New Scenario for To Covet Glory

I stumbled upon an interesting naval action off the coast of Jekyl and St Simons Islands during the American Revolution. This is right in the same area that the War of Jenkin's Ear naval battles were fought. It is a small scenario of three ships per side. The Rebels have three oared galleys compared to the larger sailing vessels of the Royal Navy.

I have largely finished the scenario and am going to publish it on my PayHip site. Since it is a one off scenario, it will be just $.99.

The British have an advantage in number of guns but face a significant challenge.

The War of Jenkin's Ear supplement is Released!

I have settled on a final cover. The product is released to the PayHip Site. The product includes a history of colonial Georgia and the War of Jenkin's Ear in the colony. It has some rule modifications for To Covet Glory and some adidtional rules for Sharp Practice to complete the scenarios. It includes ships stats for a number of additional vessels and an All At Sea campaign modeled after the Rich's article from the 2013 Christmas Special.

The historical scenarios include five scenarios modeling actual and hypothetical actions before the Spanish invasion. These include four for Sharp Practice and one for Kiss Me Hardy. There are nine scenarios covering the Spanish invasion of Georgia. These are divided into four Sharp Practice scenarios and five scenarios for Kiss Me Hardy.

In addition, there is an outline for a campaign dealing with the Spanish invasion of the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1741. Some suggestions for additional scenarios from the time period, and instructions for assembling the Scout Boats, Piraguas, Fusta, Galliot and Galley 3d models.

I would like to point out that this would not have been possible at all without the help of many people. Rich and Nick at TooFatLardies have created some exquisite rulesets that provide toolboxes to create with. Jonathan Jones who playtested the Kiss Me Hardy scenarios and provided pictures of their fantastic miniatures. Mark Luther for testing out my Sharp Practice scenarios and also sent in pictures of his fantastic terrain and miniatures. I really wanted to use his picture of a wild pig attack against the Georgia Highlanders. Tom Davis and Brian English encouraged me throughout the two plus years to work on this.

Click the picture of the cover below to go to the webstore.

It is also available on Wargame Vault.

A print version will be made available through Amazon by next year.

War of Jenkin's Ear - Approaching the Finish Line

After working on this for so very long, I think I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. In doing my research for this, I came across this and have since lost the source for it. To the creator, I'm sorry I have not given you credit. But you produced a meme that made me laugh.

At this point, the book is 138 pages and included linked scenarios for Sharp Practice and Kiss Me Hardy using the To Covet Glory modifications. There is a bonus campaign for the War of Jenkin's Ear in North Carolina. There are suggestions for how to do a combined arms campaign of your own modeled after the Spanish Invasion of Georgia. Lastly, it will include the STL files the I created for the vessels in this campaign. These include a Fusta, a Galliot, a Galley, a South Carolina Scout Boat and a Piragua.

I am still trying to sort out a cover. This is my current attempt.

Edit: This is a followup attempt that I like better.

I will look for other alternatives but for now, this is what I have.

War of Jenkin's Ear Update!

Had a good day editing. I have it narrowed down to just six images left for the final product. For that, I have the fort painted and ready. I need to paint up a shore battery that I already have. In all, this is the closest I have been to releasing this.

Of course I got distracted. I found a scenario that I just had to work on. As it turns out, there was a naval battle during the American Revolution that occured right in the area that the War of Jenkin's ear book takes place. It will make a nice smallish scenario for To Covet Glory with three vessels per side.

That will be released soon as well but may be absorbed into a campaign that I have wanted to do for a long time around the Third Invasion of British East Florida cullminating in the Battle of Alligator Creek. Stay tuned for more on that later.

Annual Birthday Scenario Sale and Updates

It is that time of year again. I am running a sale on everything on my webstore for 52% off. Since it is my birthday sale, you can guess how I came up with the amount. The code needed for the payhip store is UPVXRW29HN.

https://payhip.com/ChrisStoesen

Please swing by and see if there is anything you are interested in.

War of Jenkin's Ear

I was trying to hold off until I finished up the War of Jenkin's Ear book but that doesn't seem to be happening quickly enough. But a quick update. i painted up a fort. It is an earthen four cornered star fort with some wicker bastions on top in 1/300th scale. It is roughly the same size and the historical counter part for the scenario. It will do the jon. I am adding some naval guns to it and will call it done. The base coat probably could have been more of a sandy color but I am just going to run with it. The sale ends on November 7th because I started it late.

