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

[HMS Lydia]

We played our game on Thursday (2 July), I refereed, FlyXwire played British, and another local played the Americans.

FlyXwire had a frustrating day, for sure. We played a War of 1812 game that was around 200 points per side. The British had a third rate, 3 Leda frigates, and a corvette. The Americans had 2 x 44 gun frigates, and two of the smaller 36 gun frigates. We unfortunately for the British ignored the squadron rule for frigates. This doomed them.

First of all rolling for sail points slows movement in this game to an absolute crawl. Gunnery results are quirky due to saving throws. I admit the game would have played differently with an all SoL OOB or if the Squadron rule had been followed.

I spent about 12 hours prepping this game, I'd play again, but am pretty confident in stating this is not going to be my fleet rule set for AoS.

So, I have a competent crew, a competent captain, I have a steady breeze at a given aspect. I need to roll for sail points, why? This WoTC/GW (gamey) type play style. So are the gunnery saves, with uniform damage on all units, varying the number of saves.

[7eat51]

So, I have a competent crew, a competent captain, I have a steady breeze at a given aspect. I need to roll for sail points, why?

At Origins, I was looking for a Cthulhu RPG, and when I spoke to the folks at Pelgrane Press, they mentioned how Trail of Cthulhu enables someone with high scores in perception, for example, to automatically pick up a clue while searching without having to roll for it. That made sense to me. Yes, it is possible that such a person could miss something, but if they're specialists in an area with significant associated talent, the probability is low the person would. Give it to them and move on.

[Bligh]

My copy of the book arrived today Eric, so I will have a good look at the rules over the next few days, and see what I think to them. From what Bob says I'm not sure that they were what I was expecting or hoping for, but I will know better soon.
Rob.

[HMS Lydia]

That makes sense. And in a game that is supposed to be a fleet level fast play game, rolling to move just doesn't make sense and uses a lot of time. A sailing ship is a complicated machine to a land lubber like myself, but to a 18th/19th century sailor, piece of cake.

In contrast to SoG, movement is slow, but combat resolution is quick.

[csadn]

At Origins, I was looking for a Cthulhu RPG, and when I spoke to the folks at Pelgrane Press, they mentioned how Trail of Cthulhu enables someone with high scores in perception, for example, to automatically pick up a clue while searching without having to roll for it. That made sense to me. Yes, it is possible that such a person could miss something, but if they're specialists in an area with significant associated talent, the probability is low the person would. Give it to them and move on.

Not to mention: In most scenarios, unless and until someone notices that clue, *the scenario cannot advance*.... (First Sign Of A Badly-Designed Scenario....)

[Bligh]

Not to mention: In most scenarios, unless and until someone notices that clue, *the scenario cannot advance*.... (First Sign Of A Badly-Designed Scenario....)

Chris.

How often that has killed the enjoyment of an evening among friends or the need for an input from the GM to move things along.
Rob.

[7eat51]

To help us we had one colour dice (yellow) for the 1st rate ship. That was for me 4 dice. I added a different colour dice for each smaller rate. 3rd rate, 4 yellow +1 red. 4th rate 4 yellow, 1 red and 1 green dice. This helped to remember how many too use for each rate.

Great idea.

Not to mention: In most scenarios, unless and until someone notices that clue, *the scenario cannot advance*.... (First Sign Of A Badly-Designed Scenario....)

Yep. That was one of the mentioned game mechanic ideas behind Trail of Cthulhu.