Ships shipped

Lately on Kijiji I found an ad for a bunch of 1/2400 warships. I asked the owner to send me a list and at first glance it seemed quite substantial, so I made an offer. But when the box arrived, I felt its weight and I knew the content was going to be awesome.

There is enough WW1 ships to make the Home Fleet and the High Seas Fleet. There is also a good core of pre-dreadnought ships to have a downsized battle of Tsushima. The rest is made of WW2 battleships and there are some 1/1200 ships as well.

Here is a "sub-box" full of C-in-C goodies. Some of the ships are in pure lead.

For comparison, here are side by side a 1/2400 battleship, a 1/1200 sail ship (74 guns) and a 1/1200 battleship (Lion). It's just mind boggling how big warships have become with time.

But before I start playing with my new ships, I have to finish my little Russians. Better get at it.

San Domingo, 1806

Last Thursday, I prepared a scenario for the sail ships inspired by the battle of San Domingo. It was the occasion to test a few rules tweaks, most of them taken from Wargames Illustrated n260, but also some of my own, including redrawing the ship display.The display is inspired by Kiss me Hardy!. Numbers in the hull indicate the number of die for gunnery. If damage reaches red zones, the ship must test in the end phase for striking colors. The big change is the suppression of the saving throw, making the combat resolution a little quicker. But let's go back to the scenario.

Leissègues' fleet had the mission to disrupt British shipping lanes in the Carribeans. During a stop in San Domingo, Leissègues decided to leave in haste the safety of the port when hearing the news that a British fleet was approaching. The British split their fleet in two squadrons in order to trap the French fleet. Stacy, briefly helped by Rob, was in charge of the French vessels, while Curt and Allan would share command of the British.

Here is the French fleet, cruising under the nice Caribbean sun, minding its own business. The fleet was lead by the Impérial, a giant 120 gun first-rate under the cmmand of Amiral Stéssy. The green tape represents shallow waters.

Trouble on the horizon! Admiral Allan forms his ships into a line of battle to engage the French.

Amiral Stéssy wanted to demonstrate that French sailors are not just decorative. He ordered a series of tacking maneuvers to confuse the British.

Boum! Boum! Guns are talking. Admiral Allan had his guns readied with double shots and it proved devastating on the Impérial.

More ships are being engaged in the exchange of fire. More shots on the French first-rate.

Hey, what is that black smoke? The Northumberland is on fire! And what is that ship on the horizon? It's Admiral Curt, finally joining the battle after some delays that will later have to be explained back in London.

Badly damaged, the Impérial found the situation hopeless. The French had the option in this scenario to try run aground instead of being captured. So Amiral Stéssy bravely headed for the island and got stuck in shallow waters where his flagship got wrecked.

Admiral Curt is closing in, eager to make sure his ships will be included in any future historical paintings of the battle.
And here is the final situation. A nice tableau of confusion, violence and destruction! Two French ships were grounded, one was captured and two were able to escape to an uncertain future.

I found the rules changes quite satisfying, although a few more adjustments could be made:
- Firing at masts seems futile. No British ships were dismasted as was usually the case after meeting the French. I will have to revisit the rules.
- The article in Wargames Illustrated proposed that the line of fire is blocked if there is a friendly ship anywhere in the firing arc, to encourage captains to adopt the line formation. The approval rate of the rule was quite low. I will have to rethink that one.

Curt wrote his view on the game in his blog.

Battle of the Neptunes

As the battle of Trafalgar is still raging, the French Neptune along with the Spanish Neptuno are trying to escape to a nearby Spanish port. But the British Neptune is on their heels... Yes, there were three ships named Neptune at the Battle of Trafalgar, one per nation. I decided to pitch them against one another to playtest Kiss Me Hardy!, a set of naval rules by Too Fat Lardies set in the Napoloenic era. Captain Stacy commanded the British squadron while Capitaine Coeurte was in charge of leading the allied crews to the safety of the nearest port brothel.

Here is the initial deployment. The allied squadron of 4 ships is trying to escape in the upper right corner. The British squadron, led by the Neptune, is coming from the upper left corner.

The British captain must have blinked! How come the allies are already passed the island? In KMH, speed is determined by adding the roll of a die (or two, depending on the attitude to the wind) to the basic movement allowance. The British had a few poor rolls at the beginning. But Captain Stacy quickly ordered the crew to start paddling from the gun ports in order to catch up.

