What accessories would you recommend?

Greetings all! I am getting back into Sails after a long and still ongoing affair with Wings of Glory. But the Napoleonic wars are still my first love. With getting back on the Anchorage, I have seen a plethora of new add-ons, game aides, table dressing, and overall awesomeness! What things would you recommend I add to my game that you find is just essential to your enjoyment of Sails? I can’t seem to find a thread discussing add-ons and accessories anywhere. Looking for things that I can purchase or make home-brew.

Looking forward to some great suggestions!

Two things that I have found of inestimable use are models of sinking ships,

https://sailsofglory.org/content.php...o-make-a-wreck

and status markers.

Attachment 39423

Attachment 39424

You can also have some fun making your own coastal strips.

https://sailsofglory.org/content.php...on-in-sequence

Hope this helps Nick.

Rob.

Rob, this is exactly the kind of stuff I am looking for! You are an inspiration to all aspiring hobbyists. I have long appreciated your work here on the Anchorage.

Thanks Nick.
Glad to be of help.

You can see some of my markers in action in their holders here, along with ship name cards. Very handy when writing up AARs.


https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....5&d=1535486089

Rob (and others), when using your fortification models in battles, how do you determine firing arcs? Do you just give it a guess or do you have arc templates that you use?

Anyone else have thoughts on game-improving-accessories that I should look into? Ship-mat holders? Model terrain elements like shoals and reefs? Measuring devices? Table dressing? Looking forward to the input!

Good evening Nick. if we are doing a general scenario, I use the nearest arc for the fort from the Ares printed set and also their stats. If for a special scenario, or historical action as near to the actual fortifications as we can get.
Sometimes I mark the scenario set up fire angles on the set up map.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....4&d=1490866371

Rob.

Rob, that’s great! Thanks. I wondered if you had made fire arc templates for while in game or not when using the fort models versus the Ares fort tiles. Julian’s fort model that you have is a beast and wondered how you would set up arcs for that thing. Thanks for the responses Rob. I really appreciate the feedback.

Morning Nick.
You can see the arcs for that scenario has Julian's fort with arcs for her batteries marked down in dressmaker's chalk. For general firing without the island in the way you could extend the arc C on the Left side to reach the arc A and the faint Arc C writing which I had half rubbed out just above the castle.
Rob.

Rob, thanks for all the replies! Do you find yourself using the official ship logs and mats when you play or do you use something else? I find my table getting rather jumbled with all the bits needed to keep the ship logs organized. I have seen the grease-pencil logs and think they are great, but my love of tactile game pieces prevents me from going this route. Has anyone come up with other ideas for keeping pieces organized during game play without foregoing the use of the game pieces entirely?

Also, I just wanted to thank you Rob for giving me some feedback and thoughts. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to this amature’s questions and musings.

Hi Nick.
For battles of up to four ships a side I have room for the official ship logs. For larger battles I use the paper logs encapsulated in plastic and a dry wipe board marker. Easily cleaned off with Baby wipes. I know what you mean about using the chits, but for space and time factors the wipe off logs are invaluable.
Rob.

One thing I have found of use is to place a backing card to the ship mats, this way the inserts remain in place, as well as attendant cards and chits , if you have to move the mats for whatever reason.
Another useful little tool is a laser pointer which helps with the LOS and to check if in arc, you can get these pretty cheap but its the line version not dot versions that are used.

Thanks so much for the ideas Chris! I was trying to think of something similar to the backing sheets for the ship logs. I’ve been trying to think of something like a grid overlay with higher sides to keep the chits in place. Or maybe magnetic chits... that seems like a dangerous rabbit hole tho...

Here is a picture of the Laser pointer that Chris mentioned in use on my game Nick.


https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....2&d=1534099569

and here a mat with its backing nicked from Chris's idea.

Attachment 39549

Rob.

Like Rob, I also have made a copy of all my ship logs, official and unofficial as I found some of the jigsaw joints were starting to lft. So a personal copy made then laminated and cut to size. This way I can either use a dry wipe pen or a replacement to use on the ship mat and thus preserving my originals. An idea I would recommend using

That’s a really good idea Chris! Thanks for the thoughts. I don’t play nearly enough and I already worry about the separating card stock and cardboard pieces. I shall have to fire up the scanner!

Does anyone else find themselves losing track of what phase of gameplay they are in? Especially when you have to walk away from a game in progress? I have been trying to come up with a good way of tracking what phase the game is in (Planning, Movement, etc). Any ideas for me?

