With all the great books on the market written by C.S. Forester, Richard Woodman, Alexander Kent, Patrick O’Brian, Dudley Pope, and others, even a landlubber can become interested in warfare during the age of sail. If you aren’t old enough to remember Gregory Peck as Hollywood’s version of Horatio Hornblower, the recent Hornblower series on TV should serve to whet the appetite for battle under the canvas sails. Excellent books for beginners are A Brief History of Fighting Ships by David Davies, Men-of-War by Patrick O’Brian, and Stephen Biesty’s Cross-Sections Man-of-War.
The first objective for this set of rules was simplicity.
Unfortunately, I am not nautically literate. For example, it just doesn’t sound right when I read that a ship “stood into Fowey.” So, I decided to make a set of rules that would be so simple even a landlubber could play and enjoy it. Nautical terms are kept to a minimum. Don’t worry if you don’t know a brig from a brigantine, the ships used in this game are “large, medium, and small” instead of ship of the line, frigate, and schooner. Some allowance has been made for windage, but not much.
The second objective for the rules was to produce a fast game.
My idea of a “fast” game is one that can be completed in an hour or so. The use of a poster board helps to limit the playing area and consequently reduces the playing time. If you choose to use more ships in future games or campaigns, you probably will want a larger board, and you probably will need more time to play.
The third objective was to produce a game that would be inexpensive.
The playing area is a 28”x22” sheet of poster board divided into 2-inch squares. I bought a poster board at Wal-Mart that was dark blue on one side and light blue on the other. The light blue side works nicely, and it only cost 52 cents. (If you want to play a game using many ships, you can buy a sheet of blue 32”x38” picture frame matt board at Hobby Lobby for $5.00.)
Fighting Rules for Sailing Ships
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