"Post Captain - Nymphe vs Cléopâtre, 18th June 1793" Topic

Hi everyone, below is a link to part one of this AAR. I have included quite a bit about how the Post Captain rules work and my first attempts at making WarArtisans 1/900th models, for those that are interested.

drive.google.com/file/d/1KQxPJ_odcTr8U2O3cerzqYqQA-gUQ8VR/view?usp=sharing

Regards
David

very nice report. I have the rules but have not played them yet. Your explanation of them as the game is played is very helpful.

VERY nicely done. A quick question, though: What is the red die marked "A"? Is that how you're keeping track of the turn phases?

BWW

Really good – I'm guessing the red A is the red phase marker.

I gave it a quick read and saved it for a deeper read for later.

1) really good, nice walk through. Really nice effort and presentation.
2) ships came out looking great as well!

Some things that jumped out at me:
it only takes 1 crew factor to repair 2 rigging, not two crew factors. If you have 1 crew working on the rigging and 1 on the hull (for example) then you test for 1 rigging and 1 hull.

I couldn't tell if 'trim the sails' was actually changing from battle – Easy- Full sails. It happened an awful lot. Remember that changing sail set requires 3 phases in which on cannot load cannons or turn beyond minor turn arc. If you fire the cannons during that time you have a long time before firing as you finish with changing sail and then start reloading… Also remember it takes more crew to sail the ship at Easy and full, and the penalties for firing and rigging checks.

Crew losses are immediate (least that's how I read it). When the crew is lost whatever task they are doing stops. usually you take losses from gun crews and the marines replace them at 2 for 1, also immediately (they were standing by).

I'm not trying to detract from your write up. It's very enjoyable.

The crew management can be a pain. Might I engage I some self promotion and link my blog article on PC crew management…

link

Thanks everyone – yes the large die is for tracking the three phases.

Hi Stew thanks for the comments on the models – they came out better than I expected as I am no modeller.

The repair rules state that each repair requires one crew – I read that as a crew is required for each of the two repairs regardless of what they are – I might be wrong on that but that is how I read the rules.

Trimming the sails is just adjusting within the -/+2 that battle sails allow – I wanted to use the correct sailing terminology. I haven't needed to change sail state yet – maybe if one of the ships attempts to disengage…

I don't think the rules are really clear on when you should adjust your crew allocation based on losses – I guess they should be immediate but for simplicity I will continue to adjust at the end of each turn.

Thanks for the link you your blog – interesting read. I like the enhanced ship cards.

I especially like "Post Captain" as I can play solo with these rules. The only other 'Age of Sail' rules that I have used was "Wooden Ships & Iron Men." Many of the rules between the two systems are similar. In fact, I use WS&IM boarding and melee rules in place of the Post Captain rules.

I bought the Print version of the "Post Captain" rules and immediately received the Digital rules and a few days later the hard copy, which was much nicer than what I printed out using my home copier.

Thanks for the AAR.

God bless,
John T.

I found the following ODGW responses on the Post captain forum:

· Crew factors exceeding these logged tasks are assigned to gun crews and sail trim. This avoids having to record specific factors for every task every Game Turn. The sum of the factors for logged tasks are subtracted from the total factors available to determine how many can work the guns or trim sails in a Game Turn. Excess factors are available to replace casualties. Normally a captain will, at a minimum, keep enough factors to trim sails (indicated by the underlined factors in the Crew section of the Ship Card) with the remainder for the guns, but the choice is his.
· When Crew casualties are incurred, the target captain can determine which tasks get affected in a Game Turn if the Crew factors available get reduced below the total needed for all tasks. The target captain can also reallocate at the end of the Game Turn for the next Game Turn.

"1. can you use more than one crew factor to repair rigging damage i.e. two crew to attempt 4 rigging boxes"

No. Only 1 crew factor can be used for rigging repair (and only 2 boxes repaired at a time). Rigging repair is done by the most experienced of the topmen on board and these crew are generally few in number.

Thanks, BuckeyeBob – very useful and much clearer. I will update the AAR to reflect yours and Stewart's comments.

One of the reasons to write such an AAR is ensure I am playing as intended before I introduce it to other players :)

Changed:
*. only one crew required to repair up to two rigging
* immediately resolve the loss of crew

Thanks again both of you for taking the time to reply.

Hi John, I used to play a lot of WS&IM, recently I have played some Flying Colors which is good for large fleet actions.

As I am learning Post Captain I will try and exercise as many rules as possible during this AAR, including some boarding action if I get the opportunity.

Trotsky wrote "Thanks everyone – yes the large die is for tracking the three phases."

Just a thought, but as there are six phases in total (Weather, red, white, blue, repair, command) you could use a six sided die (or a large cube of any sort) to indicate the whole game turn.

Oh Mr Astrolabe – you have made me look very foolish – as I had never even thought of that!

This thread makes me want to play PC.

or order more ships…

or both.