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

[John Paul]

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!!