"Little Wars - Modified "Trafalgar" Demo" Topic

Preparing for Little Wars (Adelaide) on saturday 12 July and the ships are now ready to engage the enemy.

littlewars.com.au

I'm running the game "A willing foe and sea room" (Naval Officer's toast for Friday night mess dinners) using 1:600 scale plastic ships and a highly modified version of the "Trafalgar" (GW) ruleset.

This should be a quick paced game and after a few practice runs, using both 1:1200 and 1:600 ships, most of the wrinkles are sorted.

For those who have played Trafalgar, the important changes are:

less difficult to tack (what self respecting captain fails a normal tack and damages his own foremast ?)
change in tacking maneouvre
simplified turning
more restrictive broadside arcs
no penalty for fire as she bears (to get around the I-Go-U-Go issue)
much reduced sailing arcs (c'mon, even 12m racing yachts can't sail that close to the wind)
modified damage tables (so damage is more progressive, rather than, for example, losing all cannonades)
less fickle winds (the wind does not really veer and back and changes force every few minutes)
simplified collision rules
simplified boarding rules with adjustment to crew strengths[/list]

I've stuck with the movement and range scales in Trafalgar, It is designed to be a fast paced, dice rolling game of minimal (but important) record keeping so that novices can join in, play a few turns under guidance and then be left in command of their ship. I'll be running the game as a come and try it, stay for as long as you like, throw in extra ships to keep it moving along.

I bought the ships a few years ago and have added just the one extra. Close inspection reveals them to be variations on the Revell kit, HMS VICTORY. By cutting down the decks at the waterline, shortening the masts and creative painting, it is possible to get a range of ship types. The difference in gun deck length between a 3 decker, a 74 and a frigate isn't that much. With due respect to the previous owner, the rigging is a bit, well, cosmetic rather than representative, but they do look quite good !

feedback and your participation in LW Adelaide welcomed.

stu

Airfix kit HMS Victory.

Lovely, wish I could be there. My wife's from Adelaide, a nicer place to live you'll not find.

Nice work, Stu! Do the original rules really cause damage to the foremast for failing to tack? Odd. I'd have thought it more likely to just leave the ship in irons.

Getting caught "in irons" required falling into a delicate balance between the sail setting and the wind and was not a typical result when a tacking ship "missed stays". More often the ship simply payed off on the original tack, then either wore around or got up enough way to try again.

Lovely work, Stu.

Nice! Played many a game of Trafalgar!

I won't be able to play, but I am looking forward to seeing the lay out! The pictures look grand.

Nic Eureka Miniatures

Airfix ? yup, thanks for that :)

yeah, the Trafalgar rules stipulate a roll on the foremast damage table if you end up in irons. You end up in irons by failing a command check during tacking, a mere captain (6th rate up to 3rd rate) needs to roll a 7+ on 2d6 to pass the check. A master (unrated vessel) needs an 8+, any existing damage to the masts causes the test to be taken at -1. A roll on the foremast damage table can be d3 points of damage (with saves).

Apart from the fact that a lesser rated ship is easier to tack and therefore less likely to fail, a 15/36 chance of a 3rd rate damaging herself just because you conducted a basic seamanship maneouvre is a bit pessimistic.

the rules I adopted (some time ago) for tacking are:

You must be beating (close hauled)
move inertia
You nominate you are tacking, turn into the wind, takes 3cm movement
Turn out of the wind taking another 3cm so you are close hauled on the opposite tack.
Movement ends.

The reduced movement allows for the loss of momentum as you turn through the wind. You can't make successive tacks (not enough steerage way) each turn. You roll a command check only if you are under fire, otherwise we can safely assume officers of the Royal Navy (and French) were semi-competent at sailing.

Bearing in mind I also use an amended points of sailing template, so close hauled is about 60 degrees off the wind for a 3rd rate, rather than the 22 degrees in the Trafalgar rules. 60 degrees is very generous really, best 12m yachts do is about 35 degrees with aerodynamic masts, winged and pivoting keels and sloop rigs.

warhammer historical people eh ! :)

the mods to the rules aren't really earth shattering and speed up play considerably. I'm not actually sure what GW Historical were thinking.

anyway, thanks for the kind comments, looking forward to catching up Nic. I live nearby the venue so if you need somewhere to crash, I have a spare room.

Martin, will your laser-cut ships be ready ?

stu

Hi Stu,

I'll have the prototypes on my stand, and a few cut-them-out-yourself examples for the brave of heart, and sharp of scalpel. I might have some early production ships available, but it will be down to the wire.

It looks good Stu. Looking forward to seeing them on the day.

I really want to have a game of this Stu. Hopefully I won't be run off my feet on the day and can spend a bit of time playing the games.

The ships do look pretty nice. It'll be interesting to compare them to Martin's laser cut versions.