54mm pirate wargame

 

Originally I was going to do this project in 28 mil. I bought some Foundry pirates second hand cause I really nice pictures and started painting them up. then I realised how expensive 28 mil ships were going to be to buy.

I love eBay and on eBay I bought half a dozen Playmobil toy ships. the six cost me less than £50 including postage. however they were a bit big for 28mm so the project went into the doldrums.

then I thought why not do it in 54 mil? the Playmobil ships are ideal for 54 mill.

The Playmobil ships are actually really nice models, I repainted them using aerosols and acrylics, some of the original models came in strange colours, but it's easy enough to repaint them.

As for 54 mill pirates, there is a set made by Mars which is quite good, you can also pick up some on eBay which are made by a Chinese toy manufacturer called hing fat, the easiest ones to obtain are made by a company called Glencoe, you can buy these on Amazon UK for around £14.00 a box and that includes shipping from the US. these different sets are all scale compatible, the Mars figures are perhaps a little larger than the others. I've also bought some call to arms British Light Infantry from the American war of independence to use as royal naval marines, but I've only painted up a few so far. I also drafted in some Armies in Plastic Boxers to make up the numbers.

on the large ships I have a crew of 16, on the smaller ones a crew of eight.

In terms of rules I looked a couple of commercial sets, but they were all too complicated. I like a set of rules quick easy and fun to play so I wrote my own which we found to see two sides of a four.

I played six games with these rules now with different people add which one has been a lot of fun have been very pleased that the rules seemed to work well.

Pirate rules

Sequence

Roll for wind direction - it does not change for the duration of the game.

Determine initiative

Player 1 fires and moves a ship and crew

Player 2 fires and moves a ship and crew

Etc.

Crew

Movement 8 inches, no obstacles

Firing –

50% of crew rounding up.

Pistols – 12 inches, Muskets - 18 inches

Hit on 4+, Save on 4+

No cover.

Result –

1-2 – over the side, 3-6 – killed

Combat

Simultaneous

Roll to hit 3+ depending on weapon skill.

Save 4+, captains 3+

Fail result –

1-2 – over the side, 3-6 – killed

Over the side – roll d6, 1-2 eaten by sharks, 3+ climb back up next turn but may not fire or attack.

Ships

Movement

Move 12, 18 with the wind behind.

Turn pivot on stern - galleons – 45 degrees no penalty, 90 degrees half move.

Sloops – up to 90 degrees no penalty

Ships may not turn on the spot.

Shimmying – ships can shimmy sideways 6 inches and turn 45 degrees

Ramming – galleon vs galleon, target 3d6 damage, rammer 1 d6 damage

Sloop vs galleon, 1d6 to both

Sloop vs sloop, rammer 1D6, rammee 2D6

Galleon vs sloop, 3d6 damage, rammee 1d6+2

Firing cannon

Ranges – short – 8, medium up to 16, long up to 24.

To hit – short 3+, medium 4+, long +5

Choose target – rigging/masts, upper deck, gun deck or hull.

Damage roll – 5+

Rigging hit – D3 damage, galleon - 12 points, sloop – 8 points of damage. Immobilized when points level exceeded.

Upper deck hit – d3 casualties.

Gun deck – 1 gun destroyed, D3 damage to hull

Hull – 1 average D damage

Hull – galleon - 20 points, sloop – 12 points of damage. Sinks when points level exceeded. Crew have 1 turn to abandon ship.

Boarding

Boarding takes place as a result of –

Moving parallel;

Shimmying;

Ramming (optional).

The attacker places his troops on the defender figures to figure. Both sides can fire just before combat is joined.

Boarding range is 3 in.

Winning

If there are less than 4 of a sloop crew alive and on deck, they surrender.

If there are less than 5 of a galleon crew alive and on deck, they surrender.

Crew in the water

Join the crew of whoever picks them up.

Pirate rules

Sequence

Determine initiative

Player 1 fires and moves a ship and crew

Player 2 fires and moves a ship and crew

Etc.

Crew

Movement 8 inches, no obstacles

Firing –

50% of crew rounding up.

Pistols – 12 inches, Muskets - 18 inches

Hit on 4+, Save on 4+

No cover.

Result –

1-2 – over the side, 3-6 – killed

Combat

Simultaneous

Roll to hit 3+ depending on weapon skill.

Save 4+, captains 3+

Fail result –

1-2 – over the side, 3-6 – killed

Over the side – roll d6, 1-2 eaten by sharks, 3+ climb back up next turn but may not fire or attack.

Ships

Movement

Move 12, 18 with the wind behind.

Turn pivot on stern - galleons – 45 degrees no penalty, 90 degrees half move.

Sloops – up to 90 degrees no penalty

Ships may not turn on the spot.

Shimmying – ships can shimmy sideways 6 inches and turn 45 degrees

Ramming – galleon vs galleon, target 3d6 damage, rammer 1 d6 damage

Sloop vs galleon, 1d6 to both

Sloop vs sloop, rammer 1D6, rammee 2D6

Galleon vs sloop, 3d6 damage, rammee 1d6+2

Firing cannon

Ranges – short – 8, medium up to 16, long up to 24.

To hit – short 3+, medium 4+, long +5

Choose target – rigging/masts, upper deck, gun deck or hull.

Damage roll – 5+

Rigging hit – D3 damage, galleon - 12 points, sloop – 8 points of damage. Immobilized when points level exceeded.

Upper deck hit – d3 casualties.

Gun deck – 1 gun destroyed, D3 damage to hull

Hull – 1 average D damage

Hull – galleon - 20 points, sloop – 12 points of damage. Sinks when points level exceeded. Crew have 1 turn to abandon ship.

Boarding

Boarding takes place as a result of –

Moving parallel;

Shimmying;

Ramming (optional).

The attacker places his troops on the defender figures to figure. Both sides can fire just before combat is joined.

Boarding range is 3 in.

Winning

If there are less than 4 of a sloop crew alive and on deck, they surrender.

If there are less than 5 of a galleon crew alive and on deck, they surrender.

Crew in the water

Join the crew of whoever picks them up.

Battle of River Bagradas 255BC

 

This was the climactic battle of the First Punic War. The Carthaginians hired a Spartan mercenary General named Xanthippus, who with the help of 100 elephants, trampled the Roman army of Regulus into the dust.

We used the excellent Neil Thomas Rules, except as usual we upped the number of units to around 20 per side, the Romans had one extra, and played until only side had lost over half its bases at which point it was deemed to be broken.

Deployment was historical, with the Romans forming a compact mass, and the Carthaginians despite smaller numbers attempting to encircle them.

As the armies closed, the Roman velites opened up on the elephants much to the annoyance of the Carthaginian general, who countered by charging them with warband Spanish who made mincemeat of them.

On the flanks the outnumbered Roman cavalry refused to be drawn out and oiutnumbered by Numidians, who had to be content with largely ineffectuve javelin fire.

Meanwhile in the centre the warband hit the legionaries and after initial success were being worn down. The Roman maniplar line extensuion rule paid dividends in close combat.

The Carthaginans unleashed the elephants and met with mixed results - head on with leginaries both sides suffered heavily, one elephant went berserk an shattered a unit of Carthaginia heavy infantry, another hit a Roman ally unit in the flank and destroyed it in one turn!

Gradually the superior morale of the Romans began to tell, and the superiority of legion vs plalanx wore down the Carthaginian heavy infantry.

Most of the elephants had been destroyed and the cavalry had proven ineffective.

It was a very exciting game withe the advantage swinging from one side to the other, but it became clear that the Romans had on this occasion changed the course of history.

The armies line up

Elephants - the pride of Carthage

The elephants are from Poundland, one is an old Britains model, howdahs made by my wife.

Serried ranks of Romans

Pesky velites

Roman allies

Elephants trample legionaries

Romani eunt domum!

Infantry clash in the centre

Elephant in the flank - 16 attacks with no save rolls!

Cavalry charge elephant - bad idea.

Romans grind down the opposition.

Battle of the Black Gate

 

So Ed and I decided that it was a high time that we played another Lord of the Rings game, and of course we used now favourite rules, War of the Sundered Realms.

the battle we chose is the final battle of the third age when the forces of the West March into Mordor.

if you are reading this you will know the story well so I won't rehearse it, suffice to say that the forces of the West take up defensive positions on two hills against overwhelming odds.

the forces of the West set up with a mixture of men of Gondor and men of Rohan, with Gandalf in charge on one hill and Aragorn on the other.

they were surrounded by a horde of orcs, goblins, Easterlings, trolls, led by the mouth of Sauron.

the westerners chose to mount an active defence and the men of Rohan and the Knights of Dol Amroth charged turn off the hills into the enemy ranks. 

The Rohan horse spent the rest of the game rampaging around the table knocking over orc units, however the smaller unit of men of Dol Amroth was quickly surrounded and overwhelmed.

we gave the defenders of the hill an extra point of defence to reflect the fact that they were on the hills and this prove to be very significant in the determination of melees.

on the hill held by Aragorn, the assault of the Easterlings was met by tough resistance, and although one unit of Rohan infantry was wiped out by Easterling archery, the unit of 1970s Citadel Guard polished off another unit of Easterlings without a single casualty! the Easterlings then failed to get on the hill.

the troops under Gandalf's command had a much tougher time of it, orc archery whittled them down, and the early loss of the Knights of Dol Amroth left a gap which the orcs could exploit.

On the other hill, Gandalf intervened with a couple of fireballs which devastated one of the attacking orc units. at this point the Mouth of Sauron decided to lead the charge, unfortunately Gandalf  cut him down in short order.

The Mouth of Sauron is a really old Asgard figure which has led the forces of Mordor since the 1970s! The Gandalf figure is of a similar age.

at this point in the game forces of Mordor were spent, we rolled for the arrival of the Eagles, but they refused to turn up. Despite heavy losses on both sides it was clear that the forces of the West had a slight advantage.

it was actually a close fought game, great to get the figures on the table, many of which are old casts from the 1970s and 1980s.

And another triumph for these excellent rules!

Vintage Trolls

1970s Minifigs Citadel Guard