Island Natives from Firelock Games

Island natives are must when playing adventurous pirate games in the Caribbean. My buddy Jens got some island natives from Firelock Games to form a "crew" of their own.

Firelock Games released their Island Natives as part of their No Peace Beyond the Line kickstarter campaign last year. The minis arrived some time around April this year and Jens sent them to Poland based painting service Den of Imagination to have them painted. As you can see, the results are rather nice:

Vauban Fort from More Terrain

When it comes to pirate settings Vauban Forts are greatly iconic "buildings". I have been wanting to add such a mighty fortification to my collection of terrain pieces for years. In this post I take a closer look at my recent acquisition: the Vauban Fort from More Terrain.

Dogs Ahoy Pirate Campaign 2019

This week we had our half-yearly pirate campaign. At 5 and a half days it has been the longest yet and also one of the most productive ones. Here's a brief summary with some photos.

Days 1-2: In the Town

The first two days saw our crews fighting it out in the town. This is our usual start to allow for collecting treasures to purchase weapons and equipment, hire new crew members (such as the highly popular surgeon and scholar) and - of course - earning experience to improve the characters' skills and earn new abilities.

Legends of the High Seas Resources

Legends of the High Seas cover

Just a short update: After a recent request I have just uploaded some old resources for Legends of the High Seas to the LotHS section of the blog:

• Crew reference sheet
• Random Happenings
• Scenario: Mine, All Mine!
• Scenario: Dock Raid

Anyone of you still playing this great classic skirmish pirate game?

Battery by Slug Industries

In this post I take a look at the battery terrain piece which was produced by Slug Industries as part of a kickstarter project for their Spanish Fort.

In my recent review of the 28mm Spanish Fort I already mentioned that I also got the battery piece that was funded via the kickstarter project. The battery is a solid piece of resin. Aside from the main piece there is a planking piece, similar to the one that was provided with the Spanish Fort, and an MDF kit for a ladder - again, same as with the fort. So, beside filing off a few sharp edges and assembling the ladder, there is no further assembly required.

The battery, the planking (right) and the ladder kit (bottom right)

Pirates of Treasure Island

In August this year, there was a kickstarter campaign for releasing a range of 28mm pirates of Treasure Island. I'm not only going to say that these are really nice miniatures. But I have also been waiting for almost ten years for them to be released.

Mr. O'Brien from the
Pirates of Treasure Island range

It was back in December 2008 when I first blogged about this range of pirates. At the time, Legends of the High Seas was slowing growing to become my skirmish game of choice after having played Mordheim for many many years. Wargames Foundry and Black Scorpion Miniatures were the pirate manufacturers of the time.

Through a Polish forum I got to know sculptor Flis Wojtek, who had been working for Black Tree Design and Warlord Games. He had shared photos of greens of a lot of characterful pirate miniatures that were supposed to be released through Black Hat Miniatures. However, that never happened, until ...

Spanish Fort by Slug Industries

The Spanish Fort by Slug Industries is a terrain piece modeled after the actual Fort Matanzas and successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. In this article I take a closer look at the model and present my painted version as well as some gaming ideas for the fort.

Longboats from Games of War and Firelock Games

In this blog post I take a look at the longboats from Games of War and Firelock Games.

Longboats from Games of War

As I had already bought some of the other boats (tenders and jolly boats) from Games of War as well as their bigger ships (such as the Cutter) I knew what to expect in terms of quality and detail. To my mind, their boats and ships are unmatched when it comes to the lightweight resin and the high level of detail and textures. Painting up the three longboats was easy and straightforward.

Three longboats from Games of War

Walls from Empress Miniatures

To complement my Caribbean pirate town I recently painted up a set of walls that I ordered together with the Spanish Church from Empress Miniatures.

Simple walls like these can be used in a variety of settings. With the pantile roof of the gateway these walls fit nicely into a Caribbean piratical setting. Empress offers all the various sections and posts individually so you can order the pieces that best suit your specific needs. I went for nine wall sections, four corner posts and four intermediate posts.

British Unrated Cutter from Games of War

The British Unrated Cutter "Fly" 1763 from Games of War is the latest addition to my shipyard. In this blog post I describe the painting and building process of the vessel, its sails and other accessories.

Spanish Style Church from Empress Miniatures

No village is complete without a church. To complement my Caribbean pirate buildings I got the Spanish style church from Empress Miniatures.



I had been tempted to buy the Church from Empress Miniatures for quite some time. Then, while I was painting the pirate buildings from Games of War, I decided that those few houses would not be enough to form the nice little pirate settlement that I had in mind. The church would be the perfect addition to the lot.

Spanish Pirate Buildings from Games of War

A pirate gaming table for the Caribbean is made up of more than jungle and a beach. Interesting games require buildings so I got me some Spanish-style pirate buildings for my Caribbean pirate table.

Captain Blackbeard raids a Caribbean town

Aquarium Decoration Jungle Ruins

Decor Brick Gate from
Europet Bernina (234-105382)

In preparation of some upcoming pirate gaming on tropical treasure islands I purchased a few aquarium decoration pieces to enhance my jungle gaming board.

I bought the first aquarium deco piece years ago when I first started pirate gaming: the Decor Brick Gate from Europet Bernina (234-105382).  I saw this item and a few others put to great use as 28mm scale terrain on the old website of Alex Bews (aka Witchhunter, which is sadly no longer online). For the base of my jungle board I got myself the beautiful 4x6 Beach wargaming mat from Deep-Cut Studio and now I need terrain to fill it. So aside from some jungle terrain sections I dediced to get some more aquarium terrain. Here it is!

Civilian Figures for Pirate Games

In this post I collect civilians and other miniatures that are great additions for wargames in a 17th/18th century pirate setting.

