My last plans for 1812 were to play Queenston Heights and New Orleans for land battles (very far on the back burner). I had also printed out paper versions of all the ships I would need for every battle in the War of 1812 from War Artisan. I believe I used too big of a scale for my great lakes battles I intended. That and trying to find a good ruleset derailed that project.
Warlord Games' new game has renewed my interest in the naval war. They have a fairly limited selection of ships though, but through conversion, 3D printing and using paper ships I hope to complete the fleets. I do want to give them the money they deserve for their excellent product though, so I will buy all the ships that I can.
Below is what they have released so far as well as the upcoming US fleet. I have not posted pictures of Victory or L'Orient, but a similar first rate is included in each of the British and French fleets.
I have the starter set which has three 5th rate 38 frigates, and 6 18 gun brigs. These are plastic, as are the 3rd rates. The first rate ships and constitution are resin. The models themselves are excellent and at least the parts of the ship go together easily. The sets include sails, flags and rigging thread.
One issue I have is that there are too many brigs (this has been written about on other sites). Brigs did not occur in battles in greater quantity than 5th rates, 6th rates, or even 3rd rates. You end up with many more than you need. I wish the starter would have been 3 5th rates, 2 6th rates, and 2 brigs. As it is the brigs can be converted into flush deck 6th rates with a bit of work, and some people have even made them into sloops.
Another issue is that all the ships of each size, except the resin ships are identical. They have created an average version of each ship for the game that never existed. The exceptions are the resin ships. They also have plates for some of the back of the ships with their name on them. This is fine with me overall, I just wish I could have ships of every size. Hopefully their releases come out quickly.
As it is, I can recreate at least every ocean battle with the models they have created.
