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Thread: Overview of Osprey's "Fighting Sail, Fleet Actions 1775 - 1815"

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    Post Overview of Osprey's "Fighting Sail, Fleet Actions 1775 - 1815"

    While these rules are written to be used with 1/1200 ships they will play just as easily with SoG ships without any adjustments to measurements. The introduction states the average number of points per fleet is about 300 points for each player. Depending on the ratings of the ships players choose each admiral would command between 3 to 6 ships. Of course players can agree on higher point totals if you wish to fight larger actions.

    There are three pages of game aides and counters in the back of the rule book you will want to make copies of onto Card Stock for use during play. There is a Wind Compass, Wind Gauge, and Turning Template along with a number of tokens for marking of damage, wreckage, and canon fire.

    The first step is building your fleet, so let's go over the Fleet Lists. Each fleet list begins with Admiral Archetypes each with their own special abilities and Point costs. You must choose only one type to command your nation's fleet who will serve aboard your selected Flagship. There are also some Captain Archetypes which you may choose one to man each of the ship's in your fleet for the point costs shown, or choose a generic Captain for zero point cost and no special abilities. Each nation then has some ships and individuals listed as Legends. For instance the British List has legends such as Admirals Nelson, Collingwood, and Howe along with three well known ships each with their own special rules and abilities. You may only have one Admiral Legend in your fleet, and only one each of any ship legends in your fleet.

    In building your Fleet the first ship you must choose is your Flagship, which must be either a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Rate. You will then select the remainder of your fleet from the list of SoLs or the two rates of Frigates. Some fleets will have some specialized ships to choose from, which may appear in some of the Scenarios but these can only make up no more then half your fleet.

    Each rated ship is provided with a points cost, and is shown with 5 major areas used in the course of play. These are Sailing, Discipline, Boarding, Gunnery, and Hull with the number listed under each of these being the number of dice the player may roll during the course of the game/turn. Once the fleet is selected and pointed out you determine your Fleet's Morale number which is calculated as 10% of the points total plus or minus any special rules or abilities of your Admiral, Captains, and/or Legends. Fleet Morale is the key to the game, as you lose one point of morale for each point of damage your ship's receive, as well as when ships are sunk or captured. A player can only increase his Fleet's Morale by capturing ship's from his enemy's fleet.

    The Turn Sequence has only three phases: Initiative, Sailing, and the Canon Phase the Initiative Phase determines which player moves and fires first in each of the succeeding phases. In order to move a ship you roll the number of dice listed under the appropriate ships Sailing attribute. The target number required is determined by the ship's attitude in the wind as shown on the Wind Gauge whether the ship is Reaching, Running, Close-Hauled, or In Irons. Each successful die roll gives the ship one Sailing Point, and if no successes are rolled the ship will still receive (1) free Sailing Point unless it is In Irons, or has an Anchor Token. Each Sailing Point gives the ship 2" of movement along with up to a 30 degree standard turn. It takes 2 Sailing Points to Tack, which is a 90 degree turn into the wind. A ship can Wear, which is a 90 degree turn away from the wind at a cost of one Sailing Point. A ship may not Tack or Wear if Running before the wind, unless it has a Special Ability which allows such a maneuver.

    Shooting is pretty straight forward with 3 basic ranges; 0 - 6", 6" - 12", & 12" - 18", the ship rolls the number of dice listed under it's Gunnery section. The target ship then rolls the number of dice under it's Hull section to determine any saves from incoming fire. At short range any 5 or 6 causes explosions on the target ship, while at medium range any 6 rolled results in an explosion. The explosion dice are then rerolled to determine if there are any additional hits. If there is a raking shot any explosion rolls ( 5s or 6s) resulting from rerolls may also cause added explosions and damage. Each point of damage a ship receives is deducted from it's Fleet Morale number. A ship that receives 5 or more unsaved hits in one turn is sunk. Any ship sunk also has a number equal to it's hull points deducted from the Fleet's Morale number. A ship which finds itself in a desperate position can rack up damage fairly quickly, as well as plunge the Fleet Morale towards the zero mark in a hurry. Once Fleet Morale reaches "0" for either fleet the game is over. At the end of Movement a ship rolls a Discipline test to remove one Damage Token, or an Anchor Token if it has no damage. If the ship has three or more damage tokens and fails a Discipline Roll it immediately Strikes it's colors. Ship's which have one or more Damage Tokens have their Gunnery and Boarding numbers halved.

