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Over the decades I have played a wide variety of naval tabletop war games ranging from ancient Greek/Roman, through mediaeval, Napoleonic, WW1, WW2, Modern (1980s-90s) and into the depths of space. Indeed, I still have large fleets for several of these periods.

The attraction of the format is partly the identification of individual ships, who take on a character and history of their own, and partly the varying levels of formality of the way the combats play out. Yet, there is a some core of similarity even between the Greek Trireme and the Klingon D7 Battlecruiser.

What are your experiences in this genre?

A bonus Internet to whoever can correctly identify or guess the significance of the phrase "Chickens away" as applied to space combat.

I've never tried any but the appeal is definitely there for me. I have a set of Man o' War rules but can't afford to buy into it. I feel the same about Battlefleet Gothic, if I could pick a load of that up cheap I would give it a go.

I saw another Fantasy navel game recently called 'Uncharted Seas' which useds resin models of ships. They seemed expensive, but they were moderately sized and I doubt you need a lot to field a fleet for the purposes of a game.

I've never been a huge fan of naval warfare games. I don't think I'm alone in being more of a mud and blood infantry action kinda guy. However, I've played a few naval games. Battlefleet Gothic is allegedly the best rules set GW has ever written (according to some, anyway) but I can't really get into it. I used to play Starfleet Battles with my dad when I was younger though, and that was usually fun.

My dad played some submarine warfare game a long time ago where they basically used an entire school gymnasium and had the entire action accurately to scale. I think at the point when you're measuring trajectories and exact angles for firing, you're not playing a game anymore.

I love naval games. In fact, i think I prefer them to infantry combat in a lot of ways. Uncharted Seas is an awesome system, as is Firestorm Armada. I used to play BFG, but there was an astounding lack of interest in my area. I used to think it was a great ruleset, but having been doing a lot of research for my own game systems, I've come to find that its easily one of the WORST rules systems GW has ever produced, not the best.

Own three BFG fleets. Probably would have more if it wasn't so hard to find a game. Would like to start up any Naval game like Full Thrust, Firestorm Armada or historicals if I could ever find people that were interested.

I did manage to find a bfg game in today though, my opponent and I were racing to cross each other's Ts in the center of the map I ended hulking two of his cruisers because I got there first. Next turn he hits a Carnage with a 12 torpedo salvo and sets off a chain reaction in the hulks resulting in 4 plasma drive overloads/warp drive implosions that caught both our fleets in the blasts and gut both of them. It was awesome.

I have always loved ship to ship combat, especially the lumbering deadly ballet of capital ships slowly murdering each other in space.

I have never played a game of ship combat though, much to my chagrin.

I would have liked to have given that Babylon 5 game a go and Battlefleet Gothic also.

Always wanted to play Man O War years ago but never really got around to it before it got canned.

I've just started playing uncharted seas, its a fantasy naval combat game. I enjoy it alot, and its fairly cheap to get into.

I'm going to be starting Firestorm Armada soon, its a futuristic space combat game. Its alittle more expensive, but its supposed to be a more in depth game then Uncharted Seas, which are made by the same company.

Both of these games are starting to get really big in my area.

This thread caused me to go take a look at BFG ships on ebay...

Seems the price is high!

I'd been meaning on starting an Elven Uncharted Seas fleet, but I've got no one to play against.

Actually, maybe I could convince some people to play. Hrm...

MeanGreenStompa wrote:This thread caused me to go take a look at BFG ships on ebay...

Seems the price is high!

Very few ships are needed though. Its not bad at all. Finding opponents...is.

I've played Star Trek's Starfleet Battles. That was pretty fun, but there is a ton of stuff to keep up with. The games were slow, too.



I've also played the Pirates of the Spanish Main game. That's where you buy the booster packs and assemble the ships.

Star Trek Starship Combat Simulator by FASA in the early 80s. It was amazing. Of course, the hex tile map made things easier to measure, firing arcs, etc.

Bought Star Warriors way back in '88 but the dynamics were not as fun as the portrayed capital ship/fighter battles in Return of the Jedi.

Tried to get into BFG but no one plays in my area. I would like Firestorm Armada but none of the ship models appeal to me.

Would love for another Star Trek game to play that isn't as involved/complex as Starfleet Battles was.

Well, BFG is what got me into the whole war gaming hobby. I've always had an interest in space (HUGE Star Trek fan), and naval history in general. I did major in History, after all . I've since branched out into Firestorm Armada and Axis & Allies War at Sea, although I am anxious to try the minis for the later with a couple of other rule sets I've bought, namely Victory at Sea and GHQ's Micronauts: The Game. Interestingly, the author for Micronauts is a regular at the FLGS, but I don't see him often since I normally come in on different days from him.

kronk wrote:I've also played the Pirates of the Spanish Main game. That's where you buy the booster packs and assemble the ships.

I have about 30-40 ships from this game stashed away, and your post has inspired me to break them out again! this game was good simple fun, but make no mistake, it definately had some strategy behind it. For about $50 you can get 30 ships and enough terrain to last a lifetime, and I STRONGLY reccommend this game. Each ship has a history written about it on the back.

As a bonus, the ships come on punch out plasticard, which the scraps can be great for small 40k stuff!

Its great fun, go buy it! Target has these $15 boxes, and two of those should be all you ever need and more.

Rising Sun by Clash of Arms. An outstanding game that put you in the WW2 Pacific Front with very very very detailed rules for everything.

Difficult as hell to play tho.

M.

chaos0xomega wrote:I love naval games. In fact, i think I prefer them to infantry combat in a lot of ways. Uncharted Seas is an awesome system, as is Firestorm Armada. I used to play BFG, but there was an astounding lack of interest in my area. I used to think it was a great ruleset, but having been doing a lot of research for my own game systems, I've come to find that its easily one of the WORST rules systems GW has ever produced, not the best.

