My last column did not get to Hal in time for Issue #106. I did have a good excuse! Just before Memorial day I injured my back for the second time and ended up having surgery. This is the same thing I did last year at the same time. Next year I will have to spend Memorial weekend locked in a closet! The only good thing that comes from being laid up is that I have extra time to play at my wargaming. I was able to complete six Napoleonic Prussian flag sheets for the Jena and Auerstaedt campaign of 1806. Nearing completion are more sheets for ECW, Crimean War and the Colonial Wars 1870-1900. I was able to have a good Napoleonic re-fight of the Corunna battle with my friend Mike Walkner. I was the British commander, Sir John Moore, and after fighting right to the gates of Corunna, I am proud to announce that the entire British field army was wiped out! Will not quite that bad, but it felt like it. The battle was a pretty close affair, but the French artillery and cavalry, while not very strong, ended up deciding the battle. The rest of this column will deal with an age of sail rule set, "Privateers", written by Mark Cosgrove. For years our gaming group played bi-weekly games, mostly American Civil War and Napoleonics. For a change of pace, once in a while, we would do some ship games. Over my wargaming years I have written many home rules for various periods. This is not done because I like to write rules but mostly because the commercial rules are too complicated for my taste. This is especially so, when the period being played is done once or twice a year. Mark put these rules together for our group and I found them to be a lot of fun and very playable for an afternoon of gaming. We played the rules using 25mm ships but you can use any size or scale that you want. The rules are written with the idea that one player will command one ship. While it is possible to command several ships at once, especially with game experience, the rules really play best at a lower level of command. Two areas of the rules impressed me the most. The gunnery system was fun and the initiative system allowed you to sail the ship and gain an advantage that would lead to stern and bow rakes, the kind of things that garners can get into. I have also used the rules for some fleet actions with my 1:500 ships. Instead of firing guns individually, I fire them as sections of 4 guns. This keeps the rules very playable. The ship log sheets will probably have to be enlarged so that they can be use. If you have any comments or question feel free to drop me a line at at Banasik@aol.com. Back to MWAN #108 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com