Concentrating their fire on the rigging of the Santa Ana, the three Royal Navy ships got her to slow down and eventually stop. She stroke her color soon after. The British were able to catch the Neptuno, seen just on the corner of the table, and a small boarding party quickly subdued a much larger crew, thanks to pro-British modifiers. The French sailors, by that time, were already enjoying wine with pretty Hispanic damsels at the port brothel.

I made many interpretation mistakes in the first few turns of the game (thanks guys for your patience), but after re-reading the rules on the go and coercing players into performing specific actions in order to test special rules, I found that KMH plays quite well. Ships squadrons are moved and fired using cards drawn one at a time from a deck. It brings lots of fun in a turn. But I have to say that from a "realistic" point of view, it sometime felt a little awkward. My vision of sailing ships combat is that you see the enemy ship slowly and inevitably approaching yours for a sudden and terrifying exchange of broadsides. In KMH, the range of guns goes in increments of about 7 cm and the movement of a third rate ship in the best attitude to the wind can be as short as 14 cm or as long as 24 cm. Depending on how the cards are drawn and how good the wind rolls are, a ship pursuing another one could either come to close range or find herself at extreme range. On the other hand, the damage system makes each ship unique: the number of "damage points" is based on the number of guns. A 74 gun ships has 74 DPs. Again, to be the devil's advocate, I have to say that, historically, the French 120 class ships were bigger than a Spanish 136 guns. I would like that to be reflected in the rules. No fire were started, which was a refreshing change from Trafalgar. The critical hits table of the latter was probably designed by a pyromaniac. For turn gages, circles of different radius are used. The bigger one, about 12 cm radius, could be tricky to use when there are lots of ships nearby.

I would like to play next the battle of the Hudson Bay with these rules to see how the Pélican would perform.

Battle of the Nile, 1798

Dan and Stacy came to play the Battle of the Nile, a scenario that I've been working on for some time. The challenge was to create a fun naval battle with ships at anchor and one side being pounded to ashes. Instead of a classic French vs British engagement, I've decided to split the British fleet among the players and have the French ships operated by automated rules. Rear-Admiral "Dan" Nelson and Captain "Stacy" Foley would then be competing against each other for greatest honours!


Here is the set up, with only the van and center of the French line. The British would start the game within the zone delimited by the dice. There were two forts on the shore that did not do much damage during the game, just like it happened in History.

Foley's line, at the top, prepares to circle around the French van while Nelson's column resolutely approaches the center. The counters by the French ships are the anchor positions that the British ships were supposed to reach before nightfall.

Half of Nelson's squadron just went through the French line which is being pounded from both sides. White puffs of smoke were helping the commanders keep track of which ships fired. In the background, Foley's line is shooting intensely on the French van.

This is just before nightfall. Ships with yellow/green counters on their bow are using backing sail to slow down to their anchor positions. On the left, four British ships are firing simultaneously on the huge Orient. Despite many close calls, the giant of the sea did not blow up. On the other hand, the Aquilon sank. The wreckage can be seen near the black centerline. At that point, the fate of the French fleet was sealed, and the competing commanders were racing to perform the most glorious actions for honours.

On the last turn, the Tonnant was set ablaze four times! When compared to the real battle, the end result is eerily similar. All in all, despite the scenario being playtested for the first time, it was a very enjoyable game. Even with over 12 ships on each side, the game ran smoothly. The tactical challenge to the players was to position their ships as best as possible before nightfall so as to gather as much battle honours as possible. In the end, Captain Foley got 450 points of honours and Nelson got 425. A few adjustments will certainly make the scenario a little more challenging and even more entertaining.

Completion of Project Trafalgar

In the Summer of 2009, I bought the newly published rule book Trafalgar at Pendragon, in Winnipeg. A few weeks later, Curt offered to play a game with a few ships he bought. Somehow, I got hooked and I told myself: "I want to paint enough ships for the battle of Trafalgar." This represents over 70 sail ships if frigates and smaller vessels are to be included. So back in January 2010, I candidly announced my insane project. In May, I was about 2/3 done. And now, eight month later, here is an overview of the completed work.


