Man of War

Bruce graciously put on a game of Man of War, hauling out his lovely collection of GHQ ships. This is a very slick system with movement triggered by one's speed (the faster you go, the more times you move in a turn--akin to the activation system in the old fighter-plane game Mustangs). Movement is interspersed with five shared firing phases. So the challenge is to maneuver so you can take advantage of (and not be screwed by...) the occurrence of the firing opportunity. I imagine Bruce has tweaked the rules some but I can't recall what the tweaks were.

Our scenario was a smaller but better quality French fleet (foreground) having the wind gauge on a British fleet (background). The wind is running left to right across the picture above and is abeam the one French ship that is cutting hard to the right all on its own. In my mind, I call this game "oh shit, the wind shifted" and this was no exception

So we get get moving and the second turn I roll a wind change in direction (it is now coming from the right, angling along the hex grain to the left) and it has dramatically weakened. This is a very unlikely event. Bruce has just turned his fleet to try and take the wind gauge away from me and this change basically catches him in irons, partly becalmed, and creates a major traffic jam (basically, he is now screwed). Despite my sympathy for his situation. I am proceeding to take full advantage.

Picture above of pretty ships with a speed counter on in. Speed ranges 0-7 hexes per turn--speed 4 for a big ship is pretty fast.

I manage to get a group of ships around the end of his line an start doing rear rakes. Some lucky rolls and he has two ships awash. My effort to board isn't successful, however.

Over on the left, I'm trying to get ships around the front for more rakes and put him in a box. The wind has just left him with no good options except to fight it out until he can get turned around and run.

In the end, one of his awash ships strikes it colours and that causes a cascading morale failure (a second seton unlucky dice for Bruce) and his fleet breaks contact. Probably a pretty decisive (and lucky) victory for the French.

Overall, one of the better sets of rules. Maneuver is slow and grinding, wind position and crew quality really matter, unusual things (like boarding actions) are risky and unlikely to occur. The mechanics create command and control limits that seem realistic while still giving players some difficult choices around movement and combat. The firing mechanic (basically, if you fire now, you have to skip the next firing phase to reload that side), in particular, make for tough choices.

Up next: A different era of naval operations.

Fighting Sail

I was out at Bruce's on Tuesday for a second game of Fighting Sail (an Osprey set). I recall quite liking the rules the first time we played. The mechanics are very slick with variable movement, easy combat and simple damage tracking.

Things started out okay, with both fleets running with the wind towards contact.

Then things got really good as my rolls turned hot and one of Bruce's ships took a real pounding. We had a coupe of ships disintegrate after a combination of close-range rakes and hot dice. I wonder if the ships were a bit brittle? But so far so good.

Then we ran into a real mechanical problem. The ability of the ships to fall with the wind means that when the game gets into a knife fight, whichever player rolls lower on initiative (and goes second) has a huge advantage. We had turn after turn of rakes as the "loser" in the initiative roll swung into the best position. While the initiative winner fires first, if you are getting raked, you don't have much of a target!

This seems to be a design error (as one of the "advantages" you can have is a great admiral who can increase your initiative roll--pretty much the last thing you want). We couldn't figure out an easy fix (which was too bad as the rest of the mechanics are awesome. Maybe simultaneous orders? But that is hard to incorporate give the variable move distances each ship gets each turn.

I had fun and all but this seems like a pretty major (and obvious) issue with the rules (unless we were playing them incorrectly--but I don't think that was the case).

EWG Club Night March 4

We had about 18 out at the club last night (wow!) with three or four games of Warmachine going at one point.

Scott hosted Chen, myself and newcomer Shawn (Sean?) at a game of War Rocket. Red on blue with some scenario notes that no one fully digested.

Things seemed good for blue until a lucky shot vaporized the large blue ship in the picture below. Love the simply mechanics in this game. Could be adapted for Star Trek or Star Wars.

Similar results on the other side of the board led to follow the leader as the smaller ships swarmed into the blind spot of the second big blue ship. Blue gave as good as they got, however and red held the board but only barely.

