Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames
Pre-Dreadnought Naval
Victorian Elegance on the High Seas
I never really wanted to do another naval period. Three seemed more than enough. However, Edinburgh Club member Colin Jack is the man responsible for this little foray. A while back he invited me to join him for a 1/3000 scale Pre-Dreadnought game, using a set of rules he developed - a set which later became Perfidious Albion. I'd used the rules before, and found them great fun. What put me off before was the fact that 1/3000 scale ships don't look too pretty. In this period they're just too small. That night I searched the web for alternatives, and stumbled across Houston's Ships, available from Stellar Systems, Dale Kemper's company out in Indiana. Check 'em out yourself on www.greatendeavours.co.uk/ships/. His models looked great, and at 1/1000 scale they seemed the perfect size for me. After looking at the models in his catalogue I decided to plump for British and French fleets of around 1890. That way the ships were at their funkiest, and I could include HMS Inflexible, a pet historic ship of mine with its 100-ton muzzle-loading guns!
The Ship Profile for HMS Inflexible
The British fleets at this time were undergoing a change from the Inflexible style of battleship to ones more akin to later pre-dreadnoughts. As for the French, because it took them more than 10 years to build a ship, their vessels look a little dated by comparison, although their guns were just as effective as those on the British ships. Yup, 1890 was the period for me, even though historically the two fleets haven't fired a shot at each other since 1815!
The models themselves were also reasonably priced, especially given the lamentable state of the US dollar under the present administration(!). I whistled up a couple of fleets, which arrived within a couple of weeks - just time for me to work up the Ship Cards I needed for Perfidious Albion. After ordering up a stunning sea mat from Terrain Mat in the UK (www.terrainmat.com), I was all set.
HMS Victoria The Courbet
The models themselves were relatively simple to put together, although rigging them proved a bit fiddly, especially after you've covered your fingers in super glue. One of the charms about this period is the choice of colour schemes - ships were pretty - none of this boring old grey paint which crept in a decade later. After looking at a load of paintings and old photos, I opted for black hulls all round, with the Royal Navy ships having white upperworks and ochre masts and funnels (Foundry Ochre 4B), while the French upperworks and masts were painted a slightly darker shade (Foundry Buff Leather 7C). For the French decks I used Foundry Rawhide 11B, and Foundry Ochre 4C for the British.
The Admiral Duperre HMS Edinburgh
As per usual I mounted the ships on plastic card, used Polyfilla to make the wake, then painted them a bluey-grey-green to match the sea mat. I like rounding the corners of most of my bases, as it gives the whole thing a nicer look, and I always paint ship names on - this time using a fine white pen from the local art shop. As I play down the local wargames club (some 10 minutes walk away), they needed to be transported safely. I therefore divided a couple of file boxes into little compartments using foamboard (Foamcore in the States), which kept them safe as I staggered home (you have to drink "pink gins" if you play the British in this period)!
French Torpedo Boats Ouragan & Alarme HMS Rattlesnake - a Torpedo Boat Destroyer
All in all I'm delighted with the ships, the mat, the rules, and my new naval period. Right away they've moved to the top of the league as my favourite naval period.
Even if you think naval games aren't for you, you'll have to agree it all looks very pretty! I'm trying to resist the temptation to expand my forces by adding Italians (really funky ships) and Germans, although after the interest shown at the Club, I'm pretty sure someone else will be buying some of these fairly soon.
By the way, Perfidious Albion rules are available as a download form www.aandagames.co.uk.
Perfidious Albion Playsheet
(Note: My playsheet is geared up for 1890, which means the factors are altered from the main rules)
Recent additions to my navy: Austro Hungarian warships, c.1908
The pre-dreadnought battleship Hapsburg (1902), with the Erzherzog Karl (1906) behind her. These are scratch-built 1:1200 scale models, from the collection of the late Mike Earll. They're being sold on behalf of Mike's widow by his friend Jim Prentice.
Mike's Collection is now available for sale, and includes a wide range of superb 1:1200 scale models. they were all scratch-built built by a late friend of his, and Jim is supervising the sale of them. Contact Jim himself for details jprentice23@yahoo.co.uk
For examples of pre-dreadnought games see Journal 6 , Journal 12, Journal 29 & Journal 32
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American Civil War Pre-Dreadnought WW2 Coastal Forces WW2 Pacific