The League of Augsburg

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...

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...

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 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...

Looking across Øresund

I have finished refighting the Battle of Øresund, 28th October 1658. It was the largest Mad for War game I have played to date so let's get the stats out of the way first:

Table size: 6 x 4 feet

Playing time: 18 turns (6 hours of battle time) played over three days in multiple sessions.

Scale :1/1200

Model to ship ratio: 1: 2 

Number of models used: 50

Total Swedish fleet points:...

The fleets approach looking from the northwest

..every day and every night... In the words of Glasgow's own Frankie Miller Be good to yourself

I promised myself a northern waters game last Christmas, it was going to be Öland but that never took place because the lurgy got me and it nearly did it again this year, however... this hobby of ours is a powerful stimulus. So, sick a bed, I planned this...

I always enjoyed the Churchill quotes describing General Neil Ritchie of the 8th Army as an 'embarrassment of Ritchies'. Helion is creating an embarrassment of riches with their relentless release of source material for the 17th century, much of it plumb in the centre of my interest crosshairs.Two recent releases New Worlds, Old Wars, The Anglo-American Indian Wars 1607-1678 by David Childs and Th...

This is a great scenario to play and getting the historical feel was relatively easy with Donnybrook at Sea. I have always found Blackbeard an interesting character as his pantomime persona is at odds with his thoughtful approach to piracy and his victims. 

The Pirates

He seems to have given thought to persuasion, been reluctant to kill unnecessarily and a lot more cerebral than many of his more...

Irish defences south of Athlone Castle and the bridge

Having spent time walking many of the battlefields of the Irish wars I am constantly gaining a better understanding of the actions that took place. The recent Promenades Travel Jacobite Wars tour gave me a chance to do some more sniffing around.

The Castle and bridge in 1691

Being based in Athlone allowed considerable time to explore this small...