ACW NAval

My ACW Naval project is coming along faster than it probably should be. I have most of the ships printed and base coated for the Battle of Hampton Roads (both days). I have a few ships painted up already. But I bought prints from XPForge on Etsy of ships that I have STLs for but lack a good enough printer to print myself yet. One of which is the USS Minnesota. I am interested in seeing how it comes out. I have the cards printed for Dawn of Iron. I might be able to get in a test game soon.

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.

Reading and other distractions

Things have slowed on the hobby front. Scouting events have taken most of my free time. With my son now in the Order of the Arrow, there are more events than ever. I wouldn't trade it for anything. My back may disagree after that last campout.

I started work on another paper building. This time it is the Brooklyn Hotel from the White Wash City line again. I made a mistake and didn't print out the roof. I corrected that but lacked the time to cut it out and glue it to the building. The main drawback of doing these buildings in paper at 15mm (1/100th scale) is the stove pipes. Rolling the paper ends up a mess and I am never able to get the angle cut correctly to glue it to the roof. As such, I am gathering plastic coffee stirrers. The ones that look like small straws. This should give me roughly the correct size. This still leaves the cone on top of the pipe. I haven't solved that yet and may just ignore it.

Trees are still a priority to wrap up the War of Jenkin's Ear book. I have some bases ready and tree trunks preped for foliage. I just need to make the time to work on them. Hopefully, that will happen this week. Once the current batch is completed, I will reevaluate how many more I will need. I am running into storage issues for the current ones that I have made. If I have enough coverage, I will push forward with the scenarios to wrap up the book.

Quick Update

War of Jenkin's Ear Terrain

I completed another stand of Pine trees. This one had three tall pines on it. I have the basing done on another smaller pine group that will have 4 shorter pines. I still need to cut down and flock the trees. I also did the basing on a larger section of deciduous trees that will hold six or seven trees. I have the trees based and the trunks dealt with. I still need to do the upper portions of the trees and flock the bases. If all goes well, that can be wrapped up in a couple of hours.

What a Cowboy

I did have some additional hobby time and worked on getting some more paper buildings completed for What a Cowboy. I did a two story doctor's office and two houses from Eric Hotz's Whitewash City sets. I had considerable trouble with the chimney's in 15mm. They are very tiny. Also the pipes for the stoves were difficult. I ended up finding a paper Q-Tip length that I cut to size. I need to paint them to finish these off. There are a sidewalk set that comes with one of the collections from DriveThruRPG that I had purchased and made as well. They really add to the look. I am looking to build a few more houses, a ranch and some fences to complete the town that I have started. For a quick and cheap western town, these can't be beat. If I really wanted to put in the time, they could easily be as nice as some of the MDF terrain that is out there.

WOJE Playtests

I was able to do some work on my game room to get organized. I installed some sliding shelves in a couple of cabinets. I have added a folding table to the painting area. All good changes but nothing that moved me closer to completing the WOJE book. But I was able to set up a couple of tests.

First I did some small scale actions with the Scout Boats. I have a scenario that honestly can be run with either To Covet Glory or Sharp Practice. Spain's Indian allies have stolen a scout boat. They are escorting it with a couple of war canoes. The Georgian's are in hot pursuit with a pair of scout boats. I was playing around with it and noticed that the plastic sheet that I use gave a slight reflective surface when placed over the blue felt that I use for naval games. I place some small sand colored circles under the plastic for sand bars. Then can place other terrain on top of that to show the shore line extended under the surf. This led to a fun picture.

I had trouble with the river I created. I made a thin plastic river that I painted the underside of. I was pretty happy with the results but put the river in storage. While in storage, the paint stuck to itself and peeled away from the sheet. I had to throw it away. Was very disapointed. I had a home made ground sheet that I was curring up to use for various things. i cut a large section out of it for my new wide river. It looks OK but I may get some more plastic sheet and try to adhear it to the cut ground cloth to get the look I want. Who knows if that will work or look right. But to my colorblind eyes, it looks OK for now. Would love to get some comments on it.

I will be running a scenario with my son on this table soon. Hopefully it will go off well.

"Walking" the Battlefields of the War of Jenkins' Ear

Last week, I got to go on a family vacation. My son had a Scout trip to Jekyll Island to do some beach fishing.

