"New to the Age of Sail" Topic

Hi all,

I've been playing a lot of Empire Total War lately, and a few nights ago, whilst playing said game and watching Pirates of the Caribbean, I felt inspired to look into what is a previously unexplored era of gaming for me.

I remembered that Wizkids did a Pirates Pocketmodel game, and so bought a few packs and a PotC tin, and upon receiving them, they are great little ships (I also have hundreds of the Star Wars ones to, but that is a seperate addiction!!)

Anyway, I've done a little reading here, and on other sites, but I'm looking for a set of rules that will allow me to use anywhere up to 50 ships per side. I don't wish to get bogged down with the minutiae of each individual ship, and would like the game to be fairly free flowing. I'm thinking a sort of Black Powder at sea kind of game, if that makes any sense?

What set of rules would you recommend?

Thanks
Ryan

I'm looking for a set of rules that will allow me to use anywhere up to 50 ships per side.

Let me know when you find one. I've been looking for a set that will do that for years …

Why 50+ per side? Most sea battles in the Age of Sail weren't half that size. And although the two sides in the Armada campaign totaled 200+ they all didn't engage at once.

Why 50+ per side? Most sea battles in the Age of Sail weren't half that size.

Trafalgar for example: 27 British ships vs. 33 French/Spanish

I'm still looking for a set of rules that will handle that without taking a very long time to play!

Hi, I'm not really after games of 50 ships per side.

"I'm looking for a set of rules that will allow me to use anywhere up to 50 ships per side"

I understand that engagments weren't that vast, but I'd like a set of rules that could deal with that, if I so desire.

You might want to look at Jeff Hunt's rules Bloody Broadsides.

His goal for these was to have a rapid paced, streamlined set that caught the gist of the period. The focus is on real navies and ships of the line, however. link

If you were looking for smaller ships and piracy and privateering, Peter Pig's "Pieces of Eight" might suit you, but the fleet sizes will be smaller. link

I played Bloody Broadsides at a convention last year. I thought that the game had a little too much detail for what I wanted, which was a simple set. But that was only an impression from a single game, so ymmv.

Jim

I think the assumption was that since there were no sea battles involving 50-ish ships a side, rules for that kind of size of action might be lacking.

But check Free wargames rules for a set called "Sea Dogs Attack!" They're for kids.

"It is Warm Work" will do the job

Looks good, Morning Scout.

link

You might want to look at Jeff Hunt's rules Bloody Broadsides.

Hmm. From that link:
"Games may be as small as one on one Captain Duels, up to massive 60 ships or more historical battles like the Battle of Trafalgar. "

"Plotted Movement"

That means plotting movement for each of 60 ships every turn? That sounds totally unmanageable to me.

I have "It's Warm Work" and though I haven't played it, it seems to approach the period differently, versus the giant family tree of "Wooden Ships & Iron Men". Or jazz up SPI's old "Frigate" game. The rules can be found on-line, I think.

"That means plotting movement for each of 60 ships every turn? That sounds totally unmanageable to me."

Jeff's games that I have seen had multiple players per side, managing multiple ships. I think he used to use Age of Sail, and his set is simplified as compared to AoS, as I understand it.

Or jazz up SPI's old "Frigate" game. The rules can be found on-line, I think.

Man Mallen, playing the "Frigate" card? That was my intro to age of sail (well, except for an ancient game "Broadsides"). Frigate did have SPI's old simultaneous movement system but you could (we did anyway), often plot simply by squadron. While it was a counter based game since they list the scale in the rules it should be pretty easy to adapt to minis. And IIRC we used to play something like "Glorious First of June" in a couple of hours while consuming mass quantities of Dr. Pepper and Nacho Doritos. You could easily expand it to 60 ships a side. Combat was simple and the list of scenarios was great.

I will third "it Is Warm Work". About the quickest you can get for fleet actions.

I also tried Ospery's "Fighting Sail" recently. Simple, however you have to dice a lot for movement. Not as big a time killer as some claim, but it does go slower than my first recommendation.

"Form Line of Battle" is my next recommendation. You dice for movement here as well. It also has slightly more record keeping and charts, but far from burdensome compared to most others.

Most other rules out there have more charts and tables. I would play them but they go beyond what most of my friends with passing naval interest would play.

No plotted movement

Kiss Me, Hardy?

Im working on a set of real fleet action rules at the moment. That said I've been working on them for six years! But they are third in line of my projects to get done this year

Crikey, I had a feeling there would be a fair amount of options! Thanks everyone, I'll read up on them over the coming weeks.

I've been doing some further research on Kiss Me, Hardy, but there don't seem to be too many people playing them. The TFL rules are some of my favourite out there, would anyone else recommend them?

Bloody Broadsides will not work with 60 ships per side unless you have about 50 players per side.

For KMH you can try the TFL forum for ideas on it.

Another game to consider is "Flying Colors" from GMT games – a boardgame but it could be easily converted to miniatures use.

50 plus ships a side?????
That is a very long modeling project and expensive. I think get the ships frist, then look for rules!
Good lucky
Rory

Thanks Dynaman. I did have a look at Flying Colours. Soooo expensive though!

Devs doc: I have all the ships I need now, (actually, I have about 150 ships in total, so probably far too many! )

I use Flying Colors with miniatures. You can download the rules for free on Board Game Geek, so you would just need to make markers for damage and such. You can find ship stats online, or check the Vassal module. You would need to make or buy a hex mat too (made mine on a dark blue bed sheet)

Whitejamest: thanks for the heads up, I'll check it out.

I was kindly provided It Is Warm Work, and they look perfect for what I'm after. As soon as I've got them printed, I plan to have a run through with them, so will probably do a blog post

Hi Ryan,
This thread is call "New to the age of sail". 150 ships is not something you get over-night! So you have sent a lot of time or money on this part of the hobby. So how new are you?
I'm glad your here and look forward to about your games.
Be safe
Rory

Well, I bought one massive auction of about 100 Wizkids Pirates ships on eBay, and One of the lads at the club is giving me about 50 ships too, so it kind of has happened overnight! lol

At least I won't need to buy any more now, and will be able to play all the games I like. Which is nice! :-D

Although, I suppose if I want to do specific battles, and don't have the necessary ships, I'll just *have* to buy some more!!! *grin‌**grin‌*

Ryan,
You are a lucky man. I think with that number ships, you could play any rule set that do or can do 1-1200 scale ships. Some you will hate, some will be O.K. but you will find the odd gem.
Good luck on your quest.
Be safe
Rory

The closest I know if is Fighting Sail by Osprey. No real bookkeeping. It's a$17 book so it's worth a look. Not the best game I've ever played but the fastest to date

That came off rather poorly. Is not a bad game at all, I just happen to prefer KMH. Our first game had 15 ships per side so I'd imagine with experience 50 could be done without much fuss, but I imagine thatwould the upper end of things