Not me, but I want to show you another helpful accessoire:

https://www.sailsofglory.org/showthr...ol-made-in-USA

Sven, that is brilliant! I was trying to think of something else to use as a range ruler. I was hoping for a more thematic range ruler, but I haven’t been able to come up with anything yet. I have one for WoG that I made that is supposed to look like tracer rounds, but I haven’t figured out how to implement something like that for SoG.

Thanks for the link to the post on this. I will have to see what I can come up with that could be similar and still thematic.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TalkMonkey

Does anyone else find themselves losing track of what phase of gameplay they are in? Especially when you have to walk away from a game in progress? I have been trying to come up with a good way of tracking what phase the game is in (Planning, Movement, etc). Any ideas for me?

---

I photograph each key stage in my games, and although not all pictures make it to the screen they do help when writing up the story line,
Rob.

Yeah Rob, I could imagine that would help with keeping things organized. I just find when I come back to a game from the night before (or the week before, as life sometimes seems to dictate) I forget what phase exactly I am in. And when we get caught up checking rules (the rare chance I get to play with actual people), we easily forget what phase we are in. I was thinking something simple like a compass type design to denote the phase of play we are in. Seems like most people don’t have my same problem tho. Thanks for the feedback, chaps!

Any other aides that you fine folks can recommend I pick up or make? I love the ideas you have given me so far! Status markers, laser pointer for arcs, Terrain (in the works!), range rulers, backing for the ship logs (or laminated logs)... I thirst for more things to make!

You could have a go at these Nick.

https://sailsofglory.org/content.php...o-make-a-wreck.

It adds to the drama when you have to navigate your squadron around one of these instead of just removing the battered ship from the table.

Rob.

Luckily I am ok with keeping track, but there are times it goes out the window.
So I been toying with the idea of either a flip chart, laminated for each of the phases, or making a magnetic flow type chart as a visual aide.
I have made a sequence of play to help but this was more for getting the actions correct and not to keep track of the phase.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bligh

You could have a go at these Nick.

https://sailsofglory.org/content.php...o-make-a-wreck.

It adds to the drama when you have to navigate your squadron around one of these instead of just removing the battered ship from the table.

Rob.

---

Rob,
I have studied your work on this one and I would absolutely LOVE to make some wrecked/run-aground/on-fire ships, but I can’t bring myself to sacrifice any of my limited models. Do you know of any threads for scratch building a hull and then destroying it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Capn Duff

Luckily I am ok with keeping track, but there are times it goes out the window.
So I been toying with the idea of either a flip chart, laminated for each of the phases, or making a magnetic flow type chart as a visual aide.
I have made a sequence of play to help but this was more for getting the actions correct and not to keep track of the phase.

---

Chris, I really like the idea of a chart to keep things organized and rules straight. I’ll have to give this a think. Thanks for the ideas!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TalkMonkey

Rob,
I have studied your work on this one and I would absolutely LOVE to make some wrecked/run-aground/on-fire ships, but I can’t bring myself to sacrifice any of my limited models. Do you know of any threads for scratch building a hull and then destroying it?

---

No thread that I know of, but it is easy to buy a Langton Hull and convert it.

Rob.

Thanks Rob. Does anyone reading this know where I can get some hulls at this scale in the states? Maybe the cheapest option would be to make some wrecked ships from scratch. Might be beyond my ken though. Thanks for the ideas folks. I will gladly take some more!

http://volsminiatures.blogspot.com/2...s-leopard.html

If any one else is looking to do some scratch building, Vol here, did some great work and made it look easy! I’m sure it isn’t, but I may give it a go. We’ll see how it turns out

Thanks for posting that link Nick. There were a couple of tricks there that even I have not used.
Another good way to harden soft items is with several coats of watered down PVA wood glue. This allows fine detail to remain visible. Applied to cotton or thread bindings it makes them solid. I use it on model seige engines and it has never let me down yet even with the forces acting on them.
Rob.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TalkMonkey

Thanks Rob. Does anyone reading this know where I can get some hulls at this scale in the states? Maybe the cheapest option would be to make some wrecked ships from scratch. Might be beyond my ken though. Thanks for the ideas folks. I will gladly take some more!

---

Langton has two distributors in the US, including Michigan.

http://www.rodlangton.com/intntnl.htm