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Thursday 19 February 2009

Preparing for Cruiser 2009 - The Game of Naval Blockade

On 28th February Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group and Wargame Developments will be co-hosting a public wargames event on HMS Belfast. The event is called Cruiser 2009 and the main driving forces behind it are John Curry and Jim Wallman.

There will be several participation games going on throughout the day, one of which is a The Game of Naval Blockade. This was originally developed by Lieutenant H Chamberlain RN, and was first published in the Royal United Services Institute Journal Vol. XXXVII (1888-89). Richard Brook rediscovered it in the early 1990s, and it was demonstrated at The Victorian Military Society Fair in March 1994.

Richard and I will be running this game at Cruiser 2009, and today I have been making sure that all the components are undamaged after being stored for 15 years in the loft. All the models are in perfect order but the board the game is played on was not. A quick trip to my local craft store, and an hour with a pencil and long ruler, soon cured this problem and the game is ready to go.

4 comments:

  1. Looks like an interesting game...are the rules posted or available anywhere?

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  2. Nice board - and I like the islands too!

    Excellent blog, by the way - reading it has caused me to go and order Table Top Wargames for myself! :-)

    CWT

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  3. Littlejohn,

    I do not have an electronic version of the rules at present but with a bit of luck - and some spare time - I hope to add them to the blog.

    By the way, this game was designed to be played on board ship by young naval officers. It could be packed away in less than 60 seconds.

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  4. CWT,

    The playing board is made of thick mounting board and the 'islands' and cut from thin plywood that have been painted and flocked.

    You are not alone in buying these rules after reading my blog! Quite a few people have done so ... and I have had no complaints as yet! As I have said before, they are not the best laid out rules ever written but the various elements do work together and they do reflect many years of development and play-testing.

    PS. I have never met Mike or Joyce Smith (the authors) but would love to do so in order to thank them for taking the trouble to publish their rules.

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