Sluys terrain pieces

In April, while playing Sluys with Dave, Mark and Joe, we chatted about the table for the game and how I might spice it up.  Let's face it, there was a naval game-never an eye catcher, in a big roadstead with lots of land, and all the pieces were made of felt.  Based on my illustration of the area, in living color in Fighting Techniques of Medieval Warfare (Matthew Bennet, et. al).  The picture shows the land area, the river estuary, headland and island.  In the illustration there are four small villages forest covering the rest of the area.

Bare felt terrain from March.  Lots of open space

I started out by thinking about the villages.  We're talking about the 14th century, and all I could imagine was that each little village probably had a church with a number of houses and other folks living in the surrounding area.  To keep it simple, I decided to make structures out of square wooden dowels available in the craft department at Michael's.  I cut them in a couple of different sizes and shaped their roofs with a Dremel sanding tool.  I painted them a brown and the roofs a yellow brown for thatch.  Each church I made pretty much the same on a much later model-but using my 28mm Miniature Building Authority church as an example.  The structure is longer with a bell tower.  I kept the painting deliberately simple

One of the four villages made with wooden blocks and somewhat shaped Litko bases.

 Trees were a bit more of a challenge.  I had an unopened bag of small tree armatures from Woodland Scenics.  The question was:  what to do with them?  It thought seriously about individual trees mounted on washers for weight.  I thought I'd just be picking up a bunch of trees all through the game.  So, I cut up some sheet styrene for bases, and applied some acrylic modeling paste from Liquitex that was tinted with Ceramcoat spice brown. Then I just squished the trees right into the paste and let dry for a couple of hours.  I wish I had more sheet styrene because I could probably use some more clumps, like twice as many as I have.  Hopefully it will look a bit more than a few clumps of trees.

One of the larger tree bases

Cadzand Island with trees and village.  Yeah, still seems bare to me too.

Sluys Playtest

On Saturday I met with Dave Schueler and Mark and Joe Waddington at Daveshoe's house to try out Sluys.  I decided to play the scenario straight out of the box as it appears in David Manley's Medieval Fleet Battles rules.  I put together some quick sheets and hauled my ships up to West Seattle.

(Note, if you would like a copy of the Medieval Fleet Battles rules, which include the Sluys scenario, David is willing to send a pdf.  Just contact him at dm dot at dot dstl @ btinternet dot com  .)

 I set up the game so the English began within 6" of the French.  I allowed the French to configure their three squadrons in the order they wished explained their positions shifted two inches to right against the shoals of Cadzand island.  This was a historical occurrence that badly tangled the French deployment according to HYW historian, Jonathan Sumption.  It also left a gap for the English to move to and through. I gave the English the option of the cannon ship offered in the scenario and they accepted that. I also provided that the English would always be player A--given they were the attackers, and the French adopted such a defensive stance.

The English have covered the French front and are moving around the French left.  The closest cog, however, has run onto the shoal and will remain stuck there for some time.

Both players found the artillery exchanges were largely useless. Very few hits were made.  The French did well on their command rolls and usually were able to pull their damage.  Missile fire was a bit more successful, but not so much to offset the French close combat bonus.

Another view of the two fleets coming together

The English moved to the French left flank, but had difficulty making progress. With the French close combat superiority, it was challenging to get enough pluses to make a difference.  As turn four rolled around the French unchained their third squadron and moved to the attack. The English were stuck and not much good was happening.  The three galleys, with their superior boarding factors really made a difference, making short work of a trio of medium cogs.  When the Flemish appeared on turn 10, they were immediately confronted by three medium French cogs, and rather than turning the tide against their enemies, the Flemings found themselves fighting for their lives.

Turn seven.  The French third squadron is loose the galleys are beating up on the English flanking force.

At about turn 12 the pizza arrived and we called a halt to the festivities and debriefed the game.  We agreed on some changes and tried those out.  We made it more difficult to pull damage chits and gave the English a +1 boarding factor for this battle.  There were historical justifications for the changes that give the English a bit more of an edge, at least the opportunity to follow up on their missile successes. In the end, as with the historical battle of Sluys, the artillery and distance shooting is nice, but the battle had to be won with the sword. With the French close combat advantage, and the number of their supports that was going to be very difficult. 

