My Age of Sail Flip-Flop

Once upon a time I played in a Wooden Ships and Iron Men Age of Sail game (with miniatures) hosted by a good gaming friend of mine at a gaming convention.  We'll call his name Dan.  It was such good fun.  I was hooked.  I had never played Wooden Ships and Iron Men before and the 1:1200 Langton Miniatures looked great.  I started to build up my reference material related to Age of Sail and ended up acquiring the ship miniatures from Dan.  I bought some miniatures myself and finished a schooner and frigate.  I was off and running into the Age of Sail miniature wargaming.

My Langton Miniatures frigate

Then some things happened shortly after starting into Age of Sail.  The miniatures from Dan actually made their way back to him.  That was not a problem, I was off and running with my purchased Age of Sail new packs of miniatures.  When I finished the schooner and frigate I discovered I did not like putting together the Langton Miniatures.  I blame the cost of the miniatures and trying to do the rigging.  It killed my interest in Age of Sail.  I had so many other wargaming interests, I bailed on Age of Sail completely.  I sold off my reference books and miniatures.  I only kept the Wooden Ships and Iron Men game and my frigate.  I kept the frigate as proof that I had actually finished a Langton Miniatures ship.  I was done with Age of Sail.

Something sparked my interest again in Age of Sail.  I can't place my finger on it, but having the Wooden Ships and Iron Men game on my shelf probably had something to do with it.  I had always thought if I got back into the era I would give 1:2400 scale a go, rather than 1:1200.  For some reason I have chosen the Battle of Gogland (1788) between Sweden and Russia.  I guess I have to continue my trend of picking obscure historic battles.  I picked up the Blue Cross White Ensign boardgame (a Flying Colors series game).  I have played out the battle with both Wooden Ships and Iron Men and the Blue Cross White Ensign.  It plays out well with either rules.  The miniatures have been ordered and received.  Assembly has started.  A 1" hex blue mat has been ordered.

Battle of Gogland

I think it should be a fun battle.  It is certainly fun to assemble the 1:2400 Tumbling Dice miniatures (with less rigging planned) and either ruleset.  I am currently leaning towards the Flying Colors rules.  In the future, I have a couple non-hex fleet rules to try out.

3rd Rate 60/64 ships ready to be primed

Ships ready for their sails to be glued on.