WS+IM Scenario 10: HMS Mars Vs Hercule

Another very enjoyable game today, very much the same set up as the lady one but with a pair of 74's instead of frigates, Once again free quality decided the action, with the Hercule striking her colours in Turn 10 after having all of her hull boxes wiped out. The Mars was hammered too, losing almost half of her port side guns and damaged rigging, as well as crew casualties, but the Hercule definitely came off worse. Next time, I'm going to try using some of the advanced rules, especially for gunnery, as I think it will add another later of detail.

Ad Mare Bellum

These are a new set of fast play ancient naval rules by David Manley, which I've just found on Wargame Vault and which I'm going to use with the Tiny Tin Troops card ship counters that I originally acquired for use with Osprey Publishing's Poseidon's Warriors. They are based on David's medieval and renaissance naval rules, the first of which I already have but haven't tried out yet, so I'm sure they will be very good. It's half term so I'm planning to get some fast play card counter, classical galley gaming underway over the next few days.

Tiny Tin Troops Ancient Ship Counters

My order from Tiny Tin Troops was waiting in the post when I returned from my holiday a couple of days ago and I've had the time to unpack the sheets and study them in detail. There are five A5 sized sheets of warships in the Peloponnesian Wars set, with twelve larger galleys and three smaller galleys per sheet. These are all beautifully drawn in full colour and with plenty of detail.

There are several different types of galley in the set including aphracts, cataphracts and pentekonters, so more than enough to equip two fleets for Poseidon's Warriors, for example. The larger galleys are a standard 20mm x 75mm, so I've ordered some 2mm lasercut mdf bases from Warbases on which to mount them, so that they will be more robust, which is what the guidelines recommend.

I can also colour code the edges of the bases to distinguish between the Persians, the Athenians and the Allied fleets. I'm very impressed by these card counters and will definitely be expanding my fleets with some more sets for the Carthaginian Wars. These sets are excellent value for money for such a high quality product and at a fraction of the cost of their metal equivalent.

Poseidon's Warriors

I'm pinching a really neat from the Meeples and Miniatures blog. The idea is to use Osprey Publishing's Poseidon's Warriors miniatures ancient naval rules with 2D card counters from the Tiny Tin Troops range of pre-printed, full colour ships. I've ordered a 1/600th scale set for the Peloponnesian Wars, which is a good conflict to start with as there are plenty of potential actions and several battle scenarios in the rules. The set only cost a fiver plus a quid for postage, so far cheaper than the metal option, even though I do already have some of the 1/600th scale Xyston models stashed away for ancient naval gaming. This will be an experiment for me in using card flats instead of three dimensional metal miniatures, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. 

https://meeples.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/ship-counters-for-poseidons-warriors/

http://www.tinytintroops.co.uk/Card_Models/Ship_Counters.htm

Paper Ancient Naval Warfare

I've been searching the internet for good quality paper and card miniatures for naval gaming and came across this range of pre-printed ancient warships. The range includes entire fleets of galleys for the Roman Republic, the Carthaginians, the Alexandrian Successor States, the Peloponnesian War and just about every other conflict you could wish for:

http://www.tinytintroops.co.uk/Card_Models/Ship_Counters.htm

They are laser printed in full colour and in two sizes, with most available in 1/600th and some in 1/1200th scale. I've been thinking of doing ancient naval for ages but have been put off by the need to paint loads of ships before being able to game fleet level actions, so this range is an excellent solution. I just need some really simple 'beer and pretzel' rules...how about Poseidon's Warriors?