Various Age of Sail Wargame Rules

Over the years I have tried various Age of Sail Wargame Rules.  Here is what I think of some of them. 

Rules for Wargaming

Author Arthur Taylor

Published by Shire Publications Ltd 1971 & 1976

  

I first came across these rules back in the 70s.  I used the Airfix kits cut along the waterline to play them.

These Rules were published as part of the little 'Discovering' series of books.

Arthur Taylors main premise for all the rules in this book is that no dice are used.  Success depends on the players skill at seeing the potentialities of the board and not the luck of the dice.

The only time dice are used is to set and possibly change the wind speed and direction.

Ship orders are written at the start of each turn and there is no initiative system so I assumed moves and firing were done simultaneously.

I remember a lot of ships were dismasted and crawling around on jury masts.

Advanced and Basic

There are only the basic rules.  No Advanced or optional rules are provided.

Crew

There are no Crew Types as such, but each ship has an efficiency rating that affects gunnery and  boarding actions.

Movement

Each ship type had a movement allowance depending on the attitude of the wind.  There are rules for wearing and tacking.  Damage to masts decreases the movement allowance.

Gunnery

Each ship has a 'norm' of damage points that are modified by ship efficiency rating, range and wind strength.  This produces a total number of damage points which are compared to the ships Mast or Gun points value.  Masts and Guns are lost up to the total of these points.  Unused points are lost and not carried over to the next move.  The total damage is also used to inflict crew casualties.

Repairs

A dismasted ship can, if not fired upon or boarded, jury rig a mast to allow them to move at 1/3rd normal move.

Boarding Actions

Ships that end up alongside each other can perform a boarding action. 'The Attacker' uses all but 10% of their crew, the defender all of theirs. Divide the number of crew used by their Efficiency Rating.  Higher score wins.  Casualties are inflicted proportional to the Ships Efficiency Rating.

The winner must leave a prize crew of 10% on the prize to sail it.

Morale

There are no Morale rules.  Ships strike when they have no crew or guns left.

Ships and National Characteristics

There are five types of ships.  1st Rate, 3rd rate, Frigates, Merchantmen and Schooners.  Each has a set of stats and there are no national characteristics.

Overall

• Orders and Simultaneous Movement.
• Very Simplistic.
• Brutal when shooting at the masts
• Board everything if you have a high Ship Efficiency Rate and are a 1st or 3rd Rate.

Solo Play

Some form of initiative must replace writing of orders and simultaneous movement in order for these rules to be played solo.

Action Under Sail

Author Steve Birnie

Published by Tabletop Games in 1977 & 1993

  

I first came across these rules back in the 70s.  I had some cheap Navwar ships, which consisted of a very poorly cast resin hull and 4 pins for masts.  You had to cut out paper into sails and thread them on to the pins.

Anyway, these rules come in a booklet just over A5 in size and have over 60 pages.  There are movement templates and a complex wind compass to cut out and assemble.  

They are intended for use with 1/1200th scale ships.  They have an advert for Navwar Ships in the back.

The Rules use Regular D6.

Advanced and Basic

The game has two different levels of play with basic rules and advanced rules.  The advanced rules expand the basic ones for more realism.

Crew

Crew come in various types.  The Basic Game has three types: Elite, Average and Raw, the Advanced Game has six: Crack, Seasoned, Elite, Average, Raw and Green.

The type of crew affects the difficulty of moving, shooting and boarding.

Movement

The rules are turn based but movement is simultaneous.  It requires the writing of orders about movement and what type of shot to load.  There are many templates to help with moving and turning and drifting in the wind.  The rules suggest that if it becomes important when in a move a ship fires, then the movement can be broken down into fractional movement sections.

Making various manoeuvres is dependant on the level of the crew.

