The Great Purge

Time to get serious about cleaning out some of my collection of gaming items.  Numerous rules and gaming supplements on the block.  The listing is on both Bartertown and The Wargames Website.  Good prices.  Stateside buyers only.

Battle of Lake Erie - Project Organization and Next Steps

I received my custom bases from Warbases some weeks ago.  They did a fantastic job on creating a base for each ship.  As mentioned in my previous post, I ordered clear acrylic 40mm by 20mm bases that will fit nicely on my Chessex sea mat.

A bit on organizing the project....

Using the Figurehead 1/2400 scale ships, here are the ships and the codes for each.  Not perfect matches for each ship type, but as there are no manufacturers in any scale that cover each Lake Erie vessel perfectly, this list will have to do:

FN14 - 20 Gun Sloop:  Detroit and Queen Charlotte
FN15 - 18 Gun Brig: General Hunter, Niagara, Lawrence, and Caledonia
FN16 - Sloop:  Little Belt and Trippe
FN20 - Schooner:  Lady Prevost, Chippewa, Ariel, Scorpion, Tigress, Porcupine, and Somers

Some obvious issues arise:  The General Hunter and Caledonia, while of brig configuration, are certainly not brigs of the same size as the 18 gun brigs.  Also, I am using cutters for the two small sloops.  

Next steps are priming then painting the ships, then finding some sort of glue that will not cause frosting on the plastic bases.

Battle of Lake Erie - More Thoughts

A few additional ramblings about the Lake Erie project....

Found a cheap copy of Wooden Ships & Iron Men on ebay today, so I will be set with the rules.  I am hoping there is enough explanation of ships ratings that will allow me to extrapolate rigging, crew, and hull numbers, plus I needed a copy of the rules and charts anyway.  I've always liked WS&IM, but for smaller ships it loses something, so changing the gun weight factor from 100 to 25 will give the smaller vessels at Lake Erie some representation.

Years ago I picked up a vinyl Chessex Megamat with 1" hexes for a low price.  I've never used it, but now it will serve as a perfect gaming space.  The Warbases tokens I have ordered for use as bases are 40mm in length, which will be ideal for the 1" hexes (two being 50mm), without cramming the ships together when they are at close quarters.

After years I am FINALLY getting this project moving forward!

Battle of Lake Erie - Scale, Bases, and Rules

Having purchased ships for the Battle of Lake Erie in two scales within the last few years, I have decided to go with the Figurehead (aka Hallmark) 1/2400 ships as opposed to the Valiant 1/2000 Fighting Sails range.  The main reason is assembly.  The Figurehead ships are one piece castings, except for the 20 gun sloops, which have a separate main mast and separate sails for the rear mast.  Beyond that, it is simply mounting then onto stands and painting!  Or is it....

Warbases make custom acrylic tokens that one can have etched names added.  They did some great work for me on for a Balkan Wars naval project, so today I placed a custom order for clear bases with names for each ship at Lake Erie.  This means I will have to paint the ships before mounting them to the stands, a change for me.

Rules - Having recently played a game of Wooden Ships & Iron Men, I may tinker with them to increase the values of guns, hull, and rigging so as to represent all the vessels present.  WS&IM does have a Lake Erie scenario in the rules, but it only encompasses the five larger ships, and hence the Americans really lose on their broadside weight advantage.  Some discussion on the Battle of Lake Erie Yahoo group has lead to converting the broadside gun weights as follows:

As always, more on this once the bases arrive!

Spanish-American War - The Campaign System

In a previous post I mentioned using an old board game to help drive table top battles set in Puerto Rico.  The game I own is Remember the Maine, that was printed in Strategy & Tactics back in 1986.  Copies of the game can still be found at the online auction sites from time to time.  Pictures and assorted details are listed on BoardGameGeek. 

Infantry units are battalion/regimental level, there are rules for restricting beachhead limits and disease, as well as quality ratings.

I will need to pull them out of the gaming closet and give them a good read through to determine their suitability to running a Puerto Rico campaign.

In Memory of Bob

This past Saturday I spent the day with my gaming friends, in the basement of a departed friend, Bob.  Bob passed away at the end of last year, suddenly, unexpectedly, a tragic event that still affects me greatly.  Bob's wife, whom I have known for many decades, graciously invited the gang over for a day of gaming and food, in memory of her husband and our friend.  We had a grand time, but one that felt uncomfortable at the same time.  To see what figures Bob was working on, still sitting on his painting table, to be gaming in his basement without him, and to go through his massive collection, at the behest of his wife, to take items that we wanted, left me walking away with mixed emotions.  A high as a result of gaming with my friends and enjoying the banter, and a low as I miss my friend.

From Bob's massive collection of painted figures and boardgames, I came away with something that would always give me a memory of him.  A few years ago, at the Check Your 6! game day, Bob hosted an Italian/British brew up with Gladiators and Cr.32s, and it was quite a fun time.  Therefore, I came home from Bob's basement with his Italian CY6! collection (with the Gladiators as well), so that I could host that same event in the future in honor of Bob.  I also choose a small boardgame based on Wake Island, an old Mayfair games offering.  Not sure why other than the Wake Island story holds interest for me.

I'll snap some pictures of the Italian planes...Bob did some amazing paintwork on them.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the Fire and Fury game we played.  This was a combined scenario, designed by another friend, and it was a challenge.  Some bad die rolling on the Federal's part kept us from obtaining our objective, but it was fun to run "Bull" Nelson's division at Shiloh just the same.

Intro Thoughts on a Spanish-American War Project

Photo from War Times Journal website

For years, fourteen in fact, I have been the owner and moderator of The Spanish-American War Yahoo group.  And for these same fourteen years I have wanted to game both the land and naval actions of the war.  While most of the land combat is seemingly one-sided, I was going to go with a Cuzco Wells scenario in which the Spanish actually outnumbered the American and Cuban forces, running the game as a quasi-skirmish affair using Tiger Miniatures.  A lack of space kept me from moving forward with that little endeavor, so I decided to "go small" using the old Freikorps 15 range, but those figures are showing their age with a lack of multiple poses and fairly plain look.  The Fantassin figures (which became Warmodelling, then Capitan, and now apparently Stonewall), while a bit more animated and offering a wider variety of poses, lacked U.S. Marines and some other necessary items, and they are simply far too large to use in-conjunction with the Freikorps.  So, to that end I have purchased and sold off in 25mm, and purchased and sold off in 15mm, figures for gaming the land actions, a project still stagnated to this day.

From a naval aspect, again the two major actions are fairly one-sided, but I believe Manila Bay, if the Spanish have the option to use their fortress guns, could be a more balanced game.  So, I do have the fleets for Manila Bay from War Times Journal, but they sit in their bags, waiting for basing and painting.  Really no excuse for not getting this project worked on as the ships are tiny (1/3000 scale) and I have a large sea mat ready to use, and even rules selected (the simple Quickfire rules, also a WTJ product).  So, what is the hold-up?

I think part of it stems from the shiny toy syndrome, in which a grab onto another idea or project and allow other ideas to wane.  However, I am determined to change that this year, by at least getting the naval project completed in 2018.

So, stay tuned as I plow my way forward into Manila Bay!