I'm quite curious, but what is it about BFG that makes you consider it one of the worst rules systems GW has produced? I know myself and quite a few others consider it one of GW's best, and while I know there are people who don't care for the game, you're the first that I've heard actually consider it one of GW's worst. Do you find it the worst compared to other GW systems, or worst compared to other naval wargames systems, or something else, and why?


Personally, I've had a lot of fun with BFG, and I've always been somewhat partial to space combat after watching the space battles in the original Star Wars trilogy (particularly the space combat in Return of the Jedi). I also enjoyed the Star Wars X-Wing books, so it didn't take much for BFG to pique my interest.

I've also played Federation Commander, the "more playable" version of Starfleet Battles, and while certainly rules intensive compared to BFG, was still quite interesting and I'm sure it would be a lot of fun if I had a better handle on the rules.

I've also seen historical naval games, like Victory at Sea played, and they all look like they'd be pretty cool. I also played the Hunt for Red October board game a couple times when I was a kid, and seem to recall really enjoying it.

So any opinions as to why BFG could be considered one of GW's worst rules systems, as opposed to one of the best? I really am quite curious.

I love the idea of naval (sea and space) games. However the actuality has often been a let down.

Full Thrust is OK, but a little too complex for my tastes (takes a good while to set up the bookkeeping for your fleet, although actual gameplay once that is done works well enough). SFB and B5 were too OTT for me though on the detail side. As, it has to be said, is Firestorm Armada. I like the concept and love the miniatures, but absolutley didn;t enjoy playing the game due to the absolute crap ton of little counters you need to use to keep track of things. BFG is still my favourite space game and I enjoy dusting off the old Chaos fleet every now and then.

On the high seas though, I got into Uncharted Seas and loved it. It's a bit less complex than its space borne sister game, but that is excellent for me. No crappy tokens and counters to keep track of, just simple damage. Excellent models. Love it. In fact its my "go to" game at the moment and tends to be the one I suggest whenever its my turn to pick the game for the evening.

A game I keep meaning to try is GW's "Trafalgar". I recently acquired the rules and they aren't too bad. A bit "typically GW", but not too much so, and Age of Sail models are wonderful-looking at any scale. I might give it a go with some of my old "Pirates of the ...." Wizkids ships at some point.

Yup. Love the naval genres. As gaming is all about the atmosphere for me, its nice to get away from land-based games from time to time and imagine myself adrift in space, or rolling on the high seas from time to time.

Quite timely. This just popped up on TGN:

Sailpower: Cogs of Valor

http://blog.sailpowergame.com/?page_id=721



Looks like fun!

I've downloaded the free rules for a quick peruse!

MeanGreenStompa wrote:This thread caused me to go take a look at BFG ships on ebay...

Seems the price is high!

You should look up Man O War...its crazy.




Im kinda partial to the Full Thrust system.


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kronk wrote:I've played Star Trek's Starfleet Battles. That was pretty fun, but there is a ton of stuff to keep up with. The games were slow, too.

Starfleet Battles is dreadfully complex and slow...makes Harpoon seem quick adn easy.

Star Fleet Battles is intended for small actions with a high amount of detail for each ship.

Hordini wrote:So any opinions as to why BFG could be considered one of GW's worst rules systems, as opposed to one of the best? I really am quite curious.

It was a "balance" thing. The game was balanced pretty much as long as it was Imperials and Chaos pounding the crap out of each other. Introduce Eldar and Orks and things go down hill spectacularly.

Eldar - "We're going to dance around these planets and play BFG while you pick up your models one at a time. Isn't this fun?"

I played Man O War back in the day and it was quite entertaining but could never compete with Epic and soon started collecting dust.

I've not yet got a copy of GW's Trafalgar but do have their Legend of the High Seas (more pirate based Necromunda than Naval) but it does have that ship element to it. The Auther of it post on here as well and was good enough to get back to me when I posted a question.

I have ACW naval in 1:1000, WW2 in 1:6000 and some in 1:2400, and I have Uncharted Seas with a couple of fleets. Sadly the Uncharted Seas stuff is still unpainted and unplayed and I'll probably sell it off.


Jake

I have played SFB, Full thrust, BFG, Pirates! and a home brew mishmash starship game that was put on for our club back in the day. I just purchased Firestorm Armada at the suggestion of some of my group, and it looks really good. Of course I will be using my Battleship Yamato models for it (retro sci-fi ftw).

For the people who can’t afford the resin ships for Uncharted Seas, have you considered picking up some of the Pirates of the … ships and using them instead? The Wiz Kids ships are actually pretty cool (and dead cheap) and in scale (relatively) with each other. Another idea I have heard is using Age Of Sail rules with them

I have an uncharted seas starter fleet. I was really put off the game by the way it plays by the way Orc fleets play.

The whole manouver to broadside your opponent 'game' is totally spoiled by an opponent that merely has to close with you, and who's forward firepower is better than your broadside.

I don't see the point of 'post dreadnought' naval battles as they rarely fought in real life.

Since this thread is here, does anybody have a quick rundown on the various Age of Sail rules available? A link to a page that discusses the pros/cons is perfectly fine, but getting a discussion going here would be ideal.

I'd love to find a fairly smooth-running Napoleonic-compatible naval system that I can mod up a bit.

You guys are making me miss BFG. Sigh I have 3 fleets in mothballs.

My first wargame was Harpoon. As a pre-teen I even wrote to Larry Bond with a rules question. I wish I had kept his reply. As a genre, naval warfare is ideally suited to the PC, however.

There is Mongoose publishing's Victory at Sea.