Naval War: Writing my own ruleset

Well, as promised in my last post I'm going to try writing some more stuff on my blog.

Currently I'm tinkering with my own naval rules. I've played War at Sea for quite some time and think it is a fast-paced, entertaining game. It lacks detail, but in some way that exact fact makes it what it is; because a player doesn't have to be concerned with every nut and bolt of his ships the game can work with entirely different mechanics than most naval games to give it its unique touch.

After War at Sea I've read up on many different rule sets, and in time I've made an observation:
Practically all other naval games (limiting myself to WW2) are trying to be a simulation of sort, some games are more a simulation than others, but most games have put the most effort into modelling the effects of armor, shells, penetration, weather, speed, maneuverability, etc.


Thing is, that amount of detailing also makes the games very predictable, since most ships can't move beyond a couple of inches per turn, shoot with extremely predictable accuracy, can't turn more than a few degrees and all stats of the ships are static, it is impossible to have any aces up your sleeve. That was something that War at Sea excelled at, because of the Special Abilities of each unit, the games became much more unpredictable and much more a game than a simulation. Something that might not be to everyone's taste, but was certainly very satisfying to me.

So now what? War at Sea has been discontinued for a while although the community at the War at Sea forum are doing a terrific job in keeping the game alive, and with it; the only 'gamey' naval rule set I know of.

So, not finding what I'm looking for in other available rule sets, I've been working on my own set, which is a monumental task.

Long time no siege...

Well, it's been a very long time since I did any constructive posting on my blog. Between the birth of our little girl, the moving to a new house and other private life difficulties, wargaming has taken a back seat for some time now.

I've been active for a bit in the local Flames of War scene, participating in some tournaments and painting up my americans while all my other miniature interests have been lying low.

Things slowly start to change though... Since we moved to our new home, I have secured for myself one of our (still) spare rooms to make myself a decent hobby room. Hurrah! Now having finished most of the little bits and bobs around the house, I've found a bit of time to furnish my room with some simple things like a 180x120cm table, a painting corner and some left-over cabinets from our former appartment.

Also, the miniature companies have not been sitting still. I've recently aquired Gripping Beasts' SAGA; the Crescent & the Cross and going over my medieval miniatures I've already put a small warband together. Furthermore I've spent some spare time at pondering some home-brewn naval wargame rules for use with the terrific Mongoose publishing miniatures (probably the only company that is so slow in releasing stuff that you can concieve and raise a kid and move to another home between their releases.). Maybe more on that in later posts...

For now, I've aquired a load of excellent laser cut bases and movement trays from Warbases on Crisis to rebase my medieval models to be able to use them for both SAGA and Deus Vult. The prime mover here being that I can play SAGA with just a few models while building & painting my army for Deus Vult. So I intend to pick up my blog at the point when I first started it, my medieval miniatures. In the years I've also progressed in my techniques, so a post detailing my new basing method (since the crusades is the period it will be a bit more arid than my other bases) will probably be one of my first posts.

From left to right my progression in bases, far right my newest laser cut bases with desert basing.

Creating an island

So, I'm currently working on some scenery for my VaS games. This is how it turned out:

Clicky for a quick how-to:

German battleship Tirpitz

Finally a little update to my blog. I've become father of a cute little girl in the meantime, so hobby-time is in short supply lately :)

I've recently started painting some of the new Mongoose ships. First one in line is the german battleship Tirpitz. I finally seem to have hit a sweet spot on the bowwave with the water-effects, so I'm quite content how she turned out: