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.
Second World War Naval, General Quarters, 1/2400 scale My last game of the month was a another naval affair. You don’t play one for ages and then, like buses, they all come along together! This was a refight of the First Battle of Guadalcanal (November 1942), a night action fought with my GHQ 1/2400 ships,
Edwardian Firepower & Krupp Steel I never really wanted to do another naval period. Three seemed more than enough. However, one day Colin Jack from the Edinburgh Club invited me to join him in a 1/3000 scale Pre-Dreadnought game, using a set of rules he developed – ones that later became Perfidious Albion. I’d used
Some of the ugliest ships known to man The mid-19th century was a real transition time for warship design – sail to steam, wood to iron, smoothbores to rifled guns, roundshot to shell – and the American Civil War landed plump in the middle of it all. While some wargamers dismiss this as a boring
Mare Nostrum While this naval period doesn’t get as much play as it should, the great little ship models (from GHQ) make it something of a treat when they do appear on the tabletop. Several years ago I was writing figure reviews for the now defunct Osprey Military Journal, and the guys at GHQ sent
Messing about in boats Many years ago I wrote a set of Second World War Coastal Forces rules for a participation game called Plywood, Petrol & Tracer. That still pretty much sums up what this is all about – small wooden boats filled with highly-explosive fuel firing tracer rounds at each other, or torpedoes at
Oars de Combat…. Renaissance Galleys in the Journal This great new project came about thanks to a surprise delivery. My wargaming buddy Dave Imrie went to Salute 2015, and I met up with him a week later. It seems he met up with a Californian called Thomas Foss at the show – the creative genius
This was never meant to be a period – only a minor diversion. it still is – it’s not something I’d normally give the status of a full-blown naval period, but it is fascinating nonetheless. After all, we’ve played games where nobody fires a gun, no ships get captured or sunk, and everyone goes away
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
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
