Thursday, December 4, 2008

Increasing the Fleet

Because I have a tendency to bounce around from thing to thing (not that you'll have noticed that ;> ), I've had a craving for a bit of naval gaming recently. I thought perhaps to get some 1/6000 scale ships and do some WWI naval gaming, with Barry Carter's rules, but the pricing on them was disheartening at present. It would take at least $100 to really get good in on them, I think.

Instead, I'm looking at the age of sail using the ships and rules from the Wizkids Pirates line. I've been doing Ebay buying, courtesy in part to a coupon or two and finding a vendor with very reasonable prices. I had some of these already, but I'd damaged two of them by breaking a mast during assembly. Since masts are critical to the game engine, this was a bit of a hindrance. But once I found a very cheap vendor, I decided I might as well just buy a replacement copy of each ship.

Altogether, once the latest purchases arrive, I should have about 30 ships and a sea monster. Because I've watched 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (several versions) too many times not to get a giant squid. I expect to see a Hesse-Engelburg fleet engage an enemy (but probably not a squid) perhaps as early as this weekend, depending how fast the new ships arrive.

Thus the dilemma...whom should they fight? Bad Nachtschwein is the obvious choice, but I'm tempted to mount another sea expedition of some sort. I might even talk myself into acquiring a few ships from the Barbary Coast line and dropping in a small battle line to attack the Ottoman-allied vessels currently making depradations on the Mediterranean coast. We'll see.

6 comments:

ColCampbell50 said...

I use the Pirates of the Barbary Coast galleys for both Moslem and Christian fleets. You can see some battle reports here:

www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer/ren_naval.htm

and

www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer/ren_naval_2.htm

I have the rules that we use if you want a copy. Just e-mail me at jmcp1650 at comcast dot net.

We have also used the sailing ships as well, but there are no pictures posted on our group's web site.

For broken sails, I have used regular liquid styrene glue and very small styrene rods as a reinforcement. Once painted, you can't really see the repair. I also paint the "bright" white edges of everything, trying to match the overall colors of the ships. And finally, I mount all my ships on balsa wood bases and use liquid styrene glue to fix all the hull, deck, and mast parts together.

Jim

abdul666 said...

Who knows what the dromons of Neo-Byzantium look like, in 'our' 18th C.? Basileos Bob XXI claimed to be allied with the Turks, and is too quiet since...

Snickering Corpses said...

Very nice writeup there, Colonel. I quite enjoyed a quick read-through. I'll drop you an email about the ruleset. Initially, I'm probably going to use the Wizkids rules, but I'd love to see what y'all worked up for it.

Bluebear Jeff said...

I've got far too many of these little gems . . . they are wonderful little ships (I'm particularly fond of the Chinese junks) . . . and you're right, they will be great for adding to our 18th century wars.

Sadly both Saxe-Bearstein and Stagonia are nowhere near any salt water (I've pictured them in Bohemia and Bavaria respectively).

Why not think about some of the other Imagi-Nations and perhaps do some more pbems?


-- Jeff

Anonymous said...

Come enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the Dalmatian coast! Barbary-corsair-bashing is fun and profitable.

I'm well pleased with the speed and vigour with which this campaign has taken off.

Prinz Geoffrey said...

I would love to see a battle fought between the imperial squadron and some of those dastardly raiding Bizerrcans. As Cavenderia has no great fleet of her own any assistance would be welcome.