"Blue Sea or Ocean Mats" Topic
13 Posts
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Space Ghost | 08 Jul 2014 9:11 p.m. PST |
Hey, Fellow TMPers
Just won a copy of the old Ship o' the Line rules off ebay. In my research, I found these were the more detailed basis for Wooden Ships & Iron Men, although using squares instead of hexes. I have very fond memories of playing WS&IM. Now with the advent of the Sails of Glory ships, I'm pondering picking some ships up, and trying to get my group to start playing SOL and WS&IM. However, does anyone make simple, sturdy blue mats that have hex or square overlays? It looks like Hotz has pretty much what I would want, but given recent peoples experiences with that company, it's not an option for me. I have not been able to find anything else (looks like Chessex made blue vinyl hex and square mats at one point, but no longer). Any suggestions? Thanks, ~Brian |
jpattern2 | 08 Jul 2014 9:48 p.m. PST |
The 5'x3' seascape mat from the Games Workshop Dreadfleet game is beautiful, and pops up often on Ebay for $20 USD or so:
It doesn't have squares or hexes, but they're not hard to lay out yourself using a ruler and dots of white paint for the corners of each square, or the corners or center of each hex. If that sounds like too much trouble, Litko makes excellent square and hex stencils, but they're pricey: link |
Big Jim | 09 Jul 2014 3:55 a.m. PST |
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Syr Otto | 09 Jul 2014 10:09 a.m. PST |
I'm cheap, so if I didn't just use blue felt, I'd pull a picture from google earth and send it to Banners on the Cheap (www.bannersonthecheap.com) and have them print it up at the size I needed. I printed up a nebula for X-Wing at 3'x3' and it was about $20 USD with shipping. |
Feet up now | 09 Jul 2014 12:35 p.m. PST |
Jpattern2 has the best suggestion,that dreadfleet play surface is fantastic. Used effectively for man o war and uncharted aswell. |
11th ACR | 09 Jul 2014 10:14 p.m. PST |
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jpattern2 | 10 Jul 2014 6:48 a.m. PST |
That's a pretty cool link, 11th ACR, thanks for that. |
Kevin in Albuquerque | 10 Jul 2014 10:46 a.m. PST |
Ditto from me, too, 11ACR. |
Space Ghost | 10 Jul 2014 8:56 p.m. PST |
Gent's, thank you all for the responses, some really good suggestions. 11th ACR's suggestion is interesting, I'll need to see what I can do with it. The Dreadfleet mat was a real surprise, didn't know they were being sold by the bits-sellers on eBay, and at such low prices. Are the mat's very thick, do they lat flat OK? I'd probably try painting my own if I thought I could do a good job at it! :) |
jpattern2 | 11 Jul 2014 9:18 a.m. PST |
The Dreadfleet mats are very light and thin, almost like satin. I always roll mine, to avoid creases, but it came folded in the box, and any creases smoothed out quickly. Since it's so light, I weigh down the corners to keep sneezes and breezes from blowing it around. I use cheap brass anchor paperweights to maintain the nautical theme. |
1968billsfan | 11 Jul 2014 9:57 a.m. PST |
What I did was go to a store that sold material for upholstery by the yard. I got a nice blue with a good texture that mimics seascape quite well. |
1968billsfan | 11 Jul 2014 10:08 a.m. PST |
If you are interested, I can send a copy of some home grown rules which are based upon Ships of the Line and wooden ships and iron men ("Hearts of Iron, Ships of Oak"). They use a 16 point compass, due require some sailing and don't require hexes. The rules consist of 2 double sided firing sheets, 2 double sided sailing sheets, a move plotting ship sheet for each vessel, a wind gauge and a wind orientation analog computer (e.g. a compass/wind direction/ship orientation compass thing). Players usually handle 3-7 ships apiece and it is set up primarily for SOL and larger frigates. Maybe this is too much to print here, but here is the overview of the rule sheet. There is also a powerpoint firing tutorial. I use Valiant 1/2000 ships with craft store wire bead stringing rigging, which are about the right size and very sturdy. ============================================= Hearts of Iron, Ships of Oak OVERVIEW OF SEQUENCE OF PLAY
• The ships are 1/2000 scale and the ocean is 1/10,000 scale. Turns are about 3 minutes • There are two "legs" in a turn. You write the sailing instructions for both legs at the beginning of a turn. The scheme is to try to do consecutive movements with all other players. The umpire may dictate prorated movement or resolve collisions and near collisions. • The ship speed depends upon the orientation to the wind, the ship, damage and the sail setting. You figure this out at the beginning of each turn. You can accelerate half of a sail setting's speed rang in one leg of a turn. You can travel at any speed below that speed. • There are 32 "points" in the usual compass rose. We don't need this many and use a 16 point compass • To start, Movement is straight for a number of mm, and then you can turn 1-3 "points". If your bow or stern cross across the way the wind is blowing at you, the turning gets tricky. If your bow goes thu the wind (ex. Wind starts on port side, and goes to starboard side) it is called beating or tacking. You might get caught with not enough "swing" to get across the direction of the wind and get hung up "in irons". If you put the stern to the wind and sail around to put the wind on the other side it takes longer, but is safer and is called wearning. You also lose a lot of ground toward windward. • Crewmen have to be on the guns to reload them. You can fire every turn, or decide to spend more time to fully reload the guns and fire a more powerful full broadside. • You can fire both broadsides on the same turn, but one of them is at half factors. • You can fire at any time during a leg , but you can NOT fire a broadside on two consecutive legs.(use black or grey smoke) • You can fire high at the rigging/masts or low at the hull and crew. Default is at the hull. • Ships sink or strike when they get enough hull hits to slowly sink, or crew casualties to be unable to resist, or sail's damage to be unable to maneavure, or fires overtake the ship or a boarding party manages to swarm the ship. (rarely they DO explode!!) • You may have to move some crew around to take care of sails, pump water, fight fires, or form boarding parties. Hint: you don't want to be caught without a defensive boarding party if a desperate opponent crashes into you and boards!! Gross Procedure: [A] Umpire adjusts wind and does nefarious things. Some info will go to only one side or even a single unit. [B] WRITE ORDERS for both legs of movement. Figure out the distance allowed for each leg w.r.t. the wind. Also: Allocate Crew to Sails (if changed) Guns, Boarding Parties, Fire fighting, Repair Parties…… .Roll for Cut Free, Clear Wreckage, Cut Grapples, Repair Hull, or Repair Sails. [C] Move first leg and also do any turns. Both players get to see what each other are doing before deciding when to fire or not fire. Then things are "backed up" to figure out the range or relative ship orientations. Yea, this isn't perfect reality, but it helps playability. [D] Resolve Collisions, Tacking success, Grappling success, Wearing that occur during first leg. Do Heave-To., Increase or Decrease Sail, [E} Firing Sequence. A. Decide whether or not to fire, THEN, Measure the Range, Determine Eligibility and Raking Fire. Figure out if it is a Continuous Broadside, Reloaded Broadside, and Crewed Broadside. B. Fire the Broadside. *****Figure the gunnery factors by the range and what is available to fire *****Figure out what table you start on *******Add the modifiers to move up or down in the number of the table that you use *******If the target has more than Fighting Sail, then do extra rigging-only-hit die roll(s) ******Roll both the red and white D6. ******Resolve any critical hits, you might have lucked into. ******. If a ship fires, put white smoke on that broadside for leg 1, (black smoke if during leg 2) [E] Roll for Striking or Sinking. [F] Boarding Sequence [G] Taking Possession. & Transfer Crew. |
1968billsfan | 11 Jul 2014 10:10 a.m. PST |
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