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Thread: Voyaging

  1. #1
    Stats Committee
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    Dobbs

    Default Voyaging

    Here’s an experiment I’ve been working on.

    A sailing voyage has been described as days of boredom interspersed with flashes of intense excitement. My aim is to reproduce that feeling, only condensed and made to entertain.

    The following is a 2 week voyage of the USS Saratoga, to harass enemy shipping. Beforehand, I made up a list of five potential encounters. These would be unknown to the player on the voyage. The weather cards reflect the weather on a given day. The Spyglass cards reflect what the lookouts see. In this case, there are 14 Empty Sea cards and 5 Sail Ho! cards.

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    The first day is uneventful, with extremely light winds and an empty sea.

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    The second day brings heavy air, but again the sea remains empty. In this interpretation, the wind range in the basic game is Light/Fair/Heavy. I have expanded the wind range from flat calms to storms.

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    Day 3 brings fair winds, but no encounters.

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    On the 4th day, under fair winds on the morning watch, the lookout spies something. Unfortunately, it is never ascertained what it was since the spotting range for the Saratoga was less than the stranger’s.

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    Three uneventful days pass with fair and light winds, but the eighth day brings a storm. Saratoga comes through unscathed.

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    Sailing in extremely light breeze during the morning watch the day after the storm, a ship is spotted hull up on the horizon. They never stand a chance. Knocked about a bit by the storm, they don’t spot Saratoga until she’s within a cable of them. The British merchantman Tessa yields without a fight (Burden 1, low value cargo).

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    Another vessel is spotted on the 10th day with a fair wind in the forenoon watch. The lookout spies her hull down, but nothing is learned before I am called to dinner and the game gets put away.



    My goal with this is to develop a game/introduction to SoG that will expand from the basic shoot’em up game and cover the feeling of voyaging and encountering an unknown on the open ocean. This is just an overview of how the day to day is handled. Not pictured here are my rules for chasing an opponent. Historically, it seems there was a lot of time spent chasing before ships got down to the maneuvering and firing. Sometimes it could go on for days! My thought is that SoG covers the close-in fighting, where sail handling was reduced to the minimum and the focus was on maneuvering. I’m trying to come up with the part before the ships end up on the table and an exit, other than sailing off the edge.


    The idea is to remind players that there are days when nothing of interest occurs, yet from a play point of view to share this quickly. Had the last encounter not been interrupted by dinner, it would have moved to my chase board and a few minutes later to the tactical (regular SoG) board if it was a worthy opponent.

  2. #2
    Midshipman
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    Gary

    Default

    Nice recreation of actuality.

  3. #3
    Admiral. R.I.P.
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    That sounds good, Dobbs. I am interested to see how it develops.

  4. #4
    Admiral of the Fleet.
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    You have done it again Dobbs. My idea of chance cards, taken to a whole new level, refined and turned into something useful in any game situation. Also exquisite in its presentation.
    Well done shipmate. Well done indeed.
    Bligh.
    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.

  5. #5
    Comptroller of the Navy Board
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    [RESTRICTED]

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    I had ideas about something like this back when the game first launched, though my vision was expanded with additional levels all the way to global-map Admiralty level and fleet management--good to see another great mind thinking similarly and making things happen where I never even got a concept into writing.

    On many things we disagree, but when it comes to add-on rules for this game you, sir, are a rockstar, and I'll buy the cold ones or lunch (as long as it's not seafood; horrible allergic reaction, and pathological Epic Freak the Hell Out reaction to crustaceans on sight) anytime. (Seriously, I once had to Ignore List a guy on another board because he had an animated-gif av of a crab picking up a smoking cigarette and I guess teeing up to eat it, and it wigged me out that bad. I don't mock you guys over your "Quirk, Phobic - Major" statlines on your Character Sheets of life, please extend me the same courtesy. :) )
    --Diamondback
    PMH, SME, TLA, BBB
    Historical Consultant to Ares, Wings and Sails - Unless otherwise noted, all comments are strictly Personal Opinion ONLY and not to be taken as official Company Policy.

  6. #6
    Midshipman
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    Bryan

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    This is great Dobbs! I would love to add voyaging to the game. Subscribed to see where this is headed...

  7. #7

  8. #8
    Admiral of the Fleet.
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    Certainly coming along Dobbs.
    There will be questions, I am sure.
    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.

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