When I first started pirate gaming in 2008 I compiled a list of manufacturers of pirate miniatures which I still keep updated to this day. In order to properly flesh out your games, however, you will want more than scurvy sea dogs: From all sorts of civilians such as farmers, noble ladies and children, to dock workers to slaves there are lots of miniatures that can enhance your games. The list below contains miniatures from various manufacturers and ranges that are suitable for pirate games during the 17th and 18th century.

Pirates at the Port of Gierburg

After finishing the basic section of the Port of Gierburg gaming board, I thought it would be a good opportunity to set up a little diorama on the new board. It is also a good opportunity to finally present my pirate crew painted by Simon Bradley a bit earlier this year. The crew is led by infamous Captain Blackbeard and used for my pirates game Dogs Ahoy. Enjoy!

Blackbeard's crew terrorizes the port

Weather Dice

Recently I ordered a couple of different dice. Among them was a set of six-sided 16mm Weather Dice, which I mostly bought out of curiosity. Now let's see what we can do with them.

Once I held these dice in my hands and rolled them for a few times I immediately felt the urge to come up with a way to put them to actual good use. With all the pirate gaming there must be uses for them!

Here is a table with the six different weather outcomes and some game system agnostic effects. The idea is to always roll two weather dice and apply both results. However, the sun will result in overall good weather, negating the other dice's effect. The "cloudy" symbol represents a simple "no effect".

	Sun The sun is shining and the weather is fine. Dot not apply any other weather effects from the other dice.
	Clouds The weather is slightly cloudy but still fine overall. No further effects.
	Wind Wind is blowing, making it difficult to aim with ranged weapons.
	Rain It is raining. Blackpowder weapons may not function and need to be reloaded.
	Thunder A thunder strikes a random target on the board.
	Snow Snow is falling, decreasing sight and limiting the models' movement.

For a properly piratical weather table I would probably change "Rain" to "Heavy Rain" and "Snow" to "Light Rain". This is where things really depend on the specific setting and system at hand.

What do you think?

Small Ships from Games of War

I recently posted about Games of War's ship's boats the Tender and Jolly Boat. The next biggest vessels are the small ships called Sea Dog. Currently there are two versions of the Sea Dog available: a "normal" version (GOW-PS002) - which I will refer to as "SD1" for the rest of this article - and an alternate version (GOW-PS007) which comes with an extended mast and sail configuration consisting of pre cut plastic parts and wood beams (and which I will call "SD2").

Pirates on jolly boats attack the crew of a Sea Dog

The model of the Sea Dog was completely redone a few years ago (I guess sometime in 2011). I bought the original version of the Sea Dog in 2009 and painted it for my Chinese pirates. The original model was a bit simpler than the current one. The most notable difference is the rear of the ship as the current version is highly decorated.

The original Sea Dog (left) next to the new Sea Dog (2)

The original Sea Dog (left) next to the new Sea Dog (2)

I have always been very happy with the original Sea Dog model. For a very low price you get a high quality resin model.

The small monkey sitting on the yard is from Black Scorpion's accessory sprue (currently unavailable).

The little monkey from Black Scorpion's accessory sprue

The new Sea Dog (SD1 & SD2) however, is even better - especially the extended variant, which comes with a big mast configuration, a bowsprit, a tiller and a highly decorated backside.

I added further details using the anchor from the excellent Ship's Kit (GOW-SA001) and the swivel gun (GOW-SA004).

I wrapped string around the bowsprit to represent rope welding.

The bowsprit with additional rope wolding and
the anchor from the Ship's Kit (GOW-SA001)

Note the swivel gun on the deck railing

The backside of the new model is much more interesting with its decoration. However, this is also a big challenge: The large flat space in the center has to be painted in some manner other than mere filling the area with a single colour. I took the opportunity to try my very first freehand. The result gave the ships its new name: The Mermaid.

The highly decorated rear of the Sea Dog (2)

Verdict

The current Sea Dog is a highly detailed, high quality resin model that comes at a very fair price (free shipping worldwide!). I totally recommend going with the extended version Sea Dog (2) which has an additional tiller, bowsprit and more intersting mast - all well worth the little price increase.

Lastly, let's hope to see some new ships from Games of War soon!

Ship's Boats from Games of War

Games of War produces two types of ship's boats: A tender and a jolly boat. Let's take a look at them!

The first of the boats that was released by Games of War was the Tender - The Sea Pup (GOW-PS001). Some time later the Jolly Boat (GOW-PS005) was released. I'm not sure how appropriate this distinction is, though: from my understanding "tender" describes the purpose of the boat, while jolly boat is the type of boat, such as pinnace or cutter. Anyway...

The Tender / The Sea Pup

In 2009 I bought and painted two Sea Pups. They are very nice models with a detailed wood grain texture that allows for great results from simple drybrushing.

Tenders / Sea Pups from Games of War

Jolly Boat

I bought two jolly boats just recently. I am extremely happy with them: I find they look more interesting than the sea pups with the rowlocks and gratings. In addition, they are slightly wider than the sea pups and thus provide a bit more space for models. Again, these models have a great texture and can be easily drybrushed to great effects.

Jolly Boats from Games of War

Comparison of Sea Pup and Jolly Boat: 25mm round bases
can be placed better in the jolly boat

For more boats and ships have a look at this list of tabletop ships.

Another Games of War order has arrived

The other day I received a new bunch of boats and a ship from Games of War: 2 Jolly Boats (GOW-PS005) and the Sea Dog (2) (GOW-PS007) and some supplies.

I will be painting these now along with the Ainty ships. More when it's ready.

UPDATE
Check out the painted jolly boats here.

Preparing for Battle

Two days of gaming Dogs Ahoy! pirate skirmish ahead ...

More to follow on Twitter (maybe) ...