Review: Forged in Battle 1:3000 Age of Sail Ships

After quite a bit of searching around, I decided to pull the lanyard on these 1:3000 ships by Forged in Battle [CLICK] where five sets are presently offered: 

1. both sides Battle of the Nile, 
2. Copenhagen British, 
3. Copenhagen Danish, 
4. Trafalgar British, 
5. Trafalgar Allies. 

There is interesting variety in the ships, the sail settings, the type of vessels, etc. However, the ships do not appear to be available in singles or smaller batches than the above listed sets. At about $1.45 a ship that's not much hardship to bear, altho it doesn't cater to the whim of gamers who like to purchase ONLY and EXACTLY what they want. Think of it as buying 6 or 10mm figs - you don't buy them in singles, but in batches. Enough said!

After some thinking, I decided to go for the Trafalgar British.

ORDERING & ARRIVAL. The package was easily ordered Forged in Battle's on-line site which was reasonably efficient and - worked. The packaged arrived in about 6 days or something amazing like that - I usually don't get domestic wargame merchendice that quickly [except from a few people like Neal Catapano at the War Store]...fantastic!


PACKING. the packing was about 50 feet [it seemed] of bubble wrap and could've brought fine china from the UK safely - the package was one blister with some foam [the usual] with all the ships in it. Sound a bit dicey? Well, these ships are as durable as the real thing!


CONTENTS. My package was:
7 x NAP12, 1st / 2nd Rate
17 x NAP13, 3rd Rate
3 x NAP14, small 3rd Rate
4 x NAP15, Large Frigate
31 Total ships
Unfortunately, I somehow missed separating out the 3 "Small 3rd Rate" shpis, and they are with in the middle group below [quite hard to tell apart, really].

Let's face it - this is a lot of ship for the money! In essence, it is 1/2 of Trafalgar - and most rules have options for small ship actions of a couple per side, or per player, so one could be finished with all Age of Sail purchases in one go here, and have everything from single-ship combat to good-sized squadrons of 15-16 ships!

THE GOODS. And below is what you've been awaiting, the closeup:

To left, NAP12 1/2 Rate. To right, NAP15 Large Frigate. In the center is a 3rd Rate of some sort. The metal between the fore and main masts is an identification streamer / flag, that between the main and mizzen is a bit of flash.  The pegs are for the included bases.

Note that even with a casual pic, you can see lots of little details, from the gunports to the ratlines, to the stern decorations, and these ships are...ONE INCH LONG! AMAZING!!!

comparison shots with vessel drawings from "Warfare in the Age of Sail" by B Ireland.

I think the proportions on the sculpts compare quite well - to these drawings, anyway.


Close comparison of 1st / 2nd Rate and diagram


Close pic of 3rd Rate 2-decker


Finally, the "large frigate" compared to diagram.

Overall, I think these ships capture the feel quite well, with good lines. My photography and the lighting isn't ideal, but I hope you can see how they look - remember, they're only one inch long, so of course they are more intended for squadrons together on the table.

Same three ships, stern view.

Same three ships, bow view - nice lines, you can see the bowsprit coming at you.


For comparison, below are my Wooden Ships and Iron Men counters, from the classic [and elderly, mine is a 1982 second edition] Avalon Hill board game. The counters are an inch by a 1/2 inch. Note that the bases are nearly the identical size. The holes are for the pegs, but one can certainly not use the bases at all. This is very convenient - I will most likely not use the bases as I'm thinking of using plexiglass instead so the ships always match the cloth.

Note how the ratlines provide additional stability to the masts without weighing down the sculpt visually. They are in fact solid, but I hope to hide that somewhat with the painting,  putting that "into shadow" or something. Pic shows off the "full sail" of these British ships, which are clearly working to close in on the Allied Fleet during the chase preceding the battle. Interestingly, the Allied ships have a different sail setting.

And below, a 1.5" hex map from Chessex. Nice fit, the ships look quite natural if a bit close together - they should really be a hex or two apart - a ship length or two.

Same, lower view. Note that the AH counters match the miniatures.

And here they are in Line Ahead, coming straight at you! Obviously, this upset the photographer and he failed to focus properly.

And below is the same on the WS&IM hex map. These ships just fit into the game "as-is" which just can't be a coincidence. Surely the sculptor has this game...? Below them are the same size counters from Avalanche Press' "1898" to show you what pre-dreadnoughts look like next to these lovelies - they look quite flat!


