Those Who Seek Death – Asian Naval Rules

[DM]

Those that know me will be aware that I’ve had a bit of the “thing” about Medieval and Renaissance (to apply European temporal definitions) naval warfare, kicked off by the wonderful Osprey Vanguard books on the subjects from many years ago, and spurred on by my working with the Korean Navy for a while.  Despite the weird (to Western eyes) and wonderful designs its not really been a subject for naval wargaming before. I started work on a set of tactical rules just after the Osprey books came out but they never went anywhere until MT Miniatures released their 1/1200 range earlier this year. Those rules, “At The Height of Battle” are sold by MT in hard copy (although a PDF will be out in a few months). I also started a set of fleet level rules based on my ancient fleet action set (which began life in a former hospice in northern Spain in around 2001, but thats another story), and this weekend I completed and published those through Wargame Vault.

“Those Who Seek Death” follows the “Fire and Fury-esque” approach that I adopted for my ancient rules and adapts them to suit Chinese, Japanese and Korean naval warfare from the 10th to 16th centuries. The focus is on the Imjin Wars, of the late 1500s as they are probably the most familiar and accessible to readers – they also feature the famous “Turtle Ship”, and Korean national hero Admiral Yi Sun Shin (whose pithy quotes provide the titles for my rules), but you can go back and refight epic Chinese dynastic naval and riverine battles back to the 1100s as well. The fleet action rules use bases representing groups of ships and were designed around using bases with multiple models on them, so 1/2400 is ideal and the new range in that scale from Tumbling Dice is ideal.

The rules themselves are now available from Wargame Vault. Naval wargaming is a niche within a niche, and I’m well aware that this era of naval wargaming is a niche in itself (niche^3) but there are many varied and interesting campaigns that can be played out, and the ships themselves do look rather lovely 🙂

[DM]

I forgot to add, I’ve worked up a set of 3D models featuring groups of ships on 40mm square bases for those who like to print their own. The first set includes Japanese and Korean ships for the Imjin War, set 2 will feature  Chinese ships from the 10th to 14th centuries.

 

[DM]

I’ve just posted the first of a series of scenarios covering the Imjin War, a free download on Wargame Vault

Battle of Hansan Do

[Author]

Posts