"Looking for non hex based rules" Topic

So what would you guys say are about the best medium complexity set out there?

David Manleys' Form Line of Battle

link

A half-dozen systems covered by this survey would fit your description:

PDF link

Sails of Glory still floats my boat!

My rules – "Steer to Glory".

;-)

B

For Mr Manley's rules are there anyplace to get more ship stats than what is in the book?

What more were you looking for, exactly?

There are already 21 classes of ship (and 18 more for the 17th century) which, when combined with four possible Crew Quality ratings and four Command Quality ratings, yields a very large number of performance gradations that cover pretty much every possibility.

If you mean stats for real ships, from which to derive the game stats, FLOB doesn't require much more than naval OOBs showing the name and number of guns, and a sense for how a warship compared to its contemporaries (lighter or heavier construction, stronger or weaker hull timbers, better or worse crew, few or many marines, if it mounted any special weapons like carronades or mortars, special considerations like a fouled bottom, crank/topheavy, etc.).

If you want more detail, try looking up individual ships on threedecks.org or Wikipedia. There is also the excellent series of books on Warships in the Age of Sail covering the British, French, Dutch and Russian navies.

I made a spreadsheet for quickly generating FLOB rosters, which you can get here: link

- Ix

I am partial to Limeys & Slimeys which is free download on the internet.

War Artisan that is a very handy comparison sheet you've put together. I think I need to give some of those a try.

Charles Popp, for medium complexity in a non hex-based system I'd recommend you give Kiss Me Hardy a try. It has a decent movement mechanic, and the combat doesn't turn into a fireworks show too quickly, but there is no crew assignment mechanic and for the most part damage is generalized. You don't have to worry about your fore topgallant yard being shot away for example. Though you may have to repair your rudder or put out a fire. It's very easy to customize, and the average player would probably be quite comfortable commanding several ships.

I like Post Captain

Wrote a small review here…

link