What's on your workbench for March 2023

[Dobbs]

I love the look of 17th century ships, but appreciate the improvements in technology of the late 18th century ones.

I'm considering following in your wake, Paul and getting some 16/17th century ships.

[ShadowDragon]

Your ships are also coming along well Paul. Any plans to include Dutch ships to the mix?

Rob.

I put the brass-etched ratlines on the Leopard last night. It's starting to look like a proper ship; makes the ones without rigging looked "naked".

I have the 6 Dutch ships done with 1 Dutch fireship in the "unpainted" pile. The focus is on the Commonwealth vs the Royalists; with these 4 done I will have 11 Commonwealth and 9 Royalist to do plus 5 French and another Portuguese (to add to the 3 done). At some point I will need to add some Dutch ships for a proper Anglo-Dutch fight. I do like the look of the Dutch ships as their flag really shows up well.

I love the look of 17th century ships, but appreciate the improvements in technology of the late 18th century ones.

I'm considering following in your wake, Paul and getting some 16/17th century ships.

Thanks for the rep, Dobbs.

The Napoleonic era ships are elegant but there's a charm to the older ones, for sure. The "Mad for War" rules look good. Ship crews have skill levels - lubbers, able and salts. Moves are alternating (i.e., side A moves 1 ship (or a group/squadron) then side B moves a ship (or a group/squadron) until all ships are moved. Tacking is handled abstractly - if a ship heads into the wind, you roll versus the skill level to see if the tack was successful. Also there's some nice things such as a critical hit causing a ship to list with consequences such as guns on the opposite side of the list being too elevated to fire, lower gun deck flooded so half effect on the listing side, etc. There's also rules for galley action - good for Mediterranean fights.