Overall, I give Forged in Battle:
- Customer service, packaging and shipping, A+
- Sculpting, sturdiness, proportions, A
- completeness of line, price, A++
- handiness and usefulness in games from convention to small table, A+
OVERALL RATING = A+

"Don't be stupid be a schmarty - Come and join the Forged in Battle Party!"

If you're looking for a great deal on sturdy ships with lots of visual appeal, excellent proportions at a great price, look no further. 37 years of gaming, these are some of the best thought out and executed sculpts I've ever seen. The "battle packaging" is great and will save newbies time and trouble with gathering models. And of course, the price...!!!

Future thoughts. well, obviously I'm going to get more. Certainly I want some variety in sail setting, ship, type, etc, so I'm seriously checking out the British fleet at Copenhagen, as well as the Danish. But, frankly, my future intent is to own ALL of these blisters!

Age of Sail Project, p.1

'Signal "Close Action" Lieutenant - but not too close!"

Sailing competitions - they're just not what they used to be.  From: CLICK

I grew up sailing with my family, and spending most of the summer at the beach. We sailed into my college years and then I raced yachts for people as a young adult. Eventually, that got too crazy and I was busy with other aspects of life and stopped sailing. BUT I do love it! I read Hornblower and some Kent growing up, and the modeling challenges of beautiful Age of Sail [AoS] sailing ships is quite appealing.

However, gaming it has always been something else again. In high school, I played - and still own - Wooden Ships & Iron Men, both at home and with the local club who played with miniatures. When I got into sailing myself, I didn't like the artificiality of most game rules, and others were crazy complicated. Ultimately, I want:

1. Rules that feel like I commanding a sailing ship or squadron,
2. but are still playable, and 
3. where you win by out-sailing not "out-gaming" your opponent, and
4. ideally, can be played in both small and fleet actions.

Several years ago, I was interested in individual ship battles, so I got several of the lovely 1:600 Skytrex models, including a British, French and two US frigates, a Brit 64 and an East Indiaman, thinking to do small sea fights. I also got the rules reputed to have the best sailing mechanics  "Heart of Oak". And HOak _does_ have great sailing rules, but other mechanics are a bit clunky and old-school, and I couldn't seem to get the energy up to work with the intimidating Skytrex models, so the project languished. 

Eventually, I decided Age of Sail wasn't going to work out for me. I took pics of my copy of WS&IM to sell it on eBay with other board games, and took the skytrex ships and such to sell at Cold Wars. Then I didn't have time to put up the auction, and no one bought the Skytrex stuff at the 'con, so it all somehow survived by being 'out of sight, out of mind'.

Recently, I've been working on the "Portable Naval Wargame" for pre-dreads, I noticed that there were some ACW steam frigates in there. It also occurred to me that the shooting rules would work quite well for Age of Sail. This made fleet actions possible with some wind and command / control rules. A very tempting thought, since the sailing limitations of AoS are what make it interesting to game in the first place, along with the spectacle, of course.

However, I don't have time to build a big fleet of beautiful 1:1200 ships [nor the money for 1:600 ships!]. I need nice-looking but small ships that paint up quick. I checked around here and there, and eventually ran into the Forged in Battle 1:3000 ships, which looked perfect in the few pics I could get of the raw metal on line. 

Another clincher was checking into board games and finding a cheap copy of "1805: Sea of Glory by GMT". I also found a free copy of a small-ship action campaign system, "Narrow Seas", which looks promising. These fit into my new ethos that all naval actions are part of a strategic picture that affects the victory conditions of each action.

So in the end, I'm looking for:

• the above listed qualities in a set of rules,
• strategic impact and campaigns,
• easy to teach newbies, quick play at home on a small space,
• smaller ships that are easy to paint up but still look great on table.
• a flexible project that can be played quick and casual or in depth over time.

Product Choices
Forged in Battle 1/3000 Napoleonic era ships CLICK

War Artisan Paper Ships CLICK: many scales & periods that can be scaled up and down depending on how you print them up. PLUS free pennants / ensigns, also easily scaled.

"1805: Sea of Glory" boardgame by GMT [CLICK]
[check out the "in-depth reviews" at bottom of the Board Game Geek page]

"Narrow Seas" free campaign download by Curs'd Captain [CLICK]


Rules by priority of interest, but all purchased:

"Portable Naval Wargame Rules" CLICK

"Wooden Ships & Iron Men" CLICK

"Admirals" CLICK

"Fire as She Bears!" CLICK

"Signal Close Action" CLICK

"Fighting Sail: Sea Combat in the Era of Canvas and Shot, 1775-1815" CLICK

So, another old project manages to survive! This means that another one must be sacrificed in its stead, and I think a couple of the Role-playing game projects must go...