The League of Augsburg

The work party crossing open ground from lagoon to careenage

Maurice watched the attack develop from an observation platform near the river. Groups of warriors emerged from the undergrowth and under a hail of arrows, parties ran toward the log barricades. The irony of English muskets in African hands, turned upon their former owners was not lost on the defenders as the sailors came under fire. The...

Maurice atop the observation platform at the Careenage.

Simultaneous with Rupert's epic capture of the slaver Temperance on the northern shore of the Gambia, his younger brother, in charge of the careenage and lagoon used for repairing the damaged Revenge of Whitehall, has really stirred up the locals.

The Kombans attack!

Their continuing failure to deliver promised fresh water supplies to the...

Master Darbyshire prepares his ship for the Royalist attack.

After a work enforced pause which lasted three weeks, our Rupert on the Gambia campaign resumed last night. It brought one of those golden moments in gaming the always come unexpectedly. The campaing resumed on Day 9 of the thirty day odyssey with Rupert haveing failed to capture a grounded English slaver lying in a difficult position on...

Christians approach through the narrows

With the anniversary of this enormous sea battle occurring yesterday, I thought I would fight a little game to mirror the setting and the ships. This is a 1/1200 scale game using Ark Royal Miniatures and a few Langton Christian ships. 

The Ottomans are holding a strong defensive position

I used Mad for Warcombining the galleys and square rigged rules sections...

Héros close in during the heat of the action!

Although co-architect of the attack on the stranded English slaver Temperance, Rupert was prevented from playing anything but the role of spectator on account of a strong north westerly wind. Thomas Darbyshire, master of the grounded vessel, used his long experience at sea to make the best of a difficult position. Lying high and dry in an extremely...

Off the Bakendik Bolong, Rupert attacks the stranded Temperance.

Eight days (15 turns) into the campaign, we are at the 25% mark. It has been an eventful journey so far and the Royalists are no further than four miles from the mouth of the Gambia River. They have had two encounters with Berber pirates coming off worst in the first encounter and being mere spectators to a French victory in the...

The campaign has a full and detailed narrative which accompanies the turn by turn mechanics. All of the narrative is based on events which happen in the table-top wargames combined with the role-play conversations and the umpire controlled activities. 

So far, the narrative runs to over 5,000 words for the first ten turns. Below is an extract from 5th March, five days into the campaign and it...

We've recently begun a campaign recreating the adventures of the itinerant Royalist Fleet on the West African coast in 1652. Under Prinz Ruprecht von der Pfalz known more commonly in Engish as Rupert of the Rhine, a small battered squadron 'privateered' between the Islas Cabo Verde and The Gambia for some weeks. 

Campaign Map

I have manipulated a few facts but nothing too outrageous. We have...

Tomorrow sees a return to Claymore for me. Last time I was there was three years ago and I was lucky enough to win the Best Display game with a land based Ottoman Wars effort in 28mm. This time I am significantly downscaling in line with my green-policy of getting rid of the German tank of a car and opting for a quiet little Nipponese hybrid with much less space inside. 

Having downscaled the...

A grand fleet - Charles II's battleships 1666

At Partizan this year I am doing something different. I am running a 'demo rules-workshop' where anyone curious about Anglo-Dutch naval wargaming can come along, throw a few dice, try a few mechanisms and ask lots of questions. 

Line of battle developed between 1652 and 1660

I will set up gaming scenarios in three different scales to explain the scope of...

If you don't know much about the Four Days Battle of 1666 there is a hole in your life! This epic sea battle between the Restoration English Navy and that of the Dutch Republic involved a massive number of ships - around 160, over 40,000 men and in excess of 9,000 guns. It was fought over four days (hence the name!) with some fighting also happening at night.

It is crammed full of desperate...