    There are additional rules covering ships entangling, Boarding Actions, and collisions. There are Advanced rules that take in the effects of weather, wind changes, fog, grounding, shoals, special ships, fire ships, and forts. There is also a section with rules needed for multi player games, and a section for a minigame for one on one Frigate Duels. There are six scenarios included to help get you started on your naval career. There's even a list for Privateers and Pirates to make things all that more interesting!! ARRRRRRRR!!

    A note for Gunner: One of the Russian Legends, an Admiral Ushakov, whose biography states he fought 43 fleet actions, and never lost one nor did he lose a ship in any of those actions!! Maybe someone needs to reconsider producing some Russian ships after all!!

    Well, that's the basic overview. I would recommend you read through the movement rules a couple of times. After a question was raised on The Miniatures Page the rules author stated the diagrams on page 13 of the rules under movement are not quite right, but by reading through the example you'll be able to figure it out better. The write up should make things clear. If you're looking for a quick play set of fleet rules you just might want to give Fighting Sail a try. Having read through a couple of times now, they seem like they will be a lot of fun while still being full of the smell of powder smoke, salt air, and rum!! "Sail Ho, Enemy in Sight!!" PLEASE NOTE: I did say "Quick Play", and not "Fast Play"!! There is some subtle difference in that!!!

    As for the Gunnery Ranges, they are a pretty close match to those already offered in SoG, so you won't need to change them unless you want to increase your playing area greatly!!
    Last edited by John Paul; 06-09-2015 at 01:27. Reason: Corrected some spelling errors, and added a few comments on the end!
    "War is the greatest game Man can play!" BG George B. McClellan

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    Thanks for the great review.

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    Just received my copy. Thanks for the synopsis Paul

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    Thank you!! I figured I would do a quick overview after reading through the rules, and still leave room for David to write a full blown Review once he's played a couple of games or so!

    The author has stated he will soon be posting a FAQ section to the Osprey Web Site. Currently just the QRS and Game Markers are posted there for download.
    "War is the greatest game Man can play!" BG George B. McClellan

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    The designer (Ryan Miller) is also responding to questions and posting clarifications on The Miniatures Page. The thread was started by David M. regarding counters and a reference sheet.

    http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=386478

    P.S. Oh, and thank you for your review as well!!
    "It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
    –English Proverb

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    Yep, Ryan has been very helpful answering questions on TMP, which is a real plus!!!

    I would suggest to those who have the "Fighting Sail" rules look up Ryan's comments and answers to questions there, and copy them into MS Word or your favorite word processor program and build a FAQ sheet out of them for your own use! At least until Ryan gets a real FAQ section posted to the Osprey site! You'll find the info very helpful, especially regarding movement!!
    "War is the greatest game Man can play!" BG George B. McClellan

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    Shortcut to Fighting Sail Counters and Quick Reference Sheet.

    https://ospreypublishing.com/gaming-resources/

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    Speaking of pirates....

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    Thanks for the links, Gents. I have not played this rule set, yet, but I enjoyed reading the book.

