8 replies to this topic

[Shadowbend]

Good evening everyone
My son and I are enjoying miniature war gaming and I want to introduce him to Post Captain. He really enjoys playing the Russians in all our other games and so I was wondering how I might go about representing Russian ships of the period. Thank you in advance.

Take care,
Skip

[Cpt M]

The main stumbling block to producing accurate ship logs is finding good data.  For the some of the navys (British, French, US and Russian) the data is available, thanks to several very good reference works.  The situation for the other fleets is not nearly as good.  This is especially true for the smaller powers (Swedes, Danes and Dutch).  There are some very preliminary plans for expanding the ship lists, but I can't say with any certainty what will be covered or when that'll happen.        

[Shadowbend]

Thank you for that information.  I was wondering if you could recommend some reference material for the period?  I have copies of the Conway's books for WW1 and WW2 and they seem to help quite a bit.   What would you suggest for the 1793-1815 period?  Thank you in advance.

 

Take care,

Skip

[Joseph Legan]

Shadowbend,

 

Russia fought 2 substantial wars that I am aware of in this period; one with Turkey and one with Sweden. I would start with google and see where that takes you.  Frigates were basically frigates so each type of ship was very similar regardless of the navy.  Use french ones as your guide, but English would work as well.  Carronades would be very rare and all crews would be pretty poor with the Swedes being the best of the bunch.  Hope that will get you started.

 

Joe 

[Lonnie Gill]

G' Day Shadowbend,

 

Been on sabatical for a while, but thought I would add a few comments:

1. We are working on a project that will provide some Russian Ship Logs and scenarios. It will take a few months to complete, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel as they say.  The project will also provide a really informative article on the Imperial sailing navy by a well known author on Russian naval subjects.

2.  Getting data for Russian ships in this period is not easy as there are few sources in English.  Some nice ones in Russian, but that's not much help to most of us.  Capt. M has devoted some tough sledding to trying to ferret out useful data from a couple of these. 

3. However, you can find some useful data in general sources such as The Line of Battle - The Sailing Warship 1650-1840 in the Conway series and Gardiner's Warships of the Napoleonic Era.  And, Winfield's British and French warships in the age of sail series has some good data on a few that were taken by the British and French.  [You'll have to know the ship's names to fnd them.]  James' Naval History of Great Britian and William Clowes' The Royal Navy series have useful armament data on Russian ships engaged by the RN during the Napoleonic wars.  And, the reprint of R. C. Anderson's Naval Wars in the Baltic During the Sailing-ship Epoch, 1522-1850 ha some good data on Russian and other ships engagend in the Baltic.  Not easy to find, but well worth it if you are interested in the Baltic.  Finally, there are some useful posts on Wikipedia data for selected Russial ships and battles. As always, you have to take care with Wikipedia posts, but there are some nuggets to be mined. 

 

The Russians offer some really interestng possibilities for gaming this period. 

 

Cheers,

 

LONNIE 

[schoon]

So, not that I actually need any extra ships at this point, but I do find the Russian navy of the time fascinating.

 

Has there been any progress on this, or have other things been getting the attention it might need?

[schoon]

For those interested in information on Russian, Dutch, and many others, the information in the War by Sail game from the folks at threedecks.org is full of useful information on armament and other factors...

[schoon]

It's been about a year since I last checked in on this.

 

Any movement on the project or is it on the back burner for now?

[Lonnie Gill]

G' Day Schoon,

 

Yes, unfortunately this project has been on the back burner for far to long what with Covid and a plethora of other issues.  The good news is I have finally been able to clear the decks to proceed on the Foc'sle Companion, which as described in previous post on this topic includes a great article on the Russian Navy during the zenith of the Age of Sail period written by a well respected writer on the Russian steam navy and other nautical issues.  One of the hurdles to incorporating Russian ships into the Post Captain system has always been the difficulty of finding reliable data on the individual ships.  My co-designer, the late Mike Baulch, spent considerable time trying to sift through various sources to find what he could in English language sources.  (I've had occasion to visit Russia several times, but have to admit the Russian language is quite beyond me.)

 

Good news on that front.  Recently, I have obtained a copy of John Tredrea & Eduard Sozaev's Russian Warships in the Age of Sail 1696-1860.  Using the same format as Rif Winfield and others have used on Age of Sail books on other navies', this new source provides data on the Russian ships that should enable me to prepare Ship Cards to include for scenarios in the Foc'sle Companion.  While we're working on Part 4 which will cover Interim Movement to simulate squadron and fleet maneuvers during the preliminaries to and lulls in battles, we need to come up with some scenarios covering the Russian Navy and the western navies already covered. These should be individual ship duels or small squadron actions that are ideal for Post Captain. I'm thinking of a frigate or several SoL clash with the French in the Adriatic during the 1790s, and a small SoL action in the North Sea in 1797 with the Dutch along with a historical action or two. While most of us are unfamiliar with Russian Navy operations in the Channel and North Sea, it turns out the Russian squadron continued to patrol the North Sea while the British fleet was incapacitated by the "Great Mutinies" of 1797.   No actions took place, but this does present an intriguing opportunity to pit the Russians against the Dutch.  I'm also looking for a small Russian vs Swedish scenario.  However,m if the Russians are hard to find dat on, the Swedes are twice as hard to ferret out.  

 

That's the plan.  If you are interested, let me know.  I would invite your assistance in designing a scenario or two. I will reformat them in our normal Post Captain format and, of course, prepare the Ship Cards.  All this will be an assistance to the hobby and help speed up the completion of the Foc'sle Companion.

 

Finally, I will add we are all deeply saddened by the passing of Michael Baulch, who was so much a part of the Post Captain and General Quarters series.  His enthusiasm for the Age of Sail and many talents will be much missed.   

 

As always, events move on.  I am pleased to advise that I have the opportunity to work with Brian Weathersby, a well experienced Age of Sail researcher and gamer of many years, on Part 4 noted above.  This will add another dimension to Post Captain.

 

That's the current status,

 

LONNIE