Cape Ortegal - The Replay

The setup for this game, including the ships involved, can be found here. This is my first major game in this genre, so apologies for the lack of nautical terminology.

The Wind in their Sails

British fleet started with the initiative, and Strachan decided to close the gap between the two fleets as rapidly as possible. With the wind in their sails, the British squadron made rapid pace towards the French fleet, although the Caesar at the fore of the British Line came under heavy fire and took substantial damage. 

Unfortunately for Caesar, my novice interpretation of the partial broadside probably led to her sustaining more damage than necessary. However, be aware that these fighting gun platforms can absorb a lot before they begin to weaken.

Cutting the Line

However, as the British line approached, it swung to starboard at close range, and both fleets exchanged some devastating broadsides. After these exchanges, the honours were even. However, the British gained the first movement chit next turn, allowing them to cut the French line,  racking the Dugray and the Formidable. Both took heavy damage; the Dugray received a critical hit and lost her steering. Meanwhile, the Hero and Courage concentrated their fire on the Mont Blanc, which suffered heavy damage but remained actionable. After this divesting turn, the French fleet was in disarray. Dugray was sailing away from the action, and the Formidable's poor crew, an unlucky set-up throw, struggled to execute a turn to rejoin the Mont Blanc and the Scipion.

Dumanoir Strikes Back

By turn four, it looked like a British victory was assured, especially as the Namur had now come into the sight of the main action. However, the French were not defeated. A lucky broadside from the Formidable found its mark felling the Caesar's main sail, which collapsed onto the poop deck, injuring Strachen and the Caesars' senior officers. Strachan was forced to transfer the flag to Captain Gardner on the Hero.

This success against Caesar boosted French resolve, and the Formidable now managed to turn back onto the main action.  The plucky Scipion, which would prove to have the bravest crew on the day, continued to fight on regardless despite coming under heavy bombardment from the Hero and the Courageux. Finally, the two remaining French ships joined, enabling them to provide mutual support to each other.

The Weather Gods

Dumanoir le Pell now decided to isolate and destroy the Namur before she could join the main British squadron. Formidable and the Scipion sailed parallel to sandwich the Namur between their broadsides. However, the firepower of these ships had been diminished by the previous action, and minor damage was done. The Namur finally linked up with the Hero and the Courageux to form a new battle line that launched a vicious attack on the remaining French ships. The game has now turned into a series of fleeting exchanges as the ships passed between each other, and any kind of formation was now lost.

The advantage was now with the British, and it looked likely that the reenactment would create the historical outcome.  Again, when victory seemed inevitable, nature intervened. The wind turned more to the south, and on the next turn, the waters became choppy.  It appeared that the infamous lousy weather of the Bay of Biscay would have the last laugh because the conditions gave the French the chance to escape the clutches of the British warships. However, this proved to be a false hope. Another bombardment from the British ships forced the brave Scipion to strike its colours. Finally, the Namur and the Courageux caught up with the French flagship, forcing Admiral Dumanoir le Pelley to surrender.

Some Thoughts

It was an enjoyable game with lots of twists and turns. As I am still learning the intricacies of KMH, mistakes were made, partial broadside and tacking being the two I spotted during the game. Also I think I will make two minor changes to the rules,

1. A test  to break the line. It is, from my reading that this was a tricky manoeuvre.
2. Introduce a call by the admiral to allow the ships to fight individually.  At what point in the game should you introduce ship cards/chits for individual ships and then squadron cards removed?   

Battle of Cape Ortegal 1805.

This re-enactment is an early venture into Napoleonic naval warfare, using the Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) rules. My route to this battle and why I used the KMH rules can be found in my two previous blogs, Land Lubber and Age of Sail. This small battle is perfect for Kiss Me Hardy and solo play because of the few ships involved, although it can be played with two to four players. 

