Dahlgren and Colombiad rules. The campaign supplement supporting these rules - By Sea and By River - contains a far more extensive list of ship specifications which is also broken down by vessel types. This will prove invaluable to anyone that is new to the period.

Firing arcs are now far more logical in their application than using the previous single square method but obviously I will need to redo the explanatory diagrams. This is not difficult to do (especially now that I worked how to design them!) but it is time consuming. No matter - it will all come to pass in due course but for now though, it is back to the ships.

All Square and Everything to play for….

An earlier action fought using the ‘two square - one model’ convention. A Confederate ironclad commerce raider attempts to evade her Union pursuers

There is a final piece of the puzzle to add to the ACW/Ironclad rules I have been developing which should see them finished or at least at the final draft stage. It is not a huge change per se but it will require rewriting a substantial amount of text which of course takes time. No matter - the end result will be worth it and more importantly it means that I would have been honest with myself about how I wanted to do this!

Single square action loosely inspired by Mobile Bay. Great fun to fight but moving down a tricky path.

I am reverting back to using two squares for a model rather than having them in a single square.

I rather allowed myself to be swept up in the Fast Play Portable Wargame 3 x 3 frenzy of a while back - mainly because I saw it as a bit of challenge to see if it could work (it did and surprisingly better than I expected it to) - and this had the effect of making me look at the rules from the wrong starting point. In effect I was looking from the bottom up rather than the top down. What I should have done was to have the main set of rules WITH a 3 x 3 variant rather than vice versa. 

It is by no means a major change to the rules - this is where they started from originally - rather it is more of a ‘pressing the reset button’ kind of thing.

As mentioned previously the use of two squares for a model was something I originally saw in an old age of sail set of rules called ‘Ship ‘O the Line written by the late S. Craig Taylor of Flat Top (and other board games) fame. The rules were originally written for use with miniatures and were eventually redeveloped and simplified to become the hex based award winning Avalon Hill board game Wooden Ships and Iron Men. 

So what does this mean?

The most significant thing about this revision is that more of the playing area will be available to use. Using a single square meant that a model ship appeared to be taking up an awful lot of sea room/table space which in turn meant that close range combat within a square - gunfire or ramming attacks - became quite clumsy to work out in respect of arcs of fire or point of impact etc. It felt really cumbersome in operation.

Ship speeds can be modelled far more effectively - essentially movement allowances are doubled - and manoeuvrability is enhanced. The latter may not be wholly accurate but it does make for a better game. 

Gunfire ranges are now tidier as they can be shaped far more effectively to the type of weapon in use. It also means that firing arcs are far more logical looking.

In Closing

This is a revision that in my mind is quite simple but in reality will mean a fairly extensive redraft of the rules to incorporate. I am not unduly concerned by this as I absolutely believe this is the correct thing to do to get the rules to where I want them to be and to be honest, it is something I should have considered sooner but hey ho, we live and learn - besides, it is all part of the fun!