Latest Game at Berkeley

[David Manley]

I took the game along to the Berkeley Vale club again this week. Six players plus me umpiring. Two frigates, one SoL each side. The Brits took a quick look at the stats and realised they were on a sticky wicket, and so started calling for carronades and higher rate of fire. However, the evil umpire insisted on "rules as written".

We played on a 6' by 8' table, just a few small islands and rocks - four small pieces. Of course these acted as ship magnets. The RN moved to secure the weather gauge, the French firstly thought it would be good to ran their SOL with one of their frigates, park said frigate alongside the British SOL and then run their second frigate argound. Brits at this point realised that lower ship stats can be mitigated by fighting enemies who (a) can't drive and (b) ignored the briefing at the start of the game, which included "keep away from islands", "keep frigates away from enemy SOLs" and "don't hit each other.

In the end the poor French SOL commander decided discretion was the better part of valour and headed for the hills once his mobile frigate struck and his second supporting ship was stuck on the putty.

Interestingly, whilst we were using the full gunnery rules, no-one wanted to use any ammo other than roundshot.

Anyway, another four players who hadn't tried the game were sucked in and we are now planning an episodic campaign, hopefully running irregularly through 2014.

[7eat51]

Sounds quite fun.

Having seen it on the game table a couple of times, a frigate should avoid an SoL. Nothing pretty ever came of it so far.

[David Manley]

Actually I recall a few bits of feedback on the models as well.

1) Ships would be better with 2 pegs rather than 1, stops them rotating around the peg

2) The coloured borders are way too thin, hard to see the colours and very difficult to read in low light.

Apart from that, fine :)

[Nightmoss]

Actually I recall a few bits of feedback on the models as well.

1) Ships would be better with 2 pegs rather than 1, stops them rotating around the peg

2) The coloured borders are way too thin, hard to see the colours and very difficult to read in low light.

Apart from that, fine :)

Two pegs would make a lot of sense, or a hexagonal peg that wouldn't rotate. Colored borders being too thin was also heard several times at Gencon.

Thanks for the report as well, although photos would certainly add to the effect?

[Berthier]

Are you referring to the coloured borders on the cards when noting visibility problems?

[Nightmoss]

Are you referring to the coloured borders on the cards when noting visibility problems?

At GenCon it was the red, orange and green lines for wind direction. I'm guessing that's what David is also referring to, but perhaps not?

[Diamondback]

What I would suggest to alleviate rotation... find a small rare-earth magnet, small enough to fit into a hollowed-out cavity in the aft half, then install another or a thin piece of steel in the base down the aft centerline.

[csadn]

the French firstly thought it would be good to ran their SOL with one of their frigates, park said frigate alongside the British SOL and then run their second frigate argound. Brits at this point realised that lower ship stats can be mitigated by fighting enemies who (a) can't drive and (b) ignored the briefing at the start of the game, which included "keep away from islands", "keep frigates away from enemy SOLs" and "don't hit each other.

I've heard of "playing in character", but that is ridiculous. >;)

[Capt P]

Just pulled out two of the ships I received today and have to agree that 2 pegs would be better. Have to check on the magnet idea also.

[Diamondback]

Actually, it might be better to put the magnet in the base and the metal in the stern of the ship--reason I was going the other way at first was that that way, no matter how big your ship its rear magnet would find something to grab.