Kiss Me Hardy for Below the Rate

I have been working on a title for this as I wrap up the text. I have completed the supplement and have moved on to the editing phase. So far the supplement is 91 pages, has fifteen scenarios, a campaign guide and the rule modifications for ships below the rate.

It is designed for small vessels below the rate. But it can be used for frigate actions. That will involve significantly more dice to roll though. You could take this and recreate the action of HMS Speedy (a brig) against the El Gamo (Spanish Xebec Frigate). It can also be used for sailed ships boats with a single light gun mounted in its bows. Once scenario features pilot boats armed with only swivel guns engaging.

What I lacked was a working title. As I posted before, my working title of Small Warriors, stinks. I think I found a title that I like. Using the original rules as a guide, I started surfing the web for Nelson quotes. once I filtered out the quotes from the Simpson's character, I think I stumbled on a winner. My current title contender is To Covet Glory.

This is from the quote by Nelson where he said, "My greatest happiness is to serve my gracious King and Country and I am envious only of glory; for if it be a sin to covet glory I am the most offending soul alive." I found this on: Brainy Quote.

Running out to Deposit Photos, I purchased the rights to a nice image that I am using for my cover. This is what I have come up with.

i am still willing to throw this away for something better, but for the moment, I am happy with it.

Kiss Me Hardy for Below the Rate

I am now at the 90% point with it and am struggling with the title. At the moment, the working title is "Small Warriors: Modifications to Kiss Me Hardy for Ships under the Rate." I don't like it. My next runner up is "Sloops of War: Modifications to Kiss Me Hardy for Ships under the Rate." The subtitle is really not that important to me and can be changed around as needed. But the title is weak right now.

I have a nice image of a schooner sailing for the cover. The same artist that I grabbed for my newest cover for a fiction book I should release early next month. It is not a battle scene but still a nice image. The full image also has another vessel at anchor but I am just using part of it. The license only allows me to sell a limited number of hard copies but that is far more books than all of my scenario sales combined so it should be fine.

I need to select a title before posting an image of the cover.

Kiss Me Hardy for Small Ships

Progress is going on the text so far. I have 14 historical scenarios fleshed out. The one I added at the end seemed like an interesting find. It was an action on March 14th, 1808 between the Danish Brig Lougen and the HM Brig Childers. The Childers was operating in Norwegian waters and had taken the galliot Christina as prize in a harbor. On exiting the harbor, it met up with the Lougen. In a three hour chase, the Lougen ran down the Childers and captured her. The Childers was slightly short of its normal compliment of 80 men having put men into the Christina as a prize crew. The Danish brig, however, had a huge compliment on board at the time with around 160 men instead of her normal compliment of 85.

This was a fun find as it was not the usual British v French or British v American actions that I had been finding. I think it will be a fun action. Edit: In looking back over this for the scenario, the Childers was not captured but was nearly sunk. She had five feet of water in her hold. It is unclear how badly damaged the Danish brig was damaged in the fight.

First Paper Ship - A 12 gun schooner

I managed to complete my first paper ship from Warartisan. It was his lovely 12 gun Schooner. It actually was a bit easier than I anticipated. The sails were trickier than I anticipated and I had to do the jib sails twice before I had it right. What it lacks is rigging. His rigging system is actually simple - or so it seems right now. I have not applied them yet as the only thread I had to make them out of was white and after handing and gluing it, I thought better of it. I really don't want to have to paint it.

Basically, you hang the thread with a weight at the end, then run PVA glue along it and let it dry. Then cut the thread into useful lengths and store until you need it. It is a brilliant idea. I just need to find time to get some black cotton thread.

Anyway, here is my first effort so far. It is good enough to put on the table as is but I think I will add some rigging. Warartisan notes that the rigging adds a significant amount of strength to the model.

Note that the ship has no guns on the deck. He provides cannon that can be put together. However, that seemed too daunting a task for me to attempt and I skipped that step. I would have ended up with every finger glued together. I may try it at some point, just not now.

Better Pictures

Well the last pictures of my Langton fleet were... poor to say the least. I did a bit better this time. I broke out my blue felt and some rocks I have painted up.

For perspective, I also photographed them with some of my Sea Dog Miniatures ships. First up is the six gun Bermuda Sloop.

then I pictured them with the assembled but unpainted 10 gun brigantine.

After taking the picture, I got disappointed in having not finished the Brigantine. So I started work on it today. And managed to finish it even though I was supposed to be working on one of the Warartisan paper ships.

The ships are just about right in scale with one another. The Sea Dog ones have thicker spars than the tiny Langton ones and Don't really have a sail plan for them. But this is due to how Sea Dog expects them to be used. Their philosophy is that whatever sails you place on your model, 90% of the time, they will be wrong for what your ship is actually doing. Also, to represent damage in their game, you simply remove the masts that have been damaged. Having rigging prevents this from happening. Thereby the ships are more representational. But you can still see that the jolly boat would have no issue being placed on davits aboard the brigantine or on the sloop. The launch is for a slightly larger vessel such as their 18 gun brig of war. That is another ship I have that I need to get to work on at some point. Of the remaining 6mm line that Sea Dog has, I have a second Bermuda Sloop (6 guns) and their buccaneer sloop (8 guns). I do not have one of their 8 gun flush deck sloops nor the small boats. I may end up ordering some of the small boats sometime soon.

Speaking of Sea Dog, I am trying to purchase some more 15mm ships from them. Thus far, I have his Buccaneer Sloop and the Tripoli gun boat. I am talking with them about some of their older offerings and may have something in a week or two. More on that later.

But for now, I have enough small ships to get in a couple games of KMH with my adaptions to see how things go.