Galleys & Galleons, part 1

Last weekend, my lovely wife and I sat down to give Galleys & Galleons, the renaissance-era naval rules now in playtest, a go.  You will need to forgive the pics, as I do not have miniatures painted up, and I forgot to get my blue felt out for an appropriate backdrop!

This pic was taken after the full first turn.  The table is roughly 3 feet square, and we are using counters out of the Close Action game by Clash of Arms.  We kept details simple for this first game - 3 galleons each, with equal stats.  My wife is closing fast, as she rolled very aggressively (and well) throughout the game.  At this point, two of my ships are in irons - i.e. pointed into the wind.  It is an omen of things to come!

A few more turns in, and I am trying to shake my squadron back into a line.  My ships are taking damage, and Little Miss Horatio Nelson is about to break my line!

Even though one of her ships is out of contact, things are not looking good for me.  Yes, that ship of mine got raked and will strike its colors in the next turn, and the one on the right side is about to get raked, catch fire, and explode (!) in the next turn.

Here is the next to last turn - my last ship is trying to get off the board. She agreed that if my last ship could sail off the table, that it would escape as my wife's ships would need to return and claim the surrendered vessel.  Fortunately for me, my last vessel escaped...


So far, the verdict on the rules is quite favorable.  Even my lovely wife enjoys them, and she is a hard sell on sailing ship games.

As I would rather play with miniatures than counters:

Here is the start of a fleet of Figurehead 1/2400 ships on the workbench.  The bases are just temporary until I can order some better ones.

Underway again if slowly

Well, it has been a long time, as I have not had much inclination for the wetter side of miniatures.  But, a slice of inspiration has arrived - I volunteered and was accepted to the playtest crew of Galleys & Galleons, being produced for Ganesha Games by Nic aka Mr Hotspur.

As this is intended to be a miniatures game, I would need a fleet or two:

And, here are some volunteers!  I have had these squadrons for some 14 years or so - the price is in CAD$, back when the exchange rate was quite favorable to us Yanks.

The plan is to paint these ships up, and get some gaming in.  I have half a thought to break these squadrons up and mix them into something a bit different.  Instead of Spanish and English, I was thinking maybe Dutch and Portuguese, and split the ships across the fleets of the two nations.  These miniatures will have to do for now, as the harsh reality of budget limitations for naval activities has closed in - no funds for new acquisitions, just upkeep of existing ships.



Getting these squadrons has spurred some more enthusiasm about older projects, namely those neglected ironclads; might need to drag them out as well.  And the WW1 ships, but I am not liking the way I have based them...

WTJ strikes again!

The ships are just flowing out of the printers at War Times Journal - now, there is a new line of ships:   World War One ships in 1/1500, 1/1800, 1/2400, and 1/3000 scales!  Check this link:

WTJ 3-d printed WW1 ships

Just Germans for now, but soon the Royal Navy as well...

And, for more pics, see this great new blog:   Red In The Morning

(Not my blog but go visit just the same!)

Another distraction?

Just arrived...

Egyptian ships

After reading the books I received about ancient Egyptian ships, I was able to piece together a list of common building materials for the Pharaoh's navy:

Acacia
Sycamore
Cedar (red and white)

Also used, but much less often:

Cypress
Pine


Cedar, of course, would be imported from the Levant and was often used for funerary barges for the high-ranking citizens and royalty.  I intend to paint up only a few ships in red cedar, and the rest in a more tan color.  Masts, as another nifty detail, were often made of the same material as the hull.

Langton news

Well, it is new to me, but at the Langton Notice page, it has been announced that there has been a price increase on many items, effective today.  This is the first price change for more than three years, so it is not too surprising.  I am not entirely sure what items are affected - it appears that the ancient naval line has yet to see the increase.

Egyptian ship books...

Hmmm, long time no post!  Hopefully, these will help me get back on track:

I was looking for information on the colors of ancient Egyptian ships, and came across these on Amazon.  The book by Sintich is more about making models, and might not have much information on the colors of actual ships, but is very handy as it has plans for making scale ship models.  Besides, it was only $2.28 with free shipping, so I could not pass on it!  The Vinson books just arrived and I have yet to peruse it in depth.

The plan for my Bronze age ships is still as follows:  paint them up as historically plausible as possible, and use them for both historical battles and in my fantasy Tékumel battles.  No one, except the fine readers of this humble blog, will know the difference...

Langton ancient ships, part 2

Here are some closer looks at the recent purchase:

Egyptian Warship of Queen Hatshepsut

Egyptian Warship of Ramses III

Warship of the Sea Peoples

I am still digging into some research on the fleets, but the fleet lists from Naumachiae list several types of ships for both the Egyptians and Sea Peoples.  It would be interesting to get a mix of ships, especially for the Sea Peoples, as they were a loose confederation of tribes their ships should be different also.  It is interesting to note that this Sea Peoples vessel was modeled without oar banks.  How hard might it be to add some?

A slightly different direction?

I recently became the proud owner of some new ship miniatures:

More Langton ships, all the way from Down Under courtesy of Ian (who has a fine blog at Thomo's Hole!)  The package included ten Bronze Age Egyptian and ten Sea Peoples ships along with bases.  Of course, what to do with them...  The first course will be to integrate them into my Tékumel fantasy naval project, where, due to their older appearance and small size, they will be representing minor powers (the Tsoléi Islands among others) or perhaps pirates.

But, it occurred to me that they could be used for historical purposes also.  I could paint them up in historical schemes, and they would still fit in with the fantasy scheme.  Some sea battles circa 1200 BC might be fun, and it would not be hard to expand the collection, especially if some of the other Langton ships fit in time-wise, maybe the 20-oar galley or pentecontors to represent Mycenaean or Trojan ships  :)

Books to start off 2014

A good way to start off a new year is always with a new book, or maybe even two:

We found these at the local used book store.  The ACW book is a new copy, and the Salamis book is used but in great shape.  For US$20 total, this is not a bad way to get into the upcoming year.

I have read that there is some controversy about this ACW book by Dougherty; I have the similar work by Tony Gibbons and I will try to set up a compare and contrast post in the near future.