Dave hosted Wiley, Bruce and Terry in a game of Bolt Action WW2. This one will blow up next declares Dennis' finger.

 Alas, it was a Russian armoured group that burned instead.

Up next: 18 new trees are underway. Also some 1/72 Germanic horse. If it warms up this weekend I will spray some more steampunk ships.

EWG Club Night November 5

We had nine guys out at the club last night and three games ran. Dennis joined me in a game of 1775 Rebellion, wherein the British won (first time for a British win!). Below you can see the end game. The British drove down from the north and eventually conquered New England and then landed in Delaware (which they had been kicked out of). No southern campaign to speak of.

Neal and Dan Battlelored it. No idea how this went but they were on their second game when I left.

Bruce hosted Dave, Scott, Kevin and Terry in a naval game, the name of which completely slips my mind at the moment. Lovely ships.

Things were getting heated when I left with ships losing masts and the lines starting to get messy. Shortly after the picture was taken, the left line started to cross over in front of the right line. Flying Colors might have been the name.

Up next: Day three of the WW2 fast build is under way. Decal and detailing bases is nearly complete--just need some time with the glue and flock.

Club Night: War Rockets

We had 12 guys out for the last club night of the year and three games ran. Kevin and Elliot played some Hordes while Dave hosted four guys in a game of Commands and Colors Napoleonics, using some very pretty 1/72 figures. I believe they got two games in last night.

Scott brought out a three-sided, four-player game of War Rocket. I played the Privateers and my goal was to get the colourful civilian ships off the far side of the board.

Opposing me were Bruce's Imperials, whose job was to prevent the convoy from getting off the table. As you can see below, Bruce was pretty effective at disrupting my formation (you jerk!).

Annoying both of us were the saucer people (Terry and Chen) whose goal was simply to destroy both the red and blue fleets. In game one, they basically did that as Bruce and I beat the heck out of each other early on and were too weak to stop the saucers, despite making common cause.

We played a second game where Bruce and I still battled (a bit) but spent most of our time cooperating to bag the Saucer folks. We managed to beat the saucers down but, in the end, we had a tactical draw. I had more ships but no convoy left and there was little point is duking it out to the last man.

Overall, a very enjoyable fleet level game. I wonder if there has been a Star Trek adaptation?

Up next: Some 28mm dwarves and then back to some 15mm cavalry. Must buy glue today!

Flying Colors

With summer drawing to a close, Bruce swung by yesterday for another game with his new ships. This time we tried GMT's Flying Colors.

I was a bit hesitant when I saw the QRS (such big combat resolution tables!) but this was unfounded and the game played quickly and well. I started out well, cross Bruce's T.

Things went downhill from there as he started pounding on my hulls while I shot at his rigging. A swirling battle ensured and I managed a very narrow victory (although as it turns out, I win by a huge margin in victory points).

Overall, a solid game that plays about the same as Man of War. Flying Colors felt a bit grittier (more like I was sailing) and I think Man of War would be better for a multi-player club game (things would move faster) but both were fine systems.

Up next: I have a 15mm Aitolian army painted--just need to wash and base it. Then onto some more 15mm Greeks and then back to some 28mm renaissance.

Man of War playtest

Bruce brought over a game of Man of War (not GW's Man-o-War, but rather a 1983 game by Simulations Canada) along with his new GHQ ships.

We played a pair of meeting engagements. In the first game the wind turned against me just as the two lines met, meaning I was in irons while Bruce sailed around me, and laying down a serious beating.

I could not roll to save my life and, with ships striking colours and others with decks awash, I conceded.

Game two started better. I had the wind, was in a good formation and was crossing Bruce's T with my main line.
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I caused one of his ships to surrender and then started shooting blanks again. Bruce out shot me about 5 to 1 before my ships started packing it in an again I conceded.

Overall, this was a great set of rules that Bruce tweaked by adding a Mustangs-like movement sequence. Everything worked and it showed off the miniatures well with no need for a roster. I think with tweaked fire factors, it would work well for Great Lakes battles in 1812.

Up next: Some 28mm renaissance foot are drying. And I am building some 15mm ancients for a commission.