Battle of Cape Ortegal, November 4th 1805

The Battle of Cape Ortegal, or Strachan's Action, was the final action of the Trafalgar campaign. It was fought between a squadron of the Royal Navy and a remnant of the fleet under Vice Admiral Dumanoir le Pelley that had escaped the Battle of Trafalgar. On 22 October, Dumanoir le Pelley sailed towards Rochefort. However, on entering the Bay of Biscay, he sighted the British frigate the Phoenix and gave chase. The Phoenix led Dumanoir’s to Starchan’s squadron. At this point, the commanders tried to gather their ships, although both suffered from slow-moving or damaged vessels. Strachan had to press on without the Bellona, and the Namur was probably foul-bottomed and was dragging behind the main line. For Dumanoir, most of his ships had sustained some damage at Trafalgar or in the following storms. The Scipion had difficulty keeping up with the main French formation and was harassed by the British frigates before the main action commenced.

The Battle 

The battle was reported in the Lloyds List on Tuesday, November 12 November,

The Formidable, of 80 guns, Dugay Trouin, Mont Blanc, Scipion, of 74 guns each, separated from the remains of the Combined Fleet. After the action of Cape Trafalgar, were taken the 4th Inst. of Rochefort, by the Squadron under the command of Sir Richard Strachan, consisting of The Caesar, Hero, Courageux, and Namur Men of War, Revolutionaire, Phoenix, Santa Margaritta, and Aoleus Frigates, after an Action of 3 hours and a half. The Enemy had 5 and 600 killed and wounded; our losses about 300 killed and 100 wounded. – The Caesar, Courageux, Hero and Revolutionaire arrived in Plymouth the 10th with prizes, which are all dismasted.

Refighting the Battle

Two options are available in setting up the game. 

1. Ship of the Line Engagements. In most battles, the frigates played a limited role so that the battle could be played without the frigates. The skirmishing between the frigates and the Scipion can be built into the Scipion profile to reflect the damage the ship had sustained. The advantage of this approach is that there are fewer ships to handle for solo play.
2. Including the Frigates. The British frigates played a part in Strachan’s plans. Besides harassing the Scipion, they would later swing around the rear of the French squadron, forming a secondary line.

The set-up below is for the first of these two option, without frigates.

Commanders and Organisation

The scenarios involve few squadrons, so it is unnecessary to detail the commanders' capabilities and skills. If you want to add this command element, the following is  If you want to add this command element the following is suggested, based on Nic Skinner’s, “I wish to amuse the fleet with a signal.”

Captain Sir Richard Strachan, ............ Intrepid Admiral

Rear Admiral Dumanoir le Pelley,.....  Patriotic

The French are organised as one squadron and the British into two groups. The main squadron and the Namur as a single ship command.

The Ships

I utilised Brian Weathersby’s “Messing Around with Boats” extension with some of the Fires as She Bears Trafalgar pack suggestions to model the ships for this action. All the British crew are classed as Jolly Jack Tars with their morale status being determined randomly.

The British Ships of the Line.

Name	Rate	Damage Points	Gun Dice	Speed	Notes
Caesar	Large 3	88	10	12	Flag Ship
Hero	3	70	9	12	Carronades
Courageux	3	74	9	12	French Prize ship.
Namur	3	70	9	11	Foul Bottomed

 

The French Fleet

Name	Rate	Damage Points	Gun Dice	Speed	Notes
Formidable	Large 3	95	9	12	Reduce damage Pts by 1d10+3 to reflect the damage taken at Trafalgar. Broadside reduced to 9 dice.
Mount Blanc	3	82	10	12
Duguay Trouin	3	82	10	12
Scipion	3	82	10	12	But reduced by earlier frigate action. See below.

 

Notes on French Ships

All crew are Sans Cullottes with their with their morale status being determined randomly.

The Formidable
The Formidable was a large 80-gun third-rate, somewhat reduced in offensive capability due to damage taken during the Battle of Trafalgar. She had lost fifteen of her 12-pounders. This damage had been reflected in her Hull and Broadside ratings, by a dice roll and a reduced firepower.

Scipion
In this non-frigate scenario, the British may fire three unmodified broadsides, Long, Medium and Short, at Scipion prior to start of battle. This represents the duel between the British frigates Santa-Margarita and Phoenix prior to the main action. The three broadsides occurred an extreme, long, and close range. Critical damage caused by these broadsides is applied to the Scipion. If this option is used the British frigates play no part in the subsequent game.

