Black Seas-Pitched Battle

Yesterday myself and Adam got in a game of Black Seas at the Hobby Bunker in Wakefield. It was nice too see Adam and to get out for an in person gaming session. Although we have played a few games of Black Seas, it was also the first time he got to see my Spanish fleet as they had been trapped in Montreal for almost 18 months because of the pandemic.

We decided to go with the Pitched Battle Scenario from the rulebook, this is a 2000 point game played on a 6x4 sea terrain. I played the Spanish and Adam the French.

Spanish Fleet

Admiral Juan de Lángara

1st Rate w/ Lucky, Sturdy, Boarding Nets, Master Gunner

Two 5th Rates w/ Sturdy, More Carronades

5th Rate w/ Lucky, More Carronades

Two Brigs/ Sturdy

6th Rate Xebec w/ Sturdy

French Fleet

1st Rate w/ Sturdy

Three 3rd Rates w/ Sturdy

Two 5th Rates w/ Sturdy and Streamlined Hull

So we got on with it, Adam has played a lot and I have not played this ruleset for close to 2 years so I had to be cautious. As you can see, I went with pretty defensive attributes with Sturdy and upped my firepower with More Carronades. My 1st Rate was going to be my main offensive ship so I added a couple dice re-rolls with Lucky and Master Gunner.

We got in a very good game lasting around 3 hours, I had a lot of fun. It was touch and go for a while as my 1st Rate staying in the action and delivering some devastating firepower, but my overall lack of offence with my small ships eventually ended up with a clear victory for the French.

Here are a few photos I took of the actions.

Well played Adam, we are hoping to get in a game of Devil in the Wilderness next. Looking forward to it.

Black Seas

I had a nice game of Black Seas with Adam a couple of days ago, I had not played for a while. Adam set up the game. I played the Brits and he played the French.

It was a simple scenario, we had 3 ships each and the British goal was to move 2 ships from the southwest corner of the terrain to the northeast corner in 6 turns. Victory could also be obtained if the British were able to take out 2 French ships in 8 turns. All other outcomes would result in a French victory. I am not 100% sure what the Order of Battle was for the French but I suspect it was similar to the British. I had 2 large 3rd rates and one small 3rd rate.

I think we played 7 turns and I have to say I had the most amazing dice, throwing criticals almost every turn. I suspect this was the cause of the British victory rather than my excellent seamanship! We played the game virtually, and it worked well. I believe Adam has hosted several virtual Black Seas games now and he has the process down. I forgot to take photos at the beginning of game but the below snaps sort of illustrate the progress, the Brits are to the left of the photo in the initial shot.

The British were able to destroy 2 French ships, thus achieved victory. I have to say I quite enjoyed the game.

A Small Danish Fleet

Several weeks ago, I had a look at my Black Seals plastic pile, a couple of 3rd rates, some frigates and lots of Brigs. Since my Spanish fleet is landlocked in Montreal and I suspect it will be months before I am allowed to retrieve them (do not set me off.... the richest country in the world acting like a 3rd world banana republic with even worse leadership.....move on John), I decided to paint add a couple of small fleets to my collection.

I gave it a bit of thought and decided to paint some ships for the Scanian Wars. This was specially attractive as there very little information on how this ships were painted, so I had some flexibility. I have been very slow to rig the ships, I finished the hulls several weeks ago. But today I finally finished my Danish ships. I believe we have found that during the pandemic few rather than more ships work for Virtual Tabletop Wargaming. I painted a frigate and 3 brigs for the Danish fleet.

I think they look pretty nice, so I have to get on with the Swedish fleet so they can all be launched.

Black Seas: Catch the Prize

 

This past Friday, myself and Adam had a go at Black Seas, this was Adam's first game and my fifth. He is planning to put on a game a small con at the end of the month and want to playtest the rules as well as his scenario.

He decided to go with Scenario 5 from the books with the only advanced national rules being in play. The scenario pits a frigate and a brig against other, he elected to go with French and US ships, with one force escorting an unarmed merchant ship across so treacherous waters. Here are a few photos from the game.

 

These are all Adam's ships which were very nicely done. We played the scenario twice with us each taking a turn being the defender, and in both games the defender (the escorting force) winning. Both games took around 60 minutes, cementing my belief that this is an excellent set of rules which give a fun game. We used my off table card holders which obviate the need for wake markers. I think Adam has decided after the game to remove the bases, they do making measuring and turning using the included templates a little more difficult. I used my linear laser for the first time to decide which ship is closest to the wind, thus going first. With the wind gauge in the middle of the terrain this is an absolute plus and I highly recommend it. 

It was a fun game!