    Actually, I am not sure there is an Osprey title I have read that I did not enjoy. I think they are a good value. With the discussion this morning about the Bonhomme Richard, and the recent release of the Constitution and the Victory, it would be a good time to reread those three in the duel series.
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    Hi All,
    Had my frist game of "Fighting Sails". This is not a AAR just my take on the rules.
    I think it was a 300 pt game. So had 2 SOL and 2 Frigates. We used the same scale for 1-1200 ground/ water scale, but bigger ships (Airfix kit-bashes). Why! Not my game I just played it.
    Each ship has points. Add up the points of the ships, Add Extra bits, Admiral's (Must), Captains (Can do) points to the list. You can also with some fleets add legendary ships too.
    All this adds up to your fleet total. e.g. 300pts. You take 10% of this and you get the "Fleets Morale" e.g. 30 fleet morale points.
    When this is down to "0" you lose.
    Each ship class has a number of sailing points, this = the number of dice you use for sailing. Your attitude to the wind gives you the number you need to sail eg Reaching 4+, Close-Haul 5+. You move 2 inches for each sail point you sore. You can also turn too. This will make sailing in a line hard to do!
    Firing. 3 range bands each has its dice score to hit. Each ship has hull points, this is the number of saves you can roll (4+). eg Frigate has only 3 hull points (dice), A 1st rate has 10 Gunnery points (dice) to hit. It can hurt. Each ship gets an anchor token on its frist hit, this makes moving very hard to do. You must roll 6's only to move. After this you get hit tokens. This half's you dice roll on firing and boarding. get 4 hit tokens and you sink. Each hit takes a "Morale point" off your "Fleet Morale points" If the ship sinks or is taken the fleet loses the total hull points of the ship as well. That is the only way your fleet can get back point, taking prizes. Each ship after moving roll for discipline. Rate= number of dice rolled.You need a 6 to remove damage tokens (only one per turn)
    What do I think of them.
    No ships logs, Great for a big game. It is hard to keep your ship in line, I think that would be as it was. You must get damage fix fast. One ship I pulled out of the line to stop keeping getting damage and give me time to repair. Turning is a little too easy. But in a big game it is the Captains job to know how to do it, not yours!
    For smaller games 1 to 4 ships a side, stick with what you know. For you big battles this would be the game for me. Only one list, and one bit of paper for fleet Morale NO BITS AROUND the table. I would like to try them with 1-2400 scale and half the movement and ranges. Now that would be a game
    Be safe
    Rory

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    Sorry forget,
    I'm playing (I hope) a big 600 pts a side on the 2nd July. A lot bigger than before and using 1-1200 scale ships. This gives a game of around 8-10 SOL each side. I will let you all know how it goes. I hope with photo's
    Be safe
    Rory

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    Rory, thanks for your report and definitely please take photos of your 600 point battle on July 2nd!!
    "It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
    –English Proverb

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    Thank you for sharing, Rory.

    If I understood correctly, you'll adopt this rule set for large engagements going forward. That would be quite the endorsement.
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    I'd be interested in seeing how these work for actions with perhaps a dozen ships a side. My own plans to give the rules a good run out have been stalled due to the unpleasant interference of some very nasty real world issues but hopefully in the not too distant future....

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    David, please share your opinion once you have had the chance to play them. Inquiring minds would like to know.
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    Quote Originally Posted by 7eat51 View Post
    Thank you for sharing, Rory.

    If I understood correctly, you'll adopt this rule set for large engagements going forward. That would be quite the endorsement.
    Quote Originally Posted by David Manley View Post
    I'd be interested in seeing how these work for actions with perhaps a dozen ships a side. My own plans to give the rules a good run out have been stalled due to the unpleasant interference of some very nasty real world issues but hopefully in the not too distant future....
    Hi All,
    Jim,
    I will try for photos for the next game. This one was for rules only, to how they worked.

    Eric,
    I would use them as they stand for 1-1200 scale games and for big games eg my "big Bash" last October. I think they would be also very good for 1-2400 scale ships, with half ranges and movement. But for the smaller games 1 to 4 ships a side, Keep them on the shelf! The only thing not so good is no fleet stats for the Swedes or Turks fleets and no stats for smaller warships than 6th rate. But Ryan has given states for merchants and some of the normally left out nations.

    David,
    Sorry to hear life is getting in the way of ships! I do understand that. I was looking forward to your take on them.
    This is the frist rule set that I have played than does not get you to test for sailing into the wind. Once you are In-irons only 6's can get any movement. If you do not get a sailing point you get 1 free sailing point. Except if you are In-irons you get no free sailing points. 1st rates get 3 to 4 sailing points (dice) so it can be hard to get moving. I must ask Ryan about this.
    The rules say if you move under 2 inches you get an Anchor token. So if you are In-irons and can't move (no sailing points) do you get an Anchor token too?
    Tacking too is a one move thing. So you move 2 inches and tack. It costs 2 sailing points to do this. As said above this can be hard to do with larger ships as they have a low number of sailing dice. Just my thoughts on the rules after 1 game. It is nice not having lots of bits to look through for each ship.
    I hope the big win with the rule will be with the larger games. I will see in July?
    Be safe
    Rory
    Last edited by Devsdoc; 06-22-2015 at 09:45.

