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The Orkney Wargames Club meets

in Kirkwall on Thursday evenings.

 

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The Age of Fighting Sail

The Age of Fighting Sail – Playing the Period

I really love this period thanks to the novels of Patrick O’Brian, but the thought of all that rigging always put me off it. Then, along came a new club project. One day, someone suggested refighting Trafalgar using 1/1200 scale ships, and the guys all thought this was a great idea. Better still, some people

Action off Cape Cod, 1812

The Age of Fighting Sail, Post Captain, 1/1200 scale We fancied a trip to the sea this week, and opted for a frigate action. While we use Far Distant Ships for fleet actions, for the smaller stuff I opt for Post Captain, from the same people who produce General Quarters. While they claim you can

Action off Minorca, 1805

The Age of Fighting Sail, Far Distant Ships, 1/1200 scale  When I was south last week I picked up two battle-ready French ships-of-the-line. My friend Jack Glanville had kindly painted and rigged them for me. So, we decided to stage another fleet action, with the 74s Pluton and Duguay-Trouin reinforcing the French contingent. In this

Action off Cape Palos, 1805

The Age of Fighting Sail, Far Distant Ships, 1/1200 scale Last Trafalgar Day we played a Napoleonic era fleet action using Osprey’s Fighting Sail rules. I thought they were quite fun and fast to play, but  I  had quite a few reservations about them. The amendments posted on the rules’ Facebook page helped, but they

Guns off Cape Ann, 1813

The Age of Fighting Sail, Post Captain, 1/1200 scale Two naval games back to back is a rarity. To be fair, in between, during the whole Christmas and New Year period, the wargame club here has been closed. In fact its still shut, thanks to Covid, although with luck that’ll change soon. So, this game

The Battle off Monserrat, 1805

The Age of Sail, Fighting Sail, 1/1200 scale As it was 21st October – Trafalgar Day – there was only one type of game we could play. So, I dug out my Age of Sail ships, and Gyles, Mally, Sean and I took to the high seas. In theory this clash was set amid the

The Battle of Cape Lardier, 1797

The Age of Fighting Sail, Kiss Me, Hardy, 1/1200 scale This was another lockdown game, played with my near neighbour Gyles. He fancied something nautical this time, so we opted for the Age of Fighting Sail, and Kiss Me, Hardy. The idea was that a small squadron of five French ships-of-the-line had broken out from

Action of Tobago, 1797

The Age of Fighting Sail, Kiss Me Hardy, 1/1200 scale We felt like a naval game this week, and so I thought I’d get a few of my sailing men-of-war out. Neither Sean or Gyles had played a game using Kiss Me Hardy rules before, and I was a little rusty. So, I re-read them,

Action off Toulon, 1811

The Age of Fighting Sail, Post Captain, 1/1200 scale This was the evening of the wargame club’s AGM. Usually that involves a lot of dull bureaucratic stuff, dreary reports by office bearers and a loss of valuable wargaming time. . This time though, the dull but necessary bit was over by 8pm. That still left

The Capture of the President , 1815

The Age of Fighting Sail, Post Captain, 1/1200 scale This week we planned to play a Back of Beyond game, but for various reasons that got postponed for a month. So, we fell back on Post Captain, the rules we use to fight single ship actions. This time, we based the game on a historical

The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805

The Age of Fighting Sail, Kiss Me Hardy, 1/1200 scale Concluding what seemed like a very nautical nine days of games, we come to the biggie. Last year the guys at the Edinburgh club decided to stage a refight of Trafalgar. it was a success, so we decided to do it all again this year.

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