I bought the PDF version of these rules in November. I'm very greedy about buying rules, but finding a good Age of Sail set is one of my weaknesses.
For this first game I set up a naval encounter during the Varangian Wars in the Schultze-Böhnstadt universe. I used the Russian fleet builder in the book for a five-ship Varangian fleet with two 1st rate ships of the line and three 3rd rates, and the Netherlands list with one first and seven third-rates for the Flossians.
The Varangians had the wind while the Flosse fleet was cut up by a recent storm. The 3rd rates Treu and Glauben approached from the eastern reef and the Varangian battle line hammered on them mercilessly.
I used halved movement and converted the gunnery ranges from inches to centimeters for my 1/4800 scale ships. Point blank is, this way, actually point blank.
The Varangians won the day with better gunnery, one Flossian ship sunk and two striking their colours. The rules are very easy but I missed a quick reference sheet from the PDF. I had to browse through the length of it to find the relevant info. Another thing I noted is that it was way too easy to sink a ship with a successful stern rake. Sure, set it on fire, dismast it, let it strike but sinking? I don't think so. Maybe it was my mistake. Otherwise the game flows well and I can recommend it even to beginners.
Sounds great András, but I must resist adding yet another period!
ReplyDeleteThank you - I've long given up on resisting.
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