The League of Augsburg

sample page from Rolling Thunder!

We are developing new products all the time. Right now I am close to finishing and publishing the Mad for War fleet rules which are called Rolling Thunder! The system uses multi-based ships on a 1:1 basis  utilizing smaller scale models to facilitate the painting and use of entire fleets in the Anglo-Dutch War period. This can mean upward of 100 ships per side.

sam...

Seven German cruisers search for their opponents

I painted up a bunch of 1/4800 WWI era armoured cruisers to play a few games at home. This scenario is on a 4 x 2' table. The rules are Majestic 12's Grand Fleet. I have been familiarizing myself with these for a couple of weeks. 

The Germans thus far have not done so well. I constructed two equal points orbats which pitted a British armoured cruiser...

Panorama of the icy ending to the scenario

Last evening, Colin and I played Fog of War – the 4Play scenario for the Battle of Hudson’s Bay, 1697. It is unusual because the fighting takes place amidst the pack ice and in a thick fog. The mechanisms for contact in the fog produce ship disorientation and repositioning relative to other ships.

Initial forces - two ships each

Bad die throws whilst...

I get asked that question a lot. Since I have more or less managed to get my butterfly tendencies under control, getting balanced forces on the tabletop has been fairly straightforward. At the weekend, the conversation cropped up again. We were at a seventeen player event featuring two different types of games using a core rules system - One was a SYW and the other ACW. To tactically mirror the...

Let's start with code ARD014 Frigates

This code is one of the most popular in the range. It comprises 2 x 38 gun frigates and 1 x 26 gun. These ships are extremely utilitarian. They can be used from the period of the 1620s through to 1700. English, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Venetian, Swedish, Danish, Ottoman, Berber fleets can all deploy them.

In the Martime Nations they would be used for...

It's a while since I have blogged but that is simply because social media and life are not always compatible. Live one, neglect the other! Trying to do both is NO LIFE at all.  This post gets to the nub straight away. It is a Noobs guide to the Ark Royal range and its models. It provides, context to the use of each in gaming terms. It may have a few parts as I am writing this off the cuff...

REMEM...

The Rapture Gaming Festival happens to be taking place over July 1st and 2nd and one of those days is my birthday. It is being hosted at Chatham Royal Dockyard, a site which I have planned to visit for a long time but never gotten round to. To get to Chatham is about an 860 mile round trip for me.

To go that far takes a little bit of planning, a few days away from home and over a birthday weekend,...

An opportunity has arisen to take a private chartered cruise boat down the Medway and to the key battle sites of the 1667 Dutch attack on the English fleet. This would involve a trip of between 4-7 hours on a fully equipped large cruiser with toilet facilities, viewing deck and seating. Depending on numbers it may also have limited catering facilities on the day. 

The trip would be guided by me...

The 4Play packs are to my mind very good value for money with three comprehensive and well thought out gaming...

The campaign covering a single calendar month in 1652 when a small Royalist squadron under Prince Rupert ventured into the Tropics in search of funding sources to continue the king's war to recover his throne, has lasted for several months of real time. We are in the closing few days and the climax is nigh. 

I had no fixed plot line for this gaming journey and it has written itself through the...

I started collecting the material for these scenarios over eight years ago and the more I dug, the more I found. I could never decide on the final public sharing of the content in terms of format. I had thought about a book but needed some other supportive content which has ended up in other projects. The success of the 4Play format finally helped me make up my mind and so I am delighted to...