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?

Dead Man's Hand - German Edition from Stronghold-Terrain

Stronghold-Terrain have released the German edition of the Wild West skirmish game Dead Man's Hand and I take a look at the rulebook.



The Wild West skirmish game Dead Man's Hand was originally released by Great Escape Games and later on translated into French by Studio Tomahawk. Now Stronghold-Terrain have released a German version of the rulebook which includes the latest updates and optional rules introduced by Studio Tomahawk.

On How To Be A Merchant in Mordheim

I'm not making any Mordheim related posts anymore let alone update the Border Town Burning website, but I wanted to take the time to share this: Over at Tom's Boring Mordheim Forum a user called TheEnemyWithin posted a very interesting strategy guide for the Merchant's Caravan warband from the BTB supplement. He has some very good ideas to share - some great tips on how to make some additional money in the beginning and what official Hired Sword is the best addition to the warband (I'm not giving it away here). A must-read for any aspiring merchant planning to conquer the Old World or Cathay. So check out The Merchant's Guide to Profiting in the City of Mordheim!

Border Town Burning Mordheim Supplement

The 2nd edition of the Border Town Burning supplement for Mordheim is now available from the BTB website. The new edition has been corrected and updated based on the player feedback during the last 1,5 years. This is, and will be, the most up-to-date version of the book; another revision is very unlikely to happen.

Aside from the new edition, there is another big announcement: The BTB team and a few additional conspirators have moved to blogger: Check out the Liber Malefic Blog for news and updates of the follow-up project to the Border Town Burning supplement. You will find me there posting the occasional Mordheim warband or building for the all-new setting, so I hope to see you there too!

Foundry Compendium

As my current wargaming endeavours are all pirate themed I am looking for as many resources I can find. I already mentioned Foundry's Scourge of the Seas book some months ago. But I am not only interested in background material but also in existing game rules. It all started with Legends of the High Seas and one book that caught my attention and that I really wanted to check out ever since its release was the Foundry Compendium. The subtitle reads: "Pirates to Darkest Africa - Rules, Campaigns, Painting Guides and Terrain-making". As promising as that sounds, it sure is a lot of stuff for a 96 page book. The articles are taken from previous publications but as I never had a subscribtion to any of the Wargaming Magazines (such as Battlegames or Wargames Illustrated) I could be sure that all the contents would be new to me. Now somewhat recently Foundry had their books on offer so I took the chance and bought the book at a nice discount price. Although I always enjoy having a gander at other periods, genres and games, my prime interest was the cutthroats parts so let's see what aspiring captains can find in this book.

These are the piratical articles from the Foundry Compendium:
Pirates in West Africa (5 pages) - A simple but full set of rules for playing a pirate game.
Any Port in a Storm (7 pages) - A Guide to creating a waterfront wargaming board.
It's Cutlasses Now, Men! (6 pages) - A Guide to scratch-building 28mm pirate ships
Pirate Personalities (2 pages) - Some tips on converting piratey miniatures.


The pirate "game" is of no use really, at least not to me as I don't enjoy this kind of superficial game rules. I understand this rules set was created for quick participation game purposes, but then why put it in a wargames book? I would rather play the free Island Mayhem pirate rules.

The next articles are by Foundry terrain guru Gary Chalk. I really enjoyed the waterfront tutorial - lots of eye candy and useful information. I like to see articles that encourage gamers to create their own terrain and scenery. Of course, I am already doing so myself coming from a skirmish game background, but I have rarely seen it done in my gaming groups and I think it's good to keep encouraging gamers.

The tutorial for scratch-building 28mm pirate ships can probably considered a classic. On various forums I have seen gamers using his plans to create their own ships. This is probably due to the fact that Foundry used to host a PDF file of the article (in its original publication form) on their website, then took it down for the release of the Compendium. I already mentioned the plans in my list of Pirate Ship Manufacturers along with links to example works. Although it is great to have the article in printed form, a PDF version of the plans would be much better when actually applying the knowledge to use. I am sure you can still find the PDFs somewhere floating around the web.

The last article deals with converting piratey themed miniatures (as if Foundry's Pirates and Swashbucklers miniatures range wasn't huge enough already). But it's not too bad as it does give some inspiration for unusual poses and it is always nice to have one's own personalised figures.

