Broadsides and Boarding Parties

[Coog]

Does anyone remember this game? It must have slipped past me in the 80s. It looks like an interesting game with the ships and figures.

I found this Boardgame Geek link for the game:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/96/broadsides-and-boarding-parties

[csadn]

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/96/broadsides-and-boarding-parties

Have it. Played it -- it's only usable for 1-on-1 fights; and there's a lot of fiddly, easily-broken bits. It's a nice museum piece for why the '80s board-game market died like a pig.

[David Manley]

Looking at some of the pics on Boardgamegeek, it strikes me that it would be no great surprise if some enterprising mob somewhere had created a variant for bigger battles (and have, since that day, spent ages looking for all those little bits that they've lost on the floor) :) On the face of it, the game doesn't look that dissimilar to many of the 1on1 pirate skirmish rules that are available today, but I suspect a bit cheaper to put together than having to shell out on a load of 28mm figures and large resin kits. The description on the web page looks interesting:


Broadsides and Boarding Parties was the first title in Milton Bradley's Gamemaster series of games. It is a light tactical war game during the age of sail where two ships face off against one another on the sea. There are basically two layers to the game, the broadsides portion in which players plot their movement with a deck of cards, attempting to maneuver their ships in such a way that they can fire a volley of cannon balls at the opponent while minimizing the risk of return fire.

The second layer of the game begins when the movement of ships results in them bumping into one another. In these instances the Boarding Parties portion comes into play. Here players line up their ships next to one another and attempt to storm the other ship and kill the opposing captain. Players can only move a limited amount of their units each turn and so some planning is required to hem in the opposing captain.

The components for the game are quite elaborate. Each player is given a fully detailed plastic ship about a foot long with removable masts. Also, each player is given a whole crew of little plastic pirate figures, cannon, and captain. Lastly the board is full color and styled in the period.

Manoeuvring using a deck of cards sounds familiar :)

Oh, and well done to the chap who took the game to the seaside for the photoshoot :D

[csadn]

Manoeuvring using a deck of cards sounds familiar

You noticed that, too, huh? :)

Even has a three-movement-draw....

[Capt P]

Don't remember that game at all. Just the one called Broadside