Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 16 May 2016

A History of Pirates

Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson - ahem
Whilst I haven't managed to generate any motivation for anything directly game related for the last couple of
weeks (and not just because of my tediously long "Factory" build), my enthusiasm for gaming and the related things associated with our hobby is unabated. I always gleaned my enjoyment in wargaming from the interaction with others, the discussion of rules, campaigns and such like as well as the bragging rights after a game well fought (whether won or lost). I've tried solo gaming, but my overall feeling afterwards was "What was the point?". Since coming back to wargaming some five years ago after a similar absence, I've had only a mere 5 participants in my games of whom only one I thought would be a long term prospect as a regular player (not #1 son), sadly though this wasn't to be as all contact with him was lost over a year ago.
It does seem that I just can't compete with the attraction of elves and orcs in the Warhammer world of Games Workshop.


Is there really a need for a caption here ?
So, whilst I may not have willing participants, I have been reading a lot and attempting to resurrect my piratical interests, with the aim of once more having another attempt to play solo.
If you're wondering "why pirates" then I'm afraid I have no hope of explaining the attraction to you!
I already have a large collection of pirates (I'm guessing about three hundred) all painted and based and three pirate ships in various stages of being finished, so I do have a head start in this fanciful idea.
As a way of easing myself into this idea, a little reading was in order, requiring a lot less effort  on my part and at little cost.
My first port of call was the Kindle store to see if there were any piratical books available cheaply. The first was the one illustrated at the top of the page "Captain Johnson's History of the Pyrates", actually written by Daniel Defoe and one that I already have a physical copy of . My version was bought over fifteen years ago (18/11/00) for the princely sum of £14.99, the Kindle version costs £0.00 (including vat) and was delivered to me in 10 seconds (approximately).
Another great find
I "purchased" the Kindle version and discovered other books at a similar price, viz: "Captain Singleton" by Defoe (see above) and "Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates", both of which I've yet to read.
These latter two books were, once more, well within my allotted budget of £0.00
The Time Life book "The Pirates"













My only other pirate reference book is the beautifully illustrated Time Life "The Pirates" and I'm now regretting not buying "The Spanish Main" in the series too, all those years ago, when I bought the original.


THW Pirate rules
On the wargames front, I'm still enthused by THW's rules "Rum"; they answer a lot of questions and thoughts I've had about other THW rules (namely their various zombie rule sets) and are a very 'clean' system, elegantly combining sea and land rules together.
They are just about everything I've been wanting from a set of pirate rules and can easily be amended to suit my own needs (namely making them more role-play light and overhauling the land-based shooting rules).
My own attempt at pirate rules (named Roger Jollie's Pirate Rules - not that you're interested) pale into comparison as do the other commercially available pirate rules that I've looked at over the years. To be fair though, there are a number of newer sets of (glossy) rules available, but I doubt I'll ever be able to see them, let alone be able to afford to purchase them!
Z-man's pirate game.




The final clincher of my renewed diversion was the present of a board game, "Merchants and Marauders". In the past I've always held off buying any boardgames before researching them thoroughly on various review sites(but mostly Boargamegeek) and have therefore none in my boardgame collection.
This game however I would probably have probably snapped as it has everything one cold want from a pirate themed game and it is so very well produced too.
There is one thing though that excites me more than even I could have wished for... it fits so well together with the campaign ideas from THW's "Rum" that you'd think they were made for each other.
I will of course be taking advantage of the obvious similarities of the two systems (board and wargame) to combine the best features of the two and may well post my thoughts in the future should there be any interest out there in cyber-space.
 In the meantime, my time is currently being spent wondering how to make terrain - houses, islands, palm trees etc. etc. - for next to nothing whilst still researching and "fine tuning" rules for a larger campaign in all things piratical.

That's it then for this week and although there's been nothing here even remotely related to Zombie wargaming, I do hope that there's been something here of interest to you.