Set Up

The action took place in November off the coast of Spain in the Bay of Biscay. A stretch of sea noted for its fiercest weather conditions. Therefore, the Wind Change and the Choppy Waters rules should be used.
The initial Wind direction given in Strachan’s report is in the south-east. Therefore, the British Ships have the Wind on the Quarter and the French Wind on the Bow. 

The British have the initiative, and the Sea Conditions were normal when the main action commenced.  

The Namur

The Namur dragged some miles behind the British formation when the action commenced. To show this, the Namur will not appear before Turn 4. In this turn, throw 1d6

1. Turn 4 if a 6 is thrown the Namur enters the table at the same point as the main squadron started the game and on the same heading.
2. Turn 5 The Namur enters the game on 3, 4, 5, and 6, as described above.
3. Turn 6 The Manor enters as described above.

On entering, add a Namur chit or card to the game sequence.

The Reenactment

The game that followed from this set-up can be found here.

Age of Sail

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my first venture into Age of Sail was to bring the battle of Cape Ortegal to my tabletop. More about the action later, but it was a small action, fought between two squadrons, twelve ships in total, rather than a significant fleet action. However, my ambition is to refight the great clashes of the era, Glorious 1 July, Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, so the rules I choose ideally should accommodate these significant engagements. This focus eliminated many rule sets that focused on ship-to-ship duels.

Rules and Constraints

The first step in my quest involved reading several rules sets to establish which ones appealed. Rules that a wargamer chooses are a personal choice to fit their requirements. Three constraints impacted my selection. First, I have limited space, so any option had to be played on a 6’ x 4’ table. Second, I mainly play solo, so any dedicated rules to aid solo play would be attractive. Last, I wanted to test the period with a limited financial budget. This led me down 1:2400 scale ships. Although War Artisan card ships tempted me, I thought they were too large because of my restricted space.

The Rules

I had previously tried tabletop board games, like the Sails of Glory and Oak and Iron, but they did not allow me to recreate large engagements. Therefore, I concentrated on five sets of rules.

Grand Fleet Actions (GFA) by Andrew Finch and Alan Butler, A & A Game Engineering,

Far and Distant Ships (FDS) by David Manley, Long Face Games,

Fighting Sail (FS) by Ryan Miller, Osprey Publishing,

Fire as She Bears (FASB) by Phil C Fry, Starboard Tack Press,

Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) by Nic Skinner, Two Fat Lardies.

Please look at my earlier post for site links for these rules.

Period Covered

Before looking at the individual rules, a few general comments. First, only some of these rules covered the same period. Kiss Me Hardy is focused on the ‘Age of Nelson, whilst GFA and FASB can be used to refight engagements from the 16th Century. Fighting Sail is the most restrictive covering the 18th century and the first two decades of the next century. Therefore, most of these rules can cover a period from the Anglo-Dutch wars to the end of the Napoleonic conflicts.

General Comments

First, most rules are pdf downloads that you must print if you want a hard copy. The notable exception is Fighting Sail from Osprey, produced to that company’s high standard. Few of these rules are indexed, and only FDS and FS have a QRS sheet. However, QRSs can be found online and in various Facebook groups for most of the rules. Fighting Sail and KMH have the best online support with dedicated forums and Facebook groups. All the rules have online tutorials to help land lubbers like me learn the rules. The naval arena is poorly served compared to the plethora of excellently produced rules for Napoleonic land battles. This is best illustrated by the lack of templates (movement and gunnery) needed to play the games. Only KMH has commercial templates, so in most cases, homemade solutions are required.

None of the rules has dedicated solo extensions, although the activation system, card or token driven, in Kiss Me Hardy makes solo adaptation easier. Although I have not tried it at this stage in my research, some of the ideas on command in a KMH supplement can be transferred.

Initial Thoughts.

Whilst the rule might be lacking in swish presentation, they make up for it in playability. Most rules are quick to learn that concentrate on the command aspects rather than the details of seamanship. This design approach produces some friendly mechanisms and improves playability. Boardgames Geek scored most rules below 2.50 out of 5.00 on complexity.

