Flatcon Demo Game

[7eat51]

This evening, we demoed SoG at Flatcon. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and near the end of the evening, several folks started watching the game, and all gave favorable comments on what they saw. From the Anchorage, Ryan (The Mad Hatter), Chris (kelsith), and I had the opportunity to meet in person, and my better half, Sue (future Anchorage member), joined in the fun. Sue, Dave (degodave), and I off to Rock-Con in less hours than I care to think about, so a fuller sharing about the game and pictures will have to wait until after the weekend. Suffice it to say, the evening did not go well for the French. A Rock-Con report will follow, next week as well.

[The Mad Hatter]

I have to give a HUGE shout out to Eric for running this at Flatcon. He's a great ambassador for the game, super friendly, welcoming, and I look forward to trading broadsides with him again in the future! His wife Sue as well, I think we'll have to start calling her the Black Widow, she's ruthlessly efficient in sinking enemy ships! She almost took a British frigate from undamaged to sunk with a single raking broadside last evening! Even though I was on the British side of things for that engagement, I must say well done mate!

All I can say in regards to the two French captains is....well, historically the British had better captains and were better sailors, what happened last evening just seemed to echo history. I was one of the two French captains in that second engagement, it was quite the fiasco - we'll just have to wait for the pictures.....

[Comte de Brueys]

Sunk a British frigate with a single salvo!

I have to train my crew on my French first rate much harder to get such results, too.



Again, this confirms my SoG motto: "The bigger - the better!"

:g&t:

[kelsith]

The opening salvo came from the front French Frigate, which was immediately rear-ended by his fellow captain. Who was in turn hit from behind by a third frigate.



One British Frigate ran headlong into the cluster of 4 French. Meanwhile the original two French frigates remained tangled and re-collided, as well as now the other two French Frigates smacked into each other as well.



The damage on the French side as of this point.



At this point the English still had not fired a single cannon, yet this picture was taken after the above one.



The French opened fire on the brave British Frigate (notice that in 7 damage tokens there were 3 zeros...the same amount in the 20 self inflicted French collision tokens)



The nicely rigged Cleopatra prepares to open fire on the French.

[kelsith]

All in all a very cool game, I enjoyed it a lot although I think when I get my copy I will need to spend some time just practicing navigation...(I was one of the French Captains in the aforementioned fiasco). Although I was pretty happy about the fact in the first battle my SOL took out one of the opponents before it was sunk, which considering most of the battle it was pretty much him against two SOL and a frigate I will count that as a minor victory.

As Ryan had previously stated it was well run and was very nice to meet everyone I look forward to many future battles.

[7eat51]

Sue and I really enjoyed meeting you guys, and we had a lot fun playing the final game with you. Looking back, I think our best strategy would have been to stay away from you until you were down to one hull square. The self-destruction the two of you were engaged in was quite impressive. Of course, the following morning at Rock-Con I had the opportunity to fly my first SE5as. No sooner did I make the comment that at least I know I won't fly into myself, I did. No one was around me either. I took some serious damage. I should have checked the roundels; they might have been French (apologies to Daniel and Sven).

Chris, we must hook up soon. Tomorrow evening we'll be stuffing stockings for Operation Santa. If your group ever wants to stuff Christmas stockings for deployed military, let me know. One of our friends helps oversee this each year.

[csadn]

The opening salvo came from the front French Frigate, which was immediately rear-ended by his fellow captain. Who was in turn hit from behind by a third frigate.

"Take a note: I Came, I Saw... and I Don't Believe My Eyes...."

[The Royal Hajj]

Perhaps the French ships need to swap out their stern lanterns for break lights :D

[Gunner]

Perhaps the French ships need to swap out their stern lanterns for break lights :D

It's still going on in the streets of Paris.

[The Mad Hatter]

Regardless of the pile up, fun was still had by all (or at least Chris and I, the two French captains)! I think Eric mentioned this somewhere (this thread or another) - this game isn't necessarily geared towards die hard historical simulation. It's got a more family/group of friends feel to it. I think when you add more of the rules it starts to creep more towards the depth a simulation type game has, and of course any game can be pushed that direction. One of the telling points for me with SoG, is that even without all the additional rules, it's still a fun game just moving, shooting, and taking damage.

[7eat51]

I am impressed with the different levels of complexity in the rules. The basic and standard levels allow for quick-to-learn fun, accessible to anyone. The advanced allows more decision making for players desiring more realism. House rules will take that even further.

One thing I have noticed about WoG and SoG is that the players seem to enjoy each other as much as the game. I have not seen too much in terms of alpha-gamers. On Saturday night, Bob (BBSuds) and I collided with each other twice in a WoG game at Rock-Con - our last two maneuvers of our part in the game. We laughed quite a bit. We were trying to take out the target plane, and did so right before we started our deadly dance. That seems to be the spirit most of the time.

[The Mad Hatter]

I'm not sure games like this draw as many of the alpha type gamers as they don't fall into the category of simulation type games, more so of boardgames. I see a lot of the competitive guys playing more of the stuff I'd lump into the simulation category.