Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Change of Directions

So I started working on an old set of rule mods that I was working on for Kiss Me Hardy. It basically is for ships below the rate. KMH is a great set of rules that works really well for larger ships down to sixth rate frigates. But it treats all ships below the rate the same. So of course I want to play with small ships. Thus the rule mods.

I think I have the combat and defensive points worked out well enough. I chose 1/300th as the scale for the ships. Right now, I only know of a couple of vendors for this. First is Langton miniatures. Their range is beautiful is small. What they do have is lots of really tiny stuff. I have ordered a yawl and a couple of sailed ships boats to use for civilian ships and inshore work. Next up is Wartisan. These are more of a DIY ship but their range is large and beautiful. If you have some scratch building skills, their range is well worth it with the models only costing $5 per ship template. Lots of variety including most of the Great Lakes fleets for the American War of Independence. The ships look fantastic. They also have a free one for you to give it a try before you buy others. I don't have time yet to scratch build but I am going to do so at some point. Next up is Old Glory Shipyards. They have a limited range of smaller ships that are nice. They are priced less than Langton but still not cheap. Then there is Sea Dog Studios. I saved them for last because they were running a kickstarter that I backed but it fell through. However, they have finished several ships in this scale. They offered a backer bonus and sold some of their ships under priced. I picked up a brigantine and a pair of single masted flush decked sloops. This will give me a nice starter fleet to play with.

But that got me thinking about my 15mm stuff. I have a 6th rate frigate in 15mm that is at about 80% ready for the gaming table. Then a buddy of mine (darn you Brian :)) mentioned he has some pirates and ships in 15mm. Now I am off and surfing the web for pirates and 15mm ships. Sea Dog studios has 15mm ships as well as Thouroughbred miniatures. Peter Pig has pirate miniatures as does Rebel Miniatures. I am tempted to get a small pirate force and the PP government troops to serve as a Spanish garrison. I have a pack of govt troops already. I would either use sharp practice for this or maybe even try the Sea Dog studios rules. I will have to wait and see.

So glad I can stay focused on one project at a time. NOT!

2 comments:

  1. Chris,
    I would be interested in seeing your mods when they are done. When I revised the ship stats for my article, I used the same conversion factors for small ships that I did for the larger ones. While it had the virtue of being consistent, it also showed just how small and undergunned they are compared to even the frigates.

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  2. This is well timed as I have an interest in the battles of the lakes as well as AWI Pennsylvania state navy.

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