So, the conclusion? If you are only in for the pirate stuff you probably want to give this one a miss. The pirate material in this book is not really worth the money. However, if your interest is more widespread so that you enjoy the rest of the covered themes and periods, then you might want to give the book a chance. Personally, I enjoyed some of the other articles, especially as I had never concerned myself with those periods before (Romans, Aztecs) so I learned quite a bit. At the very least it is definately nice for the eye candy. If you can get it a reduced price, I would recommend it IF you are open-minded with regards to periods and themes.

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Update: By request here is a breakdown of the rest of the book:

Today will Decide! (11 pages) - Skirmish gaming with Romans by Chris Peers
The Land of El Dorado (22 pages) - by Chris Peers
The Colours of War (4 pages) - Painting Guide for Aztec miniatures
Burned with Fire and Killed With Steel (8 pages) - "Quickfire rules for Roman gladiatoral combat" by Chris Peers
In Darkest Africa (5 pages) - Full rules for Dark Africa games by Chris -well-guess-who
Painting Darkest Africa (4 pages) - Painting Guide by Mark Copplestone
In Darkest Africa (6 pages) - continued
The World of the Greeks (8 pages) - A History lesson on Greek warfare by Adrian Garbett
Painting Spartan and Athenian Armies (2 pages) - by Steve Saleh


In "Today Will Decide" Peers presents rules for playing skirmish games with Roman Centurions vs small warbands of Gauls. It's one of those "fast-paced" games I am not too interested in personally, however, I did enjoy the somewhat lenthy discussion on why skirmish gaming - playing Heroic actions of individuals - does make sense with Romans despite the widely spread idea of the Roman discipline.

The "El Dorado" article is massive and actually presents what I consider a full rules set: Army lists, point values, campaign rules - all the good stuff I expect from a full rules set. Of course, if you enjoy the "fast paced" games, then you will consider those full games too and you might even prefer those simpler sets. I just don't. I expect a minimum of depth from any rules set. Together with the cool painting guide by Ian Heath this is a very good starting point for people looking to get into wargaming in central america.

I haven't read through the Gladiator article in full but it look promising to me. It contains presents rules for proper Gladiator fighting with rules for parrying, dodging as well as "dirty tricks" such as 'stomach throw' or 'sand in the face'. And you check for "appealing to the crowd (or not...)". I have tried gladiator rules in my old group before and I am very interested in alternative gladiatoral rules sets so I hope to try these out in the not too distant future.

The Darkest Africa rules are again more in-depth feature army lists and campaing rules (including a nifty map). Not really my cup of tea but definately a good starting point, or possibly additional material, for gamers interested in the setting.

The last two articles deal with the Greeks. The first is a history lesson on Greek warfare followed by a 2-page article on painting suitable miniatures. The space for these two articles should have been used to add more substance to the pirates part (for my liking) or the Roman part (for overall balance of themes). The way it is now, it appears somewhat random and only broadens the range of topics at the price of depth of the other themes.

I would have liked to see more weight on fewer topics than touching this many and only providing only few articles. Of course, the book is meant to appeal to many gamers, but this way does it appeal to people who are, say, interested in wargaming with Greeks? Does it appeal to people who are interested in Romans? I don't think so. If you are interested in those setting you probably have the material already and the stuff provided in the book is not sufficient to do as a starting point. In my mind it is for the Aztecs however and probably also for Darkest Africa. So the problem is that you don't know what to expect when buying the book - is it supplemental material for players who know their stuff or is it a good starting point for players who want to get into a new period? Unfortunately the answer varies from theme to theme, increasing the chance of disappointing the reader.

The Sea is so Wide and my Ship is so Small

One of the greatest things about playing with pirates is playing with ships. I just love the aesthetics of a large sailing vessel. Even in games on shore I like to have a coast or port of some sort with my boats casting anchor nearby. And as with most cool things, the bigger, the better - but that costs extra. And few gamers can afford to buy properly sized three-masters. After compiling a list of wargame ships I opted for Old Glory's Brigantine, because it was sailing within my budget. I recently finished the ship and now I am ready for some serious boarding action. However, right when I opened the box and saw the model for the first time, I knew it was rather small - definately too small to transport a mid campaign Legends of the High Seas crew (around 20 sailors - maximum is 30!). So I was thinking about what to do about it... I wanted to keep the model and I wanted to use it. In this post I'd like to describe a few solutions I came up with to get the most out of my moderately sized ships in games of Legends of the High Seas.

