Battle of Lissa at Cold Wars

Quick AAR of the Battle of Lissa game I ran at Cold Wars in Lancaster PA last weekend (after the snow storm!). I am using Bob's (HMS Lydia) materials including laminated ship logs and custom ship base cards. Although one of the new reprints is a ship from this battle, HMS Amphion.

The game lasted approximately 3 1/2 hours with 8 players (2 having played before) including rules explanation and ended in a French tactical victory. I used advanced rules with some modification and house rules (collisions, special damage, and entanglement). I didn't use veer (all maneuverable frigates anyway) and we didn't worry about actions until ships started taking damage. I returned the chits to the bags after each pull and that seemed to work except for one long run of '0" pulls from the 'E' bag. The British made the fatal mistake of splitting their ships, although it may have been unintentional. One of the French columns when right in to close action including boarding. One of the photos shows a big furball in which 2 French ships boarded one British ship.

Everyone had fun and one of the players later bought a starter set and all the 1st wave ships. My main goal as a GM is to keep the game moving and action fast paced. I think the laminated ship logs are a considerable benefit when running a convention game. I also noticed a lot of people stopping by to watch the game (the LED lights certainly bring people over anyway).

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Thanks for the AAR and nice photos. You did a commendable job as GM if one of your crew followed up with a purchase of the Starter set and all the Wave 1 ships. :salute:

Three cheers for LED smoke markers. :wink:

Top-notch Eric. Keep spreading the word. Looked like a fun time.

Appears everyone wasted little time getting into the action, and picked up the rules very quickly! A big plus for running games at a con, as it allows the GM to keep the game moving keeping the interest high in the minds of the players!!

Very nice pictures! Good to hear the game inspires new players.

I really should get those led lights...

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Originally Posted by Nightmoss

Thanks for the AAR and nice photos. You did a commendable job as GM if one of your crew followed up with a purchase of the Starter set and all the Wave 1 ships. :salute:

Three cheers for LED smoke markers. :wink:

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Indeed! On both Counts - Great Stuff!

Eric, did you alter the victory conditions (or I should ask what were your victory conditions)? I made it easy for the French even though they had the poor gunnery rule. What evened it out was one of the French players ignored the victory conditions and went hunting redcoats.

Looks like everyone had a great time.

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Originally Posted by HMS Lydia

Eric, did you alter the victory conditions (or I should ask what were your victory conditions)? I made it easy for the French even though they had the poor gunnery rule. What evened it out was one of the French players ignored the victory conditions and went hunting redcoats.

Looks like everyone had a great time.

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Yes I did. French had to take out at least one British ship and get 50% of the squadron off the map to satisfy a tactical victory - or they could just disable 3 British ships for a major victory. Something like that anyway. I wanted to avoid the French just sailing off the board and leaving the British intact.

Just catching up with all this action Eric, and could not pass by this one without saying thanks for posting the photos.
Rob.

Nice action and pics from the con Eric. Well done. Any chance of posting the game details? Would be nice to give it a try.