"Trafalgar - First Game" Topic

A brief report of a small game of 'Trafalgar', with my initial thoughts on the game.

link

I've played Trafalgar. I enjoyed it…I thought of it as a historical reworking of GWs "Man O War".

I now own a copy and when we get around to playing it again, I plan on using the plastic card ships from "Pirates of the Spanish Main".

Thanks for your pictures and report.

Dave

What a fanstastic sea!

Jaz
revolutionaryroads.com – affordable, durable, pre-coloured wargaming roads

What a fanstastic sea!

That looks like the work of the Terrain Mat folks.

I have that mat. It is awesome, but not cheap. I love Trafalgar. Simple and easy to learn. I have run them several times at conventions using Old Glory 1/300 scale ships. People had fun. Some freak things can happen, and you need to take fire seriously. I liked what you said about crew quality. I am a fan of house rules.

My initial thought was that so much of the game needs to be tweaked and house-ruled that you may as well look for another set of game and save yourself the effort. But I'm happy to give it another try.

I had the same response on my first game. I'm planning on the second one of these days to see if I was right. I agree with most of your opinions.

I thought it is a pretty good game. The crit table definitely needs to be house ruled, other than that I thought it worked well as a quick-play, big-battle ship game.

Kaptain, do you have the amendments suggested by, I think, David Manley (sic) in a Wargames illustrated issue? They addressed things like the weather. Not sure if available still but might be worth a look

cheers

Hi dragonfan,

No, I haven't seen those.

But I have to ask myself; if I have to fiddle with the rules to make them workable, what do they really give me that I don't already get from, say 'Form Line of Battle 4.0'?

Hi Kaptain Kobold,
Trafalgar is a fun game. Davids add-on's make it better and locks into the game well. No written orders, one 1st time gamer can use up 5 ships with ease, each ship class has a tick box log-card which you can print off for each ship. You have small info tokens you lay by each ship. It is a game first, historical 2nd. I can help with downloads if you wish
Devsdoc at hotmail dot com
Be safe
Rory

"It is a game first, historical 2nd."

I think that's probably the problem. I think that's why I like FLOB – it's a good game, not too difficult (no written orders, simple data to track), but 'feels' right as a simulation as well.