Miniature Naval Battles

Upcoming Articles in February

This month we are going to take a side-quest into Naval Battle rules, starting with a boardgame and then taking a look at three miniatures rulesets.

The first naval battle wargame I ever played was my uncle’s copy of a game called Broadside, a Milton-Bradley American Heritage game. My little sister an I used to while away rainy afternoons at our grandparents’ house, digging out old boardgames that belonged to our uncles.

She didn’t like Stratego, or Feudal, or Hit the Beach, but she would assent to a game or two of Broadside. Over the past year I’ve been seeking out used copies of these old games, and playing them again.

Check out Civil War here:

I played a solo version of Broadside, too, which was not really as fun or exciting, as the basic rules don’t lend themselves to solo play.

One of the things we will work on this month is a way to make this game more fun for solo play using a card draw system. We will take a look at three other rule systems and cannibalize the best parts for a Naval Supplement to the Basic Massed Combat System!

Let’s take your Fantastic Miniatures Wargame Campaign to the next level!

Featherstone’s Naval Wargames

I’m making some flats to use for playing a couple of games using rules for Ancients ship battles in Don Featherstone’s book.

Don’t Give Up the Ship

The classic game from Gary Gygax! We will take a look at the rules, how it plays, and what effect it may have had on the ship combat rules in AD&D.

Portable Naval Wargames

Bob Cordery has contributed to the world of naval battles with an outstanding re-purposing of his grid-based combat system, The Portable Wargame.