The League of Augsburg

Christians approach through the narrows

With the anniversary of this enormous sea battle occurring yesterday, I thought I would fight a little game to mirror the setting and the ships. This is a 1/1200 scale game using Ark Royal Miniatures and a few Langton Christian ships. 

The Ottomans are holding a strong defensive position

I used Mad for Warcombining the galleys and square rigged rules sections...

The campaign has a full and detailed narrative which accompanies the turn by turn mechanics. All of the narrative is based on events which happen in the table-top wargames combined with the role-play conversations and the umpire controlled activities. 

So far, the narrative runs to over 5,000 words for the first ten turns. Below is an extract from 5th March, five days into the campaign and it...

We've recently begun a campaign recreating the adventures of the itinerant Royalist Fleet on the West African coast in 1652. Under Prinz Ruprecht von der Pfalz known more commonly in Engish as Rupert of the Rhine, a small battered squadron 'privateered' between the Islas Cabo Verde and The Gambia for some weeks. 

Campaign Map

I have manipulated a few facts but nothing too outrageous. We have...

Tomorrow sees a return to Claymore for me. Last time I was there was three years ago and I was lucky enough to win the Best Display game with a land based Ottoman Wars effort in 28mm. This time I am significantly downscaling in line with my green-policy of getting rid of the German tank of a car and opting for a quiet little Nipponese hybrid with much less space inside. 

Having downscaled the...

Being just one of millions hit by the blight makes me nothing special. Some of my friends have had it three times. All I can say is that my usual drive to get things done disappeared for over two weeks and a couple of sobering visits to the local hospital led me to even more admiration for health care professionals and calibrated my expectations about going to bed early and having less energy than...

A grand fleet - Charles II's battleships 1666

At Partizan this year I am doing something different. I am running a 'demo rules-workshop' where anyone curious about Anglo-Dutch naval wargaming can come along, throw a few dice, try a few mechanisms and ask lots of questions. 

Line of battle developed between 1652 and 1660

I will set up gaming scenarios in three different scales to explain the scope of...

If you don't know much about the Four Days Battle of 1666 there is a hole in your life! This epic sea battle between the Restoration English Navy and that of the Dutch Republic involved a massive number of ships - around 160, over 40,000 men and in excess of 9,000 guns. It was fought over four days (hence the name!) with some fighting also happening at night.

It is crammed full of desperate...

This took a while but it was worth it purely from a personal point of view. Having been a bit unwell I needed something to motivate me and cheer me up. I decided to play a big solo wargame but with a difference. I wanted to do it slowly, recorded everything in text and photos and produce an analysis and compendium reference work for others to learn from and enjoy. 

That meant, playing the game in...

Neerwinden 1693 at Partizan

I am delighted to say that I will have a game on at Partizan on May 22. This will be my first show game since November 2019 and is a little bit of a last minute thing. Richard was able to find me a spot for which I am most grateful. 

Holowcyzn 1708 - 2007 at Partizan

Partizan has been for many years the constant theme for my wargaming efforts and getting something special...

Release of first Mad for War - War of Spanish Succession 4Play pack - 040 Heat of the day!

Link to pdf: 4P040 Heat of the day!

I worked on a lot of scenario stuff during the holiday break being confined to bed with the lurgy. One such was the latest free 4Play scenario set focused on Mad for War. 

It is imaginatively titled - Mad for Wargaming! It features three unusual scenarios

The first has a lone VOC ship facing a flotilla of Chinese pirate junks and fireships of various sizes in the spice islands of Indonesia. If you...