Excited to play SoG, and I have a question for the hard-core naval gamers

[GreenLaborMike]

Hello to everyone! I am a long time gamer (now 42, started with Candyland at 3), and long time fan of tallships, sailing, and, of course, Patrick O'Brian (even before the film came out). But I am extremely new to naval miniatures games. I came across an ad for SoG while at BoardGameGeek, and after checking it out, decided that I want to take the plunge, based on the apparent ease of play combined with reasonably realistic simulation of naval combat.

My question to the long time/hard core naval miniature game fans out there is: I assume there are a lot of other games/rulesets that cover the same ground (sea?), so what sets this game apart? I've been lurking a week or so, and have read the obvious and sincere enthusiasm that so many of you have in looking forward to this game. Does it fill some niche that has so far remained empty? I have no experience with other games of this type, so I have no point of reference to compare it with. I am glad to know so many others are as excited as I am (I pledged as a Captain without even knowing if I will have anyone to play with here in the East Bay of California). But I'm curious to know what the draw is for those who presumably already have other games with a similar theme.

Thanks in advance! And as others have expressed, I will definitely up my pledge if more ships are added as stretch goals. Please take my money!

[Coog]

Welcome to the Anchorage Michael! What is going to make this game popular is that it was developed in a format similar to the WWI and WWII games of Wings of Glory. Many of the folks on this site are players of those games. Sails of Glory will have prebuilt and painted ships-nohaving to paint and build your own. It will also use cards to plot movement and turning-no having to measure with rulers or use plot movement based on hexes. Overall it should be an easy game to play while retaining most of the features of naval warfare during the age of sail.

[Gaz67]

Being a "wings of Glory" player I'm looking forward to a fast playing game, and pre-painted miniatures is a huge plus. Straight out of the box and play...

[Sea Gull]

Welcome aboard Michael.

As Bobby has already mentioned the game uses the same 'style' as found in the Wings of Glory games. Using pre-built and pre-painted miniatures means that it should be very easy to get going straight out of the box. There are members here with some amazing modelling and painting skills - just view the photos of the fully rigged ships and rory's harbour to get an idea. If you're into that, and have the time or skill to do it then even better. I'd love to get to that stage, but for now the idea of something I can take out of the box and start playing appeals to me. The basic rules seem just that, basic. Enough to get a game going with a non gamer. The standard and advanced should add more detail so that we get the flavour of what we read about in the novels depicting the times (Hornblower, Aubey et al).

Maybe in the future I'll also try other rules sets as I did in the past. But for now SoG seems to strike the balance of a fun game with a historical feel. Of course once I have my grubby little mits on the starter set I'll know for sure if that balance is there.

[Cmmdre]

Welcome aboard Michael. Glad you took the plunge and joined our group. Seeing as how you got hooked on Candyland at such a young age it's not a stretch of the imagination that you're here. I played Wizkids Pirates of the Spanish Main and 25 - 28mm miniatures that revolved around pirates and naval engagements. Both of which are enjoyable but hard to find players the latter bulky and time consuming and many different rule sets. SoG, as mentioned above, offers an easy out of the box game system ready to play. It's also exciting being part of a community that is financing the game itself with overwhelming support.

[Andy Blozinski]

I see the primary bonus as accessibility. I can model, but I don't get into it. It's OK for a while, but I just start to see it as work at some point. Many people are the same. They just want to play the game. The pre-painted minis at a reasonable price makes the visual appeal of the minis approachable for everyone.
The second aspect of accessibility is ease of play and quick play. I actually wouldn't mind a super complicated technical simulation of sailing that took hours to play, but most people don't.
I enjoy running games at conventions. There's two kinds of games that are best to run:
1) A totally unique one off custom game with a really fancy set-up that players could only ever get to play at conventions.
2) An industry standard available game that the players could possibly see themselves enjoying again on their own.

I run a Godzilla game that fits into category #2, but I fancied it up with minis and paint so it's a little bit like #1. It's a big hit every time I run it. Sails of Glory is a #2. It's a #2 in a field that is usually #1s because modeling up a Langton takes too much work for most people and it's expensive. The types of rules used tend to be a bit stand-offish for most people as well. Even if they're not, on the surface they give the impression of being hyper technical. With SoG, you can cheaply start playing a fast and fun game that is not intimidating on the surface. If you want to get crazy, you can fancy up your minis with your own paint and rigging to run in the same camp as the old school Napoleonic minis.

