After rushing to get my ships ready for Viking-con it was time for a test game of the rules I am going to use namely It Is Warm Work. It is a fleet level game that is fairly simple rules wise. Mastering them is another matter ;) Each ship has a "strength tack" that describes its condition in terms of damage, crew, rigging as well as how heavy a broadside it is able to deliver.
Since my ships are in the absolute low end (minimum guns in the rules are 20) so a strength tack for my ships looks like this (1) (1) (1). What this means is that each ship can take 3 hits in total and fire with one dice each time it fires a broadside. On the yahoo group it was suggested that because we were playing with few ships rather than a whole fleet we could give each ship for strenght tack rows. So onwards me and my youngest spawn went. He seems to be turning into a francophile and has from the very beginning of the construction been wanting to play the french so here he is plotting the opening moves for his french ships.
So far so good - everything is in order to here.. trodding along merrily (we started out using centimeters as space was limited, but as max movement is 10" the 10 centimers soon became odd.. longest range of guns is 10" as well.. and once more 10 centimers for firing looked very odd.. so a few turns in we reverted to all inch based measurements).
Above you can see the result of the first truly bad move made by yours truly. .turning the Raven (closest british ship) into the wind.. And my devilspawn moving in for a raking fire with his red french ship. Here I took my first hit.
Since we played the "in irons" rule wrong when turning into the wind, I remained in irons for the next turn and the devilspawn just inched forward and delivered another raking fire. Sigh.
Had we played the rules properly I would only had been in irons for one turn, but alas such is the result of not doing my homework.
Just a top view of Raven getting raked.
And yes... he managed to move the Loire into a raking position of HMS Sophie in the background as well.. Before this I decide that 4 rows of strength tacks took too long and with only 1 dice for each broadside things were taking far too long compared to what I had in mind.
So I reduced the rows of strength tacks to two and changed them into (2) (1) (1) meaning they would each fire with 2 dice until they had taken a hit.
Proof of my poor seamship skills ;)
In the end he had to move the Lynx away from it's raking position, but still well within firing range. More hits to the Raven... And with both my ships strength tacks reduced to firing with 1 dice I was already in poor shape here.
I managed to move HMS Sophie (top british ship) to a better position. And HMS Raven was still drifting due to being in irons.
I was somewhat saved by the bell (bedtime for the teenager :D). The Lynx had moved to a new raking position and the Loire and HMS Sophie squared off in a broadside firefight.
A clear victory for my son.
Hit results:
French
Loire 1/6
Lynx 0/6
British
HMS Sophie 4/6
HMS Raven 3/6
When we go to the convention it will be with the following strength tacks for each ship.
(2) (1) (1)
(2) (1) (1)
Giving them 2 dice each, until they have taken two hits. I think this will work very well as a small scale convention game.
I was very please with the rules. Although they might seem simple, they do have the right feel (for me at least). I look forward to taking revenge on the french!
"Signal Close Action"
