RSS FeedAngus Konstam is an author and historian - visit his website at
www.anguskonstam.com or e-mail him at anguskonstam@aol.com
He's a member of the Orkney Wargames Club, which meets in Kirkwall on Thursday evenings.
See their Facebook page for more info.
This period came about thanks to a book deal. Once I signed the contract for Jutland I thought I might as well game the battle, as well as write about it. I must have forgotten just how many ships were involved – and how much of my book advance would land up in the coffers
The Great War at Sea, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale It’s been a while. Last week I couldn’t reach the club in Kirkwall ’cause the Churchill Barriers were closed – the causeways I have to drive over to get into town. Then, thanks to ferry cancellations and a gale, I couldn’t get to my big
The Great War at Sea, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale After a couple of weeks off due to other things getting in the way, we felt like a naval game. So, none of the players had played these rules before, I kept things simple. This was a fictitious clash between battlecruisers, with the German 1st
The Great War at Sea, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale We hadn’t played a naval game for a while, and when asked, my regular crowd opted for the Great War at sea, with “big guns”. So, that’s exactly what I laid on – a duel between a pair of dreadnought squadrons. The premise was that
The Great War at Sea, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale Earlier this week, when I asked people what kind of ships they wanted to play with, some said big ones, and other small ones. So, I laid on a game that had both. We’ve wargamed this before – it’s something of a classic action –
Great War Naval, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale This little game was something a bit different – a game where none of the ships had big guns, and none of them had gun turrets. The war began late in the evening of 4th August, and the following morning, shortly after dawn, the German minelayer Königin Luise
The Great War at Sea, Jutland, 1/2400 scale This was a very strange experience. this week I was back in Kirkwall Grammar School in Orkney. I say back, as I left there in 1978. Also, while the name was the same, it wasn’t really the same place at all. The “KGS” of my youth had been
The Great War, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale Wargames rarely go according to plan. That’s largely because wargamers rarely do what’s expected of them. I thought this was a fairly sensible scenario – I really did. I’ve just finished writing a mammoth book on Jutland, and so the battle was pretty much fresh in my
The Great War at Sea, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale This was a non-game for a couple of reasons. First of all, our nice sea mat was still with Martin from Warbases, who very kindly transported it to Antwerp and back for us. So, we played the game out on a standard blue-painted club table,
The Great War at Sea, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale At the moment I’m working double tides, trying to finish my book on Jutland. So, in a rare evening off, this seems a strange choice for a game! Yup, there’s no escape from battlecruisers at the moment. this little game was a chance for a
The Great War at Sea, Fleet Action Imminent, 1/2400 scale It was 21st October – Trafalgar Day – and the 205th anniversary of both that stunning victory and the death of history’s greatest naval commander. That meant we had to play something naval – and a game involving the Royal Navy, rather than other lesser