Gunnery

There is a complex formula to add up the total points of damage inflicted on the enemy which includes the type of crew, Chance, Types and sizes of guns and tactical factors.  The total damage done is used to calculate the Crew casualties and Hull or Rigging damage.  Once all the guns in the ship are eliminated it will sink in 2-5 turns.  Loss of masts affects the ship handling and speed.  Dismasted ships will drift downwind.

Repairs

The only repairs that can be carried out is jury rigging a replacement mast.

Boarding Actions

Batteries can be fired during boarding actions at a reduced rate.  Both sides form their crew into Boarding/Counter Boarding Parties.  The more crew involved, the less effective the gunnery.  The parties then combat each other.  

There are three stages to boarding:  Board, Capture Deck, Capture Ship.  Whoever wins the round of combat moves to the next stage.  If a boarding party lose the first stage combat they are thrown back, if they win the third stage combat the ship strikes it's colours.

Morale

Morale checks are made when certain things happen, like losing 40% of the crew.  The Type of crew will affect this.  The results can be anything from Carrying on, performing poorly, retreating or striking the colours.

Ships and National Characteristics

In the appendices there are copious tables by nation detailing the stats on the various ships they had.  It also details what years these ships can be used in.  E.g. The Spanish have a 136 gun ship that cannot be used after 1805.

Each ship is listed individually by number of guns, defence value, crew and gundecks.  They are grouped into Rates, but 80  and 90 gun 3rd Rates and 110 and 120 gun 1st Rates are detailed separately not just being lumped in as Overgunned 1st or 3rd Rates.

Overall

A very detailed set of rules, strays more towards realism than playability. 

• Orders and Simultaneous Movement.
• Large variety of ship types and sizes.
• There is a points system to allow for evening up the odds in a game.
• Very mathematical.

Solo Play

To solo play these rules you would need to remove the Sailing Orders and insert some sort of Initiative system as found in modern rules.

Quick Play Napoleonic Naval Wargame Rules

Bill McKenzie

Published by Navwar 1991

Supplied in an A4 booklet of around 48 pages, these rules are designed for 1/1200th scale ships.  Although there are adverts for Navwar's 1/1200th and 1/3000th scale ships. 
It is another writing orders type of game and places importance on orders taking a while to reach ships.

These rules use percentage dice.

Advanced and Basic

There are no Advanced or Optional rules.

Crew

Each ship has a crew strength and the position of the crew has to be recorded so the time taken to change sails or amount of guns firing or men available for a boarding action can be calculated.

Movement

Ships movement is calculated by the position of the wind and what their previous movement was.  Turning circles are provided for going about and there are rules for tacking.

Gunnery

Ranges are to be measured after the target is announced!

There is a complex table for working out the strength of a broadside.  Percentage Dice are rolled and points added depending on range or if at anchor or a shore battery.  This is then used to indicate if 1/3rd, 2/3rds or full damage is inflicted.

Rules are then used to calculate how many guns or masts and crew are lost and if fires are started.

Repairs

Fires are diced for each turn to see if they go out of not.

Boarding Actions

There is a formula for what crew can fight a boarding action which varies due to a boarding factor table between different rates of ship.

Morale

Morale is tested according to various conditions after a ship is fired on or a boarding action had been fought.  This can result in a ship striking its colours or retiring from the action.

Ships and National Characteristics

There are various national tables of ship stats provided for conflicts from the American War of Independence, to the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.

Overall

Another very mathematical set of rules with some complex rules/formulas to work out.

• Orders and Simultaneous Movement
• Mathematical
• Specific Ship Stats

Solo Play

To solo play these rules you would need to remove the Sailing Orders and insert some sort of Initiative system as found in modern rules.

Warhammer Historical Trafalgar

Author Mark Latham

Published by Warhammer Historical in 2008

  

These rules were a spin off from the Games Workshop Man-o-war fantasy sea battles and published under their Warhammer Historical brand.  They are printed in an A4 softback book with over 140 pages.  Like all Warhammer games they use D6.  

