"Kiss me Hardy in the Indian Ocean - Devon Wargames Group" Topic

This month, one of four games played at the DWG gave a chance of revisiting an old friend by getting out KMH and putting them through their paces with this scenario based loosely on the Battle of Sadras.

If you would like to see how things turned out then just follow the link to the club blog

link

Jonathan (JJ)

A very nice looking scenario indeed! I posted a quote on your blog, along with a question. A second question here, though; what are the numbers on the tags signifying? I've done the same thing, but just use the ship names, with flagships in italics.
BWW

I heard the question, the other day, what if Nelson had actually said "kismet, Hardy". If he did, Hardy must have felt such a fool.

Thanks for your comments chaps.

The numbers are simply a way of identifying individual ships. I use steel paper tags that are affixed to the magnetic bases. This allows my ships to masquerade for any particular French of British vessel I require it to be.

I don't know of evidence to the contrary, but according to my old copy of Geoffrey Bennet's, 'Battle of Trafalgar' published way back in 1977, he states in his notes that there is quote "no substance" to the suggestion that Nelson must have said Kismet (fate), so here's hoping Captain Hardy can rest easy.

Cheers
JJ

I get that the numbers are to identify the ships; I guess my question is, why numbers as opposed to names? Does it increase the possibility of friendly fire? I can see where it's simpler than printing out name tags for each game.
BWW

I keep a little box of the steel paper tags and find it much simpler and quicker to keep the ship details such as names on the record sheets and assign a number to that ship. As I say then I can use my models to represent any vessel without permanently assigning a name to it on the base.
Not much chance of friendly fire as all the ships are carrying French or British colours.
I took the idea from the old Avalon Hill "Wooden Ships & Iron Men" game in which the counters are nationality coded and numbered. Mine are simply flagged and numbered.

OK, we're actually talking about two ways of doing the same thing. I print out a bunch of paper tags with a blue background (similar to my water mat) with the ship's name for the scenario. I then tape the tag to the underside of my ship base. As to flags, I've come up with a fairly useful way to mount them on very fine wire so that I can change them as needed.

I use Sticky Notes to label my ships. They are inexpensive, come in a range of colors to distinguish different nationalities and can be used in a variety of ways. I print the name of each ship on sticky note of appropriate national color, cut it to size and stick it to the side of the stand (my ship models have thick bases).

I can also add brief codes to denote special ship characteristics: speed capability, handy/unhandy and/or "crank" status.

FWIW.

B