[David Manley]

Agreed the draw here is the re-painted models, the near-instant access and the quick/easy play. The rule mechanisms themselves are fairly simple and standard in their approach, the movement system for example is essentially a clever way of managing pre-plotted movement. The gunnery system - same applies. For these reasons I see it being rather popular :)

[7eat51]

I think a good word is intuitive - the mechanism simply makes a lot of sense to players, especially new players. I say this based on WoG experience. Another good aspect of the game is that the visual nature of ship logs, movement cards, etc. enable players to spend their time thinking about what they want to do as opposed to managing records, charts, etc.

[GreenLaborMike]

Thanks so much, everyone! I find myself constantly refreshing the Kickstarter page...waiting for the next stretch goal, waiting for funding to break $200,000. It's been a while since I've been so excited about a new game coming out!

[7eat51]

I find myself constantly refreshing the Kickstarter page...waiting for the next stretch goal, waiting for funding to break $200,000.

If you look at the Maximizing the Kickstarter thread, you'll see you're in very good company.

It is good to have you onboard.

[The Barrelman]

Welcome!!

[Gunner]

Sounds like your ready to play Mike. 4 months and counting down.
Welcome from Arizona.

[Berthier]

Welcome Michael cant add much to what others have said already. I would say that naval wargaming has always been an interest of mine but the number of rules systems around, the high entry level cost in $and time to make your own fleet, the complexity of some systems that really bogged games down made it difficult to get into easily. As a board gamer as well, with experience of classic games that were approachable (Wooden ships and Iron Men, Frigate etc) the offering from Ares with SOG fulfills many of the things on my want list in acheiving the best of miniatures with some of the best of board games.

Easy to get into since it's play out of the box, visually appealing because we have finished models and I dont have to struggle wih painting or look whistfully at flat cardboard counter wanting more, an intuitive movement/firing system that makes novice introduction a breeze (!) and finally the ability to add as much or little complexity/realism as you desire. I and most of us here have high expectations for this system, the only wekness I could identify is that it probably isnt going to work for large fleet actions.

[Jack Aubrey]

welcome, Michael, and have fun with this fantastic game..

[Comte de Brueys]

Bonjour, Michael.

Welcome on board.

[tmon]

Large fleet actions could work if you handled them as one commender and order per division once the battle gets started. Otherwise it would be the order of the fleet Admiral.

[Devsdoc]

Hi Michael,
This game I hope will be your open door into the wet world of model sailing ships. Do not let folks like me put you off! I wish you good sailing
Be safe

[Skullduggery]

I see the primary bonus as accessibility. I can model, but I don't get into it. It's OK for a while, but I just start to see it as work at some point. Many people are the same. They just want to play the game. The pre-painted minis at a reasonable price makes the visual appeal of the minis approachable for everyone.
The second aspect of accessibility is ease of play and quick play. I actually wouldn't mind a super complicated technical simulation of sailing that took hours to play, but most people don't.
I enjoy running games at conventions. There's two kinds of games that are best to run:
1) A totally unique one off custom game with a really fancy set-up that players could only ever get to play at conventions.
2) An industry standard available game that the players could possibly see themselves enjoying again on their own.

I run a Godzilla game that fits into category #2, but I fancied it up with minis and paint so it's a little bit like #1. It's a big hit every time I run it. Sails of Glory is a #2. It's a #2 in a field that is usually #1s because modeling up a Langton takes too much work for most people and it's expensive. The types of rules used tend to be a bit stand-offish for most people as well. Even if they're not, on the surface they give the impression of being hyper technical. With SoG, you can cheaply start playing a fast and fun game that is not intimidating on the surface. If you want to get crazy, you can fancy up your minis with your own paint and rigging to run in the same camp as the old school Napoleonic minis.

Another member with a Godzilla game ! My friends and I run ours at conventions in our area. Could I have seen you at G-fest?

[David Manley]

Another member with a Godzilla game !

And another - I used to help the SFSFW with its "Destroy All Monsters!" participation game (its where we found out about expanded polystyrene pasting trays making such good skyscraper models!)

[GreenLaborMike]

And another - I used to help the SFSFW with its "Destroy All Monsters!" participation game (its where we found out about expanded polystyrene pasting trays making such good skyscraper models!)

What's SFSFW? And HOW do I join this participation game! That sounds FANTASTIC!

Separately, I appreciate everyone's feedback on why they are enthusiastic for this game. It's given me a better sense of the niche that this game is filling. And clearly, it's not an isolated opinion, as there were almost 1200 people willing to punk down some serious change to get this game!