There are two types of scenarios in the LotHS rulebook focusing on ships; where the ships are not just neat additions to the gaming board, but the epicentre of the action. It is in these scenarios, where size deficiencies (especially a limited breadth) become relevant - and frustrating. So let's get over it!


Sail on the Horizon!/Dangerous Waters! (pages 96-97)
These are the main scenarios for playing with ships themselves: sailing, firing cannons, all the good stuff. In these scenarios a smaller size of the ship model is not that big a problem, because the positioning of your sailors on deck is not as importent as during a boarding action (see below). However, you still need a number of sailors to act as Deck Hands and two models for each cannon (three for the large 12-18lbs). Usually you can just nominate those models on the side facing the enemy vessel to be manning cannons so that you can fully fire, while all remaining models count as Deck Hands. Then, if the ships have moved so that you need the other side to fire, then the previous cannoneers become Deck Hands.

Still the number of crew members may be simply too high to allow placing all of them on the ship. It may then be neccesary to leave some of them below deck. This will allow you to keep more of your models on the ship, even if they don't physically fit in there. For the sake of clarity, the rules for crewmen below deck are described further below in a separate section.


Boarding Action (pages 88-89)
A boarding action is basically a normal onshore scenario with two ships acting as the battle field. This will inevitably lead to a crowded upper deck. If a ship model lacks the appropriate broadth, it will be difficult, or even impossible, to properly place the crewmen. But in this scenario it is all about close combat, charging, fighting over obstacles, etc. So positioning the models is very important here.

Just as with the sailing scenarios you can - actually you must - leave some of your crewmen below deck. If you manage to conquer the enemy vessel, as your sailors enter the other crew's ship, you may gain the required space on your ship to let more sailors enter from below. Alternatively, if you are losing models, you will probably also get the free space for more models to move up. The same rules for crewmen below deck can be used here (see the following section below).

To play out some proper combats, you may still not have enough space yet. In order to further fix this, cannons can be removed from the ship's deck. It is safe to assume that the sailors can easily bend over them or even stand on top of them and still fight as normal. In fact, most cannons won't qualify as an obstacle anyways, as they are not (or only slightly) over 1/2" heigh. Unfortunately the rulebook explicitly depicts cannons as examples of obstacles (see page 16). For the sake of manoeuvrability however, it makes sense to remove them. Let's assume that 3-6lb and 8-9lbs can be ignored and only 12-18lbs need to be jumped over. The space gained from this is certainly worth it. Of course, the ship's railing still counts as an obstacle as normal and models on either sides count as fighting over an obstacle.


Sailors below Deck
A player may leave a number of his models below deck, depending on the ship's size category. Before the game, each player places his models on the ship and nominates the ones below deck. If the Crew still has more members, then these cannot take part in the game. Heroes are important to the crew and thus have to be picked and any remaining Henchmen must miss this game.

Ship Size	Maximum number of Sailors below Deck
Small	5
Medium	8
Large	10

Models below deck cannot be used as Deck Hands for operating the ship, and they cannot fire any of their ranged weapons at enemy models if the opposing ship is within range (to do so, they must come on deck first). In return, they cannot be hit by enemy missile fire such as muskets, pistols or grapeshots from cannons. Note that the Captain ( i.e. the crew's Leader) may never be left below deck - he is way too (self-)important to leave control over his ship to the measly crew without keeping an eye on them!

At the beginning of each player's Movement phase, that player may place one new Sailor in front of the door (or on top of a trap door) from where the model is supposed to enter deck. That model may charge normally this turn.

Sailors below deck are not necessarily completely useless, though. They may operate the cannons that are also below the upper deck, i.e. not physically accessible normally. In fact, there is no other way to use these cannons other than to assing sailors below deck to them. Follow the usual rules for number requirements, i.e. small to medium cannons need two crewmen, large cannons three. Crewmen below deck have a very restricted sight and thus aiming is far more difficult. To represent this, when firing a cannon from below deck, roll two D6 instead of one on the Cannon Table (page 43) and choose the lower result. A Master Gunner Hired Hand operating a cannon below deck may re-roll one of the two dice, then pick the lowest of them (see Excellent Aim special rule, page 107). Remember to explicitly nominate which sailors are firing a cannon before making the roll, because they might suffer damage if the cannon explodes on a misfire.

