Probably the simplest and most colorful group of vehicles available to the gamer are the warships of the 18th and early 19th century. This period has the romance of faraway places and epic battles that has inspired more than one author. There are multiple rules sets to chose from and several manufacturers of lead miniatures in a variety of scales.

These particular ships are made by Figurehead, a British company. Because of this, American distribution can be spotty but the ships can usually be found. Ships can be purchased individually or as fleet sets. The ship designs are generic though the super large ships would clearly only belong in certain fleets. The scale is 1/2400, pretty small though reasonable and providing a reasonable match for common size hex mats either bridging two hexes or resting in one.

Painting is tricky. The ships include a reasonable amount of detail on the deck including ship’s guns but like most of the Figurehead output, there is not the precision that one associates with a manufacturer like GHQ who offer a similar but more expensive range in 1/1200 scale. The most interesting ships I have seen are produced by Langton Miniatures.

Some popular rules for this period include Close Action, Heart of Oak, and Ship o’ the Line. The beauty of these miniatures is that it is not necessary to own hundreds.