By the way, if you are feeling generous, please support my son by buying some Boy Scout popcorn (https://www.trails-end.com/store/scout/8DBE0ZRW?share=3S3LB9KZ). He is raising money for next year's summer camp. He just earned his First Class rank and I am very proud of him.

Siezing the moment, I steered some of the activities over the weekend. We did a fishing charter from St Simmons Island. This had a cruise past several important sites for the WOJE. I managed to see the site for Bloody Marsh (slightly underwhelming) and saw Horton's House. I am going to display some things out of order from how I experienced them, but relevant to the narative of the War.

Fort St Simmons, Delegal's Fort and the Shore Battery

From Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island, you can see the former location of Fort St Simmons and Delegal's fort.

The view of southern St Simmons is rather blurry. In the picture below, Delegal's Fort would have been to the right and Fort St Simmons would have been somewhere near the center and the shore battery between the two. Taking a zoomed in picture in high wind, rarely produces great results.

Nothing remains of these three sites on the island. Their position on the island left them vulnerable to weather and erosion. As such, they are lost to time.

Gascoigne Bluff

The bluff is a small rise near the shoreline. The depth of the salt marsh near the bluff is much smaller than in other places near by. It was a suitable landing site that the British established the bluff as a naval base for the colony of Georgia. Captain Gascoigne of the British Sloop of War Hawk build the base in 1736. Given its suitability as a landing ground, the Spanish choose to land here unopposed after bypassing Fort St Simmons and the other forts on the south side of the island in 1742.

This is a view of the bluff from a Dolphin/Eco tour that the scouts took. The fishing pier in the picture is where we meet our guide for the fishing trip we took. It is possible that a dock of some sort may have been present in 1742.

From the fishing pier, this is a view to the north towards Fort Fredrica. The salt reeds that give the islands name "the Golden Isles" is visible here.

This is another view from further out on the pier. It gives a better idea of how deep the salt marsh extends from the islands. During low tide, the marsh is "dry" and the ground is waist deep mud.

When the Spanish did an investigatory probe up towards Fort Fredrica, they would have sailed from the bluff north along the Mackay River towards Fort Fredrica. In the morning, a thick fog hung over the river. It is only 200 yards from St Simmons across the Mackay River to the mainland. The Spanish Galleys would have had to navigate this shallow river to reach their destination only to be driven back by the fort's guns.

Gascoinge Bluff was also the location that in 1794, the live oak timbers were cut and shipped north to become part of the frigate USS Constitution.

Bloody Marsh Battlefield

The battlefield is a tiny park that is currently surrounded by subdivisions. The field is a small opening in the woods that is bordered to the east by a large marsh. At the time a road ran from Fort St Simmons to the northeast to the battlefield and angled north towards Fort Fredrica. The Georgia troops that ambushed the resting Spanish troops from would have been to the north and west of the opening. Pinned against the marsh, the Spanish troops only would have have the road to retreat down. The pictures make the clearing appear larger than it is. There is parking for about seven vehicles and enough room to turn around and head out of the tiny park. That the park stands at all is likely an accident of needing a minimum amount of greenspace for the surrounding communities.

Jekyll Island and Major Horton's House

Jekyll Island was vital to the overall defensive strategy of Georgia. Nothing remains of the northern fort on the island. It was captured without resistance by the Spanish during their withdrawl from St Simmons. What does remain is Major Horton's house. This is the second itteration of the house. The first wooden structure was burned by the retreating Spanish in 1742. The current residence is the rebuilt farmhouse that was completed in 1743. The structure is two stories tall and built of tabby. Tabby is a strong concrete like material made from oyster shells. Many of these shells came from the discarded oyster shells left in large mounds by the native Americans that had lived on Jekyll prior to the arrival of the Spanish in Georgia. The material is very strong as is in surprisingly great shape after enduring several hurricanes in its over 250 years of existance.

Part of the military significance of the Horton home was that his plantation was manned by indentured servants who worked the property. Among their jobs was to operate the brewery that supplied Fort Fredrica. The loss of the brewery was probably a devestating loss to the British defenders.

Views of the Islands

The Georgia Barrier Islands are beautiful. They are known as the Golden Isles due to the salt marsh reeds that surround their landward sides. They have picturesque sand dunes, marshes, wooded swamps and woods. Many of the trees are shallow rooted live oaks. They are very pretty trees that are draped in Spanish moss.

It was a great trip. I want to go again and take the time to visit Fort Fredrica. There isn't a marked site for the battle of Gully Hole Creek that occured earlier in the same day as Bloody Marsh. It was a great vacation and it has gotten me excited to finish work on the supplement.

