Fort McHenry Project: British Officers

British Officers on foot, 1812

I'm gaining ground on the Fort McHenry commission project! This week I finished up the dismounted and mounted British officers, designed the US volunteer units and have the US regulars mostly painted. Here's some pics of the British.

British officers, mounted 1812

That's all for now- back to the painting table!
Cheers!

Hey Sailor...

"There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea."
                   - Old Capstan Chantey attributed to Anacharsis, 6th Century BC

Officers and crew hit the beach looking for buried Rum!

Wooden Wars Sailors

After getting the HMS Smeagol under way, I  had to crew her. So I set about getting some lines on paper to make some Sailors. This is something that has been on my mind for a long while, and after one long night at the drawing table, I had a good start at what I needed. 

Boarding party showing off variations with just two arms

Back view. jackets with and without cutlasses. 

Gun crew variations

Skip forward 3 weeks later, I had them vectorized, cut, and 20 of them painted and ready for action.  As Wooden Wars models go, the design is not that complicated (sailors are not hussars) , but then again, they don't need to be. With three head variations and 7 arm variations, you can get a pretty decent mix.  I'll no doubt add a few more scruffy headed variations to the roster at some point. 

Those look like Naval officers to me...

 Officers- Hollywood style

The one thing I don't have time for before the conventions upcoming  is designing Naval officers. So, in the best Hollywood traditions, I faked it. My officers are a French and British foot officer, painted all "Naval like".  I think without too many close ups and in the heat of action, and considering the average age of my players will be 12, I think they'll pass muster. 

Cutting out party launches

 

 

Wooden Wars: HMS Smeagol and Gun boats

"A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say, 'How to Build a Boat' !"
                                                               ~ Stephen Wright

Ms. P proudly shows off the scale of  HMS Smeagol

HMS Smeagol- out of Dry dock

 With a wee bottle of whiskey tapped gently across her bow (didn't want to spill it now) The HMS Smeagol was launched out of drydock and sent down the harbor, ready for sails and, erm, flags. You may have seen early tests of the model at Fossling proving grounds (see blog post here) and now she's ready for the real game.  Based upon a mashup of the HMS Beagle and the Lady Washington, she's kinda a Square rigged sloop/ brig thingy. Hey- it's Hollywood baby!

Note large base are for masts. This holds them up till they are struck

When working on a project such at building a ship model, especially one for gaming, you have to always consider what she'll be used for and how she's handled. I caught myself far too often wanting to add more details to this model, only to remind myself that she'd designed to have rubber balls hurled at her!  Is she true to scale for a crew of 80mm in height? Pretty close compared to some of the brigs and sloops I've had the honor of stepping aboard. 

 For game purposes, the Smeaol is designed such that the masts, bowsprit, wheel, and guns can all be knocked over. And of course, the crew. In retrospect, I wish I had built the ship either a bit wider, or waited till I was done before making the gun carriages. the biggest issue was how much space the bases for the masts needed to be, in order to keep them stable enough until well struck.  Later I'll re cut some slightly smaller gun carriages, and if (when) I make another ship, she'll be slightly wider as well. She needs a bit of a bow sprit too, which maybe I'll get to before the convention. Maybe...

From here that uniform looks the part

Concept art for Sailors with variations.

As for crew, I cheated on the Captain and first mate, using a British and French foot officer and painted them up to look Naval. I did    I'm currently working on Sailors to crew her. They'll pop up in an upcoming post.

Gun Boats

The scenario calls for gunboats to try and make it ashore and take outthe shore fort (and now capture sheep)  while the HMS Smeagol, the only ship light enough to get into shore close enough to protect them, gives covering fire. It will take 3- 4 turns for the gunboats to get to the beach, so I needed to make sure there was enough to actually succeed.

Gun boat full of marines is launched from the HMS Smeagol

 Each ship holds a unit of 10 crew plus an officer, and a gun, so they get to fire each turn as they row in. Odds are not high on these guys, but there will be more than the shore batteries can fire at each turn. And if the Smeagol does her job in taking out a few fort guns, the gunboat crews may stand a good chance.
I'm going to pass out rum flavored life savers candy to all the row boat crews before the game, to "steel" them for the upcoming task.

The business end

Each gunboat has a different color for easy player identification

I made these out of laser cutting 3mm birch ply for the bases, sterns and rudders, while the sides are heavy matt board that I got from dumpster diving local frame shops. Frame shops are a great resource for foam core and good matt board offcuts- I highly recommend you find your nearest ones and when they take out the recycling!
the bottoms are just painted to look like there are benches. Pretty happy with the results.

Behind the scenes- how the backdrop was created. 

Wooden Wars: Play Testing and Ship Building

“They were setting off on an adventure, and Hornblower was only too conscious that it was his own fault.”

           - C.S Forester

The HMS Smeagol is hit by hot shot, causing a fire on deck!

So-  Campaign and convention season is now upon us, which means submissions for upcoming cons. We have two very good local Northern California conventions, both of which I love to run games and show off my toys, and hopefully generate some sales. 

