I looked up Trafalgar and as far as I can tell it's a set of rules but you have to source your own ships? I looked up Langton ships and they're gorgeous, but I'd probably need to source something from here in the states. The rulebook is out of print though right?
And although I thought I'd never get into historicals, do you have any recommendations for rank and file, big block unit historicals? Maybe Napoleonics but definitely something like ancient Greeks or Romans. I think those are generally 6mm scale.
And thanks for the suggestion.
Hey there, Langton ships are probably the best 1:1200 scale Napoleonic ships you can get. They're definitely not inexpensive though. Each ship will run about $20+ USD since you have to buy the Hulls, Sail Sets (they make several different kinds depending on how you want to model your ship), Resin bases, Ratlines and Pennants all separately. I get all my ships from
Brookhurst Hobbies located in Southern California. They carry the entire Langton range including the Trafalgar starter sets Langton makes. If you're interested in checking out the rules, PM me and I'll help you out.
If you're interested in 6mm Historicals but nothing completely crazy i.e. having to do historical research to build your force (lots of Napoleonic rulesets require you to do this) I recommend a game called Blücher by
Sam Mustafa Publishing. The game is card based where a group of men is represented by a poker card with stats. Some people paint up 6mm models to put on top of the cards to give it a little more character. It's pretty easy to get into if you've never played a historical war game before. If you want something a little more grognard check out
Age of Eagles. I have yet to play this game, but it's pretty popular among the Nappy crowd at my LGS. The rules are for 15mm models, but can be converted to 6mm I believe. This is a game where you would be researching historical battles and building accurate forces accordingly. I believe in the 2nd Ed. they came up with rules on building an army from points, but I haven't looked too deeply into it.
If you're looking for something in the Ancients realm, I can recommend Warmaster Ancients. It uses 10mm miniatures which you can get from a ton of different manufacturers and was written by Rick Priestly of Games Workshop fame. I don't play Ancients, but I do play the Warhammer Fantasy equivalent and it's quite fun. Again if you're looking for the rules, message me.
Hope the above helps! Here's a shot of my painted British Langton ships for Trafalgar. Just need to add some pennants and then they're done. The rigging was done using very fine thread: