Tuesday, October 4

Short update...

Just a short update to let you know what's currently going on....

At the weekend I made a visit to my local DIY emporium and bought myself six carpet tiles in a blue mottled effect - that's the playing surface for the ironclad game sorted! I may still get myself a few more as they are only 50cm square, and it leaves a fair amount of my 6' x 4' table without covering... the playing area for the game is probably big enough because in reality the two ironclads are going to close as soon as they can to either batter each other into submission, or ram.... subtlety is not a major part of the scenario!

Separately I continue to investigate rules suitable for the game - have continued to read the Phil Dunn rules but was slightly unhappy with the time scale and unit recording aspects for the game.... in his rules turns represent one minute at the tactical level, reducing to 30 seconds at micro level (when a ramming attack is being launched for example) but this means guns are firing only every 3 turns.. even with two ships that's a little onerous to track.....

I now have some further sets to check -all of these are free by the way...
  • "Flotilla" was a set published on the web here
  •  "Smoke on the Water" available from here (image above from their excellent site by the way)
  • "A Hotter Fire" available from here
...truly the web is an amazing place!

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Separately, "The Hundred Days", and "Blue at the Mizzen" have arrived in the post from Amazon - a total bargain by the way - two hardbacks for only a fiver delivered....  astonishing!

Second hand of course, but one good copy and one average, but at a penny each plus postage not to be sniffed at.

Should I ever buy a Kindle, the entire series will be high on my list....

4 comments:

  1. I've heard good things about "smoke on the water".

    Christopher

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  2. Don't know if you have already seen this but Angus Konstam's "Edinburgh Wargames' site is worth a look - he makes some favourable comments on Smoke on the Water, including the odd battle report in some of his 'Journals.' Separately, you might find it interesting to see a demo of computer generated ironclads in action - search for "Ironclads - High Sea' on Youtube.

    Davy
    P.S. By the way, what size were the tiles? (50mm is only 2 inches)

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  3. Yikes - 50cm of course... roughly 1' 8"... thanks!

    Smoke on the Water is certainly comprehensive - what's slightly off putting is the length!

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  4. I wish you joy of your O'Brians Sir!

    ReplyDelete