The rules are intended for 1/1200th scale ships but does note that different scales can be used if you modify the measurements.  There are photos of ships of various manufacturers and scale throughout.

It is a fairly simple set of rules but does have some drawbacks due to this.  The main ones being the introduction of the list of Ship Upgrades and lumping together all 3rd Rates and having to buy the 'upgrade' of 'Overgunned' to produce 80 or 90 gun ships.  Similarly for the large French and Spanish 110 and 120 gun ships being 'Overgunned' 1st Rates.  The rest of the Ship Upgrades list are, apart from Streamlined or Sturdy Construction, things that all ships had: Boarding Nets, Sharpshooters, Marines, Bow and Stern Chasers etc.  All this does is to create a points nightmare as you add all the options to make your ship up to standard.

Advanced and Basic

The rules have an Advanced section that includes Ships Boats, Lighthouses, Rules of Engagement, Firing Leeward, Boarding Actions, Repairs and Fireships.

Crew

The rating of the crew is based on the commanding Officer.  Therefore smaller ships with more junior officers have lower ratings and can consequently fail Command Checks easier.  Command Checks are used when making Manoeuvres like Tacking, Changing the Sail settings and morale checks to strike the colours. 

Movement

The amount a ship can move is based on the ship, it's sail settings and it's attitude to the wind.  One interesting addition is that of inertia.  Each ship will move forwards a certain amount if it was moving in the previous round.  Then it gets to manoeuvre. Manoeuvres involve Command Checks, failure means you cannot perform that manoeuvre, or in the case of Tacking you end up in irons.  The rules do include Boxhauling, which is to turn the ship on the spot to the leeward.  This can be done if a tack fails, but is harder to do.

The initiative system is interesting.  Ships are moved in order from the furthest away from the wind direction to the closest.  This allows those ships with the 'Wind Gauge' to react to the movement of the ships downwind of them.

Gunnery

Gunnery can happen in the Movement phase or Gunnery phase.  There is a penalty for firing in the Movement Phase.

Gunnery takes place in the opposite direction to Movement.  Ships Upwind fire before Ships Downwind.

Each ship has a number of dice for Heavy and Light Cannons and Carronades.  These are all rolled and the number of successes for each type noted.  Then these dice are re-rolled against the save of the hull or masts of the target.  Remaining successes score damage on the target.

Masts, Hull and Below the Waterline areas have hits and these are ticked off.  There is a Critical hit table which includes fires, steering and below the waterline hits.  When the hull has taken so many hits the Carronades are lost, then the Heavy Guns and then the ship becomes Crippled and can sink.  Seems a little arbitrary to lose all of one type of gun at a time.

Loss of Masts affects Manoeuvres and Speed.  Shots also cause Crew damage and if a ship loses all it's crew it comes to a stop and drifts until it is boarded or drifts off the board.

One thing I notice about these rules is that Frigates have Heavy Guns.  Maybe some did, but most Frigates only had 12 or 18 pounders.  The 24-42 pounders were reserved for two decker's, or the American Super Frigates.

Repairs

At the end of each turn each ship can roll a D6 and on the score of a 6 can repair one damage box from the Hull or Masts.  Damage below the waterline and Crew cannot be repaired.

Boarding Actions

This is an Advanced rule.  To attempt a boarding action, it must be announced in the Movement Phase.  A command check must be made to run afoul of the enemy.  The Boarding Action is resolved in the Gunnery Phase.  Each side rolls a D6 and adds various modifiers.  If the attacker is higher than the defender they win.  Each side will lose some crew.  If the defender has no crew left the ship is taken.

If both sides have crew remaining then they can fight again in the next turn.

Morale

Morale is similar to the many other Games Workshop skirmish games.  Once a side has lost 50% of it's ships sunk or left the gaming area they are considered Broken.  They lose the game.

Some scenarios do not stop when a fleet is Broken and the remaining ships must take a Command Test at the start of each turn or strike their colours.

