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.
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
The Age of Fighting Sail, Kiss me Hardy!, 1/1200 scale The idea was to stage a small naval game, to entice my friend Jim into naval games. The game was set in 1806, and involved a small Spanish squadron which had been blockaded in Palma on Mallorca for months. A gale though, forced the blockading
The Age of Fighting Sail, Post Captain, 1/1200 scale This week, I wasn’t going to make it into the club due to car trouble, but fortunately my friend Bruce was up visiting – who’s both ex navy and vaguely interested in wargaming. So, we managed to fit in a game at my place. This was
The Age of Fighting Sail, Kiss Me Hardy, 1/1200 scale We were all at sea this week, playing a fun-looking scenario from the Lard Magazine 2021. A French squadron of four ships-of-the-line was on its way from Nice to Calvi in Corsica, when it stopped to take on water in the Iles d’ Hyères, off
The Age of Fighting Sail, Far Distant Ships, 1/1200 scale This game was set during Nelson’s chase of Villeneuve to the West Indies in May and June 1805 – a few months before Trafalgar. This was largely because Sean 1’s sea mat was Caribbean blue… Anyway, in this game the two Seans played the French,
The Age of Fighting Sail, Post Captain, 1/1200 scale We fancied a trip to the sea this week, and opted for a frigate action. While we use Far Distant Ships for fleet actions, for the smaller stuff I opt for Post Captain, from the same people who produce General Quarters. While they claim you can
The Age of Fighting Sail, Far Distant Ships, 1/1200 scale When I was south last week I picked up two battle-ready French ships-of-the-line. My friend Jack Glanville had kindly painted and rigged them for me. So, we decided to stage another fleet action, with the 74s Pluton and Duguay-Trouin reinforcing the French contingent. In this
The Age of Fighting Sail, Far Distant Ships, 1/1200 scale Last Trafalgar Day we played a Napoleonic era fleet action using Osprey’s Fighting Sail rules. I thought they were quite fun and fast to play, but I had quite a few reservations about them. The amendments posted on the rules’ Facebook page helped, but they
The Age of Fighting Sail, Post Captain, 1/1200 scale Two naval games back to back is a rarity. To be fair, in between, during the whole Christmas and New Year period, the wargame club here has been closed. In fact its still shut, thanks to Covid, although with luck that’ll change soon. So, this game
The Age of Sail, Fighting Sail, 1/1200 scale As it was 21st October – Trafalgar Day – there was only one type of game we could play. So, I dug out my Age of Sail ships, and Gyles, Mally, Sean and I took to the high seas. In theory this clash was set amid the
The Age of Fighting Sail, Kiss Me, Hardy, 1/1200 scale This was another lockdown game, played with my near neighbour Gyles. He fancied something nautical this time, so we opted for the Age of Fighting Sail, and Kiss Me, Hardy. The idea was that a small squadron of five French ships-of-the-line had broken out from
