The League of Augsburg

Pimping up polystyrene terrain boards - Tutorial video

 


An end to end walk through of how I made the boards for the Scilly Isles game between Blake / Tromp and the Royalists. Watch the 10 minute video here:



Some shots of the game here. 






Full scenario in the soon to be released 4Play pack 036 Seas Ablaze!




Pimping up terrain

28mm set up for Prince Rupert's shore foray at Dakar, Africa 1652 - finished boards

I recently acquired a number of TSS terrain boards. I have always tinkered with these when using them and decided to do a quick terrain building project just to stimulate my creative needs. There has been too much business, casting, orders, packing etc recently and I needed to get back to what I really enjoy which...

No bears were harmed in the making of...

Recent Facebook posts featuring my teddy bear fur terrain mat has generated a lots of questions. I realized I was going to be typing the same thing again and again to answer queries so thought I just post it all here and direct anyone interested to the blog. Knock yourself out and get messy!



 So here are some tips - 

  1. Think big and be bold. This will give you the best results.
  2. It is not really...

Project Vågen - The smallest large wargame I've ever done?

1664 VOC Return Fleet from Batavia value of cargo: £500,000,000: The 'Mark'.

In my relentless quest to create more wargaming collateral I turned to an action which has long fascinated me - The Battle of Vågen which took place during the 2nd Anglo Dutch War. Vågen is not actually a place, it is the harbour area of the town of Bergen in Norway. A Dutch East India Spice fleet which had avoided passing...

Sneak peek: BLB scenarios book: A Taste of Victory

 

Wonderful cover art by Neil Roberts

I have been talking about it on an off over the last few months. We are pretty much there now. Over the next few weeks the first full scenarios book for BLB 3rd edition will be sent to print. 


Each scenario begins with some historical context

The book is entitled A Taste of Victoryand offers eighteen scenarios set between 1676 and 1693. The table set ups are all...

DOB's Donnybrook ding-dong on the Costa del Plunder

 



Dave (DOB) O'Brien has been a gaming buddy for a long time. Covid has kyboshed our usual get togethers and we both have been filling in with alternative gaming options. 




He sent me some cracking pictures of a recent Donnybrook game which I know he has already shared on Facebook but some more detail here and links to other useful threads of the Moorish connection for gaming. 




Tangier and North...

Feature: Scenario pack: Lighting the fuse. Derry 1688/1689


Lord Mountjoy's Regiment leave the city in November 1688


This is the first in a series of Derry packs. It focuses on the events which sparked the conflict - the arrival of the Earl of Antrim's Regiment to replace Lord Mountjoy's Regiment as garrison. Nothing out of the ordinary there, one unit replacing another however, Derry was a Protestant town populated by planter families, many from London...

Anniversary post- Blindheim and.....

French infantry deploy


Lest I forget! Today is the anniversary of that 'dine out' Waterloo of the 18th century... The Battle of Blindheim. Giving acknowledgement to this great feat of arms is completely justified. It was an astounding and decisive victory. 


British squadrons and Blood's artillery


What should not be forgotten is that in achieving this signal triumph, the bleeding was done by a Grand...

Scenario: 13th June 1667 Medway AAR Part 2




Sorry for the delay in posting the Part 2 of this scenario. No reasons other than I have been really busy on writing and photographing the next wave of 4PLAY scenarios during my annual leave.  More on that soon but meanwhile....

Turn 16

Terrible luck befell the English. The ‘Damn your eyes!’ card was drawn and a nervous, civilian- manned battery at the north end of the New Dockyard loosed its guns...

Scenario: 13th June 1667 Medway AAR Part 1




The Scenario


This scenario represents the climactic day of the spectacular Dutch attack on the English fleet at anchor in the River Medway. The objective is to burn three large ships of the line which have been partially sunk in shallow water down river of the Royal Dockyard at Chatham. The Dutch are led by the mastermind of the campaign Admiral van Ghent and accompanying the expedition is the...

An excusable digression.. Waterloo Day


Add caption

Five years ago today I was in the privileged position to have witnessed one of the two mega events at  Waterloo 200. Little memories include watching Charles and Camilla sweeping up with their entourage as UK representatives, literally almost colliding with Mr Farage as he made political capital at




Hougoumont and, hailing a bunch of HLI drilling in a field near the chateau in my very...

Battles of Goa 1638-39

Da Silva sails out to do battle with Van der Veere

The Portuguese colony of Goa came under repeated pressure from the Dutch VOC during the period of  European expansion in the 17th century. Here is a link to a previous blog post about my visit to Reis Magos - the 16th century Portuguese fort at Goa, still in working order.

Portuguese Fort Reis Magos -Goa

1639 raid by van der Veere on the three...