Ships and National Characteristics

There are National Ship lists which allow and restrict the ships a nationality can have.  Not quite accurate though as the British can't have 80 gun ships, or Overgunned Large 3rd rates as they put them.  But then they allow this as HMS Tonnant at Trafalgar was an 80.  Also HMS Foudroyant was one of two British built 80s and was one of Nelson's Flagships.  The British Navy had 80 gun ships, just not many.

There are also National Characteristics like the British being better at Gunnery, The French being better at shooting at Masts, the Spanish Heavy Ships having more heavy cannons etc.

They also list the upgrades that each ship rate can have which can be different for each nationality.

Ships are defined as 1st Rate (100 guns), 2nd Rate (98 guns), 3rd Rate Large (74 Guns), 3rd Rate Small (64 Guns) etc.  To get a French 110 or Spanish 110/120 gun ship you have to buy the option Overgunned for a 1st rate, similarly for an 80 or 90 gun ship you need the Overgunned option for a Large 3rd Rate.

Why not just have these as ready made options in the ship table?

There are points for each ship and upgrade on a Nationality basis so that you can have an evenly matched battle. 

Overall

A simple to play system but with drawbacks that can fairly easily be overcome with a little thought and work.

• Wind based initiative.
• Poor Command levels
• Poor Damage allocation
• That Upgrades List
• Simple Mechanics

Solo Play

Due to the inherent automatic initiative mechanic of who has the wind gauge this can easily be played solo.

Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls

Author Alan Abbey

Published by Pen and Sword in 2011

    

Presented in a nice A5ish hardback book with over 130 pages.  They come with Templates and Ship cards that can be photocopied.
The rules use D6 and Playing cards.  They also provide a set of cards for choosing who activates next.  They are designed for 1/1200th scale ships as their templates are designed to fit over this scale of ship.
Each player has 3 phases, Movement, Gunnery and Repair.  Each has three cards with these on which are all pooled into an Initiative deck.  A card is drawn and the named player performs that action for each of his ships.  This randomises the initiative.  You may get to fire before you move, or move then have to wait until you can fire.

Advanced and Basic

There are core rules and optional rules provided.

Crew

There are no crew types

Movement

When you draw a movement card you move according to the wind attitude, sail setting and number of masts.  Making manoeuvres depends on the state of your crew.

Gunnery

When you draw a gunnery card you can fire at the enemy providing they are in your firing arc.  You roll a d6 for each gun on the ship card and add modifiers.  Each hit kills crew and produces a draw from the damage deck.  These cards specify where the damage is allocated.
There are special damage locations for Command, Gunner, Carpenter, Sailing Master and Steerage.  When these take damage then various functions are affected.

Repairs

When you draw a repair card you can perform repairs.  You can allocate groups of crew to repair masts, hull and fight fires.  If you don't have enough crew you cannot repair damage.

Boarding Actions

At the end of each round, when all sides have taken their three actions, any ships that are afoul of each other can perform boarding actions.  A ship with damaged Command cannot initiate a Boarding Action.  Crewe groups and Marine Groups are allocated and dice are rolled.  Groups are killed and whoever lost the fewest wins the action.  The action can continue in the next round until the attacker breaks off or the defender loses all his crew.

Morale

There are no Morale rules

Ships and National Characteristics

Lots of ship template cards are provided to copy and print.  However there are not a great variety of ships provided.  Again 64, 74, 80 and 90 gun third rates are detailed individually and there is no list of options to add to a ship.   However they do lump 98 and 100 gun ships on the same stats when the 98s were usually not as robust and had lighter ordinance.

There is a set of Ship Cards provided for the Battle of the Nile which have slightly different  Characteristics from normal.

The Optional Rules provide a couple of basic National Characteristics.  The British get improved Gunnery and the French are better at shooting Masts.

Overall

Overall quite a nice set of rules.  Manages to retain enough realism but be simple enough to use.

