GenCon Day 2

[The Royal Hajj]

I agree that they did well in keeping the basic stats of all ships relatively even. I really think this is going to be a game that gets a lot of new players involved in AoS games. As such, keeping things balanced initially is a must. Once people learn that certain navies were know to have better crew or gunners, they can easily add those in via existing rules/cards.

The other thing that will "unbalance" a game is the wind. Putting one side to leeward will drastically change how that game is played out.

Looking over the rule book, the thing that got me most excited about the game were the terrain elements and shore batteries... the rules for those just scream for custom scenarios!

[Eldil]

I just recognized the wedding ring on the lovely hand in the ninth picture--and I should, since I put it on that finger back in May. This was the same demo game we played!

It was great fun. My wife took her French frigate toe-to-toe with a pair of English ships-of-the-line and paid the price, but she still managed to stay afloat long enough to watch the English get smashed (one ship sunk, and another accidentally retreated off the board).

[Nightmoss]

I just recognized the wedding ring on the lovely hand in the ninth picture--and I should, since I put it on that finger back in May. This was the same demo game we played!

It was great fun. My wife took her French frigate toe-to-toe with a pair of English ships-of-the-line and paid the price, but she still managed to stay afloat long enough to watch the English get smashed (one ship sunk, and another accidentally retreated off the board).

Hi Nate,

From what I can recall you all had a great time. Would have enjoyed playing as well, but the tickets sold out fast. Regardless, I was very pleased to see the ships and be able to get some early photos of the production ships. Cheers!

[tmon]

It also keeps a person on his toes. Not knowing how good the ship is you'll be going up against. For instance when the Spanish ships show up most of them will be poorly crewed and captained but what happens if you end up against one of their best captained and crewed ships?

I must say, at first I thought this (the same ship classes having identical stats) was not very good. My initial reaction was that too many matches would be "mirror Matches" which aren't as fun as the other option on any miniatures game. The reason many of us play historic minis or games less suited to tournament play, is because we value uneven forces, disparate objectives, and historic recreation of known conflicts. So, I thought that having two ships of the same class, act the same was going to be lame.

However, the more I think about the game and the Cpt&Crew abilities, the more I appreciate that they did that. This way, two beginning players (which we will all be at first ) can fight on an even plane, which is less frustrating and more conducive to learning, as each ship handles the game mechanics in the same manner. Then, for when we do want different forces or perhaps to recreate a specific ship, we can use the aforementioned cards to alter such things as gunnery or energetic sailing.

With that, we can recreate any of a number of ships for many purposes and the recreating of both sides will be easier further still, since we start both ships from the same place (and so it is easier to skew the stats "better or worse" from a single mid point).

So now, I am sold on that choice and even more excited to take receipt of my fleet (a Cpt. running a fleet, who would have thought).