First game of Sails

[jcm211]

Finally got my first game after about a week of owning the starter set. it was fantastic, played the intermediate rules set. not having anyone to demo this for me and having to read the rules and start playing I very well could have got some rules wrong. I lost both my ships because my opponent killed off all my crew, it seems like the way to go, much easier to kill and it auto fills the box. again we may have played some things wrong as it was our first game but that was my initial impression. is that normal? is it a sound tactic to mainly go for the crew and wipe them out? we seemed to be within musket range most turns, and wow the chain balls are crazy. I look forward to playing many more games even tho I got slaughtered and have all ready picked up an additional ship. the other thing we noticed is that the ships are different by such a small margin it seemed like it would make no difference at all. was a little disappointed when I opened my new ship that it pretty well was identical to the one I all ready had.

[Craig]

There's basically only four ships in the first wave; balanced frigate, glass cannon frigate, and two closely-matched but subtly different 74s. There'll be more variety in the game once Wave 2 hits; ship-sloops, heavy frigates, three deckers. And maybe some merchant ships and Algerine pirate Xebecs as well...

Going for crew is a good tactic...if you're yardarm-to-yardarm. At longer ranges, hull and mast shots gain more importance. I've seen undamaged ships devoid of crew, and full crews clinging to destroyed ships.

If your experience follows mine, you'll get more long-range artillery action as you learn to manoeuvre the ships with more finesse. A lot of my early game boarding actions were somewhat accidental.

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Craig

[Berthier]

Hi Craig, "glass cannon" ? I think I get the meaning but please elaborate!

[Craig]

Hi Craig, "glass cannon" ? I think I get the meaning but please elaborate!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GlassCannon

(Warning: TVTropes link. Major timewasting hazard)

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Craig

[Berthier]

Ah now that's made things clear like....glass!

[jcm211]

thank you for your insight. I find that true as we both just planned musket fire most turns as we had no idea if we would be in range or not we often were tho, so more practice will likely help.
I often found I was firing my broadsides a turn too early if that makes sense, get the front arc broadside and then next turn be perfectly lined up for a middle broadside raking shot but was reloading, so again practice will help for sure.
what is the release date for wave 2?

[Hobbes]

Maybe you should keep in mind, that you don't have to fire your cannon even if you planned the maneuver in that turn.