The Wargamer's Corner
The Wargamer's Corner
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By Mike Taber The idea for creating an age of sail wargaming fleet in just 24 short hours came about when Mike Frank sent an email message with subject - "Just a thought..." (Alison, Liam and I spent the recent Thanksgiving holiday in Visalia with Mike and in addition to the traditional turkey dinner, wargames were on the menu). His thought was that I should bring down some number of our sailing ship ship miniatures and that we would paint, base and wargame with them over the weekend. Mike had already been working on rules for the game - the rules we used came form the book, Sea Battles in Miniature by Paul Hague - so things were all set on his end. The only missing parts were the ships themselves. Wednesday night I set out to prepare the ships for painting. I started with the ships as you would receive them from HistoriFigs. From there I finished cleaning the flash and other minor detailing tweaks. Next, I prepared the hulls to receive the masts. Since we wanted removable masts I drilled through the hulls to allow for easy placement and removal of the masts. Total working time = 45 minutes.
The fleet after cleaning and drilling. The next day was Thanksgiving after dinner and dessert (and putting Liam to bed) Mike soldered extensions onto the bow sprits (he has always felt that these were too short). Once soldering was complete, I performed a quick cleaning of the solder joints and then we primed the hulls and sails. Total working time = 90 minutes (45 minutes for initial preparation + 45 minutes for soldering and priming of parts). On Friday morning, while waiting for me to set out figures for the day's game Mike quickly painted the decks of all the ships, plus a few of the hulls (about 15 minutes). After the days games, Mike babysat Liam while Alison we out to see the movie Master and Commander. Since Liam was asleep, Mike finished painting the hulls, glued them to the stands and painted the sails. Total working time = 3 hours 45 minutes. Game day arrived on Saturday. The last bits of preparation for play were completed cleaning paint out of the holes in the hulls and small bits of trimming on the masts. Total working time = 4 hours 15 minutes. To this total time, we should add another hour for the cutting and painting of the stands (which Mike completed a few days before we arrived). We now arrive at a total working time of 5 hours and 15 minutes. If we allow for primer, glue and paint drying times, we can add another 4 to 8 hours - taking us up to slightly over 13 hours working time. As you can see from the above, all of these steps could easily fit into a single 24 hour period.
The completed fleet, ready for its first game. Obviously, the fleet isn't 100% complete, but it is ready for a gaming session, which was our goal. None of us had played with the rules before, so we wanted to jump right in and begin gaming...
The fleet in action. We finally played the game on Friday afternoon. Mike acted as referee and the players were myself and Mike's friend, Dave Bratovich. We set up similar forces and prepared for the coming battle. The game ran smoothly, there were only a few glitches. Ships on both sides took a beating, but none were knocked out of commission. We called the game after a couple hours (we had a 5 hour drive home ahead of us) things were pretty even still (well Dave had the advantage), but I think if played to completion, the battle would have been won by Dave. The playing of the game pointed out a few game aids that we could (and will) create, but it also pointed out that this game does indeed work and it is worth playing again. I know that Mike and Dave will give it another shot once Dave's fleets are completed. I too will be playing again here at HistoriFigs HQ in the not too distant future. The fleet as it stands today consists of: 3 Three Deckers, 4 Two Deckers, 7 Frigates, 1 Corvette and 1 Brig. The next steps for this fleet will be adding a wash to finish the sails and then sealing the paint with a dull coat. There will be future additions to the fleet, and for these I will use different techniques - which I will write about in a future edition of Wargamer's Corner. As you can see, for an investment of around $50 and less than day's time you too can have a fun and functional wargaming fleet.
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