I like to fit everything in a banker box. When the box gets damaged for any reason (water, fire, or even worse: kids), it's easy to replace. After the last ship was painted, the whole collection would occupy the surface of three shelves in a glass cabinet. Now seeing how eight month worth of painting fits neatly into this little box helps me better understand poems written by Charles Baudelaire about the futility of life...

These upright trays were built on purpose to store the ships. There is provision for expansions, in case I want to revisit the Age of Sail in the future. The magnificient vessels of Louis XIV's navy come to mind, especially the Soleil Royal. But if hulls are fun to detail, this modelist needs to take a serious break from making sails. Painting decent sails and rigging the masts consume about 2/3 of the time it takes to make one ship.

Here are some of the pieces from the collection. The H.M.S. Victory has been introduced before. Now behold the Spanish heavy hitters: the first rate Rayo (100 guns), Santa Ana (112 guns), Principe de Asturias (112 guns) and Santissima Trinidad (136 guns). These four giants of the sea combine 460 guns. By comparison, there were a total of 417 guns at Austerlitz. And we are talking mostly about 24 and 36 pounders, not silly 12 pounders or smaller. Anyway, it is unlikely that a Napoleonic land army will neatly line up on the beach to challenge these monsters into an artillery duel.

Let's compare the 120 gun Orient, one of the largest sail ship ever launched, to a 74 gun third rate, a 36 gun frigate and an 18 gun brig. Arming ships with more guns often meant to simply add a deck so from the gamer's point of view, a 3 decker does not appear significantly bigger than a 2 decker. Since at 1/1200 it is very hard to distinguish ship classes, the length of the base can serve as a visual clue to the power of the ship.

When you think sail ship, you also think pirates and I could not resist making a few of them. Along the merchantmen Beagle and Hudson's Bay come the Black Pearl (tm) with black sails and the Flying Dutchman, glowing in ghostly green. I thought that if I am to introduce younger players to the game, leading the Black Pearl (tm) would be a lot more appealing than commanding the Polyphemus...

To make the gaming experience more enjoyable, I gathered these accessories:
- Sinking ship markers
- A few boats.
- Movement gages in centimeters.
- Firing gage. The stick goes from yellow to red as the range gets "hotter".
- White smoke to indicate that cannons have been fired and black smoke to indicate fire on board.

My evil plan for the future is to introduce the game to as many players as I can. Then, probably sometime next summer, I will invite them all on a Saturday to a Battle & BBQ (& Bed?) to recreate the engagement at Trafalgar. The game will start at 1:00 p.m. and will end when it ends, however late it goes into the night! One game to bring them all and in the darkness bind them! Mwa ha ha ha!

As for my next project, I have to confess that I can be obsessive compulsive after I set myself a goal. In the past, I have blindly followed insane ideas like: "I am going to collect all the Epic armies!" or "I will build downtown Montréal in 1/300!" (Sadly, ferocious field mice infested the paper made downtown Montréal stored at my friend's place; there were no survivors.) These huge enterprises were fun, but when they last over a year the lack of diversity starts to kick in, especially for my fellow gamers. In the next few days, I am going to complete Curt's commission. Curt asked me for some buildings for the battle at Aspern's church. The church is done and sits unpainted in his kitchen (?). Not long ago, Curt challenged me to build a Warhammer army. If the challenge is still open, that will be my next project in line. I've occasionally painted 25/28mm figures in the past, but never a whole army. So this could be an interesting first for me.

Pélican spotted in... Shilo

On my way back to Regina, yesterday, I made a stop in Shilo, near Brandon, to visit the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum. It's a very decent museum with 4 sections:
1. The outdoor collection, with British guns, captured WW2 German guns and some Soviet WW2 and Cold War weapons as well. There are no explanations outside, so you have to use your own knowledge. But I discovered that the German equipped their guns with a clever mechanism to lower the silhouette.
2. The main collection, presenting the chronological evolution of guns with the Canadian Armed Forces. Each gun comes with at least one dummy server dressed with the uniform of the era. It's a good visual reference for painting. I must praise the museum for having all the explanations in both French and English, and not bad translations at all, like I've seen too many times. And you can touch everything. I felt so proud (or alarmed) as a father to see how my 2 year old daughter could handle the shell of a 25 pounder.
3. The military history of Canada, composed mostly of posters with two or three items. Time can be spent more fruitfully in the other sections.
4. The military history of Manitoba. A surprising exhibit with lots of interesting stories. And in the corner, there was something that made me skip a heartbeat: a diorama of the Battle of the Hudson Bay! Apparently, this was the greatest naval battle of Manitoba. The ships were about 1/200, displayed in a very unrealistic "epic" formation, but there they were: The Hampshire, the Hudson's Bay, the Derring and the Pélican. I cursed myself for the rest of the trip for not bringing the camera. I'll have to go back next year. Since I did not take any pictures, I stole this photo of the 1992 replica of the Pélican from Wikipedia to add a visual dimension to my entry.