• Random Initiative system
• Manpower Allocation for Repairs and Boarding actions
• Card Based Damage Allocation

Solo Play

These rules can quite easily be used for solo play.

Sails of Glory

Author Andrea Angiolino and Andrea Mainini

Published by Ares Games 2013

Originally a Kickstarter this game comes in a large box with Counters, Counter Bags and 4 Model Ships of the British and French navies.  They are a 3rd and 5th rate for each side.  The ships are supplied pre-painted with a stat board and a base with firing arcs marked off and a set of movement cards.  The ships are 1/1000th scale and could be used at a push with 1/1200th scale ships.  They are very detailed and could be enhanced by adding rigging.
More ships were released for these fleets and then for the Spanish.  Some of the original ships are no longer available.
This game was produced in the style of Ares Games Wings of Glory WWI Flying combat game using a card based movement system.  Due to the mechanics of the game nothing more than a skirmish can really be played as it would get very fiddly and take ages.
The Ship Boards are placed in a ship mat and counters are used to mark off actions and damage.

No dice are used in these rules.

Advanced and Basic

There are Standard Rules, Advanced Rules and a few Optional rules.  The Advanced Rules include Crew Actions and Special Damage.  The optional rules include Gunners and Sailors lacking training, Entanglement, Continuous Fire, First Broadside, Double Shot and Aiming High.  The optional rules can be used with the Standard or Advanced rules.

Crew

The only things that affect the crew are the Optional Rules for lack of training.

Movement

To start the game each player chooses a manoeuvre card and places it under their ship mat.  In the planning phase of each turn, each player chooses another manoeuvre card for each of their ships and places it under their ship mat next to the first.  The first is then revealed and placed in front of the ship.  Each card has three tracks on which represent each possible sail setting.  The ships are then moved simultaneously.  There are rules for what cards can be played in certain situations.  Some situations can cause the cards to be discarded and specific ones played.  Being taken aback for example.

Gunnery

If an enemy ship is within one of the gunnery arcs of a ship and within range it can be fired upon if there is an ammunition counter on the ship mat for that side of the ship.  A counter is taken from one of the damage bags for each gun in the firing arc.  There are different bags for short and long range and for musketry fire.  The damage tokens are then placed on the ship mat.  These will slowly reduce the numbers of guns in each broadside.  The sturdier the ship the more tokens are needed to decrease the combat stats of it.  Once the whole damage track is covered then the ship surrenders and is removed from play.  Some of the tokens cause special damage like a Fire or to the Rudder or a Mast.
Guns are then reloaded the following turn, place an ammunition counter of the type you want to use, Ball, Chain or Grape, on the ship mat. A broadside can only be fired every other turn.

Repairs

Repairs can be made using Crew Actions.  These can remove damage counters, repair a leak, rudder or replace a mast.

Boarding Actions

Each ship draws a specified number of damage counters of a specific type and applies them.  A ship that is decrewed surrenders.

Morale

There are no morale rules.

Ships and National Characteristics

There are no national characteristics apart from the French have slightly more sturdy ships.

Overall

Quite a clumsy game to play and very unforgiving if you cannot plan ahead.  There are no National Advantages, no Skill levels for Captains or Crew and the game relies completely on the skill of the players and the luck of the draw of damage counters.

• Complex Mechanics
• Card Based Movement
• Chit Based Damage

Solo Play

There are specific rules in the rule book for solo play.

Fighting Sail

Author Ryan Miller

Published by Osprey Publishing in 2015

  

This is an A5ish softback book of over 60 pages.  The last few pages are Templates and Tokes that can be copied and printed.

Like the other sets there are Basic and Advanced Rules.  It uses an I-Go-You-Go initiative mechanic, rolling for initiative each turn.

It uses D6 and is intended for 1/1200th scale ships.  It uses photographs of GHQs Micronauts range throughout the book.

