More experiments....

My 1:6000 Russo Japanese War ships. Models from Hallmark bought from Magister Militum (fantastic service, btw),

 Above: 4 Borodino class Battleships... the first ones I painted (they are really small).

Ships from the 1st and 2nd Division of the Japanese fleet at Tsushima.

Experiments

Never give away plastic pieces from boardgames.....
Do you like that?

Sunday at GiocaRoma

Yesterday I went with Andrea to GiocaRoma, a small CON organized in Rome by Ludus Magnus.
I brought "Aye Aye Sir!" and had a couple of very interesting and useful playtest games.

Above and below, the first of the 2 games played. Diego (left) with 4 British ships of the Line against a mixed French-Spanish squadron of 6 ships. After this game I was able to solve a problem I had with the game when the Wind was extremely low.

In the afternoon Diego invited me to play a Drums and Shakos Large Battle game he prepared for the Show (Battle of Hohenlinden, year 1800) and I agreed with pleasure. Playing with an opponent without explaining the rules is something I did not do since months. My French Division was defeated by his Bavarians: in the pic below, Diego doing something that surprises me (according to my face) but unfortunately I do not rememeber.... :-)

More pics of 1:2400 ships

I've been requested to post more pictures of my 1:2400 Napoleonic Ships, and here they are.

 The full (for the moment) French fleet: from left to right a 120 Guns, four 74 Guns. Just in front a 24 Gun Frigate and a 40 Guns.

The same pic, seen from above.

My British fleet: from top left a 100 Gun, four 74 Guns and a 40 Guns Frigate.

And finally, the Spanish fleet. A 100 Guns, and four 74 Guns. The Santisima Trinidad (130 Guns) will follow ... soon.

Painting 1:4800 ships

First experiment at 1:4800 napoleonic ships from Tumbling Dice. I bought them 2 years ago at Colors in Newbury and then forgot to have them.

 These are all 1st Class ships from the "Trafalgar Pack" and (as I did for the 1:2400) I painted them with yellow, red and pale sand sides. Even if they are quite small, there is some detail helping you in paiting them.

Next batch will be a dozen 74 guns. In my mind this scale could be OK for playing fleet actions (i.e. big naval battles) with my new rules.

Fresh breeze from the South West..

Last thursday night was the Premiere of my new Age of Sail game: 6 friends came to play and I organised a simple scenario giving them one ship of the Line each. In about two hours I explained the rules, we played and we got a clear final result. They all enjoyed the game, and play proceeded smoothly after the first couple of turns. I was so busy taking notes and explaining that I did not take any picture of the game. At the end we had a brief exchange of thoughts, and they made some suggestions that I'll follow, regarding Crew grading and boarding actions.
So yesterday I wanted to test these modification myself and put up an engagement between a Franco-Spanish and a blockading British squadrons.
Miniatures are 1:2400 Hallmark (painted by me), sea-mat from Magister Militum.

The Allied squadron (top right of the above pic): three French and two Spanish ships.
L'Orient (120 guns), Guerrier and Conquerant (74), San Justo and San Leandro (74).

 A close up on the British squadron: Britannia (100 guns, left), Mars (74 guns, right, leading the formation). Orion (74) and the "small" Chesterfield (40) follow.

Some play aids: the ships' Logs with allocated crews and the wind star (top right) indicating wind from South East, 6 strong. Some ships have already sustained some damage, as you can tell from the Damage die on the bottom right corner of a couple of the Logs.

 A close-up on the Log of French ship L'Orient, a Large one (120 guns). The French squadron Commander is on board, as you can tell from the Flag on the top left corner of the Log.

 A sudden wind change and the British squadron, seizing the initiative in perfect Line formation, passes behind  the Allied squadron, using all its firepower to damage the Spanish ships San Justo and San Leandro. The latter will also catch fire and abandon the fight for a while. After few turns however, L'Orient successfully boarded and captured the Orion while the Chesterfield - heavily damaged - was forced to flee.
Not bad, for a game that has no name yet....