Close Action Now Expected For June

Close Action is a set of rules that myself and lotso others have been playtesting for at least 10 years or so. They are very similar to Wooden Ships & Iron Men, only far more accurately researched; i.e. the heritage is obvious so if you know WSIM you can play Close Action immediately.

The rules are going to be published by Clash of Arms - so apparently, copyright is no longer involved.

I got involved in playtesting through a mixup in a purchase of William James' history - my copy went to the primary historian involved along with his own copy - kinda amusing nowadays.

The accuracy improvements involve scaling and ship quality - Craig Taylor was simply wrong 20 years ago, or he fudged values for play balance. I remember asking him where he got his ship info in '78 or so - he was not amused, but neither was I (being an amateur historian myself). There is an optional set of 12-direction movement rules (unfortunately with quirks) that really changes the way one must think about manuvering.

I've played in three singles tournaments, one team tournament, and at least 50 multiplayer "monster" games - with anywhere from 6 to 22 players a side - along with many FTF games. Command in the monster games is really a bitch... I commanded the French in a Minorca scenario, and lost because one of my subordinates refused to engage the Brits closely. Since the ships he commanded constituted roughly one-fifth of my fleet's strength, it was a huge loss. He refused to engage closely despite repeated signals specifically to his ships - which at that time would have been a public humiliation to that commander (and of course his refusal to comply would have landed him in a Court of Inquiry - I personally would have had him shot!). We were using a signal book modelled after the Fighting Instructions of the period - it is very limiting because a commander can't say what they want or need to - the signals didn't exist, and the normal 5 or 8 word limit is no limit at all comparitively...