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| As the illustration suggests, these rules were at one time available from Patrick R. Wilson's The Virtual Armchair General ("TVAG") webstore, but since seem to have been replaced by another rules set, titled "Boilers and Breechloaders" |
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| The present day ruleset, available from TVAG. Quite whether these are a development of the original "Gunboat Diplomacy" rules or an entirely original ruleset is something for Colonial Gamers to tell us... |
The virtue of the "Gunboat Diplomacy" ruleset was that it was expressly designed for 25/28mm colonial ships, all of which had to be scratchbuilt. Bob Duncan and his friends duly modelled a lot of delightful "colonial period" ships (and some that were, ummm, just a little ahistorical) and then showcased "big games" of naval action at a variety of U.S. conventions. The "pre dreadnoughts" appear to have varied between 24 - 36 inches in length, with crews sourced from a variety of 28mm manufacturers, including Foundry and Old Glory:
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| An early scratchbuilt gunboat, "The Dolphin" Plenty of room onboard for bridge crew - and a full "storming party" of colonial marines. |
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| A more powerful vessel, the "Rufiji". The hull appears to have been made from wood, with scratchbuilt main armament. The "tub like" gun emplacements seem ahistorical, but no doubt kept the 28mm gun crews neatly in place during the game... |
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| A heavily armed gunboat, "The Hussar". A simple but powerful scratchbuilt design. |
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| "The Cyclopes", the pride of the French colonial Navy. This ship looks as if it is at least 3 feet long, with heavy armament in historical armoured turrets |
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| A close up of "The Cyclopes" secondary armament and bridge crew |
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| "The Argos" - a somewhat ahistorical naval design! The rules must have given an advantage for sloped armour... |
Previous blogposts in this 'naval thread' have mused about the design compromises that have to be made for 28mm VBCW naval wargaming, including the inter-relationship between practicality, ship size, figure size and aircraft scale. Absent aircraft altogether, and with his emphasis on 28mm figures and 2/3 foot pre-dreadnought battleships, Bob Duncan appears to have found his own colonial era gaming compromise in a ruthless way - by abolishing the concept of "land" altogether (very unlike the Major-General's approach, and save for a few "placeholder" islands) - and then playing purely ship to ship actions, either on a gymnasium floor or very, very large tabletops at conventions.
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| "The Cyclopes" navigates a boundless gymnasium floor. The "naval captains" in the background give an idea of the size of the ship and playing area. |
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| A powerful Russian pre-dreadnought - its name now lost but clearly of great size and power - navigates the same "Gymnasium Sea" in a Russo-Japanese War action. In the background, a presumably exhausted "Japanese admiral" gets closer to the action - helpfully providing a size comparison. |
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| The "Japanese Main Fleet" in the same action, drawn up in line of battle. Approximate size this time from the "wargamers training shoe". |
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| Long range fire between "lines of battle". The grey battleship in the foreground is named "Derflinger", so presumably this is the German colonial fleet... |
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| "The Cyclopes" again - returning long range fire "over the horizon" at an unknown enemy. |
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| "The Hussar" again, courageously chasing down an enemy vessel... |
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| The ahistorical "Argos" again, in action against an unknown enemy... |
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| "We Happy Few" - 28mm naval captains at the Russo - Japanese War game. Ships and islands in foreground. Clearly, the playing area was larger than a basketball court... |
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| In memoriam the late Bob Duncan, here standing beside his co-captain, David Raybin, with "The Cyclopes" and other vessels in the foreground. |
Note: all photographs from the net, principally (I think) by David Raybin from TMP.
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