Card and model comments

[Peter W]

A few comments.

I have got the Royal Navy and French Navy boxes, the Master and Commander Starter, the Third Rates Flotilla, the Victory and Constitution. I like the rules and the quality of the production so far, but have a couple of feedback items.

Firstly, the cards for the box sets are pretty limited and generic. While the rulebook lists Bucentaure with different stats from the Large 3rd Rate card, the French Navy box does not include a separate card for her. This is a similar issue to the Royal Navy box and the Razee frigate Indefatigable.

As for Indefatigable, I am hesitant to use the sternplate/figurehead for her, as she is a total mismatch for thje hulls currently available. As a cut down small 3rd Rate (64) she should be much longer than the frigate model, but somewhat shorter than the 3rd Rate model. I have considered modifying the 3rd rate, cutting it down and scratchbuilding the deck for the Indy, but I was not sure whether Warlord intends to make a 64-gunner or indeed a razee frigate down the line, as there is another famous razee, HMS Majestic, which would generate some interest.

I wonder whether anyone else has thoughts on this or has done such modifications.

Also, as a suggestion, Warlord could post up download-friendly card images for the non-standard or ‘hero’ ships on the site.

• This topic was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Peter W.

[Bob D]

I know the series has only just started 🙂 but I’d also like to know whether we might see some Ottoman, Russian and Swedish ships at some point down the line. This would introduce oared ships, and the Ottoman vessels were quite different (fast but thin-skinned, under gunned, high sterns). Would be cool.

[Ken Redington]

As you said, it is still early and I am sure we have not seen everything yet. I still fully expect this is a side game like Cruel seas that will not be as well supported as say Bolt Action. But from what I have seen as far as demand goes it just may take off. What they really need is a scenario book listing battles and ships involved. Preferably smaller engagements of 5 or less ships per side including some of the SOL 3 engagements. I have a copy of Wooden Ships and Iron Men by Avalon Hill and most of their engagements require 8 SoL per side or more for the average battles. What we really need is Merchant ship models (Plastic and cheap), some of the smaller gunboats of the 10 to 20 gun size, and Smaller 3rd and 4th rate hulls (Again in plastic). Down the road would also like to see alt masts in white metal for those who want to toughen up their Brigs, Frigs, and SoL 3’s. Just put the masts in the bits list so we can order them like rigging and sails.

[Bob D]

I agree with all of your points. I have WS&IM as well and like you saw that all of the big gun battles require 8+ SOL per side.

I was looking at the Trafalgar OOB in the rule book and it looks very wrong. Indomptable was an 80-gun Tonnant class boat, I believe, not a 103-gunner; and the 80-gun French and Spanish SOL should be (rather good) 3rd Rates, not (rather inefficient) 2nd Rates. The four 1st Rates on the Allied side were all Spanish. But the Brits do have 2nd Rates in the form of the 98-gunners, which were used as secondary theatre flagships, so they are an important class and should have their own models. Ideally it would be nice to have models for the smaller 64 gunners, razees (as notes by the OP), small 6th Rate frigates, and large and small merchants, as noted above. I’d buy them anyway 🙂

Cheers

-Bob

[Ken Redington]

I do wonder if the US super frigates should qualify as 4th raters though.
As for the comments on WS&IM, Remember it was written almost 50 years ago and research has gotten MUCH better since then.

Also remember the US DID build a 64 gun SoL 3 but gave it to France to replace one they lost. OK, Green wood, poor construction, and it rotted in 3 years, but we built one.

[Bruce Scott]

It would be excellent instead of the cards having the same thing on both sides, they make better use of the reverse. Having a card with large and small 3rd rate stats on opposite sides, or 5th and 6th rate frigates as examples would help immensely. For the names ships they could have different versions for different stages of the ships’ career, and it would be really, really handy if the card had the ships points value too.

[Ken Redington]

I have to agree there, they really dropped the ball with the cards. the merchant cards in the starter set should have had large merchants on one side and the smaller one on the other. Sol cards should have been 3rd rate large (74 gun) on one side and 3rd rate small (64 gun) on the reverse. Same with frigates and brigs, make the reverse 6th rates and brigandines or the like. Thing is, give us more options right out of the boxes. Maybe down the road have a deck of ship cards of ALL the sizes we could buy, maybe 3 to 5 of each type with different reverses. Like the historical sterns and really wish you could get em through the web shop in groups of 3 or by battle orders. A little more accuracy concerning some of the ship sizes (razee’s in particular) and a 64 gun sprue would also help. Maybe a box set with Sloops and the like also, have 2 sloops and a slightly larger ship per sprue to do some of the lake and coastal fights.

I do realize the game is new and exciting and also seems to be selling well but it has a long way to go if it really wants to fill this niche. Also a book of scenerios with orders of battle, and different ship stats and lists of ship names by size, service date, and country would seriously help and likely sell well. Still trying to figure out the online freebe with orders of battle for ships not released yet.

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