Play Testing

My initial thoughts on my read-through and some limited play testing are,

Far Distant Ships (FDS)

Designed for significant naval actions, they are low complexity, quick to learn and have the advantage of no off-table bookkeeping. The rules played like a DBA game, so opposing dice with a handful of modifiers. This led to a fast, easy-to-learn game that captured the problems faced by the age of sail fleet commodore. The advanced rules that include a signal system would undoubtedly add to this impression and the fog of war.
My main criticisms are that the rules would have benefited from detailed examples of some key concepts. Secondly, the carronade fire at close range is lethal, but there is no information on which ships carried them. However, these comments on ship details apply to all the rules I reviewed. The excellent site is the best starting point for most enquiries.

Two free scenarios, Glorious 1st June (1794) and Camperdown (1797) are available. Beyond these two scenarios, the rules currently need more online support.

Fire as She Bears (FASB) 

A Medium-complexity game designed to fight fleet actions. However, it involves off-table bookkeeping, limiting the number of ships that can be handled in solo play. One annoying feature is the rules is that examples are found in a separate download file making referencing awkward. A significant downside is the special basing requirement (octagonal bases) that will limit future options if you are still experimenting.
There is a limited number of scenarios. The Trafalgar extension contains four scenarios, including Cape Ortegal, but I am still looking for other official scenarios. Overall, an excellent rule set for a club where players command a squadron of six to ten ships.

Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) 

Designed for fleet and single-ship engagement, with low complexity but requires off-table bookkeeping. I found KMH more enjoyable with some excellent mechanisms that, when played, would quickly become intuitive. The British and the Americans have the highest quality, the ‘Jolly Jack Tars’, whilst the French forces, ‘Sans Culottes’, are average. Poor Spanish crews get the lowest category, ‘Land Lubbers’. Further customisation can be made using Brian Weatherby's ‘Messing around with Boats’ article in the Lardies’ 2011 Magazine. Generally, the British have better crews, but the French have bigger and better-gunned ships.

However, this customisation comes at a cost, off-the-table record-keeping. Although this is not onerous, it does impact the number of ships a single player handle. Another potential downside is that the initiative is driven by cards, which are unavailable commercially. So, a home production job is required. However, movement templates are available from Warbases or the game’s supporters on Facebook. These templates make movement more straightforward than the other games I examined.

Fighting Sail (FS) 

An Osprey Wargames book, so the best-presented and most straightforward rule I examined. However, they need more feel for the era but are actively supported, and enthusiasts have filled in several of the weakness. Therefore, with some research, you have an easy-to-learn game that covers fleet actions and frigate duels with no bookkeeping. Overall, the rules are streamlined, but for me, they leave some historical flavours behind.

Grand Fleet Actions (GFA)

Aimed at squadron and fleet actions and have a similar feel to FDS. But the detail incorporated in these rules is impressive. However, I found these rules more challenging to learn than FDS. For this reason, I nearly abandoned them, but on the second reading, I decided to keep them on the playtest list. The authors state that you need a squadron of ships to benefit from their rule design, so there are better engagements than Cape Ortegal to do them justice.

Playtesting and Interim Conclusions

The game I set up was a simplified Cape Ortegal, with three 3rd Rates, one 80 guns and two 74 guns per side. The wind, as in the battle, was from the northeast. The simple objective for the French side was to leave the northern edge of a 4’ by 4’ table, which the British had to prevent.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to provide a detailed battle report that will be saved for the refight of the actual engagement. However, the test battles played out similarly, with the French failing to break through the British blockade. In both games, the French lead ship, Duguay, suffered substantial damage, and in Kiss Me Hardy, the French flag, the Formidable, struck her colours. The British ships did not go unscathed and received significant damage to their rigging, which nearly allowed the French squadron to escape.

Which Rules?

In brief, I liked both sets of rules, FDS and KMH. I think KMH are the more evocative of the period, but the recording limits the number of ships a player can handle. Between 8-10 ships, so whilst refighting Cape Ortegal is possible, they would not stretch to more significant engagements, although for clubs with several players aside, this is possible.