And thanks to the folks in Winnipeg for sharing a few games with me. It was nice meeting you.

My Tiny H.M.S. Victory

I've just finished my last batch of British ships of the line for the battle of Trafalgar. Among them was the H.M.S. Victory and I thought it would be a a good opportunity to document how I built her. I used the following web sites for visual references:

- Wikipedia: H.M.S. Victory

- hms-victory.com

This is what you get when you open a GHQ blister. Note that there are anchors and boats, but I don't usually use them. I made an exception for the Victory, though.

The parts are cleaned then the hull is assembled and glued on to a base. To fit the masts, holes have to be drilled in the deck. It's a little tricky for the Victory model because of the layout of the internal casting. All the other castings are easier to deal with. It's better to use a dremmel tool with a very small bit for this operation.

The hull is basecoated "Golden Yellow", then washed with "Flesh Wash". Because I don't like to use spray cans in winter time, the model was not primed. I know, it's wargaming heresy. After the wash is dry, the deck is painted "Kommando Khaki" and details added with "Scorched Brown" and "Bestial Brown".

Then the black trimming is done. The checkered pattern really gives the hull it's British look. Only for the Victory, I've highlighted the details at the bow and stern, and painted the figurehead. I've also added boats, but only 3 out of the 5 she normally carries. I find that the trims and the gun ports are a little chubby compared to the real ship.

The masts have to be painted separately, otherwise it would be near impossible to paint the details on the deck. First, the bare metal sails (still no primer) was basecoated "Bleached Bone". Then I used "Sail Wash", which is simply "Flesh Wash" thinned down with water 1/3. To give volume to the sails, I've decided to add "faux shade". It may look silly on close-ups, but at a distance it looks nice. See the last picture of this entry to see the effect. The masts are painted yellow, the same way as the hull. Apparently, this was to help the crews distinguish friendly ships from enemy ones in close actions. Finally, black details are added. Sails take more time to paint than the hull and are a real test to one's patience. On the 60 ships I need for Trafalgar, there are 180 masts with 3 sails each...

Now it's rigging time! Here is a comparison between the "symbolic" rigging I've done to all my ships so far (in this case, a fellow 100 guns, the Britannia) and the extra rigging I've done for Victory. For the symbolic rigging, one single 30cm string is used and twisted to give this look. For the extra rigging on the Victory, I had to drill micro holes and use about 150cm of threads. String ends are secured with super glue. I've also added an extra sail on the bow mast and 4 anchors out of the 5 she normally carries. My initial plan was to do extra rigging on Victory, Bucentaure and Santissima Trinidad, but now I think I will be content with only one ship done this way.

The base is painted. First dark blue, then layers of paler colors are added. Here the Britannia sails in the direction opposite to the Victory to show what the trail looks like.

The final step is to add the name on the base and to cover the water surface with a coat of artist gel. It creates a nice contrast between the "dryness" of the hull and the "wetness" of the sea surface. To give an idea of the scale, I've put a tooney in front of the Britannia.

In this picture, the Victory leads the Weather Column at Trafalgar. The other column, the Lee Column, lead by Collingwood, when properly spaced, is about 4 feet long. Obviously, it will take a very large surface to recreate the battle. Trivia: What's the name of that lonely ship heading away from the column?

It this picture, the British meet the French section of the Allies at Trafalgar. The Spanish section is still in the shipyard. I just need to paint 14 more ships out of 60, plus a few frigates and odd ships, and project Trafalgar will be done. Since the sails are all the same colors and the hull are too small to be clearly distinguished, what really helps to identify friends from foes is the color of the name tags. I Spy game for kids: can you spot the Victory in the lot? Can you spot the only Spanish ship in the lot?