Advanced and Basic

The Advanced rules cover things like the Weather, Shoals and Shallows, Shores, Fog and Wreckage.

They also cover Special Ordinance, Fireships, Shore Batteries and Bomb Ships.

Finally they have rules for Multiplayer and Team games.

Crew

There are no Crew types, but you have to choose an Admiral and a Captain Type for each ship that affects it's performance in one area.  Usually giving a bonus to dice when Sailing, Shooting, Boarding or Morale.

Movement

Each ship has a Sailing Score.  This is the number of dice you roll to get Movement Points.  The attitude to the wind defines the number you need to roll on a D6 to get a Sailing Point.  If you don't roll any Sailing Points you get 1 by default.  You then use these points to perform sailing manoeuvres.  In general this works fine, but I have seen a Two Decker out manoeuvre a frigate because it rolled all 6s on its Sailing Dice.

Gunnery

Each Ship has a Gunnery stat.  This is the number of dice to roll when shooting.  The target number to inflict a hit is based on the range.  Also, at close ranges high dice rolls can cause what they refer to as explosions.  This means that you roll an additional dice to cause another hit.  These additional dice do not cause explosions.  The total number of successful dice rolls is the number of hits inflicted.

The defending player then rolls his Hull number of dice to see if he can discard any of the hits.

The remaining hits are subtracted from the fleets moral and damage caused by referring to the ship damage table.  Damage and Anchor tokens are added to the ship.  Damage Tokens affect Gunnery and Boarding, Anchor Tokens affect Sailing.  When a Ship accumulates enough Tokens it can Strike its Colours or Sink.

Repairs

After a Ship has moved it can attempt to remove Anchor and Damage Tokens.

Boarding Actions

If your Ship is entangled with an enemy in the cannon phase you can initiate a Boarding Action.  You roll a number of D6 equal to your Boarding Stat.  The Defender does the same and you compare numbers of successes.  If the Attacker rolls more they have taken the ship, otherwise they have been repelled. 

Morale

Morale is used at the Fleet level to see who wins or loses the scenario.  Each time a Ship is Damaged or loses a ship points are taken from the Fleet Morale.  Gaining a prize ship raises the Fleet Morale.  When the Morale of one side reaches Zero, that game is over and that side has lost.

Ships and National Characteristics

There are some Legendary Ships and Admirals that have special abilities detailed for each Nationality.

Ships are described simply by their rate with all 3rd rates from 64-90 guns lumped into one set of stats. 

Overall

A fairly light set of rules that works reasonably well.  However the movement rules feel a little random and may need some tidying up.

• Minimal paperwork
• Simple mechanics, more to the playable end than the realistic one
• Poor Movement rules
• Ships grouped into rates not guns

Solo Play

This can easily be played solo due to it's I-Go-You-Go turn system.

Black Seas

Author Gabrio Tolentino

Published by Warlord Games 2019

  

A very similar set of rules to Warhammer Historical Trafalgar.  Not surprising as Gabrio was involved, and pictured, in those, and Mark Latham gets a credit with these rules.

It comes in an A4 Softback book with over 90 pages.  It can be bought in a starter set with some ships, dice, markers and a sea battlemat from Warlord Games.

The rules are intended for use with 1/700th scale ships that Warlord Games sells and these are pictured throughout. 

Whilst these ships are beautiful models with plenty of details I do have some reservations.  For Example HMS Agamemnon 64 is the same size as a standard 74.  On the Warlord website in the Royal Navy Fleet Set, HMS Indefatigable is pictured as a standard frigate not a Razee'd 64.  I haven't got the set so can't be certain.  They do sell a razee'd 64.  

The Flags supplied for the British are Red and White Ensigns, but Red, White, Blue and Multicoloured Pennants.  No Blue Ensign.  