 I think everyone had a good time and are anxious for another try.

Sunday Shipyard Review

You can see a dozen large cogs (2 inches long) with their fighting platforms and crenelations in place.  The fighting platforms for the 16 medium sized cogs are also done, though I haven't done anything about the walls.

Well, I'm disappointed.  I really did work hard on the Sluys project today.  I probably put in eight hours, but didn't finish anything.   I really hoped to have the galleys done, and did make considerable progress on the Genoese vessels, but still didn't get them done. I did cut all the fore and aft castles, and installed them on a dozen large cogs. Got a good start on stuff, and I'm positioned to make progress and wrap a lot of items up when I can get some time.  Probably not until Wednesday evening because we're on deadline this week.

Made progress on, but didn't finish the Genoese galleys.  You can see the Grimaldi family arms on the aft awnings.

The Shipyard is open

Blank hulls for large and medium cogs waiting for built up fighting platforms

Today is a critical day for me to get stuff done on the Sluys project.  I really want to wrap this up before Lorri and I shuffle off to La Conner on the 26th and this is a very ugly-looking deadline week. Not only that but they've stolen another hour from me with the move to daylight savings.  At this writing, it's eight o'clock and I'll have to go into work for a couple of hours this morning.  I've probably got nine or so good work hours-no doubt filled with interruptions-but I did try to get my honey-do's done yesterday.  Called my parents, did the grocery shopping, changed my oil.  Missed the Husky baseketball game (blues.) Anyway, the scene is set for a big time hobby work day.  I'll end-of-work-session pictures tonight.

Galleys got their decks and masts painted.  Still need forward superstructures and awnings painted, as well as basing stuff done.

Yesterday I got ready for today but wasted a lot of time.  However, I did finish all the small cogs for the Flemish and French forces at Sluys, did a little bit of painting on the galleys, but most importantly, I shaped all the hulls for the French fleet.  About 30 of those, so no small deal.

An Enfilade Check-up

Enfilade begins on May 27th.  That's 77 days from today.  Seems like a long time, but in project preparation time, not so far away.  That will include three newspaper deadlines, a trip to Anaheim for journalism nationals, a well-deserved spring break rest in La Conner, and countless honey-do's and sleepless nights.

I still have a lot to finish and play test.  The cog project is back in full swing, but there are still nearly 30 to finish.  This weekend I'll fully reopen the Smyth Sluys Shipyard.  There are about 30 hull blanks piled on my painting table that need to be shaped.  If I do that then I'll be in good shape to be working them throughout the week.  The sooner I finish the cogs the sooner I can playtest the scenario.  I'm hoping to maybe do that with Daveshoe and Dean sometime in March.  Gives me an excuse to have Dave down and Dean has expressed an interest and lives nearby.  I can do the land areas in felt for now, but I'll probably do the actual areas in foamboard for the convention. 

The Flemish fleet at Sluys.  Not quite finished.  Still some basing and sails to finish

Genoese and Castilian galleys.  They still have a bit of work to do.  Lots of paint and basing stuff and they'll probably each need sails

I'd like to shape all these hulls this weekend.  There's about 25 of them yet to do, but that's it for the project.

Small cogs for the French fleet.  It will be these guys and the Flemings finished tomorrow for sure.

I still have lots of figures and bits and wagons and stuff for Hobkirk's Hill.  I haven't played Regimental Fire and Fury, though I don't think it could be that difficult.  Spring Break (March 26th-April 3rd) should be enough time to do some practice walk throughs.

The Closing Wilmington scenario really needs some walk throughs.  The land combat portion of the rules definitely lead some work and some play testing.  I also want to be sure I get the right balance of Union Navy and Confederate shore batteries. 

Mediterranean Galleys WIP

One of the ship types I have to produce for my cog project is some 14th century Mediterranean galleys.  The French hired galleys and crews from the Genoese and the Castilians, so it's only right that I have a few in my collection.  Three models are necessary for Sluys, so I made six, hoping might get three usable ones.

Found this picture in Fighting Techiniques of the Medieval World by Matthew Bennett, Kelley DeVries and others.  Single square rigged sail, but I couldn't quite accept the low yard.  Why bother with a strange teeny, tiny sail?