Black Seas-Pitched Sea Battle

 

Last Friday we had a game of Black Seas at my apartment. We decided to play scenario 12 from the book, a 2000 point per side battle. This was a pure open seas battle with no terrain with each force lined up on their respective sides on the long axis of the mat. My mat is slightly smaller then the recommended 6x4' by about 6" per side so I believe it played out ok.

I played the Spanish while PY took the British.

 

I do not have the actual British list but it did comprise a 1st and 3rd rate as well as Nelson, I think there were 1 or 2 frigates and several brigs. We lined up our ships and diced for the wind, it was blowing Northwest. I will not bother to write out an actual battle report but I did take some photos to deatil the action as follows.

 

 

Purisíma Conceptíon

 

HMS Victory

 

We got 10 of 15 turns in but by then the Spanish fleet was severely tried and I decide to withdraw. We totaled up the points and it was a 20 to 7 British victory. The British are a tough nut in this game and they have a built in advantage because of the modifiers on their skill tests. Essentially with the HMS Victory on the table with Nelson in the third rate, with both ships having veteran crews, they only fail skill tests on a d6 roll of 1. The Purīsima Conceptíon was able to pound the Victory to below it break point but to get the crew to surrender was almost impossble, the Victory shot back and the Spaniards surrendered.

This is a great game and the first from Warlord Games that I have really enjoyed. It is going to take some time to learn how to effectively play the  Spanish as they have some inherent limitations. But that is what gaming is about. I had a lot of fun, as I think did PY.

Black Seas: AHPCX #4

 

Over the last couple of months I have much enjoyed painting my first Age of Sail miniatures. To be honest, they are the most enjoyable minaitures I have painted in quite some time. In the last few years, my focus has been on gaming and terrain and much less so painting, which in most cases I have been happy to hand off to the professionals.

These miniatures, however, are a lot of fun and once assembled look great on the table. I have also played a couple of games of Black Seas and that has been fun as well. To prepare for a game this Friday, I decided to paint up and assemble (the assembly is the more challenging part of the process) some more ships for my Spanish fleet.

1st Rate (yet to be christened)

Lots of guns

 

This is a resin and metal model, I have heard some complaints about the metal masts and they are a bit more of a challenge with the rigging but I think it came out OK.

3rd Rate (the Montañes)

 

An all plastic model

 

Gunship Squadron

Single Medium Cannon in front.

I did these in Salem, but my mat was in Montreal so I will have to darken up the base a bit.

My Spanish fleet

Black Seas

 

On Monday night, P-Y came over to my apartment and introduced me to the new game from Warlord Games; Black Seas. Many years ago I bought the Trafalgar ruleset from Warhammer Historicals, with it came some small metal ships, I think 1/2400 scale made of metal. I painted a couple of the ships, which I found quite difficult to assemble and really got no where with it. It all got packed away. At the same time I did buy a sea terrain mat with some islands which was really quite nice. It got stored away and I forgot about it. A couple of years ago, Adam introduced me to some WWII wargaming, but I found the gaming experience was overwhelmed by the book-keeping so I pretty soon lost interest.

It was with some reluctance that I talked myself into buying the Black Seas starter set. I am not an enormous fan of the Warlord Games rulesets, I find Black Powder a little boring and Bolt Action just has not attracted me. I suppose, I am too much of a TFL fan. Anyway, P-Y showed me a couple of ships he had done and it looked like an interesting change from paintng terrain and figures, so I said why not.

The little ships are beautifully made and are very easy to put together. They are fun to paint, I decided to go with the Spanish, I like the sky blue and red details but at the same time all ships were different and one has a lot of latitude on what colours to use. The rigging was quite a challenge (I think it took me 3-4 hours to rig a 5th rate yesterday), but I did get a lot of satisfaction out of the task. Once put together they do look rather nice.

I was not even sure if I was going to play the game but after watching a couple of videos, I said why not so I invited P-Y over. Well I have to say the game is enormous fun, there is really no book-keeping and the rules are completely intuitive. You can also easily scale the accuracy of the simulation up but the game stil remains quite simple to play. I have to admit it was probably the best new gaming experience I have had and I have gone through a lot of different rulesets in my last 15 years of wargaming. A lot of it was probably due to P-Y but interesting enough he has only played 2 games so that says a lot about the ruleset itself.

We played a 5th rate and 2 brigs aside and waht follows are a few photos. I really was just trying to learn the rules, so got in collisions and barding as well as movement and fireing. It was a lot of fun, looking forward to my next game and the release of the Spanish flotilla in mid December!

  

P-Y's 5th rate

 

A very bold brig boarding my 5th rate.

I also finished painting up the painting the Frigates and Brigs starter box today so here is my small fleet. I have to touch up some of the colours but that is about it.