A few Steps forward

Today has had mixed results. I managed to get several sails attached to the first of three 10 gun Brigs that I need for the War of Jenkin's Ear book. This just proved to be far more time consuming than I remember it being. I really should do rigging on it but I honestly am too tired today.I need enough rigging to run the headsails and will probably stop at that. Especially as I have not done and glue hardened thread for it.

I have worked on some of the Galliots that I need. I have glued the halves together of two of the ones that I need. I need to add the front awning to them and the additional three Fustas that I had printed. What was fun to work on was a small feluca. It is a tiny boat compared to the 10 gun brig. It is hardly more than a sailed rowboat. I picked up the model on-line and had a friend print it for me. I have one more to complete. I have two more hulls after that but no sails for them. Not sure what I will use them for. I removed the supports from a pair of scout boats in 15mm. I attempted to remove the supports from 4 different piraguas that I had printed but in each case, the vessel split in half as I cut away the supports. That was disapointing.

There is still much to do. I need to build two more of the War Artisan 10 gun Brigs. They are great boats when built. They just really benefit from the added strength of rigging them. But that is a very fiddly task.

I still haven't worked on any more tree sections, but I got a package in the mail today that I think will be some trees that I bought. Here is hoping they are useful.

Forest Section Complete?

My first 12" x 12" forest section is complete. Taking advantage of a momentarily empty house last night, I set to work with my newly acquired Elmers Spray glue and set to work. I am nearly happy with it. The tree trunks need to by drybrushed but I worry that there isn't enough texture to make it worth it. The tops of the trees did not come out how I wanted them to. I will have to figure something out to correct them. Maybe some clump foliage on top or something. In general, the piece is enough of a success to try again. I would like 2 more 12 x 12 sections. But this will go through two and a half bags of my trees. There are 12 total trees on the base. I may move on to 6" x 12" pieces instead and try three of those. Then some 6" x 6" ones and some 6" x 3" with some variations in shapes. The terrain for the War of Jenkin's Ear is rather tree heavy and I want the table to feel like it is largely wooded.

Swampland is another feature of the area. I have two types of swampy terrain. I have felt mats that are covered in spackle and painted with splashes of Woodland Scenics water product on them. They look OK but have the advantage of being able to put trees and other terrain on top of them. Which should help. The other pieces I have are 3d printed swamp sections with pools of water on them. Of these, I have 2 6" x 6" sections and several more smaller sections. I can spread these about with some sproadic trees about to give the feel of the swamp land that I am looking for. The mat probably better defines the area of the swamp but the other pieces look better. All of this can be used in other periods or places. For example, the Eastern Front of WWII. Plenty of woods and swamps there. Also there are TFL supplements for the AWI that can make use of these as well.

The piece that I keep putting off is the large River. I will try to work on that Saturday. I know what my honey-do list consists of and have the timing for when I need to run out and about. This allow me some time early in the morning to knock out some terrain before the family wakes up. We will see what actually happens.

WOJE Part 182

It feels like this project never ends. I have started flocking the tree tops for the tall pine section. So far, it looks pretty good. I am sort of following what Luke Towand (sp?) posted on his blog. I have 2 colors of flock to use. The problem is, I don't have a proper spray glue. I am concerned that what I have is going to fall off. I need to head to the Home Depot at lunch and take care of that little detail.

If possible, I will get pictures of where I am with this on Saturday. If the thing turns out OK, I will make at least one more of the large sections and then several smaller pieces. The thought is to have several 6" x 6", some 6" x 3" and a couple of 3" x 3" section of tall pines. I may not have enough trees to pull all of this off. I am using 1/4" plywood for the base as I have a sheet of it in the garage that is more than enough for my plans.

What I will do different next time is to spend more time sanding the edges of the base. I really was lazy with this effort and the result is poorer for it. I can throw some clump foliage next to it to help it blend in better on the table. The results thus far seem acceptable. For the base, I just need to dry brush the tree trunks for the first piece to be finished off.

I have primed a 15mm Piragua and a Scout boat. I plan on equipping the scout boat with a pair of swivell guns and will be rigging it. I don't have crew for these ships yet, but I am not convinced that they need it. I will probably change my mind at some point. The Piragua will be unarmed. I will likely rig it as well. Both will have 2 masts and fore and aft rigging. I will be testing out the rigging instructions that I included in the WOJE book. I'll update with pictures when done.