Although sailors seem to be somewhat safe from enemy shots while they remain below deck, remember that they are not available to operate the ship or any cannons in case you lose crewmen on the upper deck. Also, if the ship should sink (pages 38-39), chances are that these sailors will not be able to save themselves to the upper deck in time. Therefore, it is usually safer to have as many crewmen on the upper deck as possible.


What else?
Another thing that is difficult to properly represent with most model ships is the additional boats that are carried as they will almost always be too big to place aboard the ship. The following is how we rule this situation and an extension of the rules found on page 48 of the rulebook:

If a ship carries any boats, the player must nominate the position where they are supposed to be. At best place a marker there (around 1.5cm x 3cm). In order to launch a boat, two crewmen must start their turn in base contact with a boat marker. Move the sailors towards any side of the ship from where the boat can be launched. The models must remain in base contact throughout. If they are attacked (either by a missile shot or charged), they immediately drop the boat on deck (place the marker where they stand). If they are not disrupted this turn, place the actual boat model next to the ship. Sailors can now jump in the boat following the normal rules.

Ship Marker
(300dpi for printing, photo of the Games of War tender)

Alright, matey, that's it! I hope you find these little additions useful.

May your keel and rum never run dry!

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Big Legends of the High Seas update! First off, the Pirates section has been updated with lots of goodies for the game:

Living FAQ
I have compiled an FAQ with things my group came across in our games. All answers have been confirmed by the book's author Tim Kulinski on the LotHS Yahoo group. If we come across any new issues I will add them to the list (hence the "living").
Update: The FAQ has been updated and is now also available directly from the Warhammer Historical website.
Update 24-09-2012: FAQ is now available from this blog as Warhammer Historical is no more.

Random Happenings
In my gaming group we have been using a set of random happenings for some time now. I wrote these rules based on the Random Happenings article by Mark Havener and Tim Huckelbery which was first published in White Dwarf 240. Many thanks to my gaming group for playtesting them and to Stu Cresswell for his invaluable proof-reading.

If you have any feedback on these random happenings feel free to post them on the LotHS Yahoo group or just leave me a comment here.

Scenario: Dock Raid
This is a little scenario we have recently played in our group. Try it if you like!

Scenario: Mine
Another new scenario. Well, not that new actually. I originally wrote the scenario ("Horrors of the Underground") for the Mordheim supplement Border Town Burning and built some special tunnel tiles for it. Since the scenario is so much fun and Jens from my LotHS gaming group wanted to play on the tiles, I adapted the scenario to the pirates setting. So if you enjoy playing something different, try the scenario. There are templates for you to print off in case you don't want to start building your own mine. :)

Here are some (admittedly sub-par) photos of our session:

Jens deploys his Crew in the centre of the set-up and explores the tunnels from there.

I am the attacker and start at the tunnel entrance.

Steadily I move towards the opposing pirates.

In the meantime Jens' pirates are fighting off wolves (represented by Mordheim Chaos Warhounds, ehem..) and the angry bear (represented by a panda bear for BTB).

New Releases
Black Cat Bases had a ship on their workbench for ages (or so it seemed), but when browsing photos of Salute at gioconomicon.com, I saw a photo depicting resin casts of the model. So I contacted BCB about the ship and they said it would be out soon. Well, it still is not, but we can hope, right? In case the model looks familiar: you might have noticed the ship model in the Legends of the High Seas book on various pages (28, 41, 44, 46, 48 and 88).


Another ship that some people have been waiting for for a long time is the medium ship from Games of War. Despite promises that the ship will be out soon it still is not. At least someone seems to have seen it in reality at their store so it may come eventually...

Lastly, Sailpower have recently released a 28mm Great Sloop that looks really great.

So much for ships. Crusader have added a new Pirate Crew pack to their Pirates range and I'm still waiting for Black Tree Design to release the pirate miniatures range.

That's it for now. Happy treasure hunting!