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.
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
WWII Naval, General Quarters, 1/1200 scale I like it when wargame opponent Dougie Trail wants to use his Second World War Italian fleet. WC Fields’ phrase “never give a sucker an even break” always springs to mind! Well, this game was a fictitious one, set soon after Italy came into the war – around July
WWII Coastal Forces, The Quick & The Dead, 1/600 scale This was one of those surreal wargaming moments. This week was our club Annual General Meeting, and useful gaming time was wasted by discussions about our annual show (Claymore), the accounts, which charity to support (we opted for Combat Stress), election of office-bearers, changes to
WWII Naval, General Quarters, 1/2400 scale The grandly-named Battle of Cape Spada was a meeting engagement, named after the headland which marked the north-west corner of the island of Crete. Just over a week before Mussolini’s Italy had declared war on Great Britain and France, and two days earlier, on 17th July, two Italian cruisers
WWII Naval, General Quarters, 1/1200 scale The original plan was to play an English Civil War game, but as it was cancelled at the last minute we had to come up with something else. In these circumstances we often lay on a naval game, as it involves little effort; less lead to cart around, easy
WWII Naval, General Quarters, 1/1200 scale This very pretty game was all down to Kevan Gunn, who not only supplied the ships, but he built the fjords. its all part of his own pet project – refighting the Narvik campaign in several scales, and on land, sea and air. I know – it all sounds
WWII Coastal, Attack with Torpedoes, 1/600th We decided we hadn’t played a Coastal Forces game for over two years, so the little ships were given another airing. The idea was that a small German coastal convoy had put into Ambleteuse Roads for the night, to avoid a bombing raid on Boulogne, just down the coast.
Pre-Dreadnought, Perfidious Albion, 1/1200 scale We were all at sea this week, fighting a fictitious naval battle using some of my beautiful pre-dreadnought ships, built by the late Mike Earll. Essentially it all centred around the succession of Montenegro from the Ottoman Empire in August 1910. I concocted a convoluted reason why this might lead
Pre-Dreadnought, Perfidious Albion, 1/1200 scale Whenever we want to play a game which doesn’t involve much effort, we tend to opt for something nautical. As the period between Christmas and New Year is a time of laziness (unless you’re a self-employed author with deadlines), I reached for a box of ships. Similarly, whenever we play
Ironclads, Smoke on the Water, 1/600th scale For a change we ran off to sea this week, or rather to a tidal estuary. We decided we hadn’t played a naval game for a long time, and consequently we dug out our American Civil War ships. The game was loosely based on the battle between the