What is missing? At this point, I think I have enough terrain done or nearly done. I have a river to make. I will be using a plastic sheet that is painted on the underside for the river. it will be over a foot wide and over four feet long. This should be plenty of river for a Scout Boat to navigate. I am keen to get this scenario on the table as it has captured my imagination. I will start laying out the tables with more than the painters tape that I use for play tests. With any luck, I could be running a game or two soon.

Hopefully will have a better update over the weekend.

Forward Movement WOJE

I managed another swamp section and a canoe. The canoes that I have are from the Blue Moon pack Indians in Long Canoes. The term long is relatively misleading. They can hold up to 5 Indians that come with the pack. Four rowers and a musket armed indian per canoe. Two canoes in the pack. I am happy with the miniatures but really need larger canoes that hold more.

I have made great progress on the test forest section that I am working on. It is a section that is 12" x 12" in size. The base is ready for painting now. The tree trunks need a dry brushing as well. The tree tops are the question at the moment. I am unsure if they will work. What I can't find is my can of 3m Spray Adhesive. It is eluding me. I know it is here in the house, just not sure where.

This is where I am at the moment with the forest section. Plenty of painting to do. The tree tops need to be flocked. I have primed it since then. I need to make several more sections.

I will be working on a 15mm Scout Boats and a piragua. Also have the other canoe to paint. Might get this done this week. Who knows?

Quick Edit, finished painting the basing of the forest. What shows is I am terrible at Drybrushing. Completely terrible.

Fort Bastion and Miniatures

Finished the principle painting on the corner bastion. It is from Blue Moon Manufacturing. It was assembled 2 years ago and languished in my cabinet till today. I will still flock it but it is just about table ready.

In addition, I have finished up seven more Indians. They need to be based still. Lastly, I painted up three spanish officers. One for the Regulars and two for the grenadiers.

The last item was a swamp base that I started. I will need to add water and

New Prints for To Covet Glory - WOJE

I just got back some new prints from a resin printer. They came out very nicely. I have some 1/300th Fusta models and some 1/100th Scout Boat and Piragua models. These are so much cleaner than my filament printer. The revised sculpts of the Fusta model came out great. The benches are fixed and the line where I had cut and rejoined the original Galley model are barely noticable. The Fusta without the stern canopy is without a cannon in front. Not sure how I missed that. No idea why it is that way. Surely a mental collapse on my part.

If you notice the prints of the Scout Boat and the Piraguas are bent. In pulling these from the printer, they bent. This is because the models are very thin. They lack the heavier bottom of the Fusta model. I think I can heat them up with a hair dryer or with hot water and get them straightened out. These pictured are the larger 1/100th scale models. The smaller 1/300th had the same isssue. However, the first batch did not. It could be due to the care with which they were removed. Since I don't have that printer, I don't know the answer to that.

All in all, I am very happy with these. I am close to having all that I need for the scenarios. Next step is painting them.

WOJE Sprint to the Finish Line

Actually made progress on miniatures yesterday. Started on the basing for my Spanish Grenadiers, Scot Big Men and one group of 8 Scots. I got distracted and finished the basing on a group of 10 AWI militia as well. Oh, and two movement trays. This leaves 1 group of 8 Scots left to get the base material on. I am using some generic tupperware that I found keeps the caulk/Sand/paint mixture from drying out so I don't waste a bunch of it when I can only devote a few minutes to this on a given day. Once I finish these last Scots and a few more movement trays, I can start drybrushing and flocking the bases and movement trays. In my head, this should go quick. Reality tends to overcome my estimates.

No pictures today as I only took one and it wasn't very good.

To Do:
1) Prime 4 wall sections and corner fort bastion.

2) Paint above.

3) Assemble trees. (OK, a bit of expanded note here. I bought the coconut basket liner that I read about on the boulder creek website (Luke Towan: https://www.bouldercreekrailroad.com/blog/not-a-furnace-filter-pine-tree). Home Depot didn't have it in stock and they are shipping it to me. Being someone of no patience, I ran over to Hobby Lobby. They didn't have it either. But they had this pillow material that was layered synthetic something. I decided to give it a try. I have cut sections for one tree and put it on a skewer. It needs to be glued and primed still but I have hope.)

4) Base Trees - Need to buy something to base them on. May require another home depot trip.

I think that should to it.