The League of Augsburg

That thorny old issue... Scales

 

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...

The Rejects' Guide to Ark Royal's 17th Century Shipping Part 3


 

Part 3





ARD022 Merchant fluyts

This is the lightly armed variants of code ARD017. One addition is a whaling ship which has boat davits either side of it quarters. The Dutch whaling fleet was the largest in the world for decades and dominated the whaling industry. These can be used for merchant shipping of any nationality as the design was almost universally adopted.




ARD023 Brigs

Brigs were ubiquitous...

The Rejects' Guide to Ark Royal's 17th Century shipping Part 2

 


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 Rejects' Guide to ARK ROYAL'S 17th century shipping

 


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...

Well, it'll be my birthday!


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,...

Join us on a battle cruise down the Medway?


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...

Sweden versus Holland 1658

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 day has arrived.. Mad for War pre ordering


First, let me thank you all for your patience. We have been promising this book for over eighteen months. Why it took so long does not matter anymore. It will be delivered to Warfare Miniatures HQ before the end of January 2023 for immediate distribution.




A shipment will go on to Warfare USA the day after it arrives on my doorstep. Orders for the USA, Canada and US Territories should be made from...

English Bottoms - The Navigation Act

Set up. Ayscue sweeps in on the westerly.

The Navigation Act was a piece of legislation designed to annoy the Dutch and wrest back some control over the global movement of trade commodities from the commercially adroit GWC/VOC and trade bodies of the Dutch Republic. 


T2. The faster English ships break away from Rainbow.

It went a considerable distance in starting the 1st Anglo-Dutch War as the...

Act of Oblivion - Worth reading?



I would not normally review a work of fiction on the blog but am happy to make an exception for Robert Harris's latest novel Act of Oblivion. It is a historo-fiction set in 'my period' as the purchaser, Mrs H described it. I have little time for fiction these days with other overlapping commitments, but decided to make the effort and consume this as quickly as possible. I like Harris's writing...

Crush the Calvanists? Incinerate the Idolators? War in brown waters 1605

 



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...

Bijouterie - small vessels for brown water actions


Small can be beautiful. I wanted to quickly produce a quantity of utilitarian vessels which I could use for brown water (coastal and river estuary) engagements in Europe and the far flung colonies between 1580 and 1720. Many ship designs are pretty elastic in terms of the span of time over which they can be used and as a start, I chose the Eighty Years War as a theme with an eye on the Anglo Dutch...