Battle of Lissa at Cold Wars

[DeRuyter]

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).