| smacdowall | 30 May 2017 1:49 a.m. PST |
A group of naval novices decided to put on our first naval wargame in the public eye to commemorate the 345th anniversary of the Battle of Sole Bay.
The venue in Southwold, Suffolk overlooked the coast where the historical battle took place. A full battle report with photos on my blog. link |
| fantasque | 30 May 2017 3:36 a.m. PST |
Very nice – The Anglo Dutch wars are a very interesting period. Many spectacular characters, double dealing, bald self serving, and surprising events such as the Dutch burning the English fleet in the Medway. |
| David Manley | 30 May 2017 6:06 a.m. PST |
A lovely game,well done. I may have missed it in the report, but which rules did you use? |
| smacdowall | 30 May 2017 6:35 a.m. PST |
The rules were a special adaption created for the occasion. They can be downloaded for free from my website at link
Very simple but worked well and easily explainable to complete novices! |
| boggler | 30 May 2017 11:29 a.m. PST |
That looks great! I would be very interested in your method for painting the TD ships. |
 War Artisan  | 30 May 2017 12:15 p.m. PST |
Very impressive! The paint job on the ships looks very natural – not easy to achieve in this scale. Kudos especially to the miniaturist who did the squadron with the very unobtrusive bases that blended nicely with the excellent Terrain Mat sea surface (although someone should point out to him that his ensigns should probably be any direction except dead astern, which looks a bit unnatural – unless he really likes them that way, in which case they're fine.) Congratulations, too, on making the game an effective public event. |
| devsdoc | 30 May 2017 1:34 p.m. PST |
Wish I had been there. Lovely looking game, lovely ships, Lovely A.A.R. too. I will take a look at your rules too.
Thank for showing us and getting the public to see a bit of our hobby too. All I can say is 10 out of 10. Thanks.
Be safe
Rory |
| smacdowall | 31 May 2017 5:34 a.m. PST |
Thank you for the kind words. The great interest from the non-wargaming visitors really made for a memorable day. @boggler: The ships were painted as a group project with each of us taking on a squadron or two. I have posted downloadable pdfs describing two of the different methods on my website at link @War Artisan. I painted the French and deliberately had the flags astern (although tried to make them not dead astern). This was because the French had to sail into the wind in the opening stages. Of course the sails are billowing as if they had the wind behind them… oh well! |
| David Manley | 31 May 2017 7:53 a.m. PST |
Don't suppose you'd like to run this at the Naval Wargames Weekend sometime? :) |
| War Artisan | 31 May 2017 9:07 a.m. PST |
Yeah, I get that, Simon. It's really no different than the rather awkward sight of all my ships with their yards square to the mast when the fleet is close-hauled, is it? It doesn't seem to bother most gamers, though, so I just try to ignore it. Nice effect on the fireships, by the way. I'm going to borrow that idea. |
| smacdowall | 31 May 2017 4:14 p.m. PST |
@David Manley. Probably too close to the time for this year but would seriously consider putting the game on next Naval Wargames Weekend
Simon |
| Prince Alberts Revenge | 31 May 2017 9:27 p.m. PST |
I have fleets of these very ships unpainted, very envious of your beautiful fleets there! |
paints the Dogman from the Flintloque starter set.
