All,

Signal Flags were by their very nature intended to be seen, the only questions would be whether or not they could be seen, given smoke, flame mist, fog or precipitation and whether they were understood.

It was I believe a common ruse-de-guerre to hoist signals to ships which may be over the horizon to an enemy, such as “enemy in sight”, even if the ship in question believed itself to be alone in the area.

I suggest that for a “campaign” each nation develops its own a signal book, and one is carried upon every ship (see below).

The signals are therefore not known to the enemy, with the exception of any standard signals, more related to safety, such as;

I am dragging my anchor.

Plague on board


Any other signals are hoisted, on the premise that the “enemy” will not understand them.

They will be visible at distances to be agreed prior to the game. They will even be visible off table.

The chances of understanding and responding to an order will be laid out in a table, depending upon sea conditions and the condition of the signaller / viewer.

An enemy has a chance of deciphering a signal, although ideally, this would require umpire involvement, and with the way I expect the games to run, I see little point.

If a ship is captured there will be a chance that the signal book for that nation, for that time will be captured.

Signals were not just changed on a whim, ships on the other side of the world would need notification of any changes, ships using old signal books may be treated with suspicion.

Once an enemy signal book is captured, the information can be passed around the enemy’s fleet, but this will take time, requiring the book to be copied, and physically transported to each ship. I don’t think that most SoG gamers are going to bother.

As most games will be one off affairs and as we all have the eye of god when we are playing, I think that this will be a huge step too far.

I also think that for most engagements, ships will be seen to be as manoeuvrable as a Wings of War / Glory biplane, will be turning on a sixpence / dime and the idea of a line of battle will be something for the historians. I think gamers will see it (the line of battle) as dull, the gun ranges are too short to allow proper battle lines to be drawn. This is an inevitable consequence of needing to be able to play over a small playing area such as a kitchen table rather than a large floor.

Effective range of a 36 pounder (from wiki) was; -

Maximum: 3700 metres (4 046 yards or a little over two nautical miles).

Practical range: 650 metres

At a scale of 1/1000, the scale of the models practical range would be 650 millimetres a little over 2 feet and Maximum range would be 3.7 metres a little over 12 feet.

Does this matter, I don’t think so, I see SoG as a primer for those who will eventually become wargamers to game the age of sail, or wargamers who want to dip their toes into warfare in the age of sail, without getting into the period too deeply.

It is after all a game, we are talking about playing with toy ships at the end of the day.

rabbit