I started with this picture of a 14th century Venetian galley and did the best I could.  I cut 1 1/2"  hulls from 3/8" by 1/8" thickness basswood, and cut the bow into a point.  I added a little forward and aft superstructure and followed up with lots of sanding.  Then I drilled holes for steel wire and voila, we have the unfinished product.  They will look anything but perfect, but I think they'll do.  I'll post the finished product when I'm done

Fairly close up shot.  As you can see, nothing special.

The lot of them definitely look better at a distance.

Cogs: The English Fleet

Edward III's cog Thomas lead's the English fleet to Sluys

Hoo boy,

I've finished my English fleet for the Sluys game.  I haven't talked too much about the rules or the scenario, but it's based on one laid out in David Manley's Medieval Fleet Action Rules.  I don't know if David has plans to publish these, but I've reviewed them and I like them a lot.  In the rules he provides an order of battle for Sluys.  The rules are simple.  There is an artillery fire phase, a missile (arrow) fire phase, and a boarding/hand to hand phase.  All the phases are adjudicated a la DBA, with a fighting factor combined with a die roll.  If your die roll exceeds that of your opponent that's good.  If your die roll doubles that of your opponent, it's very good.

 The scenario calls for 22 English cogs, plus Edward III's flagship Thomas, which can be seen leading the parade.  I painted far more cogs than called for--there are 43 of them out there.  The only thing I want to do is to put together a cannon, so one model can be cannon armed per the scenario.  You can see the large, medium and small sized cogs.

Another view of the English fleet

This is a project I'm really proud of.  My goal was to hand make everything, and I've succeeded.  I'm really not much of a scratchbuilder, as any of my friends can tell you.  The minis are far from perfect, but even so, they work.  My next big challenge is to figure out how to come up with a workable galley, though I have some ideas.

All 43 of my English cogs

 The project is only half completed at this point.  There is a small Flemish fleet with five small cogs, and 28 French fleet.

 The English decisively won Sluys, but it wasn't a walkover.  They fought all day and into the night and the French casualties were horrendous, as you could imagine.  The English cleared the decks with arrow fire and then fought hand to hand, throwing the losers, in armor overboard.  Not a good battle to lose.  However the scenario is very well constructed and poses some real problems for the English to resolve.  My hats off to David.  I've admired his work for years and I really like this scenario. 

Friday night at Enfilade.  Be there or be square.

Block 20 Cogs

This is the next dozen cogs I completed tonight.  The chief difference from the earlier batch is that the fighting platforms are facing in the proper direction.  There are also a couple that are longer.  One got pretty thin which left a little too much overhang on the fighting platforms.  My goal is to create a kind of tubby effect and the long, skinny guy looks like a cog on a diet.

I'm going to do one more batch of cogs, ten or so, including some longer, chubbier ones.  I hope to have them done next week. I've run out of my templates for fighting platforms, so that will take a bit more time.

Cogs: Work in Progress

After reading over David Manley's comments, and taking a look at my 28mm cogs, he is correct, the fighting platforms should be reversed.  Too late for these fellows.  I like to call them my block 10 cogs.  A step beyond my prototype, but with improvements to be made on future models. 

I'll be painting the vessels and gluing the  sails tonight.  I'll have to see if the sails are worth the trouble.  At least the sails should distract the viewer from the silly castle problems.

 Also on the learning curve, the large cogs seem too long and thin at 2" X 3/4".   The small cogs seem too tiny at 1"  Don't quite know whether I should just call a do-over on these or not.  I did cut some larger hulls at 2" X 1" which seem more reasonable.

The video is just kind of silly, a lot of me talking and not showing much in a very useful way I'm afraid.  Yes, my den is very messy-you don't even see the worst of it.  Final update on the block 10 cogs soon. 

The Bug that bites you.

Painting figures and working on projects are hard work.  It takes money, time, dealing with a certain amount of tedium and the mental toughness to persevere a project through to completion.  I don't have all that.  I have to "walk away" from what I'm working on from time to time just keep moving forward on my painting goals--which is always to paint a lot.

