Decoy Fleets and Recon Fleets

[Gregorio Gonzalez Gonzalez]

Hi, I would like to have your game but its release was such a great success that here in Spain is hard difficult to earn it (even with that polemic rule which penalize spanish crews). However, I had an idea for the game that I want to share with the developers and other players.
At the beginning of the game players must divide its ships in “Decoy Fleets” and “Recon Fleets” and write the composition of all of the fleets on different notes (and hide to the other player, obviously). The order of battle should be reflected on the paper, by lines and columns limited to a maximum of 4 lines and a maximum of 5 columns. For example:
SPANISH PLAYER DECOY FLEET Nº 3
1st Line (Vanguard)
Gunboat “Marquesa” (center-left column) Gunboat “Salamanca” (center right column)
2nd Line
Frigate “San Diego” (far left column) 3rd Rate “Furor” (center-left column) 1st Rate “Principe de Asturias” (center column), Brigantine “Marte” (center-right column), Brigantine “Jupiter” (far right column)
3rd Line (Rear Guard)
Frigate “San Pedro” (center-Left column) Frigate “San Lucas” (center Right column)
Every player should had from 1 to 5 “Decoy Fleets” (that should be represented by a transparent plastic ship with a question mark icon) and from 1 to 3 “Recon Fleets” (that should be represented by a transparent plastic ship with a spyglass icon).
“Decoy Fleets” will be the main fleets that players move through the map until they are on the sight range of an enemy fleet. At that time, player must reveal to the other player the note where shows the composition and order of battle of this recognized fleet and put the real figures of the ships on map following the order of battle of the paper. The heading of the fleet will be the heading of the transparent plastic ship.
Player could assign several ships or no ship for every Decoy Fleet. When player would assign no ship that fleet will be considered as a “False Rumour”. Players would have fun trying to discover what decoy fleets are real and what are just false rumours and gives players many strategic possybilities (for example creating 2x False rumours to confuse the enemy, 1x Real Fleet but weak to attract enemy’s fleet and other 2x fleets with heavy ships to close the trap), however, I think that for keeping game’s playability at least half of the decoy fleets must have at least one ship (It would not be fun to display 4 empty fleet and just one real).
“Recon Fleets” will be the secondary type of fleets and should have 2 differences from “Decoy Fleets” the first difference is that Recon Fleets should have from 1 to a maximum of 3 ships with no 1st rate and just only one 3rd rate at most (the others two ships should be minor boats like frigates, brigantines, gunboats, etc). The second difference with Decoy Fleets is that Recon Fleet should have a Sight Range Bonus and Special Speed Bonus. That way, players would use their faster recon fleets to search with its long sight range for slower real fleet or false rumours and when they are identified should begin battles. May be Recon Fleet should have a special “Flee” option that give them a chance to scape from enemy’s identified fleets if the obtain a good result in a dice (otherwise Recon Fleet will be always annihilated if they have an encounter with a real fleet full of 1st and 3rd rates ships).
I’m convinced that players would find this “Decoy Fleets” and “Recon Fleets” a fun addition to the game if developers take my suggestion.
Best Regards from Spain ;D

[Gary Grimes]

Your ideas sound interesting for larger battles and could be very interesting. I think that for smaller battles (4 or 5 ships per side, etc.) it may be over-kill. If I do a larger battle (12+ ships per side) I’ll try it.

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