sails in Nijmegen, Netherlands

Just a quick showing that Sails is also played in The Netherlands :happy:

March 1st, 2020 a Sails of Glory event was held in Nijmegen, organised by Niek of the local Wargames Club "Casus Belli" and (for a very small part by) the Dutch Wing (Wings of Glory).

The theme was the battle between the head of the Lee Column at Trafalgar under Vice Admiral Collingwood versus the 1st Division of the Corps de Bataille of the Combined Fleet under Teniente General (Vice Admiral) Alava.

Eleven people attended and played: Niek (Niek vD, organiser of the day), Marleen Overkamp (who both assisted in creating the SoG game !), Marc, Marcel, Matthieu, Daragh (from Ireland and member of the Eindhoven Militia), Thomas (Hogey62, from Germany), Lex (Opdam), Guus (Aardvark1430), Richard (Mostly Harmless from the Eindhoven Militia) and one other. Alas, Arjan (akrimpen) called in sick.

Great fun was had by all, quite some chaotic situations arose with everybody manoeuvring on piece of playmat not bigger than a square foot ...
Time restraints forbade playing till a final resolution could be called but it was more or less a draw. The Combined fleet losing 4 ships and the Britsh 3 (among which the Royal Sovereign, flagship).

Just a few pictures to give an idea ...

Attachment 48257

Attachment 48258

Attachment 48259

I hope others took pictures as well, if yes I'll upload them here as well ...

cheers,
Guus :salute:

Thanks for that splendid overview of the battle Guus. It is always good to see what our friends outside the UK are doing.
Rob.

Cool, I bet you exchanged a few nice broadsided between the 1st and 3rd rates. :thumbsup:

It kooks like you had some fun there, Guus. :thumbsup:

Nice pictures. I hope you had a lot of fun and will play more games in the future!

Some more pictures ...
Attachment 48305
a training session between Lex, Arjan and Guus

and

pictures of the game (by Richard aka Mostly Harmless of the Eindhoven Militia), thanks Richard !

Attachment 48306

Attachment 48307

Attachment 48308

Attachment 48309

I hope you enjoy them,
Cheers,
Guus :salute:

Excellent pics, looks like a good game, glad you enjoy playing sails.

Very well taken shots of the action Guus.
Also quite a few ships in action.
How many shipmates are playing along with your games now?
I am interested to heare how your local group is progressing.

Rob.

Hi Rob,
I'm afraid there is no local group of Sails as such ...
In Nijmegen (the Sails game) we played with 11 people (planned 12) of whom:
- 9 are Dutch of which 7 are members of "Casus Belli", a Nijmegen based wargame group) one of them also an Anchorage/Aerodrome (Dutch Wing) member, 3 members of the Dutch Wing and Anchorage
- 2 members of the "Eindhoven Militia", 1 of them Dutch, 1 of them Irish,
- 1 German member of the Anchorage/Aerodrome German Wing.
On the flying front we have:
7 more or less regulars of which 1 is Spanish and 1 is Portugese (after his initial stay in the Netherland a foray into Germany and currently living in Belgium).
Since the start of the Dutch Wing (with just three) we have grown over 50%, but to be honest I wouldn't call that progress :sad:

We do however play more often than the reports/pictures on the Anchorage/Aerodrome make it seem ... but not regularly and mostly in small groups of 2-3/4 players.
There are more players in The Netherlands (even on the Aerodrome) but they don't seem to be interested to join a group.

cheers,
Guus :salute:

Well compared with my Nottingham group that sounds pretty vibrant to me Guus.
I have myself and Captain Kiwi, McDorf, and now Captain Smithers when he can get signed in as a member. Mrs Bligh occasionally plays, and that is about it.

Rob.

Some more pictures, taken by Mathieu de Hingh, one of the Casus Belli (the Nijmegen club) participants.

Attachment 48315

The starting position, Royal Sovereign heading for Santa Ana.

Attachment 48316

Attachment 48317

Custom-made ship mat and base for Bellerophon, using the Bellona model. Three ships were out of the box (Tonnant, Royal Sovereign, Santa Ana), did this for the other eight.

The game in progress, more pictures by Mathieu de Hingh.

Attachment 48318

Attachment 48319

Attachment 48320

Attachment 48321

Attachment 48322

Attachment 48323

Attachment 48325

We ended with rather fewer than 11 ships :happy:

Thanks for posting these other great shots Niek. The more of this sort of AAR we get the better.
Rob.

Casus Belli Nijmegen has a rather large RPG contingent, meeting every two weeks or so. At the beginning in 1988, the core was more wargame-oriented, hence the name. Wargames are still being played, but mostly by members at home. We even playtested Sails of Glory. A few times a year we are hosting something bigger. We have an annual Wooden Ships & Iron Men game, with 14 participants last November, and I am aiming at a Wings/Sails event twice a year. We started this last September with Boches over Belgium (May 1940), and now this Sails scenario. Next time's theme is probably WW I WoG.

Some of our core members are active in the Dutch branch of the Megagame Makers. Their next game is Sengoku, a mix between war- and RPG in 16th century Japan, also in Nijmegen on May 16th. They are still looking for some players.

Niek, well done, just what we needed ... more (and better !) pictures...:thumbsup:
REP broadside fired :cannon::cannon:!
And say thanks to Mathieu from me as well :thanks:
cheers,
Guus :salute:

Prachtig spel fotos!

:thumbsup:

Thanks for all the kind words, guys! I will pass them on to Mathieu as well.

Getting the scenario historically correct (as far as can be done) is part of the fun for me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DeRuyter

Prachtig spel fotos!

:thumbsup:

---

ha Eric, het lijkt er op dat je Nederlandse voorouders hebt ...
hi Eri,c it seems you have Dutch ancestors ...
cheers,
Guus :salute:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aardvark1430

ha Eric, het lijkt er op dat je Nederlandse voorouders hebt ...
hi Eri,c it seems you have Dutch ancestors ...
cheers,
Guus :salute:

---

Ja, en ook familie in Den Haag. Een tante, drie neven en hun families.

Ook ik had een oudtante en een neef in Den Haag tot ze enkele jaren geleden overleden.
Ik bracht mijn zomervakantie als tiener door in hun huis aan de Sport Laan.

Sorry for my poor translation.
Rob.

No worries. I am constantly trying to keep up with it here in the US (Spanish would be easy to keep fresh!) Sorry to hear about your relatives passing away.

Thanks Eric.
It was a few years ago now and he was only a couple of years older than I was.
Unfortunately his daughter never kept in touch so we have lost our connection with her.
My great Aunt had married a Dutch Officer between the two World Wars and spent WW2 in occupied Holland.

Rob.