"British frigates in AWI wargames" Topic

I was chatting with a friend about how cool something like this would be in Boston Harbor for a 15mm Battle of Bunker Hill scenario, even if it amounted to little more than terrain: link He pointed out that under the rule set we have been using the HMS Lively would only be 2.5 inches long on the table, not a whopping 12 inches. The problem at that size is than the ship would look very tiny compared to all the little soldiers. I am just wondering, has anyone else ever used a frigate level sized ship in a SYW,FIW,AWI or Napoleonic wargame before either incorporating shore bombardments or even merely as terrain. If so I would appreciate your perspectives and pictures even more. :) Thank you in advance.

The problem at that size is that the ship would look very tiny compared to all the little soldiers.

No, it's just "far away" … !!

I play 25mm games at a battalion level and just assume that a ship model represents a squadron or a capital ship with support ships. It is just a placeholder and has to be abstract. If you want to do ship to ship games than the scale has to be smaller to get the ships on the table or larger and you have pinnaces and cutters fighting. It is the scale problem that all modelers must address some time.

Kevin

Haven't finished it or put it on the table yet, but have been thinking along similar lines. If you do not want -or your scenario does not support- following Kevin's way of abstracting it, consider the following: put a full-size (or close to it) model on the table to represent a single ship, treat it as artillery of equivalent tubes behind fortifications, and select and mark one or more points to measure range- it's why ship models have masts, after all :-).

If you use 2mm figures, the ship is exactly the right size. And I can tell you, they look COOL.

When I did Bunker Hill, faced with a similar problem I took the ultimate cop-out and warned the Rebels that they would take ship-based fire if they got within so many inches of the table edge. Can't remember how much. I rationalized that farther inland would require more elevation than the ship was prepared to do. Still managed to have one player wander into the kill zone…

I think the primary effect the Royal Navy had on the Battle of Bunker Hill was the initial shock of the unlucky man who was decapitated and intimidating reinforcements from crossing the neck. Still I think it would be cool to have an ominous looking ship there just to remind people of the power of the British navy.

IIRC, the tide was ebbing in the harbour from just before the battle started, so the warships got lower and lower in the water, preventing them engaging the main works on the two hills due to elevation problems and range (they also had to move back to avoid grounding). However, they did prevent reinforcements from crossing the Neck, with only a few of the stoutest Rebels following their commanders onto the peninsula.

You'll have to do some real exploring because they are 'down' a bit in the blog posts, but this link shows my 'pirate' ships that I have every intention of using in other 15 mm games – FIW, AWI at the very least:

carobbeansea.blogspot.com

I'm planning on using 1/1200 scale ships with my 15mm D-Day forces, as a 1/1200 scale ship 3 feet away is the same visual size as the real thing some 900 yards away!

Call it 'forced perspective'

Okay, to be frank, I have considered Peter Pigs ships, 1/450th I think they are, for my pirate games for "out at sea" actions. Wouldn't want to go any smaller than that.