Moideeb
01-09-2014, 10:54
I finally got to play my first games of sails of glory last night, and have a few observations about the game.
Firstly as I’m sure by now most people are aware by now, the quality of the ships out of the box is excellent, I don’t have my mats yet so I cant comments on the quality of those. I did paint the spars on HMS Terpsichore before we played, but Iwas surprised how little I noticed the fact while we were actually playing. Both my friend and I quickly got caught up in trying to outmaneuver each other and noting the fine detail on the ships went out the window. This is an interesting contrast to me to other games, where when its not your turn you find yourself looking at pieces and thinking if you could make them better. Of course I still intend to paint all my ships spars and wash the sails, as it will just make them look even better than they look already.
The first game we played was a basic game with the two frigates out of the box, HMS Terpsichore and Courageuse. I played the Royal Navy with my friend playing the French. After both of us fighting to gain the weather gage and failing and some battering of broadsides it was all over realtivley quickly, with HMS Terpsichore going to the bottom. After this we decided to have another game playing with the standard rules.
The standard rules added a lot more fun into the game, but also a lot more confusion. We each took a frigate and a ship of the line, with me being the traitor to my country this time by playing the French. The delayed movement card certainly changed the game play for the better, but also managed to enable us to crash our ships of the line head on with each other, as we failed to remember how much earlier you need to turn. With our SOLs collided, my frigate unfortunately sailed right passed his capital ship and received a full broadside at point bank range through her vulnerable stern. The effect of which was to turn a trim Frigate fresh out of port into a floating wreck, with hardly any guns left in action.
This was not a great start for me and I foresaw another crushing defeat looming all too quickly. Fortunately for me, after disengaging our SOLs the change of direction to ships on movement from the collision caused the British SOL to careen into the British frigate, while the British frigate also ran headfirst into the broadside of my SOL (The Courageuse) The effect of a friendly SOL hitting a frigate is devastating, the Terpsichore had to draw 5 B tokens from the collision alone. This combined with a simultaneous broadside through the bow from my SOL, the British frigate was sunk in a single turn.
After this bloody turn our ships separated and once again vied for the weather gauge. Eventually the superior firing power of my French SOL and marginally better handling, won out against the British. I was able to win with a mostly sunk, but still afloat frigate and a SOL with only 50% damage.
Some things I noted with the game. Veer is hard to remember. Remembering what your previous card was to calculate the veer seems difficult at best. It would seem odd to have to keep the card on the table to remember it, because that would put that card out of action, as there are only two of each card. This seems an odd oversight to me. As a result we chose to avoid veer until we figure out a solution other than having to write down the veer of the previous card each time.
Secondly it seems to me that the French ships offer a significant advantage over the British ships that creates what appears to be an unequal game. With the British historically winning the vast majority of engagements, due to being both better sailors and gunners, plus every captain remembering what happened to Admiral Bing. I realise that the French did make better ships, but I still find that this disparity makes winning engagements much harder for British captains and much easier for French.
As a game as a whole, I am very impressed with this and have already arranged a game for later this month for 12 people, that should be a lot of fun, though with only me having played before, we will likely keep to the basic rules, with raking added in.
Firstly as I’m sure by now most people are aware by now, the quality of the ships out of the box is excellent, I don’t have my mats yet so I cant comments on the quality of those. I did paint the spars on HMS Terpsichore before we played, but Iwas surprised how little I noticed the fact while we were actually playing. Both my friend and I quickly got caught up in trying to outmaneuver each other and noting the fine detail on the ships went out the window. This is an interesting contrast to me to other games, where when its not your turn you find yourself looking at pieces and thinking if you could make them better. Of course I still intend to paint all my ships spars and wash the sails, as it will just make them look even better than they look already.
The first game we played was a basic game with the two frigates out of the box, HMS Terpsichore and Courageuse. I played the Royal Navy with my friend playing the French. After both of us fighting to gain the weather gage and failing and some battering of broadsides it was all over realtivley quickly, with HMS Terpsichore going to the bottom. After this we decided to have another game playing with the standard rules.
The standard rules added a lot more fun into the game, but also a lot more confusion. We each took a frigate and a ship of the line, with me being the traitor to my country this time by playing the French. The delayed movement card certainly changed the game play for the better, but also managed to enable us to crash our ships of the line head on with each other, as we failed to remember how much earlier you need to turn. With our SOLs collided, my frigate unfortunately sailed right passed his capital ship and received a full broadside at point bank range through her vulnerable stern. The effect of which was to turn a trim Frigate fresh out of port into a floating wreck, with hardly any guns left in action.
This was not a great start for me and I foresaw another crushing defeat looming all too quickly. Fortunately for me, after disengaging our SOLs the change of direction to ships on movement from the collision caused the British SOL to careen into the British frigate, while the British frigate also ran headfirst into the broadside of my SOL (The Courageuse) The effect of a friendly SOL hitting a frigate is devastating, the Terpsichore had to draw 5 B tokens from the collision alone. This combined with a simultaneous broadside through the bow from my SOL, the British frigate was sunk in a single turn.
After this bloody turn our ships separated and once again vied for the weather gauge. Eventually the superior firing power of my French SOL and marginally better handling, won out against the British. I was able to win with a mostly sunk, but still afloat frigate and a SOL with only 50% damage.
Some things I noted with the game. Veer is hard to remember. Remembering what your previous card was to calculate the veer seems difficult at best. It would seem odd to have to keep the card on the table to remember it, because that would put that card out of action, as there are only two of each card. This seems an odd oversight to me. As a result we chose to avoid veer until we figure out a solution other than having to write down the veer of the previous card each time.
Secondly it seems to me that the French ships offer a significant advantage over the British ships that creates what appears to be an unequal game. With the British historically winning the vast majority of engagements, due to being both better sailors and gunners, plus every captain remembering what happened to Admiral Bing. I realise that the French did make better ships, but I still find that this disparity makes winning engagements much harder for British captains and much easier for French.
As a game as a whole, I am very impressed with this and have already arranged a game for later this month for 12 people, that should be a lot of fun, though with only me having played before, we will likely keep to the basic rules, with raking added in.