Using terrain in the battlefield.

Ahoy, mates!

As most of you know, I have been working on some terrain for Sails of Glory in a thread over the chippy shop. I have 4 pieces (2 small, 2 large) ready by now.

http://www.sailsofglory.org/showthre...orial-of-sorts

When I finished my first terrain piece, I eagerly played a game using it as a centerpiece, but it was a flop. The terrain piece was splitting both fleets and engaging each other was pretty hard. Therefore both fleets were sailing in circles around the island, recreating a long chase instead of a battle. Very historically accurate, but not nearly as exciting.

Now, since I think I have learned my lesson (no islands big enough to be capable of blocking 3 firing arcs at once in the center of the table) and I have more terrain pieces avaliable, I have designed a series of battlefields using them, and I submit them looking for your feedback.

The scenarios are drawn over a 30*30 cm grid. (300m*300m in Sails of Glory scale) for your convenience. These are designed just as plain old battles for two balanced fleets. Narrative scenarios may come later after I get more experience, but designing a balanced battlefield was the main focus today. The only "geographically accurate" scenario happens to be battlefield 08, which reproduces the Saint Marcouf islands north of France in silhouette and position in relation to each other.

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I expect you to help me answering the following questions. is the amount of open sea enough for ships to maneuver? Is there way too much water to guarantee a fulfilling battle? Is the terrain getting in the way? Is the wind blowing in a direction which favours a certain fleet? Any glaring mistakes I made? Any tips, general or specific?

Thanks a lot for your time and expertise.

Just a quick overview. Re position of islands no bother to me. As far as that goes you have answered your own question. Unless it is part of the plot or historically correct avoid islands in the middle of the mat. I would say the game surface is OK if you bare in mind for small ship actions a smaller mat will keep them in contact better and speed up the game rather than have them wandering off all over a large area.
Now the wind. In one the wind favours red, In 5 the wind favours yellow and they should get to the island choke point in time to dictate the action. Eight gives yellow the wind but should no influence things too much. In thirteen the wind favours yellow strongly. If I were playing these scenarios, I would give your less experienced player the wind advantage.
I am sure that better sailors than I will come along to offer their expertise, and Raffer J Larwood can tell you all about the dangers of running onto islands.

Rob.