Cape Ortegal, 1805

After sinking the Graf Spee, Dan was eager for more naval action. As Captain Dan Strachan he was ready to face Rear-Admiral Sylvain Dumanoir in the battle of Cape Ortegal. Four French ships that escaped the disaster at Trafalgar are encountering a small British fleet of four 3rd rate ships-of-the-line and four frigates. This scenario is taken straight from the Trafalgar rulebook by Warhammer Historical. We played the rules without any changes, except that I redesigned the display sheet in a way that is more intuitive to me and that can also fit 4 ships on a 8 x 11 sheet instead of only 2 with the official design.
This is my reconfiguration for a 3rd rate ship-of-the-line. Boxes are marked off from left to right, or from top to bottom on the masts, and the letters represent the effect of sustained damage. B = loose 3 cm. F = loose caronade. G = loose heavy gun. X = crippled. + = sunk. J = -1 command check. # = decrewed.

This is the initial deployment. The 4 French ships are on the left side, abreast. The 4 British frigates are in column on the top right of the board. Coming toward the camera is a column of 3 British ships-of-the-line. Waiting to enter the board is the Namur, supposedly delayed, but Captain Dan rolled her on the board as early as turn 2.

The scenario was to be played on a 4'x6' board, but the battle took place on the upper half, and the important events took place on the upper quarter. In the Trafalgar rules, ships that "hold the weather gage" (i.e. closer to where the wind comes from) have a decisive tactical advantage because they move after those that are further away from the wind. As you can see, Captain Dan and I deployed our ships consequently. Next time I host a game with the Trafalgar system, a house rule will prevent players from deploying closer than 60cm from the edge where the wind comes from, otherwise we might end up playing "chicken" on the first 5cm strip of the board.

The objective of the scenario was for the British to capture (i.e. cripple, sink, decrew or board) the French Flagship before turn 15. The Formidable was my flagship, and it was adorned with a big blue banner for recognition.

My initial plan was to use the Mont-Blanc and the Scipion to protect both the front and rear of the Formidable and to try to hold the weather gage. My fourth ship, the Duguay-Trouin, was to be used as a bait to distract a few British ships away from the Formidable and/or to harass the British squadron from behind. I also had a slight advantage in command since there was a rear-admiral aboard my flagship.

This is the third turn of the game. The French vessels are highlighted in blue circles. You can see my lonely Duguay-Trouin at the bottom right. Not even for a second did Captain Dan lost sight of his objective. He paid absolutely no attention to the juicy bait. The British frigates circled behind my main squadron and the 4 ships-of-the-line turned toward the Formidable. I thought I could quickly get rid of the frigates, but they are much tougher than they look. And with 2 heavy cannons, each of these small one-decker carries the same long range firepower as any of my 3rd rate vessels. The pesky frigates rarely came close enough to have a taste of my caronades and my batteries of light cannons.

This exceptional picture taken at sea level shows the hand of Aeolus, God of Winds. This explains how the wind pushes sail ships.

This is the moment when the Formidable struck colors after being crippled. The Formidable is highlighted in a circle. My other ships are in squares. Note that the Scipion is on fire. Captain Dan consciously concentrated his fire on my flagship. My other vessels were still capable of fighting, and the British vessels all survived with various degree of damage. It was a very pleasant and exciting game. This was my third attempt at mastering the fine art of sailship combat and I will certainly prepare more scenarios in the future.

1 bottle of wine, a few cans of Pepsi, 1 bag of nachos and 1 jar of salted peanuts were absorbed during the game.

Sylvain

The Fate of the Graf Spee

In January of this year, Curt and Dan came to my place for a naval campaign simulating the hunt for the Graf Spee in 1939. The second game, with Captain Curt Langsdorff in command of the famous German pocket battleship, ended in the harbour of Montevideo as 4 British cruisers under the command of Captain Dan were appearing in the distance, sealing the fate of the Graf Spee. The campaign was great fun, but the captains felt that the engagement was not conclusive and that the German ship could pound her way through the British blocade. It was only this past weekend that the final battle of the campaign could be played, using the simple but efficient General Quarters rule system.

The historical engagement distance was 10 miles, which translates to 200 centimeters at GQ scale. To give the ships some rooms to maneuver, I decided to have the game played on the floor. This was also to serve as a test for future big naval battles like Trafalgar. The downside is that my poor dogs had to be kept out of the playroom :-(.








