Ships #37

[Colonel Kilgore]

Les, I now have my mark-up that I'll send over to you when I can scan it in the morning.

Meanwhile, a few queries for Martin / other play testers to mull over:

1. at what precise point in the game are tricks selected? Page 28 states that this is after the Attacker is chosen, but it's not mentioned in the pre-game set-up sequence on page 54
2. is the type of trick declared if the roll for it turns out to be unsuccessful?
3. does the Hidden Loyalty trick completely cancel out, or simply delay, opponent opportunity shooting?
4. a 33% chance of losing one's ship when rolling for Hidden Loyalty versus the possibility of an unopposed first grapple look like pretty unfriendly odds: am I missing something here?
5. reference is frequently made to "within 1 hex" range: isn't this the same (and more easily expressed) as "in an adjacent hex"?
6. I still struggle with the notion that, when "parallel parking" alongside another ship, the joiner can choose which direction he faces, as this is equivalent (for one direction) of doing a "handbrake turn" of 120 degrees, which seems a little drastic...
7. during boarding actions, one can count "2 steps bigger" if there is a small ship vs a large one: does this also apply to quality of crew, or is one step the maximum? Either way, it might be useful to state the correct interpretation
8. how are folk choosing to mark the 5 hexes (and potentially up to 5 additional ones) at the exit corner?
9. I don't get the example (page 58) of "A player wins "training of crew" by 1 but has small warships that are not battle hardened. Instead he adds 1 gun to one of his warships". It would make sense if they were battle hardened, as their quality couldn't improve further, but not otherwise. Again, am I missing something?
10. in the Increase Fleet Size Aspect B, it says (page 59) "roll first": what does this precede: the choice of ship that is being rolled for, or something else?

[martin goddard]

All very incisive Simon. I will do something about all of those when i get the masters back. This is why it is good to have others read through the rules. I tend to make assumptions which are not valid when i write. "i know what i meant". Thanks

[Leslie BT]

The rules are with you.
Made all the changes that Simon marked up for me.
Just the editorial ones for you.

A few games at the weekend will throw up some other good questions.

[Colonel Kilgore]

I've been through the land game now too, and will send a mark-up to Les in the morning - unless it's too late?

[Stewart 46A]

If you can Simon, please share

[Colonel Kilgore]

Having played a couple of games of the current version at the weekend, it struck me that the loss of all sail markers is no longer the big penalty it was in earlier iterations. And, given that there's a good chance of a "recovery", even the loss of the extra, diced-for, moves is likely to be temporary.

I'd like to vote for bringing back the more draconian "one square only movement with no sail markers" approach: does anyone else feel this way?

[Sean Clark]

I can see both arguments for this.

As currently written, I look on the sails almost as 'hit points that have to be chewed through before getting to the good stuff - and in any case the opponent gets to choose after the first hot anyway.

Is losing sails too penal? Reducing movement to one hex may have too much of an influence on outcome. Having said that, in my last game, wind was against us as the defender almost the whole game. We only made it half way across the table with our lead ship and still won.

[Colonel Kilgore]

What we found in our games on Saturday was that sails could be "recovered" pretty quickly anyway. So, you may have one or (perhaps) two turns with just one hex movement, but then you're soon back to normal anyway.

[martin goddard]

Sails
I will play a few more games before any re-think!
Just shows how  a bout of play testing games gets the ideas going

[Stewart 46A]

I would vote for no sales 1 hex. Ovment all so increased crew for attacking warships only (5)

[Smiley Miley 66]

I think the one sail rule should be in place. This represents the crew that aren't fighting, if they are not present fighting (firing guns) or repelling boarding then they must be sailing ? So they need to be represented by sails ? That's my take on it anyway ! So no sails,no sailing crew no go ? Surely ? But also if the ships are in grappling range then could you not "swop" you sails for crew members ?  To repel the Boarders ?

[Sean Clark]

Yes with the recovery roll sails can be repaired fairly quickly. I like Miles' line of thinking too....aint it fun talking about these things? Ultimately there's no right answer it is what fits best. Good job this isnt a committee decision. The rules wouldn't be out for another 3 years!