Last thursday night was the
Premiere of my new Age of Sail game: 6 friends came to play and I organised a simple scenario giving them one ship of the Line each. In about two hours I explained the rules, we played and we got a clear final result. They all enjoyed the game, and play proceeded smoothly after the first couple of turns. I was so busy taking notes and explaining that I did not take any picture of the game. At the end we had a brief exchange of thoughts, and they made some suggestions that I'll follow, regarding Crew grading and boarding actions.
So yesterday I wanted to test these modification myself and put up an engagement between a Franco-Spanish and a blockading British squadrons.
Miniatures are 1:2400 Hallmark (painted by me), sea-mat from Magister Militum.
The Allied squadron (top right of the above pic): three French and two Spanish ships.
L'Orient (120 guns), Guerrier and Conquerant (74), San Justo and San Leandro (74).
A close up on the British squadron: Britannia (100 guns, left), Mars (74 guns, right, leading the formation). Orion (74) and the "small" Chesterfield (40) follow.
Some play aids: the ships' Logs with allocated crews and the wind star (top right) indicating wind from South East, 6 strong. Some ships have already sustained some damage, as you can tell from the Damage die on the bottom right corner of a couple of the Logs.
A close-up on the Log of French ship L'Orient, a Large one (120 guns). The French squadron Commander is on board, as you can tell from the Flag on the top left corner of the Log.
A sudden wind change and the British squadron, seizing the initiative in perfect Line formation, passes behind the Allied squadron, using all its firepower to damage the Spanish ships San Justo and San Leandro. The latter will also catch fire and abandon the fight for a while. After few turns however, L'Orient successfully boarded and captured the Orion while the Chesterfield - heavily damaged - was forced to flee.
Not bad, for a game that has no name yet....
Looks very interesting..
ReplyDeleteWill it be only hexbased or will it "sail" on standard terrain?
Also how few ships can you play with a side and still get a good game?
looks great!
ReplyDeleteClaus: for the moment is hex based only, but I think it could be converted to linear if needed. The game has been designed with 4-5 ships per player in mind. Beginners feel OK with one-two ships only (that's what they told me).
ReplyDeleteThank you paulalba!