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    Just read this Paul. It is incredible what got posted whilst I was in Virginia. I still have quite a lot with which to catch up.
    It could well be the logical progression which I have been seeking to expand my solo play.
    thanks.

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    Picked it up new on Amazon for Ł5 just like that.
    Thanks again Paul.
    Rob.

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    Thanks Paul, got it for my Kindle, 10 bucks on Amazon US.

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    Rob and Ken,

    You're both very welcome!

    David,

    I too will be interested in your thoughts on these rules once you get a chance to play them. Especially as you asked many of the questions I had of the author over on TMP. I hope to run a test game at our "Guns of August" con this summer to see how well folks will adapt to them after a few intro games of SoG!!
    "War is the greatest game Man can play!" BG George B. McClellan

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    I'm playing my first game on Thursday. In reading and thoroughly digesting the rules, there seems to be an inordinately large amount of dicing in this game. We'll see after it's played. Looking forward to the experience.

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    Hi Bob,

    How have things been? Staying dry?

    With summer here, any chance of a game day?
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    Eric,

    It's definitely been wet down here. I haven't gotten a lot of gaming in this summer, I missed Diecon altogether. Been doing to much Civil Air Patrol. But, there is always a possibility of a game day. It just needs to planned well in advance to work around scheduling obstacles. July isn't looking too good, but what is your August like?

    Bob

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    August can be tricky with the school year beginning. Let's look at some dates for August and September and see if we can arrange something. Depending upon where, we might be able to pull in other players.

    If we can find a mid-point in which a member has access to a church, school, or decent space in one's home, that would be ideal.
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    Are there any shops in say Springfield? That would be about midway for both of us.

    I googled and three stores came up:

    Die Hard Games 1039 Junction Cir Springfield, IL (217) 698-4343

    Capital City Games 1305 Wabash Ave Springfield, IL (217) 793-5229

    Yeti Gaming 2761 South 6th Street, Springfield, IL 217-381-4263
    Last edited by HMS Lydia; 06-29-2015 at 08:41.

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    I'll look. I didn't think of gamestores.
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    Quote Originally Posted by HMS Lydia View Post
    Been doing to much Civil Air Patrol.
    . o O ( Where's *our* board game, damn it? )

    ;)

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    Quote Originally Posted by csadn View Post
    . o O ( Where's *our* board game, damn it? )

    ;)
    CAP the board game! Sweet!

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    Quote Originally Posted by HMS Lydia View Post
    CAP the board game! Sweet!
    Well, I did have an idea for a _WG2_ solitaire game involving CAP's ops along the Eastern and Southern Seaboards; but there's a certain lack of firepower inherent to the historical ops. (PBB in Yellow? >;) ) For the "modern era", it would be a game more like _Scotland Yard_.

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    Quote Originally Posted by csadn View Post
    Well, I did have an idea for a _WG2_ solitaire game involving CAP's ops along the Eastern and Southern Seaboards; but there's a certain lack of firepower inherent to the historical ops. (PBB in Yellow? >;) ) For the "modern era", it would be a game more like _Scotland Yard_.
    Remember the old Avalon Hill game Survival? Would be neat to do a search management game in that style. Game board could be a CAP gridded state, game pieces little C172/182 and white vans. Hmmm, that would be an interesting project.

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    Are you referring to Outdoor Survival? I have a copy - no idea where I obtained it - but have never played it. Is it an enjoyable game?
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    I only played it a couple of times. IIRC, it was a solo game.

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    We played our game on Thursday (2 July), I refereed, FlyXwire played British, and another local played the Americans.

    FlyXwire had a frustrating day, for sure. We played a War of 1812 game that was around 200 points per side. The British had a third rate, 3 Leda frigates, and a corvette. The Americans had 2 x 44 gun frigates, and two of the smaller 36 gun frigates. We unfortunately for the British ignored the squadron rule for frigates. This doomed them.

    First of all rolling for sail points slows movement in this game to an absolute crawl. Gunnery results are quirky due to saving throws. I admit the game would have played differently with an all SoL OOB or if the Squadron rule had been followed.

    I spent about 12 hours prepping this game, I'd play again, but am pretty confident in stating this is not going to be my fleet rule set for AoS.

