Ancient naval preparations continue

I have been playing a few small ancient naval games with 5 to 10 ships per side. There is one thing I have found frustrating, and that is the measuring and checking of angles for ramming in my games. So yesterday I decided to move to a hex grid and cut out a template for 4 inch (side to side) hexagon in preparation. This evening I have been marking up the hex grid with the template, not marking the whole hex, just marking the corners of the hex. Having laboriously completed this carefully to avoid misshaped hexes, I then went over dabbing on a bluey-grey using a piece of cut foam in the form of a wedge. My hope was to make the dabs look like waves in the hope of disguising to a certain extent the hex look.

The completed blue felt gaming mat.

Ancient ships in the hexes. They all face one side of the hex.

I chose the 4 inch hex because this will also work with my Napoleonic and WW2 ships. 

My semi-flat Napoleonic ships made from MDF wood and cardboard.

My balsa wood WW2 ships are a slightly snugger fit to the hex.

Now that I have the hex gaming mat all prepared, I need to revisit the rules and amend them to work on a hex grid. I suspect the biggest challenge will be differentiating the different ship speeds (move distances).

Tabletop hex grid and snakes and ladders campaign continues

I used to play many of my games using a 6 inch square grid on my 6 by 4 foot tabletop when I started this blog (hence the title blog). However, I have over the last 12-18 months been increasingly using free movement. Recently I have moved back to using a grid with my WW2 Western Desert campaign, which uses a hex grid and I am thoroughly enjoying. Over the last few weeks now I have been considering using hexes for my other games. 

Prompting my thinking was a number of posts by Old Trousers on using One-Hour Wargaming scenarios and Simplicity in Practice rules (both by Neil Thomas) and more recently posts from projects and Procrastination. Anyway, after re-reading chapter "Grids: Hexes and Squares" from The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordrey I decided it was timely to setup my tabletop to have a hex grid.

My first step was to determine a suitable hex size which would fit the unit basing and terrain. My paper soldier units have a frontage of 7 inches and most other periods have units with a 4 inch base frontage. Using a compass (probably last used for a school project) a few templates were drawn on paper to determine a suitable size. A few tests found the best size hex was 7.5 inches from one side to the opposite side. This is quite a large size, but has the advantage that they can easily accommodate my units and terrain.

Those of you who use hexes will note I have the unit facing a side rather than one of the angles which seems quite common. I may change this approach, for the present though the side approach suits my rules which don't differentiate between flank and rear attacks, treating them as all the same. I also have a personal preference to having a unit facing a side (not sure why).

My 42mm scaled paper soldier unit with an 8 inch base frontage

ECW unit with a 4 inch base frontage and plenty of room for terrain

On my 6 by 4 foot table top this size hex grid would give me a board of 5 to 6 hexes by 10 hexes. I did think this 5 to 6 hex width might be a tad small, but the more I thought about it the less convinced I am that it will be too small. I tend to think of the hexes as zones with units deciding to make clear advances into an adjacent zone, and too many zones unnecessarily delay contact with opposing units. I will know for sure over the next few weeks as I try out the grid.

With all that decided my next step was to make a template was made out of MDF and start marking out the tabletop cloth. Rather than draw the whole hex I chose to just mark out the hexes just at the corner, hopefully making the hex less obvious.

MDF template and brown pen to mark out the grid

Grid with only the hex corners marked

One of my existing hills which fits two hexes quite nicely when placed under the gaming cloth.

The hill placed under the gaming cloth (not very noticeable in the picture)

A 6x6 inch field fits nicely into the hex

I will be able to reuse most of my terrain without modification, but will have to cut some more blue felt for rivers which will run along the hex sides (and is why there are no photographs of rivers).

The first game to be tested was the next game in the Jacobite snakes and ladders campaign

Tabletop setup for a Jacobite campaign game

Having made the hex grid the next step is to try it out with the next Jacobite snakes and ladders campaign game. It took a few rolls of the dice before the next battle occurred. The campaign has the Jacobite cause well advanced compared to the Government forces who had been delayed by muddy roads, while a Jacobite victory saw them progress a number of squares along one of the green arrows.

Luck is a fickle thing and soon after their victory the Jacobite cause was suffering from desertions due to a lack of pay. Meanwhile, Government forces conducted a force march to avoid battle and seemed to have the upper hand only to be frustrated again by muddy roads delaying their supplies. Seizing the opportunity Jacobite forces were able to catch a column of Government troops on the march. 

Random dice produced One Hour-Wargames scenario 13 - escape. The Jacobite side having landed on a battle event square got to choose which scenario force they would act as (Blue or Red). They chose to be the attacking force which catch the opposition on the march.

Snakes and ladders campaign has 

Action from the game

The game using hexes was a victory to Jacobites. So did the hexes work? For the most part yes. I do need to make a few tweaks to the rules to suit the hex grid and am looking forward to replaying the game (although the last game result will stand for the campaign).