I bought the starter set a few months ago, but I haven't get a chance to play until today. It was well worth the wait! We played a straight up fight using all of the ships in the starter set, a single game mat, and using the advanced rules (plus Let The Men Drink!). I look forward to learning and using the optional rules.

The only issue we came across was when two ships collided. First we were confused as to whether enemy ships damage each other, because the rules have damage listed for friendly ships. It seems strange that enemy ships suffer no damage at all from a collision. The rules say nothing about it and we played it out that way. I've since read some of the threads on the subject and will probably come up with house rules for the future. Then we were a bit stumped on how to get our ships out of the collision. One ship didn't hit the others side or on an angle... it was head on. Using the collision rules, unless both player play the right movement cards you ships are in a bit of a bind. A lot of movement cards will just lead to more base overlapping. That was the only collision. I guess we just need to be more careful in the future :)

Managing all of the fires, leaks, and delayed actions caused the game to slow down slightly at first. Once we got used to remembering what needed to be done at what point in the turn, things sped up again.

Hopefully I will get to play again soon. I'd love to get another mat to increase my playing area. Sadly, they aren't cheap and it's not in the budget right now.

Well, I'm off to learn the boarding rules.