Gunboat games

[Bezzo]

I have just bought the best book I have purchased in years: "Send a Gunboat- the Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea 1854-1904" by Anthony Preston and John Major. Published 1967 and this reprint 2007. A classic and full of incredibly appealing possibilities.

I am desperate to have a gunboat style game and am building vessels. Can anyone steer me (pun intended)  to pictures and reports of any similar games so I can blatantly and shamelessly steal their ideas?

Great book!

[Plynkes]

These aren't your classic colonial gunboat warfare, rather colonial powers squaring off in Africa during the Great War, but they may provide a little inspiration - Our gang's "Lake Wittelsbach" saga:

1) A Bad day for the Kaiser's Boys

http://misterplynkes.ebloggy.com/


2) Amelia and Matilda go Forth (Parts I and II):

http://misterplynkes.blogspot.com/2006/08/amelia-and-matilda-go-fort_115489492656942768.html

http://misterplynkes.blogspot.com/2006/08/amelia-and-matilda-epilogu_115488889639394683.html


3) Biggles takes an early Bath

http://misterplynkes.blogspot.com/2007/02/for-honour-of-service-second-battle-of.html

Really must do something about that Belgian naval ensign. I have since discovered it only dates from the 1950s. Need to paint a tricolour.

[Plynkes]

We'll just have to do some new ones for you then, won't we? 

[former user]

soo funny, sooo great 

[Gluteus Maximus]

I assume you've seen the Major General's site, if not there is a fair bit of info on ships and boats, which you may find useful:

http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen/50ship.html

If you use "The Sword and the Flame" or similar, there is a great set of gunboat add-on rules - "Boilers And Breechloaders" - available from the Virtual Armchair General:

http://fauxtoys.com/tvag/079-rules.html#Boilers%20And%20Breechloaders

Apologies if you are already aware of all this 

[odd duck]

Send a Gunboat is a great read!You may want to look for"Gunboat:small ships at war"by Byron Perrett, covers some of the same material but then goes into the 20th cent. i'm going from memory can't find my copy right now.Gunboat projects take up the majority of my half finished/started projects I've got a small junk ,paddlewheeler and a german Gunboat in various stages of completion hope to get a least two of them done this year!

[Westfalia Chris]

The non plus ultra of gunboats is of course the good Admiral's one, which you'll certainly have seen in the BSC.

I built a very simple, quick gunboat (nowhere near the Admiral's brilliance, mind you!) some years back using Gary Chalk's river steamer concept as a base for size and proportions:



More images here.

I also built a gun boat for the "Yangtze" game table that saw the first public outing of what would become "Triumph and Tragedy":

[fastolfrus]

You may want to look for"Gunboat:small ships at war"by Byron Perrett, covers some of the same material but then goes into the 20th cent.

I was just about to recommend Perrett (got it for Christmas).
For a fictional slant on things you could look for Douglas Reeman "Badge of Glory", actually about 1850s Royal Marines, but they see some service on gunboats in the book (also got that one for Christmas) or Jonathon Lunn "Killigrew RN" or "Killigrew and the Golden Dragon" (personally I didn't think these were as good as the Reeman, but all three have some potential scenario material)

[fastolfrus]

The Reeman has a couple of good scenarios on the African coast, and luckily I have enough Darkest Africa style natives & slavers to provide one side already, plus Glynis picked up a reasonable size batch of Napoleonic marines & bluejackets on a bring & buy last year to give us plenty of tars. I've picked up a batch of Sikh Wars infantry that I think I'll try to paint up for RM.....

[Mors]

I found this blog the other day, he has some nice gunboats for the Sudan.

http://littlejohnslead.blogspot.com/

Cheers Mors

[Mors]

I would not have found it had it not been form the wargames blog listing. This is a useful resource here
http://wargamesblogs.blogspot.com/

[warrenpeace]

There's a great mass of photos of games on the Jackson Gamers (Mississippi) website.  Some of them, including this one, feature boats:

http://www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer/jungle.htm

They've got some American Civil War ironclads for use with 15mm figures.  That is a group worth keeping an eye on, as it's where The Sword and the Flame colonial rules were developed, and the group has posted many years of games on their website.

[Admiral Benbow]

I have just bought the best book I have purchased in years: "Send a Gunboat- the Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea 1854-1904" by Anthony Preston and John Major. Published 1967 and this reprint 2007. A classic and full of incredibly appealing possibilities.
Great book!

Bezzo, I'm of course interested in gunboat warfare, so I'd like to know if this book covers the Nile gunboats as well? And the small gunboat skirmishes on the african lakes like the Tanganjika vessels?

Thanks for any info.

[Smokeyrone]

I would bet that Spicer Simpson's   "vessels", and others like it, would make GREAT looking scenery for you Congo and Force Publique gamers (just backdate the guns)

Back to the topic at hand:

Look at Farwell's "The Great War In Africa"  (a few pics, but the best part is the inspiring stories that will have you at the workshop table). His books are scenario generators!

 
Don't have any links to gunboat games not covered here already, but:

 

Doesn't Jane's have gunboats of that period.  I'm certain that some of my US Navy Janes manuals have listings and pics of our old 19th century gunboats.  At least you'd get a photo and some good measurements, technical info  and stats.  Maybe that will help if you are doing actual recreations of some of the boats.

I don't know if your book has that sorta details.  I am going read  it, though.  Sounds like a great one.

[odd duck]

"Send a Gunboat" focuses mostly on seagoing gunboats of the royal navy 1854-1904 so there is'nt anything on the nile gunboats or ww1. Perret's book I beleive covers Spicer Simpsons expedition and the mesopotamian boats I believe, can't find my copy right now so I'm going by memory. If any one is interested in the Fly and Insect class river gunboats try to find a copy of "Gunboats of the Royal Navy" by Paul J. Kemp ,ISO publications 1997. it's a collection of photos of gunboats mostly of those two classes and a few of the older boats on the china station ,no text to speak of ,just captions to the pic.s