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.