22 comments:

  1. I'm interested Joe, so post away with those thoughts. Terrain build wise, I'm sure there are loads of Caribbean style houses and buildings you can find on t'internet

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks dGG, my thoughts on terrain are well underway and I've done my research using the old Gary Chalk buils from Wargames Illustrate (about January 2000)

      Delete
  2. Now what's not to like about Pirates? Three hundred shipmates already painted is a little more than a head start Joe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael, everyone loves pirates right ?
      Sad thing about my collection is that they've never seen a wargames table.

      Delete
  3. Get posting about pirates Joe and you may encourage me to finally set about painting my "Rum 'n' Bones" minis. Tbh it doesn't matter what you post about as I always find myself in agreement with your insightful thoughts regarding our hobby. I'm also especially interested in your experiences with Piratical solo play, as I do a lot of solo stuff myself - hence my delight with "Zombicide".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Blaxx, I much appreciate your comments and feel a little more reassured about my thoughts of the way forward and of course will keep everyone posted.
      The solo stuff is a little easier with these nicely oragnised pirate rules.

      Delete
  4. Joe, I love pirates, aaaaarrrrrrr!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm now convincced ... we all love Pirates.
      although it's a can be seen as a poor relation to lines of muskets by many.

      Delete
  5. Pyrates and Zeds...(maybe)? Anyhow, Zab, wherever you go with your modeling endeavors, I will follow!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jay, as long as I can keep myself motivate din some wargaming direction or other I'll be happy enough.

      Delete
  6. Looking forward to see some pirate stuff in the future Joe!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks HW, it will make a welcome change for me too.

      Delete
  7. I am more a smuggler fan than a Pirate fan, (Or Packers if we are talking American Football). But I could get involved if others in the club were willing. But there is only one club member and he wants a certain set of rules and 15mm. So I guess I will have to pass.

    So I will follow this with utmost enthusiasm and hope to see a game sooner or later. I KNOW you have not disappointed in the past but I am NOT holding my breathe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I trust your smuggling activities don't include budgies Clint. When I dug out my old pirate stuff I did think of you and your own stalled projects. Sometimes I do wish I'd gone for 15mm but I can't recollect there being such a good range out there then as there is now. I promise to try not to disappoint.

      Delete
  8. Pirates is one of the top items on my "would be nice and colourful, but will probably never get round to it" genres. It's right up there with Samurai. pre-dreadnoughts and the like. Of course, it would have to be the Hollywood or Treasure Island style of pirates rather than the grim, brutish reality :-) .

    Since I'm not going to dip a toe into these waters myself, I'll just have to enjoy it vicariously through your efforts. Please feel free to proceed :-) !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I'm in full agreement with you on what most wargamers would like to dabble in, pirates, Samurai, etc, but I would also add Western gunfights and Gangsters too. Pre-dreadnoughts (now that much more avalable with the Old Glory range) are something I too have always been interested in.

      Delete
  9. I agree with Colgar - I loved pirates, which I probably owe to LEGO sets that I had. But eventually my interest faded, probably because I started connecting them more accurately to the period they lived in, ha!

    Still, I, too would suggest you keep on blogging about it. I find it hard to muster enthusiasm to post about my work lately, but what eventually makes me post is the thought of all the good blogs I've gotten my ideas from in the past.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Mattyoo for the encouragement, both lego and playmobil have a lot to answer for; my own interests were probably from my early years with TV - "Captain Pugwash","The Buccanneers", Captain Blood and Robert Newton's portrayal of LOng John Silver.

      Delete
  10. Sounds like a fun project. I think I have struggled to find a ruleset for them myself that covers everything satisfactorily enough yet. I do look at a lot of pirate themed models and think some day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's really an on-going project that I've returned to; the rules have been the real problem to getting a piratical feel to a game, one now being slowly sorted.

      Delete
  11. I used to have that Time book and painted pirates once!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for that AL (I think); I don't think I've ever purposly let go any book I've ever owned, but I do regret loaning out books that I've never had returned.

      Delete