I will use KMH for the more minor engagements because of the extra flavour they bring to the gaming experience. FDS has a DBA feel and lends itself to the more significant battles. Then there is the slow burner among the rules I explored, GDA. These rules, like FDS, will come into their own in more significant clashes, so I plan to further playtest FDS and GDA, probably by replaying ‘Calder’s Action’.

Overall, whilst the genre might lack visually appealing rules, it makes up for it with some clever design mechanism that allows replaying the naval battles of the era as a commander rather than getting swamped by sail settings, etc.

Land Lubber

Nelson, Hornblower, Bothilo and Jack Aubrey are historical and fictional heroes from the Age of Sail. An era where a ship's captain took on a romantic demeanour, in many ways like a mediaeval knight, as his vessel ploughed the oceans in search of adventure and glory. Despite the apparent appeal of these heroes, naval wargaming has never achieved the attention of its land-based equivalents. Before starting this project, I had to learn more about this genre and the specialist maritime language.

Naval Gaming - The Learning Barrier

I have made several abortive attempts at naval gaming but have yet to overcome the learning barrier. Recently, Long Face Games' set of naval wargames rules has persuaded me to have another go. I decided on three periods. First, the classic Age of Sail and the nautical heroes it attracted. Second, the ancient period because I have a long-term project on the First Punic War. A conflict where naval engagements were critical to winning the land war. Last is World War II, something entirely outside my comfort zone, but I have recently read some books on the naval conflicts in the Mediterranean. A theatre of warfare I constantly return, whatever the period. However, the rest of this blog is about my entry into the Age of Sail, particularly from 1793-1816.

Scale

The aim was to focus on fleet and squadron actions in the period rather than individual ship actions. I am more interested in the problems of command than seamanship. I also wanted a tabletop game rather than a board game. This brought in the need for scale because my wargames table is 6’ x 4’, and sea battles could roam over miles of ocean. I, therefore, decided on 1:2400 and the range supplied by Magister Militium because of the breadth of its coverage. Tumbling Dice also produces nice ships, but these are larger than the Hallmark and GHQ ships marketed by Magister Militum.

Low Entry Cost

Assembling my starter fleets highlighted one of the advantages of naval wargaming—the low entry costs. The workhorse ship, for fleet actions, the 3rd Rate cost under seven pounds (2023 prices), and my first project to refight the Battle of Cape Ortegal involved eight 3rd Rates and 3 or 4 frigates. A total outlay of under £85 as the terrain was the open ocean, some blue cloth would suffice.

Rules

However, like all my projects, I buy many rule books before venturing into my first game. The rules I checked out were.

Grand Fleet Actions by Andrew Finch and Alan Butler, A & A Game Engineering

Far and Distant Ships by David Manley, Long Face Games

Fighting Sail by Ryan Miller, Osprey Publishing

Fire as She Bears by Phil C Fry, Starboard Tack Press

Kiss Me, Hardy, by Nic Skinner, Two Fat Lardies

This list needs to be completed; several rule sets mentioned in the gaming forums are not included because I wanted to keep to a tight budget.

Reading List

Barry (2017), Far Distant Ships: The Royal Navy and the Blockade of Breast 1793-1815.

Davey (2015), In Nelson's Wake; The Navy and the Napoleonic Wars.

Fremont-Barnes

Knight (2022), Convoys: The British Struggle Against the Napoleonic Empire.

Willis (2008), Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century.

Winfield (2005), The British Warfare in the Age of Sail (1793-1817).

Next Step.

The following blog looks at the rules, yes, more than one set, I plan to use in my refight of Cape Ortegal.

Workbench 2023

This blog is self-indulgent; it is just a list of the projects I hope to complete in 2023. However, it might give the reader inspiration or ideas for their games. Like most wargamers, I have long project lists, which I am always willing to add despite their minimal chances of reaching the table.

