"Black Seas / Sails of Glory" Topic

These games seem to cover the same ground. Can anyone that has played both give a comparison?

Black Seas is a much simpler game. Sails of Glory is quite fiddly

When you say 'simpler', do you mean that it uses simple but effective mechanisms to give an interesting and plausible game that covers the most important factors of age of sail warfare? Or do you mean that in an effort to create an accessible game it is a simple but to generic game that does not give an age of sail feel?

Describing Sails of Glory as fiddly does however sound negative. This sounds like you feel that it has to many unneeded mechanisms that do not add to the games interest or age of sail feel. Is this a fair summary?

I play and enjoy both (I was involved in differing ways in the development of both), and I'd agree the ground they cover is similar. I would agree, BS is a "simpler" game than SOG when playing the latter using its advanced rules – you don't worry about allocating crew to actions in BS for starters. Gunnery is handled differently in the two sets, BS is far more traditional in its approach, SOG uses a chit drawing system with damage allocated to crew and hull/gunnery damage tracks. It is a bit more "fiddly" but not greatly so. The movement system for SOG uses movement track cards similar to those for Wings of Glory, I think it gives a more realistic sense of sailing ship movement. Modelwise, chalk and cheese; scales are obviously different, SOG's models are smaller, but you can play with them out of the box, no assembly or painting required (although I know a few people who have spruced up the paint jobs and added rigging – very effective).

S O G can be hard to find in the UK

Yes, its like hen's teeth. But I heard from Ares that the starter set is being reprinted soon

I have no problem getting stock of Ares products in the USA. A comparison of ship costs and quality is a big issue for me.
Too many stores carry Warlord to shows with several specialist at every show. A less saturation of Ares, so that is a consideration.