Sails of Glory

[MadDrB]

I just set up a solo game to work out how the system mechanics work, aiming to play against an opponent sometime this week.  It seems like a great introductory age-of-sail game, and I think I can persuade some of the X-Wing players at the FLGS to give it a try.

[Ruckdog]

I was thinking of doing the same thing...so far, I've had little time to do much more than look through all the game components and read through the rule book once. Lots of card board coutners to punch out! I'll need to get a couple of more Plano trays, I think. I really want to do a solid blog post on this once I've gotten a little more hands-on with the game.

[Landlubber]

Looks very interesting...May have to check it out.  The pre-painted minis definitely look good!  (And that's a real selling point for me, as unpainted minis stack up on my hobby bench...)

[Ruckdog]

Just got a post about my unboxing of the starter set put on the blog!

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog/2014/01/22/sails-of-glory-unboxing/

[Landlubber]

I really DON'T need another game system right now...but this looks pretty interesting....May have to see if anyone at my FLGS has it so I can give it a test drive.

The ships do look good, but I can see what you mean about the designs on the sails.

SO tempted to pick up a few of these ships and reenact my favorite battles from the Hornblower books!

[Ruckdog]

I've got a second blog post up that talks a bit about the game play:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog/2014/01/30/sails-of-glory-gameplay-first-impressions/

Seems like a pretty good game so far. I think it does a pretty good job with capturing the feel of age of sail combat.

[Landlubber]

Thanks for the review!

Very interesting about the combat mechanic.  Did it feel strange not rolling dice for combat?

I like the idea of pre-planned movement, and having to take into account the wind factor.  Makes for some serious planning, I'm sure.

Looking forward to seeing more pics and a battle report!  Someone is running a demo of this game at my FLGS on 22 February, I think I'll definitely have to stop by and give it a go.  And I'm going to Genghis Con here in Denver in a couple weeks--might give it a shot there if anyone is playing it.

[Ruckdog]

The dice-less combat takes a little getting used too after playing so many bucket of dice games! There is a little less excitement to it, but I think that will be more than made up for by the challenge of planning out effective maneuvers (especially  when you have to do it 2 turns ahead!).

I would definitely take a look at trying the game! I hear the box sets  are sold out, but if you can't find one, you can procure everything you need to play separately.

[MadDrB]

I really like how the movement orders work, effectively planning 2 moves ahead but without needing to write things down--certainly easier to explain to a new, non-naval gamer than introducing something with written orders like Close Action, WS&IM, etc.

[Ruckdog]

The latest episode of the D6G is up, and it features a review of SoG! I hope to give it a listen in the next day or two:

http://thed6generation.com/d6g-ep-141-filler-games-sails-of-glory-detailed-review

[Landlubber]

I've recently started listening to the D6G podcast, thanks to you guys talking about it on this forum.  At first, Craig's voice got on my nerves, but I'm used to it now.  Plus, it's over three hours long, so it works well with my commute from Denver to the Springs every day.  Only problem I have is that I listen while I'm driving, so I can't write down book/show/movie recommendations!

[Landlubber]

So, whatever  happened with this game?  I really wanted to try it, but no one at my FLGS plays it, and the starter is pretty expensive.  Ruckdog, did you ever get into it?  Anybody else?  It seemed like a cool game, but it also seems like it kinda fell off the map.

[MadDrB]

I got into this, and it's a great game for simulating combat among half a dozen frigates, but more than 6 ships and it drags out.  I would like to run it at one of the teen gaming events at the library, but those kids barely have the attention span to play through a game of Shadows Over Camelot.

I've tried to get some of the local X-Wing players to try it, but X-Wing is such a relatively simple and fast-playing system, it's hard to pull those guys away to something else.

I think it would be awesome if kids were collecting historical naval ships the way they do with those magic cards or fantasy figures.  Can you imagine a kid saying, "I have the USS Constitution," and rattling off a series of stats detailing tonnage, draft, beam, and crew complement, among other things?

I learned an important lesson about historical gaming when I was in 3rd grade--I started a Civil War company which drilled at recess at school, and we marched around the soccer field with sticks as muskets.  It didn't last long, especially after one kid threw away his stick in frustration, saying, "All we ever do is march and practice musket loading drills.  I want to run around and hide behind bushes with a machine gun and hand grenades!"

Same thing applies to movies.  Everyone seems excited about a new Star Wars movie coming out, but I'm still asking, "When is the sequel to Master & Commander going to be produced?"

[Landlubber]

Well, MadDrB, that's a great thought, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Funny story about being in school, though.  Sounds about right for kids that age.

And I'm right there with you about Master and Commander.  Great movie.

So how is the replayability of the game? 

[Ruckdog]

Well, I haven't played it much myself, but I would say pretty high. There is a good selection of ships to choose from, and the plotted movement will tend to keep things fresh, I imagine.