Captain Dan, after spotting the Graf Spee, decided to immediately close in. Under his command were the heavy cruisers Cumberland and Exeter, as well as the light cruisers Achilles and Ajax (his 4th ship is masked by his left elbow). With all the bending and crawling involved, the game prooved to be as much a physical challenge for the captains as it was a strategy challenge. Not wasting any time and despite the distance (21 000 yards), the British squadron opened fire at once.

After a few salvoes, a lucky shell hit the un-armoured rear deck, ripped the steel deck down to... the rudder! and jammed it! The Graf Spee started circling starboard. Captain Curt's dedicated crew frantically tried to repair the damned thing but, after a few turns, the repair team's diagnostic could be summarized with this one German word: "Kaputt". Deciding that he'll have plenty of time to repair his ship after disposing of the pesky British boats, Captain Curt kept his 11" guns thundering while doing the Merry-Go-Round.

Meanwhile, Captain Dan ordered his ships to split into two squadrons in order to annihilate the Graf Spee with a clever pincer maneuver. Achilles and Cumberland were heading to the South while Exeter and Ajax would circle around the Graf Spee and attack from the North. As they were closing in, the British ships were showering the German pocket battleship with shells. Most of the 6" and 8" hits were bouncing off the thick armour, but as the British ships were getting closer, at a range of 9000 yards, things were starting to look bad for Captain Curt. The Royal Navy light cruisers were using rapid fire with their 6" guns, and the German was doing the same with his secondary armament. The Graf Spee lost one main turret, then the other one, while the Cumberland, stubbornly heading toward the enemy despite her damage, was sent to the bottom of the bay.

At a range of 6000 yards, all ships sent their torpedoes almost simultaneously. That is what the tapes on the floor are for. The Graf Spee is on the top left corner. The German autonomous weapons hit both the Exeter and the Achilles, sending them to the kingdom of Neptune. All the British torpedoes missed, but the constant firing from all the guns at such close range was enough to send the stubborn German ship to the bottom of the sea. It costed the Royal Navy 3 cruisers to get rid of the German commerce raider, but seaways in the South Atlantic were now safe from surface threats.

Sylvain

Project Trafalgar

Last week I found in my e-mail box a nice invitation from Greg to contribute to this blog. I could not refuse and I don't want to be just a lurker. This is my first blog entry ever and I would like to talk about my new painting project for 2010: Trafalgar. Last year, I bought a copy of copy of the new set of rules published by Warhammer Historical about the age of sail. It's a period I was always interested in but never dare start collecting models. Now my plan is to have enough ships by December 2010 to recreate the famous naval battle.

On this picture, the U.S.S. Constitution talks to the H.M.S. Guerrière through the mouth of her guns.

My first step was to choose a model maker. I wanted miniatures with enough detail to look good on the table, so Langton and GHQ were shortlisted. I soon realize that the superb Langton models, for some of their items, require assembling each sail separately... So maybe I'll buy a few models at a later date, when I feel I need an outrageously super detailed sailship to impress my opponents. GHQ seemed a better (and more convenient) (and cheaper) option.

So the second step was to order a variety of models from GHQ to get a better feeling of what is available. Although the company catalog list 25 different sailships, I discovered that sometimes the same hull is used with a slightly different set of sails. Oh well, at 1/1200, the color rather than the shape of the hull is what matters anyway. On the picture, you can see 14 different ships from the GHQ selection. I also decided to buy full sail sets models instead of battle sail because I prefer the look of the latter. I've seen many paintings and models of sail ships with pure white sails, but I've decided to paint my miniatures in cream tone. It gives the feeling that the ships have been at sea for a while and it creates a better contrast with the white masts of the American frigates.

These four models are the latest additions to my collection. I just finished putting the gel on the bases last night. From left to right: a small merchantman that I christened the Nonsuch :-); a large merchantman, the Beagle; an American frigate, the U.S.S. Constellation, and the U.S.S. Constitution, the American super frigate. Now that I have painted a nice variety of ships, the third step is to focus on those ships I need for the battle of Trafalgar. There were 60 ships of the line at the battle, and I have 6 so far. In the meantime, I will hone my naval skills with smaller scenarios.

Cheers,

Sylvain