They also state that the Red Ensign is for Merchant ships.  This is partly true. There were three squadrons in the Royal Navy, Red White and Blue.  Ships in each squadron flew the Ensign and Pennant of their squadron (Admiral's) colour.  The Red Ensign was also flown by many merchant ships.  In 1864 The Royal Navy assumed the White Ensign, the Merchant Navy the Red and the Blue Ensign was assigned to the Royal Navy Reserve.

Each ship comes with a little card with all it's statistics on.

The rules use a D3, D6 and D10.

Advanced and Basic

The rules have Core rules and Additional rules.  These include Ships on Fire, Repairs, Raking, Ammunition Types, Leaving the Battle and Striking the Colours.

It also has Advanced Rules which include Reducing the effectiveness of guns on damaged ships, Fire as She bears (during Movement), Fire Ships, Initial Broadsides, More realistic Wind attitude template, Squadrons, Musket Fire, Rules of Engagement, Line of Battle, 

Crew

Crews come in three types: Inexperienced, Regular and Veteran.  This affects Sailing, Gunnery and Boarding.

Movement

These rules use a similar initiative system to Warhammer Historical Trafalgar.  However ships that have the Wind Gauge Activate first.  This is because once Activated, each ship Moves, Shoots and Boards before the next ship is Activated.

Each ship has a movement value.  Each ship can move 0,1, 2, or 3 times using this number.  The number of times it can move is defined by it's sail level.  The ships attitude to the wind will determine it's maximum sail level.  At the end of each move it can make a turn.

If you end up having to drop sail levels you can take damage.  If you end up facing into the wind you can tack out of it by making a command check.

Gunnery

Each ship has a number of each type of gun.  Roll this many D10 for each gun shooting.  Check the modifier chart and count the number of successes.  Each dice that hits will inflict damage depending on the type of gun.  Reduce the ship points by the total damage.

There are critical hit tables for Hull and High targets which can cause more and different damage.

Again, like the Warhammer Historical Trafalgar rules, Frigates have Heavy Guns.

Repairs

If a ship declares a repair turn it cannot change level of sails, shoot or change direction.

It can then make a Skill Test and if successful can repair 1D6 of Damage to its ship points.  If it fails the test it can repair 1 ship point.

Boarding Actions

When one ship attempts to board another roll D10s proportional to the number of ship points each has and count the successes.  Each success reduces the enemy ship points by 2 or 4 if a critical is rolled.

The ship that took the least damage is the winner.  The loser may have to make a command check or strike the colours.

Morale

Morale is a command check to see if a boarded ship that loses the Boarding Action strikes its colours or not.

Ships and National Characteristics

National lists of Ships, Famous Ships and Special Characters and their points value are provided.  It is very similar to the one in Warhammer Historical Trafalgar with Large and Small 3rd Rates.

One of the Legendary ships stats I don't understand is L'Orient, a French 1st rate that blew up at the battle of the Nile.  In the rules it is more likely to explode if on fire.  Granted it means the ship costs less points but all that happened in real life is covered in the normal rules!  The ship just rolled poorly on their extinguish fire check, why make it that if anyone uses it, it can explode more easily?

There is a list of each ship by rate.  Again there is the Ship Upgrade List and again Large 1st Rates of 110 and more guns and Large 3rd Rates of 80-90 guns are created by buying the Over Gunned option instead of simply stating these up.  At least the Royal Navy isn't banned from Over Gunning their Large 3rd Rates. 

Again the rest of the upgrade list is for a lot of things that are standard on most ships.

Overall

Overall, very similar to Warhammer Historical Trafalgar.  Some of the problems have been ironed out but the Ship Upgrade Table still remains!  Using a D10 gives a greater range of dice rolls.  One thing to note though, you are rolling 'low is best' on these dice, not high!

But, 1/700th scale!  Great looking models but you will need a sports hall to fight the Glorious First of June or Trafalgar!

• Wind based initiative system.
• That Upgrades List
• Simple Mechanics

Solo Play

Again, with the automated initiative mechanic, this game can easily be played solo.