    So, I have a competent crew, a competent captain, I have a steady breeze at a given aspect. I need to roll for sail points, why? This WoTC/GW (gamey) type play style. So are the gunnery saves, with uniform damage on all units, varying the number of saves.

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    Quote Originally Posted by HMS Lydia View Post
    So, I have a competent crew, a competent captain, I have a steady breeze at a given aspect. I need to roll for sail points, why?
    At Origins, I was looking for a Cthulhu RPG, and when I spoke to the folks at Pelgrane Press, they mentioned how Trail of Cthulhu enables someone with high scores in perception, for example, to automatically pick up a clue while searching without having to roll for it. That made sense to me. Yes, it is possible that such a person could miss something, but if they're specialists in an area with significant associated talent, the probability is low the person would. Give it to them and move on.
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    My copy of the book arrived today Eric, so I will have a good look at the rules over the next few days, and see what I think to them. From what Bob says I'm not sure that they were what I was expecting or hoping for, but I will know better soon.
    Rob.

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    That makes sense. And in a game that is supposed to be a fleet level fast play game, rolling to move just doesn't make sense and uses a lot of time. A sailing ship is a complicated machine to a land lubber like myself, but to a 18th/19th century sailor, piece of cake.

    In contrast to SoG, movement is slow, but combat resolution is quick.

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    By the way, I do think there are positives to this game. No movement cards, and very good movement aides/templates. A good easy shooting system, unfortunately killed by a very poor damage system.

    The game normally uses 1/1200 scale ships. It recommends halving the range for use with 1/2400 scale. and adding .5 range for 1/1000. But the game played well at game ranges with 1/1000 scale minis. The game uses 3 range brackets, short to 6", medium to 12", long to 18".

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    Hi All,
    I too played this rule set for the frist time on the 2 July.
    We also did some modeling on the day. So did not finish the game. Our fault, not the rules.
    We had 600 pts a side. That is about 10-11 S.O.L. per side. 1st to 4th rate. As I was using Russians I had 4, 4th rate ships.
    Some say they dis-like all the dicing. Ships of the same rate did not all sail the same. SOG use the logs for different ships, David's rules do the shuffle thing at the start of his game to up-set your plans."Fighting Sail" use dice.
    In large fleet games not having to hunt the ships-logs for each ship is lovely. After turn 2/3 we knew the number of dice to use. To help us we had one colour dice (yellow) for the 1st rate ship. That was for me 4 dice. I added a different colour dice for each smaller rate. 3rd rate, 4 yellow +1 red. 4th rate 4 yellow, 1 red and 1 green dice. This helped to remember how many too use for each rate. We did find that for a number of turns my 1st rate was moving faster than my 4th rate ships, Funny! but not too far-fetched (it did happen). Using 10 ships the dice do not slow the game down, any more than ship-log hunting. We are talking 10 ships.
    I have been told that damage was fast and deadly with these rules.
    We did not find this so. It took 3, 3th rate ships 2 turns to sink one 4th rate. Roll the number of dice to hit, the target ship has a number of save throws. The save dice do match the fire dice on the same rate of ship. The uniform damage and saves in a small game would drive me mad. In the big fleet game this helped. What is important after the set-up, is the fleet morale. We found that laying the damage tokens face down. Then at the end of the turn, we turned them face-up as we marked off the "Fleet morale". I found that to pull a ship out of the line if it was too damage, to give me a chance it repair it was the best thing to do.
    We did not get too, short range or boarding.
    I would say that for big fleet games this is a O.K. to good. No paper-work, only marking off fleet morale. For smaller games and ships, No! use the rules you like best.
    Be safe
    Rory

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    Quote Originally Posted by 7eat51 View Post
    At Origins, I was looking for a Cthulhu RPG, and when I spoke to the folks at Pelgrane Press, they mentioned how Trail of Cthulhu enables someone with high scores in perception, for example, to automatically pick up a clue while searching without having to roll for it. That made sense to me. Yes, it is possible that such a person could miss something, but if they're specialists in an area with significant associated talent, the probability is low the person would. Give it to them and move on.
    Not to mention: In most scenarios, unless and until someone notices that clue, *the scenario cannot advance*.... (First Sign Of A Badly-Designed Scenario....)

  40. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by csadn View Post
    Not to mention: In most scenarios, unless and until someone notices that clue, *the scenario cannot advance*.... (First Sign Of A Badly-Designed Scenario....)

