Introduction and advice-seeking

[Ivairiai]

Dear all,

it is great to become a part of the community here, greetings from Lithuania. Since my teens I have been an active gamer, and I am very curious about Sails of Glory. Although I have not played SoG yet, I always wanted some game on naval warfare set during the Age of Sails. Thus, I'm very glad I found this one. From what I've seen and read, it seems to be a perfect choice. I also have a couple of newbie questions, and would be grateful if you shed some light on them!

1. I am considering getting the starter set and a couple of additional ships to save on shipping (hah, a pun!) fees, since it usually costs quite a bit to get the game to Lithuania (from what I gather from a brief overview of suppliers). Would you have any recommendations on what types of ships would supplement the starter set well at the beginning?
2. How actively does Ares Games develop SoG? Does it issue new ships often, and are there rumours of extending the period to include non-Napoleonic periods?

Thanks and cheers!

[Bligh]

On behalf of all the sailors here at the anchorage, welcome aboard Pijus.
I'm sure that here on the Anchorage you will soon get those questions answered by your shipmates'Rob.

[TexaS]

Very welcome to the Anchorage!

1) I would say as I usually does, buy a few 38-40 gun frigates. That is SGN105 Hebe Class Frigates. (Carmagnole/Sybille, Proserpine/Dryade, HMS Sybille/HMS Amelia)
My reasoning is that you get smaller frigates and ship of the line with the starter set and you can play gang up games with ships in between. There are 50 gun ships and 64s too now, but I think the game captures frigates very well.

2) They release a set of four ship models with three paint variants and two sided ship cards about every 1-2 years. Prepare for a long wait if you want new other releases. After the last release I am hoping for a special (like HMS Victory or USS Constitution) of Santissima Trinidad. Otherwise their goal have been to supply ships to cover all types at Trafalgar. Depending on how close you want to get, they are almost there. Rumours have discussed the possibility for pirates that would be from an earlier period, as that may be commercially a good move (pirates sell) but we do not know.

Earlier periods may call for more of the smaller ships and the sloop they make is very close to the smallest they can make ships out of plastic.

Also being from a country having a Baltic coast I have set games in our solo campaign in the Baltic. Ösel was the closest to Latvia I came:
https://sailsofglory.org/showthread.php?4543-AAR-Oct-A-Clean-Pair-of-Keels

I hope you will have a good time playing Sails of Glory.

[Cmmdre]

Welcome to Anchorage Pijus. :salute:

Jonas has some very good advice about choice of ships on which I agree.

[Naharaht]

Welcome to the Anchorage, Pijus, from here near Nowich in the United Kingdom.

[Ivairiai]

Dear all, thanks for a warm welcome!

Jonas, thanks for great suggestions! I will look at the 38-40 frigates and see what I can get to supplement the starter set. Also, a great AAR on the battle in the Baltics! Since the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was never a strong naval force, I don't know much about naval warfare in the Baltics, so that's something to learn more about :)

[Bligh]

Morning Pijus.
I can recommend Naval wars in the Baltic during the sailing-ship epoch. 1522-1850 by RCB 1883 Anderson. if you can get hold of a copy.

Rob.

[Capn Duff]

Welcome to you Pijus
I am a little different to most as I prefer usung SoL, even though no official fleet rules out as yet, so you have your own choice as to frigate or SoL actions.
The game play if good although there are a number of little nigglers that keep cropping up as being inacurate or seemingly strange, but enjoyable game no matter what ships you choose.

As fir ships, you cant go far wrong with what you have already been told, for me I would choose a three decker first rate, as flagship, then four or five SoL maybe a 80 and a 64 rest being 74's
This will give you a squadron of between 5 or 6 large ships which will last a bit longer gameswise.
The game is quite bloody so dont expect the ships to be around long once battle starts and you get into close range, especially if using, first fire optionsl rule, doubleshot and optionional rule for carronades. But it is great fun.

[Ivairiai]

Dear Rob, thanks for the recommendation, I saw the book on Abebooks, so I'll definitely get it! A very interesting topic.

Dear Chris, thanks for your perspective! Always good to get a different opinion. I'll see what I can do with my resources available for SoG. And I see that it should be great fun. Now, just have to convince some other hobbyists to join!

[Bligh]

We should be restarting our Solo campaign for 2018 next month if you can't find any other people to play with for the time being.
Rob.

[TexaS]

Dear all, thanks for a warm welcome!

Jonas, thanks for great suggestions! I will look at the 38-40 frigates and see what I can get to supplement the starter set. Also, a great AAR on the battle in the Baltics! Since the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was never a strong naval force, I don't know much about naval warfare in the Baltics, so that's something to learn more about :)

Neither was Sweden. We built a lot of fleets. We built great ships. We just never were that good at using them.

[Ivairiai]

Rob, thanks, I'll keep an eye on that, if I get my ships on time!

Jonas, yes, I see what you mean. And Vasa is indeed very beautiful ;)

[TexaS]

The 1628 Vasa was very beautiful but that was the result of a king not knowing anything about ships ordering changes. That is never a good idea.

There was a class of ships in the time frame of Sails of Glory called the Wasa-class that was designed by Fredrik Henrik af Chapman. He was the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to the first naval architect. All ships he designed were good except the Amphion, the kings pleasure craft. That was the king ordering changes too.

We lost most battles against the Danish and many against Russians and Prussians and what we could find to fight in the Baltic.

Good at building ships. Still bad at using them.

I too love ships of the line and especially 74s which is fortunate as they were by far the most common ship of the line during the Revolutionary wars and Napoleonic wars. I just don't think Sails of Glory is the best system to fight fleet battles in. I still have 100 SoG ships and most are 74:s.

[Ivairiai]

I didn't know about Frederik Henrik af Chapman, very interesting! Will have to learn a bit more about it.

And Lithuania's (more precisely Curonians') most famous class of ships is... Behold: https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kur%C4%97nas :D

[TexaS]

They look like a very utilitarian vessel.

Great that they were kept in use so late.

[Ivairiai]

Indeed, they were. One such was reconstructed quite recently.
And finally, made the order, ships should be here in a couple of weeks, can't wait!

[Bligh]

Yes! Great for cutting out exercises by the look of them.
Thanks for the pics Pijus.
If your ships come in two weeks you will be in plenty of time to join this year's solo games.
Rob.

[Ivairiai]

Oh, great! Then I'll start learning about the whole concept :)