Fort McHenry Comission

US Regular infantry and British Marine

Commission!

 Something I’ve been working on for a while, but can now happily announce; I have been awarded a commission by Fort McHenry National monument and Historical shrine to create a suite of 1812 period soldiers, civilians, ships and guns which they will use to teach visitors about the siege of Baltimore as well as other battles. 

This is a really cool thing, and I am honored to have been approached by Ranger Andrew Frantz for the commission.  Because of the scale of the project, I have pushed back my next Triumph of Death Kickstarter until later in the fall. I will however be co- launching a small Kickstarter in about a month.

Here are a few pictures of work in Progress- stay tuned for more! 

British Gun ship- a converted Frigate

Wooden Wars Naval Action!

 "Put your backs into it!'

~ pretty much every naval Lieutenant, ever...

Gun boats row towards the shore supported by the HMS Smeagol

The Capture of  Fort Mouton

This Kublacon I ran my first ever Wooden Wars naval action, wherein the HMS Smeagol had orders to transport and support British troops in taking a French coastal fort on Pont du Mouton, a heavily gunned, yet lightly garrisoned shore fort that defends the harbor of the Port city of Qu'est -ce que le Troupeau. 

The battlefield is 9 x 12 feet.

The battle was held in the grand foyer of the convention, which means right across from registration and one of the first things folks see as they come into the convention. A real plum spot! 
 Many thanks to the staff of Kublacon who really supported my games and in general are just really nice folks! 

   In this scenario, the rowboats had to row for at least 4 turns before making it to the beach, all the time being fired upon by the fort of 8 guns. In our 3 home play tests, the boats never made it and the HMS Smeagol was sunk once, so I was keen on seeing how this was going to go!

Gun Boats Away! 

Salts, young and old brave the waves and gun fire as they close on the fort.

The British had 6 gun boats, each filled with Marines and an officer, plus a bow gun and a gun crew. They could move each turn and fire the bow guns, but were very susceptible to the forts guns. 

Gunboat and crew ready for action! 

Movement is done with "marshal's batons"

One of the players getting ready to fire. His socks are not regulation.

  Fort Mouton

 Typical of all my Wooden Wars games, the terrain needs to be destructible to the onslaught of rubber balls. Instead of using kids wooden "ABC" blocks as they looked out of place with the rest of the game, I had a couple of 2x2's cut into blocks, then did a grey wash upon them. Over all the area has a simple yet definable feeling to it, and the blocks worked quite well.

The fort had 8 mighty guns, plus a small milita in the garrison keep. The walls were quite sound and proved to be more than a match as ball after ball bounced off of them.

Fort Mouton and it's sheep. Note the garrison troops

The garrison soldiers. Typical of such troops,
enthusiastic, but maybe not the best of shots.

one of the 8 guns of the fort takes aim at the HMS Smeagol

The Gunships get closer- and take out a fort gun and the main door

Using the rocks as cover, three gunboats made it to shore, one with only half crew

At the beginning of the battle , the rowboats came in, and the barrage of the fort's guns aimed too high, flying over all the rowboats but striking true on the HMS Smeagol, taking off a sail  and knocking out  a gun and several crew. 

HMS Smeagol is struck by two of the fort's guns!

As the gunboats closed in, three were sunk by the fort

The militia come out to repel the attack. The youngest
officer was not too happy about their prospects.

 The gunboats got closer and the fort dialed in on them, taking out 3 boats, and half the crew of a 4th. It didn't look like the British were going to have a chance. At this point the militia braved up and came out, only to be fiercely savaged by the HMS Smeagol's broadside. At this point it was also reported that a sheep had been struck "hors du combat". 

There were rumors during the game from the onlookers that not unlike the Falklands, this battle was over "strategic sheep purposes".  Whom am I to judge...

The Fort is Taken! 

 Two and half gunboats worth of Marines and sailors made it to the beach, only to lose 3 men straight off by the Smeagol's guns!  The rest stormed the fort, were repulsed on the far left, stormed again, taking the left half of the fort.  On the right, the sailors made quick work of the militia, captured two sheep, and stormed the left of the fort- easily overcoming the poor gun crews. After that a quick march and the flag- and Fort were captured! 

British forces storm the fort, are repelled and storm again!

Blurry in action shot of the butcher's bill
and the final move to capture the flag

The fort is taken!

About Wooden Wars

Wooden Wars (tm) is a miniatures game which hearkens 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, and as you can see by my convention photos, attracts people of all ages. One of my favorite things about wooden wars is that it is an equal opportunity game, and I am happy to say that many of the girls and young ladies (and moms) that play usually out maneuver and out gun the boys.


Cheers, thanks for taking a gander, and as always I love your questions and feedback!

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!