Plotting
I played a few games this weekend, and it set me to thinking. Typically, we play that all ships except sloops of war have to plot two turns in advance. I was curious what other folks do. I could see a case for playing all of the ships by just selecting the next turn's card. Planning two turns ahead definitely makes it challenging considering the ranges.
I think the idea is to make it challenging. Sailing ships could not respond as quickly as modern ships to speed and course changes.
I agree with you David.
I normally play plotting just one turn ahead as the speeds were often quite slow.
The British attack at trafalgar was at about walking speed so even if it would be a few minutes before you have changed the setting of sail you wouldn't have gotten very far and the only collisions during battle that I have heard about have been in very special circumstances like heavy smoke/fog, intentional or between ships entangling rigging when preventing the line from being broken or the like.
My only personal experience is from a bit more modern brig (1840:ies) and that answers quickly to the helm making it possible for quite precise maneauvering. Granted you would want to prepare the crew a few seconds before tacking into the wind.
I use one move card currently as most of the time my opponents are new players. My app also is using single card at the moment. I plan to explore two cards at some point.Originally Posted by Dobbs
After reading two books on this era it highlighted to me the difficulty of sailing these ships out of a bay without favorable winds and the dangers of running aground. Since the ships in the game are easier to navigate and sail into the wind (even though I still misjudge quite a bit), I can see the reason behind two card planning.
One particular instance in history was when I believe Cochran was being chased and he suddenly changed course and it took the French ship miles of travel before it too made a change to intercept.
I tend to use the two move sequence, except when playing Solo games where the AI ships can only really play one move at a time.
It does make for a more speedy action I will admit, but I'm still unsure, although Jonas's remark is swinging me towards the one card idea.
I wonder what other Stats Committee members like Dave Manley think about this?
Rob.
The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.
Let me guess, in that chase they didn't have battle sails set. They rather had suddingsails and every piece of cloth they could put up?
Sailing a brig that is a copy of an original from 1840ies I fould that it takes less than a minute to start changing course and only a few minutes more to trim the sails for the new course. (Except tacking. That takes quite some time. At least five minutes I would say, depending on wind etc.)
Aaron may be referring to the night time chase that is replicated in Master & Commander when they put lights on a ships boat, dousing the lights on the ship and then changed course.
As far as the cards go - I usually use the 2 card system unless I am teaching the game to new players.
I have the book in audio format so it's hard to look it up without waking the wife at the moment. I will look into it.
That is the most famous trick and I've even seen replicated by some myth buster like program. It says nothing about ship agility though.
To be honest manoeuvres in high winds and high seas will take quite long, but that would be conditions where battle would be very hard to do at all, but still have happened historically. See Pellew's battle with Droits de l'Homme.
I was referring to the movie; however I believe Cochran himself mentions it in his book "The Autobiography of a Seaman". A good read and very cheap on Amazon in kindle format.
Right as you noted before a chasing ship ought to be able to react to course changes by the chase in the absence of some other factor effecting visibility for example.
Perhaps we need a 'Tailing' rule like there is in Wings of Glory.
Could be a good idea Dave.
Did Captains actually look to see if ships they were trailing suddenly had more deck activity when they were about to go about, or is this just a figment of some author's imagination?
If it is not, then maybe the rule could be applied to Captains with tailing ability as a card.
Rob.
The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.
I am sure the captains and crews paid close attention to activity on the other ships.
In racing, we pay attention to the winch grinders. When you see them start to fiddle with their lines, it gives an indication that the boat is preparing to tack. There's a variety of things like this that can be seen over a good distance (no smoke clouds, though).
Which the captain would know the other is watching and pull tricks.. like if a ship didn't have a full crew he could rig up all his sails to drop at once to appear like it is. (historically this happened)
SOG used a single card activation ssytem until the end of playtesting. I always thought it was a better way of playing, it was quite a surprise when it changed.
That would seem to be the simple way out of this conundrum David, and may even give a more realistic number of accidental bumps.
Rob.
The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.
What do you mean by this?
I have to say that in some races when I knew other captains were watching , I would have the crew do misleading things. It was usually pretty successful.
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