This coming Sunday, August 6th, is International Naval Wargames Day. It is on the birthday of naval wargames innovator Fred Janes and it is a day to remember by playing a naval war game. I’m not quite sure who began the Janes’ day remembrance, but certainly a person with a huge megaphone has been David Manley. For those who don’t know David, he is a British naval architect who has worked in design for the Royal Navy and is presently on the faculty at University College London. David has done tons of great stuff for the hobby including rules development, including “Fire When Ready” and “Narrow Seas”, his company, Long Face games designs loads of STL’s for American Civil War ships in 1/700th scale.

Just as importantly, David had a great relationship with my friend Dave Schueler. Shoe did lots of work on the Harpoon modern naval game system, and I suspect they became friends around that game. Through that relationship, Dave and I were able to gain David’s trust with a couple of his developing rules sets including “Lord of the Seas” and “Airwar 1940.” Manley’s rules really resonated with us and they frequently became our go-to when considering new projects.

Shoe was very good at remembering and honoring INWD. He’d drag out a naval board game and have at. I’ve always been terrible about doing solitaire stuff. It is much better for me to use my time painting. Because the 6th is, well, the 6th and could be any day of the week instead of a weekend, it was easy for me to forget and didn’t coincide with a day I could get with Dave.

We never talked seriously about it, but I always had a dream. It was a simple one. My dream was that Shoe and I would someday hop on a plane and make our way to Yeovilton or wherever David Manley was hosting his annual INWD game. Dave and I would make our way to the naval museum at Portsmouth, and somehow we’d get to Manley’s farm to pet the llamas. I don’t know if it was Dave’s dream, but it was definitely mine.

This year the 6th falls on on a Sunday. Unfortunately it is also Ringo’s first day of puppy training, so INWD is a no go for me. But I’ve invited my very best group of wargaming buddies to Chez Smyth for an early Fred Jane remembrance on Saturday the 5th . We’ll be playing a scenario from the Monroe’s Legacy scenario book, Battle of Cienfuegos, with a hypothetical encounter between Cerveras’ cruisers and Schley’s flying squadron. Rules are “Fire When Ready,” Manley’s pre-dreadnought rules of course. It’s smallish, but should be fun enough to keep six players occupied for a few hours. I don’t have a game room. We’ll play outdoors under the shade of my big maple and a pop up canopy. Then we’ll have lunch and hoist a cool one in honor of David and Dave. There will be puppies. Letcha know how it goes.