Friday, October 24

Trafalgar..

More years ago than I care to remember I painted a large batch of Airfix "HMS Victory" and "HMS Shannon" models (click here) with the intent of fighting Napoleonic ship engagements using the rules from Don Featherstone's "Naval Wargames"..

Like many such urges, I expended a lot of energy putting the things together (I can remember the smell of polystyrene glue even today), and painting them, but did not have the skills to turn them into waterline models and couldn't face the thought of playing with them still on those little stands they came with! I can't remember what happened to them in the end, I guess they just went into the bin...

The project may have died a death, but the interest didn't... (as evinced by the large numbers of books on Steve-the-Wargamers shelves by O'Brien, Forester, Llewellyn, Kent, Pope and other authors writing in the 18th Century naval line!) so although I'm not a huge fan of Warhammer historical (though I am more of a fan than I am of plain Warhammer!) the following really did rather catch my imagination:

http://www.warhammer-historical.com/news.asp


I must resist, I must resist....

7 comments:

  1. Interesting, but I think I can resist long enough for other members of the club to try it first

    Will

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  2. Interesting. We play the odd Napoleonic naval game with my little scratch built models.

    I wonder if GW can actually make something worth more than just looking at?

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  3. There's always a danger you spend a lot of time and money on models and then find the game side of things is a bit limited. It's nice to try things out before making any great committment.

    With a digital camera and a colour printer it should be possible to create a couple of fleets of 'flats' using images found on the web. That would allow you to try out some rules without any great expenditure of time and money.

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  4. I admit I can't resist, but then it'll only serve to use as a set of rules to use with my huge stash of 'Pirates...' ships ably proxying whatever is needed.

    That way if the rules do suck, I've lost nothing that bunging them straight on eBay shouldn't compensate for.

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  5. Thanks for the feedback chaps - I think Andy's cracked it, buy the rules (they'll be pretty anyway, and the re-sale is good if I decide not to pursue) but then use cardboard counters to try the rules mechanics.. looking forward to seeing what they're like.

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  6. I love all those novels you mentioned too and I bought some Langton Miniatures ships. But I just didn't have the skill or the patience to paint them!

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  7. Legatus - I know what you mean - *if* I did do this then I'm not sure I would buy Langton either - they're such beautiful models that the pressure to turn out the little works of art some painters manage would be excruciating..!

    PS. 5 posts?? Think the Warhammer guys might be on to something.. :o))

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