"Yo ho ho, Its a Pirates life for me"
With a few gamers in the local area looking at playing Legends of the High Seas I started to look at 28mm scale ships, cannons, scenery and such.
With the help of the Lead Adventure Forum and the Cianty Blog I discovered there were all sorts of options all over the world.
The problem with the large ships most of the time seems to be shipping. Some can almost double in price going from US to UK. Luckily my favourite models came from 3 UK companies and 1 EU company.
For this post I'm going to show my favourite pieces from each of the companies in 6 categories.
Small ships, Medium ships, Large ships, Boats, Cannons + Equipment and Scenery.
I hope this helps all of the local players and any other players around the country.
(click on any pics to view larger)
Small Ships 6-9"
First up is my favourite of the small ships. The 9" Sea Dog from Games of War.
Well detailed and a great price. You do need to buy the equipment separately but that not bad as its only a couple of squid a pack.
Next up are 3 alternate ships. All from Minimi. The 8" Pinnace, 8" Small Sloop and the 9" Junk.
The first 2 are nice basic boats at a good price. The Junk gives a very different feel. Have an Asian or even elven crew? The Junk is the ship for you.
Medium Ships 10-15"
The ship I liked the most in this size bracket has to be the Ainsty Castings 14" Merchantman. Includes all shown in the picture.
They also make a smaller 12" sloop if the Merchantman isn't your tankard of rum.
Another very nice option in this size is the 14" Sea Prince from Games of War. Although it doesn't have the extra parts, its abit cheaper and has laser-cut decking. Perfect for any game of Legends of the High Seas.
If the above ships are abit out of your price range there are a couple of other options from Minimi. The 12" single mast Sloop and the 14" double mast Brig. Simple but effective.
Large Ships 16"+
Time for the big ladies! Well lady anyway.
On my search there was 1 and only 1 ship of this size and good enough quality. Amazing quality in fact.
The 18" Man of War from Ainsty Castings . WOW!
Yes, it does include ALL of those cannons!
Small Boats 4-6"
There is no point in having a large ship if you cant get to and from the shore. That's where the small boats come in.
There are several nice options for these.
From Games of War you have the 5" Jolly Boat (1st pic) and the 6" Sea Pup (2nd pic)
Both are open inside so very easy to fit models on bases in.
The Ainsty Castings options are also nice.
An open wooden raft with sail and a small row boat. The row boat doesn't have room for more than 1 base but the detail and quality makes up for that.
Cannons + Equipment
In Legends of the High Sea there are 3 sizes of cannon. So with that in mind I have picked, yep, 3 Cannons!
The small cannon from Games of War (1st pic), medium cannon from Minimi (2nd pic) and large cannon from Thomarillion (3rdpic). The large cannon also comes exactly as shown. The metal is pre treated.
If you want ship equipment then Games of War is the place to go. They have everything from gun ports to helm wheels and swivel guns to rigging gear. Even a LotHS template kit!
Scenery
The scenery options are almost endless. Where has your ship sailed? Where have you docked?
I don't really have an overall favourite here. Just some very very nice stuff from 3 of the 4 companies.
Lets start with the bow and stern islands of the Dark Revenge from Thomarillion. Stunning!
Ainsty Castings have a great selection of trade goods and jetties
And to finish off the pics in this post, pirate port buildings and sea rocks from Games of War
So there we have it. My selection for playing Legends of the High Sea in the UK.
You will be seeing lots more of most of these products on here in the near future including building, painting and reviews.
Which do you prefer?
Have I missed out anything?
Hendybadger out
