Orange zone.

[Bligh]

I have recently been reading about the effect of wind direction on ships' sails and it has brought up two questions which one of us may be able to answer.

Masters tried to avoid having the wind directly astern, because the Mizzen sails shielded the sails forrard from drawing properly.
On our ship cards, there is a small secondary orange area just behind the stern. Is this intended to represent a slower speed because of this factor? I can find no reference to it in the rules. Is it just assumed that if you are in this orange area, you will follow the statement about orange zones.
As an aside it got me thinking about the weather gauge, and how a fleet who had this advantage took the wind from the enemy fleet when in close action. We do not take this into account in our game, therefore, a lot of the advantage of being to windward is lost. Just a reflection on my part!
Rob.

[TexaS]

There's a lot of things about the wind that's not simulated. I guess out of the complexity it would bring.

I've been thinking of letting a broken mast cover the leeside of the ship until first repair action has cleared away the wreckage.

[Bligh]

A bit of drag would not do it any harm if you fancied that. Could reduce the veer whilst it was in the water maybe.
Rob.

[Dobbs]

Okay Rob, here's the long and short from the sailing instructor's point of view. First, a sailboat (-ing ship) is like an airplane stood on end. The sails are the wings and generate lift by being wing shaped (not parachute shaped). A boat can only sail as fast as the wind directly downwind (actually slower, because of drag, but we're speaking in wide swaths here). On any other point of sail, the boat's forward motion plus the actual wind speed are added to create a vector that is called the apparent wind (imagine hopping in your sports car on a windless day. If you drive 50kph and hold your hand up, you feel 50 kph on your hand. If you are driving with a 20 knot wind that was blowing on your starboard beam before you got started, you use some math and combine the vectors. This is why there is a yellow line behind the ships. A modern sailboat with fore and aft sails is actually more efficient upwind, so the greens and oranges would be reversed (see my ship base card for my schooner).

Now, is that all clear, or do I need to ramble some more?

[Dobbs]

The weather gauge shows up in SoG. The windward ship can change direction by wearing, but the leeward ship might get forced into tacking in order to follow. We play that for every red card played, a ship's speed is reduced by one,and must then build their speed back up. With this rule it is most likely that only the smallest ships will have any way on at all coming out of a tack (if you play the two hourglass card, your next move is stationary).

[Dobbs]

Jonas, you could have a player with a mast hit draw two E chits:

2 -0's the mast falls clear
1,0 it falls to starboard
0,1 it falls to port
1,1 it blocks both sides

A ship firing through a fallen spar could be firing at a reduced broadside strength until cleared and running the risk of a fire hit (the E chits again)...

I think the mast hit cards already reflect the drag. You could have the player draw randomly. The other day we were playing in light air and a ship took a mast hit while moving at backing sails speed, and actually traveled farther with the damaged mast! Hmmm...

What do you think?

[Dobbs]

I have a whole batch of tweaks I have made to the game, but before I make a change, I weigh if it will preserve the pace of play, as I feel that is what really sets it apart from the games we grew up with. I like how SoG takes complex concepts and still plays fast. Starfleet Battles is sort of at the other end of the spectrum.

[fredmiracle]

On our ship cards, there is a small secondary orange area just behind the stern. Is this intended to represent a slower speed because of this factor? I can find no reference to it in the rules. Is it just assumed that if you are in this orange area, you will follow the statement about orange zones.

Yes that is exactly why there is that orange zone at the stern of the base.

They do allude to this a bit on page 9, without being totally clear. The orange range on the side is "beating" and on the stern is "running"

I've found that when you have to sail a long way exactly parallel the wind, it's basically a wash if you just go straight and stay in orange, or try to weave back and forth to get into the green zone

As an aside it got me thinking about the weather gauge, and how a fleet who had this advantage took the wind from the enemy fleet when in close action. We do not take this into account in our game, therefore, a lot of the advantage of being to windward is lost. Just a reflection on my part!
Rob.

Yes, there are many many small details that are nice to read about in O'Brien books, but really too situational and fiddly to make it into SGN...

[TexaS]

Jonas, you could have a player with a mast hit draw two E chits:

2 -0's the mast falls clear
1,0 it falls to starboard
0,1 it falls to port
1,1 it blocks both sides

A ship firing through a fallen spar could be firing at a reduced broadside strength until cleared and running the risk of a fire hit (the E chits again)...

I think the mast hit cards already reflect the drag. You could have the player draw randomly. The other day we were playing in light air and a ship took a mast hit while moving at backing sails speed, and actually traveled farther with the damaged mast! Hmmm...

What do you think?

Firing through the sails is a sure way to get set on fire. Sails blocking the view is not a problem. Sails catching on fire is a BIG problem. It's just not done.

Is there really any chance of a mast falling against the wind from anything other than maybe perhaps a collision?

[Bligh]

Thank you for all these most illuminating answers gentlemen. It has given me even more food for thought. i agree that we must not fall into the trap of getting bogged down with a mass of extra rules. i am simply seeking a quick fix to simulate some advantage from good sailing practice as used in the period.
Thanks again for putting your time and energy into these answers.
Rob.