The League of Augsburg

Anniversary post- Blindheim and.....

by augsburgeroberst
French infantry deploy


Lest I forget! Today is the anniversary of that 'dine out' Waterloo of the 18th century... The Battle of Blindheim. Giving acknowledgement to this great feat of arms is completely justified. It was an astounding and decisive victory. 


British squadrons and Blood's artillery


What should not be forgotten is that in achieving this signal triumph, the bleeding was done by a Grand...

Posted in Beneath the Lily Banners, Blenheim, History, Scenarios, Terrain, The War of Spanish Succession, The War of Three Kings, Wargaming

Scenario: 13th June 1667 Medway AAR Part 2

by augsburgeroberst



Sorry for the delay in posting the Part 2 of this scenario. No reasons other than I have been really busy on writing and photographing the next wave of 4PLAY scenarios during my annual leave.  More on that soon but meanwhile....

Turn 16

Terrible luck befell the English. The ‘Damn your eyes!’ card was drawn and a nervous, civilian- manned battery at the north end of the New Dockyard loosed its guns...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The High Seas, Wargaming

Scenario: 13th June 1667 Medway AAR Part 1

by augsburgeroberst



The Scenario


This scenario represents the climactic day of the spectacular Dutch attack on the English fleet at anchor in the River Medway. The objective is to burn three large ships of the line which have been partially sunk in shallow water down river of the Royal Dockyard at Chatham. The Dutch are led by the mastermind of the campaign Admiral van Ghent and accompanying the expedition is the...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The High Seas, Wargaming

An excusable digression.. Waterloo Day

by augsburgeroberst

Add caption

Five years ago today I was in the privileged position to have witnessed one of the two mega events at  Waterloo 200. Little memories include watching Charles and Camilla sweeping up with their entourage as UK representatives, literally almost colliding with Mr Farage as he made political capital at




Hougoumont and, hailing a bunch of HLI drilling in a field near the chateau in my very...
Posted in History, Museums, News, Republic to Empire, Terrain, Travel, Wargaming, Waterloo 200th Anniversary

Battles of Goa 1638-39

by augsburgeroberst
Da Silva sails out to do battle with Van der Veere

The Portuguese colony of Goa came under repeated pressure from the Dutch VOC during the period of  European expansion in the 17th century. Here is a link to a previous blog post about my visit to Reis Magos - the 16th century Portuguese fort at Goa, still in working order.

Portuguese Fort Reis Magos -Goa

1639 raid by van der Veere on the three...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, History, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The High Seas, Travel, Wargaming

His wonders to perform... God and the Medway Estuary

by augsburgeroberst
I actually wrote this piece last year and made a conscious decision to give up flying about two weeks later. I have am pleased to say I have only been in a plane eight times since. Of course, the current situation makes flying almost impossible anyway. Good, we're saving the planet.

The terrain as it stands

Upper middle of shot - Isle of Sheppey and beyond - The Medway Estuary.

I do a lot of flying....
Posted in Modeling, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The High Seas, Wargaming

10 Reasons why this is my favourite wargaming period

by augsburgeroberst
Neerwinden/Landen 1693


I have been gaming the period 1666-1720 for thirty years this year. Despite forays into other periods of which I am fond, I always return to my favourite. Recently, I have agreed to write a title for Helion about wargaming the period 1666-1697 specifically and that has made me reflect on why I maintain an enduring fascination for this 60 year span of history.

So, here are my...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Beneath the Lily Banners, Ireland, Nine Years War, Ottomans, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The War of Three Kings, Wargaming

Saved the best to last.. Caribbean test 3

by augsburgeroberst


It's a funny old game (to paraphrase Greavsie). Having experienced two wins from two for the single 'blinged up' privateer Sea WolfI thought I'd give the European power trio's third leg a chance to prevail over the pirates. It turned out to be the best game of all with so many little twists that I played on for 15 turns to get the final result. It took about 90 minutes altogether but of course I...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Nine Years War, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The High Seas, Wargaming

Second run of the privateer play test

by augsburgeroberst



I considered the first run of this game not a fluke but perhaps a little fortunate for the privateer ship.
So, giving it another go with pretty much everything the same except, the opponents this time were the Dutch West India Company Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie  or GWC.  The ship profiles were exactly the same with Jupiter replacing Elizabeth, Schiedam substituting for Swan and Egmondfor...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Painting, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The High Seas, Wargaming

Launching a privateer - Small ship action using my naval rules

by augsburgeroberst

The game setting... tropical paradise or, mosquito infested hell hole? Europeans in the Caribbean.

I  took an inevitable diversion into the world of piracy by painting a 4th rate up and flagging it as a late 17th century privateer of indeterminate nationality.

The frgiate Elizabeth set sail to meet the privateer threat

Having further developed the points system for my rule set I thought it would be...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Nine Years War, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The Glorious Revolution, The High Seas, Wargaming

Naval campaign part 2 preview

by augsburgeroberst
A nice day out at Ardnamurchan.... maybe not for some of these ships

With a little help from my friends.....

Dave and Colin came over last week to keep the campaign going. We played three cracking games with me going to pick up the fourth and fifth when I get a chance.

Make ready your guns! Tocht challenges Rochefoucauld at Duinkirk 1672

Scenario number 1 entitled 'King Louis's ships'takes place off...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Basing, Ireland, Modeling, Nine Years War, Painting, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The High Seas, Wargaming

It's Saturday, I'll build a castle

by augsburgeroberst


I have several new scenarios coming up for the 17th century naval campaign. I needed something that resembled a Scottish castle. I thought - just a tower. Then, what about a tower on a rocky outcrop? Then that morphed into... maybe I could expand it to look like the stronghold of a clan chief with outbuildings etc.. yeah...




Now, how was I going to do that. Well, two cups of coffee, various rummages...
Posted in 17th century naval campaign, Basing, Ireland, Nine Years War, Painting, Restoration and Dutch Wars, Scenarios, Terrain, The War of Spanish Succession, Wargaming