The first convention is Kublacon- the Khan of cons!  It is a very family friendly convention, with a great location and even greater staff! I usually run 2-3 games at this con, with at least one of them being a Wooden Wars game. This year I’ve signed myself up for a bit of naval fun, because, I can’t stay away from the sea for too long!

Here’s the blurb for it. 

 Join in on the first ever Wooden Wars naval action, wherein the HMS Smeagol has been ordered to transport and support British troops in taking a French coastal fort. 

Wooden Wars (tm) is a miniatures game which harkens back to the days of H.G. Wells. Players command armies of sturdy wooden soldiers, cavalry and artillery (and now ships!) against each other on an expansive floor battlefield. Victory is achieved by knocking over all the opposing side's army by firing(tossing a small rubber balls)and melee(moving into contact), or by capturing key objectives like a star fort or the enemy's flag. This is a very visual and visceral game, where tactics, positioning, excellent hand-eye coordination and good old fashioned luck will win the field!

This is a great game for children age 8+ and families!

Great, fine, brilliant; now I have to build a ship, boats, shore battery and some guns with naval carriages… oh and some wooden wars sailors. Right. I should probably play test the viability of this as well.

 

The Design pitch

Play Testing

After getting a working hull of the Smeagol, (see below for more on this) I “white boxed” the rest and volunteered Young  commander Fossling and his first mate Lieutenant Malcom to give the scenario and more importantly the ship a shake down. This is a bit of a blow by blow as to how the process went.

The playtesters show they have the... ammo 

Design Pitch and Test Parameters

To get everyone on board as to what we are trying to achieve, I wrote up a design pitch on the chalk board.  This shows a general map layout; forces available and the game’s goals (take the fort/ Defend the fort).  

Next, I explained to the testers the goals of the play test:

See how viable a ship was in the game against rubber ball

• Which parts are getting hit?
•  Is the ship too vulnerable?
•   Repair of ship an option?

Define how many turns the poor rowboats would have to row before hitting the beach

•  Should ships have to slow down for firing? 
•   How many guys left to still man a boat?
• Test ship movement
•   How fast per turn
•  Damage to masts = ship speed? 

 And of course anything else that comes up

dis-mating in action! Also note green ball in the stern!

three quick shots showing mast being taken down.

Testing in action!

We did a half a dozen fort broadsides of two gun batteries (IE two balls per play tester) at the ship- with a 60% hit rate over all. Mind you, these are seasoned veterans to the Wooden Wars game.  We had balls strike the hull, balls land on the decks, and balls hit masts- it was Glorious!  The biggest, coolest piece of actual test feeback was when balls struck the hull. It rocked the ship a bit, and the shock sometimes knocked over soldiers on deck.  This of course was called out as splinter damage!

I love it when cool things that that happen!

Those poor rowboats!

Yeah, so the rowboats, being essentially a unit in column march (aka the domino formation) were, if hit, very vulnerable, and rightly so, to the cannon fire! It was considered that maybe the British side needed 6 instead of 5 rowboats, because if they can’t get at least 2 ashore they really don’t stand a chance of taking the fort.  (an alternate to this is I’m going to reduce the forts guns from 8 to 6).

Play Test Feedack

The play test went rather well, with lots of good physical and verbal feedback.  At one point, Lt. Malcom suggested that the fort should shoot flaming cannon balls.  I excited explained what “Hot shot” was, and we came up with rules for using it, and what it did when it hit. Cool!

Other feedback was that the ship should be able to repair to some extent, as ships have spare parts and carpenters, and a good crew.  My wooden Wars rules have an advance rule called “Reinforcement coins” that are allotted to generals, so I decided to incorporate those into the game as well. 

The HMS Smeagol

As mentioned I needed a ship for this scenario. I’ve based the HMS Smeagol off of the  brig, USS Eagle. I was going to do a sloop of war but realized the sail set up would just mostly be in the way. I’m sure I’ll screw up the sail and mast set up anyways, but this is going to be a ship at which rubber balls are hurled at it, not a display piece.  

Base deck and fitting for guns

I laid out and laser cut the deck, the glued that to foam. Made a few mock ups of the sides, at the same time made a naval carriage and cut those to see how many guns she could handle. 

After I had that figured, I cut the sides out of thick matt board and hot glued them on. The stern and rudder  are made of laser cut ply.  This not being my first ship rodeo, things went together without too much, erm, adjusting… and the hull is ready! 

Ship with parts. Hull sides are made of thick matt board that I laser cut.

Stern piece with ship name. Made the plate separate so I can paint it then glue it on.

For the ships wheel I used a wagon wheel and made handles on it. The wheel holder (insert nautical name here) is also laser cut. The wheel is designed such that it can be hit and knocked over. This will cause the ship to make an immediate turn 45 degrees either port or starboard during the game.

The masts for now are tinker toys mock ups. Still trying to figure if I want to build them in sections with magnets holding them at each section or just a full mast with magnets holding them in place on the ship until struck hard enough to fall over. More testing on this needed.

