Which Naval rules do you play with most often?
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Which Naval rules do you play with most often?
WS&IM by avalon hill
Wooden Ships and Iron Men and modified Fighting Sail.
Form Line of Battle 2 for general actions
My own fast play set for big fleet actions when I don't have much time
A historical variant of "Man o War" for small ship actions
WSIM and occasional Frigate (SPI)
oh boy, bring back the old stuff, Broadsides, Fighting Sail... but not quite as much fun as WS&IM.
I have a copy in a box somewhere. Haven't seen if for a few years though :)Quote:
Huh -- someone else has a copy? Thought I was alone out here....
I've actually got two copies of Frigate...! You need the Moves magazine article to correct the small ship unit values to fix one of the major problems with the game.
here you go Chris, from Moves #25
Although I cut my teeth on WSIM, I have lately taken to Langton's Signal Close Action fast play. Paperwork is minimal, and they are great for getting into a good bit of action in a short amount of time. We only have about three hours to play on a weeknight, so these fill the bill. We were playing Trafalgar but the Dutch and English players couldn't accept that the Spanish could actually win!
Tell them it's not the Spaniards fault that none of the English players were named Nelson.
It's tactics, without sounding catty. Every fight the Anglo-Dutch would split forces, send one part sailing another direction while sending the other part headlong into the combined Franco-Spanish fleet. I guess there wasn't a Nelson there when they needed one!
Rob,
Excuse my ignorance but, why do you call the British fleet at Trafalgar the Anglo-Dutch fleet? I thought by 1805 the fleet (at Trafalgar) was made up of all English ships.
Ed
Oops...sorry for the confusion! I meant when we were playing the rules set "Trafalgar", not refighting the battle. Although those rules are not perfect, one of the things I like about them is that it's not assumed the Spanish (or French, for that matter) will always stink. My "Spanish" ally also rolled some rather good dice when his heavily armed ships let loose broadsides, which didn't hurt us either!
But anyway, that's what I meant, Gunner...the rules, not the battle.
Thanks for straightening me out. Not confused anymore.
Right click on the picture and "save image as"
I din't know about Chris, but it doesn't work for me. When I right click, the save as is faded out.
I'm using Google Chrome and it works fine. I've just tried with Internet Explorer and it doesn't even show the image (I'm only seeing the dreaded red cross in the box) so i guess its a browser issue? Happy to email you a copy if you want.
I'm using Firefox and it is easy to save, I can email to you as well if needed.
David, I'd appreciate a copy if you could - I use AOL and it does not want to come across at all.
I'll put a vote in for Rod Langton's Fast Play rules as well, obviously I usually default to Clear for Action for play but for those times when you don't have a PC to hand ...
If you have a copy of Rod's excellent (but very advanced) Signal Close Action rules you can take some elements of these and port over to the Fast Play according to your preference.
Best regards,
Mark Barker
The Inshore Squadron
Hey, Mark, I've heard of your rules but never tried them. Somewhere I saw they might be available as a free download? Free or not, how would one go about finding them?
thanks,
Rob
Rob,
Yes, that's right. CFA is a free download these days as the programmer (Malcolm Smalley) has given permission.
Malcolm is one of the founder members of the Squadron, credit where credit is due they are his rules not mine !
To get a copy (and this goes for any Anchorage member) just drop me a line at markvbarker@aol.com and I'll send you a link to download the programme.
It will run directly on Windows PCs up to Windows XP, later than that you will run it via a DOS emulator such as Virtual PC or Dosbox. I run mine through Windows 7 with Dosbox with no problems.
Best regards,
Mark Barker
The Inshore Squadron
Got it -- if no one minds, I'll see about transcribing it here later.
As we wait for the release of Sails of Glory, I was wondering what mini rules folks are using. I started collecting Pirates of the Spanish Main ships, and wouldn't mind playing some minis games. If you respond, please indicate if the rules are basic or detailed, if they are good for introducing others to minis, etc. I have been introducing some friends to Wings of War/Glory and they really enjoy the game. I wouldn't mind testing the waters with sea battles. Thanks.
Form Line of Battle - Basic, but with advanced rules that you can use to add more detail as and when you wish
I've been playing Wooden Ships & Iron Men using a hex marked sea colored mat with my GHQ miniatures.
Kiss Me Hardy by Too Fat Lardies
David, I saw that you have your own set of rules over on TMP. Are you using them?
Available from A&A Game Engineering:
http://www.aandagames.co.uk/form_line_of_battle.htm
I play with the plastc ships of the "pirates of the..." series with the original and some homemade rules (Wind etc.), captured from the net. And I w ill try rules like line of battle with these ships. But I´m waiting for Sails of Glory!
The first set of miniatures rules I bought was Warhammer's Trafalgar. I feel like I own the only copy in Idaho, if not, I'm likely the only one to have bought it off a store shelf here. :)
After reading the rules, trying to figure out how they arrived at the ship stats they had when comparing them to historical references, and playing a couple of games of it I gave up on it. I've never come to appreciate the Warhammer game mechanics, in any of the several periods and settings I've tried them in. I still have a hard time envisioning what a 200 foot long wooden ship would do to 'save' vs 900 pounds of iron shot coming at it from 100 feet away. The pictures were awesome though and I think that was the main attraction at the store.
I quickly moved to Rod Langton's Signal Close Action & the Fast Play version of that. I like the mechanics more, the core rules are VERY detailed, and the fast play rules are a good compromise between detail and speed of play. I also recommend his guide to painting the miniature. While not as flashy as the warhammer publication, I found it to be more complete and useful.
my 2 pence
Leif