"Paper ‘flats’ for Napoleonic Naval Battles" Topic

The recently published ‘Trafalgar' rules (from Warhammer Historical) for wargaming naval battles from the Napoleonic wars include scenarios for several naval actions including the battle of Trafalgar. These battles engage from 10 ships to 60 in the case of Trafalgar. Models of Napoleonic ships of the line for these battles are available in a variety of scales, the most popular of which are 1/1200 (Langton Miniatures; GHQ micronauts; Navwar; and Skytrex) or 1/2400 (Hallmark; Tumbling Dice) though 1/2000 is available (Fighting Sail from Valiant). Unfortunately they can be expensive: the finest 1/1200 scale models cost about £10.00 GBP per vessel. They require skill, patience and time to construct and paint before coming to the wargames table. To build a fleet to game a large battle thus requires a considerable investment of time and money. As an alternative the printed ‘flat' link has several attractions:

1) The same image can be printed at any convenient size, so the scale of the flats can be chosen to suit the size of the battle and the gaming area available. link

2) Printing multiple copies of a vessel's ‘flat' allows a fleet of any size to be quickly and cheaply produced so that gaming can begin with only a little preparation.

3) Each ship can be represented by a number of ‘flats' which depict the state of damage sustained during the battle thereby giving a visual sense of the state of play in addition to the usual accounting on roster sheets or use of small damage markers.

With this in mind I have created a number of designs of ‘flats' at 1/1200 scale representing 1st – 6th rate ships of the line for the British, French, Spanish and US navies and a generic set which can represent the Dutch, Danish or Russian fleets. A comparison of the different ratings of ship are shown link and the distinct national paint jobs are shown in link . A variety of sail settings are available for each ship (full sail, and 3 or 4 fighting sail settings) as seen in these links. For 1st –3rd rates a flagship displaying signal flags is included as well . For each rate a number of variants are given. These indicate the state of the ship (at anchor, on fire, dismasted 1,2,or 3 masts down and sinking). These state markers are in a general colour which can be used for the British, French or Spanish ships (see link and link ). Not all the variants given need to be printed:- perhaps only one ‘flat' per vessel and an additional few ‘on fire' and ‘dismasted' images which can sit as hats on the ‘flat', but chosing from the variety available gives the game an authentic diversity link . A variety of nonline ships are also available see link

Each ‘flat' is available as a JPEG so you can make your own choice of which selection to print thereby covering all possible game combinations. (If printed at x1 all are to the same scale of 1/1200) In addition there are several JPEGs of A4 sheets (or letter page for US) with selections of ships ready to print for some of the scenarios in the Trafalgar rule book. For example the full battle of Trafalgar (at scale 1/2400) (see link ) can be played out after printing the four A4 sheets: (18Br3rd6Sp3rd;18Fr3rd6Sp3rd;3Br1st4Br2nd4Sp1st;damaged ships sheets) then cutting and pasting (pritstick). While the 12 ship battle Strachan's Action can be played at 1/1200 scale after printing four A4 sheets (4Br3rd2Fr3rd; 2Fr3rd4Br5th; dammaged3rds; dammaged5ths). I am intending to make all the files available for personal use at a cost of £5.00 GBP send an email to ndsc_uk@hotmail.com to arrange payment by paypal and the files will be sent as 4 email attachments (there are about 40MB total of images)…

Since most gamers are economical to say the leaset, they will use a lot of the Pirates of the Spansih Main series of ships and convert them for use with your rules if they become popular.

I have already seen large naval battles with current rules with the ships from PotSM. One was at nashcon last year.

I admire the concept and the artwork and will consider buying them.

Why buy these when an excellent range of paper ships is available free here:
[link no longer valid]

I like the art, the variety, and the bases a little better than the Junior General's versions, and the price is low.

Agree with Arexu the JG stuff is a very very basic level, I would be willing to pay the little the extra to get a much more professional looking artwork.

That said I would prefer to save up my money and go for OG Trafalgar specials and have a 'real' mini .

The flats I have produced allow you to game any size of action from single ship encounters to large scale battles ( 1st of June, Nile, Trafalgar etc) or to develop scenarios from the war of 1812, the first Barbary war or many other encounters of the global war 1793-1815. The images can be printed at any scale from about 1/600 to 1/2400 or smaller and give aesthetically pleasing representations of the ships depicted. So to charge a nominal sum of £5.00 GBP for all the files (over 100 different images) isn't exactly extortionate considering the time taken to produce them! I don't intend them as a replacement for true 3D model minis, but as a complement to them and for those who want to get gaming the period quickly and who may not have the modelling skills they aspire to or the time needed to develop them and launch a large high quality fleet.
I was not aware of the existence of the other flats which are available for free download, thanks for telling me about them, they are good but I think the ones I offer are more aesthetically pleasing. I haven't tried to sell these flats anywhere else as I thought this forum would be uniquely interested in them. I'm not a business, just a keen gamer who developed these to use in my games and to please my eye! So I apologise if I offended by posting on this forum.

For what it's worth, I think you've done a really good job with them. The amount you're wanting to charge is more than reasonable.

Kevin

I like the ships as well. I wish you success with your venture.

Interesting…

The link isn't working for me

I like the profile views very much. I feel, however, that having a bird's eye view of the upper deck on the 'sea' on either side of the vertical view spoils the effect. Frankly, one is not going to view a flat from directly overhead, but from above and to one side, as in your photo of the Trafalgar deployment, when they look splendid, and would be a great way of bringing the sea battle diagrams in books alive for school children [but, alas, such things are not much taught these days!].

Here is the link mentioned above via the waybackmachine: link

Is there a good source for top down only paper counters? These would be great for use with some virtual table tops