    Chris.

    How often that has killed the enjoyment of an evening among friends or the need for an input from the GM to move things along.
    Rob.

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    Rory,

    Our group seems to be allergic to tokens and chits. I made small ship logs for each ship with 4 damage boxes, and Anchor/stress box, and the ships stats, plus captain/admiral upgrades. These logs were so small you could have lain out 9 in the same area you put an SoG ship mat, or even a grease pencil mat. I think much of our issue in the game was ignoring the frigate squadron rule. Since the OOB was 7 frigates, 1 SOL, 1 Corvette, the frigate rules seemed silly. But in fact with the saving throws every ship gets when you shoot, frigates simply cannot damage another frigate sufficiently to prevent repair. Everything was bouncing off the two large American frigates. The Americans wisely decided not to shoot at the SoL. The Brit player could not muster the speed to bring the SoL to close range where she could have really made a distance. I have no doubt the game would have played differently if we had fielded two opposing SoL battle lines or used the frigate rules in the game we played.

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    Quote Originally Posted by HMS Lydia View Post
    Rory,

    Our group seems to be allergic to tokens and chits. I made small ship logs for each ship with 4 damage boxes, and Anchor/stress box, and the ships stats, plus captain/admiral upgrades. These logs were so small you could have lain out 9 in the same area you put an SoG ship mat, or even a grease pencil mat. I think much of our issue in the game was ignoring the frigate squadron rule. Since the OOB was 7 frigates, 1 SOL, 1 Corvette, the frigate rules seemed silly. But in fact with the saving throws every ship gets when you shoot, frigates simply cannot damage another frigate sufficiently to prevent repair. Everything was bouncing off the two large American frigates. The Americans wisely decided not to shoot at the SoL. The Brit player could not muster the speed to bring the SoL to close range where she could have really made a distance. I have no doubt the game would have played differently if we had fielded two opposing SoL battle lines or used the frigate rules in the game we played.
    Hi Bob,
    Before we played the 600pts aside game, I played a smaller game, not ran by me. I just joined in. I had 1 1st rate, 1 3rd rate and 2 5th rate frigates. I use the game to lean the rules. The game itself was silly. it only helped with the rules. Playing the bigger game was helped by playing the frist game, as we did not go into it blind/cold.
    As for the tokens, By using your home-made (Not saying bad) ships-log you add paper-work to the game. Pete got small M.D.F. tokens. I must look-up from where from. being small, brown and wood-like they helped in the game, but there not an eye-sore.
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    As I hope you can see from above.
    For me the rules are a way of fighting a larger battle in a game-friendly way. But! taking what I saw playing the frist game, Big battles ONLY!
    Be safe
    Rory

  43. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by HMS Lydia View Post
    Rory,

    Our group seems to be allergic to tokens and chits.
    Hi Bob,
    It's me again! the tokens are made by www.hurlbat.co.uk We used there "Jolly Roger" for damage and "Anchor" tokens for!!!!! Anchor bits.
    You can get them on e-bay. The e-bay site has more tokens on it eg the "Anchor" tokens than the home site. I had bits of grey rubber strips to show that a ship had fired.
    Be safe
    Rory

  44. #44

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    Thanks Rory!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Devsdoc View Post
    To help us we had one colour dice (yellow) for the 1st rate ship. That was for me 4 dice. I added a different colour dice for each smaller rate. 3rd rate, 4 yellow +1 red. 4th rate 4 yellow, 1 red and 1 green dice. This helped to remember how many too use for each rate.
    Great idea.

    Quote Originally Posted by csadn View Post
    Not to mention: In most scenarios, unless and until someone notices that clue, *the scenario cannot advance*.... (First Sign Of A Badly-Designed Scenario....)
    Yep. That was one of the mentioned game mechanic ideas behind Trail of Cthulhu.
    “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato

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    I've finally managed to get some games in. I can't say I was as happy with the rules as I hoped I would be.

    http://dtbsam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/fighting-sail.html

    Plenty of scope for house ruling without adding to the complexity though.

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    I must admit that I have not done anything wit my set of rules since receiving them Dave.
    Thanks for the evaluation. It has saved me some time and effort.
    I will probably just use them for bits of optional rules as you suggest.
    Rob.

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