Advice wanted for Age of Sail rules

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Gompel
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Advice wanted for Age of Sail rules

Post by Gompel »

I am finally getting into the Age of Sail era, after having a bunch of Micronauts laying around for years.
At the moment I am building some ships and putting them on microscope slides.
What I still miss is some decent rules for using those Age of Sail ships that fit my playing preferences. I have looked on BoardgameGeek and some miniatures sites, but couldn't really find what I was looking for. Could you please give me some help? Thank in advance!
My preferences:
- focus on sailing aspects and not mainly on firing and damage. The hex/square based systems I have seen, are not dealing with wind specific enough for my taste, as there are only 6 or 8 points for steering.
- not too detailed with lots of charts/tables and rules. I like to focus on what is happening on the game board not on a sheet of paper.
- reasonably quick gameplay: 3 hours for a battle is ok, a whole day is not (of course this depends on the size of the fleet).

At the moment I am working on some homebrew rules so I can at least play soon. For that I would like to ask another question which I still haven't found any info on: who was in charge for deciding what type of ammunition to use (round shot, chain shot, etc.)? Also, who was in charge for the decision to aim low or high?
Any help is much appreciated!

StarCruiser
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Re: Advice wanted for Age of Sail rules

Post by StarCruiser »

There are many different AoS rule sets out there - some simple - some...not so much. Just a sampling:

Kiss Me Hardy - from TooFatLardies:
https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-cat ... -me-hardy/

Signal Close Action - From Langton Games:
http://www.rodlangton.com/napoleonic/frame.htm

Beat to Quarters - May be out of print:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17640/beat-quarters

A general comparison of some:
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/2234 ... comparison
"It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of java that the thoughts acquire speed. The hands acquire the shakes, the shakes become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion." - Programmer's Mantra

Gompel
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Re: Advice wanted for Age of Sail rules

Post by Gompel »

I hadn't found Kiss Me Hardy - from TooFatLardies, but I am not really a fan of their rules.
Beat to Quarters might be something interesting. But it was very hard to find info on this game as there seems to be a similar named game that is more recent. I guess that actually finding the game is even more difficult :wink:
Thank you for giving a list with some options though!

StarCruiser
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Re: Advice wanted for Age of Sail rules

Post by StarCruiser »

Yep - a lot of the rules systems are hard to find - or out of print.

Also, you have to decide if you want to get involved in squadron actions or full-on fleet actions. Some rules are good for handling a few ships with enough detail to make it fun and semi-realistic; while others are far better suited for large scale engagements.

I doubt very much that there are any rules that would work well for the Four Days Battle in 1666:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Days%27_Battle

The scale of it is just...just...yikes!
"It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of java that the thoughts acquire speed. The hands acquire the shakes, the shakes become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion." - Programmer's Mantra

Gompel
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Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:21 pm
Location: The Netherlands
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Re: Advice wanted for Age of Sail rules

Post by Gompel »

I am not sure yet what scale of battles I would like. But for the moment I will go for the smaller ones, since I won't have enough ships ready for big fleets.
Haha, the Four Days Battle... I would need to win the lottery for buying enough GHQ miniatures, need a bigger house and also have more friends to play (not even mentioning spare time). So that's not going to happen.

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