"Tournament play" Topic

I know there are a lot of ship to ship rulesets out there. Are there any that use a point system for tournament play? For example a french frigate is worth 10 points and a british 15 so an "even" game would be 3 french against 2 british.
Thanks

Joe

I'm not aware of any, but don't have a number of the rules sets on the market.

As a rough guide, I imagine a lot of people just use the obvious "number of guns" ratings for various matchups.

Depending upon the rules set, and if they don't do that, you could use a combination of the vessels' attack and defense factors (hull points) for that, e.g. add the attack and defense ratings of a vessel together to come up with a value for each ship.

Of course, that doesn't account for lighter, faster vessels as well, or those that sailed better, so you might want to add in some sort of mod for that too.

Finally, perhaps an overall mod for training, skill, morale, etc., especially if the British get to fire more times than their opponents in a turn, or are permitted to reload faster.

Close Action by Clash of Arms Games.

Although I have never seen any type of Naval wargame tournament at any convention I've ever attended.

Joe, your question is an interesting one to me because I think it would be nice to have a convenient point system to use when choosing the components of a fleet, something like most land based miniatures games use. That way you could know that the sides will be more or less balanced without knowing just what you're going up against ahead of time.

Personally I haven't come across that in a naval game so far, though I still have a lot of exploring to do. My only in depth experience is with Kiss Me Hardy, and looking at the pre-written scenarios that exist for it on the company's Yahoo group, it seems like the 3:2 ratio is the one they generally recommend – 3 French ships balanced against 2 British ones, accounting for the greater capabilities the more experienced and disciplined Brits are given. But of course one could also offset the British advantages by giving the other side larger ships, or a greater proportion of large ships. Either way you need to gradually develop a sense of what compositions will be balanced.

A long winded way of saying "Nope, I can't help you…."

- James

All,

Thanks for the info. Sounds like not really. When I think of a competative gamer I don't think of the age of sail.

James,
As to "not knowing what you are up against". I would love to do that for age of sail like I have to for WW II land (Platoon Forward) and air (Squadron Forward). It is on my to do list. First I am playtesting it for WW II coastal actions though (Flotilla Forward). Some day…

thanks

Joe

Hi Joe,
Signal Close Action (fsat play) has a simple points system for ship size and class (elite,good,average and poor). The standard S.C.A gives you the lot,from the ship itself to the Admiral and nationality (to much for me). G.W Trafalgar has a nation by nation points system plus add-on's. Maybe you could add one of the above to your rules.
Rory

Sorry, should read (fast play)
Rory

Rory

Thanks

Joe

Langton's fast play seems to me to have the best pointing system suitable for a tourney

Langtons Fast play is the way to go. a great pointing system for fleet builds and for victory determination