Tinker toy masts built by my son. They worked surprisingly well for play test purposes!

 Next play test will involve something else we've not done in Wooden Wars: firing onto a raised fort! 

Stay tuned for more thrilling adventures, and I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas!

Kublacon Battle Report: La Haye Block

“Ney- I want to you to take La Haye- ah wait- Ney come back here!.. sigh.  Murat, I …”

     ~ Attributed to Napoleon, battle of Blockerloo

British defend the Farm

Kublacon:

I was lucky to attend Kublacon game convention this weekend and run a couple of games. This is by far my favorite con as it is super family friendly, fairly laid back (almost always a space to do a pickup game) good location and a fantastic and helpful staff.  The Hotel is pretty cool, and the con food is- well- it’s con food.  I highly recommend this convention to anyone.

As I was way too busy either running games or painting stuff to run the next game (yeah, I know) my pictures that I took of other folk’s games were a bit sparse. I will instead add a links of better overall Kubla review and pics

 My friend Jay's Blog  

I ran two games this year (down 2 from last year), one a wooden wars homage to the Bicentenary of Waterloo, the other a first time in the public running of my Galley’s Guns and Glory! Renaissance rules.   Today’s blog is focusing on the wooden wars game, as so many cool things happened during the battle.

 

The Battlefield as viewed by onlookers

Wooden Wars: Lay Haye Block

La Haye Block is an homage to that pivotal farm house and Orchard on the battlefield of Waterloo.  At the start of my scenario, the British/ KGL forces had the farmhouse and orchard in their command, with the French pounding away with two batteries of guns as the Leger and grenadiers advanced.  The British had lots of infantry but no cavalry, and only one battery of two (heroic as we shall see) guns. The French had a decent amount of infantry but not enough to squander, backed by afore mentioned batteries of 3 guns each and two regiments of Hussars- the 7^th and the 5^th.   French forces were commanded by Murat himself, as My Ney was not finished and, well, Murat is such a sharp dresser!  

Murat and his entourage. Note flag has battle honors from the Kickstarter.

The Commanders

This year saw the return of a few veteran Wooden Wars officers, some that have played in my games since the first time I brought it to the con a few years ago. One in particular is now aged 8!  I had an entire family join in, as well as two other parents. The boy to girl ratio was pretty close to 50/50. I feel pretty lucky that my games are viewed as equal opportunity (when in reality the girls usually have better eye hand coordination and are deadly with cavalry!). 

5th Hussars. One of my favorites

Grizzled veteran officers.

 

British view of the French lines. Money and pin are prizes to be won.

The battle Commences

As the French had the youngest officer they went first, and peppered the farm and British lines with cannonade, although it was not as effectual as they would have liked.  The British held their ground for a few turns, firing away at French troops as they advanced.  Again, casualties were lighter than expected, as “high bounding” seemed to be the favorite method of firing. 

A whiff of grape as they charged in!

Even elite hussars should not charge a square!

Hussars in Action!

Murat ordered his Hussars forward- no difficult thing that- and off they went on the flanks, flashing their blades and smiles all the way.  On the right flank the 7^th charged the British guns, sustaining very light casualties from the canister, but were clobbered by the gun crews and their peaky blinders.

The 5^th elite hussars on the right flank raced past the farm in hopes of catching the reserves unawares. Unfortunately the British had the initiative and were able to form square in time.  Despite this the Hussars charged in, doing grievous damage before being laid low.

Grenadiers, supported by leger attack the orchard

Taking the orchard

Grenadiers form column to speed their way to the back- but are hit hard

French assault the Farm

While the cavalry  dashed off, the French Leger skirmished up to the walls of the farm taking some hits along the way. This took the focus away from the Westphalian (hey, it’s what I have painted) Grenadiers to march in and carry the orchards, then move all way around to the back of the farm and take down the door- only to find a unit of grenadiers behind it. Woody melee ensued, hard fought- with the British holding  the farm at the end. 

Knocking on the back door

Mother and daughter in woody melee

Victory!

And a Victory dance.

Designer Note: The coolest part of this particular dust up was that the French were commanded by the mother of the British grenadier commander, her daughter.  Watching them go at it, then the exuberance of the girl’s victory- followed by a dance and mauling of a smiling mom was the best! 

Murat takes the guns

And has his horse knocked over from under him!

Murat does what Murat does

Seeing the situation as tenuous and losing troops right and left (literally) Murat rides forward and takes command of the Leger- swinging around and catching the French gun unawares and capturing it. Unfortunately right after he did this, his horse was shot out from under him causing a morale check across the battlefield.  The French had to go to lunch ( kids gotta be fed) and with the British holding the farm as well as having two units of mostly untouched infantry,  it was declared a British Victory! 

 The Face of Battle 

One of my pleasures as a game designer is seeing the look of focus and concentration on player's faces. Here's a few shots of the "face of battle" wooden wars style.

 

The other Game- Galleys Guns and Glory

I want to dedicate a whole blog post to my GGG! game, but here’s a shot as a teaser.

Thanks for dropping by, and as always I love to hear back from you!