My Campaigns

My first group are those projects I started in 2022 and need to continue or complete. Overall, in 2022 I was better at getting games to the table and averaged about two games a month. I also started two campaigns. The first is a Fantastic Battles campaign, using my own campaign rules to fight the 2nd Shadow Wars. In 2023 I need to continue to develop the rules and move to the next campaign year as an Umbarji (Orc) civil war begins to brew. The second is my Pulp Alley campaign, Tomb of the Serpent, which has now moved to Cario as the heroes try to stop the ancient Egyptian god, Apophis. 

Strength & Honour and Lion Rampant

The other two ‘banker’ games are Strength & Honour and Lion Rampant. For the former, 2023 is the year of the phalanx, as I see how the rules deal with these hedgehogs of the ancient world. Initially, the focus was on Rome’s wars against Mithradates, but the aim was to run a 1st Punic War or Hellenistic campaign. Hopefully, Mark Backhouse will have completed his early Roman supplement to the game and coupled with my research; the campaign will be ready to play in 2024. For Lion Rampart, the first objective is to play the last battle of my Feud campaign before moving eastwards to play something from the Early Medieval period, including the twelfth-century Latin East (Outremer).

Two other projects are centred around games that use the Lion Rampart framework. The first employs the ‘The Men Who Would be King’ (TMWWBK) rules, where the idea is to follow the campaigns of Neil’s Blue Caps (The 1st Madras Fusiliers) during the Indian Mutiny/Rebellion. Most of the preparation has been done, so I should be able to play the first game in 2023. The second is to use the 'Xenos Rampant' game to fight an alternative WWII setting, where Dad’s Army takes on Cthulhu-led Third Reich. This is planned for the last quarter of my painting schedule goes to plan.

God’s Scale 2mm.

The next group of projects centres around the 2mm and can be briefly but inaccurately described as Black Powder games. I recently played the Napoleonic corp-level game, Blucher, using card markers, which I found very enjoyable. I am looking at some other divisional/operational rules, and the plan is to play several Peninsula War battles at both the corp (battle) and divisional levels. The first battle on the list is Vimeiro (1808). The second element of the 2mm adventure is the English Civil War and other conflicts from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. I will use the Twilight Rules (Divine Right and the Sun King). The first game will be the Battle of Cheriton (1644), followed by Edgehill (1642). I am also reading about other battles of this era and may try something from the Thirty Years' War or the Great Northern War. One of the Twilight rules is that they are well served with historical battle scenarios.

Naval Wargaming

Naval wargaming is the third main area and a genre often ignored by landlubbers. I plan to use small scales to refight some classic naval actions. The adventure starts with the Age of Sail, with a refight of small engagements after Trafalgar, Cape Ortegal (1805). Ecnomus (256 BCE) will be the ancient venture which will link into my preparations for a1st Punic War or Hellenistic campaign. Last on the list is Cape Matapan (1941) from WWII, a period I have never played before. For each period, the starting point is the rules by Long Face Games.

Workbench

The last area is my workbench, where I have several skirmish games. This range from swashbuckling rules, ‘Flashing Steel’ to the Superhero genre employing Four Color Studios rules. I also want to try out 7TV rules and scenarios because of the excellent narrative element. The last pile on the list is some old Kickstarter board games I need to play or sell. What's familiar about all the games on the workbench, they involve a small number of figures and terrain, which I already have in my collection.
The Brown Book Initiative

Brown Books!

I love to write down ideas and how my thinking on a game develops. This motivates the blog, but I wanted something more spontaneous. So I bought some cheap brown notebooks and labelled them for each project under development. Each book will have my thoughts on the scale, rules, some research and how I plan a game or campaign. These will feed into this blog here, so there is more of a narrative between blogs.
Closing Remarks

Well, it's longer than I thought, and I have bitten off too much, but isn't that what all wargamers do? To this list, I have to add the new shiny rules and figures that appear in 2023, which will distract me in new directions. Already, I heard that the Two Fat Lardies are publishing a western gunslinger skirmish game; now that is a setting I have not tried!

Enjoy your gaming.