 I promised myself no new projects.  I lied. Sort of.  One of the big deterrents to taking on new projects is cost.  I rattled on a couple of weeks ago about cog wars.  I truly believe I've found scratchbuilding, in this case, to be the antidote to the cost of taking on this project.  Deadline also broke my concentration on the AWI unit I was working on, and yesterday, my first day of not not working on the paper  in over a week, imbued me with enough energy to focus my attention on the mass production of English cogs for the Hundred Years War.

 Here is my improved prototype.  I've added a sternpost and a small bowsprit, as well as a crow's nest for the mast top.  The stern post is just a chunk of flat toothpick.  The bowsprit a bit of brass wire, and the crow's nest a simple bead.  Given the scale I think they all work.  The production models will be a bit different.  The forecastle will be smaller at Daveshoe's suggestion.  The mast will be the same height, but the yard will be raised higher and will be thicker-brass wire the same thickness as the bowsprit.  I'm at sea about sails (pun intended.)  I will probably try to determine if it is worth the effort. 

If I can retain some momentum on this I'd like to finish 15ish vessels this week to show off at Drumbeat on the 29th.  Dave and I are hosting at an Airwar C 21 game, and I've agreed to pull my Lewis and Clark project out of the box and host a game using the Brother Against Brother rules.

Scratchbuilding Cogs

What's a cog?  No not those, you've been watching too many episodes of the Jetsons.  Cogs were medieval warships, as ungainly as they sound.  Typically they were the simple clinker built merchant vessels planked over front and rear with raised fighting platforms.  Some were big--120 tons--some were small--30 tons--all were tubs.  Big tubs, small tubs, medium sized tubs.  They were difficult to manage in any kind of weather or rough seas.  It could take months or more simply to cross the English Channel.

In any case, after Lepanto and the acquisition of David Manley's medieval naval rules I've been trying to figure out how to acquire enough cogs to game with.  NavWar makes cogs, but they're NavWar, and without pictures to look at I'm skeptical .  Outpost miniatures makes some really nice looking cogs but at three pounds a pop and 50% shipping (!!!!) it doesn't seem feasible to put together a large fleet. Daveshoe and I were mulling this over yesterday and we discussed sizes and building materials.

Today I went to Michaels while out on my errands and picked up some bass wood. The   I purchased enough to make quite a few hulls and a fair number of castles and set to cutting the wood I'd need.  this is my prototype miniatures.  A simple tubby hull 1 1/2 inches X 3/4 inch X 1/4 inch.  I made the base for the castle 3/4" X 3/8"X 1/8" trapezoid.  I cut 1/4" very thin plasticard and cut crenelations in it to represent.  Plastic pole mast with steel wire yard.  Voila.  It probably took me an hour to make, but it would be very easy to mass produce and make eight in an hour using my Dremel tool. 

Interested in your feedback.  Considering I would like about a hundred of these, do you think they're workable?

Cogs!!

Back when I had a bit more money, er, back when I used credit more freely, I used to to have $40 a month to spend on gaming. I also had an Old Glory Army membership and frequently I'd just deposit my cash there. It meant I could be a bit more adventurous with my miniatures purchase, and by god I was. I picked up a couple of the Merrimac Shipyard cogs.

No self-respecting Hundred Years War miniaturist could possibly have a complete collection o' stuff without cogs. After all, there are all those famous sea battles to fight-ummm, and errrr!!???. Actually there are a few, the most famous being Sluys and 1340, and the battle off Winchelsea in one of those years between 1337-1453. There were also smaller actions of French galleys raiding the English coastline or attacking ships in the wine trade.

In any case my economic realities collided with miniature purchases and I was never able to acquire the hundreds of cogs needed for Sluys, or even the fifty or so for Winchelsea, but I do have two. They are going to serve me well for a game I want to run at Enfilade based on the Black Prince's attack on the suburb of St. Jean outside of Caen in 1346.

So what the heck is a cog? In the 14th and early 15th century sea travel was pretty chancy. Naval engineering had not progressed to the point that vessels could maneuver through a contrary wind. Cogs were bargelike vessels with a single mast and sail and a rudder. They could be 30-300 tons and built as merchantmen to haul cargo between England and the Europe. The were deep enough draft to provide a fairly stable platform in the channel and North Sea, providing the wind was favorable and there was no storm. During wartime, the king basically pressed these cogs into service and nailed large fighting platforms on to the bow and stern to hold archers, men at arms and light artillery.

These two will see service soon.