I have a copy of Osprey's Fighting Sail: Fleet Actions
1775-1815
I am by no means an expert on sailing ships or the time
period beyond basic knowledge of Naval history.
However, I know many people love it thanks to a few famous fictional
heroes of literature. My interest has
mostly been in passing. However, there
are a few things I love about Naval wargaming in general:
1, Typically a smaller model count
2. Easy to make terrain
3. Small gaming room foot print
Therefore, I was eager to pick up these rules when I saw
them become available. It is a fleet
game, and designed to use Ships-of-the-Line more than Frigates and small
craft. It is not really meant for
ship-to-ship duels. However, it can accommodate
those fleet types. For example the
American Fleet is all 5th and 6th rate ships!
I.e. Frigates. The book contains
fleet lists and some special command rules for fleets including: French,
British, Russian, Spanish, American, Dutch and Pirates. Some claim that it misses out on the Danish,
Turks, and Swedes as potential enemies.
I sort of agree since how can a British fleet pull a Copenhagen without
a Danish fleet? Well, I guess you
wouldn't really need the stats for a Danish fleet in that scenario since they
were all sunk in port, but you get the idea!
Anyway, I digress.
The scale is 1/1200 and the GHQ Micronauts range is mentioned several
times. However, it does cover how to use
the larger 1/2400 scale as well. It does
not give any indication on how to use the scale of the Sails of Glory ships
though, since they are (of course) a unique scale.
The author of this work begins by sharing a bit of his
pedigree in the genre. He mentions that
his first foray into naval wargaming was GW's Man-o-War rules, and that led him
eventually to historical naval games.
After trying those for a while, the Golden Age of Sail became his
favorite. You can tell he knows a bit
about the period as he peppers the rules with actual nautical lingo like; In
Irons when sailing into the wind, Crossing the T when raking, Waring when
turning sharply into the wind, etc.
These official terms are actually part of the rules, so this may lead to
a bit of confusion for us land-lubbers.
The game has three parts:
1. Initiative- Determine who goes first.
2. Sailing- Player with initiative moves all of his
fleet, then the other side does.
3. Cannon- Initiative fleet fires, then the other
side.
It covers the basics of movement, shooting, boarding,
collisions, etc using a pretty simple and straight forward method. You roll a number of d6's based on the
abilities of the ship in question.
Depending on your relationship to the wind or target, you might have
slightly different target numbers fo a success.
In movement, you convert successes into how far and how many turns your
ship can make. When firing it is the
number of hits. When resisting it is to
eliminate hits. It is pretty straight
forward and easy to grasp, however a reference sheet would be handy. Thankfully, this game has a reference sheet
you can photo-copy in the back. The
basics of sailing and fighting are laid out clearly and include helpful
diagrams.
When moving, your relationship to the wind is
important. Shocking I know! However, once you have determined the number
of Sailing successes you have, you can maneuver without worrying about the
wind, until your next turn. That means
there are times where you might be able to move relatively quickly into the
wind. To some, this may feel a bit odd
as you don't pay the penalties for your moves until your next turn. Another thing that is interesting, is that no
ship can just go straight, it is always maneuvering at an angle called . I suppose this is accurate to sailing but
since I am not a sailor myself I really don't know.
Some folks will also be horrified to learn that there is
a mechanic similar to an "Exploding 6!" mechanic to incur extra
hits. However, in most cases it is
limited to a single extra potential hit, unless you are raking someone. I know this mechanic can be considered
controversial. However, it seems to make
shooting up close very deadly, just like the flavor of the period would
suggest. I imagine battle in this game
take a turn or two of maneuver, followed by a couple turns of brisk shooting,
and then a decision in many cases. Only
a lucky few would need to re-position themselves again for another attack. However, without an actual game I am guessing
based on my reading of the rules.
A final point that some people will not like is that games
of this nature tend to use templates a lot for turning and determining how you
are moving into the wind. Some gamers do
not like this at all. In addition, you
will also need damage and anchor tokens.
These are all provided in the back of the book for copying.
Each fleet has set
number of moral points, as ships are hit, strike their colors, captured, or
sunk it reduces the fleets morale. The
first fleet to 0 moral loses.
Interestingly enough, you can gain Fleet Morale by capturing enemy ships
as prizes. The author recommends a 300
point per side game, so 30 Morale to start.
That is about 6 ships per side.
Of course, the game also covers some advanced rules in a separate
section about wind and weather changes, multi-player games, sea terrain, and
special ships. It then has a small
selection of scenarios that cover the basics.
As a bonus, the rules also have a couple pages of rules for single ship
frigate duels, that have slightly more detail, but follow the basic rules of
the game. In the Fleet Lists it also
covers special characters, also known as Historical figures; and legendary
ships. A nice bit of flavor.
The book as diagrams to help illustrate its rules. It also has some shots of GHQ Micronauts line
on the table and with some smoke to represent the battle. Nothing to inspiring but enough to give you
the flavor of the gaming. Finally, it
has very nice artwork from the Osprey library that really make you want to get
a few ships and go to town.
Overall, this seems like a pretty easy to learn but hard
to master set of rules. Aren't those the
best kind? It has just enough spice and
flavor to make it fun, but not enough to overburden the game. It definitely focuses on immersion and away
from simulation and compared to other Age of Sail/Naval games I have looked at
tries to simplify the book keeping and focus on the game play. However, it is also crew-centric as the main
difference between ships is the abilities of its crew to sail and shoot which
is reflected in the stats of the different Navies ships. A British 1st Rate and a Spanish 1st rate
have different strengths and abilities on the table. Again, enough for flavor but not enough to be
a deal breaker. They look to strike a
balance between the strategic (list building and fleet org) versus the tactical
(How you maneuver and shoot with your ships) to make a fun looking game.
Let me know your thoughts about the game below and feel
free to add any links to battles using the rules. I would love to see it!
I like it. So does my club.
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