War of Jenkin's Ear - Terrain Update

I finally had a chance to finish off another set of trees over the weekend. I also did finished a rocky outcrop that I had purchased for Infamy, Infamy. Lastly, I got to play with some of the new tufts that I bought from Game craft miniatures. I bought some basing gel from them that was a bit too thick. I had to dilute it with PVA to be able to spread it on the base (used an old Flames of War large base). I tried out a few pieces of the new tufts on this test piece to see if it will work out. I like it so far.

I am not sure which one was done with flash and without. I have new lighting in my game room but I don't think it is really enough. I may have to get some lights to use for pictures.

I had purchased some eBay woodland Indians a couple of weeks ago. I received them and wanted to take some pictures. I threw the figures out on the table to see what they looked like. Again, lighting is inconsistent.

Anyway, it was a productive weekend. I also started to mess with a block of foam for Fort St Simons. I just made a template for cutting it out. I am looking forward to being able to work on it this week sometime. Who knows if that will happen.

Fort St Simons

I want to be able to model Fort St Simons, the shore battery and Delegal's fort for the naval battles that I am planning for the War of Jenkin's Ear. There are French drawings of Fort St Simons that are available. There are also descriptions of the fort available. What is interesting is that the French drawing, while really nice, has a scale measured in Pieds. A quick search on line gave me a measurement of 1 pied equals .324 meters or there about. Using the scale in the drawing I was able to calculate out the dimensions of the fort. to be able to attempt to model it.

I have some foam off cuts that I can try out to make the principle buildings. They were aranged in a rectangle in the center of what appears to be a palisade on top of an earthen mound. The buildings of the fort were made of tabby - a concrete made with seashells.

To better visualize the fort, I am also looking at renderings of the fortifications at Fort Fredrica where some of the structures have been preserved and there are remains to model. The national park service has an excellent book on Fort Fredrica available online (https://www.nps.gov/fofr/learn/historyculture/upload/Fort-at-Frederica-1962-Manucy.pdf).

In looking at the image of the fort, I am trying to figure out where they would mount the guns.

I am not planning on adding guns to the model, I am just curious where they would be placed.The intent is to try an cut some foam out this weekend and see if I can make something reasonable.

WOJE - More Progress

I have done some layout work today. I am also working with a design package - Affinity. I am converting To Covet Glory to it and have uploaded files to WargameVault to do a hardcopy with them. However, it seems like printing from WV will be more expensive than on Amazon. I am not sure why. I need to look and see if I can reduce costs. I assume that because it is full color, that is the issue. I am looking forward to seeing how it comes out. I am debating on the pricing but to get anything out of it in royalties, I will have to charge more. Which is disapointing.

I have submitted it and paid for the proof copy. I should have it from the printer in a week or so.

I had a playtester find a few issues with the To Covet Glory scenarios. Those are now corrected and ship shape. I am planning to rough out some shore batteries and a rough fort for the sea landings. I used to have some foam around that I can piece together for it.

I really need to paint some more ships for this. But I have been far too tired when I get home to do much of anything lately. Maybe I can steal some time away over the weekend.

Oh, I also ordered some really nice turn templates for KMH. When these come in, I will take some pictures.

War of Jenkin's Ear - Random Events

After Mark's recent playtest, I am convinced, I need to update the book with custom Random Events. The best part of their after action report was a random event that came up. Mark used his that he developed for the 2nd Seminole War. A wild Boar charged the Darien Scots who managed to get the pig for dinner. The cover that I put up yesterday was a picture from that random event.

The random events can really add period flavor. The ones in the core rulebook are fantastic. 80% of them apply almost universally. However, not all of them apply to the Southern Colonies in this period. For instance, "Hello Ladies" can work, but most scenarios are in spots where there won't be any ladies for the Big Men to attempt to woo. Several battles are just out in the woods. So I am looking to tweek the lists to have some more appropriate events for the battles.

Thanks to everyone who gave input on the cover. I will go back to the drawing board. I know what I want to try to do. Will see if it works out. The title is now "Colonial Georgia and the War of Jenkin’s Ear: July 1742" with a subtitle of "A Campaign on Land and Sea Utilizing Sharp Practice and Kiss Me Hardy". Hopefully I can clear the table of tree parts and get the cover setup.

War of Jenkin's Ear Update

It is getting closer to the finish line. I have begun work on the cover. I have made an initial stab at it.

This was my first pass at it. When I showed it to some friends, they had some notes. One suggested a completely different cover. She prodived this.

Just curious as to what you think would be a better option?

Woodland Indians

One thing I have been lacking is woodland Indians. I have enough for most scenarios but was a few short for some. So I have been scouring eBay for a while. I just happened to find a group of 11 painted woodland Indians online for a good price. I had a bid out on an entire French and Indian War French army just to pick up the dozen Indians within. Thankfully, I was outbid on that. Good for the seller too as the price went up quite a bit after my bid. But i did come up with a lot of 12 painted indians. They came three to a base on metal bases. They are a bit darker than they were in the ebay photographs. The basing is very different from my basing, but they get me closer to my goal.

The seller had another lot for sale but I had spent my money on STL models for ACW Ships. In all, very happy with the purchase.

Other news, Mark did a game at Gigabytes today. The table looked amazing. Can't wait to hear back from him.

Naval Games

I am relooking at To Covet Glory again. It is a fun game and I have really enjoyed playing it. But I have wanted to play an ACW naval game. The issue is, I know nothing about the naval war during the ACW except the small things taught in High School history class.

So I have been exploring Dawn of Iron rules. These are interesting. They do have an IGOUGO type of turn resolution but that can easily be changed out. I am looking to try out their Hampton Roads game a few times before I go off on my own for some games.

As this is pretty much a new project, I need miniatures. I settled on 1/600th scale minis that I have purchased on Wargaming3d. They have miniature packs that match with the scenario books produced by Dawn of Iron wich is very convienient. The set I bought was for the Hampton Roads supplement and contained 8 ships (both based and unbased versions) and a shore battery for $20. The CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor would work with a filament printer but the others would benefit from a resin printer. The Dawn of Iron has a print and play set that gives you some flat paper minis that you can use. That will likely be the first attempt as I am waiting on my 3d printer to be fixed.

I also found some splash markers on Wargaming3d! I have wanted some of these for naval games. The one I found was free. It was a circle with three splashes on it. I pulled it into TinkerCad and make three separate markers out of it. I mainly intend to use this for Coastal Patrol but I can see using it with this as well.

The company behind Dawn of Iron is Scary Biscuits Studios. They have some fantastic tutorials on their website to really spruce up your naval games. I plan on using some of these in my games in the future. The Water Hazards tutorial looks really interesting. Their method of making woods from 3d printing sprues is just perfect. These would be great for To Covet Glory or Coastal Patrol. Being close to shore makes for more interesting games.

On the painting table is currently trees. Many, many trees. I also want to make some stands of undergrowth. I have bought some plants from Game Craft Miniatures that look pretty good. I am basing these on old large FOW bases. I hope to get some work in on them and move on to my To Covet Glory ships. I need to finish the Galleys for the War of Jenkin's Ear supplement. That should get me close to having everything needed to finish the book.