Blog Comments

  1. Ozariig's Avatar
    It's a few months later and I'm going through exactly the same stuff you did on the production value, minus the mast repair. I'm a modeller too so it's not a dealbreaker for me, but I do feel like it is somewhat of a missed opportunity for Ares. A game's "cool" factor gets multiplied 10 times if the components are well crafted, in my opinion :)
  2. Union Jack's Avatar
    I use Langton 1/1200 ships and rules, at present, on a standard width of 40mm and the longest base being 85mm. At the club we just fought a 14 ship engagement (7 each side) on a 6x4 table. Movement at full sail was an impressive 180mm, down to 90mm at easy sail. We fought a close engagement from 7.30pm ending at 10pm. French down 4 ships to the British 2. We tacked, turned gave broadside and rake and not one ship left the table. Max gunnery range is 700mm, so well in excess of 2 feet.

    With cards for movement I would expect/presume it would be easier. Perhaps I'm wrong ?
  3. Union Jack's Avatar
    I'm tending towards a magnetic option so you can pick up the ship card and nothing falls off/moves etc.
  4. Kentop's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by David Manley
    I guess from the sound of that you have some issues with the way the game works?
    You bet I do. There are much better simulations out there. SOG is what I call an "entry level" napoleonic war-game. It's fast and fun and you don't have to create your own ships and learn a bunch of arcane rules. SOG lets you jump right in start fighting immediately. It's a gateway drug to better systems. Which is all good. I love the game. When you play it, you aren't worrying about some obscure rule about wearing a full rigged ship in high winds, you are simply trying to bring your guns to bear as close as possible without getting shot to pieces first. It's a great starter game, and allows non-modelers a chance to send a fleet into battle without painstakingly having to create the ships to scale. Long after SOG has ceased to operate like Avalon Hill, SPI, Strategy and Tactics, etc., Ares models will be traded and sold for Napoleonic warfare games for decades to come.
  5. David Manley's Avatar
    I guess from the sound of that you have some issues with the way the game works?
  6. 7eat51's Avatar
    I would enjoy playing a larger scale, or playing surface, game one day. I think with a couple of ships, having such space available could make for interesting tactical choices. I think when playing on the game mats, players mentally adjust to the smaller space without realizing it, never considering other options that being on the open sea could induce. I imagine, though, that such a game would require very patient players.

    At Origins, the use of the laminated ship logs was well received. It made running the games easier; players were able to carry them around the table as desired; set up and tear down was quicker; there weren't concerns about bumping the table or dragging one's shirt across the log when trying to reach the middle of the game surface. I will never go back.
  7. Kentop's Avatar
    I think that is an excellent solution. Simply replace the chits after recording the damage. I scanned all the counters in before I burst them, so I will just make duplicates for the sole purpose of recording the damage and return the actual chits to the pile to be drawn again.

    A ship base is three inches long and will travel at least the 1 to 1/2 times that length every movement turn. That means that a ship on average will cover one foot of distance (if sailing in a straight line) in about 4 movement turns. The game mat they sell is only 26" wide by 39". I think that's pretty cramped for most scenarios, especially if it involves giving chase. In reality, square riggers of the napoleonic era probably averaged around 10 miles per hour under full sail and moderate winds. That translates to about 8 or 9 hundred feet per minute. HMS Victory was about 230 feet long, which means in one minute under full sail, it would travel about 4 times it's length. So the scale of travel in SOG isn't very accurate. It might be worth experimenting with longer, more accurate movement cards and using a large space like a floor to simulate real sailing speeds and turns, But I like the "feel" of ship movement in this game as is. I will play around with realistic travel distances after I have played a few dozen games in order to see if it plays better with more realistic travel.
  8. 7eat51's Avatar
    I, too, am not a fan of sailing off the mat resulting in a loss. I think, though, that can create a problem, conceptually, when one of the objectives is to sail a ship from one side off the other, e.g. convoys. Conceptual accuracy and game objectives do not need to be completely aligned, IMHO. I am not sure how I will handle such things when running any form of tournament.

    As for damage, we had a lively discussion or two on this. I use laminated ship logs, replacing the chits after recording the damage. I also use multiple sets of chits. The probabilities remain the same, but in any given turn, there are multiples of each present as a possible draw.
  9. 7eat51's Avatar
    Some of us are replacing the game logs/mats with laminated sheets - much easier, needs less space, mobile during play, etc.

    If you find the ships and bases too problematic in terms of manufacturing tolerances, contact Ares. They have been responsive to others' problems.