God's Own Scale

The arrival of the Strength and Honour ancient rules has led me toward 2mm wargaming, 'God's Own Scale'. You may ask, why bother? Why not play a board game instead? The scale loses much of the grandeur of the larger scales, and you cannot distinguish between the 5th foot and the 38th or identify the various shield designs of an ancient army. Indeed, the scale is probably not for you if you enjoy fielding immaculately painted armies. However, the impact of these blocks can be stunning as you can field armies of 30,000 plus men on a 6-foot by 4’ table.

Armies in a Shoe Box

One of the advantages of the scale is its limited storage requirements. Two armies in a shoe box. This is a godsend for a wargamer like myself who always needs more storage space.

The Other Benefits of 2mm.

That leads nicely into the benefits of 2mm gaming.

The scale allows you to recreate massive, army-sized clashes on a 6 x 4' table. In 28mm, a 6 x 4' table equates to roughly 110 x 75 yards - a snapshot of any battle except a skirmish. In 2mm, a 2 x 4' board works out at about 2 x 4 miles. You can recreate much larger conflicts with much less space. Minor battles, for example, the Napoleonic battle of Vimero (1808), will easily fit on a four-foot square table. Despite 17 divisions potentially being involved.

The regiments marching across these small spaces look like regiments, divisions and corps on the move. One of the changes in painting and modelling at this scale is that you are conscious of the tactical formations employed. Taking an ECW example, you can show a cavalry unit in Swedish and Dutch formation and vary their appearance differently. These alternative designs will probably not impact play, but they make your battlefield look realistic.

Battles are easy to set up and play. The armies are tiny, and a base can represent anything from a Roman legion to a whole Germanic tribe. For later periods, a division or event corp. Therefore most battles can be played with under 24 bases per side. This makes set-up quick, and labels attached to the base help identify the unit and speeds up gameplay.

God's Land

Of course, then there's the terrain. Little terrain is produced for this scale, although some manufacturers now make some buildings. With a few bases of buildings placed side by side, you soon get the impression of a large town or city. See below for some links.

This means that roads, rivers and forests are usually handmade. Forests are just clumps of bath mats, sprayed and placed on a textured base, and they look the part; rivers and roads are just painted strips of card or other cheap basing material. I use self-adhesive floor tiles obtained from pound shops. If you are like me and want to get a game to the table asap, this terrain-making process takes only a little bit of time. Also, because the terrain is cheap and quick to make, you can spend time mimicking the landscape for the battle you are refighting.

Economy Wargaming

Finally, the venture is low-cost. Breaking into a new period in 28mm gaming can be expensive. Irregular Miniatures sell army packs with a staggering quantity of troops (tens of thousands) for £12.50. I recently decided to start an English Civil War campaign (more on that soon), and I fielded two sizable armies for an initial investment of about £30 each.

Current Projects Using God's Scale

I am currently using 2mm on several projects where I want to recreate full scale conflicts or where I want to try a period out without a massive investment in time (painting) and money.

The current projects of the workbench are;

Ancients 

I currently have an imperial Roman army and Gallic/Germanic tribes.  I am now working on phalanx-based armies in anticipation of refighting Rome's expansion into the Greek East.

English Civil War

The objective here is twofold. First, a desire to refight the Sheraton, 1644. Second, test out the Twilight rules for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Period I have in the past ignored. Therefore, this little project could expand into the Thirty Years War or Wars of the Spanish Succession. 

Napoleonic and the Peninsula Campaign.

This is a classic wargaming period, which I have not played for years or decades. I have always been turned off by needing to understand the tactics of the era and the complex painting demands. However, recently reading about these conflicts led to a desire to refight the battles of Wellington's Peninsula Campaign. The 2mm scale has enabled me to build two armies fairly cheaply and quickly. 

Just a Little Bit More

Recently, 3mm has started appearing, and I have seen some fantastic 3mm American Civil War miniatures. At the moment, I am holding off launching yet another project, but they do look good. 

Some Links

Irregular Miniatures - a wide selection of 2mm miniatures, including terrain.

Warbases - 2mm Ancients cast in white metal.

Korhyl Minatures - 2mm Ancients in resin blocks.

Forward March Miniatures - STL files for all periods for 3d Printing.

Magister Militium - for 3mm.

Lastly, a Facebook Group is dedicated to 2mm Wargaming and other small scales.